Early Morning - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan
Things calmed down as time went on. Oliver, Father and Sarah happily chatted and munched on sweets while I played around with mana.
It wasn't too long after that though, that the doors to the balcony opened again.
Standing in the doorway was a well dressed, mature and voluptuous avian woman with sky blue eyes and blond hair. -That must be Helen.. the Queen.-
"Sorry for being late to the party. Did I make you guys wait?" Her face showed a bit of worry.
"Not at all." Father gave a comforting smile, likely assuming she was worried about making us wait, but that wasn't the case.
Standing just behind her was the young avian girl from earlier. Her face was still a ghastly pale and her legs were shaky.
-What's with this reaction? Is my aura that imposing?- Truth be told, it was a bit of a jarring reaction. "Miss Lucy, I'm not sure what I did to scare you, but I didn't mean to. There is no reason to fear me.." I tried to speak up to calm her down, and it seemed to work if only slightly.
Her legs stopped shaking as much and she finally started walking out to the table.
Finally seeing the state of her, Oliver looked towards Helen in a panic. "What happened?!"
Immediately tensing up, Helen glanced at me and Ilios. "I thought she originally saw Osto, but I guess it's that boy's aura that she's afraid of.." Her face was covered in a motherly concern.
As Lucy went up to sit down at the table, she turned to Father and I and gave a shaky but polite bow. "M..my name i..is.. Lucy K..Kaelallan.. it's an h..honor to m..meet you sirs..'' There was a short moment of silence as she sat down. "F..father.. w..we can b..begin.." Her voice was incredibly shaky.
-Maybe I can lessen her stress by layering my aura..- I figured lowering the profile of my mana might help subside the fear.
As soon as I layered it, Lucy's shaking slowed and her eyes changed from fear to shock. -Well.. I guess that's a bit better..-
As I leaned back in my chair and relaxed a bit, Oliver finally started the meeting. "Okay.. um… So, Osto. What did you need to inform us about?" His eyes darted back and forth between Father and Lucy as he struggled to stay formal. (noble formality stuff)
But it wasn't just Oliver who was uncomfortable. "R..right, I guess I will get straight to the point. The half breeds on the main continent have started a rebellion, and the elders have initiated a kill order for all of those involved."
Helen, who just sat down, was caught by surprise. "Wait, doesn't that just mean all the halfies on the main continent will be put to death?"
The truth was that, although half breeds were already hunted by adventurers, it wasn't uncommon for some kingdoms or cities to secretly house half breeds in their humanoid form to act as guardians of sorts.
Usually this would be a win-win, but in dragon society, it was extremely illegal for someone to use their identity as a dragon to gain merit or benefit. If someone was caught, they would be executed. But, this of course didn't stop everyone. [1]
"Please don't worry about a human war sparking from this. Bahamut is quite thorough when it comes to stuff like this." Father had a serious look in his eyes. "Alright, now I need you two to be honest. Is Kaelallan housing any halfies.."
Both Oliver and Helen broke into cold sweats. "At the very least, we don't personally know of any."
-Are they just nervous or..- They didn't seem to be lying, but I did find their reaction odd.
Father seemed to believe them though. "Alright, good. Just be sure to write an imperial edict just in case."
"Of course.." Oliver's face was covered in anxiety.
"Haah.." Taking a deep breath, Father broke his formal front and laid back. "That's all I was told to relay to you, I would have just sent a message but it was the elders orders that I came in person."
""""Phew.."""" Everyone other than Father and I let out a collective sigh of relief.
Finally able to change from the role of the king to the role of a father, Oliver quickly turned his attention to Lucy. "Now that everything is done.. Lucy, what's wrong?"
She gave Oliver a nervous glance before turning back to me. "Sir.. may I humbly ask for your name.." She quickly hopped out of her chair and gave me a deep bow.
-Ah, I haven't introduced myself to her yet.- "My name is Vasilias Whyte, its nice to meet you Princess." As I stood up from my seat, I put on a friendly smile and stuck out my hand for a handshake.
