Using the platform rather than one of the usual elementals I preferred to use, the journey to Silver Spires took more than two hours rather than the usual minutes, but at least, it was a more comfortable ride.

Pity that my reluctant guest was not in a mood to experiment, and kept her mouth shut other than occasional attempts to probe me about my employer, and I didn't do anything other than deflecting her.

Then, Silver Spires entered our field of vision. "And we're at our destination," I said, even as I noted her distaste while she looked at the school. It was clearly below her mysteriously high standards.

Though, it might be also about the battle damage on the walls, still being repaired.

She said nothing even as I drove the platform to the ground before I let it dissipate. She looked at me questioningly. "I'm afraid we're going to cover the rest of the distance by walking," I said. "And before you ask, no you can't transform unless you want to shout your location to our lovely adversaries."

"I know," she growled in annoyance, the rumbling it created enough to remind her that she was a dragon.

The rest of the walk passed silently even as I led her to sneak through the defensive wards, their damaged state making it even easier to pass through. The moment I entered the school, however, a magical message from the headmistress arrived, telling me to bring the dragon to a special basement building, rather than her office.

Interesting, I thought even as I guided her toward the location the headmistress suggested. It was the first time she arranged a meeting outside her tower, which forced me to reevaluate a few assumptions about her location. Maybe I had misread just how dependent she was on the coverage of her tower.

With that in mind, we passed through the specified entrance, only to find ourselves in a dim tunnel going down, the route itself confusing.

"What a weird tunnel," the dragon murmured as we moved deeper. "Those wards feel familiar…"

I said nothing, though I could easily understand her concern. The sensation of the wards was rather irregular, making us lose the sense of direction as we walked. I had no doubt that, if I hadn't saved her life twice, my guest would have been rebelling against the idea of following deeper into a mysterious tunnel.

As I moved deeper, my sense of direction started to disappear, forcing me to stretch my Perception stat to the limit to maintain it. However, it was when I felt the partial block on the system, once again preventing me from communicating efficiently, I recognized the source of the ward.

She was using Darkness Divine Spark to create the ward.

Interestingly, while the tunnel had several twists and turns, ultimately, we ended up under her tower, forcing me to revisit my assumptions once again, including why she would spend all that effort just to hide the fact.

Unfortunately, it wasn't answered immediately when I finally reached the destination, directly under the tower. It was a huge room, with an unnecessarily high ceiling — unless one planned for a dragon to reside there in the first place.

However, despite being a basement, the room wasn't poorly furnished. On the contrary, there was a nice living room on the corner, mostly using the same crystal for the construction, but also using very expensive-looking blue and black fabrics. But that part was just a detail compared to a huge crystal pool, large enough for a dragon to rest comfortably.

One thing that surprised me was, however, was the mana density of the room. The air was thick with mana, and the pool was even thicker. Though, a glance at the wards that supported the process suggested that the process wouldn't deliver as much mana as I had been transferring, which was a benefit.

Of course, my guest didn't glance around, looking at the hooded figure that was standing on the other end of the room. "You can go," the headmistress said, gesturing me to leave.

The dragon glanced at me, but didn't comment, even as I turned and left the room.

Not permanently, of course, as I was far too curious about listening to the discussion. And since I was able to sneak into the headmistress' private room, sneaking to the basement was hardly a challenge. There was only one problem, that if I suddenly disappeared from the wards, the headmistress would have been suspicious.

Meaning, I had to leave the tunnel first before coming back. The process had been rather smooth, though it cost me several precious minutes, especially on the path to return, where I had to carefully sneak through the wards without alerting the headmistress.

When I arrived at the room, creating a tiny hole in the wall, the view surprised me.

The headmistress had long removed her robe, revealing her armored state, with a sword on her back. However, despite her pose, she was sitting on a chair. And the dragon, still in her human form, was sitting across her, a chair between them.

However, the interesting thing was their expressions. Considering the relative power balance of a headmistress with a school under her command, compared to a lost dragon that was cut all kinds of support, hunted by a faction of the Eternals.

Their expressions told a different story. The dragon leaned back, confident, while the headmistress was lost in her thoughts, her eyebrows creased. It was the most worried I had ever seen her, even compared to when she was alone.

