Ep 187. Atta Boy. (4)

  A short while was all that was needed for the returned dragonlord to discover what the straure-like st wafting in the air was.

  Another short while passed as Eline expihe implications of their newfound discovery.

  …And after a third short while, the two found themselves back at Ilias’ – right o the steel dragoing their bed leg over the back of a former deity.

  Apparently, Light was not lying about Raizel using Aymeia as a footrest.

  “You…wao drink that?”

  Raizel gazed over at her lord and herbalist. The herbalist had skipped her usual checkups entirely; as far as Raizel could tell, Eline and Serenis were w with what seemed like a box of marbles, a bunch of herbs, and a cup of water.

  In fact, Eline was boiling the water above a fme Serenis held. One of the green spheres had been thrown into it alongside various other herbs, turning the water into a murky, greenish grey.

  The leafy aroma filling the room certainly didn’t help. While the smell of trees wasn’t anything bad, even Raizel knew better than to drink trees.

  Apparently, Eline seemed to think otherwise.

  “Well, not the water! Just the medie. I’ll straier out in a bit here. It’s been preserved well, but it’s also been sitting in freezing temperatures for hundreds of years…the effects might be promised, or even grown toxic. So we’re ralizing it first.”

  As much as Raizel wao ask why Eline was so adamant on using a potentially promised medie ohe youngling held her tongue. If Serenis wasn’t questioning it, then she certainly wasn’t about to.

  And soon enough, Eline removed the cup from Serenis’ hand, straining the liquid tents to reveal the elixir inside.

  Now, as far as the dragons were aware, the herbalist had just boiled the sphere in water with a bunch of other herbs. While Eline had called it ‘ralizing,’ both Serenis and Raizel had thought of it as a small, redundant procedure that held little meaning besides pertaining to standard human practice.

  Their minds quickly ged ohey beheld the renewed color of the sphere in Eline’s hand.

  “There, that should make it better. Try it! It should help speed your recovery along.”

  The elixir’s green had remained, but its texture was no lohe dark, gloomy color it was before – it was instead emitting a low glimmer, almost as if it were a sizeable pearl. Even its nature-like fragrance seemed to have strengthened.

  But even so, Raizel narrowed her eyes at the offered medie, relut to take it into her hands.

  “Blegh…smells even more like trees and dirt now. You sure I eat this?”

  “Probably!”

  “…?”

  For a moment, Raizel thought she’d misheard the herbalist’s answer.

  But before the youngling could question it further, the dragonlord cleared her throat, stepping in to address the question instead.

  “It should be alright. At the very least, it shouldn’t do you any harm.”

  For quite some time, Serenis had wondered why Vulka’s remains had been frozen.

  Unfortunately, no other dragon were able to offer her an answer, including Ardion. The dragonlord had failed to find any answers herself, even after a retively thh search through Vulka’s grave.

  But in the end, Eline had offered her an answer – which was being held right in their hand this very moment.

  ‘…If Vulka saw it necessary to preserve these spheres…’

  Then their efficacy didn’t need any doubt.

  And finally, after a lengthy staring test with her lord, Raizel let out a resigning sigh.

  “…Fine. If you say so.”

  Ohe decision was made, Raizel was quick to snatch the medie out of Eline’s hand. She tossed it into her mouth, gulping it down ihan a sed.

  …And she proceeded to stare at Elihereafter.

  “There, I ate it. Is something supposed to happen?”

  “Well…nht away. In the end, it is just a medie. It’ll probably take some time for its effects to show. I’ll stay here for a while so we keep an eye on…huh?”

  The herbalist’s sentence came to an abrupt stop as she grimaced at Raizel.

  And before long, even Serenis was mirr the herbalist’s expression.

  Raizel’s gaze darted betweewo in fusion. She was waiting for either of them to say something, but her seemed keen on finishing the expnation.

  “…Uh, hello? Something wrong?”

  “Ugh…!”

  “Huh?”

  Then, Raizel lowered her gaze towards her foot – or more precisely, she lowered her gaze towards Aymeia, who’d been serving as her footrest for the st…few days. As relut as they’d seemed at first, they’d ultimately plied with the steel dragon’s wishes.

  But suddenly, the former deity was visibly shakih Raizel’s injured leg.

  “The hell’s wrong with you?”

  “You’re a lot…heavier now…”

  “? What?”

