Ep 22. I Hate It Here. (2)

  Patrick rubbed his eyes a couple times to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. Or halluating.

  Slurp.

  There he was. The little brother he knew, drinking coffee in all his little glory.

  Cck.

  Serenis pced the cup back down. Her eyes were focused on the blue-haired mage.

  “Well?”

  “…No.”

  Patrick finally mao answer with a shaking voice.

  “A gmour spell doesn’t help.”

  Karas studied Serenis, who had returo the form of the little boy he’d seen during their first meeting. The professor nodded in approval.

  “Although, that is an impressive gmour spell. Most mages scarce replicate the details of another entity to your level. Especially those of another race.”

  Serenis gowards the approving professor. She shook her head, correg his st remark.

  “You both have it backwards. What you were seeing earlier ell. This would be the default form.”

  “Wait, what?”

  Patrick frowned as his brain struggled to process what he’d just heard. If the draic appearance from before ell, and the little boy before him now was the default, then…

  “So you’re still…human?”

  “That would be my current physical race, yes. Although, my heart is bound tradual ges. This body, too, will eventually bee a dragonkin in time.”

  “…How long will that take?”

  “That, I have no clue. A handful of years, perhaps…or a tury.”

  ‘That’s quite the range.’

  ‘…That’s a no-clue alright.’

  Patrick sighed in relief. He didn’t know what he was even relieved of, but he felt it heless.

  The professor widened his eyes as he prompted the dragonlord further.

  “Very iing. So you had a gmour spell in pce all along then? To keep your draic appearance?”

  “That would be correct.”

  “Is it not difficult to keep it active for extended periods of time? The strain on your mana must be taking its toll.”

  “I’ve recimed my former heart, so such strains are negligible. And…”

  Serenis stretched her human arm in front of her. She gripped and loosened her fist several times.

  “Even at a strain, having my inal form feels far more fortable.”

  “Recimed a former heart, you say…”

  Karas warily eyed the figure before him, trying to get a read on the mana she carried.

  If the little boy had been a shallow pond before, Karas now felt as if the dragonlord was a bottomless o. Even the few dragons he were lucky enough to behold carried far less mana than his coffee friend.

  “I don’t suppose you could enlighten me on the ws of this ‘former heart’?”

  “It’s simir to aension of one’s reserves. Specifically…”

  While the two versed, Patrick’s mind was beginning to wander off again. Although this time, his eyes were quite evidently glued on his little-brother-looking-dragonlord.

  ‘Yeah…they do say, kids all fet about you when they grow up…’

  But isn’t this a little too much fetting?

  Acc to the expnation his professor had offered yesterday, Zion’s soul was still in that little body somewhere, just mixed into another ohat enpassed far more time and memory. Truth be told, he could only assume that fifteen years’ worth of memories would barely be of significe amidst memories enpassing thousands of years.

  ‘But still…’

  While the mage internally pouted, Serenis finished her expnation to the half crow.

  “...And that’s how it works.”

  “I see…if you are equipped with both the knowledge and the mana, I only imagine what magics you wield at present.”

  “It wouldn’t do for a dragonlord’s magic to be on the level of human sorcery.”

  Karas chuckled.

  “I suppose that’s only true. I do hope you will hold yourself back against your peers.”

  “Peers?”

  “Yes, peers. At the institute?”

  “…?”

  When the dragonlord stared at the professor in btant fusiourowards the blue-haired enforcer who was busily experieng fshbacks about his little brother.

  “Patrick. Have you not informed Serenis of anything at all?”

  “Huh? Uh…how could I? They were gohe whole day.”

  “…Fair enough. It’s a good thing we found out now then. Serenis?”

  The dragonlord threw Karas a quizzical look while he tio speak.

  “As you know, I have pledged to inform you of the porary era.”

  “I’m well aware. I do hope it won’t take too much of your time.”

  Karas shook his head.

  “Not to worry. It is a service I offer here at the institute. However…”

  “However?”

  “There are some necessary procedures beforehand.”

  “You humans always did bind yourselves to tless procedures. I see that hasn’t ged.”

  “We do tend to bind ourselves, don’t we? Please, if you’ll look here for a moment.”

  The professor reached into his inner pockets as he id out a piece of paper oable. Several lists of items could be seen on it, as well as the big letters that read ‘first year application.’

  “As you see, you’ll be enrolling in the institute as a udent, which requires several mandatory csses as well as elective csses. And amongst them, what you need is…here, History of Magic (I). Specifically, the oeach.”

  Serenis stared indifferently at the paper. The words were perfectly uandable. What those words actually meant, not so much.

  Then she looked at Patrick.

  “Patrick.”

  “What?”

  “Tra for me.”

  “…It means you’ll have to hang around here like the other kids to learn what you want. And that means attending csses, where people like professor Karas will be teag at. And you know, it IS a pce you’ve been dying to go for like, the past ten years.”

  Serenis threw her gaze back towards the half crow, squinting.

