The Author's Extra: My SSS Skill Turns Souls into Anything!

A day or two after being discharged from the infirmary, Alden was back in the forest.

A thunderous crash shook the Ravenveil tree line as another dragon broke through the canopy and hit the dirt with enough force to scatter leaves in every direction. Alden descended through the dust cloud, dark wings folding as he touched down beside the body.

"That’s the second one." He crouched and pressed his palm flat against the scales. Black smoke poured out immediately, coiling around his forearm before sinking straight into his skin.

[DING!]

[Soul Successfully Extracted!]

[Beast: Dragon — Rank A]

[Dragon Soul Fragment ×1]

[Dragon Blueprint: 22% → 23%]

[+1,500 EXP — EXP: 55,500 / 59,000]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

DRAGON

Fragments: ×13 — Blueprint: 23%

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

’Two more.’

He stood up and looked at the number with the specific kind of excitement that had nowhere to go yet. Thirteen fragments. Fifteen needed. Two dragons away from building one of his own instead of just taking them apart. He clenched his fist and looked across the forest. The Ravenveil Reserve stretched deep in every direction, and he’d barely scratched it. Creatures he hadn’t seen yet. Concepts still locked. Supreme Concepts sitting at ninety and one hundred percent in the Dragon Blueprint just waiting for enough material.

’First, clear out everything here. Graduate, and then I can think about moving to other regions.’

He took a step, then stopped.

"...Wait." He scratched his cheek. A thought had surfaced from somewhere. "Today is... Claire’s birthday? No, that’s not right." He rubbed his temple and stared into the trees. "Seris’s birthday?"

He stood there trying to pull the date from his memory. ’I built these characters from scratch. I wrote their entire histories. How do I not remember the exact—’

CRACK.

Something large moved through the tree line ahead. Alden’s head snapped toward the sound, and the thought disappeared entirely.

_________

Seris opened her eyes to a line of servants at the foot of her bed.

They stood in formation, hands folded, wearing the expressions of people who had rehearsed this and were now committed to it.

"Happy nineteenth birthday, Lady Seris!" All of them, together.

She looked at them for several seconds without speaking. Her eyes moved from one face to the next, and several of them began sweating by the second pass.

"What’s all this fuss about?"

The line immediately went stiff. A younger maid swallowed. "U-Um... it’s your birthday today, My Lady, so we wanted to—"

"So?"

Complete stillness.

Seris looked at them a moment longer, then swung her legs off the bed and stood. "I see." She adjusted her clothes with two fingers and gave the line one final glance. "Thank you, all of you." She walked out and the door clicked shut behind her.

The room exhaled all at once. The youngest maid covered her face. "Why is she so terrifying?! We just wanted to wish her a happy birthday!" The older servant shook his head with a quiet laugh. "She wasn’t angry. Our Lady simply hasn’t changed much when it comes to showing what she feels."

Outside, walking the academy path, Seris let the curve find her lips without fighting it. ’I should get there early. If I want to hear it from him first.’

When she pushed open the Student Council room door, three voices hit her at once.

"Happy birthday, Vice-President Seris!"

Nicholas, Roselle, and Nathan — all three, clearly coordinated.

Seris smiled, genuine and small. "Thank you, you three." Her eyes moved past them as she spoke, traveling across the room until they landed on the chair at the far end. It was empty. She kept her expression exactly where it was, but her gaze stayed on that chair one second longer than it needed to.

’He’s not here yet?’

The day had a particular quality to it that she noticed without naming. Students in every corridor she walked through turned to greet her, and she acknowledged each one with the right amount of warmth.

"Happy birthday, Vice-President!"

"Congratulations on turning nineteen, Senior Seris!"

The responses came automatically while the back of her mind did something else entirely.

’Just where is he.’

By the time evening came and classes wrapped up, the question had worn a groove into her thoughts. She sat down at her desk and let out a long breath that she hadn’t announced she was holding.

A knock. The door opened a crack. "My Lady, there’s someone here to see yo—"

Seris was already on her feet. She crossed the room before the servant finished, pulled the door open herself, and had the first word half out, "Took you long en—"

The words died in her mouth.

A third-year student stood in the doorway, red-faced, his friends physically shoving him forward from behind with the committed energy of people who had decided this was happening.

"W-Well, Seris, I came today because I wanted to tell you somethi—"

BAM.

The door closed. Seris stood behind it with one hand pressed to her own face.

’Why did I get excited. Why did I move that fast.’ She exhaled once through her nose and walked back to her desk. Sat down. Looked at nothing.

Dinner happened. She ate. The clock moved with the indifference of clocks.

By the time she sat on the edge of her bed and watched the hands, most of the day was already gone. She looked at them in silence, then murmured without really meaning to "Two more minutes... and the day is over."

The room was quiet and still and entirely empty of whoever she’d been vaguely expecting to appear in it.

’So you really didn’t come, huh.’

She pulled the blanket up, lay back against the pillow, and let her eyes close. She’d been foolish to carry the thought around all day. It wasn’t as though she’d told him. It wasn’t as though he was supposed to know. She pressed her lips together and let herself be still and that was that.

"Seris!"

Her eyes opened.

She sat up instantly, already turning toward the balcony windows before she’d made any decision about it. And there, beyond the glass, illuminated against the moonlight — a dark silhouette framed by a pair of massive wings spanning wide into the night sky.

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