A Dragon's Curiosity

“Hey, what do you mean we’re going to get along fine? What makes you think that I would follow what you say?”

Partly annoyed at being dismissed, slightly angry at being underestimated and mainly baffled at the baseless confidence the elf exuded while walking away, Unico caught up with her and planned to express his indignation with some well-placed words.

Seeing how Nisha regarded the scarecrow seriously and was focused entirely on her simple spear, he swallowed the words right back again.

As part of his upbringing, he had also handled polearms and similar weapons until he acquired a beginner level proficiency in case he ever needed to manage one. Considering the girl’s confidence, he somewhat looked forward to her display of martial prowess.

Sadly, the dragon had no idea of the expectations placed on her; she only filled the wooden weapon with enough aura of her own to prevent it from breaking when it clashed with the training dummy. She had learned this concept by sparring with her sisters Annabelle and Lydia in the past; it was one of the useful pieces of advice her grandfather remembered about a knight’s training.

Shouting out once, Nisha brandished the blunt spear like she would have done with a sword, with the same speed and angle.

“What the hell!”

Following the large, muffled bang, as the elf’s attack uselessly impacted on the wooden body, Unico cursed out. He had expected a nice and concise attack at least, yet she was waving around the spear like a giant stick.

Not bothered by the response, Nisha shrugged her shoulders and inspected the scarecrow for damage. No one imparted any sword or spear techniques to her, all she could try to do was figure out a way to brandish her armaments in a similar way that she would have used her old dragon claws and fangs.

Going for a stab instead of swing in the second round, she closed her eyes and applied a small trick to the aura contained in the weapon. Giving it a quick spin and maintaining that momentum, the mixture of dark and fire aura rotated along the shaft of the spear, ready to spring in motion.

This action attracted the attention of her fellow pupil again, in turn, who was already prepared to lecture the clueless girl about the dangers of reckless practice… again. Seeing her close her eyes and ready something reminded him of a particular technique, but there was no way a resident of the Leandar kingdom would practice it.

Confirming the position of herself and her target while still keeping her eyes closed, Nisha felt confident to at least injure the wooden puppet this time. She opted not to take more time to increase either the amount of aura or the speed of the spinning, as keeping it up alone consumed some aura.

This time around, the impact only rang out a single crisp sound. Stabbing at the right chest of the doll, or conversely the left from the target's point of view, the dragon imagined a heart beneath her stab, sending forth the spiral of aura contained within the weapon.

“Wow, you managed to scratch it this time around at least. But before… did you use a breathing technique?”

Unable to contain his interest, Unico asked in a rather straightforward manner. All he had seen was Nisha concentrating and breathing in and out several times, afterwards her handling of the spear changed and she managed to damage the scarecrow. From his point of view, it was highly likely she channelled some aura technique.

“Breathing technique? What’s that?”

The dragon never heard the term before and turned her attention away from the practice target. The young man talking to her couldn’t see it, yet the are where the heart would be in a human was twisted and splintered inside the wooden body. By observing the skill the instructor used earlier, she came up with this attack. Sadly, due to the time needed to prepare it and her lacking understanding regarding the spear, it wasn’t a formal skill she could use in battle.

“Nevermind, if it’s not a breathing technique, you can forget it. Just pretend I didn’t ask.”

Assuming that either Nisha had no idea or she wasn’t willing to tell him, Unico waved his hands in a dismissive way and attempted to make her forget about it.

“Tell me. You can’t just bring it up and then pretend it doesn’t matter. What is it exactly?”

With her curiosity aroused, Nisha wouldn’t easily let the matter escape her hands. Now aware of a concept called breathing technique, she could make a somewhat educated guess it somehow involved breathing, but it must be some secret other than just breathing in and out, it wouldn’t be a technique otherwise.

“I wonder what you are talking about exactly? When I saw you breathing earlier, I thought you used a technique or skill, but you said that wasn’t it. If you don’t know anything, how am I supposed to know?”

At this point shedding several beads of sweat as he tried desperately to deny any knowledge of the technique, Unico tensed up and balled his hands into fists. After noticing these small details, the elf guessed it must be pretty important to him.

“So you really won’t tell me? I need to think of something else to do then.”

Due to the urgent need that Unico felt to conceal his knowledge regarding this secret, she had to come up with a way to lure out the truth from him. And regarding the way how he wanted to sweep it under the rug, the dragon figured out the perfect way to do it.

“I guess there’s no choice but to ask Mr Oak then. He’ll probably know or at least be able to do some research on the topic if a student asks.”

Pretending to walk away, she used her awareness and vision from her [Spirit Sight] to observe his reaction. Unico bit his lips, threw glances towards the other group containing students from the twin kingdoms and prominent children of nobles native to Leandar. Seeing that the elf didn’t plan to stop, he had no choice. Catching up to her and grabbing her hand, the youth felt troubled.

“Alright, you won. I will tell you what I know, so don’t go around asking about it.”

Nodding as a sign of approval, Nisha waited for his explanation.

“It isn’t as big as you make it out to be, it’s just that various breathing techniques only originate in my homeland. And even then, only the major sects and schools, as well as the highest families, possess them. If you had one as well, it’s the duty of every resident to report back to the kingdom to let us recover it.

A breathing technique heightens the recovery rate for aura and mana spent in techniques or can increase the strength of the next execution of a skill by concentrating physical or mental strength. That’s all I know. The real mysterious techniques aren’t something someone like me can get his hands on either. Does that suffice?”

