Chapter 49 Handling Children

As Arvell was mulling over what he needed to do, a certain memory passed through his head.

Namely Kujak's last moments.

'Didn't Kujak say he would give this dragon the ability to use illusions to hide itself?'

Lykos nodded his head solumnly.

'That's correct. After all, in order to pass on this specific power to this baby, he sacrificed his soul.'

Arvell looked at the dragon in his hands inquisitively.

"Use an illusion."

He tried to give it some kind of verbal instruction, trying his luck to see if it could understand him.

"Kyuu?"

Sadly this didn't seem to work.

"Come on use an illusion!"

He tried to communicate with the dragon, but nothing seemed to work.

Trying to communicate with a newborn was quite difficult after all.

They didn't understand any language, nor could they properly express themselves with words.

Parenting wasn't this easy.

'Arvell calm down. Agitating the baby would only do more harm than good.'

Arvell put the baby dragon back onto the bed.

'What do we do then? We can't just have it roaming around looking like that. It's far too eyecatching'

The little dragon was around the length of Arvell's arm, with lustrous golden scales.

The dragon had thin wings sprouting out of it's back, which was also coated with these golden scales.

It's eyes were an illustrious azure colour, which shone like sapphires.

This dragon was captivating to say the least.

There was absolutely no way he could just sneak it around without it being seen.

He either needed to get it to somehow get it to use it's illusion ability or hide it.

Hiding it was pretty hard as well, since Arvell wasn't sure if it would willingly let him hide it.

Children were quite curious by nature and hated to be kept in one location.

If Arvell tried to hide it, it would most likely it would get bored and wander off.

If he tried to lock it up, it would most certainly cry and make noise, which would draw attention from others.

Furthermore… Locking up children left a sour taste in Arvell's mouth.

They just dealt with slave traders after all.

Locking up a newborn the same day the human traffickers were being judged for their crimes was kind off… Hypocritical?

Arvell of course didn't care about being or not being hypocritical.

It was more of the fact that he didn't find the heart to lock the baby dragon up.

Arvell didn't want it to feel like he betrayed it or anything like that.

He didn't want to destroy it's innocence so soon.

Lykos watched the scene play out with great interest.

'This child already made it into his closed off heart? This was an unexpected development… To think someone he just met would be able to break through the walls he put around his heart…'

Arvell sat down on the bed and brought the dragon back onto his lap.

He slowly stroked the dragon's back with his left arm.

An action that the baby dragon seemed to enjoy very much.

"Kyuu~"

Reclining on Arvell's lap it brought it softly purred as Arvell continued to stroke it.

'If only I could disguise this dragon as a beast, I could pass myself off as a beast tamer... Wait… Beast tamer? Maybe 'that' might work!'

Arvell suddenly stood up in a moment of enlightenment, startling the golden dragon.

It quickly jumped off of Arvell's lap.

"KYUU?"

Arvell looked at the panicked dragon with a guilty smile.

"Sorry…"

"Kyuu…"

Seeing that everything was alright, the dragon jumped off the bed and nuzzled against Arvell's leg.

As if demanding more of his attention.

Unfortunately, Arvell was too busy have a mental conversation with Lykos to properly notice it.

'-So that's what I think would be the best course of action.' Arvell explained.

Lykos rubbed his chin while deep in thought.

'That should theorertically work… But are you sure you want to do this? You can't go back on ur decision later. At least without facing repercussions.'

Arvell thought for a moment before nodding his head.

'I don't want to break my promise. This is the least I can do for Kujak after looting his corpse.'

Arvell still had a guilty conscious for taking parts of Kujak's corpse, but he didn't want to throw away a golden opportunity to get stronger.

Taking care of this baby was the least he could do.

Arvell bent down and picked up the golden dragon.

'I just hope the little one won't resist. After all, the process will only work if the baby dragon consents wholeheartedly to this.'

Lykos shook his head.

'I don't think thats a worthwhile concern. From what I've seen, this dragon is quite attached to you. It might even be overly attached to you, treating you like it's own parent.'

With a jolt of realization, Lykos mouth curved up into a teasing smile.

'If you're technically something like my son, and he treats you like a parent…'

Arvell felt beads of sweat rolling down his neck.

'Lykos… We both know what your thinking right now… Do us a favour and keep it to yourself. Please… Don't make this weird.'

Sadly Arvell's heartfelt pleas were blatantly ignored.

'I guess this dragon is my new grandchild? To think… You would have a child at the age of 13! Don't worry I won't judge!'

Veins bulged on Arvell's forehead.

'Can't you keep your thoughts to yourself? Why? Why do you need keep doing this?'

'Your reaction makes it all worthwhile~ However, you shouldn't be worried about me. Your future marriage prospects seem to be in a far worse state. Marrying someone who is already a father is a turnoff for quite a few women. However, you do have an amazing appearance, only second to mine… I guess you'll probably be fine!'

Arvell sighed.

He learned from experience to just ignore Lykos when he got like this.

It was moments like these which shattered any admiration Arvell had for him.

'Sigh… Lets just start the process. We don't have much time.'

Lykos's teasing smile disspeard as if it never existed.

'Ok. You need to do-'

Lykos told Arvell what he needed to do.

Arvell nodded his head and picked up the dragon.

He bit a portion of his finger, allowing a fresh stream of blood to flow.

Looking at the dragon, Arvell opened his mouth wide.

He pointed to his mouth a few times, which seemed to draw the dragon's attention.

It looked curiously at Arvell and tilted it's head.

"Kyuu?"

Arvell kept repeatedly pointing to his mouth, while opening and closing it a few times.

It tried to mimic Arvell, opening it's mouth wide as well.

Before it could close it's mouth again, Arvell quickly put his finger into it's mouth, letting his blood flow into it's mouth.

The dragon was quite perplexed with Arvell's actions and curiously licked his finger, tasting a somewhat sweet metallic flavour in it's mouth.

Arvell closed his eyes, and followed Lykos's instructions.

It took a few minutes before Arvell heard another voice echo in his mind.

'Kyuu?'