-First day of Winter. Morning. Nefiru's POV-

The blue sky slowly reveals behind the thin clouds as the sun rises past the first quarter morning and evaporate the deposited dew on the grass that starts to make rustling sounds with the soft breeze blowing from the East which marks the start of winter season.

The image was too blurry for my eyes with the sun heating up the pavement, but Shaila concentrated light like a telescope and observed the horses with enough magnification to identify them as our guards that were just excited to have horses again. We moved to the left side of the road while Shaila lies out of sight on my back covering her body with the folded right wing as we wait for Alphonse who is carrying a large black collar with the help of two horses in the back of the group that becomes louder as they approach.

I was excited too when I got my first bicycle, but it got stolen the next day... I briefly recall the disappointment wondering if somebody made similar vehicles in this world. Though bikes would cost less than horses and require less maintenance, guards riding in plate armors would certainly look weird and chasing people on them even more so. I picture the funny scene of fully armed soldiers chasing law breakers.

But, a telescope huh? A light magician can simulate a telescope with sufficient control but requires multitasking that not many would find worth the view. I'm envious of her who can star gaze at night, but she can't adjust the focus points to match my eye while bending the light like a lens and there's a limit for controlling the delicate operation at her current Rank. For now, she can magnify the image a few times before it becomes too distorted, and even bend colors from infrared to waves below ultraviolet, but can't concentrate for prolonged observations on the stars. However, with higher ranks, she should be able to project what she sees and perhaps even surpass the magnification of the Hubble telescope, but that ability will be combat oriented or used to spy on me. I desire her ability to do these things which make me want to train light all the more.

...

The guards slowed down their race after seeing my perked appearance while slowly swaying my tail behind as if ready to pounce, and moments later, they finally reached us. I wait until they pass, then walk behind them and next to Alphonse until we reach the gate.

"So... you got another ten horses," I affirm in front of the gates. "Can I eat--" I request before getting interrupted.

"Don't even think about it!" Alphonse shut down my idea of tasting the new horses. "They were at three times the price because of the war, and I had to use them to carry this thing which I'm gonna need you to take now..." He informed lowering the black wheel to the ground.

Hmm, though there are a lot of things around working with mana like fridges, fans, and these collars, when Tinkers come up with Magic Vehicles, horses will become obsolete just like in my world. Not sure about flying mounts though... I wonder what will become of flying animals during air traffic in a modern world.

"You are lucky Sir Lester stayed behind at the guild to hire Earth magicians, or he would have lectured you both for taking the little miss outside the estate." The black haired man announced unlocking the new collar while I lower my body to the ground.

He opens the black wheel in half and put it on my neck behind the collar I'm already wearing then locks it again.

Nasty collars... No wonder it was so hard to open, there are locks inside that open with magic and another one outside. I realize feeling the increased weight on my body.

"When do the construction workers arrive?" I inquired to adjust my schedule.

"Probably in a few days after they are done with their current job." He estimates.

"Alright, Shaila. Ride's over, so I'm dumping you." I declared shaking my body.

"Agh! I want to go too! I haven't even met your family..." Shaila protested gripping strongly.

"Not yet." I rebuked. "Learn 'that' and I'll take you everywhere you want." I offer a deal while Alphonse helps her down.

"Projection and camouflage? Soon... I'm making good progress on that." She informed before running into the gates.

"That was easy...I thought she'd argued like kids her age." Alphonse commented scratching the back of his head. "You sure have her domesticated her, but then again you also do everything she says... even licking yourself--" He mocked watching the gates close.

"Let us go then!" I interrupted further tease while recalling one of Shaila's punishments.

"Ah! Don't escape!" Alphonse yelled from behind as I make my way around the estate from the right side.

...

The darkness user runs after me and catches up halfway to the forest.

"Can I ride you? It's a long way there..." The black haired person pleaded walking on my right.

"No means no. Only Shaila can ride me." I declared pacing through the tall grass.

"So prideful even after having your privates checked by a healer..." He shrugs at the edge of my vision.

"Of course you know that..." I snorted shaking my head. "Can you bring me that healer or tell me where he is?" I inquire turning to look at him.

"Impossible, unless you want ashes." The man denied struggling to keep up in the grass. "That pompous healer was disposed of to keep your existence a secret, though some people are unreachable while others would require mobilizing a spy unit, the ones eliminated should decrease the possibilities of a leak considerably." He revealed.

"Shame... I wanted to eat him..." I mentioned licking my lips. "What about the pink haired woman at the guild and the tamer?" I inquire on their whereabouts.

"The pink haired woman would cause trouble if she died, and the Tamer disappeared. I think he was the only one who realized what kind of Dragon they were trying to tame and left town in a hurry, but finding him would be difficult since there are no records of his birthplace or where he came from." The former assassin reports.

