"Maybe that's why Naga—" Wa Master's voice suddenly caught, as though she had stumbled over something. Her lips parted slightly; the syllable had already reached the tip of her tongue, only to be forcibly swallowed back down. She blinked, then changed her words. "Well, that's why that dragon would take an interest in you."
Amon looked at her without any particular expression in his eyes.
"You were going to say Naga?" he asked.
Wa Master froze for a moment. Her eyes widened slightly. "Wait, how do you know the name Naga?"
Her tone changed. It was no longer languid and faintly teasing, but more solemn.
"Did Zhou Minhao tell you?"
Amon shook his head. "The day the people from Kassel came looking for me, she came too. Is she a dragon? Did she send the Dead Servants?"
Wa Master considered it for two seconds before answering, "Not necessarily, but it's very likely."
She propped up her chin and looked at Amon's face, as though reassessing him.
"Come to think of it, you really are surprising," she said. "Before this, you barely knew anything about the world of Hybrids. Then today, you suddenly encountered such a major upheaval—and yet you're still this composed, this calm—"
"I'm not calm at all, actually." The corners of Amon's lips lifted slightly. "I'm very excited."
Wa Master tilted her head. The tip of her tail began to sway again like a cat's tail, from left to right, then right to left.
"Shouldn't a normal person be panicked, confused, and at a loss?"
"But I've always been interested in the occult." Amon looked at the pitch-black curtain of rain beyond the window, as though gazing somewhere far away. "Dragons, supernatural powers—those things have always been what I yearned for. If this world were so ordinary—wouldn't that