Page 189

Late Afternoon - Late Fall : Northern Market District (Valtivar)

"I'm not sure why you attacked her, but I can't let you kill my lab rat." I gave Amara an intimidating glare, but she didn't back away from it.

Instead, she hastily jumped in the air, rotated, and slammed her foot down into my collarbone with the intent to kill me.

*CRACK* The wooden planks lining the floor simultaneously shattered when I spread the impact around the room, but the shift in my attention caused the light magic disguising my eyes, horns, and scales to fade as well.

*silence* Looking at her in the eyes with thin draconic pupils, I tried my best to suppress my anger. "I'll give you one more chance to explain what you're doing before I knock common sense back into you."

The anger on her face finally started subsiding after I spoke, but instead of a familiar look taking its place, her eyes simply looked lifeless.

-Something's wrong...-

But as my mind raced to try and figure out a solution, a tall and muscular elven man ran up to us. "Hey, what do you think you two are doi-" *CRUNCH* His body was slammed through the floorboards before he even got close.

"Don't interrupt." I gave the man a death stare but was promptly interrupted by Amara swinging around again before throwing another kick into the side of my head.

*pat-CRACK* As I caught her leg, I noticed that she was kicking with more force than her body should have been able to naturally exert. -That's not Amara...-

Thinking she could have been under the influence of magic, I blasted some aura through her head, but nothing seemed out of place.

-F*ck!- It wasn't until after I caught several more blows that my instinct finally took over and accumulated space mana around my palm without the thought of repercussions.

*WHAM-Vwoom* A large ripple was sent through the fabric of space as her head recoiled back from my palm, but the wave wasn't alone. Within the shockwave was a tiny circular warp.

Without thinking, I reached out and created millions of microscopic gates where the warp was, shredding whatever caused it and scattering its remnants in the void.

*Crackle* There was a momentary bright flash as countless atoms were ripped apart by the gates, but it vanished before anyone could react.

*Thud* As Amara's body limply fell to the floor, my mind finally caught up to speed and broke into a panic. -SH*T! I didn't kill her, did I?!-

Hastily lowering myself next to her, I did a deep, full-body scan of her, and noticed that, shockingly, she looked fine. -There's some broken cartilage in her neck, but that's it...- "Phew..." For a dragon, the injury might as well be a bruise. -Thank goodness...-

As I let out that breath of relief though, I finally noticed just how many people in the room were still awake.

-To think this many were strong enough to not pass out from this much of my aura.

..- While casually thinking of ways to make sure this incident would stay under wraps, I had one idea that stood above the others.

-Hmm...- Glancing to my side, I looked at the elven girl with the exposed dragon scales. "Liv Sigmond was your name, correct?"

Immediately breaking from her fear-driven trance, she looked at me like an emotionless dummy.

-Did the magic turn on?- *Tap* Setting my hand on her head, I used my mana to halt the effect of the oath magic I put on her.

Almost immediately, the fog behind her eyes disappeared. "Huh? What am I-AH!" She jumped back when she saw me.

"It's been a while, Miss Sigmond. How have you been?" I gave a friendly smile when I asked, even though I didn't care in the slightest.

"P..please spare me and my grandmother..." She fell to a grovel immediately. "No one knows what happened in the mountains, and they never will!"

She was clearly scared that I came to kill her, but that wasn't the case. "I'm not here to kill you, I just want to hear about the effects of my little spell."

As she looked back up at me with the eyes of a compliant puppy, I noticed an older man in the room shift towards the door.

"Maybe it's best if I take out the lights for a moment.

.." *th-th-th-th-th-th-thud* Everyone still awake in the room simultaneously collapsed as I forced them to sleep.

-Much better...- Turning back to Liv Sigmond, I gave her a curious look.

"Now, how about you tell me what your experience with my magic was like? "

The next several minutes were wrapped in conversation as she explained every detail about how she felt when thinking about the incident and things related to it.

To my surprise, the magic worked far better than I expected and gave much more warning as to when it would be set off than anticipated. -A part of me thought it would be too sensitive.. but to think it'd be spot on...-

By the time we finished talking about the magic, I managed to get a good idea of what needed to be improved and what didn't, and even managed to figure out a way to make the runes deteriorate slower and work more efficiently. -To think a single lab rat would be so inciteful...-

"So.. you're letting me live?" She was still unsure about the whole situation.

"Did I say I was going to kill you? You're quite a valuable test subject now, so don't worry about that.

Plus..." -I still have more information I need to dig out of you.

..- I glanced at the dirty bronze scales on her ears before turning to the rest of the room and raising an arm.

-For now, I'll just make sure this incident stays under wraps. ..-

*vwooom* A wave of mana washed through the room before accumulating on everyone's heads and quickly disappearing. -That was smoother than expected...-

After taking a moment to make sure there weren't any defects in any of the runes, I reached down and picked up Amara's body. -They should be knocked out for a while. In the meantime...- "How about you follow me back to the inn, Sigmond. I have some more things I need to ask you about."

She immediately broke into a nervous sweat as she glanced toward her grandmother, lying unconscious in the kitchen. "May I at least tend to my grandmother before we go?"

Glancing in the kitchen, I saw several exposed flames and burning food and figured it'd be better to avoid a big fire in a town made entirely of wood. "Sure, just make it quick."

In a flurry of movement, she dashed around the kitchen and tidied up most of it before putting her grandmother in the back room and coming back out with a forced smile on her face.

"You ready?"

"Of course." She hesitated for a moment before throwing herself into a bow. "T..thank you!"

-What is she thanking me for?- I took a moment to think about it before giving up and just looking past it. "Don't worry about it."

Quickly hiding my draconic features with magic once again, I tossed a few gold coins onto the table and made my way outside with Amara in my arms and Ilios in tow.

But, once I got outside, I quickly came to realize that I had no clue where the inn even was. -Sh*t... I forgot to ask beforehand...- Slowly turning to Sigmond, I shot out another question with no expectations. "Do you know where an inn called the Golden Lotus is?"

Almost immediately, she gave a fast nod. "Would you like me to guide you?"

"If you could." I felt a bit awkward asking, but there was nothing I could do about it.

Quickly making our way down a few roads and wrapping around the center of the treant we were on, we eventually came across a tall, three-story building with a golden lotus on the front. -How gaudy...-

*Click* We quickly made our way inside, where we were met with a young elf halfie woman with a concerned look on her face. "Sir, we don't endorse kidnappings." She looked like she didn't even know what to do.

"Very funny." My sarcasm was palpable. "I'm here for a reservation under the name, Amara Chalkos." As I pulled out my ID and set it on the desk, I gave the receptionist a look of genuine curiosity. -Did Amara really make a reservation 15 years in advance?-

"Ah.. yes. I see that name here." She nervously looked at my ID before looking at Amara laying unconscious in my arms. "Would that happen to be Amara?"

"Yeah. She ended up getting a little too drunk and passed out. Sorry for the inconvenience."

After nervously glancing back and forth between my ID and me, the lady reluctantly handed us a pair of keys. "Room 304. The second room on your left, on the top floor."

-Sweet.- "Thanks! If you'd like, I'll send her down to confirm everything when she wakes up."

A bead of cold sweat started to form on her head. "I..f you could, that'd be great."