[FELIX POV]
I spend a long time just thinking, which is impressive, considering how small I am and how broken everything feels.
That's not new.
What is new is that I'm doing it on purpose.
The containment field hums faintly around me, steady, clinical, humiliating. My core feels… stable-Ish. Not healed but just not actively dissolving anymore, like a cracked cup someone keeps refilling before it empties completely.
The more I thought what I am going to do next the more I realized there were only four options available to me:
Option one: Refuse to cooperate.
This option involves me continuing to snarl, hiss, and attempt to intimidate a fifteen-year-old noble who is roughly the size of a siege tower compared to me. The upside is dignity. The downside is that my core would keep bleeding out, Cedric keeps force-feeding me mana like I'm a cracked cup, and eventually one of us collapses. Possibly both.
Option two: Attack Cedric.
HA!
Not even I can pretend to be serious about it. I'm palm-sized. I could be thrown across the room by a good wind.
Option three: Wait and watch
My current choice, but essentially the same as option one, just slower and more humiliating.
Option four: Cooperate only temporarily. Grudgingly.
Ugh! Just thinking about it makes my body shake with fury with teeth clenched so hard my jaw aches.
I hate that there is only option that doesn't end with me dissolving.
And I hate most of all he knows it too.
I curl where I am, my tail wrapped tight around my body, wings tucked awkwardly against my sides. The healing field hums softly, a constant reminder that I'm not even trusted to exist without supervision.
Well then, fine! It's not like there are any other options that leads to not dying.
Just… cooperate.
For now.
Although, just picturing his smug face makes my want to seriously reconsider option two.
Creeeeeaaakkk-
Here we go!
Cedric enters alone this time. Where are the backup cheerleaders?
There were no sharp woman and no soft woman, just him, dressed plainly wearing leather boots, travel cloak, a satchel slung over one shoulder.
He stops a few steps away from the healing field, his posture straight and his expression a mix of resignation and determinisation, as if he was determined to carry that man satchel with pride.
"Felix"
My tail flicked irritably, but considering my new found decision on cooperation I did not growl.
"I'm taking you with me," he continues. "We're leaving the estate today."
So soon?
I bare my teeth instinctively, then pause.
Crap!
I mean, I knew this would happen eventually but still the idea of me hunting random beasts and sinking my teeth into their blood was still just a thought that would happen in the future and not something I genuinely translate into reality.
Cedric watched at my non external reaction carefully.
"I need to transport you discreetly. We're going undercover."
Undercover? Why would a Duke's son need to go anywhere undercover?
I don't snarl or make a sound; I just glared at him.
He sighs, "Yes. That means you can't be visible."
Then he proceeds to shrug off the satchel and opens it slightly to show me the inside. Soft lining. Mana-insulated fabric. Runes stitched along the seams.
"For discretion," he says, "you'll need to travel concealed."
My expression, I'm certain, is pure disbelief.
"It's designed for familiars," he added helpfully, "You won't be harmed."
For a second I stare at it.
Then at him.
Then back at it.
Option two beckon me to reconsider it.
RRRRRRrrrrrrrr—
Cedric winces then he starts, "I am not—" then stops, lips tightening.
"I am not asking lightly."
Unbelievable. I glare at him, then deliberately turn my back.
My tail flicks.
Not even if hell freezes over.
"I won't force you," Cedric said finally.
"But if you don't come, you will destabilize again within hours. And I will have to sustain you continuously."
I curl tighter.
I hate that he's right.
I hate that he knows it.
RRRRRRrrrrrrrr—
Fine, I growl.
Cedric exhales slowly.
"Thanks for not being too difficult."
He steps closer and carefully lowers the satchel to the floor, holding it open.
The inside is… annoyingly well-prepared. Soft lining. Heat retention runes. Ventilation slits. A reinforced base so I won't be crushed by gravity.
Of course he planned for this.
I stomp over on all four limbs, wings awkwardly folded, and stop at the edge.
