After their conversation, Alverona took him to explore her palace and as they did, passed on some knowledge to Marcel. She took him more about Dragon Link, further entrapping the innocent boy in her honey trap and as she did, she asked many things about Marcel’s informer, maybe to further enhance the compatibility between Marcel and the dragon crest she was preparing for him. If she managed to do this successfully, then her plan will be completed. Alverona was happy, to say the least, and Marcel, close to her, felt cheery as well and thus, the day went off without a hitch. Just before they separated for the night after she had one of her maids show Marcel to one of her best rooms, probably because news would spread about her new ‘paramour’ by morning if she personally led Marcel to his room for the night, she had an idea of the perfect dragon crest to give Marcel. She was excited and thus, spent the entire night working on it. It had to be perfect after all as her future plans depended on it. 

Okay, so, next morning arrives and before the sun rose, Dragon Empress Alverona went to Marcel’s room to get him from his bed, then carried him as he still slept, princess-style, as she watched his cute-sleeping face until they, well, arrived in the Dragon Throne room. 

After arriving in the throne room, she placed Marcel directly in her dragon throne, then she woke him, or at least, tried anyway, but Marcel was feeling very sleepy, so he ignored her calls, so she began the dragon crest transference ritual.  

Marcel slept in a sitting position as Alverona literally put her arm in Marcel’s body and grabbed his heart, making him feel warm all over and finally waking him up. He was horrified as he woke up to his favorite dragon empress’s hand right inside his body at where his heart would be and quickly tensed up but soon, he was made to relax again as a surge of foreign, dominating magic power coursed into his body to his heart, making him feel warmer and thus, relaxing in the process. She injected the dragon crest with the surge of dominating magic power that Marcel felt and then, oh, she’s already done? Well, that was easy! 

After the foreign magic, presumably Alverona’s, had been successfully injected into Marcel’s body, Marcel finally got a hold of himself again and stopped relaxing, remembering again that he woke up with an arm inside his body, grabbing at his head, and began panicking. 

One thought ran through his head multiple times, “I’m going to die! I’m going to die now!!” He thought but alas, death never came to him as Alverona, after massaging his heart a bit to verify if she placed the dragon crest in the right place, slid her hand right out of his body like pulling one’s hand out of a body of water. It was so smooth that Marcel thought that he was indeed water during the span of a second where she released her hand from his body. In the wake of Alverona’s actions were no injuries, blood, or anything else for that matter. Everything went smoothly. 

“Hah! Done! I’ve now placed the Dragon Crest inside you. It’ll not only allow you to access the Dragon Database through Dragon Link but also allow you to quickly grasp draconic magic, script, and our arts as well. Isn’t it the bestest thing you could have received from me? Now thank me!” Alverona said proudly, expecting praising and praising she got indeed. 

“Yes, thank you, Ms. Empress! You’re amazing!” Marcel praised her, having already forgotten that just a few seconds ago, the woman’s hand was inside his body, messing with it. 

“Yes, that’s right! I won!” She accidentally said out loud. 

“You won? What did you win?” Marcel asked, clueless as always but now, carrying a teensy, almost nonexistent piece of suspicion about what Alverona might have done to him. Alverona, master of tricks, already got her next move covered. 

“Oh, nothing you need to concern yourself with? I’ll now teach you how to use Dragon Link so use it to learn as much as you possibly can about us dragons? Oh, and like I promised, I’ll also pass on the layout of the Demon Lord’s castle to you.” She quickly responded. A successful block as Marcel quickly ignored his suspicion the moment, he heard the word ‘layout’. 

“Whew! To easy! I don’t know if this little guy is just clueless or incredibly pure. Got to hand it to him for quickly forgetting his worries.” She thought. She found herself incredibly fortunate to be dealing with Marcel who’s not only clueless and pure unlike some of the heroes she’s met thus far. Looks like he has a bright future in front of him if he can manage to keep his ‘pure aura’ on in the future. Anyway, Marcel continued to praise her and she loved every second of it. 

“Oh, thank you so much! You’re saving me from a lot of awkward conversations! You’re my goddess!” He praised. 

“Yes, praise me more! It’s been a long time since anyone praised so sincerely. As a bonus gift, you can call me via telepathy whenever you want. One of my selves will be sure to answer.” She offered him additional rewards to keep the praises coming. 

Marcel though, was done praising Alverona as his pure aura came back again and he started asking questions,  

“Ah, how many of yourselves are there?” He asked her, deep in thought as he tried to come up with an answer on his own as well. 

“Heh! More than enough to gather every dragon’s experiences with Dragon Link as we speak. I see that my grandnephew is working with those lecherous demons again...” 

“What?! Claude is what?!!” Marcel was shaken by her words. His mind wandered into territory that his teacher would definitely not be happy with; a very ‘dirty’ territory. 

“Don’t worry! My grandnephew/niece is more than capable of suppressing them all on his own. He’s son of Vernes after all. Escaping their reach with the help of his dragon powers or utilizing his other power will be enough to destroy them if needed.” She answered nonchalantly without the slightest worry on her face. 

“Wow! What other powers are those? I want to know!” Marcel asked excitedly. 

“Ah-uh-ah~, I can’t tell you everything in just one sitting. If you want to know, you’ve got to make sure that when you leave, you’ll come back. That other power has got to do with the elf clan, is all I can say for now.” She answered and thus, brought that conversation to an end. After that, they went on their day as she informed him about Dragon Link and the other benefits, he could reap from it, like teaching him things as long as even one dragon knew it, well, except for dragon royalty alongside many other things and lastly direct telepathic communication with her. She left a lot out of her explanation though as it concerned her future plans that she was definitely sure of. 

After her explanation, Marcel learned a bit about draconic magic and language as well through Dragon Link as practice and Alverona discovered yet another important fact about the hero: that he was a genius who could run through a massive stockpile of information over a period of time thanks to his almost one-of-a-kind skill [Adept Comprehension]. She was now sure that she’d done the right thing. 

At this point, Marcel knew nothing about the system called Dragon Link except for what Alverona had told him, and thus, he used it without any reservations. Thanks to Dragon Link, he already knew how to swim although he’s never done it before, and also how to hide his presence even more with Shadow magic as well as how to quickly tell apart magic spell levels. The knowledge of the Shadow Dragons he managed to quickly comprehend as well as that of the ultra-rare Sage Dragons helped him very much. He was improving fast, much to Alverona’s ever-growing expectations and she really began holding high hopes for the future. The day that should have been so long quickly came to an end before the both of them realize it and soon, Marcel goes to bed, not knowing that this is the last day he’d be able to spend in Alverona’s domain before a very long time.