Ep 24. I Hate It Here. (4)

  Iris led Serenis to the sed floor of the east building – the very pce she had been in just the ht. After ing to the door with a pque that read ‘Karas’, the enforcer swung the door open without any warning whatsoever.

  “Professor Karas. Is this the student you were referring to?”

  “Mm. Yes, that would be her…I mean, him.”

  In the familiar office, the crow half was sitting at the same spot he was sitting at yesterday. Though unfortunately, no coffee was offered this time.

  Immediately after Karas’ firmation, Iris turo face the student beside her.

  “Zion. Do you know of the dragon that appeared at the institutio courtyard st night?”

  ‘That would be me.’

  But sidering atrick had advised the dragonlord earlier, that robably not the wisest thing to say. So Serenis instead opted for a simpler answer.

  “I’m aware.”

  “The intruding dragon is said to have appeared in the courtyard before flying into the professor’s office here. Numerous witnesses have already attested to this.”

  “I’m…aware.”

  “Professor Karas has been g that the dragon was you.”

  “…”

  “And the description of this dragon, in fact, does resemble your appearance quite a bit.”

  Serenis locked eyes with Karas in disbelief. For a moment, the dragon thought that the professor had sold her out to some cursroup of human officials. The professor only shrugged back, his apologetic gaze falling towards the enforcer.

  “As you see Ms. Alpid, he’s perfectly human. He was simply practig his gmour spells st night. The wings and such were all results of a spell.”

  The professor wasn’t lying. Depending on how one looked at it.

  Sadly, the enforcer wasn’t buying it.

  “I’d advise you against speaking, professor.”

  Iris sharply cut the professor off momentarily before returning her gaze to the suspect at hand.

  “Gmour spells shift one’s appearance, but they require extremely precise calcutions and a heavy toll on mana. Further, it was reported that the dragon was seen in flight. The more sensible expnation would be that a dragon is hiding their features, not the other way around.”

  ‘I’ll have you know, I had those ‘features’ for thousands of years.’

  But again, Serenis kept her mouth shut as her brother had so dearly requested. She merely kept her eyes glued to the enforcer, listening to what she had to say.

  “Zion. Now that the professor has firmed it to be you, I will have to firm your identity as a human. If you ot demonstrate yourself as such, you will be taken in for further questioning. And professor, you will be pced under immediate arrest.”

  Patrick’s silly smile slowly crept up in the dragonlord’s mind.

  ‘e to think of it, atriot an enforcer as well? How e he never did his job like this?’

  Who knows. All that mattered right now was her learning opportunity about the twelve deities was about to evaporate. But before Serenis could even think of a way to escape the situation without jeopardizing her identity, the enforcer proceeded with her iigation.

  “To firm your identity, I will ask you to hold onto this for a moment.”

  Iris then produced what seemed like a small, polished yellow stone from her inner pockets, handing it to the student before her. It was barely the size of a regur pebble. Serenis held the piece of rock above her palm, her eyes carefully examining the mineral.

  “This is…”

  The stone began to glimmer in respoo her touch. Slowly, Serenis could feel her mana being absorbed into the polished mineral as its cradually shifted from yellow to blue.

  Moments after, the dragonlord’s spell was undone – reverting her appearance back to the human boy Patrick had raised for fifteen years. Her height shrank bato what she’d describe as a midget. Her hair was a disarray of blue again, and she was, for a ck of better words, tiny. Her uniform was clearly oversized now as her sleeves stretched beyond her hands, the bottom parts draping across the floor.

  ‘…It’s that straone humans wore as charms in our time.’

  Kirium. It was one of the rare minerals that had the capacity to absorb mana. While they were normally used as protective wards against harmful spells, small adjustments to its properties allowed the stoo absorb spells that were already in effect – much like how it had just uhe dragonlord’s spell that was ging her appearance.

  Serenis slowly nodded her head in approval. She hadn’t thought of such methods to check her inal form. Clearly, humans of this era had advaheir usage of natural materials.

  Unfortunately, someone else in the room was nowhere near as calm as her. Iris could but stare at the unmistakably human boy in disbelief. Her jaws were involuntarily wide open.

  “How…”

  Karas observed the situation in amusement, holding in a ughter that was welling up within.

  ‘Told you.’

  The kirium Iris provided had uhe student’s spell, reverting him back to a default state ued by magic. This meant that the unmistakable human boy before her was indeed his inal appearance.

  But that would also mean that all this time, he had a gmour spell in effect to overhaul his entire appearance. Moreover, the supposed ‘flight’ that the dragon had performed st night would also be his doing.

  Iris finally noticed her open mouth, sciously f it to close.

  ‘…It’s possible that he’s particurly skilled with gmour spells. It’s also possible to learn magic that allows flight at his age.’

  What was not possible, though, was having the unrealistic amounts of mana that would be required to keep such spells in effect for extended periods of time. Gmour spells had a costly upkeep; even Iris herself couldn’t keep it in effeore than half an hour.

  But the enforcer had been watg the dragonlord for at least an hour prior to approag the student. She’d bee at the institute even before the opening speech had begun.

  ‘Mana supplements? No, it ’t be those either. If it were, I should’ve seen him take them.’

  The little boy’s appearance she was now seeing struck her as no more than a typical teen. A little less eic than the majority, perhaps, but she would not see him as particurly notable in a group of other first years. Aheir mana reserve was already surpassing that of an archmage’s.

  “How is this…possible?”

  Those were the only words Iris could muster. All the preparations she’d made in advao arrest the professor had been rendered pointless.

  The dragonlord spared a momentary gowards the stunned enforcer.

  “I would advise against judging others on the same standard as yourself, child.”

