It’s a monumental day for Luke as it marks the first time he has unleashed his breath.
If Luke truly was the child of a dragon, and if there existed a dragon that would be his mother, then perhaps congratulations would be in order. However, what Luke received as a gift was nothing but his charred right hand, a slightly singed tuft of hair, and serious burns in his mouth, as well as a pair of slightly burnt pajamas.
Truly, what a useless gift it was.
Still, in light of the situation, the condition he was in is somewhat acceptable given that breath had just swept over him.
This was likely because the organ that generates the breath was still immature.
It could be considered a blessing that the breath manifested in the bathroom.
If he had sneezed in bed…
It could have ended in a situation he didn’t even want to think about.
But why did he suddenly breathe fire?
It had been quite some time since the horn had formed on his neck, so why now?
Was it because it was raining? Or was it because of some minor physical stimulus from the day he went to see the Third a few days ago?
Or perhaps both.
Regardless, it seemed that even if he wrapped his shield, he would need to protect that horn more thoroughly.
Anyway, due to these circumstances, Luke was unable to go to the forest today.
If he couldn’t go to the forest, he couldn’t build mana in his heart or tend to the flower beds where he had planted magic herbs.
His plans were in disarray, and it did not leave him in a good mood.
But then, it was not the kind of weather or physical state that would make him want to wander around somewhere aimlessly.
After all, it was still pouring rain outside.
Luke was gazing up at the torrential downpour pouring through the small window of the bathroom.
He had decided not to come out of the bathroom, thinking he might accidentally set something on fire in the house…
How should he put it? He felt like he was trapped in a tiny prison.
Luke lifted his charred hair from his first breath and examined it.
He hoped that, like the naturally occurring coincidence of a lightning-struck jujube tree greatly enhancing the efficiency of magical transfer, his singed hair might have enhanced magical effects for the breath.
However, the magical effect of his burnt hair, as read by his magic sight, was almost nonexistent.
“Ha, ha… as expected.”
He had poured flames over all his efforts, so it was no wonder it wasn’t intact.
The difference between the wall lumber created by the natural coincidence of lightning and jujube trees and the singed head that resulted from a mistake in bodily manipulation was vast, like night and day.
At this rate, he couldn’t use it as a normal magical material.
“Ha…”
Letting out a sigh of regret, a flicker of flame unexpectedly burst forth from his breath.
“Oh no, did some slip out?”
That was a breath he unintentionally let out alongside his sigh.
While a small flame was hot, it wasn’t nearly as intense as a sneeze.
It felt as if he had just drunk a bit of hot tea.
Still, it was an unpleasant sensation for Luke, as a mage, since it was a primal instinct going against his own will.
“…”
Well, he needed to take a bath now.
Unlike usual, with cold water.
——–
Yerna couldn’t leave hurting Luke alone and went off to work, so she stayed home.
When she heard the sound of the door knocking twice, which meant Luke was done with his bath, she brought a towel, new pajamas, and a bowl of ice.
Of course, she didn’t give him any attention, as the child might feel embarrassed.
Then Luke made a sound that seemed like “thank you”.
Yerna responded with “You’re welcome.”
After drying off and changing clothes, Luke filled his mouth with the ice Yerna brought.
It’s common knowledge that cold compresses are good for burns.
Luke’s cheeks puffed out as he filled his mouth with ice.
Surely, the cold feeling alleviated quite a bit of the pain.
Though he felt a bit like a hamster, and wanted to pinch his cheeks, he felt it wouldn’t be right to do so while the child was in pain, so he held back.
As Luke was melting the ice in his mouth with body heat and a slight breath, Yerna asked.
“Are you still not able to do it well?”
“Ha, ha… I suppose it’s… a little more difficult than I thought.”
“A little harder than you expected?”
“Heh… The… I can… it’s not… that…”
Luke was a bit impressed.
It was amazing how Yerna understood him well, even when he spoke like this.
Anyway, while rolling the ice in his mouth, Luke pondered again.
Why did he have an organ for breathing fire?
He wasn’t just using a dragon’s heart for material, was he? Surely, he wouldn’t have had that heat-generating organ amidst his materials?
Could it be he just didn’t remember?
And if it was fire, he could easily make it with magic, right?
There was no need to use his body as a match to breathe fire.
