novelraw Chapter 27: Signs of Coming of Age
Chapter 27: Signs of Coming of Age
"Raphaëlle, come take a look at this part."
Early in the morning, after Fischer had sent away the humans who spent the night here, he came back carrying the Dragon Court Grimoire of Fermabah and went straight to Raphaëlle. Though he said yesterday he’d put this part of the research aside for now, the moment he closed his eyes to sleep, a thought hit him—what if he could combine human ring-magic with Dragonkin magic?
It might greatly raise the ceiling of Dragon Magic, or even create an entirely new type of magic.
But such an attempt would have to wait until he fully understood the grimoire. Right now, with a real Dragonkin in front of him, linguistic issues were easily solved.
For breakfast, they had some sort of roasted ground rat—stored food from that Pangolinkin girl, Famasie. Larr loved it. Raphaëlle was getting closer to coming of age. Her body grew weaker by the day, but her spirit was highly energized—even her breathing was hot.
Raphaëlle wiped her mouth and looked at the ancient tome Fischer handed her. The Dragon Court script on it had been annotated with a quill, and beside each section was a neat line of Nary cursive, though Raphaëlle couldn’t read it.
Fischer had a habit of annotating books. On the second read-through, those notes reminded him of his earlier thoughts, which could help expand his ideas.
“The underlined parts—help me explain the wording.”
Raphaëlle opened her mouth, then flipped to look at the book cover.
“Wait a minute, this is our Dragon Court Grimoire. Where did you find it?” “Bought it.”
Fischer lied with a blank face. The supplementary manual was visible only to him, and he wasn’t about to tell anyone it existed.
“...Just how many treasures have you humans dug up? Even our own tribe doesn’t have something like this—maybe only the oldest tribes might have one or two copies.” Raphaëlle flipped through the contents and added, “We don’t really use magic anymore. Even though it’s powerful, it also harms the user easily. It’s probably been ages since there was a Dragonkin mage...”
Looks like the Dragonkin aren’t stupid—they know the flaws of their own magic.
Fischer thought back to last night’s spell and suddenly felt that Dragonkin mages were basically self-destruct soldiers—just charge into enemy ranks, shout “cast magic,” and everyone dies together on the spot.
“It’s just for academic research. Maybe I can even help you improve some spells... The wording in here is very archaic, so it’s a tough read. I need you to help translate part of it.”
Raphaëlle shot Fischer a suspicious glance. She didn’t quite believe he would do something so selfless. But just like he said last night—he truly could put aside his prejudices and focus wholeheartedly on studying and understanding something, even if it was something humans considered lowly, like the culture of Demi-humans.
Raphaëlle fell silent for a moment, then pointed with her clawed finger at the first place Fischer had marked, beginning to translate the content for him.
“When the dragon finishes its claw strike, the fire shall boil and rage...”
As Raphaëlle explained the obscure and archaic grimoire, Larr blinked beside them, glancing at the two white Dragonkin with dark circles under their eyes.
“You two! You totally went off to have fun without telling me yesterday! Spill it—what was so fun you didn’t want to invite me?”
Cachil and Fassil seemed lost in thought and were startled by Larr’s sudden outburst. Black lines appeared on their faces as they poked her cheeks.
“You little brat...”
“Back off, yesterday...”
The two of them exchanged a glance, then both guiltily said in unison:
“We didn’t sleep well.”
Larr chewed on this new word—“little brat”—that her sisters had just used. She got curious about where they learned it. Just as she opened her mouth to ask, the two sisters stood and walked off in another direction, clearly not wanting to deal with her.
Who knew what had gone through their minds last night? That human’s touch had made them feel like they were burning. Even the two of them, who usually slept together, had kept some distance, afraid of being touched in the same place again. The shame lingered all night, and they hadn’t slept well at all.
Since Fassil and Cachil wouldn’t play with her, Larr just wandered nearby. She saw the Spiderkin Sia—whose face looked normal again—and the Brain Demonkin Korriri come out of the cave.
Seeing the giant Spiderkin, Larr got scared for a second, but quickly put her hands on her hips and made a face at her. Just as Sia frowned and began to move, Larr bolted toward Fischer.
“This little Dragonkin!”
Sia gritted her teeth and was just about to move, when the half-illusory Korriri stopped her with a glance.
“Don’t stir up trouble, Sia. We’re still alive because that human is different from the rest...”
“That’s only because we’re still useful.”
Sia muttered under her breath, pouting.
“Maybe so...”
Korriri drifted toward Fischer, and after drawing both his and Raphaëlle’s attention, she slightly bowed and said,
“Lord Fischer, the materials have all been prepared this morning. Tonight, we can hold the coming of age ceremony for this young Dragonkin lady.”
Fischer nodded and replied calmly,
“Once the ceremony’s done, we’ll leave.”
“The ceremony must be done near a water source. There’s a lake near the forest here. If you don’t mind, we’ll set off this afternoon. If all goes well, she’ll emerge tonight as a true Dragonkin warrior.”
Fischer glanced at the weakened Raphaëlle beside him. The crimson scales on her hands had already started to shed, and underneath, tougher scales had begun to grow.
Upon closer inspection, he realized her breathing had become rapid. Every breath released a large wave of scorching heat, like a steam engine inside her was running nonstop.
Everything pointed to the same conclusion: this one-of-a-kind red Dragonkin was about to come of age.
Fischer lowered his head to meet her emerald eyes. After a second, Raphaëlle was the first to look away. She wasn’t good at holding eye contact with this human—especially after everything they’d been through.
After she looked away for a moment and was about to meet his eyes again, he had already turned and was walking toward the wagon, his voice drifting farther and farther away.
“Then let’s get ready to move.”
“......”
“Lady Raphaëlle, you’re finally coming of age!”
The next second, Larr pounced and broke Raphaëlle’s train of thought. Her small body nearly knocked Raphaëlle over, but luckily Mir caught her from behind.
“My mom always said when Raphaëlle comes of age, she’ll be the most beautiful and powerful Dragonkin. When I grow up, I want to be like Lady Raphaëlle too... Too bad my scales aren’t red. I heard humans can dye theirs—should I dye myself red too?”
“Lady Raphaëlle, you’re finally going to come of age... If we were in the tribe, the chieftain and everyone else would be so happy to see you growing up.”
Mir smiled, and Raphaëlle couldn’t help but think of her parents.
That aging couple would probably still give her a stern look even at a time like this.
Among their children, only she had red scales. It had always made her feel like the odd one out, like her parents’ gaze toward her was different from how they looked at the others. So she always wanted to avoid their eyes, avoid their lectures.
But now that she was away from the tribe, she missed them more than ever—she desperately wanted to see them.
If it were them, surely they’d look at her adult self with pride.
She gently held Mir’s hand. The scales on her hands and legs were so fragile they fell off just from this action, but her breathing grew hotter and hotter, like she was scorching the very air.
She was about to come of age.