The Protagonist's Useless Brother-Chapter 119: Choice [6]

Ventessa tilted her fluffy body. She looked confused.

"Humans are strange," she noted. "She is a hatchling. A dog is more dangerous."

"They won’t see a child," Marcus said. "They will see a monster. We need to hide her."

He looked at Ventessa with pleading eyes.

"We need to hide the horns and the tail," Marcus said.

He gestured to the girl’s head.

"Can’t dragons shapeshift?" Marcus asked. "I read that high-level dragons can take human form."

"Yes," Ventessa confirmed. "Adult dragons can assume a human guise."

"Great!" Marcus said. "So we just tell her to do that."

He reached out to shake the girl awake.

"Don’t bother," Ventessa said.

Marcus froze. "Why?"

"She is a hatchling," Ventessa said slowly. "Polymorph magic is high-tier."

She looked at the sleeping girl.

"She is basically a baby," Ventessa explained. "Asking her to shapeshift is like asking a human toddler to solve world peace."

Marcus slumped. "So she can’t do it?"

"No," Ventessa said. "Not for another hundred years."

"A hundred years?" Marcus choked.

"Give or take," Ventessa shrugged.

Marcus buried his face in his hands again.

"I am doomed," he moaned.

He couldn’t bring her home. He couldn’t leave her in the woods.

"I am going to have to live in a cave," Marcus decided. "I will become a hermit."

"That sounds boring," Ventessa commented.

"It is survival!" Marcus snapped.

He looked at Ventessa. Wait. She was a spirit. She had powerful magic.

She had hidden them in the dungeon with concealment.

"Ventessa," Marcus said. His voice changed. It became sweet.

Ventessa narrowed her eyes. "Stop looking at me like that. It is creepy."

"You can do illusions, right?" Marcus asked.

"I am a wind spirit," she reminded him. "Not an illusionist."

"But you did the concealment spell," Marcus argued. "That was visual."

"That was light refraction," Ventessa corrected. "I bent the air to divert light."

"Okay, light refraction," Marcus said. "Can you do that for her?"

He pointed at the dragon girl’s head.

"Can you bend the light around her horns? Make them invisible?"

Ventessa looked at the girl. She seemed to be calculating.

"I could," Ventessa admitted.

"Yes!" Marcus cheered quietly.

"But," Ventessa continued. "It is tedious." 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Marcus’s smile fell. "Tedious?"

"Maintaining a constant refraction field on a moving target is annoying," Ventessa explained.

"She will run. She will jump. I would have to adjust the spell every millisecond."

"It is a waste of processing power," she concluded. "And mana."

"But you have tons of mana!" Marcus argued.

"I do," Ventessa agreed. "But I prefer using it for important things. Like napping."

"This IS important!" Marcus hissed. "If we don’t hide her, we get attacked."

Ventessa paused. She considered this logic.

"True," she admitted. "Combat is disruptive to sleep."

"Exactly," Marcus said. "So? Will you do it?"

Ventessa hummed. The fluffball bobbed up and down.

"I could create a localized glamor," she mused. "Using dense air to mask the shape."

"It wouldn’t be perfect," she warned. "If someone touches the horns, they will feel them."

"That is fine!" Marcus said. "I just need her to look human from a distance."

"It is possible," Ventessa allowed.

She looked at Marcus. Her black eyes gleamed.

"But," she said.

Marcus knew that tone. It was the tone of negotiation.

"What do you want?" Marcus asked. He sighed.

"This is extra work," Ventessa stated. "It is outside our original contract."

"It is concealment!" Marcus argued. "It falls under rescue!"

"The rescue is over," Ventessa said. "Extra services require extra payment."

Marcus groaned. "I already promised you snacks for a week."

"This requires more," she said.

"Fine," Marcus said. "Two weeks of snacks."

"No," Ventessa said.

"Three weeks?"

"No," she said. "I want quality."

Ventessa floated closer to his face.

"Chocolate," Ventessa said.

"I know," Marcus said. "I will buy you chocolate."

"Not just any chocolate," Ventessa clarified. "I want the expensive kind. Truffles."

Marcus blinked. "How do you know about truffles?"

"I observe," Ventessa said mysteriously.

"I want a box," she demanded. "A big box. Assorted flavors. Every day."

"Every day?!" Marcus shouted. "Do you know how much truffles cost?"

"I am a spirit," she said. "I don’t care about economics."

"I will go bankrupt!" Marcus cried. "My father will kill me for the bill alone!"

"Then find a way," Ventessa said. "You are the strategist."

She floated back down to his head.

"No truffles, no concealment," she stated. "And I will let the guards see the tail."

Marcus stared at the horizon. He was being extorted by a ball of fluff.

He looked at the dragon girl sleeping peacefully. She looked so innocent.

Without the disguise, she had no chance.

He looked at his wallet. Which was currently nonexistent.

He would have to beg or steal from his own kitchen.

"Fine," Marcus muttered. "Truffles."

"Every day?" Ventessa pressed.

"For a week," Marcus countered.

"Three weeks."

"Two weeks," Marcus countered. "And I will throw in a silk pillow for you to sit on."

Ventessa paused.

"Silk?" she asked.

"The finest silk," Marcus lied. "Very soft."

"Better than your hair?"

"Much better," Marcus said.

Ventessa hummed.

"Two weeks of truffles," she summarized. "And a silk pillow."

"And you hide the horns and tail," Marcus added. "Until we figure something else out."

"Deal," Ventessa said.

✧✧✧

The deal was struck.

Ventessa hopped down from Marcus’s head and floated over to the sleeping dragon girl.

She hovered above the girl’s forehead.

A soft breeze began to swirl around the girl’s head. It was gentle and didn’t wake her.

The air condensed and became hazy.

Marcus watched closely.

The black horns began to fade.

They didn’t disappear, but the light bent around them. The air warped to smooth out the silhouette.

It looked like a heat mirage.

Within seconds, the horns were gone. To the eye, the girl’s head looked perfectly smooth.

Her black hair seemed to lie flat.

Ventessa moved to the tail. She spun a tighter vortex of air around the appendage.

The tail vanished.

If Marcus didn’t know it was there, he wouldn’t see it.

"Done," Ventessa said. She sounded bored.

She floated back to Marcus.

"That will hold," she said. "As long as I maintain focus. Or until I fall asleep."

"Don’t fall asleep," Marcus said.

"Give me my pillow then," she demanded.

Marcus patted his lap. "For now, use my leg."

Ventessa grumbled, but she landed on his knee. She fluffed herself up and settled down.

Marcus looked at the dragon girl.

She looked human. She looked like a normal, sleeping child who had had a very bad week.

Relief washed over Marcus. It was cool and soothing.

He leaned back and looked ahead.

The sky was turning grey in the east. The sun was coming.

And with it, the Aldridge Estate.

He was bringing home a fugitive, a talking bear, and a high-maintenance spirit.

And he was late.

"Well," Marcus whispered to the wind. "At least we have chocolate."

The carpet flew on, carrying the strange party toward the dawn. And toward the wrath of the Viscount.