  There was no way Aymeia would’ve been able to support the steel dragon’s limb under normal circumstances, of course – but Raizel’s injured leg hadn’t weighed even half of what it once had. It was the only thing that was making her role as a footrest survivable.

  Until now. Now, Aymeia was on the brink of breaking down – quite literally.

  But before Raizel could properly che her footrest, Eline’s hesitant voiterrupted her thoughts.

  “Raizel, your…um…”

  “??”

  This time, the steel dragon’s gaze followed where Eline ointing at, right towards her own arm – or where it used to be, anyways. After Aymeia had ied it to oblivion, the space had been pletely empty.

  Until now, where a pieetal was beginning to tear out of her bandages.

  Even for Raizel, that was a disturbing sight.

  “…The hell?”

  ? ? ?

  It was a freakish hour or two.

  At first, Eline busied herself with renewing the steel dragon’s bandages, discarding the old and repg it with ohat Serenis aher fetched for her. Whatever effect the elixir was having, they were not about to let it hihe recovery process.

  But by the third time they’d repced Raizel’s bandages, Eline had decided to stop the practice altogether.

  There was literally no poiing new bandages. Once repced, it’d only be torn anew by the metals tinuing to sprout forth from Raizel’s shoulder.

  So instead, the three just…watched. For a full hour or so.

  And when the tinued ges finally seemed to subside, Serenis cautiously turo Elih a question she’d been dying to ask.

  “…I realize it’s a treasured remedy, but…is this normal?”

  “I…have no idea. I just thought her leg would recover quicker, but…”

  Truth be told, the elixir had doly what Elihought it would do: it sped up Raizel’s recovery. The youngling’s leg had almost instantly recovered to its funal state. Nearly crushed Aymeia underh, too.

  What they hadn’t expected, was for Raizel’s arm to just…

  “Well, look at that. It grew back.”

  Raizel had risen out of bed, stretg about her newly grown limb.

  The sight was freaky at first, admittedly – in fact, it was freaky until the very end – but once she saw the es, the youngling couldn’t have been more pleased.

  Though, as casual as Raizel made it seem, the herbalist’s expression suggested nothing casual about the whole ordeal.

  “Raizel, are you…okay?”

  “Yeah?”

  “…Really? I highly doubt that.”

  “Why??? You gave me the pill.”

  “Yeah, but…I thought it’d help you recover, nee your arm.”

  “Pft, so? Guess it just worked better than you expected, that…what was it? Elixir? It’s way better thaher’s magic, I’ll say that much. Practically solves everything.”

  “Um…”

  Frowning, Eliurned her head to face the twons to her left.

  Serenis’ expression had loosened once more, returning to only a faint smile. The dragonlord seemed nothing but satisfied to see the elixir’s effects.

  Oher hand, Aether’s smile was a little crooked. And, unlike her soft, gentle voice, the elder’s hands were balled into tight fists.

  “…Are you feeling alright, Raizel? Y doesn’t hurt anymore?”

  “Mm. Nah.”

  “Are you sure? It doesn’t hurt anywhere else, either?”

  “Nope. Actually, I feel better than I used to.”

  “…You do, huh?”

  Hearing the youngling’s casual replies, Aether briskly stepped forth towards Raizel. The elder watched for another mio firm the steel dragon’s state.

  And once she did, raised her balled fist into the air.

  Smack!

  Raizel’s head jerked towards the ground from the sudden impact. Her hands reflexively rubbed her ringing head, but before the youngling could raise her eyes to pin, a sed hit shoved her head right back down.

  As successive blows tio nd upoeel dragon, an angered voice exploded out from her caretaker.

  “Then for heaven’s sake, be more careful! ‘Solves everything’? You know what would really solve everything? If you stopped getting yourself hurt all the time!”

  “I get it, I get it! Ow, stop hitting me! What kinda elder wields violence against kids? Ow!”

  “Zip it!”

  Eline quietly watched as the elder tio disciplihe house troublemaker.

  At this point, she was used to it – after all, it wasn’t that long ago when Ardion had knocked Xerun into the ground. This wasn’t really any different.

  And, as if to firm that this was totally normal, Serenis was watg the two in silence as well.

  When their eyes happeo lock midair, the dragave a small shrug towards Eline.

  “…Normal?”

  “Quite.”

  This was the normal for them. The quiet-in-bed was what was abnormal.