CH 203

‘What’s up with her?’ Girgantia wondered. Tania had spent the whole day grumbling after receiving a flyer about the festival being held in the city, and now she was even conceding her chicken to Girgantia? She loved the stuff just as much as he did. For her to willingly give it up to go somewhere else? Impossible!

At that moment, a group of villa attendants passed by below and Girgantia watched them absentmindedly, when he noticed a pink flyer tumble out of one of their pockets.

‘That…!’ It was the same flyer that Tania refused to show him. Waiting until the attendants had disappeared around the corner, Girgantia quickly checked the coast was clear and climbed down to snag the fallen piece of paper before returning to his perch.

“Let’s see… For those who have yet to find their fated one?” he muttered. Girgantia scanned the entire flyer and clicked his tongue. “And I wondered what all that talk about finding destiny was about. She went looking for a mate!”

The dragon nodded in understanding. There were many scenes of humans mating in the books Tania liked to read. She did have a lot of interest in that. If Tania had been around to overhear his thoughts, she would’ve kicked up a storm and shrieked, “What nonsense are you spouting!”

Raising himself from where he lounged, Girgantia wondered, ‘Should I follow her?’ He glanced down at his limbs and tail, understanding he could exactly chase after her in his current form. Forget looking for her, people would immediately flock to him and cry out, “It’s a dragon!” the moment he stepped out of the villa. That wouldn’t do if he was going to tail her.

While he wondered how he could spy on her, he glanced down at his feet where golden light briefly flickered in and out of existence. ‘I did gather a bit,’ he thought. His power had been slowly returning ever since his body grew in size. Of course, it was a drop in the bucket compared to when he was first born, but it was enough for him to use.

“I don’t know if it’ll go well since it’s my first time,” he mused, as he walked up to a mirror. His tail began moving rapidly, etching complex inscriptions in golden light on the floor. When the diagram was complete, the dragon muttered, “Change.”

In an instant, the golden inscriptions floated into the air and enveloped him. With a flash of light, the golden inscriptions whirled around Girgantia’s body, starting from his feet and working its way up. As it moved upwards, Girgantia’s body began to transform. He’d been standing on all fours, but was now standing on two feet. In place of his clawed forelimbs were long arms, and his scaly skin smoothed and changed color. After a little while, Girgantia looked in the mirror and found the reflection of a young man with long blond hair and golden eyes.

“Nice! It worked!” he cheered. What Girgantia had performed was polymorph—a basic shapeshifting ability for dragons. Unlike transformation magic used by mages, which cloaked their appearance in a fake shell, dragons polymorphed into an unique form that they would’ve possessed had they been born into another race. It was a spell that dragons, who lived immensely long lives, had conjured as a means to relieve boredom. ‘Apparently it’s fun being able to live as you please compared to the other races.’

Among the races to polymorph into, the most common one chosen by dragons was human. Though this was Girgantia’s first time polymorphing, he understood why so many dragons preferred it. He recalled how he’d listened to his mother complain about her life after polymorphing into an elf, a race that had long disappeared from the land. She described it as a boring existence of 300 years doing nothing but eating fruits and sleeping. Tired of such a life, she decided to be human and lived as one for the next 30 years.