Soul Sight was an odd talent. It let her see many things she wasn't able to interpret properly, but one thing easy to notice was that everything had Soul.
Rocks did, as did mountains, and so did a boulder. The strange thing was that all three were different despite similar material composition. Things were a lot harder to grasp than simple material properties. The history of the object was probably one such matter.
The weirdest things she'd studied would have to be the Weapons. The only thing that was more complex was the Dragon Hourglass. Her Cane, Itsuki's Bow and Motoyasu's Spear had two things in common: They all drained the Soul, of what she suspected was the World and used it as fuel after combining it with the energy of the wielder and its energy. This was also why she suspected she was alive. The Weapon bound her Soul to this body of Malty's somehow.
The combination of the World Soul's energy, its life force added to the wielder, was the reason the users of the weapons were so powerful. The thing was, she suspected that the connection between the Weapon Spirit, the World and the user was something that her Soul Magic could disrupt. It explained how Takt could steal weapons and Kyo, Medea's servant from Glass' world could take the Book for himself. Malty was probably supposed to claim the weapon using this power, but she had either never figured out how to or was too incompetent to see the benefits.
Still, it wasn't something she'd dare to interfere with. Nothing explained where the information for the skills came from, even if it solved the issue of the sheer power the weapons had. She would not experiment on the connection until she had an expendable Vassal Hero.
The Dragon Emperor was less complex than the weapons and the Hourglass, but more so than anything else she'd seen. It seemed to passively draw on the World Soul as her weapon did, but its efficiency was pathetic. Even more interestingly, it seemed to feed on the Soul of the original Dragon within the body. Gaelion then was the hybrid between the consciousness of the fragment and his natural personality, with the fragment ruling over the other aspect.
It made the being stand out in her Soul Sight. She found him, with a demi-human, inside a massive cavern.
Unsurprisingly, he sensed her with ease. Jessica had been flaring her power all the way to his home.
The Dragon came roaring out of the cave. The Earth shook wildly, something she ignored by floating a couple of meters off the ground, and the air shook with the sound of his roar. She negated it with some air manipulation.
"Dragon Emperor Gaelion," she said using her wind magic to amplify her words and send them to both Wyndia and the Dragon, "I am Princess Malty, the ruler of this nation, I wish to speak to you."
The Dragon ignored the words, but she noted that he understood them...and she made sure that they reached Wyndia despite the Dragon having hidden her deep within the cavern. Gaelion was massive. He inhaled and exhaled a massive blast of fire.
Malty sneered at the attack and created a pair of Reflectors. It was a simple skill that produced constructs that let her bounce and change that magic that came in contact with it.
Here, it acted as a portal, transporting the magic from the point of contact of one shield to the next. The first reflector was taller than she was and stood floating ahead of her, blocking the attack.
The second was behind Gaelion.
The firestorm entered the Cavern. The Dragon stopped. His fire ended, and he turned his back on her. Jessica snatched control of his fire, Gaelion snapped his head toward her and the Princess negated the flames just before it incinerated Wyndia.
The human and the Dragon met each other's eyes, "Will you negotiate now?" she asked cooly. Cane at the ready.
The Dragon said nothing. It took breaths that sent the smell of burned flesh throughout the mountainside. It's tail waved about, agitated, but it didn't move otherwise. Jessica waited, her magic ready to tear his wings off or teleport herself back to the village.
If he refused to even speak to her, then she'd have to try Plan B. Should that fail, Malty's only choice would be to tear out the fragment and insert it into another Dragon.
Jessica had to resist the urge to go for Plan C immediately. The experiments she could do on the fragments...
"What do you want, human?" asked Gaelion in his deep, rumbling voice.
"The villagers shall not trouble you again," she said instead of an answer, "I shall remove them from here by tomorrow."
She was careful not to mention what she meant by remove.
The Dragon's expressions were impossible to read. His Soul was still difficult for her to interpret, for not all emotions showed themselves.
