While the ship they had boarded, the mariti, was drifting across the seas, Wise was laying back on a lounge chair, soaking up the sunlight.
It was evening already so the sun was not at its most intense point, instead, it was a calm soothing light accompanied by the ocean breeze.
The ship was large, easily capable of carrying more than a hundred people, rooms had not yet been assigned so while they waited, Wise was using the opportunity to enjoy himself.
Daphne was sitting in her own chair right next to him, her hands folded across her chest. "Are you going to lay there all day?"
"I see why not."
"Tch. I have nothing to do," Daphne said, annoyed by the lack of action.
Wise opened his eyes slightly to glance at her. "Then sleep like you always do, or go play whatever those three are playing."
Not too far from them, underneath a shade Freya, Es and Aofie were huddled around a table, their expression serious.
He had assud they were playing a ga, but now that Wise thought about it properly, maybe they were not?
Well, he was about to find out because the girls left the table, much to his horror and began walking toward him.
When they arrived, Freya and Aofie sat on the chair opposite him while Es joined Daphne, effectively surrounding him.
In Wise’s experience... Nothing good ever ca good from getting this kind of attention from them.
He sat up and pushed his blue hair backward. "What?"
It was Aofie who spoke, "You’re a ’blue dragon’ right? How co you breathe fire? Aren’t you a type of water dragon?"
Wise moved his annoyed gaze to her. There was nothing more annoying to dragons than misinterpreting their race.
He felt an innate feeling that was foreign to him pushing against the idea. It was like his body was deeply offended by her statent.
’Are these my old emotions from before I lost my mories?’
Wise sighed, knowing he would not get an answer, at least not yet...
"I am not a asly water dragon!" Wise then paused and glanced at the ocean, half expecting a sea dragon to tear through the waves and attack him.
Thankfully, that never happened.
"I am more of a Sky dragon. As in SkyFire..."
Es nodded but didn’t seem surprised, then a small smile appeared on her face. "Fire dragon huh... doesn’t that an this boat is basically a death trap for you?"
"I an..." Es used her hand to mimic sothing nose diving. "Fire dragons just sink right?"
’Huh?’
Wise discreetly glanced at the girls that were now surrounding him. ’Do they plan on tossing into the river?’
Well, it would be fair ga considering a few unscrupulous details about how he ’got’ them.
But Wise knew that was not the case, the most likely thing that happened was that Es was once again itching to run an experint on him.
Probably one that could very well send him to the bottom of the sea. The very place where sea dragons dwelt!
Es was giving him a strange smile. While Aofie had her hands folded around her chest, she was snickering as she stared at him.
Their plan was flawed. Yes, fire dragons were prone to sinking like rocks, but he was a SkyFire dragon, they were fundantally different.
Wise swam like a fish.
"Don’t try anything funny..."
"I just want to run a simple test—"
"No!" Wise could rember vividly the day she dumped a bucket of scalding water on his head just to test the fabled heat resistance of dragons.
While they were bickering, Freya looked past them, at the ocean and asked, "Have you guys heard the rumors?"
"What rumours?" Aofie asked, turning to stare at Freya. Most of her armour had been destroyed during the fight, so all she had on were clothes they managed to buy at the port.
Freya leaned back on her arms, her eyes still on the ocean. "Soone said ships are repeatedly getting missing, so say it is the work of a demon."
All the girls turned their attention to Wise who had gone back to relaxing. "What?"
Daphne sighed. "What do you think about the story?"
There was a short mont of silence as Wise dug through everything he had read about monsters after regaining his mories.
Dragons surprisingly had sharp brains, rembering little details was far easier to do than when he was human.
"It’s not a demon, it’s most likely the Ship Eater monster."
Es seed confused by this. "Monster, demon, is there any difference?"
Wise was about to answer when Daphne cut in. He had expected her to properly explain it to Es, yet her answer was a simple "Yes," not bothering to explain.
Wise poked her knees to gain her attention. "Explain, a simple yes isn’t helping anyone."
"You can do the explanation part, I’m tired." Es adjusted for Daphne to lie on the lounge chair.
’So now you suddenly feel sleepy?!’
She was always taking naps in the day, but he would often catch her walking around in the night like a ghost.
"Okay, you should all take note of what I’m about to say because we are going to see a lot of them where we are going."
"There are two ways to tell a demon and a monster apart. The first one is the soul core, monsters have a soul core sowhere in their head, but demons don’t."
"Still, that is not enough to tell one apart at first glance so the second thod is presence.
"All demons no matter how small have a strange feeling that cos along with them, a kind of low buzz that makes your skin crawl."
"The greater the demon the stronger their presence and vice versa."
Es listened attentively as Wise explained and then when he was done, she leaned back slightly. "That makes sense..."
Aofie who seed to have gotten interested in the conversation at so point then asked, "Does that an you are a demon?"
Wise could understand why she would ask a question like that. Unlike him who hid his presence, Dragons often had a presence that followed them just like demons did.
But theirs wasn’t vile, just overwhelming.
"Dragons are dragons, we are neither demons nor monsters."
At least that was what he thought...
Just when their conversation was coming to a close, one of the dockhands walked up to their group with a concerned look on his face.
"Mr Wise? I’m afraid we have a problem..."
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