This chapter like the others is un-betaed. Feel free to point out any typos
A Dragon's Heart – Chapter 27
There was nothing the newly mated pair would have liked better than to spend the next month or two cut off from the outside world, but they both were painfully aware of how short their time was. They both knew they would have to return to the real world pretty soon and it had added a slightly frantic edge to their coupling. Their bodies would just be starting to cool when one of them would work to coax the other one back into another round. It was like they were trying to compress several days' worth of passion into a few hours.
Currently, Mikan was curled against Natsume with her head pillowed on his chest. If Natsume could have his way, they would stay like this forever. But fate was a horrible bitch that only allowed him limited time with his mate because he had absolutely no intention of letting her follow him back to the clan estate.
No, she was going to head straight back to the protection of her family while he went back to get Aoi. Mikan would be going even if he had to tie her up in a sack and have her family smuggle her back.
"Tell me about the stealing alice." He asked quietly.
Through their bond he felt Mikan's discomfort when she heard him mention the stealing alice. "I don't really have much to tell. I've only used it a handful of times and most of those were by accident. I wasn't even sure what kind of ability it was until they talked about it today. I had half convinced myself that it might have been an advanced type of nullification."
"How does it work?"
"I'm not really sure. I don't really know that much about it. Yesterday with Narumi was the first time I have ever tried to use it consciously and I'm not sure if I even did it right. Mostly it looks just like they make it sound. I just tried concentrating real hard and then all of a sudden I had this purple stone in my hand that let me use Narumi's seduction. Although I didn't know it was seduction at the time." She added quietly, still feeling embarrassed about trying to seduce her own mate.
Natsume planted a kiss on the top of her head. Her shyness was just so cute compared to most dragon born women who were usually quite bold. Actually that reminded him of another question he had been longing to ask.
"Tell me, how is it that you never had a lover before me? I'm not complaining, but dragons are not actually known for their self-control over their appetites."
He felt more than saw Mikan grimace into his chest. "Mostly it was my family protecting me, but for myself, I just never wanted to be the topic over the breakfast table."
"Topic over the breakfast table?" he mimicked not really sure he understood what she was saying.
Mikan lifted her head and propped herself up on her elbow to look at him. "Thanks to our family business, we shuffle around a lot. One day I could be living under the same roof as Tsubasa and the next week it could be Permy or Tono or even Uncle Kazu. The one sort of unofficial rule we have is whatever home we are at and whoever is currently living there, we all share breakfast together."
Natsume gave her a strange look. It sounded like an odd family tradition to him. Mikan saw his look and chose to explain a little further. "A lot of our work happens later in the day or at night, so having everyone meet at breakfast is a way of keeping tabs on everyone and knowing that they are all okay."
Ah, that made sense. "So when you were talking about being a topic over the breakfast table…"
She rolled her eyes. "Like you said, we are dragons and we are not known for our restraint. Many times I would have uncles, aunts and even cousins just returning home from whatever wild fling they had the night before. So there I would be sitting, trying to choke down my bacon and eggs while they all discussed their various exploits in embarrassing detail. It was creepy. The funny thing is we would always know when a family member had finally found someone special because they would suddenly be quiet and unwilling to share details during breakfast."
Natsume digested that information then moved on to another one. "What made you decide to be a nurse?" He asked, causing a crease to form between her brows.
"What is with all of the questions?"
Tucking one hand behind his head, he gave her what he hoped was a harmless look. "I'm just trying to find out as much as I can about you. We're mated and yet I feel like I hardly know anything about you."
Mikan gave him a suspicious look and he could feel her probing the bond between them. "Uh huh." She drawled and gave him a suspicious look. "What's the hurry? What are up to?"
Shit he was hoping she would not notice. This bond of theirs could become a little inconvenient. He did not want to talk about her leaving yet. Hell, he did not even want to think about it yet because he did not want to taint these few hours they had together. By morning she would be gone and he would be headed back towards the clan estate.
Because he was taking too long to answer, she knew something was wrong. "Natsume, what are you planning?"
"I'm planning on getting Aoi back." He stated simply.
Those beautiful expressive eyes of her narrowed at him "You're going to try to go without me." She accused.
The bond could be extremely inconvenient. "Mikan, you can't go." She looked ready to protest but he stopped her "You cannot go anywhere near him."
"Natsume, I-" she began, but he cut her off with a finger over her lips.