"Sighs..." I exhaled loudly leaving the grass plains and entering the forest. "I don't gain anything from seeking revenge other than to explore the landscape, and I'm too lazy to chase a person that doesn't want to be found, just to feel good about myself, but his actions also tell me not to bother finding him. He didn't leave a message behind after disappearing, tell my secret to a lot of people, or set my collar in high mental suppression instead of high magic suppression, and everything turned out to my benefit in the end, so I don't think it's worth spending resources tracking him." I informed of changing my mind not to pursue revenge.

"Everything turned out okay for you, huh?" Alphonse commented to himself with sarcasm. "However, you have cost me a lot of extra work, and a huge sum of money to Lester, but haven't contributed to anything helpful." He scoffed trying to follow the same path I'm taking through the woods.

"I'm content with what I have, and can say this is happiness, but it feels like something is missing... perhaps I'm supposed to meet someone, or go somewhere..." I speculate from the weird feelings before changing the subject. "Anyway, how much have I cost Lester by now?" I inquired my value recalling how Lucious intent to sell me was for the Ragefire's benefit.

...Lucious wanted to sell me to give the nobles some of the money, yet Lester was buying a pet for Shaila, but it didn't cause significant losses since the Merchant found out and it was the reason they were exchanging money back and forth. I noticed the irony.

"Well... after finding out the money was for his family and haggling over the lizard, Sir Lester still had to give 1650 gold to the Merchant, but you almost cost him all the savings since the original price was close to 3000 gold." He revealed information that would cause Lester to complain while informing.

Uh...1650 gold would be 16 Royal Gold Coins, 2 Platinum with 10 silver because 20 silver equals 1 Platinum, 5 platinum for 1 gold and 100 gold is equivalent to a Royal Gold Coin. But the value of money right now it's around one dollar per silver and since 100 silvers are also 1 gold, then converting all that to dollars, should be 165 000$. However, the guards here earn around 1500 silver which is 15 gold or 75 Platinum per quarter that makes 240gold per year, then I sold for 7 yearly salaries of soldiers... I'm a cheap dragon! I think back to the currency explanation after asking too many times for a door in the backyard.

"Too cheap!" I complained about my own price.

"Oh, really?" Alphonse exclaims sarcastically as if I said something dumb. "There was guild services adding to 1 Royal Gold Coin in bribe, significant amounts of plain-dragons meat, replacements for the ripped expensive clothes of the little miss which is all in golds, but now 6 Royals in horses and 6 more for the new collar. So, I would say over 30 Royal Gold Coins in a quarter, but the income in the house is not that stable you know? Usually between 20 to 35 Royal Gold Coins, but there are years where it's barely enough to pay the guards and money value changes with the season, during strifes or famine and right now there is an invasion going on which is why the horses were so expensive." He clarifies the money situation.

Well, currency is made by people here, or rather magicians, but I wonder why they don't use paper or if credit cards also exist here. I call to mind the method of making currency in most places of this world.

There are no copper coins since it would be easy to counterfeit by low Ranking Earth magicians who manipulate and create metals despite the Mana consumption increasing with the atomic number in the periodic table. However, metal manipulation allows creating Coins with intricate designs with more than one metal incorporated, but most have titanium inside and a square hole for light weight.

The Royal Gold Coins Lester showed me before are made by the Divine or his Disciple which are twice as big as American quarters, with different types of gold alloys and have the detailed the map of the circular Capital inscribed on it which is very hard to counterfeit. There are other things named Royal Gold Badge for the sky cavalry, or Royal Silver Badge for special traders which are the same size as Royal Gold Coins, but the rest of the money seems perforated to save material and easy to carry since the coins are like Earth's currency.

I would go for millions on Earth though, and this Alphonse makes way more than my salary in the previous life! I grumbled as we approach the temporary Lair at the foot of the mountain.

"Ugh, I'm just too expensive for this noble family then. But I don't receive anything you know? You earn almost 1 Royal per quarter while I just get hugs and kisses from Princess Peach... I want a raise!" I lament regarding my salary.

"Mm-hmm... I guess that's true." Alphonse admits before pondering on my side. "You have also been hunting your own food lately and help the little miss with her magic while giving us some tips to help us rank up." He recounts the facts nodding.

"Why is this town so backwater despite being on the way to the port city to the southwest?" I inquire concerning the commercial advantage of Sulow town.

"Because the road that goes through the Kerbo's pasture grounds on the south and from West to the Capital in the East is the shortest way. Though the towns on the way are smaller than this one which is why people still visit here, and if the river ever clears up, then life will be restored to these parts. Ah, but if you want to sell yourself, then the capital is the place, especially now with the growing conflict, and you could go for hundreds of Gold Royals." He replied as we reach the sleeping siblings.

"How much did they ask for Shaila?" I asked recalling the ransom asked by bandits.

