Chapter 164

Chapter of the week: 3/4

Translator: Reizenchuu

Editor: Kenny Stryker

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After meeting with Lina, we went to a desolated place.

“We should be fine here.”

I said while looking around me. We went to the grassland where I used to train Rouga. This place is far from public gazes and we can act without the fear of getting seen by someone.

“I didn’t know you would bring Saya with you.”

“I was going out with Lina-chan since this morning.”

I was surprised to see Saya waiting for me in the meeting place where I was supposed to meet Lina. I greeted Saya just like usual before Lina cut right to the chase.

“Can you show me Rouga?”

I responded to her with an affirmation and released Rouga from the servitude space. She appeared in front of us with a depressed expression she was making the whole day.

“How are you feeling?”

“Just like usual, I guess~”

I asked her how she felt and got a dejected answer back.

“You’re right. She doesn’t look very energetic today.”

“Rouga-chan…”

“Yeah.”

I already explained to her Rouga’s condition, but Lina was still surprised to see her with her own eyes.

“She said that she has been feeling like this since this morning.”

“I wonder what happened to her.”

While I was talking about her condition to Lina, Saya crouched and spread her arms as if to tell Rouga to come for a hug. Rouga approached Saya when she saw her taking that stance, but I stopped her from doing so since I was still feeling worried.

“Saya, don’t get too close to her now…”

The next moment, my feeling of worry ended up hitting the mark. Rouga charged towards Saya with a recklessly fast speed. She probably couldn’t control the strength in her legs. Her speed was not as fast as the last time, though it was plenty to knock out any ordinary person. As I guessed that Saya won’t come out safe at this rate, I placed my hand between her and Rouga at the very last moment.

“Fgaa!”

Along with a dull sound, she bumped in my hand and fell on her back and held her nose with her front legs.

That was so close…

I turned to check on how Saya was doing, and realized that she froze in her place with her eyes widely open. Everything happened in a blink of an eye that she couldn’t react properly.

“…”

Her mind is in a panicking condition right now. I can tell that much. She most likely realized that she would have died from Rouga thrust.

“As I said, you’d better not get too close to her.”

Saya nodded repeatedly in a firm manner as her face was turning pale. I can’t blame for that reaction. I bet that she will get goosebumps every time she remembers that she was about to get blown away by Rouga’s enormous rush.

“My nose got bent~”

“It’s better for you not to move too much now.”

I advised Rouga to stay still while looking at her still holding her nose and rolling in pain. Lina who witnessed her behavior from the start frowned.

“This is more serious than what I thought.”

“What’s the problem?”

Lina moved in Rouga’s direction and observed her closely.

“It’s exactly as you said. She doesn’t seem to be hurt anywhere and her magic didn’t amplify.”

She muttered in a low voice and tilted her head as she thought about the reason behind Rouga’s strange behavior.

“I want to ask her a few questions. Can you translate them for me.”

“Questions?”

“I can’t judge only from her current appearance.”

I agreed with Lina and interpreted her questions for Rouga to understand. The content was questions like, does a part of your body hurts? Or, do you feel sudden pain sometimes? And such. When she got all her questions answered, Lina made a complex face and fell in her thoughts.

“… Yeah. That’s the only explanation.”

Apparently, she has an explanation in her mind since she muttered on her own while looking somewhat troubled.

“What explanation?”

I asked her to explain what was on her mind and waited for her until she made the final judgment.

“Rouga is probably about to evolve.”

“To evolve?”

Am I playing Pokémon or something?

“A monster’s built becomes more tough and strong the further they level up. The monster becomes a lot stronger after evolving. This evolution differs among the monster type, but it’s inevitable for all of them.”

Lina explained while fixing her gaze on Rouga.

“Now that I think of it, Rouga didn’t evolve despite being leveled up this much. I checked her status and noticed that she already reached the level range where she should have evolved.”

“Why didn’t she evolve then?”

Lina answered my question without thinking too long about it.

“She refused to evolve. And now that she became stronger, she can’t restrain the necessity of evolving any longer. As a result, she was unable to control her strength.”

