Before long, Xiao Xiao appeared at the entrance to the hall.
He was still wearing that gray hunting outfit that allowed for easy movement, dusty from travel. His bowl-cut hair was somewhat disheveled by the wind, while his gaze behind black-rimmed glasses remained as calm as ever.
Without greeting the two witches, he spotted the stone sphere at once.
"—You've worked hard!"
Jiang Yu greeted him lightly. Without further small talk, she pointed at the stone sphere. "This is the 'sarira' I mentioned in my earlier youth-message... Hermione brought it back after visiting a Dragon Monster's lair. That Dragon Monster was burned to death by a Karma Fire Talisman."
She had tried to keep her wording as concise as possible.
Xiao Xiao stepped forward a few paces.
Before he even approached the stone sphere, he shook his head.
"—It isn't a sarira."
Apparently unaware that Jiang Yu was joking, he seriously dismissed that possibility. After adjusting his glasses, he ruled out Hermione's other suspicion as well. "Nor is it a dragon egg... but."
Hermione immediately held her breath.
Yet after waiting a long time, the "Doctor" still did not continue. Instead, he bent over and lowered his head, nearly pressing the tip of his nose against the stone sphere's surface. His fingertips traced its outline, then slowly hovered over the patterns and shallow grooves on its surface. From time to time, he adjusted the sphere's angle, using the light falling from the hall's dome to examine how those Magic Runes changed under different intensities of illumination.
"...But."
After a while, Xiao Xiao spoke again, repeating the conjunction before slowly continuing, "There is a trace of life within it... What I mean is, although it isn't a dragon egg, it can become one."
That sounded somewhat contradictory.
Hermione frowned, unable for