-Shaila's POV-

"H-hic, something happened a few years ago..." I let go of his head and wipe my tears then hold both hands on my lap while looking down. "I-I was broken and wanted to end my miserable life....seen only as a tool by plotting nobles..." I summarize my past then raised my head to look at his unmoving eye. "Why, why was that done to me? I never did anything wrong..." I complain about my unjust life while he just stares at me. "I HATED EVERYONE!" I shouted letting go of my anger and frustration making him wince. "Now.... I just want to run away from everyone. And it made me happy when we first met... I said to you back then 'my wish have been granted.'" I finish recounting my secrets as well but omit the painful details.

"...I thought it was strange that a little girl would be okay going inside a dragon's mouth but you didn't care being chewed huh? You know, our meeting felt like something I'm supposed to do, and whatever happened to you seems to have brought us together, but that also means, the ones who care for you have increased. Besides, those bad memories will inevitably become a smaller part of you by experiencing many things, and in one hundred years it might not even be worth remembering at all. Furthermore, the next life doesn't necessarily have to be better when you could experience the same or worse things. In my case, meeting you is an accomplishment when not even my family cared for me, and nobody has treated me with any respect since my capture." He sternly advises gazing into my eyes without blinking his.

A smaller part of me...those horrible memories will? How does he makes his peace after being unwanted by his family then becoming a slave? I recalled him saying almost all memories are lost for the price of being reborn which means he should still remember terrible things, especially dying.

I wonder what his three human lives were like...did he have children that now can't remember because his current memories are just leftovers? I wonder how many loved ones he is forced to leave behind and never see again.

Was the dragon half he mentioned half human too? Did he face discrimination from dragons and decided to live as a human next? If it were me, I would become a wolf again, though they can't fly or are as powerful as dragons and maybe I could get a different affinity in another body. I imagine what would it feel like to be a beast too.

However, did something terrible happened to him in the previous life to became a full dragon? There are dragon-human halves called Draconians that he could have been born into, and they live long lives too, but most have been slaves for hundreds of years. I recalled the supressed race.

"You are too quiet... I know! In these cases, the pet has to go on a licking spree!" He teased while positioning his head to point the snout at me.

"Wait, hold on!" I block his snout with my palms in panic. "I'm more calm now and just needed to get that out of my head.... Sorry for yelling at you. But are you okay with everything that happened to you?" I informed him before question his mental condition.

"It bothers me that Mother almost turned me into a snack, my siblings were starving me to death, and Big Red didn't care in the slightest, but we all have to leave our nest anyway, though jumping out of the volcano was no easy task..." He resumes his family history then shook his head before placing it on my lap.

"What happened?" I extend my arms over his head while leaning my body and increasing the weight on my lap.

"The wind was stronger than I thought and couldn't stabilize my body with the tiny wings then smashed into the side of the mountain before rolling down..." He starts narrating before my laughter interrupted him, then pulled back my body to continue laughing.

"Haha...sorry, I just pictured...pfft." I finish laughing then giggled some more imagining his figure rolling down a slope while waiting for him to continue.

"No doubt it's a comical way to climb down a mountain, though the pain of my broken body was torturous, my survival story didn't end there since I had to avoid powerful predators while hunting weaker prey myself and it was a matter of time before my luck ran out." He explains the reason for venturing out of the forest. "Although leaving the forest to encounter humans was a blunder from a wild dragon's point of view, it can also be considered a dangerous shortcut for becoming the strongest predator, and I will do whatever it takes to achieve that goal!" He announced the beastly dreams to stand atop of the food chain in this world while seeing the positive side of becoming a slave.

To do whatever it takes huh? How passionate, but magic is not that simple, and you will have to wait until Rank 1 to see if your affinity can help you achieve those goals or be useless like mine. Recollecting the school lectures where desperate people can cause dangerous accidents for themselves or others, I realize that trying too hard might be counterproductive for him and disregarding authority or territories will make his enemies increase.

I have already decided to leave my nest and experience many things while supporting him and finding my own path that hopefully is away from people, but I'm not sure how to survive in the woods... I realize the harshness outside the noble house.

"When will you go back to the wild?" I inquired thinking of preparations and remembered the long-lived race that generally ranks up slowly.

"When people can't punch me to sleep, then I will go take on wolf patrols, followed the snakes that made me run before and lastly Big Red." He reveals a simple plan to fight stronger predators.

"Pfft...it really bothered you that Uncle Lucious took you down with a punch, but you have to be careful of who to fight and learning to probe for Ranks will help you, though it's a bit trickier to examine beasts than people." I hold my laughter at his unwillingness to be weaker than humans, then recommended a method to avoid fights he can't win.

"Yes, you mentioned that but isn't dangerous to carelessly send your spirit out?" The dragon questioned the authenticity of said means while I grab his head to pull closer.

