The captain stared at me with narrowed eyes. She slowly removed her gauntlet to reveal a surprisingly delicate hand. She brought her hand over my mark and placed two fingers upon it.
Her fingers were cold to the touch.
"Steel yourself, boy, I will flood Ouro to the surface. She will find nothing but an abundance of tide." A shockwave of cold rushed through my body. It felt as if I was being dragged beneath an ocean current.
A gasp escaped me.
It wasn't on purpose, but more of a reaction to the overwhelming pressure on my small body. I twisted in the woman's grasp as my back arched.
"Steady child." The captain whispered. "It'll only take a moment." I felt something pierce my chest and probe like a needle.
"She probes deep." The voice in my head growled with frustration. "Should she continue, she'll find my true nature."
Then… What do we do? I asked in an internal panic.
"Nothing, we can only hope she's satisfied with what she's found." The voice in my head had grown tense.
The captain's expression shifted from scrutiny to shock. She yanked her hand back with a heavy breath. "Unbelievable…" her voice lost its base and turned into a whisper.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
Was this really it, again? Was I going to die before I even understood how I was alive?
The sergeant who still waited below, gripped his blade hilt. "Captain, is there something wrong?"
The captain glanced at her sergeant, then at me. A slow, wide grin nearly split her face.
"Wrong?" She laughed, her grip tightening around me. "Heavens no, this is the most right thing I have ever seen. He rivals the purity of even nobles!"
The sergeant took a step back and grunted. "I-Impossible."
Both I and the voice in my head breathed a sigh of relief.
Just then another Dragoon rushed forward with a salute. "Captain, there's no sign of the chaos dragon anywhere!"
The captain blinked as if she had forgotten why she was here. "Then I suppose what the survivors say is true. It has unraveled."
The sergeant breathed a sigh of relief. "Such a fate is befitting a creature of that nature."
The captain held me closer to her breastplate. "Sergeant, I'll leave you in charge here. I'll be returning to my manor."
The sergeant raised an eyebrow. "Are you not informing her majesty? A child of this sort–"
The captain scoffed.
"This boy would be squandered in their grasp. No matter how powerful, a child without a bloodline will never know respect in their halls."
She looked down at me with a possessive glint in her eyes.
"This boy is mine."
Holy yandere!
I just got reincarnated and this is what I have to deal with?
The voice in my head spoke. "Worry not, boy. A possessive woman is infinitely more escapable than death."
The water dragon spread its massive wings and raised them high. Then with a jump, it dropped its wings to ascend.
All I could do was hold my breath.
— — —
A month had passed.
The reality of my situation had finally settled, I had been reborn in another world.
Though I spent most of my time in a crib or face-first into a wet nurse's breast.
As such, I had to rely on the voice in my head to explain everything.
Currently, I am in the Creation Dragon Empire. A land of humans with four great families.
The family of Tide. Which were basically water manipulators. The family of Current. They manipulated the wind. The family of Blaze. Fire manipulation.
And finally the family of Terra. Earth manipulation.
These four families and their branches create both the nobility of the empire and its strongest warriors, the dragoons.
And dragoons hunted dragons.
Well occasionally, they're mostly used against the other human kingdoms or the other races.
As for the other human kingdoms, there are three important ones to my knowledge.
The Equili kingdom. Which had the families of Sol and Luna. Basically users of light and darkness.
And the other two kingdoms were a little special. Through years of isolation, they've developed sub-abilities.
In the island kingdom of Brija, they have the clans of Glacies and Ichor. Ice and blood manipulation.
And the peninsula of Kotal. They had the Levin and Gravitas Tribes. Lighting and gravity manipulation.
There are further sub-abilities but they aren't really distinct enough to be their own thing.
Or rather, they can be learned rather than inherited.
Speaking of learning. Almost everyone had the ability to use Ouro. But very few had enough to use it in combat. Mostly they'd be stuck with basic cleaning techniques.
"This monotonous existence has reached my last nerve." The voice in my head grumbled as the wet nurse burped me.
I sighed. What did you expect, oh great one? I replied sarcastically. We're barely three months old (Including the two months before the chaos dragon inhabited the body).
"Do human children not walk at this age, boy? Or at least crawl?" The voice said.
Hm, if I remember correctly babies start crawling around six months. Walking takes a year.
"SIX MONTHS?!" The voice boomed. "I will not be relegated to rolling in filth as the world passes me by for six months."
I'm a baby. I shot back mentally. It's biology not rocket science. Besides, this isn't that bad of a gig.
"Of course, a pathetic creature like you would be satisfied in this predicament." The voice hissed. "But I am the great dragon of chaos, biology will not stop me."
Burp.
With a soft smile, the wet nurse pulled me from her shoulder. "Ah, you're done." She rubbed a thumb across my lips before setting me in my crib.
Once she left the room, the dragon in my head spoke. "Boy, this is the perfect time to begin your training."
Are you insane?! I replied. Putting aside the fact that I'm a literal baby, what are we even supposed to train?
"Did you not hear me before? Of course you haven't. You were too busy ogling the nurse."
I was not!
"Did you forget I see and hear what you think? Never mind, I am going to teach you a body-enhancing technique. One that will allow this body to do more than squirm."
And what does this technique involve?
"Several steps but the first one is rather simple. Even a failure such as yourself should find this achievable."
I wouldn't set your expectations high.
"Close your eyes and look into yourself." The voice commanded. "Ignore the outside world and focus on the heat in your chest."
I held my eyelids shut and focused. The search didn't last long. Hidden in my chest, past the waves that surrounded it, was a core.
It was a massive thing made of orange and white energy. Six rings rotated around it, inscribed with intricate designs and words.
What is… that?
"Boy, that is our essence." The voice that had been trapped in my head suddenly felt closer than ever.
I turned around to see a massive dragon that walked with a deliberate slowness. It towered over me, with an aura so strong I stumbled into a fall.
This wasn't just an elemental dragon like the captain's. It was an actual beast. Its scales shimmered and shifted between orange and white.
The air that surrounded the beast burned with a chaotic energy. Its eyes, two burning nebulas, narrowed at me as I cowered.
"Pathetic."
The voice wasn't in my head anymore. It rumbled through this mental space like it owned the place. And quite frankly, I wasn't going to fight for it.
"I-I'm sorry, sir…" I whispered as my hands covered my face. My heart pounded against my ribs. This space was too tight, I was too close to this creature.