"I don't want to fight with you about this right now. Even if you did want to fight about it, you still can't come because if you came, I would spend my whole time worrying about you when I need to focus on Aoi. Now it is possible we might not see each other for a while, and the last thing I want to do is spend this time fighting with my new and very beautiful mate." He said, punctuating the last words with light kisses.
The diversion managed to distract her, but he meant what he said. His mate was not going anywhere near the old man.
Kokoro Yome pushed his wings to their limits. When he saw the island that Mikan's uncle had stopped to take a break at, he nearly cried in relief. It was not much to look at. It was little better than a sand bar with some stray plant life growing on it. An adult person could probably walk from tip to tip in ten minutes. Right now though, it looked like heaven to him.
His flying group had mostly been keeping within sight of Sumire and the boat she was pulling. For the first part of their journey he had been as well, but he could not take watching that long sinuous body of hers gliding through the water for much longer. It was distracting as hell and a few times he was tempted to dive down and jump her.
Not cool Koko.
He felt like he had a better understanding of Natsume's obsession with Mikan now. Sure, he had teased their fearless leader about how sexy sea dragons were, but dae~amnn did they make the tail quiver and twitch.
He had to laugh at himself. All the danger they were in and he was thinking about getting his rocks off. Way not cool Koko. When this was all over though, she had better watch out.
Rather than do something that would probably be highly inappropriate, he took to flying in larger circles around the group higher up to make sure they were not being followed.
Aiming himself like an arrow, he dove towards the island where a dozen dragons had already gathered for a break. The mind reader aimed himself towards a clear patch, transformed a few feet above the ground, landing smartly in the soft cool sand.
The others looked at him expectantly, but he held up his hand to stall them while he gasped in some much needed air. Once he had almost got his breath back, he snagged one of Nonoko's special energy drinks stored on Imai's portable island and guzzled down half of it.
By then he was no longer gasping for dear life and was going to make his greetings, but Sumire and the others pulled into shore. Instantly he plopped down into the sand and arranged himself in a lazy position like he had been there for hours. When Sumire trudged out of the water, he gave her a bored look.
"Yo Perms, what took you so long? I was thinking you had gotten lost." He called out with a disinterested tone.
Sumire shot him a murderous look before stomping past him to grab a drink and snacks for herself and her passengers. Just past her, Sakurano and Imai gave him disapproving looks so he quirked an eyebrow at the pair.
Rather unexpectedly, her uncle Tsubasa materialized out of the night shadows and dropped down beside him. The guy was looking out at the group of arriving dragons, but Koko could tell there was a reason he chose to sit next to him.
"Did you spot anyone following us?"
"No. If the kid is a spy, he obviously needs to be awake to do whatever it is that he does." Imai had already confirmed that there were no electronic or listening tracking devices on him. Magical ones were a little harder to detect, but so far there was no indication he had one of those either.
"I don't like this." Tsubasa said bluntly.
"Why? Shouldn't we be glad things are working out in our favor?" Koko asked.
"This goes against everything I have ever heard about the Japanese dragon king. It does not seem like him to just let a group of his subordinates just walk away. At the very least he could use you as leverage against that Natsume kid."
Koko frowned. As much as he did not want to think about it, Tsubasa was right. It was not like the king at all. He has killed people for lesser insults.
"There is another thing." Tsubasa began, and Koko picked the rest of the thought out of his head before he said it.
"You picked up on that did you?" he asked causing Tsubasa to give him an irritated look.
"Will you stop doing that? You are almost as bad as talking to a psychic. Let people finish their sentences will ya?" Tsubasa told him testily. Koko gave him an unrepentant grin. Although he usually tried to respect people's privacy, there were times where his mind reading ability seemed to have a mind of its own. Tsubasa gave him a disgusted look and continued on. "Anyway, yes, I did figure out that Luka is probably going to ditch us soon so he can return to his mate."
Koko did not bother correcting Tsubasa's wording since it was pretty obvious to everyone that the pair were mated in all but name. Their oath would be little more than a formality really.
"So you need my help to stop him?" he asked, unsure that would be a good idea. The sea dragon shook his head.
"No, I just need you to tell me when he tries to lose us. Misaki has an ability that might allow us to keep an eye on him for a while."
Without meaning to, Koko picked the thought out of the other man's head and was surprised by what he found. Apparently the sea dragon's mate could duplicate herself and she would send her copy to follow Luka and make sure he stays out of trouble. Nice plan.