His fury, however, was visible in the way his tail gouged the ground and his flaring wings. "I do not need the help of a human to deal with those pests!" he roared.
"Of course," she said with honesty, "but they are my people if you had harmed them I would have had to slaughter you and capture your daughter."
A massive claw cut through the air to rend her to pieces.
A barrier that absorbed kinetic energy and returned it fivefold blocked the attack and pushed the Dragon back.
"I am here to negotiate in good faith," she said as if she had not just hinted at her desire to slaughter him, drawing on more of her mana and pressing it down on the area, "My only other options are unpalatable. Please do not force my hand. My people are in the wrong here and I will ensure they suffer for it."
The Dragon stared at her, the barrier that had negated its attack and looked at its mangled claw that was already healing and cast a spell to speed it up further.
Jessica grinned when she saw him draw energy from the World, fuse it with the power from the fragment, and then used it to reinforce his healing magic. He knew how to wield the power of the Dragon Vein! Even observing his process had given her some ideas to test out.
Gaelion truly was peaceful. His attacks had been ferocious by most standards, but if he wanted to fight, he'd have used more than a pathetic fire attack and a simple strike born out of anger. Of course, there was the brutal reality that if he did anything to actually fight, she'd use his daughter or kill the girl. There was no winning for him here. Even if she never acted against his daughter, the simple threat of Jessica doing so chained him down.
It marked him as a decent father and a foolish being.
"Speak," he ground out after he healed his claw fully. He drew his wings inwards. She appreciated the removal of the threat display and pulled back on her mana.
"I want us to be allies," she said, "I will ensure that my people do not intrude into your domain and I will protect you from any who could do you harm-"
The Dragon snarled, the smell of his last meal filled the air. "I am not so weak-"
"True," she said, cutting the massive entity off by stealing the air he needed to speak, "but your daughter is not so fortunate and I can help her gain strength swiftly so she can defend herself."
Pride warred with fatherly concern. Jessica did not know what he would choose, but if pride truly ruled him, then this entire negotiation was pointless. She could never trust him to be more than a disobedient slave. Tearing the fragment out of him would be her best option in that case.
To her surprise, the Dragon glanced at the cave and said, "Explain."
It stunned Malty. Jessica smiled softly. It was nice to see a father who sought to protect his child.
"Two of the Legendary Heroes are my allies. They serve me and will be more than willing to enhance the growth of your child. I, personally, rule this nation and have access to teachers, knowledge and sparring partners to train her fully. Ensuring that she is far beyond most people on the planet will be possible as long as she will put in the effort."
The Dragon said nothing. Even his breathing stilled. His mind warred with itself.
"What do you desire in exchange?" he asked after a minute of silence.
"Knowledge on using the Dragon Veins, your aid in battle...and once I secure some fragments for you to absorb, the knowledge on how to exceed the level 100 barrier."
"You would strengthen me?"
"I would empower my ally," she said.
The Dragon was still. The calm before the storm. But it was not the powerful Dragon Emperor which decided the matter.
"Father!" said Wyndia, much to Gaelion's surprise. Jessica had been careful to push her scent and hide the sound of her steps, "We should go with her. We can see the human capital and the huge castles from up close and learn more magic and find some other Dragons-"
The excited girl continued, and with each word, she could feel Gaelion faltering. Jessica herself was a little surprised to see how active the girl was. The Light Novel had painted her as a cynical girl who seemed to love only monsters. Perhaps a part of it was simple limitations on the part of the author. She had been nothing more than a minor character.
More likely, however, was that her enslavement had harmed her a great deal.
Jessica smiled at the girl. Wyndia had just secured the Cane Hero's victory. Not absolute victory. Not yet, perhaps never.
But, she would have learned what she needed from him soon.
She would have to manage him carefully until that point. Wyndia was very, very useful. She had saved her father from a rather gruesome death and a short lifetime of experimentation.
Jessica wondered if Gaelion realized that.
