"...Why exactly did you do that again?" Shizu let out a frustrated sigh beneath her mask while looking at the teen infront of her.
It was Lucien who she found in the Forest two weeks ago while she was tasked to investigate by her friend to find out the reason of the inhabitant Monster's weird behaviors.
And at the epicenter of where the Monsters are running away from, she found this very boy infront of her.
And also the one who is currently smiling innocently infront of her, as if he just didn't cause any trouble.
"I actually did a lot of things this morning so you'll have to be much more specific about this 'Why did I do what again?'." Lucien explained jovially.
"Did you perhaps mean when I brushed my teeth this morning? Actually that's pretty self explanatory already so I won't explain unless you want me to, or perhaps did you mean when I took a shower? Also self explanatory, or is it perhaps when I stretched this morning? I did that to loosen up my stiff joints." Lucien listed down the things he did this morning before he remembered something else he did. "Oh, I know, did you perhaps mean when I clogged the toilet earlier when I took that massive shi-"
In this past two weeks, Lucien's mentality quickly matured and he became more unhinged and stupidly honest person.
Shizu quickly interrupted Lucien before he could finish with a dark face, "Don't continue those words... I meant about the noble we passed a few minutes ago."
Lucien eyes lit from remembering, "Ohh, that guy?" Asked Lucien and Shizu nodded, "Obviously, I just gave him some pep talk about why he should start respecting Women, you were involved as well, so why are you asking?"
Shizu's eyes dangerously narrowed, "That's not what happened, you slapped him first then flipped him off in front of the entire plaza, we could've cause some political problems!" She unconsciously said in a loud voice.
Lucien stood his ground and looked at Shizu with unwavering confidence, "And I would proudly and will do it again if he ever tries that shit with you again, besides, you mentioned that you have a Grandmaster of an important guild behind your back, right? Then I'd love to see him try to pick some fights with us then, that is if he can."
Shizu stared at him but sighed hopelessly wondering how he even knew of this, she didn't exactly refute his past actions that he did but it went way too far when he slapped that noble, besides, she didn't want to trouble Yuuki if this really turned into a diplomatic fight.
They were just walking around the town a few minutes ago, just talking and going about their day when all of a sudden, a handsome with a herculean body (self-proclaimed) guy appeared, acting all haughty he tried to order around Shizu who he seemed to have mistaken as an adventurer with her attire to go with him to his estate to vanquish some pesky rats in his 'room'.
He did all of that while never looking at Shizu's face, not like he could actually see since Shizu was wearing her mask but that's besides the point because he did all of that while looking at Shizu's body with a lustful and hungry glare, not caring for her looks or personality at all.
Of course Shizu politely refused the offer and said that she wasn't an adventurer but a passing by traveler, and I think you already know what happened because lo and behold, he acted all arrogantly and started spewing bullshit about his status and tried to force Shizu to go with him.
He didn't even acknowledge Lucien's precence as he tried to grab Shizu's hand who was seemingly calm.
Before he could though...
"I agreed with your actions until haflway through before you slapped him straight into the concrete!" Shizu exclaimed. "You even told him t-that..." She stuttered and couldn't bring herself to say it herself.
Lucien seemingly knowing what she wanted to say, completed it. "Ohh, you mean when I said 'May your next erection be as short-lived as your soon to be bald head' Is what I think I said." He then added. "Why are you acting so coyly about it when you're literally thousandfolds my age?"
All of a sudden his pants caught on fire as Shizu's kind aura darkened as she looked at Lucien dangerously.
"H-Hey!" He quickly patted the fire down ignoring the people's weird looks. "Don't do that, what if you toast my butt into charcoals?!"
"Then maybe you shouldn't have been talking about a Woman's age." She smiled eeriely calm beneath her mask.
Women's sore topic will always be their age, no matter who they are or what they are, they would kill anyone who spoke ill or just spoke of their age.
And most men knew about it and unless they were incredibly stupid, they would avoid that topic like a plague. Did Lucien care about it though? Nope.
"Don't worry, I don't really care if you were a hundred years old Granny or a thousand years old one, it doesn't really make a difference to me, after all, it doesn't change the fact that you were the one that saved me." Lucien affirmed, besides, he was speaking logically when he said thousandfolds his age, after all, technically, he was only a two weeks old baby, he should even be pampered and not be treated like this.
Still, Lucien felt it weird that Shizu was being conscious of her age, after all, she looked like someone in her mid 20s so he wondered if there was something going on here.
Shizu who heard Lucien's words felt strangely happy and knowing that Lucien was always sincere with his words, she didn't doubt him of lying.
She has been really conscious of her age lately, after all, she is a human with a normal sense of time and she knew that she was already very old by human's standards and the only thing that kept her appearance relatively young was the... Entity inside her.
