“. . . Dafu,” came the eventual reply.

“Heh, being with this little one really relaxes me, even more so than when I’m with Raphtalia—so much that it makes me think having a mother might be like this,” Ruft explained. I mean, she was basically his ancestor—like his however-many-greats grandma.

“Dafu . . .” Raph-chan II rubbed her cheeks a little, unsure of how to react to that, and so Ruft put her up on his shoulder and stroked her head. The words “Ruft exclusive Raph-chan” flashed through my mind.

Then I had another thought. If Raph-chan II was actually the past Heavenly Emperor, what about the original Raph-chan? Did she also have the soul of someone we don’t know about inside her?

“Raph,” she said in that moment, striking a pose to prompt us to set out. Those among my allies who could talk to monsters hadn’t mentioned any issues with her, so I guess it wasn’t a problem.

“We’ll deal with the class-ups first and then head out to level up right away,” I said. Then I proceeded to send everyone who was going to get a class-up over to the dragon hourglass. The class-up rituals started at once.

“Here we go!” I said.

“Kwaa!” Gaelion squawked, starting to incant the magic as Sadeena touched the dragon hourglass.

“Here, in this moment, the Dragon Emperor commands you. Bestow a new role upon this warrior who fights alongside the hero in defense of this world. Oh world, oh dragon vein, oh truth itself! Unlock the true power of this individual!” He was incanting using telepathy, meaning I was the only one who could hear him. The actual Gaelion was basically squawking like a parrot. As he finished the words, a beam of light emitted from the dragon hourglass and extended to my shield, which glowed as though some form of verification had been completed. Then, just like normal, a list of options appeared, showing the paths that Sadeena could take.

Wondering if there was a chance in the modifier rate for changing to a special class, I had a look at the options available to her. They were broadly divided between raising her abilities in her humanoid form and raising them when she was in her therianthrope form. It also looked like she could get some special abilities.

It felt a bit different from a normal class-up. With one of those, you could make detailed specifications about status. Of course, they did include special abilities too. This was closer to a monster class-up.

Shouldn’t it normally be the other way around? Maybe this was due to Gaelion’s protection. I went ahead and transferred the right to make the decisions over to Sadeena.

“Oh my. I’m really not sure what to pick. Which do you like, Little Naofumi?” Sadeena asked.

“You decide,” I told her.

“Please. A girl wants someone they like to make these decisions for them,” she replied.

“Is that so?” I responded. I didn’t feel all that comfortable with deciding Sadeena’s life for her.