"You use your own magic while being careful not to leave Spirit out and probe other being's magic or Spirit density then compare it yours." I explain his misunderstanding of the process. "Bring your Spirit Energy alone in front of me and intertwine it with mine." I request in order to teach him how to practice the method.

"Is that even safe!?" He questioned in panic and perhaps remembering what happened with brother during the day.

"Spirit clash inside the body is so strong because it's the domain of the soul which is why brother received such backlash, but the higher rank has the advantage in a clash of wills outside. However, there is no clash outside when you accept each other and inside is minimal compared to beings you reject, but I've been inside of you already..." I elaborate the facts and start bringing out my bare spirit.

I start to feel a tingling sensation through the awareness in front of my face indicating he also took his spirit outside, though with imperfect control since some parts still have magic strands on it.

They don't call this the ultimate test of trust for nothing since malice cannot hide like this and Divines can tell people's lies this way too, though this tingling sensation probably means a part of him still wants to eat me, but I'll accept that part of you as well! He really likes my taste, but I wonder if the toxins of the volcano made him inedible since he was born there. While intertwining our Spirit in the space between his head and mine, I see the big eyelid slowly lower down in sadness.

"Fufu...not bad for a weak little girl right?" Knowing the reason why he feels sad, I giggle in mockery as revenge for calling me weak earlier.

"...Your Spirit is stronger than mine and feels like you are enveloping me." He describes how the sensation of having our Spirit mix feels to him.

"Of course it's stronger, I'm Rank 3 while you are not Rank one yet, and you don't do just magic training but spirit training that also strengthens your Soul." I explain at the sulking him then retract my Spirit and hold his big head with both arms. "Use me." I offer my body to train his senses faster and take fewer risks in the future.

"Okay, but you made your Dragon sad...pet him!" He demanded sulking then landed his head softly on my lap and closed his eyes anticipating my actions.

Uh...it's just in terms of magic, and you are still a dragon you know? Besides, you shouldn't be sad when your talent for magic manipulation alone is a little scary... I recall how ordinary people take years to increase spirit density as much as the dragon in front of me has in a single afternoon. Could the reason be his other lives? Our common sense doesn't apply to Nefiru, and this is the first time a pet demands me to pat him too, but why does it feel like I'm the pet here?

I stroke the scales of different sizes on his snout then forced the triangular tips sideways with my fingers, and the purr reverberating on my lap told me he liked it, but I ended up with regular patting since my fingers started to hurt.

Fwun...that felt good for both of us, but unfortunately, it's too hard for me since my delicate fingers hurt and they would bleed at that rate. I stop feeling the aching throb in my fingers.

"I think your progress is incredibly fast and not just for dragons like your siblings that could take many years, but for humans too since they consider me extraordinary for reaching Rank 1 at four years old, though it didn't make my life easy." I praised his efforts after realizing how high his talent for magic might be then felt the weight of his scaly head decrease.

"I see...you had it rough huh? But do not think for a second that life will give you a break or that I will protect you from everything...you must attain strength yourself." He sighed loudly then rebuked my attitude to depend on him.

"Haha..." I laugh in self-derision. "Everybody knows Light magicians are useless without water affinity to become healers, but it was even worse in my case since many coveted the high talent in my Noble blood and envious girls at school made my life miserable while boys chased me around trying to impress me." I recount the torturous times at school melancholically.

I used to love watching the sun rise and fall every day until my affinity appeared then studied light magic as much as I could while enduring the treatment, trying to disprove what people said about it, but it was all for nothing.

In the end, my magic can only make a bright light to blind people or speed up the healing of small wounds and the teachers were not much help either when their explanations were mostly about their 'feel' rather than information to make things work. Grandmother has light magic but only taught me how to improve my healing since she's a healer and there is no other high ranking light magician around to bestow me something useful about this affinity. I think back to the teachings on light magic to heal.

"I doubt there's a single useless magic system out there, and it's probably just lack of knowledge or the difficulty of the magic itself if you have the talent to get this far. However, there is a huge information gap between us right now since I'm just learning and this is a different world from my previous life." He denies my preconception while making me realize his lack of knowledge of this world despite claiming to have memories from previous lives.

"Wait, what? We haven't seen signs of life from the three other worlds beyond our skies." I tilted my head confused while recalling what we were told at school about the void beyond our world then willed my spirit a little into his body to make sure.

"Three? That's impressive, but you see those stars up there?" He scoffed pointing up with a claw from his right foreleg, and I nodded after looking at the starry sky. "Not all the little lights you see in the dark sky are stars, but some are massive groups of many stars much further away that you can imagine and each star possesses at least one world orbiting around them. However, my previous reality was entirely different than this one without dragons or magic, and I left because the restrictions of that world were too high to achieve evolution into higher beings." He elaborates his mysterious origins.

