Dragonlord

Ep 24. I Hate It Here. (4)

Iris led Serenis to the second floor of the east building – the very place she had been in just the other night. After coming to the door with a plaque 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’ confirmation, Iris turned to face the student beside her.

“Zion. Do you know of the dragon that appeared at the institution’s east courtyard last night?”

‘That would be me.’

But considering what Patrick had advised the dragonlord earlier, that was probably 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 claiming 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 cursory group of human officials. The professor only shrugged back, his apologetic gaze falling towards the enforcer.

“As you can see Ms. Alpid, he’s perfectly human. He was simply practicing his glamour spells last 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.

“Glamour spells shift one’s appearance, but they require extremely precise calculations and a heavy toll on mana. Further, it was reported that the dragon was seen in flight. The more sensible explanation 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 confirmed it to be you, I will have to confirm your identity as a human. If you cannot demonstrate yourself as such, you will be taken in for further questioning. And professor, you will be placed under immediate arrest.”

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

‘Come to think of it, was Patrick not an enforcer as well? How come 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 investigation.

“To confirm 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 regular pebble. Serenis held the piece of rock above her palm, her eyes carefully examining the mineral.

“This is…”

The stone began to glimmer in response to her touch. Slowly, Serenis could feel her mana being absorbed into the polished mineral as its color gradually 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 back into what she’d describe as a midget. Her hair was a disarray of blue again, and she was, for a lack 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 strange stone 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 stone to absorb spells that were already in effect – much like how it had just unmade the dragonlord’s spell that was changing her appearance.

Serenis slowly nodded her head in approval. She hadn’t thought of such methods to check her original form. Clearly, humans of this era had advanced their 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 laughter that was welling up within.

‘Told you.’

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

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

Iris finally noticed her open mouth, consciously forcing it to close.

‘…It’s possible that he’s particularly skilled with glamour 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. Glamour spells had a costly upkeep; even Iris herself couldn’t keep it in effect for more than half an hour.

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

‘Mana supplements? No, it can’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 energetic than the majority, perhaps, but she would not see him as particularly notable in a group of other first years. And yet, their 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 advance to arrest the professor had been rendered pointless.

The dragonlord spared a momentary glance towards the stunned enforcer.

“I would advise against pitting 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 glamour spell back to return to her previous androgynous appearance. She then nervously cleared her throat, correcting 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 even seem to care about that part. She was still recovering from the shock that this little boy had at least twice more mana to spare than her.

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

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

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

Iris then turned to the student in front of her, lowering her head once more in an apologetic manner.

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

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

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 disinterested old man.

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

“I invented it.”

“…Pardon?”

“I invented it.”

It was true; Serenis did somewhat ‘invent’ the notion of morphing amongst the dragonkin an extremely long time ago. Granted, there was a difference between a dragon’s morph and a human’s glamour spell: the former was a physical skill that required no mana whatsoever, while the latter was a spell 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 change 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…invented 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 contemplated a moment longer.

She considered questioning the student further to explain the absurdity of the situation.

She considered asking why ‘Zion’ was electing to change his appearance for such extended periods of time.

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

But…

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

The enforcer grinned as she remembered the student’s short remark. Standards applied to most people, but it was painfully clear that the individual before her was not a part of that ‘most.’ And above all, as long as no harm was being done, there weren’t any regulations against an individual changing their appearance however they wanted to.

‘…Perhaps I really am just jealous.’

Iris closed her eyes. Wasting time was the last 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 suspicion was gone from her expression, replaced with an apologetic support towards the potential genius before her.

“I look forward to seeing what sort of mage you’ll become in the future, Zion. While I’m curious why you choose to change your appearance…since it’s likely a personal reason, I’ll make sure your original appearance remains undisclosed.”

The enforcer concluded plainly, waving Serenis and the professor a short goodbye. A glowing blue portal opened up in front of Iris as she took a step forward, emitting an intricate formulation of mana.

Serenis had no clue what Iris meant by ‘personal reason.’ Karas did, and was trying extremely hard not to laugh 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 opened, the circle of mana quickly closed back up, leaving only the bookshelf that had always been there.

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

“Explain yourself.”

“Ah…haha, ahem. I…I apologize.”

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

“Your appearance last night had caused quite the commotion among staff and students alike. Understandably 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 appearance to the association, and…the enforcement sector seems to have been sent to check my involvement in the matter, as you were seen flying into my office.”

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

“In fact, I did consider 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 directions?”

“…”

‘I kind of did, didn’t I.’

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

“Anyhow…everything should be alright, now that you have been confirmed to be a simple human boy. And with that aside, your first class 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 classes.”

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

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

“Somewhat.”

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

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

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

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

“Right now you are, are you not?”

“…”

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