Chapter 428: My name is not Ray...
Moments before Ray had entered the inn, the group was still together. Slyvia had split from the rest saying she had something important to do at this point, and then she had gone off to see her brother. Before leaving though, she had handed the inn room keys to Kyle in a rush.
Martha, Harry, and Kyle were sitting still at their table and Kyle had spread out the three keys that had been given to him.
"I'm assuming it's two per room," Martha said. "So one of us gets a room to ourselves then?"
"Well, I think it's pretty obvious, right?" Harry replied. "Martha and Slyvia share a room, and then me and Kyle for the other one, leaving Ray with the room to himself."
"Pft, you guys are so boring," Kyle complained. "Besides, why should Ray get the room to himself?"
The others didn't even bother to reply to Kyle's remark, as they felt it was pretty obvious as to why Ray should have been given the single room. After all, technically he was their king and leader.
"Here is my suggestion, Martha and Harry in one room, me in the single room to have some fun, and that leaves both Ray and Slyvia in the last room together," Kyle suggested.
Hearing about Kyle's sly plan, for once Martha didn't disagree, and she had a smile on her face. "You sly dog, Kyle. You're a genius. I'm tired of those two tip toeing around each other, maybe a night together is exactly what they need."
And all of that was what had led to this exact scenario that Slyvia was in now. She had opened the door and the first thing that came into view was Ray's bare upper naked body. Her eyes were first focused on his chizled abs that looked as if they had been carved from a rock.
"I'm so sorry!" She cried as she quickly shut the door.
Her face had gotten hotter than it had ever been before, she was so embarrassed and drained by what had just happened, she leaned her back against the door and slid down it until she was on the floor with her two hands covering her face.
'That was Ray's, Ray's body.' She thought. When closing her eyes, the image of his body had appeared in her head once again. First, the hard muscle abs came into vision, but then when her mind started to slowly forget about the abs, a clearer whole picture started to come into view.
'What was on his arms, and his face… what was that?' The image started to become clearer in her mind, and she was sure there was something different about Ray. From his hand up to his forearm, they were covered in a red scale like material, and on top of them were small protrusions like fins.
Then, even Ray's face had scales going down the side. Although she was initially distracted by something else, she was sure she wasn't wrong about what she had seen.
Ray had always been one to hide things. He could do amazing things that the others had never heard of before, and so far Slyvia had laid off asking him why. She had her own reasoning as to why Ray was able to do these things, because he was the chosen one, picked by the Divine being. Perhaps they had even given him a blessing.
But, now that she had seen his form, it reminded her of what Martha and the others looked like when they had gone through the beasting process, but Ray hadn't done any such thing, or at least not anything that she was aware of.
After shaking off the lewd thoughts she had in her head, she waited a while before proceeding to knock again.
*Knock *Knock
"Come in," Ray said.
Opening the door, Ray was now fully clothed in something more relaxing. It was a short-sleeve shirt and shorts. A thin cloth material meant for sleeping. His arms were fully showing and Slyvia couldn't help but look at them and as she did, she noticed they were completely bare. Normal skin, no scales, nothing.
However, she was sure she hadn't made a mistake. She wouldn't be so fooled as she knew Ray was able to alter his entire appearance. Just altering his arms would be easy work for someone like him.
Ray too, wasn't oblivious to the constant stairs that Slyvia was giving him as she continued to look at his arms. He had let his guard down for a single second, and for the first time, he had been caught.
'Should I tell her the truth?' Ray thought. "She has always been supportive.'
The last person who had seen Ray's real body was Gary, and he had a more than accepting approach to Ray's form, but he hadn't even told him the complete truth. Deep down in his heart, Ray didn't know why, but he just couldn't bring himself to tell anyone of his past.
'Was he was ashamed of it? What did he care about what people thought of him? Or when did he start to care about what people thought about him?' These mixed feelings were beginning to frustrate him, and he felt like he needed to make a decision.
"Ray, those scales on your arms, and the fins as well as the scales on your face. I didn't imagine it, did I?" Slyvia asked. "It's okay if you don't want to tell me. I agreed to help you and follow you no matter what, but please. I want to know everything about you." As she said this, she lifted her hand and brought it closer to Ray's, stroking him on his forearm seeing if she could feel anything, but nothing was felt.
Then a few seconds later, she pulled her hand away after realizing what she was doing.
"The truth is… I also went through the beasting process like the others. I just didn't want to tell anyone. I and Lenny did it in secret in preparations for this tournament."
It was a logical explanation, and Slyvia decided to head to her bed without saying anything. Ray didn't know why, but she seemed a little annoyed. She covered herself in the bedsheets and turned off the lamp by her side.
Ray was complexity confused by the actions that had just occurred, and everything had happened so fast like a storm.
"Ray, we have known each other for so long." She said. "It's fine if you don't want to tell me, but what I didn't expect was for you to lie to my face like that. Goodnight."
The two of them sat in darkness and Ray was still confused about what he had just done. He didn't really understand humans that much and women just seemed to be a little more confusing to him.
However, what he did know was Slyvia's words had stung and hit him hard. So he decided to eventually sit on the edge of her bed.
"Your right," Ray said. "If you want the truth, then I will tell you the truth. My real name is not Ray. It's Sen. You may have heard about me before, but I am the great red dragon that used to cause fear and destruction on this land."
*****
For Updates and MDS artwork, feel free to follow me on Instagram and Facebook: jksmanga