This is really confusing, and hard to believe if my Spirit weren't inside his body to pick up bad intentions, though he's welcoming what I'm doing, my head still hurts a little since this body is his domain, but the reaction would be terrible if he rejected me. The backlash from a clash is more intense closer to the soul, especially inside the body and only Divines or Demigods don't have to worry about it when they use this method to detect lies, among other things.

Maybe it wasn't the best choice to use his head that was already on my lap, and should have used the forearm I'm sitting on instead, though it would feel weird willing spirit out of my butt...anyway, it wasn't too bad considering my Rank and the proximity to his soul. I confirm the scaly forearm beneath me wondering if my weight it bothers him.

However, he left his previous world because there was no dragons or magic!? I would find that world ideal to live in though... I fantasize about such peaceful world where the inequality of magic doesn't exist.

"Are you alright?" He inquired looking at me holding my head, then placed his head tilted on the ground to give me space while staring at my face worried.

"I'm alright, but I really can't doubt you, even when you speak nonsense huh? And why haven't you asked what happened to me?" I raise an eyebrow staring at his eye that reflects the stars above.

"Who would want to see you sad!?" He retorted and did a sigh blowing dust from the ground. "True, there are many things right now that make you depressed, but that won't hold true forever, and we should start by tearing down that misconception of Light that you believed from ignorant people. However, since I'm not sure how my knowledge can apply to magic, I will need time to learn more about it from you guys before figure out how to explain my findings." He claims to have useful knowledge from another world without magic that could improve our magic somehow.

"How confident are you?" I question leaning over the left eye of his tilted head on the ground then he bent his neck and raised his head looking up.

"As beautiful as they are, the stars were huge clouds of dust and gas at some point in the past, then turned into balls of burning hot gas like our sun while others are incredibly massive and more luminous. However, since their light travels for eons before reaching us, some of them might even be long dead, and we are actually watching how they shone while they are alive a long time ago." He explained with his head raised up looking at the sky then turned to me. "Did they not teach you this at school? Because where I come from even kids know this, and yeah, I'm confident in having you stop listening to people that only see you alive from a distance." He stated showing off his white frontal fangs with a smile.

...I meant being confident of improving my magic, though that somehow answered my question and before...I literally looked alive on the outside while trying to die, but grandmother healed me. I stop staring at his smug dragon face then looked up at the stars pondering.

Light...is not instant? But how fast would it have to be when we can't tell at all!? And if that's the case then how far away are stars then? Also, stars are suns like ours that formed from dust and gas? Nefiru once again placed his head on my lap trapping me, and indicating he still wants to talk about magic.

I think my life is going to become really strange... I imagibe what wi become of me next to a dragon that defies common sense and the laws of the world.

"So this is a Rank 3 Light magician huh?" Nefiru affirmed probing my body with his spirit. "Your Spirit is like ten times more refined than mine and magic density around the same, so what makes you Rank 3?" He questions the measuring system we use to keep track of our progress.

"That's because you are around two-thirds of the way to Rank 1, and from there to Rank 6 the density doubles for each Rank, but from Rank 7 to Rank 10 is around 10 times per Rank, then comes Divine Rank, though I'm not sure how it works for them to reach Demi-god. However, we made those Ranks for convenience since the major stages of the world are the affinity stage at Rank 1, the first soul stage at Rank 7, then the second Soul stage at Rank 10 where you turn into Divine, then Demigod which I'm not sure what it is." I elaborate on the ranking system feeling my throat becoming quite sore already. "By the way, your father is Rank 8 fire, and my Father is Rank 7 wind, Brother is Rank 4 Earth, Alphonse is Rank 4 darkness, Sister and Lucious are Rank 3, and 8 auramancers, but they are warriors who can't use Magic Arts." I informed him the ability level of those that should matter to us.

"Heh, our fathers are quite impressive huh? So, the density to discover affinities is fixed, but which affinity will I get?" He commented then asked how to predict his affinity.

"We are not exactly sure since there are many factors, but lineage has a high influence, followed by the individual's soul which could be something you really like, then the environment from getting hit by Thunder to get lightning affinity or spending a lot of time in water to get that. Beasts that come from eggs like you are born with the color of their surroundings which are usually white, brown and sometimes black, though once discover your affinity, there will be a noticeable change of color on your scales, claws, eyes and the hair fibers displaying your element. However, the intensity of color will depend on your talent which can be low, medium or high, and a low talent for humans will not change their natural hair color, a medium talent doesn't change the eyes, but high talent changes all that upon awakening." He opened his eyes wide after my revelation and started beating his tail noisily making me giggle.

"You mean in one-third of progress more I will change this dull color!?" He happily urged while I try to catch a glimpse of his wagging tail.