Early Afternoon - Early Summer : Bahamut Estate

-

"Uuugh..." Waking up with a good stretch, I was immediately met with Ilios licking my face.

*lick-lick-lick-lick*

"Haha, good morning, Ilios."

It had been about four days since we first got here, but while napping wasn’t my best use of time, I couldn’t deny that it was relaxing. -I should probably do something productive today though…-

Quickly letting out another yawn and having another stretch, I slowly stood up and looked toward the door. -I wonder if the floors are strengthened yet… I guess I’ll find out in a second…- "Come on, Ilios, let’s check on things outside.

Quickly motioning him along, I walked over to the large door and opened the mana lock. *Click-fwooosh*

Air rushed into the hallway, and the doors swung open the instant the lock was undone, causing several nearby maids to jolt slightly.

"Sorry about that." Carefully walking out into the hall, I took a few light steps and noticed the floor didn’t break. -Oh they did strengthen it!- I was a bit surprised, but I wasn’t complaining. "Miss, do you know where my mother's office is?"

The maid I spoke to stared for a moment before giving a polite bow. "It is in the hallway across the main hall. The second door on your left, my lord."

-Second on my left…- "Alright, thanks."

Quickly making my way down the hallway, I came into the main hall and immediately noticed that everything was repaired except for a few areas around the main door that still had two dragons using earth magic to cut and lay stones. -Damn, they’re fast…-

But after observing them for a moment, I moved on into the other hallway and found my way to a large door with a familiar white dragon insignia on it. -This should be it.

*Click* Not feeling any aura other than hers, I opened the mana lock without thinking of knocking.

"Hm? Who is i-"

"Good morning!" Immediately walking in, I came into a room much larger than my bedroom, with innumerable books, papers, artifacts, and treasures all neatly organized around the room. -Woah…-

"Oh, good afternoon, sweetie!" She immediately turned away from the wall of books she was scanning through to give me a warm hug. "How was your nap?"

"Incredible." Idly thinking back to it, I wanted to go take a nap again. "I made a cushion that is simply heavenly."

"Hoh? You’ll have to make me one sometime."

"Haha, alright. In any case, how is your work coming along?" Idly looking over at a human-sized desk, I noticed several large stacks of papers.

"It’s not too bad. Thankfully, most of my paperwork got handled by Mother while I wasn’t here in Bahamut, so most of what is left is not too urgent."

Noticing how stressed she looked, I thought of an idea. "Why don’t you take a break tonight, so we can do a science lesson? We should figure out our new schedule for that."

"Haha, we do indeed." She paused and gave me a warm look before continuing. "How about we have our lessons out back every other night. Although it won’t be as relaxing as the mountain top, the field is quite big, so we should be able to play around with spells somewhat normally."

"Alright, that works for me!" I got a bit excited hearing we were going to start back up our routine.

"I will tell Krystallo whenever she wakes up." She glanced at the door before turning away. "I’ve never seen her sleep so well, so I don’t want to wake her up."

"Haha, I think that's for the best." Seeing her slowly walk back toward the wall of books and papers, a stray thought crossed my mind. "So where is Father? I haven’t sensed his aura at all since I woke up."

"Ah, he, uh.. left this morning to inform the Elders of our arrival…" She cringed slightly as she spoke.

"You don’t seem too excited about that…" -Is that such a bad thing?-

"I have never liked most of them, but Eugene in particular has an.. extreme.. hate for halfies which has me worried."

"What do you mean?" -Is she worried about him thinking I’m a halfie?-

"Haah… Well.. most dragons don't like halfies because they are weak or considered inferior and nothing more than smudges on pure dragons’ reputations, but not all halfies are judged so harshly. There have been many times in history where half-breeds have made great contributions to the dragon race and were exalted just as much as pure dragons, but.. Eugene isn’t so flexible." Her mood darkened the moment she finished.

-What?- "Why does Eugene have such a vendetta against half-breeds?"

"It has something to do with the death of his parents and siblings. They were all killed when he was young."

"And the killer was a half-breed?"

