After saving her from the demon that was chasing her, it was then her body finally lost its adrenaline and collapsed to the ground.
She was immediately knocked out as her little body felt the side effects of the continued fatigue.
When she saw us, her body instinctively felt safe and it shut down after he eliminated the threat.
"What an interesting girl." Serie approached the girl and then proceeded to heal her using the goddess's magic, also known as divine magic, which priests use.
The wounds of the child visibly disappeared from her body.
After healing her, we brought her to the temple and put her in the makeshift bed that Fafnir made a while ago.
Before he arrived, such a thing as a bed didn't exist in this temple, and Serie mostly slept on her throne and sometimes on the mat.
It was a sad sight to see, that's why he created a decent bed for her, although she doesn't use it often, now it's finally put into use.
After an entire day, the little one was finally awake while he was sitting on the chair reading a book about magic theory.
Flamme felt her eyelids were heavy, her body sore all-over the place and the first thing she saw was a man with a horn.
Her first reaction?
"AHHHHHHHHH! A DEMON!!!"
Fafnir felt his ears raptured from that noise, his super sensitive ears finally getting back at him, then he quickly cast a spell to mute his surroundings.
Flamme quickly moved out of the bed, trying to get away from this place only to realize that this place was an enclosed space.
Hitting a wall behind her tiny back, she was looking at him with extreme wariness and indescribable rage from within.
This made him realize that showing off his horns in public wasn't a good idea. But he couldn't be blamed after all, he got used to Serie not reacting.
Plus there was no point hiding it since there are only two of them.
Fafnir gently closed the book he was reading and stared at the child in front of him. "You're quite energetic after waking up, good. It seems that Serie's healing spell did wonders."
He had nothing but praise for this magic, after all, he couldn't learn this type of magic.
Not because he was lacking in affinity or comprehension. He simply couldn't because his faith in the goddess of this world is nonexistent.
Or any divinity in general, so if he wants to learn healing magic. It has to be through mana and not based on faith or divinity.
To avoid further misunderstanding, he calmly said. "Little girl, I'm not a demon. If I were, wouldn't I have eaten you already while you're asleep?"
His logic pierced through the girl's mind, despite her hatred toward demons, she didn't let it consume her reason.
"Then why do you have horns?"
He couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Straight to the point huh? Well, that's because I'm a dragon."
Flamme looked confused, when she was young. She was by no means stupid. "Are you lying to me? Dragons don't look like you!"
Her face scowled after realizing what he said doesn't make any sense at least from this world's logic.
Fafnir felt amused at this, she certainly is a little spitfire alright, a normal child certainly wouldn't have the guts to ask this question toward the suspected demon. "I'm not lying, however dragons don't look like me, as I'm unique. It's not strange for you not to know that."
Aside from a lower intelligence, dragons of this world can't polymorph.
To the dragons from the other world, being able to polymorph is an innate ability from the moment they are born.
Then he made his horns disappear, which basically shattered the little girl's fundamental knowledge about this world.
After all, it is common sense that demons couldn't make their horns disappear at will, the only way to do that is to cut their horns off but no one from the demon race would do that.
Despite how hollow they might feel, they still feel instinctive pride toward their horns, a demon without them isn't a demon at all.
Flamme looked at him in disbelief. "You're really not a demon..?"
Fafnir nodded. "I am not."
Then Serie appeared just right in time, then scanned the room and immediately figured out what happened. "I see, she must have seen your horns believing you're a demon, and reacted like that."
"That's correct."
"Hm." Serie proceeded to look at the girl and said, "As expected, you really know how to control your mana."
She made that signature smug grin of hers, then made an offer that the girl couldn't refuse. "Child, be my disciple. I will teach you magic beyond your imagination and help you take revenge on demons."
Fafnir remained silent at this moment, he knew that Flamme would surely accept refusing this kind of lifeline is very stupid especially in her situation.
Flamme accepted despite Serie's 'aggressive' recruitment.
And so weeks have passed.
It was subtle, but our lives changed thanks to Flamme's presence, if before our interactions were purely academic and nothing more.
Now, we often interact little by little out of our comfort zone, and none of them really complained.
Flamme finally believed that he wasn't a demon and was a dragon by showing her his true form, Serie rarely sees this but Flamme can see it at will.
There's something about her that Fafnir simply couldn't refuse, so basically he does whatever she wants him to do as long as it is not unreasonable.
Her wariness quickly disappeared after knowing for the past few days that, despite all of her smarts and intelligence, she is still a child.
That's why when she realized he could transform into a dragon, almost every day she would ask him to take her for a flight.
Which he accepted most of the time, but also to his surprise, Serie got curious what it was like to fly as in the current timeline flight magic hadn't invented yet.
Fafnir didn't refuse and let her ride him alongside Flamme, who was enjoying the flight very much.
—
Back to the present,
The very next morning, the orange-haired child dragged both adults out of the temple and brought them to a flat grassland.
Telling them that she wanted to show them something special, so far there was nothing special in this place aside from a clean space and air.
"We're here!"
Serie looked around and said, "There's nothing special here."
"Of course not, what I'm about to show you is a magic spell! My favorite magic in the entire world!" Flamme said with undisguised happiness.
Serie got interested in this and was oddly invested.
Meanwhile, Fafnir could already tell what spell she was about to show.
Then Flamme cast a spell that made the grassland filled with flowers, which bloomed at a rapid speed.
It was an amazing sight, he admits that it was simply beautiful. Now, he could somehow understand why Frieren and Flamme loved this spell so much as it makes magic beautiful in their eyes.
Meanwhile, Serie wasn't impressed; she thought that her own disciple would have a more 'powerful' favorite spell to have.
However, despite her unimpressed expression she still couldn't stop herself from gently stroking the field of flowers beneath her feet.
For a second her face turned gentle, and he just happened to see it. This was the first time he saw her face so gentle that he can't believe she's even capable of making such an expression.
His heart beat a little faster at this scene and he thought for himself. 'I didn't realize she could look this pretty.'
Serie's expressions turned into their default setting when she noticed him looking and asked. "Is there something wrong with my face?"
Fafnir shook his head and replied, "No, not at all. This spell of hers is worth learning."
Serie raised her eyebrows at his words. "It's useless, it doesn't have any practical use aside from looking visually beautiful."
He shook his head with a smile as he plucked one of the flowers beneath his feet. "Magic doesn't have to be practical to be used, spells like this remind us despite its destructive nature. It is beautiful."
Serie neither agreed nor disagreed.
Then Flamme excitedly showed us her self-created crowns of flowers and made us wear it in our heads.
Serie might look okay with the flower crown, but Fafnir looks absolutely ridiculous as it's simply a mismatch with his rather intimidating appearance.
Days like this were simple, yet memorable.