20 Chapter 5 3 : A surprise, part 1 (1/2)
Chapter 5 (3): A surprise, part 1
”What are you talking about? It's me, Ver... huh? What... are these... my claws? What happened to my scales? What's this weight on my chest? Did I... become... a human? An elf? A demon? I don't know...” (Ver)
”Eh? EH?! EEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHH?!?!?!?!?!?!” (Ryuu)
”Huh?! What's wrong?! Ry...uu... Who's that girl? Are... Are we not enough for you?” (Char)
”I've... never... seen this... girl... but... she's familiar... like... an old... friend... or... Wait... where's Ver?” (Elise)
”I'm right here... but... I'm different... my collar is still on my neck, though... see?” (Ver)
”Yep. It's Ver, that's for sure. I've never heard of a wyvern turning into a humanoid, but... ah, whatever. It's Ryuu. Nothing that happens around her makes sense” (Char)
”Ver, do you think you are able to change back and forth between this form and your wyvern form?” (Ryuu)
”Uh... I...” (Ver)
She started to shine, and then the weight pressing down on me tripled. The light went away, and a golden wyvern was lying down where Ver the humanoid girl had been.
[Yeah, I can change back and forth, no problem. It takes a bit of mana, but I can do it a few dozen times before I start running low, I think. I recover enough mana to shift once in three minutes or so, so it's fine... it does make me a bit hungry, however] (Ver)
”Well, shift back and I'll get you some clothes after I feed you... actually, I'll take you to Souta's office in wyvern form after I feed you, if you'd be so kind as to shift back there. I think his reaction would be funny, and he might be able to figure out why this happened, and what else might happen later on” (Ryuu)
[Sounds good!] (Ver)
Ver was covered in light again, and the weight on me was suddenly reduced as the light faded to reveal a little girl.
”Hmm... I wonder... Ver, can you still use telepathy in this form?” (Mae)
”Uh... Let's see...” (Ver)
[Yeah, I can! No problems with it!] (Ver)
”In that case... as you can do things that are almost exclusive to magic beasts, and you can shapeshift, can you change just part of your body to that of a wyvern? Say, make one of your hands into claws, or grow a pair of wings?” (Mae)
She tried, and eventually managed to do so. She couldn't use the wings to fly, but she could cut wood with her claws. After that, I fed her and then we all got ready, which, for her, meant shifting back to a wyvern. We skipped breakfast in favor of rushing over to Souta's office, where we practically knocked down the door.
”What? What is it?” (Souta)
We walked inside, closed the door, and he raised his eyebrows.
”Oh, sorry... Uh... Ver? Could you show him?” (Ryuu)
Ver was enveloped in light, and I threw one of my old shirts over her as she finished shifting.
”Huh? What? Where...” (Souta)
”Look at my neck” (Ver)
”A collar? It says... Ver... No way...” (Souta)
He ran to his desk, flipped open book after book, and eventually flipped through one of them, before stopping on a page and beginning to read aloud.
”When constantly exposed to extremely strong mana, a magical beast might become a ruler class. What effect that has and the name it gets depends on the beast. For example, the noble orc has the effect of commanding goblins and kobolds, the ogres that evolve into oni have more magical potential and intelligence, and it's rumored that wyverns and dragons could gain the ability to turn into humans” (Souta)
”Well, at least in regards to wyverns, that rumor seems to be true. Another true rumor would probably be the one that nothing related to Ryuu makes sense” (Mae)
”I don't care why it happened, I'm just happy that it did. Now I can be with Ryuu the way Mae and Char and Elise are, and making the sa-mmph” (Ver)