“Uhm… Are dragons meant to grow this quickly?” Hakyun started, still startled as they all stared at Blue lying on Merlin’s bed, curled into himself without a care in the world for his newly obtained abnormal size.

  “Beats me,” replied Chima. And then he and Hakyun turned to Merlin.

  Merlin shrugged. “Don’t ask me. He hasn’t grown this fast before.”

  They both hummed and returned their gaze to Blue.

  Merlin had been surprised many times by what Blue could do and his growth, but this most recent finding took the cake. The dragon was no longer the small cute but crazy pet the size of Merlin’s palm. Well, that had actually changed a long time ago. It had grown to be a lot larger than Merlin’s palm, but not so much more than his two hands combined. Now, though. It was as large as his arm, and that was saying a lot because Merlin worked out. And, not only that, its characteristics had gone through a bit of a weird change.

  Blue was not as compact as he used to be, but longer, like he was made of rubber and had been stretched. His wings had only increased slightly, but now they had a sort of shimmer to their luster, like countless stars were lodged in them. And then on his head jutted a set of horns, almost unnoticeable like that of a goat kid still developing.

  Merlin didn’t know how to take the development. Because the bigger Blue got, the more the possibility of him being noticed skyrocketed. And, it was not only that, the more the dragon would feed.

  Honestly, Merlin had been expecting this to happen, but he had just been hoping it would take a bit longer.

  Goodness, what had caused such an abrupt spike in growth? He had been the same old Blue just a moment ago.

  “I have a headache,” Merlin said, turning around. “I need to sit down.”

  Hakyun frowned. “How do you suddenly have a headache? And how are we going to deal with him?” he said, pointing at Blue.

  “Shut up, four-eyes,” Chima chimed in. “Let the lad take a breather.”

  “Have you noticed you support Merlin a lot these days?” Hakyun said, narrowing his eyes.

  Chima shrugged. “Of course. I’d rather support Mel than you. The better evil.”

  “You brat!”

  Merlin sighed as he took a bottle of water from the fridge and gulped it down.

  The only reason he could think of for Blue’s abnormal growth was that the dragon had a System too. It was a suspicion he’d had a few times before, but they were nothing compared to the one he possessed at the moment. The only thing that confused him was how it worked. Was it that it gathered Blue’s points and assigned it in bulk, resulting in a fast growth? Or was it something like an evolution system, where Blue evolved once he got to a certain level? Something comparable to Merlin leveling up, but Blue’s was more physical.

  Merlin sat down on a stool.

  If he could understand it, then he would find out how to keep things in control. Because if things slipped out of his grasp, it may result in very problematic situations.

  “What’s got you all cooped up in your thoughts?” asked Hakyun, snapping Merlin out of his daze. Merlin sighed and jerked a thumb in his room’s direction. Hakyun nodded. “Valid.”

  “You know, I’ve been wanting to ask,” Chima joined in. “Do you plan on making use of Blue’s abilities in the tournament?”

  Merlin’s brows twitched. He had also been considering that, truth be told, as Blue would be a very great help in the grand scheme of things. But at the end of the day, despite how discreet he had tried to be during the Tower raid, he had only managed to avoid being put under suspicion for the weird acts that had happened around him involving freezing because the System had tampered with the academy’s visuals.

  During the tournament he would have no such grace.

  And besides, he was against making use of any external help during the tournament. He wanted to prove to his parents that he was good enough to protect himself, and he had to do that based on his strength alone.

  It was hypocritical, yes, considering he had had no problems asking Blue for help during the Tower raid. And also, the System was not exactly his strength, but rather an external help from a neutral point of view.

  However, it was him now. He couldn’t separate himself from it, and it couldn’t separate itself from him. And considering that it had put him through some rather dangerous ordeals, he would claim that he had repaid his debt for relying on the thing.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Blue was one thing, his System another.

  “No,” said Merlin. “I’d rather not involve him.”

  Chima sighed. “I was hoping you’d say that. Because, not even considering that he just grew twice his size, it would be weird if some things happened out of the blue.” He paused. Merlin and Hakyun raised their brows. “Ah, dang it. That was not a pun, I swear.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Hakyun waved him off and cleared his throat. “Enough of the gloomy talk. What are we gonna do for the festival? Darn academy. They only gave us a day to prepare.”

  “Three days actually,” Merlin refuted, putting his thoughts about Blue and the tournament aside for the moment. “Monday and Tuesday are more like the opening days. Then Wednesday and Thursday we—”

  “Yeah, I know, Merlin. Geez.” Hakyun rolled his eyes. “The point still stands. What are we going to do?”

