An Extra’s POV
chapter-771

"Ohhh! So, basically, you used Time Magic to age yourself down, which explains your much younger form…"

Lucielle went over the complex process of how she was able to achieve her current results, and despite Rey understanding it enough to summarize her points in his statement, he still found himself stupefied by the result.

'How was she able to do that? She doesn't have a Skill like [Tempora], yet she made a Spell that could perfectly apply Time Magic to every component of her body and age them down proportionately, so she could become a particular age.'

Rey didn't even want to think about how many variables she would have to consider.

'This is insane, for real.'

"Don't make it sound so simple, Rey. It's a lot more complicated than that, you know? The actual…" She went on blabbing, forcing Rey to understand the complex rationale behind her Spells.

Perhaps she was hoping for some sort of intelligent discourse with him regarding Magic, but all he told her was—

"I see…"

Rey already knew, from his brief encounters with her, that this woman was far superior to him when it came to Magic.

Her knowledge and application, especially when it came to imagination, far exceeded his own. If he was a jack of all trades and master of none, she was a perfect Mage who completely mastered her craft.

Even then, she wanted to know more.

'I don't think she can get what she wants from me. The only reason I can do what I can is because I have Skills for it.'

Unlike her, who had to build all of this from the ground up, his method was far simpler.

Before Rey realized it, his respect for Lucielle rose once again.

"That doesn't explain your horns and all the other Dragon features."

"A-ahh! I modified my body so my Dragon form wouldn't be a mere illusion. I added a bit of Body Modification Magic—something akin to transmutation—when aging my body down, so all the processes synced together and produced my current state."

Once again, Rey was impressed.

'Using Self-Transmutation is harder than it sounds. Unlike applying it to inorganic targets, transmuting organic properties is far more complex. But, even using it on people is far easier than using it on yourself…'

In essence, Lucielle managed to pull off something so difficult, while making it appear simple.

'That's probably why she took so much time. Honestly, all the annoyance I had has pretty much vanished at this point.' Rey was far too impressed to harbor any ill will towards his soon-to-be comrade.

"Impressive."

"Hehe! Why, thank you!"

Her loud, optimistic voice, and her other child-like tendencies blended perfectly with her teenage form. As she twirled around, her silver-like tail danced around, and her wings with similar color flapped.

She truly was divine in her disguised form.

"What about you, Rey? What about your disguise?" She asked with a teasing smile, though her eyes were wide open in curiosity.

"Ah… well…"

He suddenly felt a little embarrassed upon realizing his half-hearted efforts towards the disguise he made for the expedition. In fact, if not for Ater's guidance, his Dragon form would have turned out even worse.

As such, he thanked his faithful Familiar as he activated [Perfect Veil], while using [Divine Persona] to bump it up to the [Perfect Divine Veil] he intended it to be.

Once he was done with that, he displayed his disguise.

Pitch-black hair, with bright azure eyes that seemed to absorb all the blue around it. His hair was longer than usual, so he packed it together in a falling ponytail. He was dressed casually, but cleanly. His wings were black—same as his tail, and the scaly remains on his body had a similar, but much brighter complexion.

"Ta-dah!"

Upon seeing his disguise, Lucielle appeared dazed for a second.

Her cheeks turned bright red, and her eyes seemed to glimmer—even if it was for a second—while she stiffly remained in her position.

"It's… flawless." She whispered.

Rey barely caught her words, but once he heard it, he felt relieved. Honestly, if not for the many revisions that Ater made on his design, it would have probably been a different story with Lucielle.

For that, he thanked his dear Familiar.

Though… he still felt a little guilty for taking credit that he didn't deserve.

'The last thing I want is for her to overestimate my abilities later on…' As soon as he thought that, he quickly looked for something to change the topic.

"Look at our color design. It's the opposite of each other. What a weird coincidence, right?"

"Right? It makes us resemble a couple!"

Lucielle's sudden declaration made Rey instantly regret shifting gears toward another topic. He wanted to say something, but chose to swallow his initial reaction to her completely unprovoked innuendo.

"Why… would you say that?" He maintained his smile and asked this instead.

"Opposites attract!" She beamed.

Black and White.

Their color schemes indeed perfectly encapsulated that postulation.

Still—

"Well, you shouldn't say stuff like that anyway…" He itched his cheek, looking in another direction to avoid looking at her bright smile.

Seeing how she was now, there was a chance he could take her seriously.

"Relax, man. It's just a joke." Lucielle fist-bumped Rey on his shoulders, causing him to sigh and look at her. She was giving him that intense smile of hers.

"Besides, don't you like Alicia already? I don't even compare."

'Eh?'

"I should probably look for some cute Dragon boys… maybe girls too… that are single in the Academy."

'What the—?!'

"I wonder about their performance, though. Hehehe! I managed to capture one Dragon one time, and damn… he had quite the—"

"That's enough, Lucielle!" Rey couldn't take it anymore.

He was already beginning to wonder if Lucielle would behave like this throughout their time together, and that made him dread their journey a little.

Still, she had proven to be indispensable to the task, so it was a non-negotiable deal.

'That's enough messing around already.'

After taking a deep breath and returning the atmosphere to a rather serious one, he focused his gaze on the teenage Lucielle and spoke.

"It's time to depart—" Before he could finish his statement, she pushed her hand upward, jumping as she completed his sentence.

"—To the Dragon Continent!"