"...250 Gold Royals in 3 days." Alphonse grimaces watching my siblings perk up.

Da fuck? I don't even want to do the math to compare her with my price... I gloomily change my thoughts arriving at my brother and sister.

After stopping the two Dragons with electrocutions from trying to eat Alphonse again, we finally manage to put the black wheel on the dragoness which thrashed around trying to take off the foreign object stuck on her neck. Eventually, Raiga got tired of biting and hitting trees with the collar and looked at us with hatred, but Brother who didn't understand the situation just observed our interactions from the side.

It's not even active yet... I tilt my head wondering how to proceed then got closer to her.

"HISSS!" Raiga hissed while baring her teeth frightened watching me approach with unknown intentions.

She's so cute! But there is no need to use intimidation since the unknown is more frightening for a young dragoness, so let's make her think the collar helps with magic. I approach to perform a farce, but she steps back avoiding me then I chased.

When Raiga finally let me approach, I raised my left paw and scratched under her jaw until she closed her eyes then backed away before laying down and strongly exhaled which blew the leaves on the ground, seemingly upset.

I lay down next to the big lizard to stare into her eyes, but she turns the head away.

Giving me the silent dragoness treatment!? Well, this is a first... I use my tail to hit her rear and get her attention, but she doesn't face me.

Meanwhile, Reylus saw the opportunity and started chasing Alphonse around a tree.

"Not again!" Alphonse's yell echoed in the forest as he nimbly avoids the incoming jaws.

Lying down next to the dragoness, I initiate play-biting her long ear with my lips then she retaliates snapping back at me, and after biting each other for a while, we ended with our snouts covered in slobber while she stopped being angry. At the price of having bite scratches all over the scales on my head and neck, I got her full attention, then displayed Magic in front of her eyes while touching the collar until the dragoness made the misleading connection of thinking that Magic had something to do with the device.

After that, I stopped Reylus having fun chasing Alphonse and had the darkness user program both of our collars for communication between them with her cooperation, then I worked on sending a phrase to hers.

"CAN YOU HEAR ME!" I increase the strength of my thoughts while realizing that I'll be learning two languages after. Ugh, I never thought I'd find myself on the other side of this frustration... waiting for Raiga to understand then teach her how to operate the collar to answer. Though I did take a few minutes to learn, I was also cautious about the signals impacting my brain, but the siblings can't resist that influence, so on that aspect, I should make more progress and apparently speaking from collar to collar is better than with a bracelet. I recognize the function that facilitates better teaching with collars translating better meanings than their imperfect dragon language.

...

Meanwhile on East side of the Northern mountain range in the Aurum Kingdom. Silverstein family.

Houron's PVO.

A few knocks on large white doors on the left calls my attention before the voice of the Guard Captain, Lankis is heard on the other side.

"Sir! A report arrived via wind birds from the spies--" The Captain is interrupted mid-sentence by an order from my son Nagai, sitting on his desk to my right.

"GET IN ALREADY!" Ordered with a firm tone the 24-year-old boy, with brown hair and eyes.

"By your command." The Captain confirmed before opening the doors.

The blond haired guard in silver armor follows the order to enter the study and salutes before closing the doors behind, then walked to the desk to hand over Nagai a small tube containing a message.

"This better not be another report of dead spies..." Nagai muttered narrowing his eyes while opening the container. "LEAVE US!" Nagai commanded the guard who bowed to us and turned back to leave the room.

Lankis exits the study and closes the doors again before the sound of footsteps is heard walking down the hallway.

"...We have visual confirmation of the young pet Dragon that might have rampaged in the Ragefire state after they bought it and now awakened water affinity judging by the blue color. They are hiring Earth magicians to repair the damage and possibly to construct an animal pen for it. The target was also seen riding the beast recently." He reads the spy report out loud. "Haha hiring Earth magicians...this the opportunity we've been waiting for the past year!" Nagai laughs after reading the message.

Getting a pet dragon of all things... are they crazy? Faust probably even helped it awaken by wasting mana crystals on the beast, but what if an accident occurs and she dies? That would be a terrible waste after spending so much money and effort trying to acquire her without leaving traces behind us... I rebuked the actions to get such a large pet for a frail little girl.

"Indeed." I nodded while pondering on the red sofa for guests.

Hmph! The other Noble houses don't want to use forceful methods to procure Shaila just because she learned magic from a young age and is only a low-rank light magician now, but they don't know or wonder why she was capable of that. I recall the piece of information procured from the database at Tinker headquarters in Telum continent after Kairuon mentioning the talented girl at his school. Almost everyone in this world is aware of the three Affinity Talents being Low, Medium and High judging by visible features like hair or eyes, but not many know there is actually a fourth level of Talent that doesn't manifest easily on the outside and is very rare... I picture the image of the white-haired treasure that only I know about in the Kingdom.