"Speaking of things I've picked up, I can't help but notice how close you have been sticking to Sumire." Tsubasa said calmly causing Koko to make a face. "Not that I don't like you, or want to discourage you, but I feel like I should warn you that sea dragon women are not the easiest to get along with. You might be better off if you just forgot the whole thing right now."
Koko paused to give the other man's words serious consideration. It was not like he was not aware of how difficult she would be already. Was it worth the hassle?
"Tsubasa."
"Yeah?"
"Consider yourself formally notified that I am going to court your niece."
Tsubasa let out a long sigh. "Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you." He said resignedly, and got up to move over to where Misaki was sitting.
Their idyll was interrupted soon enough by a phone call from Mikan's uncle Akira who for some reason he had yet to understand, called Tono. While she talked to him briefly, Natsume called his own brother to confirm things were fine on their end. Luka had mentioned that everything had gone through without any problems and that Mikan's uncle felt uneasy about the lack of pursuit. Unfortunately, Natsume had to agree with the sea dragon. It sounded like they had gotten away too easy so he left Luka with another warning to be careful.
They were just going to catch a little sleep before they had to leave, when they were both surprised by a light knocking at the door. Natsume looked at his phone and wondered who the hell would be visiting at one thirty in the morning and why it could not wait until morning.
Not feeling good about their late night visitor, Natsume quickly and silently slipped on his shorts and walked over to the door. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Mikan pull on his shirt and motioned for her to stay out of sight. Carefully, he cracked open the door and was almost disappointed to find Hime's little pet looking at him anxiously. What was her name again? Lupa? Lisa? L-something.
Natsume could tell that his visitor was disappointed that he was the one who opened the door rather than Mikan, but she quickly hid it. "Is Mikan-sama here?" she asked. Her posture, tone of voice and expression all appeared to be meek and a little afraid, but there was still something about this woman that set his teeth on edge. For starters, she smelled weird and she appeared far too interested in Mikan for his liking. Then there was that one point where he was sure he felt her using magic but could not discern why.
"Yes." He said bluntly, but stayed right where he was, refusing to allow her in. The strange woman in front of him warily looked around her into the night as if she was expecting something to jump out at her.
"I am sorry Hyuuga-sama, but it is important that I speak to her. The others would not want me to talk to her, and this is the quickest I could come." She whispered urgently.
That caught him a little off guard. What could this woman possibly know that would be important to Mikan? Against his wishes, his mate chose to appear right behind him rather than staying hidden like he wanted.
"What is it Luna?" Mikan asked, looking concerned. When Luna spotted her she looked immensely relieved.
"Mikan-sama, I knew your mother and there were a few things I thought you ought to know."
Natsume was tempted to slam the door in the woman's face, but he had already felt his mate's curiosity and resolve to listen to whatever it was this woman had to say. He reluctantly allowed the strange woman in and scrubbed a hand across his face. For a trouble magnet, Mikan had absolutely no concept of self-preservation.
Luna paused when she walked in and saw that Mikan was wearing next to nothing. Again Natsume felt an unreasonable dislike towards her and nothing about the way the woman looked at his half dressed mate made him feel good.
"So, you said you have something to tell me about my mother?" Mikan started off moving towards one of the kitchen chairs.
Luna nodded "Yes, is there anywhere we can talk alone?" she asked, subtly hinting that Natsume should leave. For his own part, Natsume just folded his arms over his chest and shot her an obstinate look. He wasn't leaving his mate alone with this woman and the creepy way she looked at his mate for anything.
When Luna saw that Natsume had no intentions of moving, she gave the pair of them an awkward look and decided to continue. She turned and gave Mikan a shining smile.
"My, you do look like your mother don't you? Your mother and I were such close friends, I feel like we are almost related!" she said excitedly, and what happened next almost happened too fast for Natsume for fully register anything until it was all done.
The look in Luna's eyes changed to something rather manic and she moved forward like she intended to hug Mikan. Without consciously thinking about it he moved to grab her wrist and yank her away from his mate. Robbed of her prey, Luna spun around and snarled at Natsume before launching herself at him. Thanks to his battle honed reflexes; he dodged her attack but kept his hold on her wrist. Letting her momentum carry her past him, he mercilessly wrenched her arm hard behind her back and slammed her into the door.
