Chapter Text
Some people could take secrets to their graves but this one wouldn’t last a week before it was spilled into the open for everyone to witness and Kabru was desperately finding a way for that brand new country not to be invaded once the elves would learn that a winged lion was sitting on the throne.
Oh yes, Laios can turn into the winged lion but he is not The Winged Lion. Yes, the same Laios you all wanted to kill because you were scared he was going to become a dungeon lord and free the Winged Lion upon the world, and who did just that in exchange of being turned into a monster… But this time, we are almost certain that it’s one of his quirks. Truly, no need to worry about it. He isn’t even that happy about it, he apparently regrets the three-headed-mess he used to be.
Kabru was good but he wasn’t that good.
No one else in that room seemed to understand that they were now flirting with war. The royal mage was facepalming. Falin considered her giant demon lion of a brother and let herself fall face first into the fluff of his chest. The impact should have unsteadied him but Laios didn’t waver, continuing to talk about how he felt that the form of a wolf would have suited him better.
While Falin stayed there, Kabru decided that he needed to sit down and let himself fall on what was left on Laios’ bed, his hands on his knees, his borrowed sword by his side.
“… Can I try too?” Marcille asked.
“Sure,” Laios answered absentmindedly before continuing. “And it’s not that I am criticizing the design but more than one head would allow a monster not to be taken by surprise, as one head would be on the look-out while the other can sleep or eat.”
Falin gently rubbed his leonine shoulder. “But Brother, don’t you think it would cause problems for making decisions? It would at least delay it.”
“You’re not wrong but I still think that you could find a way to counterbalance it. When I was a chimera worth the name, I had a centralized mind that…”
Marcille emerged from Laios’ chest fluff. “Kabru, do you want to try? It’s really soft.”
Of course Kabru wanted to try it. He loved cats and this was a cat bigger than him who would accept any pet from him because he knew who his international politics were dependent on.
And honestly, he had earned this.
“This cannot get out of this room,” Kabru said instead. “No one can know.”
Laios gave him a flat look that didn’t bode well for Kabru’s blood pressure.
Less than twelve hours later, one of the smallest banquet rooms had become a forbidden zone for any member of the palace except for the king, his sister, his advisor, his court mage, the leader of the adventurer Union, Senshi and Izutsumi.
They all cooked together, Kabru even joining them because following Senshi’s instructions was the only thing distracting him from the thoughts of having to go back to his mom and to eat horrible cakes again due to a massive war between the elves and this kingdom.
At least, Laios had just enough sense to announce to his friends that he had something to tell them, jumping on his feet, a proud look on his face. Marcille, who was facepalming, Falin, who was excited, and Kabru, who had just grabbed a pitcher full of wine, didn’t bother preparing them for what they were about to see.
A winged lion appeared in the banquet room.
All hell broke loose.
All things considered, Laios’ friends took his new ability pretty well. Once Kabru and Marcille were done explaining that Laios was still himself, Izutsumi stopped trying to decapitate him with her katana, Chilchuck’s escape attempt by a window on the second floor was successfully prevented and Senshi stopped trying to sacrifice himself to save the children (Izutsumi and Chilchuck). Technically, Senshi was now aware that Chilchuck was an adult man - meeting his adult daughters had been quite the shock - but sometimes, the stress made him forget it.
Chilchuch, especially, had recovered in record time. His fury had overwhelmed his fear and he was currently shaking Laios’ head, not caring that he was a winged lion that could sever his spine in one bite with no particular effort. Truly, it warmed Laios’ heart. And made him slightly dizzy.
“Tell me… you didn’t… hide all this time… that you could do this!” Chilchuck almost managed to growl. Which made Laios think that he would need to check if he could roar later.
“I didn’t!” Laios defended himself, not liking the suspicious looks Sensei and Izutsumi were giving him. “I only realized I could turn into that form this morning! When Kabru came into my room while I was sleeping!”
And it wasn’t a lie! It also… wasn’t the entire truth.
Laios had never noticed before that he could turn into a winged lion, or he would have abandoned walking in favor of flying!
However, he had noticed that his body had changed.
His eyes had become better and obscurity was less of a problem now. He had always been good at recognizing people’s footsteps but now, he didn’t need the benefit of the echoing hallways of the dungeon and could pretty much track down Kabru’s steps when they were on the same floor, which was useful when he needed to hide from his royal duties.
To be honest, he wasn’t convinced that his current body was the one he was born with and that he had when he had accepted to become the dungeon master. But that wasn’t something his friends were ready to learn about him so he was probably going to need to take that information to his grave.
