“Are you a water-attribute dragon?” Sige looked at Xuanxi and asked.
“I think so?” Xuanxi looked down at her own hands.
A small water ball was gathering in her palm, transparent like a crystal ball, reflecting her face.
“That moment just now, I heard the sound of water, and then…” She didn’t know how to describe that feeling.
Sigrdrífa walked over and stood in front of her.
The distance between them was very close.
Close enough for Xuanxi to see her own reflection in Sigrdrífa’s pupils—a girl with dark cyan long hair, enveloped in a pale blue glow.
“A water-attribute dragon.” Sigrdrífa’s voice was softer than usual.
“Mm.”
“Do you know that among the Western Dragons, water attribute has been extinct for over a hundred years?”
“…So I’m very rare?”
Sigrdrífa looked at her, but her expression was extremely serious.
“Rare, yes. But do you know what water attribute means in the history of the Dragon Race?” Sigrdrífa’s voice returned to calm, but something in her amethyst eyes had changed. It wasn’t coldness—it was seriousness.
A seriousness never seen before.
Xuanxi shook her head.
“Water attribute didn’t go extinct a hundred years ago because no one awakened it.” Sigrdrífa looked at the slowly rotating water ball in her palm, her tone as if stating a long-forgotten story.
“It’s because almost none of those who awakened it survived.”
Xuanxi’s hand froze. The water ball trembled in her palm, nearly scattering.
“What do you mean?”
“A water-attribute dragon’s blood has healing effects. A single drop of dragon blood can accelerate wound healing; a bowl can save someone on the verge of death. Although water-attribute skills are weak offensively, they are extremely strong in support—they can heal wounds, expel poison, purify contaminated elements, and even stabilize a shattered Dragon Core.” Sigrdrífa’s voice grew lower.
“Over a hundred years ago, the last water-attribute dragon in the Dragon Realm was taken away by three families working together. No one ever saw her again.”
A chill spread through Xuanxi’s palm, creeping from her feet to her head.
She looked down at the transparent water ball in her hand, at her own face reflected inside.
Suddenly, that face felt unfamiliar. It wasn’t that she had changed—it was the way others looked at her that had changed.
“So…” Her voice was a little rough. “Awakening water attribute isn’t luck, but trouble?”
“It’s more than trouble. It’s a dangerous bomb that could explode at any moment.” Sigrdrífa didn’t comfort her. Her amethyst eyes stared straight at her.
“What’s more, the news has already spread. During the assessment, the entire audience saw your Water Wall. I believe it won’t be long before the major powers find out—Dragonborn Academy has taken in a water-attribute new student, the first in a century. They will come to confirm, to test, to…” She didn’t finish, but Xuanxi knew what she meant.
To capture the dragon, just like a hundred years ago.
Xuanxi dispersed the water ball.
The droplets fell to the ground between them, making a crisp sound.
She watched the droplets seep into the stone crevices and disappear, and suddenly felt like those drops—rootless, without support, ready to be evaporated, sucked away, or imprisoned in some place no one could see.
“Then what should I do?”
Sigrdrífa didn’t answer immediately.
She stood there, her silver-white hair dyed pale gold in the twilight, her amethyst eyes reflecting the last orange-red light on the horizon.
Her expression was as indifferent as usual, but her lips were pressed tightly together, the line of her jaw taut like a drawn bow.
“Two ways,” she said.
“What’s the first?”
“Hide. Leave the academy, go somewhere no one knows you, live incognito, never let anyone know you’re water attribute. Live as an ordinary dragon. Survive as long as you can.”
Xuanxi was silent for a few seconds.
“And the second?”
Sigrdrífa took a deep breath.
“Become a member of the Edelstein Family.” When Sigrdrífa said this, her tone was exactly the same as usual—flat, calm, emotionless. But the tips of her ears were red.
Very red.
Red enough to be clearly visible in the twilight.
Xuanxi was stunned.
“What?”
“The Dragon Realm has Seven Major Powers. The Edelstein Family is one of them, and one of the oldest.” Sigrdrífa’s speech was slightly faster than usual.
“If the Edelstein Family publicly declares you a member of the family, no other power will dare touch you. Touching you would mean declaring war on the Edelstein Family. No one wants to declare war on the Edelstein Family.”
“A member of the family…” Xuanxi repeated the words. Each word made sense, but strung together they felt unreal.
“Are you saying… let me join the Edelstein Family?”
“Not just join.” Sigrdrífa looked at her, her amethyst eyes blazing like two ignited stars in that moment. “But to become—my wife.”
The twilight froze at that moment.
The evening wind stopped.
The leaves ceased rustling. Even the noise from the distant Training Ground vanished.
Xuanxi opened her mouth, but no sound came out.
Her mind felt as if struck by lightning; all thoughts short-circuited in an instant.
