The Archmage Coefficient (OP Archmage/ Mage Academy/ LITRPG/ Hidden Genius)

The first thing Brom saw when he walked through the portal was his sister hugging a stranger and a creature standing next to them.

Before he could call out a warning and snatch his weapon from his back, Celie turned, saw the creature, and cried out.

Brom grasped the handle of his axe and pulled it out before his brain completed enough thoughts to identify the creature that was in front of him. And even after his mind spit out an answer, denial set in.

It simply couldn’t be.

That couldn't be what it looked like because it looked like a miniature dragon, but no one had seen a dragon in centuries. They were creatures of myth, godlike beings that did not waste their time with mere mortals. Even in the ancient era, they were only seen in the company of powerful kings and elves, who were godlike in their own right. Brom himself had only heard stories about possible dragon eggs on the black market, but all of them had turned out to be fake. You were lucky if the thing that popped out was a higher-level creature like a Phoenix or a Griffin. Most often, however, it tended to be some kind of hawk. One was even a peahen. Dragon eggs were something of a joke as a result, yet some still spent fortunes buying them, just for the possibility that at least one of them turned out to be a mythical creature who would become their loyal companion just like in the legends.

Most, though, knew that that would never happen.

"What the hell is that doing here?" he murmured, hesitating to throw his axe, on the off chance that it really was a dragon.

But mostly, his hesitation was because the creature wasn’t attacking Celie, and he had a small, absurd thought that maybe the dragon was Arielle.

Elric had said after Celie walked through the portal that he’d forgotten to mention that Arielle might not look like herself, as she was currently in disguise.

Brom's first thought now was: why would they disguise my sister as a dragon?

Celie stepped back and brought her dagger up to the creature’s neck, but the other woman stopped her with a hand around her wrist.

“Don’t,” she said.

"What is this, Arielle?"

“He’s Sir Spendulon.”

"It has a name?"

"Yes. And it's not an it; it's a he."

“It doesn't matter.” Celie’s head whipped towards the woman. “That thing looks like a dragon.”

“It is a dragon.”

Celie gaped, and her shocked silence allowed Brom to voice a more pressing question that Celie had just put to mind.

“Arielle?”

The woman looked at him with dark eyes that were very unlike his little sister's. Nothing in her face seemed like Arielle. Which made sense if she was in disguise.

Still, he waited for a pinch of familiarity before he moved.

She blinked twice and said, "Brom?"

Just like that, relief flooded his system, and his doubt waned. "Hello there, little sister. Glad to see you alive." He grinned and cocked his head. "Is it just me, or did you grow a couple of inches? And have you done something different with your hair?"

"Yes," Arielle nodded, taking his questions at face value. "I'm in disguise."

"Really? I never would have known. Here I was thinking you'd just had a growth spurt."

Her appearance changed in a flash, and she was back to looking like her regular short, green-eyed self. Arielle frowned, waited a few seconds, and said, "Sarcasm?"

It was Brom's turn to blink. "You noticed?"

Arielle nodded, and he shared an amazed look with Celie. "She noticed."

"She really did," Celie concurred. Somehow, that was almost as amazing as the fact that a dragon was standing next to them, panting lightly, its tongue out of its mouth.

How old was it?

Was it really a dragon?

How much could he possibly get from even just one of its talons?

What if it actually laid a dragon pearl?

It would net him a fortune. He would be a wealthy man. Well, he was already kind of wealthy, but that was through Arielle.

This would make him independently wealthy.

The creature made a whining noise, and Arielle gestured out into the desert. "Come, Sir Spendulon. Do you want to go back in the sand? You can play some more."

To his amazement, the dragon seemed to understand and obey her, at least enough to waddle down the porch stairs. Brom wasn't the only one shocked. Celie's jaw dropped too, even though Ari treated it like it was just a given that the dragon would do her bidding.

Incredible.

What he knew about dragons was that they were intelligent, albeit stubborn and highly unlikely to be domesticated by anyone except the most enlightened creatures. If anything, he'd heard they kept humans as pets, not the other way around.

As the dragon waddled into the sand, Brom’s parents were the next to emerge from the portal.

Elric followed after them, but hung back next to the portal, a gentle smile on his face.

“Arielle!” Both his mother and father rushed toward her, his mother reaching first and hugging her, and his father throwing his arms around them both. Celie stepped back, smiling at the trio, although she still kept the dragon in sight. Thessa kissed Arielle multiple times on top of her head, and Torv extracted her from his arms and swung her up, tossing her in the air as he used to when she was a child.

“Father!” Ari gave a dignified cry.

“Oh, Ari,” he said as he did it again, then drew her into another hug. “My heart. I’m so happy you’re okay!” The statement betrayed his true feelings about her absence. Despite the fact that he'd insisted that Arielle was not in any danger with Elric, he too had been worried about her.

He kissed her on her cheek and held her closer until eventually she kicked her feet out, a visual cue that she wanted to be put down.

But the second she was, she was back in her mother’s embrace, endearments whispered into her hair.

That was when her father finally noticed the dragon creature, who was no longer on the sand and was climbing the stairs once again.

