The Wrong Hero

Chapter 53 - Homecoming

Raphtalia stared at the monster in her arms. It stared right back, its tail swishing back and forth.

"Rafu!" It chirped, a happy smile on its face.

"Dante!" Raphtalia anxiously called out. "Please explain!"

"It's a familiar." Dante said simply.

"Why does it sound like me!?" She cried out.

"I'm pretty sure you know why." Dante said.

"Rafu!" The familiar called again, patting Raphtalia on her face.

"But why!?"

By this time, some of the other familiars had come closer, approaching the people they resembled. A dog, a ferret, a pair of small tigers. It was a rather soothing sight after the last few days.

"Basically, they're to help with communication." Dante finally explained. "The one thing we really needed was a way for any of you to call for me if I'm not around and a situation comes up."

"This is really weird..." Keel looked down at the dog familiar that approached him. It sat on its hind legs and wagged its tail at him.

"Wan!" It called up at him.

Keel's response was to hold the dragon closer to him. His familiar just tilted its head to the side and placed a paw on his leg.

"I'm really conflicted about this, Mister Dante." Rifana was less than twice the size of her familiar in her therianthrope form.

"Rifa!"

"Hm." Atla made a face, though it was more out of confusion. "It almost feels like there's two of everyone."

"Well, not everyone." Reiko said from across the lab. "There was a limitation we couldn't work around."

Rat nodded. "To implement the key function you wanted, Lord, we used the connection of the slave seal. That's why Governor Fiadia doesn't have one."

"So they have to stay slaves for it to work?" Dante asked, looking around the familiars for one in particular.

"No. We just needed the initial connection."

"This is just too strange." Eclair shook her head. "Did you really have to make them resemble everyone? If I recall, Reiko made one that—eh!"

"Berry!" In front of Eclair's face was her familiar held under its arms by Dante. It was roughly the same size as the others, though it looked more similar to Eclair. It had long, pink hair reaching halfway down its back and wore a similar military-esque outfit that Eclair had. Its face wasn't exactly human looking, having more of a doll-like feel to it. The eyes were pupil-less, with bright blue irises.

"...I don't like this at all." Eclair stared at the creature before her.

"Oh, don't be like that." Dante pushed the familiar forward. Eclair's arms seemed to react on their own, accepting the familiar while she stood there slightly dazed.

"Let's have everyone bond with their familiar so we can explain how they work." Reiko instructed.

"Can I not?" Raphtalia pleaded.

"You should have thought of that before you touched Raph-chan." Dante said. The second Raph-chan latched onto Raphtalia, he saw a notice in his status.

"That's what you named it!?" Raphtalia yelled before sighing deeply. "How did Reiko make these, anyway?"

Dante raised an eyebrow. "Are you in denial right now?" He raised his hand toward the fox girl. "How does Reiko make monsters?"

Raphtalia's eyes widened as she looked back at Raph-chan. She promptly let go of her, Raph-chan deftly landing on her feet. Eclair had a similar response and result.