A new day began in nexus prime. Light from the mourning sun poured through Yuki's Windows and scattered through her apartment, reflecting off Owen's shiny black scales as he devoured the steak that Yuki had prepared for him as breakfast.
He ate as Yuki dressed in the bedroom, getting ready for The Questioning at Hunter HQ. Owen's had tried to peep on her but he was met with a swift slap across his scaly cheeks.
She Emerged out of the room wearing a green jacket and Denim pants. "Alright, I'm set!" she said. Tugging at the collars of the jacket.
She scooped Owen up and placed him on her head, she was tense from the invite from Hunter HQ' The Hunter HQ does not invite people for friendly chats or just simple "questioning".
Especially when it's an F-Rank hunter that walked into a D-rank dungeon with two other C-ranks but came out alone with the dungeon cleared and the two C-Ranks allegedly killed by monsters.
but having Owen around gave her a certain confidence. Maybe because of who he had always been before his death or maybe it was just the pure confidence of having a dragon on her head.
She had decided not to hide Him like she did when they were coming out of the dungeon, if they were going to make money and change her life then they were definitely going to be in the spotlight so there was no point hiding Owen. They might as well expose themselves by their selves.
She stepped out of the apartment and got met with the snoopy eyes of her neighbors.
"Oh my god, what is that thing?" one neighbor whispered.
"It looks like a lizard with wings" another answered.
"You fools, don't you see?! That's a fucking dragon! Jesus!" another exclaimed.
They whispered some more amongst themselves as they sneakily took pictures of Yuki and her baby black dragon as she walked out of the apartment complex. Owen recognized the nosy neighbors from his past life and just scuffed out steam from his nostrils.
---
On arriving at Hunter HQ, Owen and Yuki even caused more of an Uproar with their appearance. The pictures the neighbors had taken had spread like wild fire on the internet, causing a lot of reporters and people to rush to hunter HQ to inquire about who this new Dragon tamer was.
The moment they arrived, they were rushed by reporters.
"Excuse me ma'am, Julia Miles at foxy news, can you tell us where you got the dragon?!" one reporter pressed.
But Yuki was overwhelmed by the crowd and flashes of camera lights and couldn't reply.
"You just awakened a few months ago and you're an F-rank, how did you tame a dragon, ma'am??!"
"are you being back by a guild?! Are you a secret weapon of the Hunter Association!?"
"Are you Related in any ways to the Azure Dragon Tamer, Lydia Storm?!"
The crowd of reporters kept pressing Yuki with questions, shoving microphones in her face. Every step she tried to take was blocked another reporter shoving her backward and more flashes of camera lights.
Then a sharp rumbling roar tour out from the baby dragon.
"ROOOARRRRR!!!"
It was packed with enough pressure to paralyze the entire crowd of reporters. Owen's golden eyes flared up as he flew overhead.
Silence rippled across the front of the building.
Yuki exhaled once then steadied herself and walked into the building. She pushed through the reinforced glass doors and was relieved when she saw no reporters or cameras inside. Just the normal chattering of the hunter HQ lobby that came to a silent halt as she stepped in.
Owen loosened his grip around her shoulder, his tail flicking as he looked around the lobby. Hunters stood in different groups. Every set of eyes focused on Yuki and her tamed beast.
Some stared with envy: "An F-rank who tamed a Dragon? Come on". Other watched with malicious intent, calculating how they could benefit from her luck. A handful of hunters stared with open admiration and fear, their gaze darting to the tiny black dragon wrapped around Yuki like a living weapon.
Yuki didn't Give them the satisfaction of a reply, she walked to the front desk and dropped her ID card on the counter hard enough to make the receptionist flinch. Then she spoke in a casual tone. "I'm here for the questioning, I got a message last night"
The receptionist's eyes quickly darted from Owen to her system as she grabbed Yuki's card and checked the system. "Right. Yes. This way. Ms. Goldberg"
She was guided down a quiet hallway, Owen's gaze sweeping every corner like a guard dog ready to bite someone's ass. The room the stopped at was small, plain and fitted with mana suppression crystals along the corners, this was standard practice when questioning suspected awakened criminals.
"You can wait inside' the receptionist said before running off as if standing too long was dangerous.
Finally, a moment of silence, the whole morning had been hectic for Yuki so far.
She sat on one of the Sofas in the room as Owen growled softly, his Golden eyes on the door as footsteps of the approaching agents echoed down the hall.
From the moment the door opened, Owen disliked them.
Two agents stepped in, one bald broad shouldered with eyes full of hostility for Yuki and the other a thin beautiful woman with sharp features that hid her emotions. Owen nostrils flared as he smelled the foul scent of the bald agent's arrogance.
Owen coiled his tailed tighter around himself as he settled on the sofa beside Yuki.
The female Agent, Helena Ridge, Spoke first. Professional and calm, While Mason, the bald agent, didn't even try as he sat across Yuki disrespectfully. He stared at Yuki like she was an insect pretending to be human.
They questioned her about what occurred in the dungeon and Yuki told the story she had prepared to tell. The two C-ranks who attacked and attempted to rape her. Taming the egg. The dungeon boss. And her Rank Up.
Owen noted which part she didn't say. His part. The part where he was the one who killed the two C-rank hunters because he was defending her. Probably omitted it because the Hunter association could use that as an excuse to label Owen as a hostile and unstable tamed east and take him away from Yuki.
Baam!
Mason slammed his hand on the table.
"Liar!" he barked. "A lowly F-rank taming a Dragon? Impossible. You expect us to believe this? If you know what is good for you, you big breasted hunter reject, you will hand over the rights to that beast immediately. A creature like this belongs to the association, not some-…."
The air trembled. Owen's vision went red. He couldn't stand this bald bastard's arrogance anymore.
The insult wasn't aimed at him. But it didn't matter. Nobody was allowed to look down or speak to Yuki disrespectfully as look as his dragon's heart was still beating.
His scales glowed, his wings twitched, heat brewed in his chest as power swelled up in him.
[Dragon's Aura (SS-Grade)] activated.
The air in the room collapsed.
Mason dropped instantly. His knees cracking against the floor. His breathing stopping into short gasps for air. Sweat exploding across his scalp as pressure from the dragon's aura pinned him down.
Helena staggered but remained standing, her eye wide open now, breaking the emotionless face she had had on before. She bowed deeply toward Yuki.
"P-Please…" her voice strained, "Please command your beast to stop. Agent Mason is….untrained in resisting aura pressure."
Untrained yet arrogant? Owen wanted to crush him further for daring to look at Yuki like that.
Yuki exhaled. "Owen, that's enough"
Owen blinked, then nodded unrepentantly and withdrew his aura, deactivating the skill. The room expanded again, the air returning back to normal.