CH.251 Breakfast with the Prince
“Agunan. It’s morning. Time to get up.” I ordered the dragon man sleeping on the ground.
The rest of us had already gotten up and we were dressed up and Lua and I even visited Alice, but somehow he hadn’t woken up in all the commotion. Alice was still in level-up sleep, and she was taken care of, in case you were wondering. I even had time to tell Lua all about what I heard from Aulis.
“... Yawn.” Agunan opened his eyes and yawned loudly. “Good morning, Master.” He quickly stretched out his arms and legs, as he turned onto his stomach. Then with a quick flap of his wings, he raised his body off of the floor and landed onto his feet.
“... well, that is a way to get up. Did you sleep well?”
“Yes. It was quite comfortable. However, I do prefer longer sleep cycles, so I do feel just a bit tired. If Master wants me to stay awake like you humanoids do, it will take me a few days to adjust.”
“How do you usually sleep?” I asked, just out of curiosity.
“I stay awake for about four or five days, before sleeping for three days in a row.” Agunan answered.
“... okay. Well, try to change your schedule, if possible. If it is too difficult, we can probably figure something out, but at the same time, I’d like it if you were awake when I am.”
“As long as I’m well fed, I can take on any schedule Master requires.”
“So it’s about food?”
“Dragons aren’t that energy efficient. We usually hunt something, eat it, and then sleep to take in all the energy from it. Wake up and repeat. I usually hunt smaller things, like lava worms or fire crocks. They are quite tasty and there are plenty of both close by to my dwelling.”
“... sounds like an easy life.”
By the way, fire crocks are exactly what you might think about. They are crocodiles that have a high affinity to fire, and their skin can spontaneously combust. Or they can combust it as an attack. They are B-rank monsters and some call them the fire variant of wyvern. Even if fire crocks can’t actually fly.
“Well anyway. I’ve been invited to have breakfast with the second Prince, and he asked that you join as well.” I told Agunan what the maids had just previously told me. Lua was also invited to come with me, by the way, while Ria was to enjoy her breakfast with the maids. I know that doesn’t account for Agunan, but Laura and Kitchen Dragonmaid figured out something for him during the night, so I have something I can just get out of my storage for him.
Both Lua and I dressed up in our finest clothes for this, of course, so I was a bit worried that Agunan’s rags would be looked down upon, but all I could do about that is making him a t-shirt with my terminal. Which I did, and ordered him to change. I made it black in color, just to match the rest of his black clothes and the dungeon even made sure it already had holes in the back for Agunan’s wings. Efficiency 100.
The new shirt looked … better. At least it is all intact, instead of having some random holes in it. And at the same time, while I see it as something casual and common, that might be just because I look at it as a common t-shirt. As far as I know, TinaWood dungeon is the only place in this world where you can get tricot fabric, so no one else should have tricot t-shirts. That in return makes it rare and somewhat more respectful.
We were led outside by a maid and then into one of the guest houses, which was still inside the estate walls by the way, by a royal knight. I was expecting some sort of security check, but we were just directly let inside. I guess it would be difficult to check me for weapons, as both of my unique skills, they know about, can be used to store weapons. … and I do have a literal dragon with me, so…
The guest houses, compared to the manor itself, were a lot more like family homes back on earth. They had a small kitchen, a dining area, some sort of lounge which is basically this world’s living room, and a handful of bedrooms. This one might be extra fancy, as it also has a small library/reading room and a study.
Well, either way. The three of us were brought to the dining room, where the Prince was already waiting for us. … yeah. That is not normal. This can’t be good.
“I apologize for calling you this early in the morning. Take a seat, please.” The Prince greeted us.
… yeah. Even more abnormal. This can’t be good.
Lua and I sat at the table, on the Prince’s right hand side, myself closer to him. Agunan stayed standing, seemingly not knowing where to go, until he realized how the guards were standing behind the Prince, and took a similar position.
“Lord Dragon, please join us.” The Prince said to Agunan, but Agunan didn’t move.
I looked the Prince in the eyes, trying to confirm his permission, and after a second, I repeated his order.