Appealing honestly towards the girl, who might have already grasped on his weakness, Unico was quite the sad sight to behold. Quite similar to a drowned animal, really, if Nisha considered his defeated look and his grinding teeth.

“Why haven’t you honestly said just that? I wouldn’t have had to bother you then.”

Dealing a crushing blow in the precise vicious manner of a wild dragon - kicking an opponent already on the ground - Unico could only mumble to himself while kicking small pebbles on the field away. Dangerous tidbits like ‘stupid elf’ and ‘cruel trickster’ reached her ears as well, yet Nisha decided to be a magnanimous senior and forgive him anyway.

As the stream of mumbling didn’t show any signs of stopping, and not because she had slowly got irritated despite her resolve, the elf in question spoke up.

“Isn’t it about time you start practising as well? The teacher said to try finding a comfortable weapon, right?”

Rolling her eyes in her mind, Nisha noticed she almost pushed him too far and offered him a way out. Acknowledging the good intentions, Unico prepared his wooden daggers, his pride demanding him to show off a bit.

Coating only the bladed edge of the weapon, he dashed forward with a small explosion of aura from his feet, rapidly surmounting the distance between himself and the training dummy. While Nisha recognised the result, she couldn’t tell what kind of footwork was involved.

Quickly slashing out over ten consecutive times, the thin weapons drew a particular picture on the wooden body, each attack carving a thin line over either an organ or a major vein. In a real fight, an opponent injured in this way would be without doubt in mortal danger. Furthermore, his ability to damage the enchanted practice target spoke for itself.

Gathering his breath after executing the skill he based his pride on, Unico closed his eyes to concentrate and draw huge mouthfuls of air.

Suddenly, the eyes of a particular dragon lit up like stars. How could the student coming from the twin kingdoms know that there was a beast hiding in this year’s newly enrolled pupils, one capable of observing aura and mana directly with her [Spirit Sight]?

Just by circulating the fresh air, his body dispersed the latent energy sucked inside, akin to dry ground sucking up fresh rain. Nisha hadn’t paid the act of breathing any individual attention before, neither did she particularly care how the inner machinations of a body worked regarding distributing aura and mana.

Currently, however, she had gained a slight insight from learning about breathing techniques. If she wasn’t wrong, the process Nisha observed by looking at Unico should indeed be one of them. Saying he didn’t know any of them had to be a lie then.

Hiding his secret didn’t bother her in any way, the dragon herself also lied about her race to live in the capital and attend the academy, why would she judge others than for covering up their big mysteries. As long as it wasn’t done in spite or for small reasons, Nisha would encourage others to be smart with classified information!

Observing the whole process, she even figured out a little hint regarding the nature of Unico’s breathing technique. Forming a small vortex inside his body in a subtle manner, each breath took in the maximum amount of energy his body could handle.

Of course, this could also be Nisha’s mistake. She had never paid attention to a natural action such as breathing before. Maybe all humans and elves naturally possess a small vortex of energy inside their body to assist them in absorbing spent energy. To be completely sure, Nisha had to look for more examples.

The young man, proud of his achievement in damaging the scarecrow, looked back towards Nisha, only to be immediately be disappointed again. Instead of being awed by his prowess, she was walking away, towards a girl practising on a target near them. And it wasn’t some amazing display either. Clearly, this girl was a commoner brought into the academy due to the wealth of her parents, neither a noble nor a scholarship student. While brandishing an ordinary sword, her performance even placed below the elf’s first attempt at striking the scarecrow.

None of that mattered to Nisha, though. She could see the results of Unico’s strike even with her back turned towards him, so she didn’t regard it as rude to look for another sample while he was recovering his spent energy. The girl near them acted as the perfect example for her intentions, and she approached with an amiable expression and lightly called out to the other.

“Hello. My name is Nisha, and I’m a fellow new student. Do you mind if I share this place with you?”

To avoid startling the other girl and having her injure herself, Nisha waited until she took a break from assaulting the target.

Startled by the sudden voice, the girl in question still flinched. Turning around with a surprised face, she took in the elf’s appearance. She clad herself in a comfortable and apparently well-worn leather garment, with half of her face was hidden by a blue scarf. When the dragon had selected the clothes she wanted to wear during her first lessons, she unconsciously put on the clothing item she fashioned out of the remains of her grandfather’s favourite robe. Unico didn’t say anything about it, as there were quite a few clans in his home country that wore a veil or scarf out of traditional reasons, it didn’t strike him as unusual. Still, the remaining half of it showed clear and smooth white skin, golden eyes and soft black hair making any female enviable of her. Luckily, the friendly approach Nisha had chosen showed some effect, as the other girl nodded and introduced herself.

“Of course, go ahead, please. I’m called Lisa, and my parents run a small shop called the [Golden Cauldron] in the Dungeon Branch of the Adventurer’s Guild. Nice to … A pleasure to meet you.”

Timid and scared by the sudden interest of another party, the girl called Lisa stumbled towards the end of her sentence, but she managed to salvage it and adhere to the common courtesy.

“Then I won’t be polite.”

Acting as if she hadn’t noticed the small stumble, Nisha lifted her spear again and took a turn to attack again. Without preparation time to imbue a unique skill into the spear, the loud, crisp sound lacked the strength and damage from the last attempt, but it was still enough to impress her new acquaintance.