"Natsume! Luna! What is going on?" Mikan screamed and Natsume could hear the water from the lake sloshing around angrily.
Pinned against the door, Luna changed tactics. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I just got a little over excited!" she started simpering.
Natsume leaned in close to her ear and her scent filled his nostrils. It was still a strange smell. Like she was more than just one creature, one scent layered over another, which was imbedded into another. But now that he was close, there was one scent, deeply buried, that he was able to pick out clearly.
She smelled like his grandfather.
As soon as he identified the scent, he pulled harder on her arm and growled at her. "You dare to touch my mate?"
"Natsume stop! You don't need to hurt her!" Mikan pleaded.
The hell I don't. He thought to himself.
Mikan, who was still unaware that Luna was quite possibly a spy for his grandfather, moved around to try and reason with him face to face. She gently rested her hand on the one that viciously held Luna's wrist in a painful lock. Her intent was most likely to get him to let go, but in the process her fingers brushed against Luna's skin and the next strange and unexpected thing of the night occurred.
Luna's skin looked like it had insects crawling under the surface and it made her appearance warp and ripple. The effect only lasted a second because Mikan let out a shocked gasp and pulled her hand away instantly.
What the hell was that?
"Mikan, go call that Incubus or the guy who says he is my uncle." Natsume said urgently, causing Mikan to nod and bolt out the sliding door and into the lake.
Now that they were alone, Luna laughed darkly. "You should not have interfered Natsume. Mikan will fulfill her mother's obligation to the king."
Natsume became momentarily blinded by rage. "Listen bitch, I don't know who or what you are, but my mate is going nowhere near that bastard!" He snarled.
She laughed darkly again and for some reason her laugh made him think of Persona. "Your mate? You have no right to claim her as your mate" She taunted, "but perhaps having her already recognizing you as her mate might be advantageous."
The statement stunned him. "What?" Luna took advantage of his surprise and stomped on his foot which gave her enough room and leverage to drive the elbow of her other hand into his solar plexus and swing her fist into his groin. The sudden shock of pain had him loosening his grip and doubling over.
Once she was loose, she did not stay to fight him. Instead she ran outside and Natsume who was still in blinding pain, feared that the psycho woman would try to steal Mikan away from him. He staggered outside after her holding his family jewels and managed to hobble about a dozen steps when Luna did something else he did not expect.
She turned into a dragon.
And a red one at that.
Doing his best to shake of the residual shock of pain, he transformed himself and took off after her. Luna saw him pursuing and tried to get as much altitude as she could to escape. Unfortunately for her, Natsume, unlike other air dragons, was able to use his fire at night so he was able to block her escape path with a ball of fire. Luna let out a squawk and tried to change directions, but Natsume was already on top of her and blocked her path again.
Cornered, Luna spun on her tail and attacked him head on. He was about to burn her wings right off of her, but a piece of the night sky broke away and dove at her. When it touched her, she screamed and patches of black appeared on her wings and torso. Unable to fly any longer, she crash landed in the lake.
Natsume wasted no time landing at the edge of the lake and was not surprised when the moving piece of night sky turned out to be the black dragon that was his uncle.
By now others in the community were gathering around the shore to see what all of the noise was about. They all watched as choppy waves appeared all over the lake's surface and one particularly large wave coughed up his mate, old man Inari and Luna.
Luna was in pretty bad shape. There were black marks on her body and she clearly looked like she was in pain.
Narumi broke away from the group and walked up to them. "What is going on here? Mikan said there was trouble."
"You have a spy in your midst." Natsume told him and he heard gasps from more than a dozen onlookers.
Narumi gave him a strange look. "Luna? I find it hard to believe. She has been living here for years." The incubus said skeptically, but Natsume ignored him.
"Mikan, touch her again so they can see what we saw." He ordered and lit several small fireballs around the area so they could all see.
Nervous, Mikan walked up and looked reluctant to touch the other woman. If you went by the look on her face you would think she was about to touch something disgusting. Gingerly, she reached out and lightly touched Luna's shoulder and unlike before, she kept it there while they all watched Luna's skin crawl and writhe. Somewhere behind him, someone started gagging.
Eventually her skin stopped moving and what came out was not what anyone expected.
There, lying on the lakeshore was not Luna, but strange a man. A man who was obviously a red dragon. Natsume, Mikan and several others gaped at the sight, but Narumi hissed.