“Agunan, the Prince allowed you to join, so do join.” After I gave my permission, Agunan quickly joined us at the table as well. He, after minor grumbling about it in draconic, sat down opposite to me. He didn’t like that he was sitting in a seat of similar position to that of his Master, but he went along with it anyway.
The Prince gave a command and a big breakfast was quickly brought before us. And I have to say, I’m impressed. They had pork, well some sort of boar likely, chicken, again monster meat, and even some venison from forest deer. For non-meat stuff, there was high quality white bread, soft butter to spread on it, four different options of cheese, different vegetables both raw and boiled. For drinks, they brought Agunan and I a glass of white wine, but Lua got a glass of blood. I really didn’t know the Prince would have thought of that, so that also impressed me.
Because everything was just out in the open, after the Prince had taken what he wanted, I gathered a mixed pile of veggies and meat onto my plate. Then I grabbed one of the bread rolls, cut it in half with my knife and spread some butter on it. I didn’t put anything on my bread as sandwiches are … not quite seen as noble’s food. Even if I really wanted to make a venison sandwich. They are delicious, but there is a time and place for everything.
Lua was a bit more careful, taking just some of the boar and some veggies to go with it, while Agunan on the other hand gathered an almost comically large amount of food onto his plate. Hey, I’m not going to stop him. The Prince invited him to eat with us, so I won’t say no to him. But still, stop that before your pile of meat falls over.
As we were eating, the Prince seemed to pay close attention to both Lua and Agunan. It made Lua a bit nervous, but I just used our system link to reassure her, so she eventually calmed down and ate her breakfast.
“Sir Wood, I have a few questions I’d like to ask.” The Prince then spoke up.
“Brian is just fine, your Highness.” I answered.
“Brian it is then. You may call me Elias as well.” The Prince said.
“... are you sure, your Highness?” I confirmed.
“Yes. I’m giving you my permission.” Elias said. “Well, you should still keep up basic etiquette in official situations, but as we are here, just call me Elias.”
“Yes, Pri… Elias.” I said, almost adding Prince before his name, but not saying it fully, because I saw the look in his eyes. The guards in the room didn’t say anything about me addressing him like that, so this must be fine, right?
“Good.” Elias said. “First, the behemoth’s corpse. Would you be willing to sell it to the Royal family?”
“I’m sorry, but I cannot do that. I am not the one it belongs to, even if I am currently holding it. The one that took the behemoth down is Miss Alice of the Watchman family, so you will have to ask her when she wakes up.” I told him.
“Of course. I shall do that. Second, I was planning on punishing Baron Briggs for his outburst yesterday, and I wanted to ask you about it. How do you think I should punish him?”
“... alright, but I don’t really see why. I don’t care about him.” I admitted. “Sure what he did was annoying, but not like he actually did any damage to me. What do you think, Lua?” I turned the question to Lua, because dhampirs, and mainly her and Ria, were the ones actually damaged.
“... I’d like to leave choosing the punishment to you, your Highness.” Lua said, as she looked the Prince in the eyes.
“I see. I shall choose one fitting his crime then.” Elias said.” But now, I’m just a bit interested in something. The miss next to you. She is a dhampir, isn’t she?”
“... you know you could just ask her, instead of going through me.” I commented. “But yes, she is.” I confirmed.
“Then I shall. Miss..?”
“My name is Lucia, your Highness.” Lua answered.
“Miss Lucia… What a name has been given to you. Well, it does fit someone as beautiful as you.” Elias said.
Flirt with her more and I will punch you. I don’t care that you are a Prince, Lua is mine and flirting is my exclusive right.
“So, Miss Lucia. Would you tell me how a dhampir can eat regular food? I’ve heard they get sick and regurgitate if they try. I even heard that the other dhampir girl can eat regular food as well.”
“Oh that. That’s because of Brian.” Lua said, likely deflecting the attention back to me.
“Oh? Care to explain?”
“... Lua? Do you think I should?” I confirmed.
“Why not? You told the Earl about it already.” Lua said.
“... I suppose I did.”
“So, what is it then?” Elias asked.
“I really shouldn’t be the one to answer, but sure. Dhampirs cannot eat regular food because of what is known as the blood curse. You do know of it, don’t you?”
“Yes, naturally.”
