Consequences of Giving Names

The white girl suddenly emanated an intense amount of magical energy. It literally formed into a geyser of white aura firing into all directions in the tree house. Even though the aura looked dangerous, but it did not affect any object around it, only dispersing harmless winds. However, the aura was strangely shared to Rodan Rouge, who was emanating passive red aura from his body.

“Roro! What’s happening?!” Nono panicked.

“GAAH! This is exactly what happens when you give a name to a non-human creature!” Roro yelled while holding on a lamp stand.

“You know this would happen?!” Nono yelled back while holding on to the unmoved couch. He was nearly blown away.

“Well YEAH of course I know! But I didn’t think the effect would be this huge! This kind of thing could only happen if the name was overly fitting to the given!”

Shortly, the barrier that covered the tree was starting to crack. Not only that. Rodan saw the walls were showing some fissures, causing him to go in a chaotic panic.

“OOWAAH! Hang on to your hopes and dreams, Nono! We might need to renovate the entire house!”

Fortunately, the massive burst of aura ended just a few seconds later. It relieved Rodan and Nono. They felt like their hearts were going to pop out of their body at any rate.

As the light faded from the white girl, Rodan and Nono realized something had drastically changed within the creature the former just named. That’s right, her stature changed.

The white creature stood firmly on the wooden floor. She was a bit taller and much developed just like average teenage girls in the city. Her hair was shorter, but still retained the length all the way down to her thighs. As a result of her shortened hair, her face was more revealed. Her eyes were red blood and her eyelashes shared the white color of her hair. Her skin still retained the ghostly-white color.

Her drastic change surprised Rodan and Nono. Even both of them thought that they’re looking at a different person.

“Ru...ru... Ruru...” she said softly, pondering the name that was given to her.

Meanwhile, Nono examined the whole room and realized none of their furniture was broken or damaged. After knowing that, he proceeded to sit down and poured a cup of water.

“Good thing nothing’s wrecked. What a relief...” Nono said to himself.

“Ruru... Ruru Blanche...” she repeated her name. “Hm!” she nodded. “I am... Ruru...! My name... Ruru!”

She then gazed at Rodan. “Ro... ro...?” she called delicately while walking to him.

“That’s right. Though, my name is actually Rodan Rouge, but you may call me Roro for short,” Rodan stated kindly. “I gave you the name Ruru, derived from how my surname Rouge is pronounced.”

She tilted her head a bit as if confused to what Rodan was saying.

“What? Don’t tell me you don’t like that name?” Rodan joked as he returned back to the couch.

Ruru, the white girl shook her head. “Hng... I like it! Thank you, Master Roro.”

“KEH—M-Master?!” Nono blurted out his cup of water at Rodan’s face.

“...Hey, Nono...” Rodan called while simultaneously turning his head at him in a scary motion. His eyebrows were twitching in annoyance. In a gentle voice, he spoke. “...You’ve told me multiple times that your glasses were hard to clean up should it got wet. But it wasn’t just your glasses that needed to stay dry. Do you remember? Oh, I doubt you’d remember! Then... let me tell you again, Nono. This mask I wear is INCREDIBLY hard to clean should it get exposed to water. Maybe you’ll get it cleaned up next time?”

Nono was grounded from sitting on the couch.

“Now, then, Ruru, you don’t need to call me master,” Rodan stated while wiping his soaked mask. Even though it was wet, he still wore it.

“Are you not my master?” Ruru asked in a sad look.

“Well, technically—wait, hold on a sec,” Rodan just realized why she was referring him as ‘master’.

“Oh, yeah, that’s right. I nearly forgot! I have this sigil that can force her to follow what I told her to. Or for short... this sigil is a proof that I am her Master.”

“—That’s right! I am your master, Ruru!” Rodan yelled. “But! I do not wish to be called as one. This is an order from your master. Just call me without the ‘master’.”

Ruru bowed down politely, “Understood, M-Mas-Ma-Roro!”

“What a terrible way to pronounce my name...” Rodan retorted.

“I’m sorry...” Ruru apologized.

“Ah, no need to mind that. Just get used to call me either Rodan, or maybe Roro, if you’d like. No need to force yourself, just take your time.”

“Rodan...? Roro...? Ah, Roro sounds cute. Then, may I call you Roro?”

“H-Huh... do as you please,” said Roro while leaning back on the couch.

“Um... what about um...” Ruru tried to remember Nono’s name while looking at him.

“Ah, just call me Nono, Ruru. Nice to meet you,” Nono stated while still kneeling on the wooden floor. Ruru responded with a warm smile. She nodded afterwards.

“Well, then, Ruru...” said Rodan. “Yaaawn, why am I so tired now...? Ah, forget it, oh, right, Ruru, you’ll sleep upstairs, okay? If you’re still a smaller fella, I’d be more concerned. Are you fine with that?”