Without a word, he threw his wife and daughter out of the way and whipped out his axe to level the creature.

But Arielle held out one hand, and his strike was interrupted by a pillow of air.

“Don’t hurt him,” she said, and the dragon began wiping its face with its hooked paws, making a keening noise. It paused briefly, blinking blankly into the air, then climbed some more steps.

His parents stiffened and prepared themselves while Celie stared in confused awe as it got close enough to nudge its nose underneath Arielle’s armpit, whining as it did.

Arielle’s mother finally let her hand down, although her father still had his axe raised, staring in utmost confusion. “What the devil is that?”

“It’s a dragon," Ari responded.

"Your dragon?” Brom blurted out. "As in a pet?"

She thought about it. “Not really. He just lives here.”

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“Why is it with you, Arielle?” Celie asked, staring between Arielle and the dragon with confusion and awe. She put her hand out to touch it, but when the dragon turned, she jerked back. “Where did you find it–him?”

“It was more that he found me,” she said. “But I don’t think I can tell you more than that.”

“Why not?”

"I'm not allowed to."

"Not allowed to by who? Elric?"

"No,” she said.

"Does it come and go?" Brom asked, his curiosity piqued. "Did you see it appear from the dragon realm? Why is it so little?"

"Because he;s young," Arielle said. "I don't think he's up to four months old."

"And yet somehow he's with you?"

"Yeah. He's a little clingy." A little was an understatement. The dragon seemed to be trying to bury its entire head in Arielle's armpit, totally at odds with the dignified creature of fable that he'd imagined.

Then again, it was practically a baby.

“You usually don’t like things touching you, Arielle,” Celie said.

“I had to accept it,” Ari said forlornly. “Otherwise, he’ll start crying"

"Very mature of you." A slow smile formed on Brom's lips as he walked closer to them to get a better look at the creature. "My little sister is growing up quickly."

Arielle shook her head. "Not quickly enough. I didn't grow up an inch for the entire semester. I'm concerned I might remain this height forever."

"Don't worry. You won't." He analyzed the creature closely, its rich red scales and beady eyes. The sharp, sharp teeth. “So you just have a pet dragon now?”

He found it difficult to wrap his head around the situation. His little sister, who could barely throw a good punch, who got distracted too easily and found it difficult to meet anyone's eyes, who practiced conversations before she had them, who said the oddest things at the wrong times, who he’d had to look out for and protect most of her childhood…Arielle was now a mage and had a mythical creature as a pet, one that a lot of people would kill for, one that was clinging to her, currently trying to be inside her skin.

“He’s not a pet,” Ari answered again. “He’s just living with us until his mother comes back for him.”

“You’ve met his mother?” Just when he thought he couldn’t get more shocked.

Arielle nodded.

"A full-grown dragon?" he said. "How? Did she catch you when you stole her egg? Was it terrifying?"

Arielle opened her mouth to answer, but her mother interrupted.

"Enough about the dragon," she said. "We have better questions for you. You know what we truly want to know, don’t you Ari?”

Ari bit her lip, and looked down at her boots. But that wouldn’t save her from the interrogation to come.

Brom was not as paranoid as the rest of this family. He didn't think Arielle was in as much danger as Celie feared, although he was somewhat worried himself.

Nevertheless, he’d thought she was overreacting in believing that Arielle had been captured and controlled.

Then again, Celie hadn’t watched Ari beat down an ascendant and her mother, Earthbinders who he’d learned later were from a historic Ascendant family, with one of the last living legendaries. That meant that they were fairly important and powerful.

Arielle had handled both of them with ease and had not gotten in any trouble for it. On the contrary, she'd gotten praised by the Duke of Iverson and had also gotten an apology sanctioned by the dean.

The dean didn’t seem like a bad guy, and neither did Elric, so Brom had been fairly comfortable that Arielle was being taken care of. Nevertheless, the demonic nonsense threw him for a loop.

Why were there demons after his little sister? His guess was that she'd offended one of them by saying the wrong thing, or that she'd somehow stumbled into a cultish ritual and decided to stay out of curiosity.

Or maybe they were drawn to her inexplicable magical talent.

There had been a time when he had wondered why Arielle saw the things she did, whether she was touched by a Fae, or her soul was attached to a demon. He had even gone as far as to ask his mother about it, since it was from her side of the family that such things usually manifested, even though they, of course, faded with time. His mother had claimed she had no idea.

“Everyone who’s ever had any sort of magical talent always lost it before adulthood,” she said. “And they had much milder manifestations. They’d said they saw things, but not exactly like Ari’s, and again that goes away too.”

“And what causes them to have that skill in the first place?”

“Who knows?” she said. “You’d be better off asking your grandmother, if you can find her in her right mind.”

The relationship between Brom’s mother and grandmother had always been strained, and even more so now, as her condition deteriorated. She had a full-time caretaker with her, and they could afford the best herbs and all the bogmint that she desired. Still, being weak and bedbound put the already snarly woman in an even worse mood, and so going over to visit meant enduring hours of coughing and ranting before she addressed any questions.

"Never mind," Brom had said.

"Arielle," Thessa said now. "Tell us, first of all, where you got the gold from."

