Chapter 87
Adrian said with a bright expression.
“I don't remember clearly, but I don't think you need to worry, sis.”
“Huh? If he's a half-dragon, shouldn't I worry?”
“Nyah-ha. Sis.”
Adrian leaned slightly toward me.
A fragrant scent of grass wafted over.
She narrowed her eyes slightly and looked up at me.
In an instant, mana so dense it was suffocating, centered around her dark-blue wings, surrounded me.
Every bit of it was high-purity dragon mana.
“If you make that sound one more time in front of me, I think I might get a little annoyed.”
The mana itself prickled.
It was as if natural mana itself possessed a will and rejected me.
‘This is the first time I've seen Adrian get riled up.’
So I prodded her a little more.
I did need an explanation, after all.
“A Fifth-Tier Dragon is strong, isn't it?”
“Nyaa... You're serious?”
“Honestly, even the top student at the Knight School seems pretty tough.”
“……”
“You have to explain more.”
Who would know what you meant if you put it like that?
“I see. My mistake. It makes sense that you wouldn't know my tier, sis.”
“What's a tier?”
“Hmm? Do I have to explain from there?”
“Yep.”
“Think of it as the hierarchy of great beings. The later a dragon is born, and the less history it has, the lower its tier.”
“Oho.”
“The dragons you hear about being subjugated by humans are almost all Tier 4 or below.”
“They can actually be subjugated?”
“Usually, anything from Tier 5 onward is called a dragon. And the highest, Tier 7, might be what you would properly call a true dragon.”
According to Adrian's explanation that followed,
a dragon's ability to interfere with its attributes grew stronger starting from Tier 5.
Their authority over the world also expanded.
At my reaction of not understanding what she was talking about, Adrian chuckled and elaborated.
“The name itself is a hint. Lightning Dragons can control lightning, while Wind Dragons can control wind.”
The higher their tier, the more powerful and unrestricted the abilities they could wield.
That was something else I was learning for the first time.
He had said he was a Thunder Dragon.
Could he control thunder?
Then what could Adrian control?
Adrian cut in at that moment.
“Thunder Dragon, Rikres.”
“Hmm?”
“If it's that child, you have nothing to worry about. Even if they're only a half-dragon, I could crush them with a single claw.”
Was that how strong they were?
It scared me because Adrian genuinely seemed capable of doing it.
…Then what was Karnarof, who could stand against this guy?
I stopped thinking about it.
“Of course? If you're a half-dragon or higher, you can do quite a lot of things, though.”
“Really?”
“You can manifest dragon parts from your body, for example. You should even be able to create materials.”
“…Then isn't that amazing?”
You could detach parts of your body and sell them!
“Of course, they aren't particularly useful.”
“Why?”
“The lower the tier, the smaller the reserves. And they become more closely tied to vital functions.”
“…So you mean you can't give them to me because you need them too.”
“Of course, if you became a half-dragon, sis, I could make as much dragon blood as you wanted.”
She was talking as if I was definitely going to become a half-dragon someday.
Would that day ever come?
I had no idea.
“A half-dragon isn't something that can be made that easily in the first place.”
“Really?”
“A human has to possess mana that is exceptionally compatible with dragons.”
“Oho.”
“You have dragon parts, don't you, sis?”
“This?”
I made my pupils into long, vertical slits.
Adrian pointed at them and said,
“That's far more special than you think. Normally, you aren't even permitted to possess one.”
“Mm-hmm.”
I was kind of special, huh.
My self-esteem rose.
Adrian chattered happily.
But wasn't I gradually losing my human identity without even realizing it?
…When had that started?
That scary bastard Adrian.
“Hmm. It should be fine to do it soon.”
“Do what?”
“The next step.”
Adrian jabbed a claw into her own heart.
Adrian's blood continued to flow out.
The last time I saw it, I thought it was pretty grotesque, but these days, I barely felt anything.
The blood naturally flowed along the vessels in my eyes.
[Dragon Heartblood (UR) has infiltrated your body!]
[Your control is abnormally high!]
[You have been given a choice!]
[Will you accept it?]
[Y/N]
Oho.
I hadn't gotten anything like this last time.
Was it thanks to the dragon blood mixed into me?
[A racial change is taking place in your body! Current: 15 percent]
[Your tier has risen!]
[Warning: If you accept more blood, there is a risk of losing control!]
[There is a risk of conflict with the authority of ???(???)... Assessing...]
[[Trait: ???] overwhelmingly dominant.]
It didn't hurt as much as I had expected.
Rather, every time the percentage of blood increased, it felt as though a new power was being mixed in.
More importantly, I was only at 15 percent now.
It increased in such miserly little drips.
“You won't feel it yet. Dragon bloodlines usually show their true performance only from the half-dragon stage onward.”
“…What?”
I definitely felt it.
…Were all the sensations I'd experienced fake?!
But from Adrian's perspective, I was probably just a beginner who couldn't even properly use dragon mana.
“That's why you're so weak too. It's all right. Even if you're weak, you're still you, sis.”
“Nyeek.”
That was another hit.
I thought I'd gotten quite a bit stronger.
As expected, I needed to climb the Tower more.
Though I probably shouldn't compare myself to that.
After talking a little longer, I suddenly remembered something and asked,
“Then what tier are you?”
I understood that Tier 5 was nothing special.
