"But, what are you doing here?" Amity asked the question again.

"I'm just passing by. I need to go to another continent," I answered.

"Oh? Are you going to the central island for the nesting season? Athor is preparing it," she said. I was at a loss for words. Nesting season? What?

"What? N-no, nothing of the sort," I answered.

"Yeah, I guess it makes sense. You seem too young to lay eggs, and you're a male, it would be more difficult to lay eggs as a male," she said.

"I– don't think males can lay eggs?" I said, more of a question than an actual statement. I don't know a lot about dragon biology. Who knows? Maybe they had something like the seahorses, where the male gets pregnant.

"Oh, yeah. You're right," she said, nodding vigorously. "I don't know why I thought you were going to lay an egg."

I stayed silent. While it was my idea to approach her, I wasn't prepared for the randomness she was saying.

"Oh yeah, let me ask you. Have you passed by Flamecrest?" She asked. "More or less in that direction," she extended her arm and pointed her fingers towards the direction I assumed was Flamecrast. It had been so long ago for me that I didn't exactly remember where it was.

"I think so, yes. Why?" I answered.

"Oh, just checking. By the way, did you feel anything weird happening near that place when you passed through?" She asked me.

"Not that I'm aware of," I imagined she was talking about the origin magic she was looking for, and at the same time, it seemed like she completely forgot that she had told me as much.

"I see…" She stayed silently for a few moments, her right hand cupping her chin in thought.

As I stared at her, waiting for her to resume talking, I noticed the older human approach us with a little apprehension due to my presence. If one creature capable of mass destruction was already a stressful situation, if you placed a dragon on the side, it would only make the stress worse.

"Excuse me," He started, breaking Amity's thoughts and bringing her back from wherever she was, back into the real world. "As I had stated, Lady Witch, we are offering a small banquet for your honorable presence, and this also extends to your– dragon friend."

"Oh, nice!" Amity beamed at the information and then turned to me. "Then let's go, Denaru. It is Denaru, right? If it isn't, I can name you Denaru, it sounds important."

"Yes, my name is Denaru," I told her, taking notice that she said my name sounded important.

"Cool, cool. It's not like I could give you a more awesome name or anything," she started saying while pouting a little. "Something like 'Astral Devourer', you know?"

I stared at her.

"Just throwing names that I could have given you, 'Dreamslicer', 'Voidheir'. Just throwing names to the wind, you know?"

…

"Aham." The old human cleaned his throat. I looked at him, then back to amity, and then back at him. He just looked at me with a confused smile on his face. "Shall we be going? The longer we wait, the more of a crowd there will be."

"Oh, I don't mind," Amity said. Couldn't she read the room? Was she dense?

"Erhmm," The guy was lost on what to say to her. "The food will grow cold(?)"

Was that a statement or a question? It sounded more like a question, but Amity seemed to face it at face value.

"Oh no! Then we must hurry! Your magic is too weak to properly keep food warm!" She half-shouted and then started marching towards the middle of the city.

"Oh yeah, so weak," I heard the guy murmuring in a sarcastic tone. He looked at me, waiting for me to start walking to guide us there.

The walk through the city was the easiest part, the soldiers pushed everyone away from us and told them not to bother us. I could see how I was attracting a larger crowd than the true monster in front of me. People were staring and children were pointing towards me, making me feel self-councious.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

We were led directly to a big room when we entered the estate. By the decoration in the place, it was probably the hall where they hosted balls and other grand events.

There was an elongated table in the middle of the room. At one end of the table, there was an ornate chair, while at the other end, there was another chair, no less decorated than the first one, but at its side there was a– what the heck was that? It looked like an elongated chair without the back support, only the seating.

"Lady Amity," A man in his thirties with a purple suit who was waiting at the side of the table approached us. "And, Denaru, is that correct?"

I took a moment to confirm my name to him while I thought about how he knew my name, but I guessed that they had a communication method like phones back on Earth.

The man showed us our seats. Amity took the chair that was shown to her, and then I received the weird-looking chair. It took me a moment to understand that it worked like a type of bed. I just need to position myself on top of it and lie on it. What surprised me more than the existence of this type of chair, was that they had it on their storage ready for me.

