The dark sky remained as usual.
The towering towers and walls cast long shadows under the gray sky. The dragon, which had roared earlier, lay crouched on the ground, its enormous black body covered with flickering scarlet runes of shifting light and shadow.
The interconnected runes looked like some kind of Magic Rune born from the natural extension, their vibrancy changing noticeably with the breath of the dragon as it stirred the surrounding air.
"A magical life formed by the wonder of nature?" Ian's gaze was drawn to the mysterious runes on the dragon's body, but before he could observe further, the Witch lightly blew a breath, sending him flying into the wall—countless vines suddenly grew from the wall's cracks, binding him tightly within them.
"Witch's Roar?"
Teacher Morgan's face showed displeasure. Her small figure looked extremely insignificant next to the dragon, yet the dragon dared not even take a deep breath, as the chains cutting into its neck spoke of the painful price it had paid for its previous roar.
"I mean, a loving call from the teacher." Ian hastily altered his original expression of intent, yet this forced rescue did not satisfy Witch Morgan.
"Ha."
She sneered, her gaze quite dangerous. Ian understood that if he didn't do something, he would surely become the target of a severe punishment from this Legendary Witch today.
"I brought a lot of candy! A whole lot!" Ian noticed that the vine binding his right hand loosened a bit, so he quickly pulled out his Money Bag and spilled all the snacks out.
The Christmas candy Ian had stashed away in the auditorium that afternoon didn't stay in his hands for long; Inspector Prince's due graft from labor all became the Witch Morgan's possessions.
Though this Legendary Witch was not one for gluttony and had criticized Ian for always carrying so many snacks, she never refused any snacks Ian offered.
This was no exception.
Seeing Ian's spilled "candy" all over the ground, Morgan's sneer softened a bit, and the vines binding Ian retracted back into the wall cracks.
"Is this your new pet, teacher?" Ian moved his blood-deficient arm and quickly glanced at the dragon on the ground, attempting to shift the topic away from his prior inappropriate wording.
The Witch didn't intend to dwell on the matter either. She disdainfully glanced at the dragon on the ground, "It's your executioner friend's so-called compensation."
"What use do I have for such a cumbersome guard?" Morgan raised her hand and gently twisted, and the chains that had sunk into the dragon's flesh slowly loosened.
"Kill it and eat it?"
Ian swallowed slightly, not forgetting about dragon meat hotpot. The dragon seemed to understand human speech, its eyes larger than those of a Poison Horned Beast filled with terror.
"Human wizard, I am just a Dragon Soul, there's no flesh for you to eat..." Not only could it understand human language, but the dragon even exhaled modern language through its nasal passages.
Indeed.
The sound coming from the nasal passage, possibly speech realized through compressed airflow.
"It can speak! Now I dare not eat it!" Ian stared with wide eyes in astonishment, it was his first time hearing that a dragon could do such a thing.
Was it due to being in a spiritual state?
While Ian was amazed, Witch Morgan merely let out a light snort, "It seems that the records of ancient history in your era have quite a few gaps."
"These creatures have intelligence above most humans and are relatively strong. If elves can learn human language, it's naturally no surprise for them too."
Witch Morgan's statement did carry some truth.
Ian hadn't yet responded.
The dragon lying on the ground couldn't help but retort, "We are higher creatures, don't compare us to those lowly elves. At least we once ruled the human world for many years."
Its tone was full of arrogance.
"Dragon Race era?"
Ian recalled Ravenclaw's message in the Hogwarts Underground Palace. Frankly, he still found the idea of dragons ruling the earth quite over-flavored.
"Exactly! We were the masters of the earth and sky!" Hearing this, the dragon's emotions were extremely agitated, its volume was so loud that the Witch furrowed her brow and tightened the chains a bit more.
"Roar..."
The dragon's painful voice, yet it did not dare make as loud a sound as before, and upon seeing this scene, Ian roughly understood how he heard the previous dragon's cry.
"In your era, did you have Word Spirit's Black King and White King? Did you have the World Tree?" Ian didn't mind seamlessly transitioning to Magic and Martial Dual Cultivation at Kassel Academy after graduating from Hogwarts.
He was just curious about the legacy soul of the dragon era, and quite intrigued by the dragon's history. This dragon was indeed much different from those he saw in the Magic Realm.
"What are you talking about?"
The dragon's eyes showed confusion; it could understand every syllable Ian said, yet when strung together, they felt incomprehensible, like listening to a heavenly book.
"Alright, seems not," Ian eventually sighed in relief; it seemed he still lived in a purely Magic World, without anything inappropriate mixed in.