“Then do you know it can be cured by using high level True Blood Magic? Like the ones the old vampires used to use?” I asked, even though I’m not 100% sure that is the truth. I know that is close, but it might not be 100% accurate.
“Yes, but I don’t think a single user of that magic exists any more. A lot of skilled dhampirs were forced to be soldiers in the great war against the Empire 400 years ago. And while the Royal family has searched for users of True Blood Magic, none were ever found.”
Oh? So that is what happened. The most skilled were forced into a war and died. I was wondering how the blood curse took hold, because in theory, the previous generation could always heal the next generation. I thought it might have been just because of how difficult it would be to learn True Blood Magic, and specifically the spell that can cure the Blood Curse, but add to that a war and mass death, that might do it.
“So, do you perhaps know someone who can use True Blood Magic?” Elias asked.
“I don’t just know one. I can summon one. Or five.” I answered, even though out of my Vampire monsters, 15 can actually use True Blood Magic. Well 16 if you count Genesis and Lord as separate monsters, but considering that I always summon Cain if I need them, I count them as one.
“... you can summon? Are you saying that you can summon a dhampir? Capable of using True Blood Magic?” Elias asked.
“No. Of course not.” I answered. “I can summon vampires, not dhampirs.” I specified. Well, I’m decently sure there was a dhampir card as a part of the Vampire archetype, but I don’t have it yet. It is likely something I can’t get with Vampire's Domain.
Spoiler
As I said that, the eyes of some of the guards went wide. Even Agunan stopped eating for a second, before quickly getting back to it.
“... could you summon one now?” Elias requested.
“I can, but may I?” I confirmed.
“Yes. I’m asking you to do it.”
“Well then…” I said as I pulled a vampire out of my collection. “Genesis Vampire Lord.” I said after I placed it onto my terminal. I didn’t turn my terminal into a duel disk this time.
Spoiler
After my vampire appeared, the knights, who already had their eyes wide open, looked like their eyes would pop out of their heads. It’s just a vampire. It isn’t that strange.
Elias then questioned my summon a bit, and I allowed Cain to answer. As long as it wasn’t anything overly secretive. Soon Elias was satisfied and I unsummoned Cain again.
“... so. That vampire cured this lady's curse and then she evolved…” Elias deduced.
I hadn’t actually said anything about Lua’s evolution to him, so he must have figured that part out on his own.
“I must ask. Are you two planning on going around the kingdom and curing every other dhampir you can find?” Elias asked.
I took a quick look at Lua’s eyes, before I answered. “Of course.”
“I see. I will prepare an order from the crown for you. It will force the local nobles to allow you to operate however you wish to accomplish this mission.” Elias said.
“Thank you, your Highness.” I said, returning out of reflex to a more formal tone.
“Do not thank me. I should be thanking you. Even if this is only a temporary solution, I hope this will make it at least a little easier for the members of the dhampir race.”
“I believe it will, your Highness.” Lua said.
As we were finishing our breakfast, well mostly waiting for Agunan to polish off his giant pile of meat, we got ready to leave, but Elias made one final request.
“Brian. You as well, Lord Dragon.” He said, sounding a bit … awkward. “Would… would you allow me to… ride you?” He asked Agunan.
“No.” Agunan simply answered. “Only the one I’ve dedicated my life to may fly upon my back.”
“... I see. That is too bad.” Elias said, seeming a bit downed by Agunan’s answer.
“Well, even if he doesn’t allow it,” I began. “I can summon a dragon and let you ride that instead.”
As I said that, the Prince’s eyes once again lit up, like he was a little kid getting a great present.
“Would you really do that?” He asked.
“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I? We just need a place where we can do it safely and without disrupting the life of the citizens. You know we did enough of that yesterday.” As I said that, I turned my eyes to Agunan, but he didn’t seem to react.
“I see. I shall arrange the time and place then.” Elias said.
“Sure. Thank you for breakfast, your Highness. It was quite delicious.” I said, as I bowed slightly. Lua and Agunan also thanked him for the food, before we left the guest house and returned to the main building.