"Shizune, tell Hime what has happened and get Shiki down here immediately." He ordered the woman, but a man spoke up.
"I'm here already." The male voice said and a handsome man materialized out of the crowd. Narumi regarded him and then the crowd around them.
"We need to move him to a more secure location to question him. Shiki, I need you to put your one of your barriers around him. I don't know what he has done to Luna, but is obvious that we have been compromised." He said and turned to look at the people surrounding them. "Everyone go back to your homes but be prepared to leave. Once we are done questioning this person, we will decide what needs to be done." Natsume felt that it would be better if he just told them to leave, but maybe Narumi did not want to panic everyone.
While Narumi was barking orders at everyone, old man Inari was looking intently at their prisoner. "You. You! I know you!" he yelled at the strange man and pointed an accusing finger at him. "But you're dead! You died years ago! Just who are you? What are you doing here?" the old man began ranting at the top of his thin voice.
Mikan moved herself in between Ji-chan and their prisoner and tried to calm the old man while gently herding him away. But the old man refused to calm down and kept ranting "You're dead!"
Natsume marched over to the mystery man that was still lying on the ground in pain. His features were vaguely familiar, but he was fairly certain he did not know the man. "If you even think of trying something I'll fry you to a crisp." He warned, moving in to pick the man up.
"Oh I don't think we need to worry about that. I'm sure he will be more than happy to come along willingly. Won't you?" Narumi stated, and Natsume realized he was using his seduction on their prisoner.
The former Luna must have already been familiar with Narumi's power because it was obvious by the way he was squirming that he was trying to get away from its influence. Narumi however was not about to be dodged, he sauntered up the man who was trying his best to crawl away from him in terror, but Naru leaned over, grabbed his head and placed a rather chaste kiss on his cheek. The contact was instantly effective. The man stopped trying to get away and instead tried to get closer to the incubus. His cheeks were suddenly flushed and he had this dreamy look on his face.
Ew, tell him he did not look like that when Narumi had used that trick on him. He would have to kill himself three times over to save himself from the humiliation.
Just as Narumi promised, the man went along happily and quietly to a secure basement room in Hime's house. By the time they got there, most of the black marks on his skin had receded. Serio, unlike his twin counterpart Persona, clearly did not release the full strength of his alice just because he could. Which was good because that meant they could question the man without being worried he was going to die at any moment.
Once there, Narumi sat the man down and started asking questions.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Luna." The man said with a dreamy smile looking eager to please Narumi with prompt answers.
"Of course you are" Narumi assured charmingly, and the guy looked like he was about to wet himself with Narumi's approval. "But what happened to the first Luna?" he asked encouragingly, with just a slight edge to his tone.
"The half-demon? She died a long time ago." Was the dismissive answer. "You don't need to worry about her, you only need me." The man said with adoration.
"A half-demon really? What was she like?" Naru asked with a sweet smile.
"For the most part she was just a pathetic half-human looking for approval from everybody." The man said with a disgusted tone. "The only real value she had was her soul sucking."
"Soul sucking? What does it do?" Narumi asked, trying to steer the man towards the answers they wanted. Happy that he still had Narumi's attention, he was eager to answer.
"When she bit the neck of her victims, she was able to steal a piece of their soul and make them her slaves. Like a vampire only much stronger. I have been getting better at using it myself. I managed to keep Hime under control for almost a year now, but with practice I should be able to keep them under control indefinitely." He said excitedly. Natsume spotted the man with the barrier, Shiki cast a dark look at the prisoner.
"Really? You have her power now?" Narumi said, pretending to be highly impressed. "How did that happen?"
The man gave him a secretive smile. "The king gave it to me when I came here." Natsume held his breath. Here it comes.
"Wow, so how long have you been here?" Narumi sugary voice and actions were meant to look impressed, but the only one who was fooled by his sweetness was the one under his spell.
"Since the beginning. I was supposed to hand over the creatures living in this place to the king. But then Yuka showed up with her bargain, so I was sent to another mission."
"So what made you come back?"
"I came back to find Yuka after she went missing."
Anger flashed in the incubus' eyes but thankfully their prisoner was still stuck deep in infatuation and quite oblivious to it. "So you were kind enough to let the king know you had found her?" he asked, and his smile was no longer sweet, it was harsh and frightening. Natsume reached over and gave his mate's hand a comforting squeeze.