  “Is this truly necessary? I only hoped to learn of the twelve deities you spoke of.”

  “Unfortunately, it is. But I assure you that you’ll learhing you’d like about the deities and the porary era in this manner.”

  Patrick studied Karas btantly lying his way in front of a supposed dragonlord. If anything, the professor’s audacity was astounding…and he simply had to intervene.

  “…Is it though? You could just make some free time and call them up privately.”

  “Patrick.”

  “Yes?”

  “This could be a on-a-lifetime ce to have a dragon enroll in my css.”

  “…”

  “Need I say more?”

  ‘I really, really hate it here.’

  ? ? ?

  Patrick’s steps were heavy as he trudged his way home. On the trary, Serenis’ steps were fairly lighter.

  They’d just sat through another hour of lecture about how Serenis should behave amongst humans. Namely, hiding her identity as a dragonlord, using the name ‘Zion’ as shown on file, masking her mana, what the first set of csses would entail for the week, and all the nitty-gritty details that came along with being a human.

  Her final response was simple.

  - ‘So be it then.’

  Patriced towards the woman walking at his side.

  His little brother was once again gone, repced with a dragon who, at Patrick’s fervent request, had hidden her draic features and ged her attire to the institute’s student uniform. At least this way, no one would look at her a it to the authorities as a dragon-level hazard.

  She seemed fairly tent with how their meeting with the professor had ended; after all, she romised all the knowledge she sought from his csses. With her own kin living in their exclusion, it was a rather fortuurn of events that Serenis had found someone willing to offer the knowledge to her.

  Not that Patrick cared for any of that. He just wanted his little brother to go to school.

  ‘If you call that a little brother. They’re not ‘little’ or even ‘brother’ at this point…’

  Notig the enforcer’s bittersweet gaze, Serenis faced the mage walking by her side.

  “Oh, Patrick. There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.”

  “…Yeah?”

  “Waterball spell. You teach it the wrong way. There’s o sider the atmosphere’s temperature.”

  “What??”

  ‘…Wait. I taught that to Zion before.’

  Patrick had spent a number of days trying to teach his little brother how to use magid it wasn’t surprising that he would talk to him about various spells. In fact, magic at rge was the boy’s favorite topic whehey’d spend time together. But…

  ‘Waterball? That was at least a year ago. How…’

  Before the mage could collect his thoughts, Serenis tio point out the mage’s past mistakes.

  “I also remember y to lie your way out of being able to use Snow Cw. Your expnation had nothing to do with the spell’s actual formution, and it certainly doesn’t require as much mana as you cimed it does.”

  Patrick’s steps came to a halt. Serenis walked a few further down, then curiously turo face the mage.

  “Is something the matter?”

  “You…remember? How?”

  “Only bits of it. The memories are correct, are they not?”

  “But, I thought…”

  Serenis stared back at Patrick, her expression fused and perplexed.

  “…You thought?”

  Patrick shut his lips. He couldn’t dare speak his mind to answer, for fear it’d e true.

  - ‘Serenis – or Zion, as you keep referring to them – possesses a perfectly plete, singur soul. In other words, Serenis is still the same person you knew yesterday, or ten years ago.’

  You were right, professor.

  He’s still in there. Ihat tiny skull somewhere.

  “…I guess I let the prof slide this time.”

  “What?”

  “Nothing, nothing. I just…thought you fot everything.”

  “It is difficult to remember most things, yes.”

  “...But you’re still Zion, aren’t you?”

  “If you lived as another entity for a single week, could you bee it for the rest of your life?”

  “Well, no. It’s only a week.”

  “Exactly. It’s only fifteen years.”

  “...”

  Mixed into the dragonlord’s memories were unmistakable memories of Patrick’s little brother, the life of a fifteen-year-old human boy named Zion. However, her memories as Zion paled in parison to her memories as Serenis.

  “…But that doesn’t mean I’ve fottehing.”

  Patriorted. The mage hurriedly caught up to the dragonlord and tugged on her cheeks, ping them with both his hands.

  “Mngf! Patrick, what’re you doing?”

  “I felt like it.”

  “That’s no reason to pinch others!”

  “Oh, grow up.”

  “Grow up? I’m older than you. By thousands.”

  “Yeah? Do you remember our home address?”

  “…”

  “Some responsible grown-up you are. Or actually, maybe you’re TOO grown up and just fetting things from old age.”

  Serenis beamed back at her newly acquired sibling. In her previous life, she would never have elected to bicker like this, especially with a human.

  So, surely, the strange warmth she felt when teasing Patrick must be a side effect of her now-human body.

  “Keep that up and I’ll show you how Snow Cw is actually used.”

  “…That’s a bat spell. It kill people.”

  “I’m well aware.”

  “…”

  Enforcers of the Mage Association, by the virtue of their job, required the individual to be aremely profit mage. They were required to be adaptable to all sorts of situations, and bat was no exception – especially when it came to apprehending rogue mages.

  But maybe that ointless before a dragon.