A tremendous weight is resting on my chest making it quite hard to breathe. Thankfully the bed under me is quite comfortable, it makes the smothering more enjoyable.

  I am as lightweight as a feather, I’ll have you know. Lemon corrects. You are simply a weak human.

  I open my eyes and immediately my eyes meet Lemon’s. She is currently sprawled out across my body, the source of the aforementioned weight. It is a good thing she doesn’t have claws yet.

  Hey! I have claws! She raises one of her paws and flexes it, surely enough a tiny claw is there. It is not tiny! Claw size doesn't matter anyways, I can gore monsters just as easily.

  My arm feels heavy with exhaustion as I raise it to pat her on the head. Good morning to you too, I swear, I had the weirdest dream…

  First off, it is the middle of the afternoon. Secondly, that wasn’t a dream. You never dream anywhere near that vividly.

  Wait so that means… I check my skills and surely enough, Essence of Magic is there. I can feel it rise to the forefront of my mind, as if asking me to start breaking things. Well then, it wasn’t a dream indeed.

  Lemon shifts off me and does a big stretch. Of course not. Your puny mind could not replicate such splendor and awesomeness.

  I do not like your tone recently. I may be a human, but remember the power I wield. I didn't know getting a dragon meant I had to end up training her like a child…

  I am not a child! There is no power that could possibly wield over me, an almighty dragon.

  Ignoring the part where the system literally calls you an infant. Do not try to anger me, little dragon. I throw in a bit of an evil laugh, though I am not sure how well it can be heard.

  Tsk, I am not scared of you.

  I sigh. I didn’t want to do this… but no headpats or bellyrubs for an entire day.

  NOOOOOOO.

  I Blink out of the bed just as Lemon tries to tackle me. I finally look around and see that I am not in my room on Volea. Rather it appears that I am back on the Wayfarer.

  Human, get back here right this instant and administer bellyrubs!

  I ignore her and walk over to the window. The stars are really pretty and I can see the red glow of the Volea fissure nearby, beckoning me to come back. Odo is sitting in the window in full bloom, soaking up the light from its small lamp. The purple against the backdrop of the stars is really nice.

  A knock sounds on the door and I walk over to open it up. “Scholar Gaema! Did you get a promotion?”

  The wispy man stands at my door, with a fancy new lab coat too. It seems to be made out of a thicker silver fabric, more durable I suppose. “Cadet Ilemon, good to see you are awake. It has been four days, and we couldn’t figure out what happened to you. All of the medical devices on the ship just said you were completely fine. As for my position, who would resist such a tantalizing research subject as yourself?” He smiles creepily and I can feel him observe me as though I am just numbers on a spreadsheet.

  I shrug off the creepy feeling. “Guess I was just really tired.”

  He scratches at his chin. “I see. Well then perhaps someone should speak with Lucien about the difference between breaking people and putting them into multi-day comas.”

  I laugh. “Well to be fair, sir. It was not Lucien’s fault. I was able to take breaks, I just didn’t.”

  Gaema raises an eyebrow to that. “Well, I was just coming to check on you, but it seems you are indeed perfectly fine.” he gives me a quick look over and seems satisfied at me not being about to die. “Since you are fine, your training will resume tomorrow. For now perhaps go get some food, your body probably needs it.”

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  On cue, my stomach lets out a growl befitting a dragon.

  Taking Gaema’s advice I opt to head to the mess hall instead of grabbing a snack from the dispenser in my room. It has been a long while of just rations, so getting a high quality meal will be nice.

  The selection is fairly diverse and I end up choosing a nice dish called ‘rice ball a la creme.’ It says the rice balls are filled with a nice creamy filling and then stewed in a special mix of spices to infuse them with flavor. Well, that is what the source dish was at least.

  The nutrient dispenser spits out a perfect recreation of the meal from nothing but yummy nutrient juice. Honestly, I don’t know how I would exist without such technology, imagine having to actually cook food. A few older books talk about everyday people spending large amounts of their day cooking.

  Thankfully now it's only a few master chefs that prepare for the ultrarich and to make new blueprints for the dispensers.

  I sit down at a table, the room is mostly empty but there are a few exhausted looking scholars and one dragon guard fella lurking about. I quietly eat my rice balls, which are practically divine compared to the rations. Something about how the cream perfectly mixes into the rice and suffuses its flavor perfectly. Each and every single bite is filled with the exact same amount of awesomeness.

  As I am finishing the last grains of rice, a beautiful whirlwind of badassery walks into the room and beelines right for my table.