However, this complaint ultimately became meaningless.
It was no one else but Luke Irushi who shaped his body, wasn’t it?
Whether he designed this flawed structure or not.
He might not have anticipated this structural flaw, or maybe he lacked the materials and techniques to fix it. Or perhaps something happened during the process.
No matter how one thought about it, in the end, it was his fault.
Whether the creator’s intentions were included in the product or not, the responsibility for the outcome was entirely on the creator.
Thus, feeling frustrated about this and knowing he couldn’t spit at himself, Luke grasped the breath expulsion organ with his magic once more.
The sensation of manipulating an entirely new bodily organ was the best way to become accustomed to it, much like when he handled his tail last time.
No matter how much of a genius he was, he needed time to acclimate to a sensation he’d never experienced before, and trial and error was necessary.
Luke had a time when he had begun to walk and a time when he babbled.
The initial attempts were, of course, unfamiliar.
One might say that the breath was a form of babbling or taking his first steps for Luke.
Luke was ready to embrace that kind of learning with an open mind.
He didn’t particularly mind revealing his cat instincts either.
However, in this case, unfortunately, the more he tried to practice to become adept at handling breath, the more he hurt himself, and unless he had a masochistic tendency, simply practicing would naturally be unpleasant.
Frankly, if he could avoid pain, he wanted to avoid it.
Isn’t that a typical human mindset?
Of course, if it were a meaningful pain, Luke would be willing to endure it, but there was nothing to gain from this pain.
Was it just a matter of gaining slightly better control over an utterly useless breath?
There was no thought of training to enhance the power of the breath or refine it further.
Isn’t self-defense already enough with magic alone?
There was no need to depend on a power he couldn’t even properly control.
So, the goal was to become proficient enough to “not breathe” fire.
Dragon breath had already been witnessed many times in the past, so there was nothing remarkable about it now.
Of course, it remains remarkable that such breath comes from his mouth, but he certainly never wished for it.
He never desired this body in the first place.
Reflecting on this made Luke start to feel somewhat anxious.
Somehow, he began to think that this might not be the end.
“Is there perhaps some hidden ability lurking here?”
He hoped there wouldn’t be any more.
At least, not something that would be difficult for him to manage.
He tried to test if the forced suppression through magic was working by letting out a sigh, but this time flames did not burst forth.
It felt quite familiar, almost like he was forcing his body to move with only control from the Circle long ago.
But it didn’t feel alive; rather, it felt like he was a puppet being manipulated by a puppeteer, which wasn’t a nice feeling at all.
Using up a significant amount of magic as well.
In the end, he had to entirely master controlling his breath without any aid from magic…
“Ha…”
Seeing Yerna’s expression as she watched him exhale without flames showed a slight hint of color.
Was he becoming accustomed to the sensation?
That would be a truly fortunate thing.
“Luke, are you feeling better now? Can you eat something?”
But Luke shook his head.
It wouldn’t kill him to skip a few days of meals.
After all, he was immortal, wasn’t he?
Moreover, he didn’t feel particularly inclined to eat anything, even after spitting out all the ice in his mouth.
If you weigh the idea of eating versus simply savoring the coldness of the ice, the scale tips overwhelmingly in favor of the latter.
Even if he removed the ice, he certainly couldn’t have a proper meal.
At least, not today.
He had confirmed that minor bruises or scratches heal quickly, but burns…
Even burns from dragon breath would take a while to recover, even for someone with the tremendous regenerative abilities of a chimera.
Well, that meant it would take slightly longer based on Luke’s condition, but that didn’t imply it was slow healing.
If an ordinary person had burns all over their mouth, there was no way a single day would be enough.
But Yerna was very concerned that Luke, who generally loved to eat, would skip meals.
Surely, he must be hungry…
“Are you really okay not eating?”
Nod, nod.
Luke nodded and silently pointed to the ice in his mouth.
Was that an indication that it was enough?
“I understand, but if you need more ice, just call for me.”
Nod, nod.
After confirming Yerna’s departure, Luke quietly melted the ice while gazing at the steady downpour through the small window.
Feeling rather bored, Luke suddenly remembered the dragon’s blood and the liquid he had been working on during his spare time at school and home.
Those two subjects were currently likely sleeping inside the shower curtain rod along with basic preservation magic.
