The scattered dragon scales were collected by Ailaira Green using Wind Magic and placed into a burlap sack with a built-in space.
Then, she observed Andrea’s recovery and found that the moment the scales came off, brand new ones grew in their place—at first soft, but gradually becoming unbreakably tough.
Ailaira didn’t know if the potion was just that effective, but she kept feeling that the density of scales on Andrea’s body surface was even greater than before.
At the very least, Andrea had finally shed her delicate appearance and gained a bit of a dragon’s majesty.
“Do you feel anything strange?”
Andrea scratched her head with a claw, and as she spoke, her breath overturned a section of the garden: “Just a little itchy. Why do you want these scales anyway?”
Ailaira opened the sack and counted today’s haul, using Magic to quickly sort them by size and body part: “I want to test whether your physical traits can retain magic properties. If I’m right, you’ve never managed to actually cast Magic since you were young, right?”
Andrea raised her chin in surprise, slamming her head down right in front of Ailaira.
As the dust settled, two pairs of bright, intense eyes fixed on her. “That’s right, that’s right! I figured out the theory for lots of Magic, but I just can’t use them!”
Ailaira waved away the dust in front of her face, took two steps back, and lifted her chin to point at the open ground nearby: “Try it. Let’s see.”
“Huh? Try what?”
“Anything you want. Just do what you feel like.”
“Oh, okay.”
Andrea gripped the ground with both claws, her long neck held high like a flag, casting a crimson shadow over the earth in the sunlight.
Suddenly, she stomped with her hind feet, an astonishing surge of magic brewing in her powerful body.
The force she radiated sent the surrounding birds and beasts scattering in fright—even Jody, busy preparing breakfast in the mansion, felt her breath catch.
“Watch my Invincible Crimson Lotus Burstfire Cannon!”
Andrea roared, pouring all her stored-up strength into her throat, and—
A thin wisp of black smoke snaked out from between her dragon jaws.
Ailaira: ……
For a moment, she’d really thought Andrea would give her something spectacular. She hadn’t expected… that.
Andrea scratched her belly awkwardly, trying to hide her embarrassment: “See, that’s how it goes. I mean, I can manage stuff like Dragonflame now, but that’s got nothing to do with Magic, right?”
Ailaira stroked Andrea’s exposed fangs with her palm, prying open her mouth to carefully observe the structure inside: “Mm. Dragonflame is fundamentally a natural ability of your body. You probably couldn’t do it before because your fire sac hadn’t developed fully.”
“So, is that why I can’t use Magic? But the dragonborn my age in Dragon Valley could all use Magic right after hatching, and some could even learn Magic directly from their parents’ Memory Inheritance!”
“Dragonkind’s Memory Inheritance? I’ve heard of that. You didn’t get anything like that?”
In truth, Andrea didn’t even know who her parents were. From the moment she crawled out of her shell, from the first moment she could remember, she’d been thrown into the very bottom of Dragon Valley.
Every Elder called her the shame of Dragonkind, saying she would tarnish their supreme glory.
Andrea shook her head, flinging those bitter memories aside—an answer to Ailaira’s question: “I have no memories about my ancestors at all. It’s like I was born out of thin air.”
Ailaira kept searching through her portable space, and upon hearing Andrea’s answer, she nodded in agreement: “Yeah, that’s probably for the best. Otherwise, if you ever got Possessed by some ancient monster, you wouldn’t even know it.”
“What’s Possession?”
“Simply put, it’s when someone takes over your body. They call it Inheritance, but honestly, there’s a lot of room for tricks. For example, if I learned your kind of inheritance method, I could tamper with the memory and leave behind a Soul Fragment, binding it to the Magic and skills being passed on. The more you train your magic, the more you use the inheritance, the stronger my soul becomes. Someday, I could devour your personality when you least expect it.”
Ailaira only meant to scare her, but the more Andrea listened, the more her eyes shone. If she didn’t have wings, she’d probably be hopping in excitement—she was just itching to drag Ailaira back to Dragon Valley right now: “Genius! Ailaira, you really are an evil villain!”
“How did I never think of that trick? Let’s go to Dragon Valley right now! It’s almost hatching season, and there’s a whole batch of newborns about to come out!”
Ailaira’s body swayed from being tugged, but she steadied herself and looked at the “Dragon Traitor” in front of her with surprise, marveling, “Seems like Dragon Valley really did treat you horribly.”
“We’ll talk about that later—let’s deal with your magic problem first.”
Ailaira finally found the Sealing Magic Stone that once belonged to Andrea among her many stashed items and tossed it to her. “Hold on to this. Suppress your magic inside you, then try to cast Magic using my power instead.”
Andrea didn’t really understand but placed the Sealing Magic Stone under her belly, swayed her tail, and handed the tip of her tail into Ailaira’s palm. She closed her eyes and listened carefully as Ailaira guided her:
“Don’t think of me as a living person. Treat me like an item that stores magic. Build the Magic you’ve learned through me.”
“Calm your mind. I’ll cooperate with you.”
Treat Ailaira as an item? Why did that sound kind of… wait, no, Andrea, what are you thinking! Don’t you want to learn Magic?!
Andrea tried hard to follow Ailaira’s instructions, feeling the intimate connection between them.
She sensed a mysterious link flowing into her body. Through that link, she could access Ailaira’s portion of magic—weak, but enough to cast a complete third-rank Magic.
A searing heat rose from Andrea’s throat.
Instinctively, she opened her mouth. Blazing flames erupted, leaving scorch marks on the ground.
The lingering traces of magic in the air proved beyond doubt: this was fire driven by Magic.
“Wow! Ailaira, did you see that? I really used Magic!”
Ailaira nodded, released her hand, and pulled out her notebook to record the experiment’s conclusion: “So your inability to use Magic isn’t because of a physical defect—it’s just that your Power of Termination inherently destroys the structure of Magic. It doesn’t just affect others, it impacts you too.”
“If you use your own magic, you simply can’t use Magic.”
“That’s easy to fix. I’ll make you an item to store magic. When you need to use it, just borrow magic from an outside source.”
“As for your magic trait, you’ve only been using it on the surface for defense. Try expanding your magic outward and create a magic field unique to yourself. If you can manage that, it means you’ve stepped into the realm of the fifth rank. Right now, you’re about fourth rank, aren’t you?”
Just as Ailaira was mapping out a training regimen for the red dragon girl, a terrified roar rang out from midair:
“Who’s the bastard that set up a spatial disruption trap!!!”
“Catch me, I’m falling!!”
Both of them looked up at the same time, only to see Yukla’s disheveled figure plummeting from the sky, her face twisted with shock and fear as if she’d just been ejected from the sky by an unseen elbow.