Chapter 268: Uncanny Detection

Kael opened one eye.

He didn’t move. Instead, he adjusted. Just slightly. Letting a different thread of mana slip elsewhere, subtle and deliberate.

Riley followed it immediately.

His hand drifted. His focus narrowed. He leaned in, completely absorbed, fingers tracing paths that absolutely should not have been allowed under the guise of study.

Kael watched him with half-lidded eyes, amusement simmering beneath the surface.

So that was how it was.

He shifted again, letting mana seep somewhere new, just enough to be felt.

Riley chased it like a cat after a laser beam, hands following warmth and pressure, completely unaware that he was being led on purpose.

Kael smirked to himself.

If this was how Riley planned to train, then perhaps going to work every day was going to become significantly more difficult, since he could definitely get used to this.

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Riley finally caught it.

It was faint. Barely there. A thin, elusive thread of mana lingering near Kael’s forehead, so subtle that Riley almost missed it entirely. His breath hitched as he leaned closer, his eyes narrowing in concentration.

There it was again. A shimmer. A whisper of warmth that felt unmistakably Kael’s.

“I knew it,” Riley muttered under his breath, lifting a hand to inspect it more closely.

The moment his fingers hovered near Kael’s skin, strong arms snapped around his waist.

“Ah!” Riley yelped, nearly jumping out of his skin.

He froze, heart slamming against his ribs, only now realizing just how far he had leaned in. He had been so focused on tracking the mana that he had completely missed the fact that Kael was very much awake.

The dragon’s grip was firm, unyielding, and comfortingly warm.

“You’re not going around scanning other people’s mana like this, right?” Kael asked calmly.

Riley looked down.

Golden eyes stared back at him, sharp and unmistakably questioning.

Riley’s face burned.

“O-of course not!” he blurted out, flustered. “Also, the others actually have mana leaks sometimes. It’s just you who only ever has them in the morning.”

He scowled, clearly offended on a professional level.

“There’s really no reason for me to scan anyone else like that because it’s possible to detect their mana without being too near.”

He paused, then thought honestly, ’And besides, if I tried sniffing anyone else like this, I’d feel like I was marking them for death.’

Kael raised a brow as if able to read what Riley was thinking.

“Is that so?”

“Yes,” Riley said firmly, nodding once.

Then his expression shifted, curiosity bubbling up despite the situation. “But why do you always lock it all up?” he asked. “Even your parents let their mana out sometimes. And Orien says that even great dragons find it suffocating to keep everything sealed all the time.”

Sure, it had something to do with how much effort and mana it took to actually do such a thing. And the golden dragonling was still young, so maybe he found it difficult.

But Riley actually came to the conclusion that it wasn’t simply a skill issue.

Now that Riley could sense mana, he finally understood why dragons preferred solitude. Too many signatures. Too many sensations. It was overwhelming.

Like he had never really had issues with sensory overload or overstimulation as a human, but now he couldn’t help thinking that dragons were simply born with it.

No wonder they were always annoyed.

Kael hummed softly.

“You want to know why?” he asked, tilting his head slightly as his arms tightened around Riley’s waist.

Riley nodded eagerly. “Yes.”

Kael’s lips curved faintly. “I’ll tell you once you can shift.”

“What?” Riley sputtered.

He pushed up against Kael’s chest in surprise, ending up looming slightly over him as he stared down in disbelief. “That’s not fair! What does that have to do with anything?”

Kael met his gaze without flinching.

“Because,” he said simply, “you’ll need at least that much mana to understand.”

Riley stared at him.

Then groaned.

“You’re not kidding, right?” he verified.

Kael’s smile widened just a fraction.

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But the golden dragon wasn’t actually making things difficult for him.

It simply wouldn’t make sense to Riley if he tried showing it now. Not with his twig’s current mana pool. Even if Kael were to demonstrate it, Riley wouldn’t be able to grasp the key issue.

And honestly, the dragon lord knew that.

However, that didn’t stop Riley.

Because if Riley was anything at all, it was determined. And curious. And unfortunately prone to letting his gossiping tendencies overpower his sense of reason.

So with a new goal firmly lodged in his mind, the newly minted immortal was soon found conspiring with the children, plotting something that vaguely resembled a game and very closely resembled chaos.

A different kind of hide and seek.

It might have bordered on sacrilege, but Riley suggested it anyway.

His mother would take the black dragon bone and hide it somewhere within the estate. Then Liam, Orien, and Riley would all start from the same spot and try to find it using nothing but their developing sense of mana.

Liam knew he would probably lose.

He was still building his core, after all, and his sensitivity lagged far behind the others. But he still wanted to participate. For some reason, it felt easier to gather mana when he practiced alongside everyone else rather than sitting alone and meditating in silence.

That alone made it worth it to him.

Orien, on the other hand, immediately objected.

“I am the teacher,” the golden dragonling declared, arms crossed and chin lifted. “Teachers don’t participate in student exercises.”

Riley nodded solemnly. Then leaned in.

“There’s a prize.”

Orien paused.

“How good of a prize?” he asked carefully.

Riley smiled.

Very carefully.

The golden dragonling’s tail flicked once.

“Well,” Orien said after a moment, uncrossing his arms, “as a great dragon, it is also my duty to ensure the lesson is effective.”

And just like that, he was in.

And if the three of them had actually finished their hunt, it would have been a truly excellent prize.

At least in theory.

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