-Morning. The first day of winter. Nefiru's POV-

Within the darkness of my mind, I became aware that it was enough sleeping and decided to leave behind the dreams experienced until now to start a new day after feeling my recovering body brimming with energy. It was dark after opening my eyes but yesterday's events came to mind while hearing a clamor in the distance and smelled a familiar scent nearby before willing my muscles to obey.

After thanking the crying Alphonse for the experimental material, I was out of magic to further practice and decided not to steal Shaila's since she had more Laser training to do, then kept the broken dagger inside the right wing due to the lack of pockets. Tired from the fight, my body desired rest, and after informing Shaila, I climbed the firewood pile, curled up with my back pressed against the eastern corner of the walls, then covered with the left wing to avoid the sun rays coming from the west.

I folded the left wing with rustling sounds while hearing the black haired maid running back to the kitchen and turned my neck to see her closing the door already.

That Hilda... running away so I don't give chase, but I've only chased her once! And if something runs, you would want to pursue it... Er- that's not how it was as human...these impulses are my dragon instincts. I realized the way to act sometimes becomes confusing.

However, sometimes it's the opposite when I completely forget I'm a Dragon and try to sit on the bed like a human right after waking up. This is because my human memories never faded, and I just have to ignore them until my Dragon body ages more, but it's not really a problem for daily life or combat. I recognized the disparities between thirty years of human memories and five months of Dragon life, then got up from the wooden bed to change my thoughts.

A pile of logs would be a very uncomfortable bed for a human, but it's perfect for a lizard completely covered in scales of different sizes, and the only thing that bothered throughout my slumber was the itchy wounds on the left side of my neck. On the other hand, Scales that harden and thicken with age, decrease what little senses transmit into this Dragon body and only small ones in intricate places maintain a pseudo sense of touch for now while the toes in the paws are too rough to feel delicate things such as human skin.

This uneven bed of mine has helped me practice the accuracy of my tail by cutting wood during dull days where magic ran out and was too lazy to gather more, or no luck finding prey in the forest. I think back to the unsuccessful hunting days that provided free time to train my body.

I'm itching to practice flying, but there isn't a good cliff around here to train my wings, and my best options are the wall that allows for a short glide or the spots in the forest which gets me tangled up in comical ways. I don't want to climb a mountain for two hours, just to glide down for a few seconds, but there isn't such convenient place around. I grumble at the geographic problem despite having the free time to employ. My siblings who are older than me didn't fly, but I don't want to wait patiently until our bodies tell us it's time to take off and prefer to take a shortcut instead by practicing. I recalled how my wings grew after birth and took some time to catch up to the body's growth.

"GHUAAaa..." I stretched my body until it hurt making logs roll down then pile before jumping below with a thud sound as my paws sank into the ground a little.

From a clear and quiet day that was yesterday's afternoon, I woke up to a slightly cloudy and noisy day with running maids... Today the estate is a little more lively than usual because it's payday... Lester is probably collecting taxes from the season in town. I scratched around the wound on my neck that still hurts, then turned to look up at the window of Shaila's room on the third floor.

Hmm, Shaila is not stalking me-- I mean watching me sleep from the glass window in her room, but I can't complain when it's highly possible that I saw her whole life like a slideshow which I have yet to tell her about, albeit blurry... Best not to say anything yet, that will make her sad, and she doesn't know Lester told me what happened already, but I don't like to lie more than necessary, so I'll wait for a few more days before telling her everything. Also, with all the knowledge I taught her from my previous world, it would be strange not to ask, yet she doesn't inquire anything from my life either, and probably because she thinks I don't know her secret. It's like we are respecting each other privacy--not really since I always invade her body, but it's creating a barrier in the mind instead... as if we don't want to burden one another with our respective secrets... I decide the countdown to reveal all secrets about me besides the vague thing of being an otherworlder.

I walk with light steps towards the kitchen door and imitate a guard's knock tapping lightly with a claw then fully open my jaws at a person's height.

"EEEK!!" Hilda opened the door as predicted and shrieked after watching my maw full of teeth longer than her fingers, and dripping drool then slammed it back shut.

"Stop tormenting Hilda!" Meruna's angry voice scolded while appearing through the door.

"Meruna..." My voice sounds from a bracelet behind as I confront the red-haired chef crossing her arms with narrowed eyes. "It's hard to resist teasing Hilda when she has such cute reactions!" I declared making the person in front of my snout sigh, then complained to the owner of the misbehaving pet.

"Hey, Nefi." Waved Shaila eating some bread and milk at the kitchen table on the right.

"Hey, sweet thing~ Can I have some?" I plead through her bracelet while moving my head inside the kitchen now that the chef is out of the way.