The prisoner nodded excitedly. It was a wonder to Natsume how strong the seduction spell was that the man could not see the hateful aura pouring off the incubus. Everyone else in the room was tense and expecting Narumi to attack the prisoner at any second. "My job was to watch them and wait for another one to help bring her back while also taking care of her idiot mate."
"So when the king came to challenge Izumi you helped him?" the aura around Narumi was almost suffocating now and Natsume braced himself to intercept him at any minute.
The prisoner snorted in derision. "I helped him, but it was not the king." That surprised them all. If he wasn't the king then who was he?
"Not the king? Are you sure?"
"He was a-" the man's voice cut off suddenly and he looked confused at his inability to speak.
"He was a?" Narumi prompted and again the man looked to be struck mute and incapable of speech. No matter how much he moved his mouth, no sounds would come out. He looked around the room with a worried look on his face and appeared to be more aware that he should be while under Narumi's spell.
"Something is blocking his words." Natsume stated, but by now they were all clearly aware of it. It could be a spell or a hypnotic suggestion. Damn, did he wish he had Koko here right now.
Narumi gave the prisoner an irritated look. "Shiki, on my mark, make your barrier as strong as you can, Serio can you use a bit of your power to weaken him and any resistance he might have?"
A black smoke appeared in the room and drifted over towards the unknown man. "What is going on? Why am I here?" the prisoner asked, clearly breaking Narumi's spell. His coherency lasted for all of ten seconds when he cried out in pain because the smoke had settled on his skin like malevolent dust. As soon as the marks appeared on his skin Narumi swept in and kissed him full on the mouth. Now when he pulled away, the man looked way more than just dazed, he looked drugged.
"Now Shiki" Natsume was unable to tell the difference in the barrier but the prisoner grunted like he was hit with something.
"Tell me, what are you and the one who came disguised as the king?"
The man's head wobbled and his eyes looked bleary. He was barely able to focus on Narumi. "We are all a part of the king." He said with a drunken smile.
"How can you be part of the king?"
Behind him, Mikan gasped and started fluttering her arms like she had something urgent to say but all she blurted out was "Misaki!" too deep under the seduction spell, the prisoner did not register her words but the rest of them all turned to look at her.
"What?" Narumi asked.
"Misaki, Misaki!" she said urgently flapping her arms around like a chicken.
"What the hell are you talking about? What does he have to do with anything?" Natsume asked under his breath, thinking of the sage. He could tell Mikan had something crucial to say through their bond, but she was not making sense.
"No not that Misaki, Misaki Tsubasa's Misaki!" Mikan said testily. She stopped to take a deep breath before she continued. "Misaki has this ability to make a copy of herself! It makes her a good thief because while she is on a job, she has a duplicate creating an alibi for her. What if it was something like that?"
Natsume was quite sure his jaw managed to hit the floor. When he looked around, everyone else had similar looks.
Narumi, with his eyes looking a little wild turned back to the prisoner. "Tell me are you a copy of the king?" he asked gently.
The man gave him a dazed look "A clone." Natsume was quite sure his heart stopped. A lot of pieces started to fall into place. Holy shit they were in trouble.
"So when you were talking about another coming, you meant that he is also like you?"
"Of course. All of us are clones. The king is far too busy to take care of everything by himself. And who else can you trust but yourself?"
tbc
Yay I managed to squeeze in Shiki! All of you Shiki fans have SeraphMia to thank for his cameo. Up until I was talking with her I had no idea how to fit him in and I had given up hope of ever doing so. Thanks to her I managed to squeeze him in.
You know I was tempted to stop this chapter at the point where Luna turns into a man, but that would just be too cruel. Even for me.
So, now you all now know the big secret the king was hiding. Be careful now. He has been known to kill people to keep his secret.
Now for those of you who still might not get it, I'll say it plain. All of the bad guys are Kuonji. His spies, his minions, anyone that he has doing an important job for him are him. Now before you start to worry about the way his alice halves his age, remember dragons age very slowly. There is little to no difference between a dragon who is forty, and one who is eighty. A dragon could make himself last indefinitely and not have to worry about his appearance changing much. Of course, there is the small problem of having multiple version of oneself around so it would be imperative to use illusion or shape-shifting magic to hide the extra copies.
Now, why doesn't Natsume recognize this guy as the king? Well, I think I'll leave that for you to figure out. You are all very clever I'm sure you will figure it out no problem.