Izutsumi was staring at him, her face neutral in the way cats did when they were judging the worth of another feline.
Her tail was slowly swaying back and forth.
Laios patiently waited, aware that this was his first trial as a feline.
Her verdict was the most violent thing Laios had ever experienced - multiple deaths, removal of a leg by blunt dragon fangs and that time he was devoured (eye removal included) by a legion of his look-alikes, included.
“Fake cat,” Izutsumi declared.
Laios flinched, actually needing to put one knee down to resist the sheer pain those words created within him.
“Chicken looking cat,” she added
Nooooooo! Laios internally shrieked. That’s the thing I am sensitive about! I didn’t ask to be such a boring chimera!
The shock was so bad that he became a boring tallman again. Chilchuck, who was still holding on to him, suddenly found himself with his feet dangling off the ground, something Laios didn’t notice until he took several steps back, and only because the half foot made a noise of protest. In Laios’ defense, it was like holding a couple of grapes.
“Why are you so harsh with him?” Marcille asked.
“I don’t know,” Izutsumi shrugged. “It’s funny. And he can’t even purr. He is too big.”
She was right. Big cats couldn’t purr.
“I should have become a wolf,” Laios lamented.
“Brother, wolves aren’t monsters!”Falin tried and failed to console him. “And they’re only one animal! While you are so cool and fluffy!”
Laios shook his head. “Canines are better than cats. They are built for endurance, are social creatures that live in packs, have better noses and they have a greater bite strength.”
“Hey!” Izutsumi’s fur was now standing on ends.
Kabru made his way to him. He put his hand on his shoulders. “Laios, don’t think that,” he told the failure of a cat. “Cats are better fighters and more lethal and that’s what truly mattered.”
Laios gave him a flat look. “So what? I’m not an adventurer anymore. I’m just a king.”
Kabru’s expression didn’t change, except maybe for an intense look in his eyes, but the hands he had on Laios gripped him tighter for half a second, which was either a way to comfort him or the sign that Laios had said something slightly upsetting. Following Marcille’s advice, his eyes immediately looked at the vein on Kabru’s neck, which was now more apparent. The latter, then.
Laios was truly getting better at this whole reading-the-mood thing.
“At least, we finally have a monster he won’t try to taste,” Chilchuck said under his breath. It might have been too low of a sound for tallman ears to register so Laios wasn’t going to comment on it but somehow, Chilchuck immediately realized he had heard him. Horror bloomed on his face. “Oh God, please, don’t try to take a bite out of yourself.”
“Don’t worry!” Laios immediately reassured him. Who was he taking him for? Laios wouldn’t eat himself. Especially since he didn’t know if he had any of the original winged lion’s regeneration abilities. He would have figured it out if he had let Izutsumi cut his head but he wasn’t willing to risk it.
“I already know what a winged lion tastes like!” he added with a chuckle.
As soon as those last words left his lips, he felt the room becoming glacial, except that it had nothing to do with the temperature. His friends just stared at him the same way they had when he had shown them that he could turn into a very boring chimera.
“Say that again,” Chilchuch asked, looking like his soul was leaving his body.
That was a trap.
Laios still had to answer it.
“I consumed some of the Winged Lion when I became the lord of the dungeon,” Laios explained. “And then, of course, I ate some of his desire when I was a monster, and by that I mean a far cooler monster than this one, but it wasn’t really meat and I assume that desires are their own category of food.”
Chilchuck sat down. There were chairs available but he sat down on the floor and stared at the wall.
As for Kabru, he laughed, the noise a little high pitched. His hands were trembling. He laughed some more.
“You said that you had to eat him when you became the lord of the dungeon…” Senshi repeated.
Everyone stared at Marcille at once. Laios did the same because he didn’t want to feel excluded.
“Did you…” Falin started, looking genuinely curious.
“OF COURSE NOT!”
“Did you cook him?” Senshi asked Laios with obvious concern. “Because if you didn’t, maybe your current condition is due to a parasite in the raw meat?”
Doubt stabbed Laios in the guts.
He was almost certain that his new ability to transform came from the fact that he had eaten the Winged Lion’s desire or whatever he had done to his body to turn him into the perfect monster. Almost. He was extremely uncomfortable with the idea of this whole thing being due to a parasite.
Laios was still unable to eat squid because of what had happened that time.
“… I am sure that… it’s not… No, that’s not it…”
“HOW MANY TIMES DOES THIS HAVE TO HAPPEN BEFORE YOU LEARN NOT TO EAT THINGS RAW, LAIOS?” Chilchuck screamed.