Chapter 58: The Dragon’s Mountain (2)
The wyvern let out a low rumbling sound. It was almost a road but it wasn’t very ferocious.
“I will get rid of these filthy humans for you Your Majesty.”
“... I’d prefer it if you didn’t,” Yue murmured after being shocked that he could understand the Wyvern. He’d never fought a dragon or anything too similar so he hadn’t considered that he might be able to communicate with them. He quickly looked at the people around him and noted that it seemed like they couldn’t understand the Wyvern.
‘All of you leave. I’ll be fine. It isn’t going to hurt me….It might hurt you all if it feels threatened though.’ Yue said through telepathy.
‘What?! Yue, you can’t be serious!” Mai said through telepathy and looked at him incredulously.
‘It’s speaking to me. I can understand it. It doesn’t trust other humans but it seems to be okay with me.’ Yue said with telepathy, he didn’t bother hiding it from the people who didn’t know his identity as Azure Dragon, It’s not like he’d be able to hide it if it continues anyway.
Viktor hesitated but he turned to the groups that had been with Yue and motioned for them to leave with him. When they left the Wyvern turned and seemed surprised.
“As expected, your grandeur sends such minuscule beings running.”
“...Why did you come over to me...and what has been going on here with the others..?”
The Wyvern stopped flying and placed itself in front of Yue.
“I felt an incredibly powerful presence and decided to check who it was since the others are asleep. As for what has been going on…? Is that why you’re here, your majesty?”
“Yes. I heard that there was an issue.” Yue murmured, he was curious if the Wyvern had met a previous Azure Dragon since he referred to him as ‘Your Majesty’. He thought the Wyverns would see him as a threat even if they saw him as a Dragon. He figured that Viktor and Mai were confused and that the other students were even more confused.
“Humans have been messing around our territory. It’ll be settled soon though, our leader went out to deal with them.” The Wyvern said and bared Its teeth like a smile.
“Hmm...alright...I’ll be staying in the area for a few weeks regardless,” Yue said after thinking for a bit.
“Don’t attack the humans who are in the building in the forest. They’re of use to me.” Yue added.
“I can’t imagine they’re very useful though...Do you plan to eat them? Human flesh isn’t that tasty... A few of them have a lot of mana so they’d be worth eating though.” The Wyvern said and turned to face the forest.
Yue chuckled a bit, “I don't plan on eating them, I’ll need them in the future.”
“I’ll return before those humans get impatient and cause a scene,” Yue said and waved. He felt awkward acting like he saw the others as different from himself but the Wyvern would find it weird if he didn’t act this way.
Yue met Viktor and the others in the forest, not too far away from the mountain, and was immediately tackled into a hug by Mai.
“What the hell was that?!” She asked and checked Yue all over for injury.
“How could you communicate with it?!”
“Did you get hurt?!”
“...I used a cultivation technique,” Yue murmured, “And it just didn’t see me as a threat since it could understand me...It said that humans were messing around their territory and that their leader went to deal with it.”
“Deal with it?” Viktor asked.
“If ‘dealing with it’ means what I think it means….isn't that a problem..?” Alexius asked.
“It is. We should go back to that trail later and look around the mountain to see where it leads, it’s man-made so it might lead us in the right direction.” Yue suggested.
Viktor nodded and grabbed Yue’s wrist, dragging him and Mai along with him. He wanted the full explanation that Yue couldn’t give when other people were around.
“Before you even ask, No, I was not aware that I could talk to dragons,” Yue said and interrupted Viktor.
“Why did it come over and talk to you then?” Mai asked.
“I used my eyes and it sensed that and came over,” Yue explained.
“It was almost going to attack you all because you were human.”
Mai let go of him and looked at him with a confused look as she heard this.
“Wait then...Why didn’t it attack you?”
Yue looked at her with an equally confused look and then laughed a bit.
“All dragons, except for me in this form, are...not exactly blind but rather...When it comes to living beings don’t see physical forms. They see souls instead, so while you might look the same to a dragon, I wouldn’t look the same because I am a dragon so my soul is shaped like one even if I look like this.” Yue explained.
“Wait Wait Wait so you’re actually a dragon...like you’re not at all human…?”
Viktor and Yue laughed and Viktor answered for Yue. “Yes, and your Fiancé is a bird and my mom is a tortoise…How did you not know this?”
“Anh never explained this…I thought it was the other way around, I thought you were humans who could turn into the 4 beasts…” Mai mumbled.
“Well, our human forms are the forms we’re born in so it makes sense that you might think that. We are born in human form because we can’t properly develop our beastly forms with the nutrients that a human mother can provide. ” Yue explained.
“Then how did you get the nutrients?” Mai suddenly asked, retreating backward a bit.
“Dragons consume mana. Not just...whatever you were imagining. The other 3 beasts can consume mana but only in their beastly form or while cultivating, I can consume mana in this form too though.” Yue said and raised his hand out as if telling Mai to stop imagining him swallowing an animal whole.