I looked up at his huge face and body one more time, then tucked my head into the satchel, the humiliation is immediate and absolute.
The things I endure to survive.
Then the satchel closed part way leaving me just enough room to see outside —stone floor, Cedric's boots, the hem of his coat and other faces.
As Cedric lifted the satchel, the world shifted then steadied, my body swaying slightly as he adjusted the strap over his shoulder.
I tried to think of anything else other than my current reality.
I, a twenty-eight-year-old man was being carried by a fifteen-year-old boy.
As we made our way outside the infirmary, I realized with a start.
This is my first time outside in this new world.
As soon as light hit my face spilling in through the satchel's narrow opening my eyes narrowed reflexively as my pupils adjusted. It was far brighter and warmer than anything I'd seen since hatching. Not the harsh glare of enchantment lamps, but real.
My new improved eyes caught how light hit the dust in the air, turned it into drifting gold that danced in the air.
The air felt different too.
It wasn't filtered or stabilized. It carried taste and texture—stone dust, metal, people, faint traces of sweat and leather and something baked, warm and unfamiliar. Bread, maybe or maybe meat. My nostrils flared before I could stop them my snout poking through the space in the satchel, instincts cataloguing everything at once.
The sky was impossibly vast. A pale blue expanse that made something tight coil in my chest. My wings itched, as if guided by instinct to do something they were currently in no condition for.
Fly.
Seeing my reactions to the outside world Cedric looked down at me and smiled.
Ssssssaaannnppp-
I closed my mouth with an audible snap as I retreated into the bag.
Cedric didn't comment as he continued forward to the courtyard where Janice and Mara were waiting.
Mara walked towards us smiled at me and pressed something into Cedrics hand.
"Storage ring. Potions, rations, emergency tools. Don't waste them."
"I won't"
Then Janice walked towards us.
"You'll be traveling as a new adventurer. No Ashvale name. No noble privileges. You understand why?"
"Yes, Felix can be targeted."
Janice just looked at him as though waiting for something more, when the silence stretched, she just signed and continued,
"And it cannot be known that a beast the duke presented is… defective"
Rrrrrrrrrr-
Cedric's voice also echoed coldly.
"Understood"
"He is already waiting in the carriage"
Cedric nods and makes his way to a common carriage located a distance from the two.
I peek out of the satchel just enough to see him.
Rowan.
Tall, relaxed, with the posture of someone who knows exactly how dangerous he is and doesn't need to prove it. His spear is strapped across his back casually, like an afterthought.
First thought He seems cool.
Mara waves. "Be careful."
Then the carriage moves out through the gates, the runes in the satchel kept me from feeling the bumps of the ride, as I turned to look at this new member.
Rowan grinned at me as he spoke, "So you are the tiny terror"
RRRRrrrrrkkkkk-
I take it back, I hate him, so he needs to die.
[CEDRIC POV]
Hmph! Is it too much to ask for a peaceful ride?
Bad enough I had to be constantly aware of Felix attitude and also my own behaviour towards him, now I also have to be conscious of Rowan's ability to irritate Felix, no this is too much.
Quickly, I cast my thoughts to find any other topic to distract Rowan and Felix from interacting more.
"So, Rowan you're a Tier three weapon wielder?"
Rowan looked at me from Felix and grinned.
"Yup, and almost Tier 4"
I looked at him impressed.
For most people Tier three weapon mastery is the highest they can achieve, Tier four is something only the talented can achieve.
Tier three involves elemental weapon integration, where the wielder coats their weapon in large amounts of elemental mana of their affinity, which allows them to create techniques and abilities unique to themselves.
While Tier four is aura mastery, in which the mastery of the weapon is so great skill transcends mana, where the wielder can manifest weapon aura, which allows them to unleash devastating attacks on par with Tier three with little to no mana
It is only now I came to realize just how formidable my guide truly is.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
AN: What did you guys think of the chapter? Comment, review, and gift power stones.