Of course, that was only from Adrian's perspective, and Richard's skill itself couldn't be dismissed either.
Where on earth did Adrian, who casually mentioned even Tier 7, stand?
Adrian rolled the wine around in her mouth.
“Me?”
Then she answered casually,
“You'll find out naturally.”
* * *
The exchange event must have been a much bigger occasion than I'd expected.
A great many people had been coming and going since several days before it began.
Carriages loaded with boxes passed back and forth hundreds or even thousands of times a day, and some classes were canceled.
The chef, laborers, professors, student council, and everyone else were so busy they barely had time to breathe.
They were so busy that even Karnarof had put off checking my assignments.
Isabel also checked the quality of her potions more perfunctorily than usual.
‘That didn't mean either of them was cutting corners, though.’
If they got caught, the consequences would be unbearable.
Naturally, the students' conversations also revolved around the event.
“So, which side will win this time?”
“Maybe they'll win the tournament?”
“But what about the first-year match? Isn't our top student crazy strong too?”
“I heard they even have a dragon knight over there.”
“A dragon knight? That's a knight who uses dragon mana!”
“But what's so good about using dragon mana?”
“…I don't really know. I just heard it's insanely strong. Apparently, he's still growing even now.”
“What?”
“Anyway, he must be strong.”
“Right?”
Sigh. Idiots.
I climbed up into a tree and eavesdropped on their conversation.
My senses did seem to have grown sharper.
Even though I was fairly high up thanks to Silver Shoes, if I wanted to hear something, I could hear it as clearly as if I were standing beside them.
More importantly, their conversation was pretty funny.
‘They don't even know what dragon mana is.’
…But I didn't know what it was either.
At least I knew more than they did.
In front of Adrian, I was like someone showing off knowledge before Confucius, but here, I was Confucius.
“Come to think of it, I heard a rumor that Yumia has dragon mana too.”
“Huh? Wasn't that just a baseless rumor? You can't feel anything at all.”
“Is that so?”
“We're fairly talented ourselves. If we can't feel it, we should assume it isn't there.”
Hmm.
I thought I'd used it openly.
They still didn't know?
Come to think of it, Adrian had said that the nature of my mana was exceptionally strong.
Could that be related?
I had no idea.
“Sigh, so is the Knight School going to take the championship again this time?”
“I did hear the School of Magic and the Potion School have achieved some things.”
“That's where the dwarves and alchemists compete. In the end, our sister school is the Knight School.”
“Damn it! Do we have to watch those bastards swagger around again?!”
Mm-hmm.
I didn't want to watch that bastard swagger around either.
* * *
But something else was even more important.
“And that is enjoying it.”
I had wondered what an exchange event would be like, but it seemed to have a festival-like atmosphere.
If so, the natural thing to do was play as hard as I could.
The School Market vendors had put out special menus as well.
“This stew is pretty tasty.”
I couldn't believe they had produced this flavor using only basic seasonings like salt and sugar.
I couldn't help but be impressed.
And then there was the cola, which washed the greasiness from my mouth.
“Phew, now that's the stuff.”
I was glugging down cola from a bottle.
“Would you give me one as well?”
Robert held out a hand.
“Sure, I'm feeling generous.”
Normally, I wouldn't have felt like giving him one, but I'd make an exception this time.
I took out a cold can of cola and handed it to him.
I gave one to Aris as well.
“You really are enjoying the exchange event to the fullest…”
“What did Aris do?”
“I prepared mainly basic magic, encryption, and unique magic.”
“Huh?”
I had asked what she had done for fun, but she had been diligently preparing for the exchange event.
Of course, I hadn't neglected gathering information about the opponents either.
‘…Though I may have just played around.’
“They say it's time for the opening ceremony. Shall we go in?”
“Sure.”
So we entered the grand auditorium.
And we were overwhelmed by the enormous crowd.
“Wow… There are so many people!”
The spectator stands, usually empty, were packed full.
“Apparently, they let commoners watch as well as nobles.”
“…So it wasn't just on the level of a sports day?”
“It's an exchange event hosted by Reinhart and Lunaris, the Empire's two most prestigious schools.”
“It's also a way of showing that the Empire's taxes are being spent on things like this.”
“Oh?”
Of course, I wasn't really one of them.
But I did pay my taxes.
Since selling spices was an official transaction, the taxes were deducted with uncanny efficiency.
While I was lost in thought, I heard someone's powerful voice.
“Reinhart students, over here!! Please move this way!”
A staff member led us to our designated section.
And the place we ended up was…
“These are pretty good seats!”
“It's wide open.”
First-class seats, huh.
Of course, they weren't seats reserved for professors or high-ranking nobles, but they were good seats from which we could watch all sorts of events up close.
Almost all the students had arrived.
After we waited for a few minutes,
the announcer mage waved his wand once.
He was a stylishly uniformed man wearing a bow tie.
What he had used was an amplification magic circle.
But it was on a fairly large scale.
“Thank you for waiting. I am Miliang Levis, the Imperial court mage serving as your announcer.”
“Miliang?”
“He's a high-ranking mage, Rank 5?”
The spectator stands filled with anticipation.
He paused for a moment, then finally shouted,
“Now, let us begin the exchange event between Lunaris and Reinhart!!”
A tremendous roar filled the arena.