She flinched as I stood up but held her bow until I held out my hand. "T..there is no reason for formality with me.."
Seeing her nervousness start to build up again, I decided to do an experiment. -Maybe the effect of my aura could help her calm down..-
Releasing the aura I held back around her, a thin layer of it quickly washed over her.
As she grabbed my hand, she looked up and into my eyes and the shaking completely stopped. Just this time, she was staring at my face as if in a trance.
Giving a light shake, I released my grip but she kept holding on until Oliver spoke up. "Are you alright Lucy?"
As if jolting awake, she glanced around in a hurry before calming down. "Huh? Ah.. I'm fine, Father.." She looked a bit embarrassed as she hopped back up in her chair. "Sorry for causing a ruckus.."
-Success!! To think I can use my aura like that!- I felt an incredible sense of accomplishment even though no one else seemed to realize what happened.
Oliver still stared at Lucy with a deep worry. "What made you so scared?"
"It was Sir Whytes.. aur..a.." Her voice slowed as she looked back up at me.
Although relieved it wasn't anything serious, Oliver was still confused. "How does that make sense.. when you saw nation ranks you weren't anything more than a little surprised, right?"
She curiously looked at my layered aura. "He is far.. far beyond them.."
Helen and Oliver glanced at each other as things didn't add up. "How does Osto's aura compare to the nation ranks then?"
"His is similar to Mothers.."
Helen's eyes quickly locked on Father as if wanting an explanation.
Father just found the whole situation funny. "Haha, you guys must have forgotten that not only my physical strength but also my mana reserve and aura are limited in this form." His laugh quickly lightened the mood.
Lucy's face was washed with confusion though. "Uhm.. excuse me… Um.. what did you mean by that?"
Seeing an opportunity she couldn't let pass, a sly smile came to Helen's face. "Sweetie, you remember that story I used to tell you about my adventures with a dragon?"
"Yes?" Lucy wasn't quite following.
"Well those stories were true, and Osto over there is the dragon in it."
As if her world blew apart, she blankly asked a question without thinking. "So you two are.. dragons?"
Father and I both nodded, but Lucy didn't even react. Her gaze just slowly fell to the ground as she tried to think things through.
Giving her mind a moment to catch up, Helen brought up a good question. "So why is Vasilias's aura so.. ridiculous compared to yours?"
"That's because of the form I'm using, Vasilias awakened his true form whereas I have to continue using a temporary one."
She tilted her head slightly as if to try and remember something. "What's the difference again?"
"A true form is a dragon's true humanoid transformation. They can't change their race or appearance unlike with temporary forms but it comes at the cost of limiting our mana and physical strength far more than true forms. To be fair though, even the mana in my dragon form can't compete with Vasilias.."
Slowly breaking out of her own thoughts, Lucy finally looked back up at us. "W..wait.. so what determines a dragon's race in their true form then?"
"Well if they are a true dragon, they have a dragon humanoid form, if they are half breeds, it's the race of the non dragon parent."
Lucy nervously turned her gaze to me. "So is Vasilias not a true dragon?"
"Well, he was born one.." Father gave an awkward response. "Long story short, because of an artifact he activated when he was a newborn, his race was.. altered." Father gave me a guilty glance.
Stepping in for Lucy once again, Helen looked at me. "So what's his race then?"
"Half dragon, half ancient fenrir."
An awkward silence ensued as everyone stared holes into me
After that, Father and I continued answering everyone's questions until Lucy's mind finally started catching up.
It wasn't until things finally started calming down that I got bored and said something that would lead to a deep rabbit hole. "So how about you tell us some of the stories from when you all were adventuring together, Father.."
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[1] - What this means is, if a dragon (pure or halfie) exposed their identity as a dragon to a humanoid species for their own benefit other than survival (like skipping adventurer ranks, or getting tax money), they were to be executed.
Basically, if a dragon abuses its status as a dragon in front of humanoids, they die.