  After a small shrug, Serenis put down the piece of kirium on the office table and cast her gmour spell back to return to her previous androgynous appearance. She then nervously cleared her throat, correg her previous sentence.

  “I mean…enforcer.”

  It probably wasn’t the best idea to call the enforcer a ‘child’ while being just a teenage boy, lest it sounded like an insult. But Iris didn’t eveo care about that part. She was still rec from the shock that this little boy had at least twiana to spare than her.

  After another minute of silence, Iris fixed her cap and boologetically to Karas.

  “My apologies. In my own unwarranted haste, I had assumed your cims to be false, professor.”

  “Uandably so. In your pce, I would find it difficult to believe as well.”

  Iris then turo the student in front of her, l her head once more in an apologetiner.

  “And I believe I owe you an apology as well. I apologize for any inveniehis may have caused in your schedule.”

  “Oh, not at all. I was quite pleased to be pulled away from all the dreaded otion.”

  For the first time, the enforcer loosened her expression. He was just a teen, but the boy before her spoke as if he was some disied old man.

  “Out of personal curiosity, from where did you learn to use gmour spell? Your proficy seems to be quite…astounding.”

  “I ied it.”

  “…Pardon?”

  “I ied it.”

  It was true; Serenis did somewhat ‘i’ the notion of morphing amongst the dragonkin aremely long time ago. Grahere was a differeween a dragon’s morph and a human’s gmour spell: the former hysical skill that required no mana whatsoever, while the tter ell that required costly upkeep of mana.

  However, with the spell upkeep being negligible for Serenis, these two things were no different to her. They were both just ways to ge one’s appearance.

  Sometimes, however…truths are harder to accept than lies. Such was the case for the red-haired enforcer that was standing in the office.

  “You…ied it, you say.”

  “Correct.”

  “If I recall your profile correctly, you were currently fifteen years old. Am I right, Zion?”

  “…Correct.”

  Now that, was a lie. Not that Iris had any way of knowing Serenis’ actual age.

  “…”

  The enforcer pted a moment longer.

  She sidered questioning the student further to expin the absurdity of the situation.

  She sidered asking why ‘Zion’ was eleg to ge his appearance for such extended periods of time.

  She sidered asking the source of his inexplicable mana that was keeping the spell afloat for so long.

  But…

  - ‘I would advise against judging others on the same standard as yourself, child.’

  The enfrinned as she remembered the student’s short remark. Standards applied to most people, but it ainfully clear that the individual before her was not a part of that ‘most.’ And above all, as long as no harm was being dohere weren’t aions against an individual ging their appearance however they wao.

  ‘…Perhaps I really am just jealous.’

  Iris closed her eyes. Wasting time was the st thing she could afford to do with her profession – in her books, anyways. Patrick’s may be different. When she opened her eyes again, the suspi was gone from her expression, repced with an apologetic support towards the potential genius before her.

  “I look forward to seeing what sort of mage you’ll bee iure, Zion. While I’m curious why you choose to ge your appearance…si’s likely a personal reason, I’ll make sure your inal appearance remains undisclosed.”

  The enforcer cluded pinly, waving Serenis and the professor a shoodbye. A glowing blue portal opened up in front of Iris as she took a step forward, emitting an intricate formution of mana.

  Serenis had no clue what Iris meant by ‘personal reason.’ Karas did, and was tryiremely hard not to ugh as he struggled to say his farewells to the enforcer.

  “A good…day to you, enforcer. Ahem.”

  As the woman disappeared into the portal she’d opehe cirana quickly closed back up, leaving only the bookshelf that had always been there.

  Serenis angrily gred at Karas as soon as the enforcer was gone.

  “Expin yourself.”

  “Ah…haha, ahem. I…I apologize.”

  “I won’t say it again. Expin yourself.”

  “Your appeara night had caused quite the otion among staff and students alike. Uandably so, as you unmistakably had the features of a dragon, and it was the night before this year’s admission ceremony. Someone likely reported your appearao the association, and…the enfort sector seems to have beeo check my involvement iter, as you were seen flying into my office.”

  “…Just this m, Patrick implored that I never identify myself as a dragon. And it was just yesterday that you implored the same. Could you not have cimed it to be a familiar? Or an illusion?”

  “In fact, I did sider those options. However…”

  “However?”

  “After learning that you had actually spoken to the students, I could not use those excuses. I was told you asked them for dires?”

  “…”

  ‘I kind of did, didn’t I.’

  As Serenis found herself at a loss of words, Karas awkwardly cleared his throat. He briefly g the eter in his office before speaking up again.

  “Anyhow…everything should be alright, now that you have been firmed to be a simple human boy. And with that aside, your first css should be starting soon. Are you looking forward to it?”

  “…I do not know. I’ve never had such experiences.”

  “Even as an instructor?”

  “The dragonkin have elders, not instructors. We have families, not csses.”

  “…Well, hopefully it’ll prove to be a worthwhile experiehen. I do hope you learn something iing out of them.”

  “Do others impart knowledge of the deities as well? Or of the porary era?”

  “Somewhat.”

  ‘If expining how modern magic is still leagues behind your millennium-old arts ts.’

  Karas swallowed his thoughts. He didn’t want to spoil the csses for Serenis; she’d find out herself soon anyways.

  “Well, it’s best you get going. The staff outside should begin direg the students soon. Simply follow the ohat calls your name.”

  “…Both you and Patrick really do treat me like a hatg at times.”

  “Right now you are, are you not?”

  “…”

  Serenis shifted unfortably in her position, her expression crossed with a mix of disgust and distaste. The dragonlord could do many things – but pretending to be a hatg was not one of them.