After visiting Alice again, she was still sleeping, I made it back to my room with Lua. There I brought up the topic of my own evolution, as well as the options I had. I also had Agunan step in. He told me that he had heard about the Dragon Hearted race, but has never seen one and didn’t really know of it. But apparently, the ruler of the Dragon Coast does know about it, so I should visit there. He actually said I should visit anyway, considering what happened, but as dragons operate at a different speed than humans, it wouldn’t matter even if I took a month or even a year before I did. As long as I do it in the coming years. So that is another thing to add to my ToDo list.
“... I do agree that the ‘Dragon Hearted’ sounds the best, but are you sure? Would you even be a human after that?” Lua asked.
“... probably not.” I admitted. “But what does it mean to be a human? Honestly speaking.”
“No. I meant… because of your past. … are you sure?”
“Yeah. I guess. But at the same time… who can really tell. I don’t really… feel like I am a human anymore. Honestly speaking. I… I know I’m an outsider. In this world I mean. You know. It is actually kind of funny that the basic System Support shows itself as a question mark at the end of your race. When I first appeared in this world and looked at my status, I already had Laura, so I saw my race as Human ?. That led me to think that I was not a member of the usual human race of this world, but something kind of like that race, and the System just registered me as one. And even after learning about that, I’ve known that I’m a bit different from most humans, even if I am a human. So honestly, what does throwing away my humanity actually mean?”
“Alright. I see.” Lua said. “... so you will evolve into a Dragon Hearted. When are you planning on evolving?”
“... that is a much better question. Not now, at the very least. Alice is still out. And there is plenty of cleanup to do after yesterday. Even the party the people at Alewatch want to hold. But I’d also like to do it before we leave this place, as this manor is a ‘safehouse’ for us currently. And I’d like to have a safe place to evolve at.”
“I can take you to my home and keep you safe there.” Agunan offered.
“... yeah. Sorry to say, but being in the middle of dragon grounds is not what I would consider safe. And while I could wait, I’m not sure I want to wait for so long where I’ll have myself an established safe place that I own.”
“... you sound like a spoiled child…” Lua said.
“... Well, maybe I am. A spoiled child too impatient to wait for Christmas.”
“What’s Christmas?” Lua asked.
“... I’ll tell you some other time.”
CH.251 Breakfast with the Prince
“Agunan. It’s morning. Time to get up.” I ordered the dragon man sleeping on the ground.
The rest of us had already gotten up and we were dressed up and Lua and I even visited Alice, but somehow he hadn’t woken up in all the commotion. Alice was still in level-up sleep, and she was taken care of, in case you were wondering. I even had time to tell Lua all about what I heard from Aulis.
“... Yawn.” Agunan opened his eyes and yawned loudly. “Good morning, Master.” He quickly stretched out his arms and legs, as he turned onto his stomach. Then with a quick flap of his wings, he raised his body off of the floor and landed onto his feet.
“... well, that is a way to get up. Did you sleep well?”
“Yes. It was quite comfortable. However, I do prefer longer sleep cycles, so I do feel just a bit tired. If Master wants me to stay awake like you humanoids do, it will take me a few days to adjust.”
“How do you usually sleep?” I asked, just out of curiosity.
“I stay awake for about four or five days, before sleeping for three days in a row.” Agunan answered.
“... okay. Well, try to change your schedule, if possible. If it is too difficult, we can probably figure something out, but at the same time, I’d like it if you were awake when I am.”
“As long as I’m well fed, I can take on any schedule Master requires.”
“So it’s about food?”
“Dragons aren’t that energy efficient. We usually hunt something, eat it, and then sleep to take in all the energy from it. Wake up and repeat. I usually hunt smaller things, like lava worms or fire crocks. They are quite tasty and there are plenty of both close by to my dwelling.”
“... sounds like an easy life.”
By the way, fire crocks are exactly what you might think about. They are crocodiles that have a high affinity to fire, and their skin can spontaneously combust. Or they can combust it as an attack. They are B-rank monsters and some call them the fire variant of wyvern. Even if fire crocks can’t actually fly.
“Well anyway. I’ve been invited to have breakfast with the second Prince, and he asked that you join as well.” I told Agunan what the maids had just previously told me. Lua was also invited to come with me, by the way, while Ria was to enjoy her breakfast with the maids. I know that doesn’t account for Agunan, but Laura and Kitchen Dragonmaid figured out something for him during the night, so I have something I can just get out of my storage for him.