  “Fight me.” Violet demands.

  I take a look around the room to see if she could be talking to anyone else. “Really? You mean it?”

  “Idiot, do I need to beat it into you?” Her scowl looks particularly nice today. Perhaps it has something to do with that murdery aura that is emanating off of her.

  “Please punch me so that I can be sure this isn’t a dream.” I say sarcastically.

  Violet’s fist connects with my shoulder, though it seems she did hold back a bit. But I can be sure that this isn’t a dream, because if it was she would’ve hit a lot harder. “I do not need an excuse to punch idiots.”

  A few moments later we are in one of the training rings. Complete with full shielding rated for up to rank 8 attacks. Along with healing systems that can instantly tend anything short of a severed limb.

  Oh and for some reason there are four of them. I guess they couldn’t find anything else to use the budget for.

  “No holding back.” Violet says as she menacingly polishes her blade a few meters away from me. I can see the faint hint of a grin on her face and it looks quite cute.

  “Of course, you’ll only get the best from me.” I smile widely, this is going to be so much fun. I still can’t believe she asked me to spar with her, I wonder what brought this on. Hopefully it wasn’t some dastardly technique that Bellaris taught her. They did spend quite a while training, so I should be very careful.

  Without even waiting for a start signal, Violet launches herself towards me and her blade comes to a stop just before my throat. “Idiot, do you have no awareness?”

  I gulp. “I was just a bit preoccupied with your beauty that I kinda forgot that we were fighting.”

  A bit of red appears on Violet’s face, probably from the exertion. “Imbecile.”

  I size the opportunity and throw a point blank Fireball at Violet. I don’t have much control over pure mana yet, so I won't use that in case I accidentally hurt her too much.

  She somehow escapes with only a slight burn mark on her arm, and it seems to have ignited a lovely blue fire in her eyes. I feel like I am in danger, which is nothing new. If anything, it's quite exciting.

  I parry a stab at my side and almost get a hit on her leg with a spike of ice. She tries to trip me up by moving behind me, but I simply Blink behind her.

  I feel a heavy impact in my chest and I go flying back into the wall. I can feel the breakage of several parts that are not meant to be broken. It seems that Violet does in fact have a few new tricks, damn that Bellaris.

  But I have gotten stronger too.

  I activate Stealth and disappear from at least her sight, though I assume she can still detect me somehow. I manage to get behind her and force her to jump away.

  She does a spin and kicks off the wall like a badass and then a sharp noise rings through the air. I barely resist the urge to cover my ears, but that gives Violet the opportunity to land a hit to my side, going right through the armor and hitting the soft flesh beneath.

  She quickly withdraws her sword and motions for us to stop. A single bead of sweat slides down her cheek, almost looking like a tear. “You should be more careful.” She walks over to the wall and presses the healing button.

  “Come on, me and be careful? Isn’t that a bit too hopeful?” I quip back. The familiar healing energy suffuses me, completely sealing up the wound.

  “Imbecile.” Her scowl-smile has now grown into more of a smirk – which is somehow even cuter than her scowl. “You should learn such an important skill. It is going to get old having to haul your corpse back.”

  “I seem to recall it was I that hauled your corpse back last time, wasn’t it?” I fire back.

  “Well, I was the one that carried you into the ship. So that means I am currently in the lead.” She fires back.

  “Wait, you carried me? Fuck, why did I have to be asleep.” I frown, though internally I am practically jumping for joy. For what reason did the natures have to take such a wonderful experience from me?

  Her face turns a bright red, the exhaustion from our sparring session finally catching up with her. “Wait. no, I mean. Wait. Idiot.” She turns away from me and shrinks a bit.

  I laugh. “Too late, you already confessed.” I Blink in front of her. “If you want me to be more careful, perhaps you ought to beat it into me.” I hope this works, if not I might end up dead.

  She looks up at me, a strange mixture of expressions on her face. “You…” She seems confused about something and stares right into my eyes for several seconds – giving me a nice view of those beautiful eyes of hers in return. Her face suddenly morphs into a large smile, which just about stops my heart. “Idiot.”

  She punches my shoulder lightly, and then walks away and exits the room.

  My legs give out, it seems I am still a bit tired. I lean up against the shield, the faint hum comforting in the now silent training room.

  I really do not understand Violet.

  Oh well, It shall simply be one more thing for me to learn. I am already figuring out how to fight monsters, how hard can figuring out a woman possibly be?

  Next Chapter: A Bell Tolls

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