A few hours later, we returned to the Royal Capital of Elfast after two and a half days of travel and found that the place was pretty much silent at night. After all, the Elves are a diurnal race, so they wake up and go about their daily activities when the sun rises and stay indoors and retire to bed when night comes. 

“Guoaruuu garuaon…” [It’s great that the place is pretty deserted at night.]

“I agree. After all, if a Wolfman…entered the capital during the day, they would surely stand out.”

One of the Chamberlain Knights who was walking behind me responded to my muttering and spoke to me in the common language of Humans. After they found out from my exchanges with Lenaide that I could understand Human language, they stopped using the Kobo language which they weren’t very good at.

I found it funny that she stopped in the middle of her sentence after calling me a wolfman. She wasn’t entirely wrong though, since I definitely looked more like a wolf than a Kobold right now.

However, if we looked back at the past, the Kobolds were actually a group of dog people who stayed together to survive after they were deemed by the wolf people to be the weakest members and were kicked out of their packs, so it might be safe to say that my body was just reverting to its origins.

But even if the two races shared the same genes, the Werewolves, who sometimes attacked people by disguising themselves, were exterminated by the fearful Humans and their numbers drastically dropped over the long course of history. Meanwhile, because the weaker Werewolves interbred with each other, it also further weakened their offspring, and the Kobolds, who were the descendants of these Werewolves, had lost their ability to transform into humans and were left alone to thrive because they were relatively weak…

(When I think about it… it’s quite ironic that the weaker species prospered more than the stronger ones.)

While I was lost in my thoughts, I had passed through the Black Elf quarters and entered the Bronze Elf residential area, and was about to pass through the eastern gate of the castle when someone talked to me from behind.

“Se-senoh…” (Uh, ummm…)

When I turned around, I saw the two Black Elf women who were wearing the Chamberlain Knights’ cloaks over their clothes that were torn by the Goblins.

“Strauze, tia riddo vira lesdi… ia, milea uldia?” (Excuse me, but I live nearby… so can I go home first?)

“Neito kitol uldi, tizel vilektal lurdea…” (If we are heading to the castle, then our current appearance is inappropriate…)

“Uu, sera riddo milearudi.” (I would like to go home as well.)

I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but since we were near the Black Elves’ living area, I could roughly guess that they wanted to go home. However, if we think about the proper order of things, their families have probably reported them as missing, so they would have to follow some procedures at the guard’s headquarters before they could head home.

Sure enough, Lenaide had a troubled look on her face as she talked to the women and was unable to make them get a move on. In the end, it was decided that 3 of the Chamberlain Knights would accompany the women back to their families that night and escort them to the Guard’s Headquarters the next morning.

“Now, shall we head back to the castle as well?”

“Wafu.” [Sure.]

After that, I walked with Lenaide along the unpopular moonlit streets and we soon arrived at the palatial-style white castle that was built around the enormous World Tree. I was then escorted back to the room where my comrades and I were staying, but…

“Guruua woauo…” [There’s nobody in here…]

I became worried about my sister and the others, and it didn’t help that I could also feel the nervousness of the guards inside the castle. However, it’s not like I could just casually visit the Queen’s quarters even though I had an inkling that she knew what was going on.

(I’m confident those 3 could handle themselves well, so it should be alright. Anyway, I’ll just ask them about it in the morning.)

I was very tired after the adventure that followed after I climbed the World Tree, so I sleepily took off my armor, placed my mithril mask by the side table, and climbed into bed… 

The following morning, I was slumped in front of the built-in full-length mirror inside the room.

“Guuuuh, ku, kuau, uu…” (Nnngg, i-it’s a failure, nngh…)

To be honest I had been feeling like crap since I woke up this morning… I had to crawl to the sink not because I had a problem with my psyche, but because I felt like I was going to throw up. Now that I think about it, I also felt a strange sensation in my body when I underwent Beastification, but the discomfort I got with Humanization was largely due to the drastic change in my skull structure…

Just a moment ago, I leisurely woke up to the sound of birds singing in the morning, but as soon as I looked at my wolf-dog appearance in the mirror, I wanted to try out the Humanization skill, but I was unsuccessful with the transformation…

(Now that I think about it, both my bone structure and musculature would have to undergo a drastic change during the transformation… Humanization is so uncomfortable.)

As soon as I triggered the change, I felt my skeletal structure smoothly distort, but I also felt an indescribable discomfort with the Humanization and the pain caused by my muscles spasming took my focus away and I ended up reverting into my original wolf-dog form.

Did the Werewolves experience this kind of pain during Humanization? Anyway, this skill could be handy in the future, so I might as well train myself to use it… I then grabbed the edge of the sink and staggered to my feet, determined not to use the ability as much as possible.

“Hnn? What are you doing?”

I heard a voice coming from the room’s entrance, so I raised my left hand to gesture for them to wait and adjusted the flow of magic within my body while swallowing down nausea. After I calmed down a bit, I returned to the side table to retrieve and wear my Mithril mask.

“…Waoon, kuauvo.” […Good morning, Lenaide.]

“Good morning, Sir Archer. You… seem like you’ve had a rough morning today.”

Oh, did my expression give me away?

“Guu, guuaorufu, gaurua kuu wafooon…” [Oh, don’t mind it, I’m just feeling a bit sluggish this morning…]

“Lady Aristia seems to want an audience with you though. Will you be able to come?”

Well, I still had to know where my sister, Buster, and Ax went after I disappeared, so I might as well show my face and talk to her.

After I got myself in order, I nodded and followed Lenaide out of the room.