Ep 34. You're A What? (4)

  Thanks to the dragonlord apanying her, Light had made her way home in much lighter steps, and at a much earlier time than she’d expected. The sun was still shining bright above them when they’d arrived at their destination, and she began to feel silly about having worried so much about going home.

  Ohe two arrived at a street that winded down in a spiral of bleached brick walls, Light poiowards a small food cart located in a small space between two houses. Its sign simply read ‘Donut’, being tended by a blonde, average-built man who was busily pag a few pastries into a paper bag he was handing to the er before him.

  “There it is! It’s nothing fancy, but I promise it’s really good.”

  Serenis nodded back to the excited half girl. She could care less about these supposed nuts, but seeing Light back to her usual cheerfulness was a relieving sight.

  ‘At least she’s not shaking anym…hm?’

  Whewo came closer to the food cart, they could make out the details of the er standing beside it. Her scaled red tail was waggi and right as she delightfully munched down on her chocote-covered pastry in hand. Her two folded wings poked out of the holes of her bck jacket, and for once, her purplish hair was ly tied into a siail behind her.

  “…Il…?”

  “Ilias!”

  Light happeo finish the dragonlord’s word for her, running down the rest of the way as she tackled the red dragon into a tight hug. When Ilias took notice of the girl hugging her, she shoved the rest of her donut into her mouth and gulped it down.

  “Light! Gosh, look at you! You used to be half my height!”

  “You were gone for so long, of course I grew! When did you e back? Are you gonna stay lohis time?”

  “I just came here today. I’ll be staying a while, I was actually going to ask if you still had…”

  The red dragon noticed a rather familiar figure from the er of her eyes. She slowly turned her head away from the half girl hugging her, fag the awkwardly standing dragonlord a few steps away while finishing her sentence.

  “…Room…”

  “…”

  “…?”

  Awkward silence filled the small block; even the man tending the food cart seemed fused by the sudden drop in volume. The twons were staring right at each other, unsure of what to say.

  Well, one of them was genuinely fused who she was looking at, what with the ck of horns and tail and all. And the shrunke. And a unform that only institute students wore.

  “…Lord Serenis?”

  “…”

  Light finally began to catto the awkward silence, letting go of the red dragon as she gnced between Ilias and her friend a few steps back. The name was unfamiliar, but it was clear that the red dragon was referring to her white-haired peer.

  “…Eh? Do you know each other?”

  Ilias quizzically tilted her head, pletely missing Light’s question. She instead approached the dragonlord, studying the figure from top to bottom; despite the simirity between the lord she remembered and the person before her, their figure had shrunk, and their draic features had all but disappeared.

  “Wait…are you someone else? Or…”

  Serenis was too occupied to ahe youngling; her mind was busily trying to formute an ideal response, but there simply didn’t seem to be any.

  ‘…Should I say yes? No, then Light finds out who I am. If she were to tell the institute staff, then I likely won’t be able to attend Karas’ csses anymore…not to mention all the nagging Patrick is wont to do. But if I say no…’

  As it turned out, the dragonlord didn’t o respond. Ilias leaned forward and she air around the familiar figure, affirming her suspis with a bright grin.

  “It is you!”

  Serenis’ expression twisted into a frown at the source of her kin’s certainty.

  ‘…How are these younglings telling me apart by smell?’

  Not that Ilias cared.

  “What happened? You look so different! What happeo your hei-“

  “???.”

  “…Mngh? Mmf! Mmf!”

  Light’s eyes thinned further and further as she watched the odd, one-sided versation tihe girl could swear she heard her friend muttering something uheir breath, but she couldly make out what it was; and right after, the red dragon was frantically making muffled noises, as if her lips had been involuntarily sealed by something.

  Serenis met the half girl’s suspicious stare. The dragonlord’s expression was slightly strained in trying to fake her usual indifference while tapping the red dragon on her back.

  “She must be mistaking me for someone else. Off you go, Ms. Dragon.”

  “Mngh! Mm nm!”

