-Lester's POV-

"Kyaaa... it hurts!" Shaila's pained scream sounded from inside the mouth while flailing her limbs around in panic. "Aui... it was loud as well..." She complained pulling the right arm inside the dragon's mouth.

"Oops, overdid it." I heard him admitting from her active bracelet inside his mouth.

What? Was she alright in there? I let go of my sword lodged one-third into his body and backed away staring at his body above me then followed his bent neck to observe the jaws. I try to relax after confirming Shaila's well-being, but the fast beating heart and the tensed muscles were still making my body shake nervously then walked backward to his front without taking my eyes off his head. He lowers his head while maintaining the horizontal position then inclines it near the ground and slowly opened the jaws for Shaila to come out sliding over the tongue with her arms held on the chest. Three steps away from his lowered head, I see the girl standing up fine and breathed a long sigh of relief feeling my body lose strength then arched forward to hold the knees trying to calm down my breathing. Did you guys actually play this kind of prank on me?

"Nefiru, you sank a fang into my arm!" Shaila stood on the ground then turned around to admonish him while rubbing the puncture wound on her bicep and dripping slobber from her back. "You went too far! It hurts and brother is crying..." She informed him on the bracelet then turned to me with an apologetic look.

Who cares if I was crying when my sister looked mauled by the pet dragon I bought for her! I recalled the events from a year ago that looked to be repeating then wiped my face of sweat and tears before looking at the two while powering my bracelet to hear the beast clearer.

"I'm Sorry but. You didn't notice. I wasn't attacking." The dragon apologizes while landing his head softly on Shaila's then closed his eyes.

Ah! That guy never arrived either... I turned around and saw the Tamer peeking from the corner of the Stables on the right around ten steps away while Alphonse is laughing from a barrack's window across the courtyard. Of course, he's in this too, but this prank is bad taste and how did the dragon even convince Shaila to go inside his mouth? I turned back at the two pranksters getting angry.

"YOU TWO!" I shouted infuriated at being played for a fool then tried to calm down before doing something regretful. "Don't ever play this prank again..." I sternly prohibit the behavior that can get out of hand and get Shaila hurt.

"Eeep! Sorry, brother..." Shaila flinches and apologizes with a trailing voice while pulling down the head of the dragon to cover her face.

"Why would you go into the mouth of a dragon besides getting covered in saliva and blood? You could have been seriously hurt with the razor sharp teeth." I crossed my arms lecturing the girl hiding behind the dragon's head that's pointing at the ground.

"We were curious to know how it feels, but it was safe lying over the tongue, though a little hot, and Nefiru will do anything I tell him next." She meekly explains peeking from the side while holding the lizard head with her left arm.

Curious about eating or being eaten? I scratch my head confused at the two's weird actions. Anything...she says....good because this Nefiru will need to pretend to be a retarded dragon while the Tamer removes the lock and leaves.

"Where did the blood comes from?" I question the injured girl using only her left arm to grab the snout.

"K-kitchen..." Shaila confesses stuttering.

"Sighs...Alright." I lower my head doing a sigh then look up at the two. "You..." I point at Shaila making her wince. "Heal your injuries before they leave scars then go take another bath with your sister to clean the blood and saliva..." I reminded her to use magic to recover then ask Liana for help washing the filth away. "And as for you..." I point at the mischievous dragon with my left hand while bringing closer the bracelet to my mouth. "Behave like a baby dragon until that guy leaves..." I commanded in a low voice while pointing with my left thumb behind me.

"O-okay.... He's called Nefiru and doesn't like other names..." The wet haired girl falters before informing me and tries to avoid my stare by looking at the bow behind me on the ground. "I'm going!" She looked up and affirmed under my glare then bolted away leaving behind muddy steps.

We watch the girl run away while losing her wet sandals and turn around the left corner heading for the house. That image brings back bad memories... I look at the Tamer without intentions to move and beckon the dragon to follow me while picking the bow on the ground then fix it on my back. Well, he should have been far enough, and with the noise of horses or the dragon, I doubt he heard everything, but will still need to silence him and can't kill him since the guild knows he's here too, though I could probably buy him.

"Hey." The Dragon speaks through my bracelet as we are halfway to the tamer.

"What is it?" I stop and look back inquiring to the dragon that's not stepping on the right foreleg.

"Pull this out." He demanded while striking the hilt of the sword with a claw. *Ting! Ting!*

"Only, if you are not using it." I snickered walking to his chest.

"Hard to grab. Tiny things. Might break inside." He revealed his worries to break the steel sword inside while pulling with claws.

"You got angry didn't you?" I criticize him while gripping with both hands the hilt of the sword under a broken scale.

"Fine, I'll behave." He compromises while twisting his neck to stare at the sword sticking out of his chest.

"You went too far, so I'm still angry at you!" I declared before pulling the sword straight out in one go making sliding sounds with the scales and muscles pressing on it.