After taking a look around, Luke retrieved the almost-complete dragon’s blood and prepared it.
It couldn’t be suspected how long he had been in the bathroom.
Wasn’t it just the perfect moment?
Well, even if his condition wasn’t the best, he decided to think as positively as he could.
——-
After several more ice exchanges to avoid suspicion, Luke finally finished interpreting the properties of the blood.
Only the experiment for confirmation remained now.
What remained was the magic of partially demonizing the trace of the soul to nest in the catalyst, allowing the magical pattern to read the soul’s pattern, for which Luke had dubbed “Soul Reading,” and it was ready.
Every crisis could be turned into an opportunity.
Behold, did not the sudden breath serve as an opportunity for completing his research?
Luke lightly congratulated himself internally and began the incantation. Or rather, intended to.
“Eeed, Hayen…”
Had he forgotten for a moment while immersed in research that he wasn’t speaking properly?
Luke wiped his eyes and lamented.
“Oh no, even simple pronunciations are difficult.”
The muscle on his tongue, damaged by the burns, still wouldn’t move according to his will.
However, Luke didn’t want to leave his goal just one step away.
The desire to see the results of his research was a common curiosity shared by all mages.
And Luke’s curiosity was certainly no less than others.
One could hardly believe that there were phenomena in his research lab from time to time that distorted time or space.
This time, Luke decided to take a bit of a risk to see the results more quickly.
He intended to manipulate his own tongue with magic to follow the incantation.
Given that half his tongue was practically dead from the influence of dragon breath, it was undoubtedly more efficient than manipulating a heat-generating organ.
Convinced of his own reasoning, Luke swallowed the ice he had in his mouth and wrapped his tongue with magic.
After trying little adjustments, he felt it was usable.
Well, manipulating magic was as familiar to him as his own limbs.
“Zyreget, Halryn.”
The announcement of the basic incantation; this time, there were no pronunciation issues.
His mouth tinged a bit, but the dulling effect of the ice on his sensory nerves made the pain tolerable.
Luke rapidly continued the incantation.
He had no time to rest while aiming to finish 100 words of incantation on schedule.
As he continued the incantation, the magical patterns were rising, and Luke kept his eyes focused without taking his gaze away.
And just as he was about to reach 100 words.
“Wait, something’s off with the Third’s soul?”
Was it perhaps an error? Or was this the right result?
Luke was confused.
This was not the expected result.
What went wrong, he contemplated as he was pulled back into focus by a strange sensation.
“Ehh?”
This wasn’t the incantation.
It was a sign of a sneeze.
“Of all times?”
Luke knew all too well what would happen if he sneezed.
Although he would make an effort, he wasn’t skilled enough to stop his breath once it started when he sneezed.
It was almost certain he would incinerate all the research results with his breath.
Luke sealed his mouth tightly.
And while holding his breath with magic, he attempted to rearrange his research results as much as possible.
Then, he slowly tried to quell the sneeze, but…
Ultimately, he was unsuccessful.
Desperately keeping his mouth shut resulted in him sneezing with his mouth closed.
“Khuh!”
——–
Though Luke claimed he wasn’t hungry, Yerna thought he couldn’t really avoid eating something.
He needed to eat well to recover quickly.
Of course, solid meals would probably be difficult for Luke, so she was preparing cold, nourishing mixed vegetable juice.
“I wonder if I should float in some ice?”
As she was thinking that, she suddenly heard the sound of Luke opening the bathroom door.
“Oh, Luke. Are you really not hungry? Just wait a minute; I’ll make you some vegetable juice…”
She paused.
“Y-yes….”
“L-Luke! Why are you crying? Why is there blood coming from your nose?”
“I-I was… trying to… hold it… the b-breath…”
It seemed like he was saying he tried to hold back a sneeze but ended up letting his breath escape through his nose.
“Why would you hold back a sneeze? Just let it out!”
Why did he think he needed to hold it back in the bathroom anyway?
While he could at least put ice in his mouth for the burns, there was nothing to do about the burns inside his nose.
“Y-yeah… if I had been able to breathe like usual, it would’ve been…”
“Wait, wait! I have stamina potions and painkillers! I’ll get them right away!”
For Luke, today was a day he hated his body more than ever.
