Dragonlord

Ep 53. This Is Growing Pleasantly Out Of Hand. (2)

“That won’t be necessary. I-“

“Please. Allow me to accompany you.”

“…”

Serenis’ eyes remained locked with the professor’s in silence.

In her eyes, a lot of people were seemingly going haywire all of a sudden; first Iris, now Karas.

‘Whatever’s the matter with him? Seems like a rather exaggerated reaction.’

At least the professor already know Serenis’ identity as a dragonlord. Any other instructor, and she would’ve declined in a heartbeat.

“…Do as you will. But I plan to leave within tomorrow.”

“I’ll finish the files and make necessary arrangements within today. You’ll need but call on me, and-“

Knock. Knock.

Both Serenis and Karas’ eyes shifted over towards the door.

With the dragonlord already present with him, it was easy to guess who was behind the knocking for the professor.

“…Come in.”

When the door creaked open, Light expectantly popped into the office. Ilias was trailing behind the half girl to close the door.

“Professor!...Wait, Zion, you’re here too? Where were you earlier, skipping class?”

“At my nest, looking after my brother.”

Serenis then shifted her attention over to the red dragon, happily waving at her from behind Light.

“…I see you brought Ilias with you now?”

“Well, class was done a while ago, so we went on a little tour around the campus. We popped by to say hi to the professor, but we didn’t know you’d be here too.

Ilias enthusiastically nodded at the remark. If the office had been any smaller, her tail would’ve been knocking things over left and right.

“Lor…I mean, uh, Zion! This place is so cool! It has tons of people using all sorts of magic. There’s even a place where you make poison!”

Light let out a nervous laughter as she corrected her sister.

“Potions, Ilias. Potions.”

“…Oh. Yeah, that! And apparently we’re super popular, everyone’s staring at us wherever we go.”

Karas watched the ongoing conversation in silence. He’d seen Ilias then and there, living in the neighboring house and all – but this was the first time the dragon was physically in his presence. And even he couldn’t take his eyes off of Ilias, who was plainly a dragon – unlike Serenis who hid her features most of the time.

‘Well, she IS a dragon…it’s not an everyday sight.’

Meanwhile, Serenis was nodding towards the youngling like an approving mother. Unlike literally everyone else on campus, seeing a dragon was the least surprising thing for her.

“I’m glad you’re enjoying your time here, child. Also, you’re free to call me as you normally will.”

“Huh, really? But Light said you were trying to be…uh…’Zion’?”

“Everyone in this room knows who I am.”

When everyone nodded in unison, Ilias let out a relieved sigh.

“Ohh. Well, that’s a relief! I’m so used to calling you Lord Serenis.”

On the other hand, Light begged to differ. The notion of ‘lord’ was still alien to the half girl who was looking at Serenis with a conflicted expression.

“…I’m never gonna get used to that name. I still like Zion better.”

“Do as you will, the both of you.”

After a few brief nods towards the shrugging dragonlord, Light raised her previous question once more.

“So, whatcha doing here with the professor? More research?”

“No. We’ve only been conversing about the necessary procedures to leaving the institution.”

“Aha. Leaving the institu…tion…”

…?

When the half girl belatedly processed what she’d heard, the pitch of her voice soared upwards.

“You’re leaving the institute?! Why?!”

“…Interesting, I wasn’t expecting such heated responses. Is it truly that surprising?”

“Of course it is! Who leaves school in the middle of the semester like this? Are you hurt somewhere?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Then why’re you leaving??”

“It’s because I’ve learned what I wished to learn. And I must be elsewhere in a short while.”

“Elsewhere? Where-“

The professor loudly cleared his throat, cutting the half girl’s bursting questions midway to clear her misunderstanding.

“Now, now, settle down. Serenis isn’t ‘leaving’ the institute, per se. She’ll simply be attending a workshop in Aldrid Forest.”

Light’s curious eyes turned to Karas this time. That answer didn’t exactly make sense to her, either.

“A workshop? Didn’t those need staff approval? And a supervisor?”

“I approved it. And I’m supervising.”

“Eh? What about the classes you’re teaching right now?”

“…I’m sure the headmaster will take care of them.”

‘Though he’d hate to admit it, even Gio should know how valuable a student like Serenis is. He’ll do whatever he can to keep her enrolled.”

While Karas’ irresponsible thoughts muddled his mind, Light rapidly darted her eyes between the professor and Serenis. When she finally rested her gaze on the dragonlord, the curiosity in her expression was slowly turning into doubt.

“What the heck…is this for real?”

Serenis returned a curt nod at the question.

“Apparently so.”

“…”

Workshops were usually planned months ahead of time, and carefully coordinated with instructors for review. In all fairness, Light had every right to be confused by the sudden news.

And the confusion was only worse for the red dragon who’d never attended a school. Ilias turned to her little sister, quietly whispering her question into the half girl’s ear.

“…Light, what’s a workshop?”

“Oh, uh…it’s where a supervisor gets together with students to teach them work experience outside of school.”

“Outside? Can we follow them?”

“No, we…wait a sec, can we?”

Light turned to Karas, who’d vaguely heard Ilias’ question. The half girl couldn’t tell if the professor was sweating underneath all his feathers, but it sure seemed like he was.

“Professor, you can take more than one student to a workshop, right?”

“That’s…well…I really…”

While Karas scrambled for words, Light pressed her statement further.

“You said you’re heading to Aldrid Forest, right? That sounds fun! Take us with you!”

“No well, this is-“

“Aww c’mon, it’s just another name on some paper!”

The professor nervously cleared his throat as he avoided his student’s gaze. Even the dragonlord’s judgmental stare would be better than Light’s eyes gleaming in excitement. He gave an answer with what little logic he had remaining.

“Well, you see Light, I really shouldn’t. For one, Ilias isn’t even a student-“

“Oh, don’t worry about me. If you’re just going to a forest, I can follow along on my own, no need for you to take me anywhere.”

…And just like that, Karas’ last remains of logic were destroyed under the red dragon’s reassurance.

Serenis glanced around the chaos.

“…Well then. This is growing pleasantly out of hand.”

Everyone present in this room knew who she was. At the very least, if Aldrid was truly as benevolent as Iris and the books made the deity out to be, there shouldn’t have been any danger involved in taking them along.

Finally, the professor gave in. He simply didn’t have a good reason to turn down Light’s question.

“I’ll…make the necessary arrangements.”

“Yay! Workshop! Zion, Zion, raise your hand!”

Serenis curiously stared at her half peer, slowly raising one hand into the air.

“Hand? What for-“

“High five!”

A loud slapping noise filled the office as the half girl excitedly slapped the dragonlord’s palm. Serenis soon lowered her hand, quizzically watching her peer bounce in excitement.

“Do you regularly slap others when you’re exhilarated?”

“Eh? Don’t you know what a high five is?”

“No?”

“You do it with someone else when something exciting happens! It’s where you raise your hands and slap them against each other!”

“Is that so…”

The dragonlord stared at her palm. The lasting shock from the slap was slowly fading away.

‘Hurting each other even in the face of good fortune…humans develop the strangest customs.’

A brief nod followed as Serenis internally noted the new term.

“I see. I’ll remember that.”

Only Ilias was staring at the dragonlord in evident worry. A long time ago, she’d heard the exact same explanation herself – which wasn’t the clearest one out there for a dragon.

‘…I don’t think she understood that right…’