Chapter 16: Growth
“It’s really a misunderstanding, Mr. Fisher. Since it’s a matter between you and the slave, there’s no problem. You may leave now.”
The soldier, looking kind and gentle, smiled at Fisher and cleared a path out of the prison.
Fisher, covered in mud from his black suit, adjusted his clothing and then looked back at Raphael and the Slave Trader.
Previously, they had been caught by the soldiers of Kekken City due to the fight with Raphael on the street, but after understanding the situation, the soldiers graciously let them go.
Well, actually, it was because Kekken had heard about it and hurried over; it was easy for him to let one or two people go since the city was his.
This made Fisher, who disliked owing others a favor, feel somewhat unnatural. After all, he had troubled others all day today, and he had made someone run back for such a trivial matter in the afternoon—this was not the behavior of a gentleman.
“Thank you, Kekken.”
“Not at all; I have nothing to offer you here. It’s fortunate that I could help a little. By the way, you wanted to buy that Dragon Race slave, right? Although he has promised to give you that slave for free, it’s still not very proper. I’ve already paid for you; you can just take the slave with you.”
“…”
Fisher opened his mouth, smiled at him, and temporarily suppressed the thought of offsetting this favor. Since someone was sincere, he would do his best to help if needed afterward.
Thinking of this, Fisher no longer insisted. He merely bid farewell to Kekken, waved to him smilingly from the carriage, and then just as he was about to leave, he suddenly pulled back the curtain with a serious expression.
“By the way, I almost forgot to tell you about that. Be careful when you go through Feilon City; although the environment there is nice, it’s best not to linger too long.”
“Oh?” Fisher had just put on his hat and became interested in the issue he mentioned regarding Feilon City. “Is there something worth noting?”
Kekken smiled and hesitated a bit.
“It could just be my impression. I just feel that the City Lord there is a rather strange person who especially favors talents like you. It might delay you a lot of time.”
“Is that so? I see.”
Fisher said goodbye to Kekken again, and after watching Kekken’s carriage disappear at the end of the street, he turned to the Slave Trader holding the Dragon Race slave with a smile.
“Ah, sir, here is your slave and the seal; please confirm.”
Fisher did not take the Slave Seal but instead glanced at Raphael.
“This is your exchange reward; how to deal with it is up to you, but don’t take too long.”
Raphael was slightly stunned and hurried over to take the scroll of the slave seal and tore it in half. The Slave Trader saw the slave seal being torn and raised his eyebrows but said nothing, quickly throwing away the iron chain that held the young Dragon Race slave and then hurriedly excusing himself to leave.
Raphael looked down at the young Dragon Race boy’s body covered in scars. She had just wanted to squat down to be at the same height as him, but she found her left foot wound aching badly, so she could only bend slightly and spoke in Dragon Language.
“What’s your name? Which tribe are you from?”
“.Qiu’er, I am… from the Northern Branch Tribe. I… ran out of the forest after arguing with my mother.”
It seemed there were still slight dialectical differences between Dragon tribes, as Fisher heard a bit of grammatical variation in the language he used.
“Is that so?”
Raphael looked at Fisher, who was silent beside her. His clean suit was now covered in dirty mud, and it was because he had carried her earlier; thus, she felt more embarrassed to speak. However, after hesitating for a moment, she still requested,
“Can we take this child outside the city? When we leave here.”
Fisher glanced at her and then smiled.
“Given that you made me feel good by accepting two punishments, I’ll take him out of the city with us when we leave tomorrow, but his food tonight needs to come from you. As for now, come back with me and wash yourself and your clothes.”
The human man’s tone was as unkind as ever, but this time Raphael was no longer angry. She covered her wounded arm and turned back to the young Dragon Race child.
“Don’t be afraid; you can go home tomorrow.”
Clearly, they didn’t need to book a hotel room since they had a carriage, but now due to the need to change clothes and clean themselves, it became a necessary expense. It seemed spending money while traveling had become an inevitable thing.
“So… why only book one room?”
Raphael was curled up in the bathtub, and suddenly spoke in the steamy washroom. From the other washroom separated by a wooden board, Fisher’s voice came through.
“If it’s just for bathing, isn’t this room with two washrooms the most appropriate?”
It was not a ridiculous reason to save money but rather to make the best use of the resources available.
They had just returned to the carriage to rest, resolved their dinner situation, and put away the muddy supplies that had fallen on the ground. Fisher then booked a hotel room to clean themselves. Along with that, he handed over their clothes to the maids for washing, resulting in an extra tip.
“I’m done washing.”
After receiving his response, Raphael spoke softly. Although there was a wooden board separating them, she still felt a bit uneasy.
Her red tail peeked above the water’s surface as she looked down at the wound on her arm, which still hurt. She suddenly couldn’t understand why she had tried her best to assassinate Fisher earlier, yet he appeared unaffected as if nothing had happened.
Was it because she was too weak that, in his eyes, her attempt to assassinate him was just a simple game?
How could he possibly have emotional fluctuations because of a simple game?
Raphael got up, cautiously using the towel beside her, called “bath towel,” to wipe her scales. When she wiped a certain place, she suddenly let out a soft “hiss.” It wasn’t even a wound, and that scale hadn’t fallen off, yet there was a tingling pain.
It felt like something was growing.
That was a symbol of the Dragon Race reaching maturity. Once she reached adulthood, her bodily functions would completely awaken, and that part of the scales would become as hard as armor.
So, she wasn’t an adult yet?
If she were with her tribe, her mother would definitely arrange a grand coming-of-age ceremony for her.
Although if she hadn’t been captured by humans, she would surely have resisted such a scene.
Raphael’s lips slightly curled up as she thought this.
“Knock, knock…”
The door was suddenly knocked on, startling Raphael and forcing her to pull away from her thoughts.
“Are you ready yet?”
“…” Raphael hurriedly put on her previous linen clothing while responding, “Yes, what is it?”
“Don’t forget, tonight is punishment time.”
Raphael’s movements of dressing slightly paused.
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(The End of This Chapter)
