“Are you really… truly a dragon?”
“Who is… this person?”
Tene was feeling quite upset at the moment.
First, they called him out abruptly and then went off to eat by themselves. She had managed to finish her tasks (he was even doing laundry for Rosaria and Felix) and was about to finally have a meal when they summoned him again, leaving her hungry.
Now, an unfamiliar woman seemed to know her true identity.
“It’s really convincing! I don’t have any magic, so I can’t sense it as they say, but even so, you’re completely human! Polymorph? Is that it? How big are you originally?
You must be at least bigger than a truck, so where does all that mass go? Wow… the more you delve into fantasy, the more it differs from the real world, which feels strange, but that’s what makes it interesting!”
“Huh? Huh? Who is this person? She’s kind of scary. By the way, fantasy? Could it be that you’re also…?”
“Ah, yes, it’s as you suspect. She’s also a transmigrator like us.”
“So! So? Can I really see your true dragon form? That’s amazing!”
Suddenly, the woman in front of him rushed over and started bombarding him with incomprehensible questions, and hearing that she was a fellow transmigrator left him utterly bewildered.
“P-please step back!! Explain, start with an explanation!!”
The most pressing matter was to get Louis, who had begun shaking his shoulders, to let go.
“So, what you’re saying is… you need my scales?”
“That’s right.”
Now that the situation had calmed down somewhat, Tene listened to the explanation and nodded in understanding.
“If that’s the case, couldn’t we at least talk after I eat? I’ve been starving for ages!”
She was about to refuse outright but instead clutched his empty stomach and shouted. Â
“Sorry, sorry, it was urgent.”
“Hmph…! Anyway, my scales… I’ve never actually taken one off myself. How many do you need?”
“Judging from your original form, one should be enough.”
“If it’s just one, that should be fine.”
“Then that settles the materials!”
“Yes! A dragon weapon!”
“…Something about being used as weapon material myself is seriously unsettling.”
Rosaria and Felix cheered as if they had won a prize, while Tene couldn’t shake the uncomfortable feeling in his gut.
“Wait a minute. That doesn’t mean we can make it right away.”
Breaking his silence, Louis, who had been deep in thought, stopped them.
“Huh? Why not?”
“Do you have any idea how hard it is to process dragon scales? The academy’s facilities aren’t capable of handling that.”
“Ah… is that so?”
“Well, yeah. Dragons are basically legendary beings at this point, so it’s not like there’d be equipment to work with their materials.”
Now that they thought about it, it made perfect sense.
Dragons had become rare creatures, almost mythical, after the war a thousand years ago. Because of that, not only were their materials scarce, but there had been no experiments or advancements in processing them. At the very least, neither the academy nor even the empire had the means to refine dragon scales.
“Then isn’t the material useless from the start?”
“And here I was getting all excited for nothing!”
Realizing they had obtained a dragon scale only to be unable to use it, the two slumped onto the sofa in disappointment.
“No, it’s too soon to lose hope.”
But Louis, as if he hadn’t finished his explanation, smiled at them knowingly.
“Where did I say I came from again?”
“Huh?”
“You said… from the land of the dwarves…?”
“You know that dwarves are known for their long lifespans and exceptional skills in crafting weapons, right?”
“Well… yeah, that’s common knowledge in fantasy…”
“And?”
“…You’re not seriously saying—!”
“Do I have to spell it out for you?”
“…Ah!”
At that moment, Tene, having an epiphany from their back-and-forth, clapped his hands together.
“Then if we go to the land of the dwarves, we can have my scales processed!”
“Correct!”
Louis grinned and raised his hand in approval of Tene’s realization.
“Oh!”
“That’s brilliant!”
With a new solution in sight, the siblings’ faces brightened.
“But hold on, didn’t you say the dwarven kingdom is in the north?”
“Yeah. It took me about two to three months to get here… and that was because I hitched a ride with a merchant caravan traveling to the empire for trade. If I had walked the whole way, it would have taken well over six months.”
“Hmm… so the distance is the problem.”
Hearing that, Rosaria frowned, falling back into worry.
“What are you so worried about?”
“Huh?”
Felix, looking at her as if she were being ridiculous, spread his fingers and pointed somewhere.
“Don’t we have something faster than a car, a train, or even a plane?”
“…Ah!”
Following his gesture, Rosaria turned her head, finally realizing what he meant.
“…I’ve said this before, but could you please stop treating me like a mode of transportation?”
At the end of Felix’s pointed finger, Tene stood with an awkwardly forced smile, struggling to suppress the bubbling frustration within him.
The Next Day. Â
The four of them gathered in a vacant lot on the outskirts of the academy’s eastern side.
“Here, your permits.”
“That was faster than I expected.”
Felix handed over a stack of documents he had kept tucked inside his coat to Louis and Rosaria.
They were official exit permits for leaving the academy.
Since students were required to live on campus, they couldn’t simply leave whenever they wanted. The same rule applied to most professors as well.
