Chapter 93/94: Overlooked Oddities

Chapter 93/94: Overlooked Oddities

Early Afternoon - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan

"Uwahhhhh..." *rustling* "Uuugghh..." I woke up with a yawn and a stretch before slowly opening my eyes to see that everything was exactly as I left it. -Damn, for only lasting a few days, that nap was heavenly...-

Casually glancing around the room to look for Ilios, I found him nowhere to be seen, but before I started to panic, I felt something move around on my side. -Huh?! Oh... I forgot he climbed up with me to nap...-

Seeing him still asleep but about to roll out of his spot, I gently repositioned myself to make him a bit more secure.

"Mmmgh..." He let out a muffled groan as I shifted him slightly.

-My god he is so f*cking cute...- The bliss his adorable self made me feel was simply unparalleled, but eventually, in an attempt to pass time and let him wake up naturally, my mind started to wander.

Before long, my mind got onto the topic of my dragon sleep, where I finally remembered there were some changes I hadn’t looked much at. -Now that I think about it, I never really looked at my organs with much detail before leaving for Zan, did I...-

Idly thinking back to when I was looking at my new skeletal structure right after my dragon sleep, I finally took a moment to look more closely at the image my aura painted in my mind at the time, but I quickly started noticing several.. anomalies... -What the... Am I just remembering things wrongly? That can’t be right...-

*Vwoomm* Thinning my reserve to let out more aura, I did my best to get a more detailed look at things, but I was left more confused than anticipated.

-How did I just.. gloss over this? - Although I was well aware that my organs had been ‘repositioned’ a little bit after my body was reconstructed, I had no idea it was to such an extent. -How was I so caught up in my appearance that I didn’t even question this...-

My vitals were not even remotely recognizable, with my lungs, stomach, and breath gland being the only proper organs remaining. -This.. isn’t normal for dragons, is it...-

Even my heart was simply gone, with only a web of veins that wrapped around my lungs before spreading to the rest of my body and taking its role.

But the oddest part was that it was actually consuming some of my aura. -I'm not imagining that, am I?- Looking at it closely, I could see a microscopic amount of mana being used to simulate blood flow, and split the atoms and particles collected from my lungs into the necessary chemicals.

-To think even my body itself would adapt to utilize my mana...- Thinking back to my dragon sleep, I remembered not eating anything for nearly 8 years and yet I didn't starve or even get hungry.

At first, I just thought my body was just being extremely efficient at not creating waste and making the food I did have last a long time.

This theory wasn’t unfounded either, since I never had the need to go to the bathroom after the dragon sleep that I awakened mana, but when I looked at things on a more cellular level, I found that my body was actually constantly recycling what would be considered waste particles into its base chemicals to then be reused.

Those chemicals would then meet up with the chemicals dropped off by my blood to make everything the cells needed to not only sustain themselves but grow.

In a way, I was basically sustaining myself with the particles in the air and my mana. -I really am a freak of nature, aren’t I...-

For several minutes, I sat there totally speechless and just watched as my cells utilized my exuding aura like I would use mana, with mind-blowing precision.

-How in the world is it so accurate? - I wracked my brain for a while to try and figure out how it was doing it since it was so far from possibly being natural, but the only thing I could think of that was plausible was that my subconscious was doing it.

But that idea itself was quite farfetched. -Even if I focused everything I could on it, I wouldn’t be able to keep track of even a tenth of these reactions... But I guess the information my brain processes when I read aura is a lot too...-

But as if he knew what I was thinking, Ilios moved over and rubbed his head against my side.

Almost immediately, an irresistible comfort wrapped around my mind. "Huh..." Feeling that the conflicting feelings simply vanished, I looked down to see Ilios wagging his tail with a smile on his face. "You... Haah, never mind... Thank you, Ilios." Instead of questioning him, I just leaned down and petted him until we got to the top of the lift. -How did he even do that.. it wasn’t with aura or mana, so.. what could it have been?-

But the more I thought about it, the more confused I got.

It wasn’t until I walked out through the palace gates that I finally gave up though. "Haah, whatever..."

Finally pulling myself out of my thoughts, I started walking down the main street that had a cool breeze blowing up it, carrying the smells of food with it. -What a refreshing scent...-

As I walked down the street, I took my time to look around and enjoy the warm sun and cool breeze, but quickly noticed that there weren’t many knights. -I guess there really is stuff I missed while I was asleep...-

Curious as to what could have happened, I continued just a bit further down the street before turning into the guild. *creakk*

But the inside of the guild was nearly empty as well. -If it's just adventurers and knights, is there some kind of conflict going on?-

Nonchalantly walking up to the desk with a familiar receptionist who was on the verge of sleep, I lightly tapped the desk to wake her up. -Her name was Ellen, right?- *tap-tap* "Miss Ellen, did something big happen recently?"

The receptionist jolted up immediately. "Ah, y~yes s..sir!" She slurred her words a bit as she spoke.

-Does she ever have time off to sleep? Every time I’ve been here, she’s been dead tired...- "What did I miss?"

"Hm?" She looked a bit confused before remembering what I said. "Oh! Kaelallan declared war on the Kingdom of Zan. They sent out the march this morning."

"Huh?" -Isn't that a little too hasty?- "Did any Nation ranks go with them?"

"Yes sir. Sir Keen is leading the charge." She said his name with a sense of pride.

"Was he the only Nation rank that went?" -I guess they don't really need much more than that since I cleared the path already though...-

"Unfortunately, yes. The Grandmaster is still recovering in the academy."

"Ah.. right..." -I forgot about that...- "Well, besides that, were there any other big events?"

"N..nothing of note, sir." She spoke a bit awkwardly, like she purposefully left something out, but I didn’t bother digging into it.

-I'll just ask the librarian if there’s anything else...- "Sweet. In that case, I'll be on my way. Have a good day!"

"Y..you too sir!" She got flustered when I gave a hasty goodbye, but it was nothing out of the ordinary.

-It seems I’m finally getting used to how awkwardly people talk with me...- *creakk* Walking out of the guild, I glanced around before turning back up the street. -Let’s see what the upper levels of the library have to offer, shall we?-