“Is that true, Rouga?”

“… Yes.”

Rouga nodded after staying quiet for a short while. It looks like there is no doubt about it. The reason for her strange behavior is due to the necessity of her evolution. She kept on refusing it for too long to the point where she was unable to endure its compelling force.

Rouga’s current level is 113. As Lina said, she must have evolved a long time before she reached this level. I’m impressed that she endured it until now. I kept looking at Rouga with an intrigued face when Saya suddenly asked a reasonable question.

“Why did Rouga-chan refuse the evolution?”

“I want to know that as well. A monster can sense the approach of his evolution long before it takes place. Therefore, she couldn’t have refused it just because she didn’t know about it.”

Lina agreed with Saya’s remark. Her question was indeed on spot. We still don’t know the reason Rouga refused to evolve. She knew about it all this time and kept quiet. Why would she do something like that?

“Why didn’t you talk about it, Rouga? You can answer me honestly now.”

When I asked her to tell me the reason, Rouga stopped rolling on the ground and while still holding her nose, speechless.

“… It’s because…”

After a period of silence, she finally opened her mouth.

“I can’t go back to my home… If I evolved…”

The answer was completely out of my prediction. I widened my eyes and asked her back.

“You mean, that kennel?”

“I can feel it. If I evolve, my body will grow larger and I won’t be able to go back home.”

So, that’s the reason she kept quiet and refused her evolution all this time?

I couldn’t immediately react to her response from the surprise.

“Hey, what did Rouga-chan say?”

“I want to know too.”

Saya and Lina who couldn’t hear what she said, asked me to interpret for them.

“Well, she said that she refused the evolution because she won’t be able to enter her kennel.”

“Her kennel?”

“Is that all?”

Both of them reacted just like me, by inclining their head and looking at Rouga with a confused expression. Well, all three of us found her reason to be absurd, but it must be quite important for Rouga, herself.

“I’m sorry for lying~”

Rouga lowered her head and apologized for lying to me all this time. She looked totally dispirited. She must be feeling guilty for causing me troubles by hiding the topic of evolution from me. She loved her home so much that she refused to evolve. That’s how much she wanted to stay with us. I honestly felt happy to know her feeling for us and smiled as I gently patted her head.

“You didn’t do anything wrong, Rouga. You just wanted to go back home.”

“Fue?”

I cheered her up while caressing her fur. She let out a confused voice since she wasn’t expecting me to react this way.

“You are not mad at me?”

“I don’t have a reason to be mad at you.”

Everyone wouldn’t want to lose the place they call home, and I have no right to blame her for trying to stay with us.

“You could have just told me. I will do something about it, so you can evolve with a peaceful mind.”

“Chief…”

If she keeps refusing her evolution forever, I’m the one who will end up in trouble, after all. Rouga cheered up a little when she felt relieved by my reaction.

“Okay! I will evolve!”

She made her resolve and declared that she will be evolving. That’s the Rouga that I know. I was slightly moved to hear her cheerful voice once again.

“… Eh? What happened?”

Saya and Lina couldn’t keep up with what was going on and waited for me to explain.

“Rouga decided to evolve.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I will take care of the problem of her size with my skills later.”

“That’s great! Rouga-chan!”

Saya shouted in rejoice when she caught up to the situation and went to pat Rouga. I will create a skill that lets her shrink her size after she evolves. As for her looks, I will somewhat manage to do something about it. As I contemplated a plan to make Rouga maintain her former size and appearance, Lina who was quiet until now declared a shocking truth.

“You can transform back to your former body after evolving. You know that, right?”

“Huh?”

“Eh?”

Rouga and I reacted the same way to Lina’s stunning declaration by exclaiming in a ridiculous voice.

What did she just say?

“She can transform to her former body?”

“Yeah, she should be able to manage to do it with a little training. Normal monsters can’t do that because the idea of transforming back to their former appearance is outside of their scope of intelligence.”

“But why is such a function is possible for monsters who should always look stronger in their nature?”