Both Lua and I dressed up in our finest clothes for this, of course, so I was a bit worried that Agunan’s rags would be looked down upon, but all I could do about that is making him a t-shirt with my terminal. Which I did, and ordered him to change. I made it black in color, just to match the rest of his black clothes and the dungeon even made sure it already had holes in the back for Agunan’s wings. Efficiency 100.
The new shirt looked … better. At least it is all intact, instead of having some random holes in it. And at the same time, while I see it as something casual and common, that might be just because I look at it as a common t-shirt. As far as I know, TinaWood dungeon is the only place in this world where you can get tricot fabric, so no one else should have tricot t-shirts. That in return makes it rare and somewhat more respectful.
We were led outside by a maid and then into one of the guest houses, which was still inside the estate walls by the way, by a royal knight. I was expecting some sort of security check, but we were just directly let inside. I guess it would be difficult to check me for weapons, as both of my unique skills, they know about, can be used to store weapons. … and I do have a literal dragon with me, so…
The guest houses, compared to the manor itself, were a lot more like family homes back on earth. They had a small kitchen, a dining area, some sort of lounge which is basically this world’s living room, and a handful of bedrooms. This one might be extra fancy, as it also has a small library/reading room and a study.
Well, either way. The three of us were brought to the dining room, where the Prince was already waiting for us. … yeah. That is not normal. This can’t be good.
“I apologize for calling you this early in the morning. Take a seat, please.” The Prince greeted us.
… yeah. Even more abnormal. This can’t be good.
Lua and I sat at the table, on the Prince’s right hand side, myself closer to him. Agunan stayed standing, seemingly not knowing where to go, until he realized how the guards were standing behind the Prince, and took a similar position.
“Lord Dragon, please join us.” The Prince said to Agunan, but Agunan didn’t move.
I looked the Prince in the eyes, trying to confirm his permission, and after a second, I repeated his order.
“Agunan, the Prince allowed you to join, so do join.” After I gave my permission, Agunan quickly joined us at the table as well. He, after minor grumbling about it in draconic, sat down opposite to me. He didn’t like that he was sitting in a seat of similar position to that of his Master, but he went along with it anyway.
The Prince gave a command and a big breakfast was quickly brought before us. And I have to say, I’m impressed. They had pork, well some sort of boar likely, chicken, again monster meat, and even some venison from forest deer. For non-meat stuff, there was high quality white bread, soft butter to spread on it, four different options of cheese, different vegetables both raw and boiled. For drinks, they brought Agunan and I a glass of white wine, but Lua got a glass of blood. I really didn’t know the Prince would have thought of that, so that also impressed me.
Because everything was just out in the open, after the Prince had taken what he wanted, I gathered a mixed pile of veggies and meat onto my plate. Then I grabbed one of the bread rolls, cut it in half with my knife and spread some butter on it. I didn’t put anything on my bread as sandwiches are … not quite seen as noble’s food. Even if I really wanted to make a venison sandwich. They are delicious, but there is a time and place for everything.
Lua was a bit more careful, taking just some of the boar and some veggies to go with it, while Agunan on the other hand gathered an almost comically large amount of food onto his plate. Hey, I’m not going to stop him. The Prince invited him to eat with us, so I won’t say no to him. But still, stop that before your pile of meat falls over.
As we were eating, the Prince seemed to pay close attention to both Lua and Agunan. It made Lua a bit nervous, but I just used our system link to reassure her, so she eventually calmed down and ate her breakfast.
“Sir Wood, I have a few questions I’d like to ask.” The Prince then spoke up.
“Brian is just fine, your Highness.” I answered.
“Brian it is then. You may call me Elias as well.” The Prince said.
“... are you sure, your Highness?” I confirmed.
“Yes. I’m giving you my permission.” Elias said. “Well, you should still keep up basic etiquette in official situations, but as we are here, just call me Elias.”
“Yes, Pri… Elias.” I said, almost adding Prince before his name, but not saying it fully, because I saw the look in his eyes. The guards in the room didn’t say anything about me addressing him like that, so this must be fine, right?
