“Ehehe~ Just look at your race. It’s hard not to be suspicious, you know.
Even though you’re quite obedient now, who can guarantee what you’ll be like in the future?”
“Then we’ll wait and see, I guess. No one can say for sure what’ll happen. But don’t worry, even if future me turns bad, at most I’ll just use you as a plush ball.”
Grenasa waved his hand with a mischievous grin, making Golly put her hands on her hips, half-joking and half-annoyed.
“Hey, you sure have the nerve to say that! Come on then, if you dare, I can be your plush ball right now!”
“If I’m being improper, don’t you go along with it! Alright, alright, enough nonsense, let’s hurry and get started with the lesson.”
“Lesson? Lesson for what? Education?”
At that, Golly quickly pretended to panic, hugging her chest and backing away.
“Wow, I didn’t think someone as young as you would have such thoughts. Sigh, well, you’re a Red Dragon after all, I can understand. Come on then, who’s to blame? You’re my disciple, after all.”
She closed her eyes and opened her arms, as if bravely accepting her fate.
“I didn’t say that! You’re the one twisting my words! You’re just bullying me because I’m a newly hatched wyrmling, aren’t you! Just wait until I’m an adult if you dare say stuff like that again!”
“Ehehe~” Golly stuck out her tongue, making faces.
Grenasa felt like a herd of wild horses was galloping through his mind. He’d only made a casual joke, but now it was out of control.
Just as he was left speechless, Golly seemed to tire of the game and finally got serious, ticking off her skills one by one on her fingers.
“Alright, enough playing around. What do you want to learn first? As your master, I’m best at alchemy, runes, and astrology, then forging, magic, martial arts, and a bunch of other miscellaneous stuff.”
Golly was skilled in many things, though none to the utmost peak—she was stuck at bottlenecks in all of them.
If she could just break through in any one, she’d earn the title of Great Sage.
Still, being just a step below the peak, she was more than qualified to teach Grenasa.
“It’s all the same to me. If I have to pick, I guess alchemy.”
To Grenasa, it didn’t make much difference—before reincarnating, he was already quite talented in various disciplines.
So anything was fine, but alchemy seemed the most broadly useful.
Hearing his choice, Golly clapped her fist into her palm, delighted.
“Alchemy’s great! In the future, if you want to woo a girl, just give her a potion, see if she can still resist you then!”
… ‘Well, looks like I’ve completely activated this old pervert’s true nature.’
Grenasa didn’t bother to respond anymore, and Golly, seeing his silence, lost interest and finally got down to business.
She pulled out a thick, ancient-looking book bound in leather and handed it to Grenasa.
“To learn alchemy, you have to start with materials. This book records information on common ingredients in detail. Memorize it first, and come to me when you’re done.”
“Uh…”
He was a bit speechless, but at least this was the proper way to go about it.
You have to learn to walk before you can run. Back when he first wanted to study alchemy, they always had him memorize ingredients first.
But as someone who’d only finished high school, Grenasa didn’t have much of an academic background and couldn’t remember all the complicated information.
Somewhat lacking in confidence, he flipped open the first page. It showed a common green herb, complete with a clear color illustration.
“Windgrass, hmm…”
It was just an ordinary roadside weed, but since it was the most basic ingredient and had so many uses, its entry was packed with information.
Grenasa, nervous at first, thought it would take a long time to memorize it all.
But in his dragon body, a single glance was enough for him to remember everything, word for word—he could even recite it backward.
“Oh-ho~”
The new experience gave him a powerful sense of curiosity and accomplishment. He squatted on the spot and started reading and memorizing page after page.
Seeing his enthusiasm, Golly still muttered in disbelief.
“This doesn’t make sense. Red Dragons aren’t supposed to be this well-behaved. And he’s that old guy’s descendant, his temper should be even worse. Is the problem with his mother? No, that can’t be right. How strange…”
When she had first retrieved the eggs, she confirmed the dragon mother was just an ordinary, newly adult single Red Dragon.
Even among the whole clutch, only Grenasa stood out as unusual, easy to spot at a glance.
“Can a mutation even affect temperament? If so, that’s not bad at all. If he stays like this, keeping him around might be nice.”
A smile appeared on her delicate face, but it soon vanished as she turned away with a sigh.
“I’ll have to brew another batch of that potion. Red Dragons are such a pain—the materials are so hard to find, and now I have to go out again.”
She glanced at the engrossed Grenasa and didn’t disturb him. She left a box of food and a note beside him, then left.
When Grenasa was finally pulled away from his reading by hunger,
he was so starved he was nearly dead…
“So… hungry… What’s going on?”
He lay weakly on the ground, his body now little more than skin and bones.
Neglecting sleep and food was not a good idea for a young dragon with such huge dietary needs.
But there, in a prominent spot before him, was a treasure chest-shaped box.
With great effort, he reached out a claw and opened it. The box was packed to the brim, and a few pieces of fresh meat, unable to stand the squeeze, tumbled out.
Grenasa didn’t waste a single movement. Without thinking, he stuffed his face, wolfing down the meat.
A few bites later, he instantly digested the food, and his nearly skeletal body was gradually restored by the nutrients.
“Whew, that was close. Almost became the first Red Dragon to starve to death from reading too intently. Is that a respectable or disgraceful way for a Red Dragon to go?”
He figured a studious Red Dragon was a good thing, but starving to death was just embarrassing. Hmm.
Before he could think further, he noticed a note stuck to the underside of the box lid.
[You were reading so intently, I didn’t want to interrupt. I’m going out for a while. Ration this food. And like I told you before, don’t touch anything you shouldn’t—if you die, it’s not my problem.]
“She’s gone out? Hmm… I wonder what’s going on outside. I don’t even know how long I’ve been dead, can’t ask directly either. But it can’t have been that long, and those guys shouldn’t die that easily. Sigh… I’ll just take things as they come. There’s no way for me to get revenge right now anyway.”
Grenasa went back to the materials compendium.
Time passed, as Grenasa alternated between eating and sleeping, with no clue how long it had been—there was nothing to mark the hours here.
Anyway, by the time he was a third through the book, a knocking sound echoed from the distant gates of the Crystal Palace.
The sudden noise broke the silence of the hall, snapping Grenasa out of his trance.
He turned to look at the enormous crystal doors, eighty meters high, where the knocking reverberated in a rhythmic thumping.
The sound was gentle enough, but the knock seemed to be coming from about forty meters up.
Whoever it was, they were huge. It probably wasn’t Master coming back, so who could it be?
It couldn’t be Golly—otherwise, she would have come right in. That made Grenasa very wary.
He made no sound, nor any move to open the door, pretending there was no one inside.
The knocking went on for over ten minutes, still rhythmic, but gradually slowing.
A few minutes more, and the visitor finally stopped, leaving nothing but silence—perhaps they had left.
“Hmm… Whatever, I’ll just wait for Master to return.”
Grenasa didn’t pay much mind to the episode, deciding to wait for the grown-ups before taking any risks.
After the knocking had faded for a long while without returning, Grenasa focused on his reading again.
No telling how much time had passed when, at last, the huge doors swung open with a clatter.
A gigantic, semi-transparent white dragon appeared in the doorway, refracting shimmering rainbows, accompanied by a rush of wind and snow.
Golly had finally returned.