Ari sighed. "I don't know if I can."

"Perhaps I can offer some clarity," Elric spoke up for the first time, reminding everyone of his presence.

"No offense, archmage, but I would rather hear it from my daughter," Thessa said without taking her eyes off Arielle, who was looking at everything but her mother.

"She won't know how much she can say," Elric said. "So how about I tell you and you look to Arielle to see whether or not I'm lying to you?"

That gave Thessa pause, at least enough for Elric to launch into his explanation.

"Arielle, in her first semester, went somewhere she should not have gone, did something she should not have done, and acquired jewels she should not have access to. She has sworn to keep it a secret under threat of pain by creatures she should never have met, and while she could tell you who they are right now, that would be implicating you, especially since she sold these ill-gotten jewels in the black market and opened a bank account under false pretenses. Since there is a trail of criminality here, she doesn't want to tell you much because she wants you to have plausible deniability in case anything goes wrong. It also helps keep the secret if fewer people know about it."

There was a silent juncture, a punctuation of their shock after Elric's confession.

Then, Thessa's head swung to Arielle.

"Is that true?"

Ari looked down at her feet and nodded.

"So that's why you asked me about the black market." The murmured words left his mouth before Brom realized his mistake.

His mother's eyes blazed in his direction. "You knew about this?"

"No." He held his hands up. "Not about all of it, just that she had sold something on the black market."

"And you didn't think to tell us?"

"No. You would have just worried unnecessarily."

"What do you mean, 'worried unnecessarily'?"

"Oh, come now. Even before you guys knew that, you all assumed something terrible had happened to her. But look at her." He gestured to Arielle. "She's fine."

"Fine and being hunted by demons." Thessa turned back to Elric. "Are those the creatures she met and got sworn into silence by?"

"No," Elric said. "The issue with that is completely taken care of, and Arielle is in no danger there. And I will add, she has not offended or stolen anything for anyone. The treasure she acquired was offered as payment for a task she completed and also for her silence. So as long as she maintains that, she should be fine."

"So why is she being hunted by demons?" Thessa asked. "Explain that."

"That's a little more complicated," Elric said. "Essentially, I tangled with the wrong person, and since they believe Arielle is my cousin, they want to use her to get to me."

While Elric began his story of investigating the demonic sect after an attack that happened on an island next to Arielle's school, everyone but Brom paid close attention. It seemed that everyone else had forgotten the dragon except for him.

The creature was still there, now putting its head on Arielle's stomach, or at least attempting to. However, its head was already above her shoulders, so all it could do was rest on her chest. Arielle distractedly petted it while it did.

"Brom."

"Huh?" Celie had sidled up to him as Elric and their parents talked and was now giving him a warning look, whispering out of the corner of her lips.

“I can see the greed in your eyes,” she said. “We already have enough coins, so wipe whatever greedy thoughts you're having from your mind.”

"I have no thoughts,” he grumbled. Strangely, he couldn't help but have the thoughts he did. Just a few months ago, this dragon would be the most amazing thing he’d ever seen. He would right now be searching for a way to capture and sell the creature and hope that he wasn’t condemned by the deities for life for such a deed.

Somehow that instinct for illicit commerce remained even though he didn’t need to. His allowance was already more than he knew what to do with.

Having that much gold made his life relatively easy and in some ways kind of pointless. He still went through the motions as a watchman and Keeper of the Bog, and did what they were supposed to do. But in the back of his mind, he knew he didn’t have to. He knew, even though his father would never even let them entertain the idea, that they could leave the village for good and settle in the city, or at least build a comfortable life in one of the Greenfinger townships.

But of course, Torv would never hear of it. It was their duty to protect the swamp, he’d always said, and their duty they must fulfill.

But that duty was no longer enough for Brom. He'd had a lot of time to think about it, and he did not enjoy fighting, although he was good at it. He enjoyed hunting but only because he found so many interesting creatures that way.

He mostly did not enjoy standing outside for hours at night watching the bog.

He'd accepted it when that was all he knew, when that was the only future he could have.

However, he had options now, and he witnessed the result of Arielle stepping out of her comfort zone and forging a new path as a Mossborne.

She was excelling at it.

Seeing his sister like this, so changed, glowing almost, becoming who she’d always been out of her shell, was incredible. Seeing her in her mage academy, thriving, with others being in awe of her, it inspired him. There may be a path like that for him too, with something that he was good at but also gave him meaning.

He just didn’t know what that was yet.

“I can explain more later," Elric finally concluded. "But you have a few hours to catch up, and then I’ll take you home.”

“A few hours?” Thessa said. “We haven’t seen her in months, and we only have a few hours?”

Elric gave them a chagrined look. "I’m sorry. That’s all we can risk for now."

"Risk?" Tov said. "You mean she's not safe even here?"

"She is, but I mean...well, it's kind of hard to explain it."

"Allow me to do it then." A foreign voice entered the space, as though she had always been there, blending out from the wall. It was an average-height woman with brown hair and nondescript features, wearing typical servant robes.

"Who are you?" Thessa asked.

The woman's eyes twinkled curiously, and she oozed command despite her unassuming demeanor. "You may call me Tori."