Water attribute, danger, major powers, kidnapping, Edelstein Family, wife—these words spun wildly in her head, like a pot of stirred porridge.
She stared at Sigrdrífa’s face for a few seconds, then laughed.
A laugh tinged with helplessness, a little panic, and a bit of “My head is already a mess, could you please not add to it” bewildered amusement.
“You’re kidding, right?” she said.
Sigrdrífa didn’t laugh. Her amethyst eyes stared unblinkingly at Xuanxi, too serious to be a joke.
“I’m not kidding,” she said. “This is indeed the safest way.”
Xuanxi’s smile stiffened on her face.
She looked into Sigrdrífa’s eyes, trying to find any trace of “I’m just teasing you.”
But she found none.
Those eyes held only one color—a seriousness bordering on stubbornness, a color from which she could not escape.
“Are you serious?”
“I’ve never been unserious with you.”
Xuanxi took a deep breath, then another.
She felt her heartbeat too fast, too fast for her to bear.
“You… will your family agree?” she heard herself say.
This wasn’t a rejection. It was a safeguard.
The corner of Sigrdrífa’s mouth curved slightly, clearly having anticipated Xuanxi’s question.
“I will convince them,” she said, her tone even more confident than before.
“Don’t worry, you don’t need to worry about the family. You only need to answer one question for me.”
“What question?”
Sigrdrífa extended her hand. Not her pinky—her whole hand.
Palm up, fingers slightly spread, as if waiting for something to fall into it.
“Are you willing to let me protect you?”
Xuanxi looked at that outstretched hand. Long and cool.
She should refuse.
Should laugh and say, “Stop messing around.” Should turn and walk away, treat this as a bad joke and never mention it again.
This was too absurd.
They had only known each other for a little over a month.
From “roommate” to “teammate” to “close friend” was already fast enough. So fast she hadn’t even digested it herself. Now skip to “wife”? What kind of speed was that?
But she didn’t refuse. Not because of danger, not because she needed shelter. It was because she saw something in Sigrdrífa’s eyes—the fear of “I don’t want to lose you.”
The S-rank eldest daughter of the Edelstein Family, one of the three strongest young dragons in the Western Dragon Domain.
She was afraid.
Afraid that Xuanxi would disappear from this world because of bloodline, because of her attribute, because of those damn powers.
Xuanxi reached out her hand and placed it in Sigrdrífa’s palm.
Her hand was cold, but Sigrdrífa’s was warm.
The two hands overlapped, temperatures mingling, like the rainbow that rises when fire and water meet.
“Convince your family first,” Xuanxi said. Her voice was steadier than she expected, but her heartbeat betrayed everything—so fast it was almost deafening, fast enough for Xuanxi to think Sigrdrífa could definitely hear it.
“When you’ve convinced them, then I’ll answer that question.”
Sigrdrífa looked down at the hand in her palm.
She looked for a long time. So long that the sun sank completely.
So long that the twilight changed from orange-red to indigo. So long that the first star appeared in the sky.
Then she tightened her grip on that hand.
“Okay.” Just one word. But Xuanxi could feel all the weight in that word—a promise from an eldest daughter, a word heavier than any oath.
In the twilight, two figures leaned together.
Silver-white hair and dark cyan hair were blown by the evening wind, intertwining in the air.
Far away, the first star in the sky shone brightly.
That star was very bright, bright like an eye watching them.
*
The Team Collaboration Assessment ended within the allotted time.
Xuanxi and Sigrdrífa’s two-person team had captured three flags—plus their own, four total. They had the longest flag defense time in the entire arena and the highest number of captured flags.
But what shocked the entire arena more than the score was another matter: Xuanxi Hellas, the girl with “no bloodline rating” and “no background,” had awakened water attribute during the assessment.
Water attribute—extinct among the Western Dragons for over a hundred years. The last record of a water-attribute dragon was in the dragon race yearbook from one hundred and fifty years ago. Since then, no dragon had ever awakened water attribute again.
Some said water attribute was “the element forgotten by the Ancestral Dragon.” Some said it only existed in legends. Some even said it never existed at all.
But it existed. And it was right there in front of everyone.
The Examiner was silent for a long time when tallying the results. He glanced at Sigrdrífa, then at Xuanxi, and wrote a line in the evaluation column for each.
Hildegarda von Edelstein—
“S-rank Bloodline, Thunder-Fire Dual Affinity. Excellent performance in team collaboration, outstanding individual combat power. Evaluation: SS-Class Potential.”
Xuanxi Hellas—
“Awakened water attribute during the assessment, the first water-attribute dragon among the Western Dragons in over a century. Defeated an A-rank opponent in personal combat through skill. In team collaboration, completed a four-person difficulty flag capture mission as a two-person team, and awakened water-attribute ability. Combat style combines Eastern and Western characteristics. Evaluation: SSS-Class Potential. Recommendation: Focus attention, train independently.”
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