  Chima clicked his tongue as he dropped down on the cushion close to the window.

  “Do we have to do anything?” he mumbled. “Can’t we just sit it out?”

  Hakyun flashed his gaze in Chima’s direction, his forehead crinkling, and lasers shooting out of his eyes. Chima felt the pressure and shuddered. Merlin as well.

  “Nothing,” he started, “and I mean nothing can make us sit this out. You both imposed your selfish idea of competing in the tournament upon me.” Merlin tried to speak against that point, considering they hadn’t made the final decision. But Hakyun raised a finger to shush him. “Ah-ah. You don’t get to dispute my claims. Regardless of the circumstances, you both imposed your ideas on me. You shall lower your gazes and heed my words without complaints. Do you understand me, juniors?”

  Merlin and Chima glanced at themselves, pursed their lips, and nodded reluctantly.

  “Yes, sire,” they both said in unison.

  “Good.” Hakyun took a deep breath and exhaled. “Now. Ideas. Let me have it.”

  Chima rolled his head in thought. “I don’t know. Music performance?”

  Hakyun sneered at him. “Can you sing?”

  “Depends,” replied Chima.

  “On what?”

  “Mood. What else?”

  “Shut up,” Hakyun snorted and turned to Merlin. “You?”

  Merlin groaned.

  He honestly had a few ideas, but he wasn’t sure if they would be perfect for the festival. They would be performing in front of the whole school, and even visitors, so he would prefer not to mess things up if possible. Something simple then? But what could be classified as simple?

  “Come on, Merlin,” Hakyun started with a sigh. “Not everything requires excessive thinking, for goodness sake. Just spill it.”

  Merlin blinked. Then he shrugged. “If you say so.” He cleared his throat. “Drama.”

  Chima shifted on his cushion. “Drama?”

  Merlin nodded. “It’s the best I could think of. Something to make us stand out.”

  “Oho.” Hakyun folded his arms. “And what exactly are we going to perform that will entrance the crowd?”

  Merlin’s brows furrowed. “Really? We’ve got loads of material to take from.”

  “And those are?” asked Chima.

  “Well, for one, there’s the Last Battle in the Primordial Tower. Great piece, I swear. I enjoyed it. Then there’s the Great Stand. And there’s…”

  Merlin went on and on, listing stories of the battles that had taken place during the Cataclysm about twenty years ago, all recorded in history. Until Hakyun and Chima had heard enough.

  “Stop,” said Hakyun. “Goodness, nerd. Didn’t know you read a lot of history.”

  He didn’t. Merlin was just specially interested in everything magic related, which involved the Cataclysm. So he had watched videos dissecting the events, and had read a few books.

  Of course, he didn’t know it all. But he knew a bit of everything here and there. The one he did know the most of though was…

  “I suggest we perform the Final Battle though,” he said.

  Hakyun tilted his head. “The Final Battle? That’s a complex one.”

  “Nah. We’ll be fine,” Merlin said. “We just have to make it simple. Focus on how the Cataclysm was defeated. Perhaps make it a bit dramatic. But that’s about it.”

  Chima hummed. “You sound very confident that we’ll be able to pull it off. We’re only three, you know? And what’s the guarantee we have that others haven’t thought about it yet?”

  Merlin shrugged. “We’ll just have to submit our request for the play before others then. As for our numbers, recruiting isn’t that big of a problem. I can get Nora to do that.”

  Chima snorted. “Nora’s gonna chew your head off. You know she wouldn’t be especially interested in such things.”

  Merlin smiled. The fact that Chima thought he knew his own sister better than him was amusing.

  Nora was as complex as the play. And Chima would find out soon enough.

  “That settles it then.” Hakyun clapped his hands. “I like the idea. So if you can get Nora to join us, and drag a few others in to play the rest of the characters, then we’ll be good to go. Trust you can draft out the play and recruit then, young padawan?”

  Merlin’s brows twitched. “I guess.”

  “Brute. I put you in charge of costume duty,” Hakyun ordered.

  “And who put you in charge?” Chima argued.

  “Just shut it and get on with the times. I’m the boss now.”

  Chima’s eyes twitched.

  “As for myself,” Hakyun continued. “I’ll take naps.”

  Chima shot up from his cushion at once and reached for Hakyun’s collar.

  “Like hell you will, four-eyes,” he growled.

  “Relax.” Hakyun sighed, slapping his hands away. “I was just kidding.”

  Chima snorted. “Better.”

  “Then, what will you do?” Merlin asked.

  “Me,” Hakyun started. “s. Tickets. Audience. And investors. I will take care of the business aspect.”