“That’s because Metron-sama added it as a hidden function because he thought that it would be interesting.”

Hidden function… That’s something an annoying kid would come up with.

I doubt such a system is required in a world of monsters ruled by the law of jungle. Well, because of that, Rouga can maintain her current form, so I don’t really mind.

“Tell me that earlier…”

“Sorry, all I could hear is your voice talking to Rouga, so I didn’t understand your conversation.”

Lina averted her eyes while making a sorry face. She missed the timing to say it because she didn’t understand our conversation. If she said it earlier, I wouldn’t have worried this much. Despite the problem being perfectly resolved, I couldn’t shake off the perplex feeling in my heart at that moment.

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“Okay, Rouga! Try evolving now.”

“Okay~”

After resolving the problem of the after-evolution, Rouga will finally evolve. Saya, Lina, and I watched over her from a distance.

I wonder how she will look after evolving…

I fixed my eyes on her without even blinking and watched her pumping energy into her body as she started trembling.

“Yaa!!”

Right when that ridiculous scream resounded in my head, Rouga’s body started shining. The light wasn’t so bright, but Rouga’s appearance was gradually changing as she got covered within it. She eventually turned into a light bulb and continued to transform within it. Soon enough, the light fainted away and Rouga in her new form appeared out of it.

Too huge.

That was the first phrase that came to my mind when I saw her. She charged in my way, but what was particularly different in her was the size. Saya and Lina reacted the same way by exclaiming at how much Rouga got bigger.

“Awoooooo!! (I did it!!)”

Rouga rejoiced with a loud howl. She became twice the times larger in size after evolving that I had to raise my head to look at her face. She used to be around the height of my arm, but now I can readily ride her without any problem. If I were to compare her to someone, that would be Ouka. She became as large as her fox form. I feel as if I just witnessed my child turning into an adult.

“How are you feeling?”

“Good~!”

I asked her how she was feeling and got an energetic response back. Surely, it wasn’t only her size that changed. Her fur became thicker around her body and particularly in her tail and torso. She got fluffier than ever when I touched her. It felt even better to touch her fur now. I exclaimed while being impressed as I moved my hand around her fur and suddenly saw Lina and Saya joining me in enjoying her fluffiness.

“She is so fluffy.”

“Yeah, her fur feels nice.”

Both of them got immersed in patting her around. Her race of【Silver Wolf】changed to【Diamond Wolf】but she didn’t obtain any new skill, but her status and ability increased exponentially. After finishing on checking her new status, I took another look at Rouga.

When I look at her now…

“You… You started looking like an actual wolf now.”

“I always looked like a wolf.”

Her pride didn’t let her accept my little remark. She was right, but I just can’t shake off the feeling that she turned into a different monster. Her cute and adorable ambiance was completely shifted into a gallant and reliable one. Karen will probably get delighted if she were here. Let’s show it to her later when we’re back.

“Rouga-chan, you look so cool now. Just like a wolf.”

“Yeah, she looks like a wolf.”

“That’s because I’m a wolf!”

Rouga swiftly made a comment about Lina and Saya’s remarks. Both of them were speaking while relishing the sensation of her soft fur. Since they can’t hear Rouga’s voice, they didn’t hear anything and continued patting her. Even Lina who knew that she was a wolf got used to her former dog form that she forgot about that fact. It can’t be helped. She didn’t look like a wolf, after all.

“But this is fine on its own.”

“Yeah, she looks like a reliable watchdog.”

“I told you I’m a wolf!”

Rouga yelled at them so they can understand that she is a wolf, though her words will never reach them. Anyway, Rouga managed to evolve without any trouble and succeeded in transforming into her former form after a training.

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Bonus

Like a wolf.

“You look pretty gallant now.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, just like a real wolf.”

“That’s because I’m a wolf.”

“You’re also giving off a vibe of elegance.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, just like a real wolf.”

“I told you, I’m a wolf.”

“Your style is pretty refined too, just like a wolf that went through a history of battles.”

“You’re doing this on purpose aren’t you, Chief?”

Next Update: Thursday, August 23, 2018