20 Chapter 5 (3): A surprise, part 1

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)

"Looks like you may have the knowledge to match your apparent age, but you still don't have the right amount of common sense. I'll have to fix that" (Ryuu)

"Still... Ver is about four weeks old, right? If she looks like she's twelve or so, that's about three years a week. If she looks fifteen next week, I would say you should consider having her join the classes... no, her aging fast would be a problem. I wonder how old her human form will end up stopping at?" (Souta)

"I can be younger, if you want!" (Ver)

A few seconds of light later, a girl of maybe six years old was standing in her place... still with the same big breasts. I wonder if she'd still have those at two years old. That'd be funny to see. I also wonder if she can change their size like I can, or if they are fixed in size irrespective of her age. I'll have to ask that later, when there aren't listeners who aren't my roommates.

"I... Uggh. I have to wonder how she got exposed to so much mana that she was able to evolve into... what would we call this, anyways?" (Souta)

"How about wyvern lord?" (Ryuu)

"That'd make people think of the Demon Lord, so n-" (Souta)

"That's the point. The difference between her and a normal wyvern is like the difference between the Demon Lord and a normal demon. Hell, if she can shapeshift, it probably means much of her body is made of mana, just like a Demon Lord's body" (Ryuu)

"How would you know about that theory? It's only ever been referenced in one book I've seen, and that was in the forbidden section of the royal library" (Souta)

"It's... uh... let me ask you a question. In exchange for keeping a secret, even one that you'd be required to inform the king of, would you accept a lot of knowledge from books you've never seen before?" (Ryuu)

"Could you let me see one of those books so I know if it's worth it before I agree?" (Souta)

I handed him The tamer's guide to S rank monsters and he looked at it in surprise.

"This series... its author defected to the demon lands after publishing the C rank guide... the B rank book is only seen once a decade or so, and it costs dozens of large gold coins... he completed it? I... if you have books like this and are willing to share them, I'll keep any secret you want from anyone. Even if the Demon Lord was torturing me to learn the secret, I wouldn't spill it" (Souta)

"Oh, he knew the secret. After all, the secret is that he's my father" (Ryuu)

"Eh?" (Souta)

With just that pathetic sound, he fell to the floor in a dead faint.

"We should get to class, but we shouldn't just leave him here... We should carry him to the nurse's office, I guess? Could you three help me? Ver, could you change back to your wyvern form?" (Ryuu)

"I guess..." (Ver)

She shifted back, and the four of us carried Souta to the nurse's office while Ver followed us. Miss Healing wasn't there, as she had classes to teach, so the assistant nurse was there instead.

"What happened? Is he hurt somewhere?" (Nurse)

"He's not hurt, he just fainted while talking to us. We figured we shouldn't just leave him lying on the ground there, so we brought him here" (Ryuu)

"That's a good choice. Thank you. Now, get to class, you're late" (Nurse)

"Right... I hope Fran won't be mad at us" (Mae)

"If she is, just send her to me. You did a good thing, so being punished for it makes no sense" (Nurse)

We went to class, explained to Fran why we were ten minutes late (only a limited explanation, but still), and went on with our day, which was more of the same, until the end of my last class, the one with Miss Healing.

"Ryuu, come with me. Charlotte, Mae, Elise, please come as well. Ver too, actually" (Angry Headmistress)

"What did they do? It's not like you to be so... upset like this. Honestly, I've never seen you mad, the worst I've seen was annoyed, and that was when you learned that the king di-" (Miss Healing)

"Don't speak of that, please. That was... different" (HM)

"Right, sorry. Go on" (Miss Healing)