Chapter Seven: Transformation
“Hey! Open up in there!”
I was banging on the door to the weapon shop, which had already closed for the day. Eventually the owner slowly opened the door, looking groggy and upset.
“What is it there Little-Hero? I’ve been closed for hours.”
“We don’t have time for that!”
I’d covered Filo with my cape, and I pushed her forward so the owner could see her.
“Little-Hero-Boy, don’t come bragging to me about your new slaves.”
“That’s not it at all!”
What kind of person did he think I was? If I met the guy he seemed to think I was, I’d punch him in the face.
“Master? What’s wrong?”
“You shut up.”
“I don’t wanna!”
What the hell was going on?
Everything went crazy after that. The slave trader kept thrusting his finger at me. His assistant was speechless. Raphtalia too. As for Filo, she wanted to get closer to me, so she became a girl, and before I knew it I’d taken her with me and was banging on the door of the weapon shop.
Tear! Riiiiiip!
She transformed before our eyes, and the cape was torn to tatters.
She’d turned into the Filolial Queen (tentative name).
That damn bird! You know that cape isn’t free?
“Wh…”
The owner was at a loss for words. He looked up at the giant bird. Filo suddenly turned back into a little girl and held my hand. The cape fluttered down from above and covered her head.
“See what I mean?”
“Oh… Yeah.”
The guy twisted his face in confusion and led us inside.
“So why did you come here? You want equipment for her?”
“Are there any clothes that could survive this transformation? Or hey— why is she transforming in the first place?!”
“C’mon, kid. Settle down.”
That’s right. Why was this happening? Why was Filo suddenly a little girl?
There were small wings on her back, left over from the transformation probably, and she had blue eyes. She looked like a little angel. And her face was so little and cute—she looked like a drawing. She looked to be around ten-years-old. She was a bit smaller than Raphtalia had been when we’d first teamed up.
GRUMBLE… a classic sound of hunger came rumbling from Filo’s new human stomach.
“Master! I’m hungry!”
“You’ll have to wait.”
“I don’t wanna!”
“All right then, you can have some of my dinner.”
The shop owner went to a back room and came back with a pot of soup.
“Now you’ll have to…”
“Yay! Yummy!”
She snatched the pot from him and poured the contents down her throat in one quick movement.
“Hm… Well, it wasn’t the most delicious soup ever…”
She handed the pot back to him, and he accepted it in silence and then shot me a glance.
“Sorry about that.”
“Hey kid, you better buy me some dinner some day.”
She was already costing me a fortune!
“But now that you mention it, I do think I had some clothes for demi-humans that were capable of transforming. Which reminds me, go to a normal clothes store if you want clothes.”
“You want me to barge into a store I don’t know with a naked girl at this time of night? One that turns into a monster?”
“You got a point there. Anyway, hold on.”
He went into the back of the shop and I could hear him shuffling various boxes around.
“I don’t know if these will fit, and they are seasonal clothes anyway—so don’t get your hope up.”
“Fine.”
It took him quite a while of hunting back there before he eventually returned.
“Sorry, but I don’t think I have anything big enough to survive the transformation.
“What?!”
But that was my only idea… No I… What should I do? There was this little naked girl hanging off of my arm, and I couldn’t find any clothes to put on her. I was finally starting to repair my horrible reputation, and now this! This wouldn’t help one bit.
“Master!”
“Don’t you dare transform!”
Even if I could set certain rules for the monsters I controlled, there was no setting to prevent the monster from turning into a human. Monsters turning into humans! It must have been rare.
“But I wanna…!”
What would satisfy this girl?!
She refused pretty much everything I said. Was she in a rebellious phase? She’d only been born a few days earlier, so that didn’t seem very likely.
“Because if I stay the way I normally am you won’t sleep with me, will you, Master?”
She squeezed my hand hard and smiled, looking up at me with beaming eyes.
“What? I have to sleep with you now?”
“I’m lonely…”
“Oh boy… You’re in for it now, Hero-Boy.”
I wasn’t summoned to this world so that I could babysit. Even still, I guess I had decided to watch out for Raphtalia.
“That reminds me. Where’s Raphtalia?”
“I finally caught up.”
The door swung open and Raphtalia came in, nearly out of breath.
“You ran off so quickly… I’ve been looking for you.”
“Sorry about that.”
“Yay! Raphtalia!”
Filo waved excitedly to Raphtalia.
“I’m not giving Master back!”
“What is this kid saying?”
“You won’t give me back? You know I’m not yours!”
“Because Master is my papa!”
“No I’m not. I’m your… owner.”
“You’re not. Then what about Raphtalia?”
“Raphtalia is like my daughter.”
“That’s not true!”
“Huh? I don’t follow…”
“Anyway, I don’t have the clothes you wanted. I’ll look around for you, but you should go home for now.
“Right… Sorry.”
“Thanks for the soup!”
“I swear, kid… You’re always showing up and surprising me.”
We left the shop and made our way back to the inn, but once we were on our way Raphtalia stopped.
“Um… the slave… I mean monster trainer was looking for you.”
“Huh? Oh. Okay.”
We changed course and returned to the tent, where the slave trader was waiting for us.
“Well that was certainly unexpected. Yes sir.”
“Sure was.”
He pointed over at Filo, who was wrapped in the cape.
“Filolial Queens are capable of very advanced feats of transformation. I think they do this so that they may hide out among the other Filolials without interference from humans.”
I get it now. So these kings and queens were able to change how they looked to hide out among the other Filolials. Filo used that ability to turn into a human.
