A Dragon's Curiosity

“Guess I’ve won. Thanks for going easy on me.”

It would have been fine to take a step back at this point, but Nisha would not allow anyone to take advantage of her for free. Seeing that the young noble had tried to cheat, she naturally would not hesitate to give him another hit while he was already on the ground.

Thankfully Weston enjoyed an education befitting the son of a duke and only nodded with a stone-faced expression, indicating his answer in this way. He already lost enough face in this competition and knew he had no chance on this occasion to take it back. Walking by the teacher, he received his Adventurer’s Card, which had zero merit points left, back and left the room.

“Does someone else want to continue the challenge? Don’t worry about me. I can go for another match right away, no need for a rest.”

Although the elf smiled at her classmates, the regal bearing hadn’t faded yet, and after she had won by a large margin against the former favourite for the King’s Seat, no one else wanted to give it a try against her. Especially Alexander, who hoped to escape her searching eyes by ducking behind another student, which gave him a pointed look when she noticed him creeping towards her back.

“I guess we can end the competition then. Congratulations on your win and the merit points.”

Seeing the cheering mass who refused to challenge her again, Miss Anet gave up her silent meditation and handed Nisha her Adventurer’s Card as well.

“I’ve already added your winnings to the overall amount, make sure to show up next week, so you will continue to have the seat.”

Indicated by a small number on the back of the card, along with the rest of her student information, her overall wealth of merit points now constituted of four hundred points. Compared to the average student, the dragon now counted as wealthy.

“I will also collect the owed two hundred points from the boy, and they can stand in as an advance payment from me. Don’t disappoint me in the future.”

For a commoner, collecting the debt from a bet would normally be a daring task. Who would have the guts to remind a noble of their losses? Thankfully, the instructor took over that job.

“I have to thank you then, Miss.”

Bowing to show her appreciation, Nisha stored the card away.

Miss Anet only waved her hand, as the teacher of this first turn class, regaining a little two hundred merit counted as nothing.

“We will wrap up the class here then. You can either continue to practice with the boards, if you want to, the only condition is to not take them out of this room. The shop in the administration also sells personal board sets of varying quality; you can visit them if you want to purchase one.

Otherwise, the cafeteria will soon start serving lunch, the students living in the dorms should take this chance.

For the others coming from the city, you can either wait for more lessons if you have any scheduled, eat in the cafeteria or go home.

Excuse me, please.”

Compared to her icy introduction, Miss Anet even took the time to remind them regarding lunch and their possible choices. For Nisha, this signalled she might have seen some worth in teaching this class more carefully, a real change.

Still staying seated, the elf noticed a young man approaching her, in a rather subdued manner compared to their earlier conversation.

Mustering his courage, Alexander scratched his head before he made a proposal.

“How about we go to the cafeteria as well? I’ll treat you to a meal for winning the match.”

Apparently, he knew a bit more than the average commoner about the interactions between nobles. Through his provocation, Nisha had to offend a major family, the Duke’s son at that! Weston did not look like a friendly guy who would let such an insult just slide. Trying to buy back her grace with just a meal in the cafeteria hardly counted as passable.

“I appreciate the invitation, but I need to get home soon. There’s a little monster waiting for me to get back.”

Although her reply did not indicate it, Nisha had already returned to her easy going bright tone, dispelling the ice queen image hovering around her into a warm summer wind. Sighing in relief, Alexander no longer feared she would blame him for the grudge and take it out in a sinister fashion later on.

“That’s alright, the invitation still stands. I live in the city as well, so we can look for a shop later on to celebrate your win. You said you need to get going. I’ll just tidy up my stuff first, you can go ahead.”

Withdrawing quite hastily, he returned to their pushed together tables and took out a stack of papers and a pen, writing something down.

Nisha, on the other hand, snickered at his panicked state and elected to leave right away instead of practising. She started to miss Little Lia and did not have anything left to do on her schedule.

On the way home, the elf recalled the three different lessons, trying to figure out which left the best impression.

By starting with the warrior lesson, the dragon felt fondness when thinking back to it. Forming a group with Unico and Lisa, she enjoyed experimenting with different weapons. So far, the only arms the elf ever used included the bow, a practice sword and her [Taurith Short Swords].

While the wooden imitations couldn’t quite replace the real thing, getting a feel for pole weapons and longswords felt quite nice, especially since she did not need to pay attention to their weight.

The forging lesson placed last in her recollection. While Conner made it slightly more endurable and helped her forge her first item, an iron ingot, Nisha still wondered what she did to incur the wrath of the dwarf instructor. Nonetheless, she wouldn’t give up. One tiny man can’t stop her progress in the art of smithing!

And lastly, her favourite class. They did not start learning chants or meditation techniques yet, but the dragon could go all out against an opponent, taking down Weston Whitehall in a grand game of duel board for the [King’s Seat]. Whether or not he now held a grudge against her mattered about as much as a boring court session to the elf, at most she would have to flaunt her influence as a Dharnas to silence any schemes he had. She also looked forward to seeing what kind of traps Weston would come up with; she’d trample him down time and time again.