"Meruna says Hilda doesn't find you cute and not to do it again for a while." Shaila resumed the contents of their conversation while slipping some hard bread soaked in milk into my mouth.

"I didn't say for a while!" Retorted the fiery hair woman before going to look for the scared maid assistant inside the rest of the house.

"What was that? I heard a Monster calling someone 'cute.'" Liana appeared through another door wearing a white dress, and reclines on the frame, making a pose with a hand on the hip which emphasized her figure.

"Hmph! You can't fool my nose... Eavesdropping conversations, indecent acts in the woods, but now also collecting whips and other toys for kinky play...there are all kinds of monsters. I feel sorry for the first victim after reaching your abstinence limit and try out all those little toys you have been collecting..." I squint my eyes at the blond woman holding a different whip.

"Geh!!... I was... buying stuff today, but you are one to talk when you are a true monster! Enjoys scaring defenseless maids, sniffing people all the time, having a little girl all over his body, and now enslaving his own sister for who knows what wicked plans...a monster I say!" She argued back while Shaila from the side switches her gaze between us.

"Uh-huh... what's wrong with being a monster? I'll have you know that I enjoy being myself very much, and I'm true to my nature, but you are a monster in human skin as far as I'm concerned." I proudly declared while nodding slightly.

"Umm... Sounds like you both enjoy your own things..." Shaila interjected.

"A-anyway, Alphonse is coming soon with the collar you asked." Liana stuttered ending the subject after remembering her little sister was present.

"Oh, okay..." I affirmed looking at Shaila's pink nightwear. "Shy, change clothes and let's go for a ride!" I ordered and she bolted to her room before I pulled my head out of the kitchen.

...

A while later Shaila comes with the thick blue pants, and pink t-shirt with sleeves that she uses for riding then walks around to my left side.

"Hows the neck?" She asks doing hand signals to lower my head.

"Ugh. Painful and incredibly itchy... I think I'm feeling the skin and muscles grow while nerves reconnect." I inform the little doctor.

I start feeling her fingers on the exposed flesh around the puncture wounds on my neck where the scales are missing.

"Mm-hmm... wounds seem much better today, the flesh is growing well and my hand doesn't fit inside anymore..." The little girl stares into my left eye and nodded before describing it. "it looked that bad, you know?" She scolded.

"...Yeah. I know how much you like to get on top of my head even though it's really shaky but... ride on my back until my neck heals, okay?" I instructed.

She nodded before going under my body to climb from the right shoulder and gets on between my left wing and the spikes across my back that are about the size human finger in length which can ruin a person's day. Since turning my neck would be painful, I use my Magic to sense the position of the white haired girl sitting cross legged while holding onto my hairs and wing as I walk to the alleyway next to the kitchen before making it through the gate to the courtyard.

She loves pulling those hairs, but I don't dislike it since they are more sensitive than the rest of my body and with my other senses are so attenuated, I even start to appreciate pain a little. Well, my current magic control allows me to move them around a little by enhancing the nerves with electricity which I use to tickle her sometimes... I sense the wires in question rustle with each step.

Growing between small scales from the top of my head, neck then along the spine until the tip of my tail are round fibers with decreasing sections like that of joints from fingers and smooth texture of a flexible, but sturdy material similar to the scales.

They aren't quite like hairs when their size or length is not uniform in any part of my body, and right now the biggest ones in my head are about a pencil's width at the base with a length of around a foot, but their growth depends on my body, just like the scales. I recollect the structure that grows out of my skin while increasing the thickness at the base similar to the scale growth.

"How nostalgic..." Shaila commented from my back, making me stop in front of the stables. "It's been only a quarter season, but our meeting feels so nostalgic as if happened a long time ago, and... the Stables have been empty since you ate all the horses, hehe." She stated before chuckling.

"You always gave me a nostalgic feeling though" I recall the memories related to the reason. "Also, for the record, they didn't taste that good, but it was a waste to let them rot just because none of you wanted to eat the meat, and the guards complained a LOT about walking to town that I had to give them some games to play as peace offerings..." I remember the typical game of checkers and cards given to the lazy guards.

It's just a thirty-minute walk.... Then again that's a lot since the day only has like 16 hours, but having people grumbling while looking at me from afar was too annoying, especially after learning the language from Shy, and they didn't like cards because it contained nobility figures. I think back wondering about the game rankings that appeared in the barracks while lamenting the fact a Dragon is unable to play standard size sets.

"Yes. I remember... and you don't want me to play those games...is it because I can't play with you?" The little girl accused.

"You can afford distractions once you reach certain strength or stable lifestyle which neither of us can manage right now," I stated. "Don't worry; the storm will pass, and we'll have a lot of fun, but right now focus on getting to Rank 7 no matter what." I comforted then continued my march towards the iron gates. "Speaking of progress... how are the studies going?" I inquired my passenger.