“I am very surprised and excited to have the opportunity to see and study one of these. They are very rare you know. Your ability with monster training must be very impressive. Yes sir”
“Huh?”
“That you could raise a Filolial so well, and so quickly, that it became a queen is very impressive. How were you able to do it?”
There we go. Now I knew what the slave trader wanted. If he could figure out how to produce more of these kings and queens, especially considering their rare transformation abilities, he’d be able to sell them for a massive profit.
“I think it has something to do with my Legendary Shield.”
I really did think that Filo’s amazing maturation had something to do with the maturation adjustment ability the shield had given me. Or at least I didn’t have any other ideas.
“I was afraid you’d respond with some equivocation like that. How much money would it take to get you to tell me?”
“It’s not like that!”
“Then I will provide you with another Filolial hatchling, and you can raise it…”
“No thanks!”
I would not be able to afford raising another one. And besides, I needed to think about getting Filo some clothes. The last thing I needed was another mouth to feed.
“I guess the only other thing that might have done it, you know… that thing…”
“What thing, exactly?!”
Ew, the slave trader was excited, and his eyes were shining. Gross.
It was just something I’d thought of, but Filo did eat the Chimera meat. That’s not to say that it caused her to transform, but it was true.
“Well then, that’s a shame.”
The slave trader sighed and stepped back, as either from disappointment or simply because he didn’t believe me.
“I can supply you with another Filolial at any time, so don’t hesitate to stop by. Yes sir.”
“I’d like to refuse…”
“If you raise it into something useful, I’ll see to it that you are properly compensated.”
“Ha! I’ll think about it when I have a bit more time and money on my hands.”
I was aware that I was becoming a bit of a miser, but this conversation only set my mind further. Now being frugal was a conviction.
“Speaking of which, what should we do?”
“About what?”
Filolial stuck her head into the conversation and asked.
“About YOUR condition.”
“I’m sleeping with Master!”
“I won’t let you!”
“Aw, but I want to! Raphtalia wants to keep Master all to herself!”
“I do NOT!”
What were these girls fighting over?
“Ok, Filo. Let’s sleep in the stable attached to the inn, okay?”
“No way!”
She snapped out a refusal, very bird-like.
“I’m sleeping with you, Master!”
It was just like a kid. Kids always wanted to sleep with their parents.
“Okay, okay.”
“Mr. Naofumi?!”
“If we keep saying no she’s just going to whine the whole time. I guess we need to bend a little too.”
“I suppose you are right.”
Raphtalia whispered her agreement, very disappointed.
“But you can’t walk around naked in front of people anymore.”
“Okay!”
Did she really understand? Whatever. All I could do is pray that the owner of the weapon shop would think of something in time.
We went back to the inn, paid the innkeeper for an extra person, and went up to our room. Our typical evening activities, of studying and compounding, were no longer possible now that Filo was running around.
“Wow! The bed is so soft!”
Filo was jumping up and down on the bed. It took a while to calm her down, and by then we were all tired enough to fall asleep.
Why is it so hot?!
“Ugh…”
My body wouldn’t move the way I wanted it to. What was going on?
I slowly opened my eyes to find myself surround by white. I was covered in feathers.
Snore… Snore…
The whole bed was snoring!
I finally raised my face from the feathers to find that I wasn’t sleeping on the bed anymore but on Filo’s massive stomach, as she had returned to her Filolial form in the night.
Apparently she had rolled from the bed and hugged me against her, using me as a pillow as she slept.
“Get up! You fat chicken!”
Who gave her permission to turn back into a bird?
Yawwwwn.
Oh? So she could talk, even though she was a bird now?
“What…what are you doing?!”
Raphtalia was rubbing her eyes. Then when she saw us, she screamed and pointed her finger at us.
“Raphtalia! Help me!”
I was hitting Filo, but she never woke up. It was probably because my attack power was so low though.
“Filo! Wake up!”
“Mmmm… oh! Master!”
Filo rolled off me.
I could hear the floorboards creaking under the burden. Surely there was only so much weight that they could bear.
“Wake up!”
It didn’t look like she was going to let me go and wake up anytime soon.
“Wake up!”
Raphtalia ran over and pried Filo’s wings apart, creating just a big enough space for me to slip out.
“This is pretty intense for a morning.”
“Hrm?
Filo was suddenly noticing my absence, and as she started to look for me she finally came to her senses. She noticed that Raphtalia and I were shooting daggers at her, and she looked confused as to why.
“What happened?”
“First things first, turn back into a human!”
“Huh? But I just woke uuuuup…”
Dammit! I didn’t want to do it this way, but I didn’t have any other choice.
I opened up my status screen, looked at Filo’s settings, and checked the box that demanded she do as I say. Now she had no choice but to do as I say.
“Turn back into a human!”
I turned to Filo and shouted the order.
“But I… I want to sleep with Master a little bit more!”
But the mark of the monster trainer curse appeared on her chest and started to glow.
“Huh?”
“If you don’t listen, it will hurt you.”
The glowing curse seal grew to cover her whole chest then continued to expand.
Yaaaawn!
Glowing geometric patterns appeared on her wings, and began to fly towards the glowing pattern on her chest.
They collided, and with a small fizzle, the monster trainer seal faded away.
“Huh?”
I quickly reopened the status screen only to find that the boxes I’d previously checked had all been unchecked. I tried to check them again, but no matter how many times I attempted it, the boxes remained empty. What’s the use of a monster that doesn’t follow orders?
Dammit! The whole reason I bought a monster in the first place was so it would do what I said!
That damn slave trader. Just you wait. I’m coming to see you… You better be waiting!
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