In an Instant

10: In which some hide, while some fight (and they can't reconcile)(31-32)

'Ah,' she understands, 'Her other self will make the transmigrator eat his word for this.'

She really shouldn't worry.

Contrary to what she thinks, though, Rosalyn is actually smiling – it just looks like a smirk because of her unconscious adoption of what she learned through her prolonged contact with Cale – at the cute way young master Cale was attempting to distance himself from them. It didn't work, of course, but it's cute that he had tried.

-

Choi Han took Lock to the center of the arena. Rosalyn had a serious look on her face, as she got a bit farther away from Lock.

"Growl!"

Lock was shaking like he was having a seizure. His arms, legs, his entire body was shaking.

-

Most of the people inside the room have never seen the first Berserk transformation before, and it shows. Some are flinching back from the painful picture Lock was making, while others are frowning.

Lock*, though, watches his other self with blank eyes.

-

However, neither Rosalyn nor Choi Han approached him.

It was because Lock was growing claws. Very sharp claws that belonged to a wild animal.

"Aaaaaaaah!"

-

Lily* flinches.

Grasping at her mother's sleeves, she bites her lips.

......She doesn't really want to watch what's happening.

-

Lock's body floated up in the air. It stiffened up like an arrow, before slowly starting to change.

-

Bud* has, admittedly, never actually seen a Beast person's first Berserk transformation, but he has watched over Pan*'s Berserk transformation several times before.

It was nothing like this.

Is it because that kid is just a Rat and this is a whole ass Wolf?

Though......

"......How the hell is he floating?" Bud* has to ask. Can Wolves even float in the first place? What the hell?

This kind of transformation is eerily familiar to those described in novels where the authors want to emphasize something dramatic is happening – there is absolutely no reason for them to be floating, but they do anyway because drama.

Discretely tilting his head, he observes the people around him. Aside from the customary shock and horror at such a scene, aside from Wolf King Lock* – who is glaring at the screen in some kind of self-destructive anger – no one is questioning anything on the screen.

Not even his ever-rational friend, Glenn*.

......What the hell?

Is it just him, or is it everyone else?

Bud*'s forehead throbs.

It's one thing if it just exists in novels. It's a whole other thing to witness it in real life.

Bud* had previously determined that while [The Birth of A Hero] depicted the world he was living in, his world was not a novel. Now he has to rethink that thought.

......How troublesome, Bud* thinks, taking a swig from the bottle.

-

Cale verified that the large iron gate into the arena was closed tightly, before slowly heading farther into the corner with the kittens, Ohn and Hong, also following him.