Knowing that Lucien wouldn't ever be moved with this, she just sighed tiredly and reprimanded, "Just next time, don't slap anyone, okay? You may be a newborn, but you're still a True Dragon after all." She whispered the last part.
Now, you might be wondering how she knew that Lucien was a True Dragon? Well..
It happened a week ago when they were inside their room when suddenly Lucien popped up from the bed he was laying on while he contemplated on his new life and said to Shizu who seemed to be busy reading a book that he could remember some stuff about himself now.
He told Shizu that he felt like he was floating into nothingness as a voice kept on talking inside his head and it seemed like it was giving him some abilities and even a body.
However what baffled Shizu was that the voice that spoke in his head told him that his race was a Dragon hatchling.
After all True Dragon hatchling was a...
Well, she didn't know what race it was, hell, she has never heard of any race like that.
But she sure do know of the race of True Dragons, after all, those beings are basically the incarnation of power in this World.
Those of True Dragons are basically the power balance of the world itself. True Dragons are the highest ranking beings in existence. They're nigh-invulnerable and nigh-unstoppable avatars of nature that serve as the pillars of all creation, it wouldn't be farfetch to call them a God.
Shizu knows that a handful of them exists but the only one that she knows exists is the Storm Dragon, the dragon that her teacher, her saviour once fought.
And you're telling her that the boy- Lucien that is infront of her, might also be one?!
If it truly was true then that meant that once he grows enough, there might be a possibility that he might also evolve into a True Dragon and become another pillar of balance of the World or perhaps be the one to destroy it.
She now immediately knew the answer for his immense and dense magicules and as for why the Monsters started to run away from the Forest.
She then asked Lucien for more information about the things he could remember and all he said was a thing that was all too familiar for her.
A ritual that otherworlders go through after going through this world, a ritual that grants them skills based on their own thoughts and desire.
Did that mean that Lucien was an otherworlder as well...? But then, why did he lose his memories and why did he lose his real body and inhabitated another race's body, a Dragon one at that.
Is he perhaps a reincarnated one? If so, then she felt that everything fits in, after all, a reincarnated one gets constructed another body for the Soul to inhabit, but those cases are incredibly rare so she doesn't know much about it even in her long life, being a reincarnated one might make the individual lose their memory which could explain Lucien's amnesia but she doubted that the laws of the World would allow a soul to create and inhabit a Dragon's body which still raised her suspicions about it.
She felt some inkling suspicions that something else might've happened but even after asking Lucien, she never found out anything out of the norm.
She knew that if anyone found out Lucien's race, she might be forced to be handed over to the Country or in the most likely case, be assassinated for beinga a True Dragon.
After all, The Storm Dragon's rampage back then taught the World a lesson that they already knew that True Dragon races are incredibly dangerous, so if another True Dragon is born, they would feel a sense of urgency to kill it before it matures enough and becomes a Monster.
They didn't want another Storm Dragon causing chaos again after all.
Shizu knew that and she didn't want that to befall Lucien who as far as she knew, might be unhinged but is kind and warm, and after observing and interacting with him for weeks, she couldn't stop herself from being attached to him as well.
And so, she warned Lucien in absolute seriousness to never tell anyone what he told her and explained what his race could possibly be and she made a vow to herself to not tell anyone about Lucien's race.
Now, going back to the current scene.
"Okay, I'll be careful." Lucien understandingly nodded, after all, he knew his slaps could send someone to heaven in a second if he wasn't careful.
Shizu satisfied with his answer nodded as well and looked on ahead for their destination.
"Where were we going anyway?"
Shizu jovially replied, "To the souvenir shop."
Right. She mentioned this morning that she wanted to buy some gifts for her Students in the Freedom Academy before they went home and Lucien accompanied her before they were met with the predicament they faced earlier.
Lucien's face showed a thoughtful expression. "Souvenir shop, huh. Because giving toys to children you haven't seen in a while is apparently seen in this world as a cultural ritual of affection and not some justified bribery in disguise.
Shizu smiled amusedly. "They're not bribes though, it's more on something like, 'I thought of you' kind of affection." She explained.
Lucien made a thoughtful noise, clearly unconvinced. "Mmh… I still think that it's just an advanced appeasement tactics to prevent a sugar-rushed swarm of troublesome children from interrogating you about every detail of your trip until you're spiritually hollowed out."
Shizu wryly looked at Lucien, feeling that his thought process was incredibly weird. "That's a very pessimistic way of looking at things." She then teased. "Still, you talk as if you were any much older than them when you're still basically a baby."
Lucien snorted not bothered. "And this baby here could slap a full ass grown man into the Ground and make him question if he was even standing to begin with."
Shizu chuckled enjoying their banter. "You're such a smarty-pants." She then asked curiously. "So, are you going to get anything when we get there?"
Lucien paused before shrugging, although he had some items in mind that would be liked by kids most.