"As we wait for the food to arrive," The man said, already seated at the end of the table. "Let me introduce myself. I am Theodric D'velon, from the Marquess House D'velon."

"Greetings, Theodric," Amity said with a refined voice that surprised me for a moment. "I am Amity Kerahlis, also known as the Witch of Pride, as I imagine you are already aware."

"I am," Theodric confirmed. The five seconds of silence that followed and the subtle eyeing me from the corner of his eye made me realize that I should introduce myself as well.

"Uh-" I stumbled at the words. "I'm Denaru Theris. Hi"

He seemed to think for a moment before turning back to Amity.

"While I am honored to be hosting one such as yourself in my city, I am required to ask the reason for your– unexpected visit. If we were aware of it ahead of schedule, we would have the chance to prepare better for your visit." Theodric said.

"Oh, it's nothing, you know?" Amity answered. Her formal composure was crumbling to dust at every word leaving her mouth. "I'm investigating something, and I thought I sensed it at around this location."

"I see…" He looked at her for a moment, then diverted his eyes to something behind her. "It seems the food is arriving. I apologize for the quantity, we weren't expecting a draconic visitor today." I felt his silent judgment towards me, but I graciously ignored it as I watched the food being served.

A dozen or so personnel came from somewhere partially hidden, bringing a couple of carts with what looked like appetizers. I could see breads, jellies, something yellow that smelled like cheese, and other raw meat pieces cut into very fine slices.

The food was placed in front of me and Amity as well as Theodric, although in less quantity. Amity didn't wait for the kitchen personnel to finish putting the plates before already grabbing a few slices of bread and making a sandwich.

Theodric looked a little stunned, but managed to keep his composure. He took a small bite of every piece of food from the table.

The only reason I wasn't eating was that I was very nervous about where I was, although I thought I was doing an excellent job of hiding it.

"What would be the something you are invested in? I might be able to help you search in the city," Theodric said.

I asked for a glass of water and they gave me a, what I could only describe as 'dragon-sized' jar of water. I started to drink from it, trying to keep calm.

"Do you have any cartomancers available? It was slightly out of time, almost as if it happened in another version of reality," Amity said.

The moment I registered what she said, the water I was drinking came out of my mouth as I started coughing uncontrollably. receiving glares from everyone in the room.

"S-sorry," was all I could say. I tried to look for something to clean the mess I had made, but the kitchen personnel were already taking the food I had sprayed water on top of and drying the table with magic that pulled the water from the fabric.

"Anyway," Amity said, turning Theodric's attention back to her. "I'm not Ellie, I can't feel temporal magic that well."

"I see," He said.

I knew what she was looking for. How could I not? It was the same thing that made me explode in a gory mess in that basement. Whatever I had done was enough to bypass the loops and catch her attention.

The rest of the banquet was uneventful. They brought a lot of food, which Amity devoured like a bottomless pit, and discussed a bit about their future plans. Theodric said he had a cartomancer in training in town, and he would offer them to help Amity. I stayed quiet the entire time, picking small portions of food not to seem rude or anything.

As the banquet was closing to its end, with most of the food having gone to Amity, I don't know how she managed to fit that amount of food into her tiny body, and I was considering resetting the loop to avoid having to come here, I felt ripples in the temporal energy around me.

I wasn't fast enough to create a temporal distortion, and I felt Jack's skill connect. I wasn't able to piggyback on his skill back to him, but I could feel his gaze on me. It was enough to freeze me up for a few seconds until his skill faded.

I looked around, but no one else seemed to notice Jack's skill, not even Amity. I guess it's only me that can feel it, then.

I could feel my heart beating wildly on my chest from that brief interaction, but I couldn't reset the loop yet. I needed to test if being near Amity when Jack finally appeared would do anything.

I looked over at Amity, who was chatting with Theodric, who, only now I noticed, was keeping the same neutral face from when we arrived. The guy had balls of steel to be able to casually chat with Amity like he was doing while being nowhere near her level of strength.

"If you could please follow Jefferson, the wolf therian near the door to your left, he will lead you directly to our cartomancer," Theodric said.

Amity thanked him with a quick and energetic "Thanks!" and jumped out of the chair, landing directly in front of the wolf person, who flinched from the sudden movement.

I also got up and followed them out of the room, following them and hoping that Amity would somehow deal with Jack

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