"GHAAH!" He made a pained sound next to me and started rubbing his chest with the right forearm making blood spurt out the hole.

I clean my sword and sheathe it then we reach the tamer. I forgot about Alphonse being in this, but how to punish that person... Well, at least everything is fine, but it's getting dark and better get this soon since I'm mentally exhausted.

"Sorry about that, it would seem a few people got together to play an elaborate prank on me." I excused myself at the frozen tamer behind the corner sweating intensely while looking at the dragon.

"It-it was a dangerous prank indeed..." He stammered coming out of the stables.

"I'm going to need you to remove the magic lock now since it's getting late and you need to get back as well." I urged looking at the twilight sky.

"...Will it really be okay?" He timidly inquires in a quiet voice seeking assurance.

"It is fine since he's quite tamed..." I comforted then ordered the dragon to come closer and pulled his right horn dragging his head close to the tamer. "See? There's nothing to fear, and you can put your head inside as well...it was just a misunderstanding earlier." I encouraged him while patting the beast's snout.

"B-but sir, if the dragon caused problems even as a prank it must be reported it to the guild to get a bigger collar." He stutters advising to buy a more expensive collar.

This deceitful little man trying to get money from the commission of a bigger collar since he has to install it huh? Wrong person and time to do that, but I have things far more dangerous than this prankster dragon or a little tamer to worry about, so let's corner him into accepting bribery. Determined to have the collar unlocked today, I decided to use forceful methods to achieve it and took out a single Royal Gold Coin from a disk-shaped bag on my belt. How many gold coins have this dragon cost me so far? Almost two thousand, but might be worth it if he can help as Alphonse says and even without magic a dragon this size is already as good as a few of my soldiers.

"Paying an assassin to end someone right in front of the guild building will not cost nearly this much..." I threaten while presenting the coin two finger wide.

"How dare you! Trying to buy a kingdom's official!" The Tamer solemnly proclaimed acting insulted while taking away and hiding the intricate coin in his underwear.

I'm not familiar with the guild employee rules, but are you supposed to say that when being bribed? I chuckled at his actions not matching his speech then pointed the collar with my hand and ordered the dragon to crouch down for the tamer to work. Well, everybody has a price and whoever says otherwise just needs to get paid high enough to change his mind which reminds me that the guild has been acting suspiciously lately, but my hands are already full with spies. Father is right saying that until we kill the mastermind, the pawns won't stop coming.

-Dusk. Nefiru POV-

The black haired short man fiddled with the collar for a while until the annoying mana waves hitting my head disappeared then he parted happily with the little coin he received. So...are tamers magic engineers or programmers? Well, at least it's not uncomfortable anymore other than the weight on my neck, but I'll get used to it until I can talk...wait, can dragons even speak human language? I don't think so since the vocal cords are too different, lacking high pitch sounds people can make and the control to change the volume quickly which makes me an even more terrible singer than in my past life, but another speech might be possible. In any case, without the collar restriction, I can speak longer sentences now!

"Can only Tamers operate the collar?" I inquire Lester coming from seeing off the guy in question.

"Yes, only Darkness magic can send commands into the collar." He affirmed before explaining the reason.

"Feels comfortable now and wasn't there another tamer guy?" I convey my satisfaction and desire to find that hateful man.

"He probably knew what you were and fled town after setting the collar to stop magic from spreading through your body while at the same time consuming a lot of your energy restricting you." He reveals the reason behind the high restrictive magic force is the sneaky man who fled town.

So that little bastard was the reason why magic was so hard for me huh? Feeling mana rushing freely through the body made me rejoice at the fact that my body is finally mine once again, but with little magic left from feeding the collar all this time to talk, there was no much progress. However, this ornament on my neck could help me in the future for other things besides communication, and I still want to open it to see what makes it tick, but sadly my dragon body lacks hands or even tools to work with. Though something so ominous as brain matter inside wouldn't have survived for so long, it did feel like someone was keeping control of my body sometimes since it felt barely mine, but it was just because of the suppression huh? Anyway as long as it doesn't hinder me much, it's just a huge cellphone hanging on my neck.

"How do I make magic now?" I question in excitement having been freed with the infernal little device somewhat.

"Impatient, it's not that simple since you have to find your core first to train your magic." Lester chuckles watching my tail hitting the walls of the stables in excitement.

It can't be helped since there is a tingling sensation when the tail wags around and honestly, it feels good... I admitted trying not to feel embarrassed at having a tail that shows emotions while recalling dogs from Earth.

When he says core, he means monster cores huh? The little round thing in the body that gathers mana and when it grows, the beast ranks up becoming stronger...how exciting! I closed my eyes concentrating the awareness in the two places from the monster core could be, and the head was empty but found something round in the center of my chest next to the heart. The collar was preventing magic on the other side of my body, especially near the core location and my attempts to bend my neck over the collar would just allowed me to examine my rear that was outside the range of that interference. However, I refrained from doing that in case someone found me in the most awkward posture a dragon could be doing... with the head in the ass and not just demeaning, but the wrong person might buy a dragon that does that. Well, with enough magic in the future to stretch around, I will need to inspect every corner of my body and find parasites, diseases or any defect that could be limiting my body's potential.