To contend against her, he lacked the experience of fighting for his life and scheming against the worst predators the Wilderness had to offer. To cheat with a mana gem in a competition felt cute in comparison.

Without any accidents, she soon reached the Dharnas estate and walked through the gates, greeting the soldier on duty.

Sitting on the balcony on the second floor of the guest mansion, Nisha spotted Henry’s mother overlooking the yard and noticing her return. Without the sharpened senses belonging to a dragon, she would have likely missed the interest the lady paid to her. However, she had never taken the initiative to start a conversation with Nisha. She could only endure the stares for now and entered the main building.

The dragon did not come far before a golden shadow jumped at her, almost crashing into her and bringing her to the ground. Howling in happiness, Accalia rubbed her whole body against Nisha, more than happy because the elf came back home.

Ever since the little wolf was born, this was the longest time they were separated, and she had missed her master dearly.

In a similar fashion, the elf had also been worried about her little monster and wondered whether she was alright or not in the breaks between lessons. Now that the dragon was back, Little Lia winced and whined, afraid she would leave her alone again.

Petting and brushing the soft fur on her back, Nisha did not say anything and only welcomed her little monster back.

“You know, she wouldn’t even let us in your room until we tempted her with sausages and ham.”

Sitting on the stairs leading to the second floor two very familiar figures laughed at the antics of the wolf and elf.

“Anna! Lydia! You’re back!”

Freeing herself from the little fur bundle, Nisha dove from one welcome to the other, practically jumping on the two sisters and hugging them at the same time. Due to their training as a merchant, there had been very few chances for them to meet for the past few moons.

“Haha, don’t exaggerate, we weren’t gone for that long.

I heard it’s your first day at the academy?”

Returning the embrace and rubbing her head, Lydia responded first, lifting the lithe dragon from their bodies to sit beside them, while Annabelle helped Little Lia to sit on her lap. Now that she had seen that her master and the strangers were friends, she allowed them to touch her.

“Yes, it’s been quite fun. But before I tell you about it, how did you two fare?

Luthais wouldn’t tell me when I asked where you are and how you do.”

Happy to see the two sisters, who she had missed quite dearly, the dragon couldn’t stop smiling and hugging them.

“It is not only his fault, but we also asked him not to tell you which shop we work at, if you came to stop by every day, us two sisters couldn’t learn anything, could we? Still, it’s good to be here with you again.”

Explaining their reasons for not seeing her, Lydia already coaxed the golden wolf to show her little belly, patting the tender skin hidden there.

“We have pretty much learned the basics at Master Edwin’s store, and he recommended Sir Luthais to put us in charge of a small business venture to let us experience the real deal. Only by accumulating real life trade can we learn the rest.”

“That does sound good, have you talked to Luthais yet? And when did you come back? Have you seen how much Little Lia has grown, isn’t she the cutest?”

Launching each piece of news in rapid-fire mode, Nisha wanted to pull them outside and show them Henry’s [Guardian Griffin] as well, wildly gesticulating while she talked.

The dragon would only show this side of her to her closest friends; it simply broke out of her when the two sisters returned.

“Indeed, this little wolf is a treasure. Although we’ve seen how you hatched her, it doesn’t seem like she remembers us, and she’d have likely attacked us when we came into your room.

As for the business venture, we came back this morning, Mr. Galan mentioned we barely missed you when you went to the Academy.

And for now, don’t say anything to Sir Luthais, we’ve been going through the stash we all brought back from the Hunting Grounds, maybe we can open our stall without bothering him, so we will keep it a secret for now.”

Handing over the small animal - who already grew a full set of sharp teeth yet played adorably with the hand cuddling her - to her sister, Lydia answered the questions one by one. Talking about the stall, both of them showed pride on their face.

“Oh right, I guess she was still too young when you met her and doesn’t remember now.

And why do you want to open a stall first, wouldn’t a store make more sense?”

Having big expectations for their new enterprise, Nisha was quite puzzled.

“Normally you would be right, a store belonging to only us is our dream. But the houses are terribly expensive in Thurgau, without a lot of capital we can’t even dream of buying one right now. Which reminds me, here, we found this in the storage.”

Handing over a twisted and gnarled magician staff as well as a pouch with potent ingredients, Annabelle sighed, depressed by the real estate situation.

“Isn’t this grandpa Eldrin’s staff? Why are you giving it to me now?”

Receiving the staff like a sacred object, Nisha choked slightly due to remembering the happy times she lived together with the old elf and her two sisters in the Hunting Grounds.

If only I could go back through time, how fortunate would I be?

“Anna found it while categorising the items, and we decided you should keep it as a memento. Selling it would only be a waste.”

Touched by their consideration, Nisha made a hard decision.

“Didn’t I tell you to sell it back then? It’s a grade six weapon with the water element, together with the other stuff it should be enough to buy your store. It’s sweet of you to give it to me, but Grandpa Eldrin would also agree, the living have more use for it than the dead. Just sell it, I won’t ever forget grandpa.”