"It's not like you have a lot of options, little bird," said the dragon, her mocking tone surprising me. "It's not like you can just go back and ask the assistance of the God of Light, not after your little grubby fingers reached something you shouldn't have."

How interesting, I thought. There was no doubt about what she was talking about. There was only one reasonable probability considering the speed at which she had been discovered.

Divine Spark of Light.

I had already been suspicious of the headmistress' attempts to absorb the Divine Spark, as it was clearly something above her power level, but, looking at their relative attitude, it was not only deeply forbidden, but also clearly not going well.

"Still, asking me to change sides…" the headmistress murmured indecisively.

"You should have thought of that before trying to devour something you can't handle," the dragon cut in, smugly. "But I shouldn't be surprised by it. For all of your supposed loyalty, you little birds are always quick to rebel at the slightest opening. Just like-" she continued, only for the headmistress to cut her off angry.

"I'm nothing like her!" she shouted, power radiating off her in waves, Divine Spark mixing with her mana.

"Calm down, I'm joking," the dragon said, taking the headmistress' explosion in stride. "Though, with the ease you're willing to use a spark of darkness…" she added, her words fading as the headmistress tensed like she was about to attack.

The dragon stopped, because, luckily, despite her arrogance, she was smart enough not to excessively antagonize one that controlled her current residence Instead, she looked around, examining the mana in the room, including the small pieces of Divine Spark her opponent slowly pulling back. Interestingly, she didn't make an attempt to devour them.

I wondered if it was just about her respect — or fear — or it wasn't something she could handle in the first place.

The dragon continued talking after taking a moment to calm herself. "You don't have a lot of time to decide. You're already leaking Divine Spark. A year at most, and you'll lose the ability to control it and it'll burn you."

"Are you sure your master could help me?" the headmistress said hesitantly, after a long pause.

"She has achieved much more challenging activities than that. And more importantly, she's not a miser like that old codger. She'll only ask for a very reasonable payment."

I had no idea who the dragon was referring to, but I was sure that whoever she was, she wouldn't be that generous. People in power never were, especially when one reached them was utterly helpless.

The headmistress must share my opinion, because rather than answering immediately, she decided to delay, though, the delay itself was enough to show just how big her need was, so much that she didn't even try to threaten the dragon.

And, compared with the sudden change of her earlier ploy and her current attitude, it suggested that the dragon had an extraordinary identity, much bigger than the headmistress had been expecting.

"It's a big decision, I need time to think," the headmistress finally admitted.

"Take as much as time as you need," the dragon answered with mocking laughter. "It's not me under the risk of exploding a year."

The headmistress stood up, like she was about to leave, but the dragon spoke again. "Not before arranging some amenities for me, of course," the dragon added.

"As you wish," the headmistress answered between her clenched teeth, barely able to spit out her words. "But we don't have a lot in this dimension, not with the system constantly devouring any natural treasure."

"Oh, don't worry about it," the dragon said with a chuckle. "You just need to arrange more mana flow to my residence."

"I can do that, but there are limits. We can't weaken the wards too much, or the defenses will fall, and you'll be revealed," she reminded.

"Don't worry, just as much as you can arrange. And one other thing," she added, her playfully vicious smirk giving me an idea of what was going to follow. "I just need a servant to handle mundane activities for me. Cleaning, preparing my food, and other mundane activities. The boy that helped me earlier looks like a good worker. Arrange that for me, please?"

"But—" the headmistress started, only for her words to fade when she caught her opponent's expression. "I'll arrange it," she resigned, adding another role to my already complicated resume.

How fascinating…

—

[Level: 31 Experience: 493210 / 496000

Strength: 46 Charisma: 63

Precision: 40 Perception: 42

Agility: 40 Manipulation: 45

Speed: 39 Intelligence: 49

Endurance: 39 Wisdom: 51

HP: 6226 / 6324 Mana: 7750 / 7750 ]

SKILLS

Master Melee [100/100]

Master Tantric [100/100]

Master Biomancy [100/100]

Master Elemental [100/100]

Master Arcana [100/100]

Master Subterfuge [100/100]

Expert Speech [75/75]

Expert Craft [75/75]

PERKS

Mana Regeneration

Skill Share

Empowerment (1/1)

Teleportation

COMPANIONS

[Cornelia - Level 22/26]

[Helga - Level 22/26]