  As her lord began to push her off, Ilias also turo Light, frantically shaking her head in denial.

  “…Why’s she muffling like that? You just used a spell, didn’t you?”

  “You’re imagining things.”

  “What’re you doing?! Undo it!”

  “…”

  “Now!”

  ? ? ?

  A few mier, the three awkwardly sat on a nearby park bench, each with their own pastry in hand – although one was as good as new. But even in the midst of their eating, two of them were eager to pout at the dragonlord.

  “Lord, that was mean!”

  “Yeah, it was mean!”

  “…I’m sorry.”

  Serenis couldn’t do much other than look away in guilt. If anything, she should’ve escaped the moment Ilias came into sight.

  Too te frets.

  Light gnced left and right, studying the dragons sitting to each of her sides. It did seem like they knew each other, although her peer seemed extremely relut to admit to it for some reason.

  Nothing but to ask the talkative one.

  “So, what’s up with you two, Ilias? You called Zion something else earlier, right?”

  “Zion? Who’s Zion?”

  Light poi the dragonlord with her thumb, who was emptily staring at her uen donut. It was quite the small reward for all the trouble she’d invited herself into.

  “Oh, Lord Serenis! Yeah, so she’s-“

  “Wait. Before she says anything…”

  The dragonlord relutly intervened as she finally faced Ilias eye to eye again. If Light was going to know about her identity anyways, she at least had to make sure something was said about it.

  “Light. You absolutely ot tell this to anyone else.”

  “Eh?...Not even Professor Karas?”

  “…Except Karas, he knows. But no one else.”

  While Serenis had meant little besides the professor knowirue identity, unfortunately, that wasn’t how Light took it. She was creative, imaginative, and a tad off the hook after reading too many novels she probably shouldn’t have been reading at her age.

  ‘The professor knows already…? Wait, is Zion their secret love child?!’

  Ilias thankfully interrupted before the half girl’s imaginations could run too wild, a nervous ughter apanying her sentence.

  “You see Light, Lord Serenis is our ruler. She’s the…uh, the dragonlord!”

  “…Eh?”

  Light’s gaze was flung off to her left towards Serenis. Her friend seemed to have no iion of denying it.

  Then Light threw her gaze back at Ilias, who clearly didn’t seem like she was lying.

  …And again towards Serenis to press for a firmation.

  “Wait, what’s she saying? You’re a what?”

  “My real name is Serenis. Although I’m in a human bht now, I was a dragon a long time ago. I ruled the kin as a dragonlord.”

  “You’re…a lord? Like, a king? That kind of lord?”

  Two nods, no denial.

  No matter which dragon Light looked at, her seemed willing to deny or correct what was being said. The half girl had always found her peer puzzling, but this was throwing her fusion across the o and back.

  “…You’re joking, right? I mean, you’re attending school. Why would a dragon attend school?”

  “That’s a rather plicated tale. But I do have a reason for doing so.”

  “plicated? But you’re just-“

  Light was about to say ‘a student,’ but her own doubts began creeping in, stopping her from finishing the sentence as it was.

  Her peer was surprisingly knowledgeable about magid at the same time, shogly stupid about most on knowledge. Their magical aptitude arently greater thahe headmaster’s, and as far as she’d heard and seen, the dragonlord practically used every single elemental magic she khey could also sleep for hours through css just fine. And, most importantly…

  Ilias had just referred to her friend as ‘she.’

  “Wait, so you WERE a girl after all! I k!”

  “…Iing that you find that part the most surprising.”

  “Aww, I remember when I first met her. Did you know, Light? Lord Serenis was actually super small, I think she was even shorter than you. She was this tiny human boy, and…”

  Light and Ilias began to share all their odd memories of being with the dragonlord. Serenis quietly took a bite out of her own donut, trying to pay as little attention as possible to all the rather shameful memories that were being discussed. Like earlier when the dragonlord had asked Light what sort of nut a ‘donut’ was.

  ‘…I haveen many foods, but even I know this tastes nothing like a nut. Strange how they so.’