Chapter 20: Change of Plans 2

It had been two hours since I changed my plans for David’s happiness,

but I still couldn’t come up with any brilliant ideas.

Wasn’t there some special way to quickly improve Gloria’s condition?

I could only keep sighing.

At this rate, even if I agonized over it all day,

I wouldn’t find a proper answer.

Backed into a corner like this,

did I have no choice but to use my last resort?

Was the limit of my transformation ability finally going to crumble

because of my fandom obsession?

I’d considered transforming into animals from imagination or mythology

quite a long time ago,

but I had never been able to put it into practice.

Today, though, I felt like I could succeed.

Egypt’s sacred falcon.

An animal that symbolized the sun,

with a relatively low difficulty level,

and the mythical animal that had come closest to success

out of all my experiments so far.

It was only tricky because it involved the sun,

which symbolized recovery and regeneration.

I’d hunted down what few ancient spellbooks remained,

nameless documents drifting around here and there,

and all sorts of other things,

then actually tried a few of them myself.

Now, only one option remained.

It wasn’t as though I believed in any particular religion.

But for the sake of my fandom,

I could become an extremely devout believer,

if only for a little while.

I had wanted to try this method before,

but the problem was that I didn’t know

jack shit about Egyptian gods.

But now, I had at least gotten hold of a clue.

I placed a sun-shaped carpet in the center of the room

and knelt with the most reverent heart I could manage.

"Khepri-Ra-Atum, great sun god of Egypt, I earnestly beg for your permission, for everyone’s happiness."

Honestly, I had no idea a god could have multiple names.

Maybe that was why it hadn’t worked before.

Putting aside those pointless thoughts,

I steadily reviewed the falcon anatomy diagram I had memorized,

neither too slowly nor too quickly.

I didn’t know whether the prayer would work.

The transformation was nearing completion,

but it didn’t feel all that dramatic.

Cheep, cheep-cheep!

Something seemed to have gone wrong.

Did falcons originally look like this?

Hmm... This wasn’t what I had in mind.

Other than the glowing disk behind me,

at best, I looked like a fluffy little sparrow.

Could it be taking revenge on me like this

because it thought my prayer lacked sincerity?

My head even looked like it had a chicken comb.

Cheep-cheep.

I didn’t have time, so I’d have to settle for this much

and hurry up, collect some blood and tears, and get to work.

The things I had to do were about to pile up like a mountain.

I needed to draw up a training schedule for David and the Edgerunners crew,

and the company needed to start preparing to make its presence known too.

First, I’d contact Maine and have him start David’s basic training tomorrow,

then think from there.

Cheep-cheep!

I could do this! I would make it happen!

Let’s think of it as pulling overtime for just one month!

First, I needed to turn back into a human—

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I suddenly got a call from Kangal, who I hadn’t heard from in days.

I’d been bothered by the cold look he gave the new rookie

when they were introduced,

but Kangal happened to contact me first.

"Maine, you know the new recruit we brought in this time..."

"David? What about him? Is there a problem?"

"I’m thinking of training that rookie and Lucy. Would that be okay?"

"What are you planning to train them in?"

"I’ll lay down the basics, teach them a few simple techniques, and show them how to drive."

"Go ahead and teach them, but leave out the driving for now."

"Then I’ll start teaching them tomorrow. Thanks for taking my call so late, Maine."

I had a bad feeling about this.

If they didn’t prepare properly starting now,

David and Lucy could end up dead.

Kangal’s standards were off somewhere.

He said he would start with the basics,

so he was definitely going to put them through just enough to avoid killing them.

And Kangal said David and Lucy would be first.

That was the thing I hadn’t wanted to hear: soon, someone else would be dragged into hellish training too.

The training’s effects were undeniable, but I never wanted to experience it again.

I felt bad for David and Lucy,

but once Kangal had made up his mind to train them,

even Rebecca couldn’t stop him.

The crew would get noisy again starting tomorrow.

Just as it always had since Kangal joined,

David and Lucy’s initiation

would properly begin at Kangal’s hands.

I deeply, fervently hoped

that both of them would return in one piece,

and that Kangal would not train them too enthusiastically.

A photo they would take together in the not-too-distant future.

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