A Dragon’s Curiosity

 

 

Musing over the guesses by the old priestess, Nisha played absentmindedly with the cup in her hands.

Since nothing was happening right now, Little Lia got up from the shadow of the pavilion and rubbed against the bark of the only tree in the yard behind the church.

The [Storm Trail Dragon Wolf] lacked the special senses of her master, yet the tree withstood the rubbing without even a leaf falling from the foliage no matter how hard the familiar scrubbed her back.

It was obviously a high ranked plant, a precious regrowing material, but it just grew there without any guard or protection.

As long as the church did not care about it, the wolf had no problem with putting it to good use and scratching that itch she just could not reach with her paws.

“Would the parents not retaliate if their children don’t come back from the [Royal Academy]?

I couldn’t even imagine what I would do if Henry never came home again …”

The elf only briefly imagined that scenario, yet it felt like a hand tightly clenched her heart and nearly squeezed it apart.

And some parents were bound to feel a hundred times worse soon, once they got the notification that their children met with a fatal accident.

Without her notice, a tear ran down from the corner of the dragon’s eye on behalf of their grief.

Those tiny gestures did not escape Miss Thana, who had several dozens of turns experience as a priestess in picking up the emotions and worries of her wards.

While the aged priestess did not peg herself as a saint, she had long since developed her own views towards birth and passing, especially in the Hall of Life and Death.

She shared the woe and sorrow when a cherished family member of a believer started their next journey in the next world and partook in the joy and celebration once a midwife of the church delivered another new life to take its first cry in this world.

If the clergy of the [Seven Stars Church] cannot manage their own emotions and mental burden, they would leave the Halls sooner rather than later.

“It’s a great shock no matter who loses a loved one.

Many turn the boundless sadness into anger and rage against an unfair world that took their family member, so it is expected that they lash out.

Of course, some might not dare to challenge the prestige of the royal family behind the academy, taking it out on others instead.

As long as they don’t step over the line, the academy won’t retaliate either.”

 

Swirling the tea in her cup, Miss Thana collected her thoughts on those foolish daredevils who thought themselves above everyone else and damned the consequences.

Naturally, they were lost to the sands of time, whereas the royal family and academy still stood strong.

“We, the church, try to mediate and help them deal with their emotions.

Some are comforted by the idea that life is chaotic and anyone can die at any time.

Choking on a bite of food, a falling stone from a neglected building, tripping on the stairs, you would not believe how many accidents happen every day.

Part of them are just scares, while others are gone just like that.

On top of that, the instructors provide security to the greatest extent of their ability.

By giving them guidance and practical experience, far less young students lose their lives compared to their chances if they flounder into the Wilderness on their own.

Although the grieving guardians might lash out, even the worst wounds in our hearts lessen with time.”

The priestess was not only informing the elf, she also subtly guided her thoughts into a better direction.

Miss Thana picked up on the girl’s distress and her emotional entanglement over the thought of strangers, hence she laid the reasons out for her.

Nisha brooded for quite a while, trying to get her feelings out of the way and settling her own mind.

Perhaps she really reacted sensitively in regards to death, the passing of her beloved grandfather left a large trauma behind.

Her heart clenched and her stomach dropped like a bottomless pit at the thought of her fellow students disappearing from the academy.

If she replaced the faces of the students with members of her family, the pain would be worse a thousandfold and the elf might not be able to deal with it if something really happened.

Nevertheless, Miss Thana’s words also guided her thoughts onto a new path.

As long as she cherished her loved ones and worked hard to improve herself to avoid an early demise, Nisha controlled everything in her reach, and that’s everything she could do.

 

“It’s impossible to go against the natural order of life, but we can guard against accidents and unexpected disasters.

As long as you strive to improve yourself, you will have more options and some paths that were not available before come into sight.”

Miss Thana more or less finished her analysis of the situation of the Warrior Trip, without more accurate information or inside intel, that’s the most she can guess.

Of course, the Hall of Life and Death has their own information network in the city, it’s certainly possible to figure out the ins and outs of the incident, yet the event was not worth the effort as it did not relate to the church.

Perhaps the old priestess would let them look into it as a favour for the elf, but it is certainly unnecessary and the girl did not ask.

Since it happened during the trip, the academy will address the problem on their own, or the more powerful families might bring their influence to bear.

“Is there really nothing that can go against the law of life and death? It’s really too harsh sometimes.”

In her heart, Nisha felt bittersweet. Even if life and death are preordained, there should be another way for those determined to defy fate.

She knew it secretly in her heart, the world ran according to a set of laws, not according to her wishes.

The dragon would offer her own lifespan in a heartbeat if it could have saved her late grandfather, but everyone had to die eventually.

Cultivation helped by elevating one's own existence on a higher level, granting a respite from the coming end, but most people eventually stalled long enough on a certain rank and ran out of life.