“Good.” Elias said. “First, the behemoth’s corpse. Would you be willing to sell it to the Royal family?”
“I’m sorry, but I cannot do that. I am not the one it belongs to, even if I am currently holding it. The one that took the behemoth down is Miss Alice of the Watchman family, so you will have to ask her when she wakes up.” I told him.
“Of course. I shall do that. Second, I was planning on punishing Baron Briggs for his outburst yesterday, and I wanted to ask you about it. How do you think I should punish him?”
“... alright, but I don’t really see why. I don’t care about him.” I admitted. “Sure what he did was annoying, but not like he actually did any damage to me. What do you think, Lua?” I turned the question to Lua, because dhampirs, and mainly her and Ria, were the ones actually damaged.
“... I’d like to leave choosing the punishment to you, your Highness.” Lua said, as she looked the Prince in the eyes.
“I see. I shall choose one fitting his crime then.” Elias said.” But now, I’m just a bit interested in something. The miss next to you. She is a dhampir, isn’t she?”
“... you know you could just ask her, instead of going through me.” I commented. “But yes, she is.” I confirmed.
“Then I shall. Miss..?”
“My name is Lucia, your Highness.” Lua answered.
“Miss Lucia… What a name has been given to you. Well, it does fit someone as beautiful as you.” Elias said.
Flirt with her more and I will punch you. I don’t care that you are a Prince, Lua is mine and flirting is my exclusive right.
“So, Miss Lucia. Would you tell me how a dhampir can eat regular food? I’ve heard they get sick and regurgitate if they try. I even heard that the other dhampir girl can eat regular food as well.”
“Oh that. That’s because of Brian.” Lua said, likely deflecting the attention back to me.
“Oh? Care to explain?”
“... Lua? Do you think I should?” I confirmed.
“Why not? You told the Earl about it already.” Lua said.
“... I suppose I did.”
“So, what is it then?” Elias asked.
“I really shouldn’t be the one to answer, but sure. Dhampirs cannot eat regular food because of what is known as the blood curse. You do know of it, don’t you?”
“Yes, naturally.”
“Then do you know it can be cured by using high level True Blood Magic? Like the ones the old vampires used to use?” I asked, even though I’m not 100% sure that is the truth. I know that is close, but it might not be 100% accurate.
“Yes, but I don’t think a single user of that magic exists any more. A lot of skilled dhampirs were forced to be soldiers in the great war against the Empire 400 years ago. And while the Royal family has searched for users of True Blood Magic, none were ever found.”
Oh? So that is what happened. The most skilled were forced into a war and died. I was wondering how the blood curse took hold, because in theory, the previous generation could always heal the next generation. I thought it might have been just because of how difficult it would be to learn True Blood Magic, and specifically the spell that can cure the Blood Curse, but add to that a war and mass death, that might do it.
“So, do you perhaps know someone who can use True Blood Magic?” Elias asked.
“I don’t just know one. I can summon one. Or five.” I answered, even though out of my Vampire monsters, 15 can actually use True Blood Magic. Well 16 if you count Genesis and Lord as separate monsters, but considering that I always summon Cain if I need them, I count them as one.
“... you can summon? Are you saying that you can summon a dhampir? Capable of using True Blood Magic?” Elias asked.
“No. Of course not.” I answered. “I can summon vampires, not dhampirs.” I specified. Well, I’m decently sure there was a dhampir card as a part of the Vampire archetype, but I don’t have it yet. It is likely something I can’t get with Vampire's Domain.
Spoiler
As I said that, the eyes of some of the guards went wide. Even Agunan stopped eating for a second, before quickly getting back to it.
“... could you summon one now?” Elias requested.
“I can, but may I?” I confirmed.
“Yes. I’m asking you to do it.”
“Well then…” I said as I pulled a vampire out of my collection. “Genesis Vampire Lord.” I said after I placed it onto my terminal. I didn’t turn my terminal into a duel disk this time.
Spoiler
After my vampire appeared, the knights, who already had their eyes wide open, looked like their eyes would pop out of their heads. It’s just a vampire. It isn’t that strange.
Elias then questioned my summon a bit, and I allowed Cain to answer. As long as it wasn’t anything overly secretive. Soon Elias was satisfied and I unsummoned Cain again.