Normally, students could only leave under specific circumstances: during semester breaks, after graduation, or in the unfortunate case of expulsion.
However, in real life, unexpected situations arose that made it necessary for students to leave the academy.
For such occasions, exit permits were required.
“I made sure the duration was generous, about two weeks. That should be enough, right?”
“Two weeks? Are you sure it’s okay to miss that many classes?”
Felix had secured exit permits for Louis and Rosaria so they could travel to the dwarven kingdom, Louis’s homeland. (Tene didn’t need one, as he was officially Felix’s attendant.)
Still, two weeks seemed like quite a long absence from their studies.
“Well, thanks to the last incident, everything’s been so chaotic that it’s hard to hold classes, and a lot of places basically have free periods, right?”
“On top of that, since I said I’d be going out with you, they gave me a generous schedule.”
“What did you say?”
“One of the specialties of the dwarven lands is high-quality, naturally occurring magic stones, right? I just mentioned that we’d be buying some magic stones necessary for magical research kind of like a field trip.”
“Anyway, looks like we’re all set.”
With that, the four of them were ready to leave at any moment.
“More importantly, this means we finally get to see a dragon’s true form!”
Among them, Louis, who had never seen Tene’s real form before, was especially excited, his eyes fixed on Tene.
“Hurry up! Hurry up and show me! I’m dying of curiosity!”
“Wait, if you just undo your polymorph like this, it’s going to be a disaster. We need to set up a disguise spell first, like last time.”
Understanding Louis’s excitement but knowing that an unprepared transformation could cause chaos, Felix raised his staff to calm the overexcited Louis.
Saaaa—
“Oh…! You don’t need to draw the magic circle on the ground like last time?”
A stream of blue magical energy flowed from Felix’s staff, instantly forming a magic circle woven from pure mana.
“Last time, it was my first time using this spell, so I had to draw it manually. But now that I have it memorized and I’ve gotten better at magic, this much is easy!”
“Ready, is everything ready now!?”
“Can we start?”
“Hold on… Okay! Now you can undo the transformation anytime!”
“Oooooh…!”
As the magic circle activated, a bright light filled the area before all of it was drawn into Tene.
Once the light had completely absorbed into him and the magic circle vanished, Tene prepared to release his transformation.
“Alright, here I go—”
Kud-Kududuk—
As Tene closed his eyes and focused, the ground began to tremble.
“Oh… Ooooh…!”
“No matter how many times I see this, it’s still amazing.”
“I know, right?”
While Louis was overwhelmed by the sheer spectacle of it, the siblings simply crossed their arms, watching with a familiar ease.
Then, suddenly, a dark mist spread, engulfing the entire clearing.
[Haaaaaa……]
“…!? Ugh…! Is this a dragon’s aura…?!”
A deep, rumbling growl filled the air, sending chills down Louis’s spine.
[Kha… Kahahahahaha!!!!!!]
A bone-chilling laughter followed.
[The eternal ruler of darkness, the master of black flames…….. I, Tenebrix Nox, have arrived upon this land!!]
As a strong wind blew away the mist, the true form was revealed.
A massive black dragon, so enormous that even multiple dump trucks wouldn’t be enough to match its size.
Tene’s true form had emerged.
“Wooooooaaaah!!!! It’s a real dragon!!!”
Overcome with joy and excitement, Louis shouted and ran toward Tene.
[Fufu, foolish human. You do not know how to handle the majesty of my presence!]
“It’s real dragon scales! And thousands of them at that! Whoa…! Even just one of these would be enough to craft a full set of armor and still have some left over! Not only that, but I can finally make all sorts of magic tools I couldn’t even attempt before because of the lack of materials!”
[…Are you serious!!]
Hearing that, Tene puffed up with pride as a dragon. But soon enough, she realised that Louis was cheering not because of the dragon itself, but because of the dragon materials. With that realisation, she quickly returned to her usual tone. Â
“Alright, it’s about time we set off.”
[Are we heading straight to the land of the dwarves? I don’t really know the exact location…]
Tene crouched low in response to Felix’s signal, flattening her body and forming her tail into steps so they could climb up more easily. Then, she asked.
“Ugh, no. There’s somewhere we need to stop by first.”
[Somewhere to stop by…?]
Thanks to Tene’s considerate gesture, Felix easily climbed onto her back, shaking his head as he answered.
“First, we need to pay a visit after a long time.”
“Wait…?! Don’t tell me…”
[Oh…!]
“Where? Where are we going?”
“Alright, we’re heading home!!”
It had already been two months since they arrived at the academy. Now, it was finally time for the family to reunite.
[Yes!!]
At Felix’s declaration, Tene nodded enthusiastically, flapping her wings with excitement. Soon, her massive body began to lift off the ground.
[Alright then, we’re off!!]
And with that, the four of them left the academy and set off for their long-awaited homecoming.