"I'm doing pretty good. My Dragon teacher explains anything I don't understand at any time of the day he's around and won't get grumpy if I scratch his snout on sensitive parts after waking him up, hehe." The little girl giggled lying face down on the scaly back as we approach the exit. "However, after buying paper along with ink several times and you not saying things orderly, there's so much information to sort through that scares me. Ugh, my room resembles that of a crazy person with paper everywhere and the stacks of information I need to memorize before understanding only increase since you keep remembering things." She sighed turning over in my back again.

"Sounds rough. Now imagine doing that with claws." I stop my march then signal the guards standing on the sides to unlock and open them.

I stuck a fountain pen which they use here on a claw using ice, but with a body this big, just the beating heart shakes my body enough to write like a toddler. And when playing with Shaila, I have to be careful with the pressure on my claws since it could easily rip her delicate skin because of the lack of touch and even the rough toes can make her uncomfortable. I recall doing delicate operations with claws while the gates open and we go through.

"Agh! I know you can't help..." Shaila admits as we walk for some distance on the road before speaking again. "Sister is too lazy, while Brother and Alphonse are too busy to help, but I know we can't find anyone else. If people knew the worth of all those papers... I don't even take my eyes off the maid when she cleans just as you instructed not to take any risks." She summarizes the efforts of doing everything by herself.

After walking a block away from the estate, I sit down across the compressed earth road to block the sun for Shaila on my back while staring at the volcano to the Northeast.

Although our Souls become stronger with Rank which can help us memorize things, a computer would be useful until we can become one since we still have knowledge that we must acquire and paper is too inefficient. I realize that a Dragon taking notes would be a huge problem and have to rely entirely on memorizing. Not to mention there's still so much I don't know about this world that feels as if I'm walking in the dark without seeing anything and it's imperative to at least see one's own path, but what place is ideal for gathering more data? I consider searching for a source of information.

Let's see... the higher courses at the magic academy would be difficult for a Magic Beast, the Royal library will require extreme permissions, and buying information at the Guild would attract unwanted attention since it will reveal what I know to other parties. I recall stories where this cliche development happens. The information broker takes notice of someone buying info and investigates where it leads, then sells it to other people that might get interested in seeing the results of a particular research or simply to milk knowledge of whoever is capable of using said data. It is only logical for information to be restricted in a world where knowledge IS power, and not politicians or lucky idiots with cheats. Though there might be good people out there interested in exchanging their findings... it's a shame, we can't take those risks, and I hate being at the mercy of others if they are stronger than me. I dismiss the idea of contacting the Divine Goldias of this kingdom in exchange for information and resources.

"Say, do you think I can enroll in the magic academy?" I ask the girl in the in the shade of my neck covering the rising sun from the East.

"Pffft! A Dragon taking notes at a school? Haha...a Dragon teacher would fit you better since no student would slack off in class." Shaila gets into a laughing fit while hitting my back with her hand... then turns serious. "With enough money, you could buy the Headmaster to enroll, but I don't recommend going to a place where teachers tell you how it feels to use their magic and kids harass you for fun." She gloomily explains, perhaps recalling her bad experience.

"Humans are good at many things, but cruelty and irrationality always follow in their wake, especially young ones at school who are hardly aware how much they actually hurt others...no different from monsters I'd say. Well, I doubt bullies would poke fun at a Dragon who can eat four or five kids, no... maybe less if they are fat noble kids with an ego that will give me indigestion. Nevertheless, it should be safer at school, or is there a reason you don't want to revisit...?" I touch the delicate subject.

"Un... Girls envied the attention I got from the boys proposing to me on behalf of their families while teachers 'advised' me who to chose, depending on who paid them more..." The little girl narrates old frustrations in a low voice. "Sighs, I just found all of that extremely irritating since it interfered with my studies and I was too young to have any feelings for anyone, though in most countries nobles find it convenient for various reasons to get engaged from an early age." She described the life of nobles with a fed up voice.

"Oh? Are you old enough to have feelings now?" I inquire curiously.

"I-I don't know." She stuttered facing the sky that is clearing up with the passage of morning.

"Well, you are a human... for now anyway." I conceded at the fact. "But it's best not to have feelings of love unless it's love for Magic Arts since it just complicates things..." I advised moving the tail in the grass from the other side of the road.

!!...Mmm? I hear a faint noise, and my ears flicker around to identify the source. Horses are galloping here in a hurry... Alphonse is supposed to come alone after getting the collar and Lester should be in town for a while longer with some guards, but it pays to be cautious when it comes to people. I get up before informing Shaila.

"Shaila, inspect that group of people approaching from town," I instructed the little girl getting up to sit on my scaly back.