Even the law of the jungle in the Wilderness has merely taken the same principle to an extreme, although it was more humane in a way.

Whether one was prey or the hunter depended entirely on individual effort, giving equal opportunities to everyone.

Plenty of monsters with lower quality bloodlines broke through their bloodline shackles and dominated an area of their own every so often; the human social hierarchy seldom allowed common citizens to rise above.

“Well, it’s not impossible, not also not very feasible.

What do you know about healing spells?”

 

Theoretically, it is not suitable for the old priestess to introduce those things to the girl right after guiding her towards developing her own point of view regarding life and death, but it‘s even worse to conceal them and upset the elf when she discovers them on her own.

Furthermore, it might not be a bad thing to put them as diametrically opposing theories and let Nisha decide for herself.

Healing spells and similar magic has always been the domain of the church, each Hall developed their own set of specialities.

Some lesser spells always show up among adventurers, yet the [Seven Stars Church] has the most comprehensive system, including a complete teaching method for new acolytes.

“I do know a little bit, but it’s not very impressive.”

As a close combat fighter, the dragon rampaged through the Wilderness together with her siblings to carve out a space of their own, where they had to rely on the toughness of their scales and flesh and the impressive self regeneration capability of dragon blood to recuperate after tough confrontations.

After taking on the form of a humanoid, Nisha grasped a small healing skill, albeit it worked in a small way.

Dragging the nail of her thumb across the back of her other hand, a small red line squeezed out a single drop of blood.

It was neither an injury nor not really one either, but quite sufficient to demonstrate her purpose.

Conjuring a mass of shadows as big as the tip of her index and middle finger, the darkness assimilated the damage on the back of her hand as the elf used to skill to treat herself.

Once the dark light passed the red spot, the damage ceased to exist and even the drop of blood returned inside the unblemished skin.

 

“Ho, what a surprising sight. Impressive.”

Faced with Miss Thana’s honest praise, Nisha blushes thanks to abashment.

In her eyes, it’s not a big deal to be able to do this much.

“It’s not that impressive. The skill can only affect small areas and is useless on wounds that are bigger than the dark area, it will fail to do anything then.

So it’s mostly useful to take care of small injuries and it takes a lot of aura too, so it’s not very convenient.”

In regards to her own capability, the dragon has long since learned to stay humble and not overestimate herself or rest on her laurels.

The current [Dragon’s Den] only came to be after a lot of effort and the protection of other areas close by, or the dragon siblings would have had to roam the Wilderness for a long period of time until they grew strong enough to dominate an area of their own.

At present, the allies like the Harpy Queen and Fairy Matriarch are still stronger than Little Stream, Little Breeze and Little Terra, yet they respect the future prospects of the dragons and their bloodline, hence they offer an alliance as protection.

“No, it doesn't matter how effective it is. I’m rather surprised at your choice of elements.”

Changing some of the topics she intended to bring up first, the old priestess realizes that she still underestimated the girl.

“When someone mentions healing spells, most people tend to think about the life, light or sometimes the water attribute.

It’s not impossible to think of others, but the death and darkness categories have the least amount of benign skills and spells, so it is indeed impressive that you managed to construct one of your own.

How do you think spells come to be?”

 

For most people, a simple explanation is enough and they do not need to know the exact workings behind everything.

Nevertheless, Nisha is quite pleasing to the eyes of the old priestess, so she doesn't mind spending the extra effort to teach her a bit.

Sometimes it is really as simple as that, not even the member of the Hall of Life and Death can experience such great care, but the elf does not need to spend extra effort to get a precious lesson.

“I learnt a little about this before. Spells are the expression of effort and ideas by giving them a tangible form.

With a proper image, the mana follows the will of the caster and takes on the desired form given that enough willpower is imposed on it.”

Nisha has created her own spell before.

Around her neck, several simple silver chains dangle together, making it hard to see the objects strung on them clearly.

One of them is the ring that symbolizes her status as a possible successor of the Duke title, while another has a coin threaded on it.

When the elf had still been living together with the twins and her grandfather in the Royal Hunting Grounds, she created her own spell before, a variation of flickering light based on the fire element.

While it is only a minor trick and hardly a spell between the first and second rank, it was quite useful to deal with monsters in the Dungeon, who have trouble clearly following the dragon’s moves with a sword when it blinks back and forth under the flickering effect.

So while she is not quite an expert, Nisha does have an idea how spells work.

“That’s not a bad take, though it’s also not completely correct.

It’s a working solution, and there’s many theories regarding the topic of spellcraft.

For practical purposes, I won’t delve into them now, but you can take a look when you have time to broaden your horizons.

Sharpening the axe won’t delay making the firewood, knowing more allows you to do more.”