What were the chances of a human coming into contact with a red dragon out in the wild?

Slim.

Unreasonably slim.

Probably the same as picking one exact second out of five months and nine days and getting it right on the first try.

And what about the chances of surviving that encounter?

That was even worse.

To put it simply, if the odds of a human getting struck by lightning over an eighty-year lifespan sat somewhere around one in fifteen thousand, then a person was easily twenty thousand times more likely to get hit by lightning than to survive touching a red dragon without external intervention.

And that was without considering one very important detail.

This particular human had never even left the general confines of predominantly human settlements.

"..."

"..."

Dragons from other clans weren’t impossible to encounter. Rare, yes, but not unheard of.

Golden dragons, for example, had a new reputation for wandering wherever they pleased after being influenced by a few kinda-sorta humans.

But red dragons?

That was different.

Not under someone like Lady Seraphyne.

In short, the culprits, including that bastard Malrik, practically gave this red dragon, currently going by the name Simon Mercer, a rather permanent seal with the pitiful runes they could handle.

But why was that considered insulting?

Well, it was because not only had it been done in clear spite but also in the crudest way possible.

Simon had already agreed to cooperate with Riley and Kael. He wanted answers, and Riley had a bit to give after examining him.

With knowledge from the Iltherans, he broke down his conclusions for the understandably confused—and soon-to-be-annoyed—red dragon.

"Sealing oneself is relatively easy," Riley said. "But sealing another dragon is different and would generally require more resources."

"But because they didn’t have the capability to create anything more refined, they went with a method that was more accessible. Something they could execute without relying on older and more powerful runic systems."

He paused briefly.

"Well, the modern teens would probably call that a skill issue."

"Skill issue...?"

Riley cleared his throat and decided not to elaborate on his insult.

"In simple terms, they used a disciplinary seal—the kind clan leaders use for minor infractions. The type they apply when what’s been done isn’t serious enough to escalate to the Dragon Lord."

The aide watched the red dragon’s brow begin to furrow, understanding gradually setting in as he continued explaining his findings.

"It’s like grounding a child, or making them stand facing the wall. Temporary. Meant to be lifted later."

His gaze sharpened slightly.

"Ideally, encountering a dragon from the same clan would remove it, as a sign that the confinement is over."

A pause.

"But in your case, they needed to make sure that never happened until they deemed it needed..."

Simon’s eyes widened.

"So they placed you somewhere no red dragon would ever casually come across you."

"!!!"

Riley similarly couldn’t help himself and let out a short laugh.

But it wasn’t out of amusement.

Instead, it was sharp and reeked of annoyance.

Because the more he looked into it, the more it became clear just how little consideration had gone into Simon’s life. His family. Everything he had been separated from. In fact, it showed just how little they thought of the golden dragon clan.

All of it reduced to a show of their greed.

And worse—

From what Riley had gathered, the seal wasn’t even that recent.

It had been there for years. Definitely not as long as Riley’s seal, but it was old enough to match Orien’s age.

And while he was definitely a baby dragon, he was practically creaking bones in human age. Therefore, how long had this red dragon been living as a human?

The black dragon’s gaze lingered on Simon.

Better yet, just how long had he been living as Simon Mercer?

And if Riley was right, then how long would Simon have been able to keep living like that?

At some point, people would start noticing.

A man who didn’t age.

A man who wasn’t doing anything to slow it down, yet somehow remained the same.

Questions would come. And when they did—

Would they have taken him again?

Sealed his memories.

Changed his identity.

Thrown him back into the world as someone younger.

Like nothing ever happened.

...Fucking asswipes.

Riley’s jaw tightened as he dug deeper.

Unfortunately, Riley was once again right as he saw multiple layers of memories sealed somewhere far back.

They didn’t even do a good job when they did it!

To think this guy managed to live a life while being this mentally banged up!

Riley exhaled slowly, forcing himself to stay composed as he looked at Simon.

The man looked pale.

Lost.

Like everything he thought he knew had just been pulled out from under him.

"We’re not certain about everything yet," Riley said, choosing his words carefully. "But what we can tell you is that you were in the middle of being unsealed when you fully transformed."