“What do dragons see Viktor as?” Mai asked.
“I don’t know? A tortoise standing on two legs? A human with a tortoise shell? I can’t tell unless I’m in my dragon form.” Yue chuckled, he was curious about what it looked like too now.
“Show me–“
“No.” Yue immediately responded with no hesitation.
“Why not?!” Mai whined and shook Yue.
“T-That's embarrassing…” Yue said and turned away.
“Will you show me?” Viktor asked with a smirk.
“Absolutely not.” Yue immediately responded.
“Ha!” Mai laughed.
Viktor’s pout made Yue waver a bit but he was determined to stick with his previous answer. He was self-conscious about his dragon form and generally any part of him that wasn’t exactly human. He’d also technically be naked so he wasn’t very keen on doing that. He thought he’d gotten over his insecurity over not being human but he apparently had not.
—
“You're getting a little carried away there Mr. Ivanov.”
“Mr. Ivanov?” Viktor asked, raising his head from the crook of Yue’s neck, “That's new.”
“Do I not deserve to be called by my first name anymore?”
“You keep bugging me so yes,” Yue mumbled. He was trying to write things down in his report for the first day, it was night time and they weren’t on the rotation to keep watch so they were in their room. He was struggling because Viktor was hugging him from behind as they both sat on his bed. Not only that, Viktor's sneaky hands and lips were touching him all over.
“I could be doing worse.” Viktor chuckled.
“You’re so much more perverted now compared to before we were in a relationship,” Yue murmured, shifting his body. Viktor’s hands weren’t even sliding up his waist as they had been before, they were just at his sides and somehow they were making his body feel weird.
“Hm? I don’t know about that...I was just holding back when we weren’t in a relationship, I’ve always been like this.” Viktor chuckled.
‘I’m still holding back though...This is pretty innocent compared to what I really want to do.’ Viktor thought and decided to stop and took the report from Yue’s hands.
“I’ll write the rest, you can go to sleep,” Viktor said and took the pen from Yue’s hand as well.
Yue smiled a little and then paused, he was still caged in Viktor’s arms. He rolled his eyes and poked Viktor’s cheek a little, watching a little smile appear on his face.
“Ah, so that’s the catch,” Yue murmured. He gave up and just turned his body so he was resting his head on Viktor's chest.
Viktor focused on the report after a while of peeking at Yue. Yue would make him turn his face away every time he noticed him looking at him as he was trying to fall asleep but he gave up as his eyelids became heavy and he couldn’t even see if Viktor was looking at him anymore. His last thought before falling asleep was of the Wyvern’s words from earlier.
“ A few of them have a lot of mana so they’d be worth eating though.”
He knew the Wyvern was talking about Viktor and probably Mai. He almost wished he was in his dragon form so he could sniff Viktor's mana and see if he really was tasty. He wanted to giggle at the thought but it all just came out as a puff of air as he fell asleep.
Viktor finished the report for the first day and kissed Yue's forehead, using some magic to keep him asleep as he moved over to grab an envelope and some stationery to start writing a letter to his grandfather.
'It's probably normal but he told me to tell him everything...' He thought as he started writing his letter.
--
"Anya!" Viktor called from his bedroom, It was an hour before Marianne and Alexius' engagement party and he had been in the middle of getting ready when he got a pulsing headache.
"Yes?" Anya asked and quickly entered the room after hearing the urgency in Viktor's voice.
"Get me a pain kill--!"
"Young Master!"
Blood started dripping from Viktor's nose all of a sudden and they both immediately panicked, Anya brought him a napkin and held it to his nose while doing what Andrei and Elena had instructed her to do in such a situation. She checked Viktor's eyes carefully and called someone to get a doctor.
"No no, I think it's fine! I don't feel faint or anything." Viktor protested.
"The Master said--"
"I'm fine, I shouldn't be getting my blood drawn before an expedition anyway," Viktor said and showed Anyas how his nose was no longer bleeding.
"Then please stay home tonight, Young Master," Anya said and bowed her head.
Viktor sighed, he gave in and told her to send the gift he was supposed to bring with a note. He sat down at his desk and kneaded his forehead, he hoped that Anya would bring the pain killers he had been trying to ask for as well. He waved his hand and turned off every light in the room. What the hell even was this curse? Is it because he didn't end up fighting that dungeon boss?
"Nothing makes sense..." Viktor murmured and rested his head against the cool wood of his desk.
--
Yue stared at Viktor's sleeping face for a while. He didn't think that Viktor would oversleep this much but he did seem tired the day before. He smiled and kissed Viktor's forehead.
'Would he be angry if I left?' Yue asked himself as he pulled out his pocket watch and checked the time.
"Maybe not angry...Pouty probably..." Yue whispered. He slid out of Viktor's arm and kissed his cheek before going to get his blazer so he could get started with today's work. He could already imagine Viktor being pouty because he didn't wake him up. He thought it was adorable that Viktor has started being so childish around him. He giggled a little and waved to Viktor's sleeping form.