"Train magic how?" I inquired on how to proceed to avoid magic accidents.

"Mana is everywhere without interacting with anything, except the influence of your soul or awareness that we call Spirit and you make magic by soaking your spirit in the ambient mana then pulling it inside your body to keep it from escaping." Lester confirms some of the things known to me of magic. "You must fill your core completely with magic, but that is probably going to take the whole night, so I will explain tomorrow morning." He instructs and leaves me a goal to achieve tonight.

"How to gather magic faster?" I query while noticing my reserves are getting very low to power for much longer.

"Spread your spirit carefully since it can clash with other creatures outside your body, but without the collar restrictions you will have more magic to talk and practice magic phenomena when you are ready." He warned me and walked away to the house.

Well, there goes my magic, and don't have enough to feel my core for a while, but at least it was confirmed that only the combination of spirit and mana is what allowed me to feel things inside or outside the body which also denotes the importance of the collar that is able to move mana. I noticed there's some magic recovery before since communication wouldn't have lasted that long, but it seems that increased now that the collar is off. Without absorbing mana in the spirit to form magic, my senses is no different from Earth's, and the collar was stripping mana away making it impossible to examine past it, but with a full body under my control, magic recovery increased a lot. Before it took me hours to recover the total magic under my control, but now I'm not even sure and will need to wait until it fills as Lester said. The spirit-clash he warned me about was what probably happened to him back then when I felt a little electric shock while he looked dead drunk after he touched my body which probably means my soul is stronger or something else.

Still, probing the sword wound inflicted by him that goes around two-thirds of a foot deep into my body approaching the heart, though the trajectory is wrong, this is a wake-up call to be more careful since someone more experienced might get it right. I recall Lester's technique for penetrating the scales, by sticking the thin sword under one first then twist and pull up to break the scale before stabbing through the flesh by hitting or pressing the pommel. To do that in an instant with a thin sword shows his experience, as well as high-quality steel since my muscles, are not that soft, though I had to ask him to pull it since the one-inch wide sword felt like it would break easily. I went inside the space between the two buildings, turned around and crouched down in the usual resting posture while watching the night fall.

...

I retract my Spirit before stopping meditation then open my eyes and raised my head to look at the myriad of stars shining in the cloudless sky above the gap between buildings. If this were Earth, it would be around 8 to 9 pm. Leaning comfortably on the stone wall of the left with tail curved to the right, I'm taking a break from all the magic training after making good progress.

Despite the dragon body being big, the area is not as big as a sphere, and the passive magic recovery is very slow with just the ambient mana that goes into the body and slowly intertwines with the Spirit. This is no different than filling a glass of water with the drops that fall from a wet finger...it's too damn slow, but actively molding magic inside the body does speed up the process. However, using a single hand to fill a bucket takes too long, and that's how it feels when just molding the Mana that penetrates into the body or scooping a little not too far outside. This is the reason why venturing Spirit far outside is a necessary risk since ambient mana doesn't feel thick, or my Spirit is not refined enough to drag it back efficiently and seems more like scooping sand with a tennis racket where you would need to stick it deeper into the sand.

The Mana doesn't just become mine when the spirit passes through it like submerging the hand in the water, and some effort must be made to grab then drag it into the body through the skin where some are lost. Just like scooping water with a hand and if you open your palm, then it falls down through the fingers, but in the case of Mana, it just disperses when losing control. The so-called molding inside the body makes the Spirit and Mana fully fuse together into Magic, but once that happens, it won't be lost so easily when moving it around without the collar interference.

Venturing with the Spirit outside alone is dangerous because there is no sense of distance whatsoever since it doesn't interact with anything other than mana, but even that doesn't help either. After training on spreading my Spirit out in all directions, I immediately clashed with the neighbor horses, but due to their low awareness, no much damage was taken, though it served as a warning to think of safer approaches. I first tried controlling the magic closer to the soul in my head creating a bridge to measure the distance that my Spirit travels, but controlling a perfect sphere was tough, then decided to create a thin spherical boundary with magic energy.

Just like a cool force-field from animes, but it just functioned to stop my spirit from venturing outside that range, instead of preventing attacks from going in because of another discovery made. I accidentally discovered the limit or Magic range as well as the slow detachment of mana from Spirit outside the body when measuring the maximum radius of the Magic sphere. The longest my magic can reach before losing complete control of it is around three-hum away from the soul in my head, but it's too short even to cover the tip of my tail, and the irony is that Spirit keeps going further than that, but I only know because of the clash with the horses.

The sound of approaching steps interrupted my sky-gazing, and after identifying the scent, I lowered my head and narrowed my pupils into a thin vertical slit at the incoming light around the left corner of my enclosure. She was, a light magician huh?