“... so. That vampire cured this lady's curse and then she evolved…” Elias deduced.
I hadn’t actually said anything about Lua’s evolution to him, so he must have figured that part out on his own.
“I must ask. Are you two planning on going around the kingdom and curing every other dhampir you can find?” Elias asked.
I took a quick look at Lua’s eyes, before I answered. “Of course.”
“I see. I will prepare an order from the crown for you. It will force the local nobles to allow you to operate however you wish to accomplish this mission.” Elias said.
“Thank you, your Highness.” I said, returning out of reflex to a more formal tone.
“Do not thank me. I should be thanking you. Even if this is only a temporary solution, I hope this will make it at least a little easier for the members of the dhampir race.”
“I believe it will, your Highness.” Lua said.
As we were finishing our breakfast, well mostly waiting for Agunan to polish off his giant pile of meat, we got ready to leave, but Elias made one final request.
“Brian. You as well, Lord Dragon.” He said, sounding a bit … awkward. “Would… would you allow me to… ride you?” He asked Agunan.
“No.” Agunan simply answered. “Only the one I’ve dedicated my life to may fly upon my back.”
“... I see. That is too bad.” Elias said, seeming a bit downed by Agunan’s answer.
“Well, even if he doesn’t allow it,” I began. “I can summon a dragon and let you ride that instead.”
As I said that, the Prince’s eyes once again lit up, like he was a little kid getting a great present.
“Would you really do that?” He asked.
“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I? We just need a place where we can do it safely and without disrupting the life of the citizens. You know we did enough of that yesterday.” As I said that, I turned my eyes to Agunan, but he didn’t seem to react.
“I see. I shall arrange the time and place then.” Elias said.
“Sure. Thank you for breakfast, your Highness. It was quite delicious.” I said, as I bowed slightly. Lua and Agunan also thanked him for the food, before we left the guest house and returned to the main building.
After visiting Alice again, she was still sleeping, I made it back to my room with Lua. There I brought up the topic of my own evolution, as well as the options I had. I also had Agunan step in. He told me that he had heard about the Dragon Hearted race, but has never seen one and didn’t really know of it. But apparently, the ruler of the Dragon Coast does know about it, so I should visit there. He actually said I should visit anyway, considering what happened, but as dragons operate at a different speed than humans, it wouldn’t matter even if I took a month or even a year before I did. As long as I do it in the coming years. So that is another thing to add to my ToDo list.
“... I do agree that the ‘Dragon Hearted’ sounds the best, but are you sure? Would you even be a human after that?” Lua asked.
“... probably not.” I admitted. “But what does it mean to be a human? Honestly speaking.”
“No. I meant… because of your past. … are you sure?”
“Yeah. I guess. But at the same time… who can really tell. I don’t really… feel like I am a human anymore. Honestly speaking. I… I know I’m an outsider. In this world I mean. You know. It is actually kind of funny that the basic System Support shows itself as a question mark at the end of your race. When I first appeared in this world and looked at my status, I already had Laura, so I saw my race as Human ?. That led me to think that I was not a member of the usual human race of this world, but something kind of like that race, and the System just registered me as one. And even after learning about that, I’ve known that I’m a bit different from most humans, even if I am a human. So honestly, what does throwing away my humanity actually mean?”
“Alright. I see.” Lua said. “... so you will evolve into a Dragon Hearted. When are you planning on evolving?”
“... that is a much better question. Not now, at the very least. Alice is still out. And there is plenty of cleanup to do after yesterday. Even the party the people at Alewatch want to hold. But I’d also like to do it before we leave this place, as this manor is a ‘safehouse’ for us currently. And I’d like to have a safe place to evolve at.”
“I can take you to my home and keep you safe there.” Agunan offered.
“... yeah. Sorry to say, but being in the middle of dragon grounds is not what I would consider safe. And while I could wait, I’m not sure I want to wait for so long where I’ll have myself an established safe place that I own.”
“... you sound like a spoiled child…” Lua said.
“... Well, maybe I am. A spoiled child too impatient to wait for Christmas.”
“What’s Christmas?” Lua asked.
“... I’ll tell you some other time.”
