Clutching the Bead tightly in her palm, Ailaira Green turned her head to look at Andrea beside her. The Red Dragon’s scorching body heat enveloped her completely, as if she were soaking in a hot spring, bringing her an inexplicable sense of relaxation.
Ailaira gently stroked Andrea’s scales. The faint trembling transmitted to her palm revealed Andrea’s current nervousness.
She waited for a long while, but the anticipated danger never came. Only then did Andrea tentatively open her eyes. The first thing she saw was Ailaira’s now somewhat petite figure.
Usually, when she maintained her human form, her height only reached Ailaira’s shoulder. To see the emotions in Ailaira’s eyes, she always had to look up. But now, her pupils could contain all of Ailaira.
The intense contrast made Andrea, for the first time, realize how petite Ailaira seemed now. A rather absurd thought surfaced in her mind:
“Ailaira, right now, you look just like a loli in front of me!”
Unaware that she had spoken her mind, Andrea stared at Ailaira with relish. Her thoughts flowed far too smoothly, or perhaps her urge to tease Ailaira had even overshadowed the earlier danger.
Ailaira didn’t mind Andrea’s assessment of her. Instead, her gaze swept over Andrea’s entire body before making a precise judgment. “Andrea, you’ve gained weight.”
“You’re the one who’s fat!!”
Andrea was startled. The base of her tail, which had been wrapped around Ailaira’s waist, immediately let go. The entire Red Dragon rolled over in an undignified manner, successfully destroying half of the House.
It wasn’t until Andrea rolled out of the House and saw her reflection in the Pond in the Courtyard that she realized.
She really was more robust than when she’d first met Ailaira. Most notably, her scales had become a deeper hue, evolving toward the form of a mature Red Dragon.
Suddenly, Andrea remembered something and looked expectantly over her back, but there were still no signs of the pair of wings she’d always dreamed of.
Though she felt disappointed, it only lingered in Andrea’s eyes for a fleeting moment. By now, she’d already accepted the fact that she was a defective Dragonborn. At least she still had the potential to grow, didn’t she? That was a good thing, wasn’t it?
So Andrea’s mood became cheerful again, and she returned to her human form.
Her snowy white bare feet hadn’t even touched the dusty ground before she was swept up in a strong embrace. Caught off guard, Andrea blinked her startled little eyes and looked back at Ailaira, who wore a calm expression.
She noticed Ailaira had taken off her own coat and wrapped it around her, making Andrea even more incredulous:
“Wicked woman, did you get possessed by something strange!!”
Otherwise, why would she suddenly be so gentle to her? This was too frightening for a dragon!
Unmoved, Ailaira undid the cuffs of her sleeves, rolled them up, and gathered magic power at her fingertips, honing it into a sharp little blade as she explained, “This is just basic etiquette. You belong to me now. If your appearance is lacking, it damages my reputation.”
“Who belongs to you… What are you doing!!”
Andrea was about to retort disdainfully, but then saw Ailaira use her magic blade to cut open her own arm. Blood immediately spurted forth.
Andrea, horrified, grabbed Ailaira’s wounded arm with both hands, her vertical pupils fixed intently on Ailaira’s face as she sternly pressed, “What are you doing!? Have you gone mad with your experiments! Ailaira, are you still sane!”
Ailaira sensed the seriousness in Andrea’s tone. This was the first time Andrea had confronted her so forcefully, probably thinking she’d lost her mind from her experiments to do something so self-destructive.
“Who do you think I am? It’s just an experiment—failure isn’t enough to break me, and besides, I’ve never failed.” Ailaira let Andrea continue to hold her, but the Blood flowing down her arm did not fall to the ground.
Instead, defying the laws of physics, it floated upward. Andrea was drawn to the sight, and upon closer inspection, was surprised to find that Ailaira’s Blood was different from ordinary human blood—not just pure red, but mixed with countless unidentifiable impurities.
But one thing was clear: the magic power within this Blood was staggeringly immense!
“The magic in your Blood is weird… With such terrifying power, how come you don’t show it normally?”
Ailaira didn’t explain with words, knowing that seeing was more convincing. She tossed the murky Bead into the floating Blood.
The moment the Bead touched the Blood, it melted away like snow in fire, turning into a viscous gray-white liquid that blended with Ailaira’s Blood.
What started as distinctly separate substances soon fused into one. The gray-white liquid finally merged completely with the Blood.
The now slightly grayish Blood then flowed back into Ailaira’s body. Ailaira gently used Saint Light Healing on the wound, and everything was restored to normal.
Andrea carefully refrained from interrupting. The scene before her completely shattered her understanding. Only now did she truly experience why Ailaira was called a Witch—there was a madness and depth hidden beneath that name.
“You actually experiment on yourself!”
An unfamiliar emotion spread in Andrea’s heart. Seeing Ailaira handle herself so lightly made her feel as if her nerves were twisted into knots.
But she didn’t know how to express this feeling, and could only awkwardly accuse, “You’re called a Witch, aren’t you supposed to do evil experiments on others? What’s with experimenting on yourself?”
Ailaira was adjusting to the new surge of magic in her body. With her eyes closed, she replied, “Who said I haven’t? Aren’t you my success story?”
“Otherwise, did you really think your growth came from midnight snacks?”
Andrea’s eyes widened in shock, pointing at herself. “So it was you? When did you do it? Wait—was it that night…”
“Yes, exactly that one.”
Although part of it was because Andrea had gone through a heat cycle ahead of schedule, in the process, Ailaira’s Blood, once inside Andrea’s body, passively cleansed the impurities in Andrea’s own Blood.
Andrea was left speechless. Thinking back, perhaps the reason Ailaira had looked so exhausted that morning was because she’d been busy with too many things all night. Andrea had even thought it was because she herself was particularly impressive in that respect, and Ailaira just couldn’t keep up…
Revealing her Dragonborn instincts, Andrea turned red and looked away, clumsily changing the subject, “Haha, let’s not talk about that! At least nothing really exploded, or we’d have nowhere to live.”
Before she finished, Andrea looked at the half-collapsed Mansion before her and fell silent.
The once exquisite Mansion was now a pile of broken walls and rubble. Judging by the damage, one could just barely tell the cause wasn’t a bomb, but some huge “husky.”
Andrea pointed at herself, and Ailaira nodded, adding, “This will be added to your debts.”
“No!!”
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