He then noted that the process had put a massive strain on Simon’s body and it might take a while before he could recover to shift safely again.

"So unless you’re on the verge of death, we can only advise you to stay in this current form while recovering."

Simon, looking rather pale, nodded slowly.

Even if he wanted to transform, he didn’t think he had any control over it. The first time it happened, it had been against his will.

To begin with, the red dragon had no idea how he’d been unsealed, given the nature of the seal supposedly placed on him.

Riley looked like he wanted to say more, but this time, Simon spoke up. "Considering everything you’ve said, h-how did I get unsealed? I don’t remember meeting a red dragon, let alone coming into contact with one."

He’d never even seen dragons outside of the headlines. So hearing that he may have been in contact with a red dragon that allowed for the unsealing to begin sounded particularly insane to him.

He just wanted to know if that had been part of their plan...

Well, that was one loaded question to ask, Riley thought as he glanced at his mate. But Kael only gestured with his brows, silently telling his twig he could say whatever he wanted.

"..."

Riley wanted to knee his beloved mate for that incredible show of support.

But in truth, the answer wasn’t that difficult—they had no confirmation either. While they had an out-of-this-world guess, it was still, for the most part, just a crazy-sounding hypothesis.

However, if Kael were right about their earlier meeting having something to do with the unsealing, then they really had to do a major reevaluation of the children.

But just the same, he couldn’t blurt out the information right away.

For one, he didn’t want to cloud this guy’s judgment and memory, especially since he was planning to attempt unsealing those too.

"We’re going to have to check on that too. Like you, we’re not certain," Riley said.

"But what we can say is that you were... lucky."

Simon frowned slightly.

"Lucky?"

"Yes," Riley responded despite understanding that to that guy, his words must have sounded rather insensitive and unbelievable.

"See, if the unsealing hadn’t already started, then when they came for you..."

His expression turned colder.

"That attacker who tried to abduct you from your home would’ve succeeded without difficulty. You wouldn’t have had the capacity to fight back," Riley continued.

Not being able to detect someone approaching—someone clearly familiar with where he could be found—was already a major issue on its own.

And that wasn’t even counting how easily he would’ve been shredded facing someone like that.

"And if that had been the case, instead of being treated as a separate entity for punishment, you would’ve been used as a hostage AND a pawn without even realizing it."

"Huh? A hostage?" Simon asked. "For what?"

Riley could understand why Simon looked so confused.

From his perspective, none of this made sense. His status was unclear, his situation worse, and nothing about him felt important enough to be dragged into something like a hostage situation.

But that was the problem.

He didn’t know.

"About that," Riley said, his tone light but pointed, "wouldn’t you like to know?"

"!"

Well—

At this point, who wouldn’t?

Simon couldn’t pretend none of it had happened. Not when everything had already been turned upside down. Not when he was standing in the middle of something he didn’t understand.

Knowing something, anything, felt better than being left in the dark.

"I—I would like to know," Simon said, his voice tight. "But how?"

Riley didn’t hesitate.

"Your memories," he said. "Several layers of them were sealed along with your draconic nature."

"We can try unsealing them so you can maybe understand what’s happened to you all this time."

"But I need to tell you beforehand. It could be extremely painful. And there’s no guarantee it’ll work."

Simon looked at the dragon lord’s aide, wondering why a human spoke about it like he’d lived through it to tell the tale.

But wasn’t that preposterous?

In the end, the red dragon decided the aide was simply good at his job—and knew how to sound genuinely sympathetic when it mattered.

It took a moment to think about the implications as he clenched and unclenched his fists.

All this time, Simon had been battling with his mind, always feeling like something was wrong with him while everyone else said he was fine.

But now that now that he realized he was right all along... for some reason he couldn’t really pin his emotions properly.

He was simply all over the place.

However, what he was certain about was wanting to finally understand. He wanted to put to rest all those doubts and the relentless yet nonsensical search for something he couldn’t even identify.

So he looked up to return the gazes of those two, finally nodding.

"Please do it... I want to know who I really am."

The important people of the MBE nodded back in response.

But when Mr. Riley Hale said it would be painful, Simon learned that he was severely understating.

The experience wasn’t just painful.

If anything, it was practically experiencing death—

Over and over again!