Chapter 27: The Signs of Adulthood
“Raphael, come take a look at this part.”
Early in the morning, after Fisher sent away the humans who had stayed overnight, he returned holding the Feimabaha Dragon Court Grimoire, seeking out Raphael. Yesterday, he mentioned temporarily putting aside this part of the research, but just as he closed his eyes to sleep, he thought about whether he could integrate the human Ring Magic with Dragon Race Magic.
This might significantly raise the ceiling of dragon magic, or perhaps lead to the creation of a new magic.
However, such an attempt could only be discussed after he thoroughly understood the contents of the grimoire. Currently, there were ready Dragon Races to solve any linguistic issues.
For breakfast, they had some kind of roasted gopher, which was food stored by the spiderfolk named Famasi, and Ral enjoyed eating it. Raphael was getting closer to adulthood; her body was becoming more feeble, but her spirit was quite excited, and even her breath felt hot.
Raphael wiped her mouth and looked at the ancient text that Fisher handed over, where he had made some annotations with a quill, alongside neatly marked lines of Nali flower script, though Raphael could not understand it.
Fisher had a habit of annotating books; reading through it a second time would remind him of his previous thoughts, which might help broaden his other ideas.
“Explain the phrases in the underlined sections to me.”
Raphael opened her mouth, then turned a page to glance at the cover,
“Wait, this is our Dragon Court Grimoire. Where did you find it?”
“I bought it.”
Fisher lied expressionlessly; only he could see the completion manual, and he wouldn’t mention its existence to anyone.
“You humans have dug up so many treasures; we don’t have such things in our tribe. Perhaps only older tribes might have one or two copies,” Raphael said as she flipped through the contents, then continued, “We don’t really use magic. Although it is powerful, the users themselves can easily be harmed by it. It has probably been a long time since a Dragon Mage has appeared.”
It seemed that the Dragon Race was not foolish; they knew the flaws in their magic.
Fisher thought of the magic from last night and suddenly felt that Dragon Mages were, to some extent, self-destructive soldiers, charging into crowds and yelling “Release Magic,” then everyone dies together.
“It’s just for academic research; it might also help improve some of your magic. The wording is outdated; hence it’s quite hard to read. I need your help to translate part of it.”
Raphael looked at Fisher with suspicion. While she didn’t quite believe that Fisher would do such a good deed, just as he mentioned last night, he could indeed put aside his prejudices and wholeheartedly research something, even if that something belonged to subhumans, which humans viewed as very lowly.
Raphael fell silent for a moment and then pointed at the first marked position that Fisher indicated, beginning to translate the contents for him,
“Dragon General’s Claw, Boiling Flame.”
As Raphael explained the extremely obscure and ancient grimoire, Ral blinked and looked at the two exhausted white Dragon Races in front of her.
“You two! You definitely went somewhere to have fun without telling Ral. Tell me, what was so fun that you didn’t want to let Ral join?”
Keshil and Fashir seemed to be lost in thought, startled by Ral’s sudden question, and immediately poked her face with deadpan expressions.
“You little brat.”
“Stay away from us; yesterday…”
They exchanged glances and then somewhat guiltily said at the same time,
“We didn’t sleep well.”
Ral pondered the new term “little brat” that the two sisters suddenly used, curious where they learned it. Just as she was about to ask, the two sisters got up and walked in another direction, seemingly uninterested in engaging with her.
Who knew what they were thinking last night? The human’s touch made them feel as if they were on fire, even the two who usually slept together kept a certain distance, fearing they might touch the same spot again at night. But that feeling of shame lingered, preventing them from sleeping well all night.
Fashir and Keshil didn’t want to play with her, so she could only wander nearby, and she saw the spiderfolk Xiya and brain mage Ke Lili coming out from the cave, their faces returning to normal.
Seeing the gigantic spiderfolk emerge, Ral was startled again but quickly put her hands on her hips and made a face. As Xiya frowned and was about to move, Ral quickly ran to Fisher’s side.
“This little Dragon Race kid!”
Xiya gritted her teeth, ready to move, but was stopped by the half-ethereal look from Ke Lili, who used her gaze to deter her.
“Don’t cause trouble, Xiya. We’re alive because that human is different.”
“That’s also because we still have our usefulness.”
Xiya pouted and muttered under her breath.
“Maybe.”
Ke Lili floated toward Fisher’s direction. Once both he and Raphael’s attention was attracted, she slightly lowered her head and said,
“Lord Fisher, the materials have been prepared early this morning. Tonight, we can hold the coming-of-age ceremony for this Dragon Race young lady.”
Fisher nodded and replied neutrally,
“Once the ceremony is completed, we will leave.”
“The ceremony needs to be held in a place with a water source. There’s a lake close to the forest nearby; if you don’t mind, we can set off this afternoon. If everything goes smoothly, she will transform into a true Dragon Warrior tonight.”
Fisher glanced at the currently weak Raphael. The crimson scales on her hands had already begun to shed, and from those scattered scales, some harder scales were growing.
Upon closer observation, Fisher noticed her breathing was rapid, each breath releasing a cloud of scorching air, as if there were a never-ending steam engine inside her.
Everything indicated that this unique red Dragon Race before him was approaching adulthood.
Fisher lowered his gaze to meet her emerald eyes. After a second, however, Raphael was the first to look away, glancing elsewhere. She wasn’t very good at making eye contact with the human in front of her, especially after spending so much time together.
After she diverted her gaze for a while, when she finally looked up again to meet his eyes, he had already turned to walk toward the carriage, his voice getting increasingly distant.
“Then let’s prepare to set off.”
“…”
“Lady Raphael, you are about to come of age!”
In the next moment, Ral leaped over, interrupting her thoughts, her small frame almost knocking Raphael over. Luckily, Mill supported her from behind. “Mom always said that when Raphael comes of age, she will be the most beautiful and powerful Dragon. When Ral grows up, I want to be like Lady Raphael too. It’s a pity my scales aren’t red. I heard humans can dye colors; can I dye myself red?”
“Lady Raphael, you’re finally coming of age. If you were in the tribe, the chieftains would definitely be very happy that you’ve grown up.”
Mill also smiled, which made Raphael involuntarily think of her parents.
That pair of somewhat aging couples would surely be looking at her sternly at this moment.
Among her parents’ children, she was the only one with red scales, which made her feel like an anomaly among her parents’ children. She always thought they looked at her differently than they did at the other children, so she wanted to avoid their gazes and their various preachings.
But now that she had left the tribe, she missed them more than ever, especially wanting to see them.
If it were them, they would surely have proud expressions upon seeing her adult self.
She gently grasped Mill’s hand; the scales on her hands and legs had already become so fragile that they fell off due to this action, yet her breath grew increasingly scorching, as if she wanted to scorch the air around her.
She was about to come of age.
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(End of chapter)