"Actually we don’t know. They were never caught…" She paused for a moment before walking back over to her desk. "It doesn’t really matter though… Ever since he gained power in the Elder Hall, a dark side to Bahamut formed, one with an extreme hate for halfies."

"And the rebellion just fueled the fire…"

"Incredibly so… I'm just worried if he meets you.. he might not care that it was an artifact that changed your appearance…"

Seeing her worry, I tried to comfort her. "But I'm not weak, is there really a need to be so worried?"

She paused and gave me an anxious look before letting out a sigh. "Haah… Sweetie, your strength can only close a gap in size and age so wide… For now, let’s just hope your father can delay them for a while…"

The worried look in her eyes immediately made my chest tense up. -I guess I do.. still need to get stronger…- I wanted to put on a childish act to try and cheer her up, but for some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. "I have a few new cards up my sleeve. I’m quite confident I can at least handle Elders…"

"Haah… You will understand in time.. just promise me this…" Her expression turned stoic and serious in an instant. "Never show your humanoid form to visitors. Never."

It made me shrivel up almost immediately. "A..alright…"

"Hooh..." She let out a deep breath before turning away. "I don’t like being so strict, but.. it's better I cannot take such a risk… No matter how unlikely…"

-Ah… That's what she means…- Feeling like I should leave things there, I watched her pull several books off her shelves and decided to finally let her get back to her work. "Alright, well, I'll be in the backyard. I plan on using some magic I can't use indoors so…"

"Alright, well, be safe. I hope you aren’t upset with me…"

"N-no, not at all… I.. know where you’re coming from…" I lowered my gaze as I spoke.

"Well, there is no reason for it to weigh you down, right?" *tap* Feeling her set her paw on my head, I looked up to see her wearing a warm smile. "I'll be out at sunset, so be careful not to destroy too much."

Her smile immediately cheered me up. "Haha, alright." A warm smile quickly came to my face as I finally turned to walk out of the room. "I'll be sure to prepare something interesting for our lesson."

"Haha, I look forward to it."

*Click* But although I wore a warm smile when I left her office, it quickly started to shift. -How much stronger do I need to get for her to feel comfortable..-

Not wasting any more time, I made my way down the halls and out the back of the house.

"Haah.. alright." -Time to get off my lazy ass and be productive... I guess I'll start by figuring out how those void gate things work...-

-

- Chloe ~

"Chloe!"

Hearing my administrator call my name, I quickly made my way across the room. "Yes?"

"Vasilias woke up and left his room, what are you doing?" The agitation in her voice was easily apparent.

"Galen asked me to fill out a few contracts to change my position, so I have been doing those."

"Your Vasilias's personal maid now, and you haven't even seen him awake since he arrived. Don't you think that now he is awake, you should do your job?"

"Ah, yes Ma'am! I'm sorry, I'll get right to it." Quickly realizing my negligence, I quickly set down the papers I was working on and turned to head out the door. I only made it about three steps though. "Wait, where is he?"

"Haah, he just left the Missus' office; he looked to be heading out back, towards the garden."

-Does he like flowers?- Quickly shaking the wild thought off my mind I turned and gave a shallow bow. "Okay, I'm sorry again!"

*Click* Quickly making my way out of the break room and into the hall, I immediately kicked myself. -I really hope he doesn’t think poorly of me because I'm so late... It's been 3 days, and he still hasn't even seen me!-

*tap-tap-tap* *click* Finally making my way outside through the maids' entrance, I quickly scanned the garden but didn’t see anyone other than the gardeners. -Where is he?-

After several minutes of looking though, I found a trail of deep footprints leading out into the field, but they simply ended abruptly with the Fenrir, Ilios, laying nearby.

-Did he fly off somewhere?-

*Vwowowooom*

Interrupting my thoughts, an incredibly unfamiliar noise filled the air, and a huge black sphere appeared just above the ground.

"Ah, so that's how it works… How fascinating.."

As the black bubble dissipated, I saw Vasilias appear, casually sitting at the end of the trail of footsteps as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

It was a scene that would set the precedent for what I would come to find normal.

But at that moment, I felt a sense of confusion so deep you wouldn’t believe it was possible. -W..wh..what?-