Chapter 211 - My Dragon Wife Is Feeling Down

  We spent a good while talking about life at the academy, which gave me the ce to learn more about Nora. She art of the prince's css in her sed year aiohat she possessed the water element. Her dream after graduating was to bee a Builder Mage and work at the healing potion factory.

  The task of Builder Mages of Water was delicate and demanded absolute precision. Nora expihat potion tainers, due to their fragility, could only be handled by water mages since even wind mages were sidered too unstable for the job. The factory had a fully flooded area beh its facility where the potion tainers were immersed in water. Water mages like Nora trolled the fsks through this enviro, guiding them through the produ process with gentle, exag care.

  Additionally, the potion-making process demanded a special type of water—mana-infused water geed by a mage's own power. Purity was essential in this process, which made regur water unusable. Any ination, no matter how minor, could ruin aire batch, making the precision and trol of water mages absolutely crucial.

  Not t, but I think I’ll do well on that healing potion exam.

  My mother and Martha tialking with the Norfolk family iting room, so I decided to head up and che a certain “little one”. Wheered my room, I found Cyl curled up on the bed. She y with her back to the door, staring at the wall with a posture that radiated a stormy mood.

  “Need a hug?” I asked, approag her quietly.

  She g me sideways, her eyes glinting slightly.

  “Not even that’s gonna fix my mood…”

  “Sorry,” I sighed, “I shouldn't have joked like that.”

  She's really feeliive.

  I turo leave when, suddenly, she called out:

  “Wait!”

  I stopped, turning bad trying to decipher her feelings.

  “What is it?”

  “You… wouldn’t abandon me, would you?” she asked softly, hiding her fa her paws.

  I sat down beside her on the bed and, without hesitation, began to gently pet her head.

  “Don’t worry. I’ll never let aake you away. Whether it’s a king, queen, emperor, or even a god… I’ll never abandon the ones I love.”

  This romise I held in every fiber of my being—my family came before anything, even my own life.

  “We’ll stay together until the end,” I added, teasing her with a geweak to her tiny nose.

  She let out a soft sigh, almost like a whisper.

  “Yeah… until the very end,” she said.

  To cheer her up, I decided to do something she had once hi ihoughts. I y beside her, pulling her close in a gentle hug. It was funny how calm she looked, almost vulnerable, lying there.

  “ you stay with me like this tonight? I’m cold…” Cyl murmured.

  I rolled my eyes, smiling.

  “Liar. You’re a phoenix, you don’t get cold.”

  ‘Darn… almost had him vinced…’ I heard her think softly, like a faint whisper.

  I was surprised to realize that our bond had deepeo the point where I could hear her thoughts. This occasional telepathy was happening more often now, though I didn’t fully uand how. Maybe it was best to tell her—I didn’t want to invade her mental space, or hear something that might embarrass us both.

  Finally, Cyl's mood seemed to have improved. Ever sihe i earlier, she’d been unusually sensitive, her reas strangely more human, as if, little by little, she was abs these feelings and vulnerabilities. It reminded me of how my own childlike body had affected me, shaping my mi, and it was clear that Cyl was experieng something simir in her current form.

  That guy, Sebastian, nearly undid all the progress I’ve made over these years… he has no idea the danger he was in.

  I thought ba how much she’d ged over the years. From an angry, vengeful phoenix, marked by months of impriso and suffering in those s, she was now gradually allowing herself to feel and trust again. Her hatred for humans, fed in that prison, had been a barrier that I’d been trying to break down with patiend care.

  I uood her anger – after all, I’d once destroyed all of Olympus out of a festering grudge, even knowing that not all gods had wronged me directly.

  “’t get rid of that white mark on your forehead?” I asked, standing up and sitting on the edge of the bed, sidering a solution. “If we could remove that mark from your forehead, maybe you wouldn’t be reized as a moon panther.”

  She shook her head, frustrated. “I ’t do that. My Body Aspect isn’t flexible enough for that. When I tried to imitate ellian’s form, I had to stay in dragon form for nearly a month before I could adapt it to a phoenix form.”

  I was surprised to learn it was such a lengthy and plex process.

  “I’m stantly using the Body Aspeaintain this phoenix appearance,” she tinued, “but my flexibility for alteriails is limited. This form is an ‘outer shell,’ and my dragon form is developing io modify the ‘shell,’ I’d have to reverse everything a ton form.”

  I sighed, realizing just how challenging it was for her to keep her form. Part of me had already suspected as much.

  “Then maybe it’s better to leave it as is,” I said, resigned. “There’s no way to hide a dragon in a pce like this. And you don’t have to pretend it’s just exhaustion... I know you’re like this because your mana is stantly low from sustaining this form. You’re straining yourself to keep this appearance, and it’s hurting you. I o find a way to hahis.”

  Before I could tinue, she jumped into my p, her expression distressed.

  “Please don’t send me away. I want to stay here with you… especially after what happened with those assassins. I don’t want to lose the only person I have in this world.”

  The siy in her words hit me like a punch. I looked into her eyes, now brimming with uears, and the weight of her request struck me.

  “I don’t want you harming yourself by keeping your mana this low. you shift bato phoenix form?”

  “No… I o go into beast form first… it’ll take some time before I regain the phoenix form…” she said, looking a little downcast.

  I don’t want to hurt her, either. Just as I care about her, Cyl also worries about me.

  I thought over my options and realized there was a small window of opportunity.

  “The academy takes a break for a few weeks to allow o return to their territories, since many of them hold political positions. Normally, academy time is four years, but here it’s five, specifically to include advanced tent and these breaks they give. We could try shifting you bato phoenix form during that break aurn to Evenhart territory.”

  Cyl thought for a moment, looking at me with a bit more hope.

  “All right, thank you for uanding… my beloved,” she said, resting her head on my p.

  “You mean ‘beloved’ in the sense of friends, right?”

  “No, more than friends.”

  I sighed.

  I’ll have to have a talk with her about that ter…