In a bit of reluctance, Ruru nodded. “U-Understood, Roro... I will try my best.”

“Good! Well, then... I might want to go to sle..e...p... n...o.....w...”

Rodan’s head crashed into the table, shocking the both Nono and Ruru.

“RORO!”

...

..

.

Rodan was carried by Nono to his new room. He suddenly fell unconscious as if his life was taken by the grim reaper.

“What just happened to him...?” Nono wondered in concern.

“...I... I think it’s because of... my name,” Ruru replied.

“Huh? What does your name have to do with his condition now?” Nono asked.

“I think his magical energy was driven out by the time he gave me name,” she answered in a remorseful look. “I’m... I’m sorry...”

“No way...!” Nono’s eyes got big as he just realized.

“That’s why Roro said that before! An effect that would happen after he named Ruru!

Roro taught me about giving names. If an entity from a race gave a name to the same race and family, then it will be fine. But if an entity from a race gave a name to a different race, then it will result in bonding between the giver and the given. It cost him his magical energy.

But it does strange... I know Rodan has a great magic capacity. Why did he get dried out of it by just giving a name to Ruru?”

Nono fixed his glasses position and looked at Ruru.

“Ruru, don’t you worry. I think he’ll be fine.”

“He will?”

“Yup, he’s not a weak man. I believe he’ll be craving for apples in the morning.”

...

..

.

Nono was right.

Rodan did crave for apples in the morning. He went out of his room and realized he was not in his previous room which was upstairs. He drove his feet into the living room, expecting a box full of apples to be there on the table.

He felt disappointed upon reaching the living room. He just remembered that the apple delivery wasn’t arriving today. It quickly punched him back into his normal self.

“Huft... no apples for this morning, huh...? Gotta go buy some in the city, might ask Nono to come along!” said Rodan to himself while clenching his fist in front of his face.

“—Oh, you’ve woken up, Roro!” said Nono emerging from his room. Though, his voice was all fuzzy.

“Uh-huh, good morning, No-NOOOOO?!” Rodan got shocked as he turned around only to see Nono’s eyes had thickening eye bags. “Wha... what happened to you? Having hard time sleep?”

“Well... I don’t know if you heard it... um...” Nono replied while looking into the staircase. “Ruru was crying hardly last night. I think she felt guilty for bearing the name Ruru that you gave her. In which, caused you to fell unconscious, Roro.”

“Just because a girl cried and you can’t sleep?” Rodan teased.

“Ha... you should hear how her noise was last night. I don’t know should I be pitiful to her, or to be scared down to my bones.”

“Hmph, so weak of you! A man should be able to withstand anything!”

“Then, why did you get knocked out after giving her a name?”

“—That and this is a different case! Cannot be mixed or matched!

...Then? Where is she now?”

“Probably still upstairs, Roro. I think it’d best you go to her, for the sake of all of us, seriously.”

Rodan went upstairs after that. On the way upstairs, he thought about what happened last night.

“It was shocking last night.

Her aura nearly blew off the entire tree house sky high and even her form transformed into an older look.

Normally, when you give a name to a nameless creature or monster... that will trigger a massive change in their body. They will absorb some Mana energy from the name giver and evolve to a new life form. But giving a name is risky. If the said name giver doesn’t have enough Mana, then that will lead him or her to death, thus the reason only powerful magicians would do such thing.

Naming high-leveled creatures increases that risk as well. The more powerful the creature, the greater amount of Mana will be needed to accomplish the process. Which is why giving names is something special in this world.

I am not that slime that can easily give names to demons in those novels Nono read...

Putting that aside, that could only mean one thing...

My magical energy, or my Mana was either slightly greater than Ruru or perhaps on par with hers. Hmm... That also explains why Ruru can still cast magic inside Nono’s Nullification Barrier whereas I cannot.

Wait... if Ruru’s magical capacity was on par with me, doesn’t that made me on the verge of death because of naming her?!”

Rodan stopped half-way through the staircase. He was sweating intensely. His heart was racing uncontrollably. Even his breathing was getting rough and heavy.

“Calm down, Rodan! I should be glad I’m still alive at this point! That means her magic capacity was actually still below me!

But still... If by naming her could make me knocked out cold, then just how high her level is?!”

In an attempt to ease off his nerves, Rodan looked outside through the crevice in the tree surface. Instead of relieving his stress, it doubled, even tripled. Because the moment he looked outside, he saw the barrier that covered his tree house was all messy, full of fissures.

“Eh?”

He stuck his head into the wall to look more properly. “Seriously, now?” he said to himself.

“Ah, great... the barrier that was supposed to protect us is breaking apart. Just how many bad things could happen in a single day, anyway? Haaaaargh...”

Rodan decided to ignore it and proceeded to the room up ahead. Before entering the room, he heard a sobbing voice from behind the door. He recognized the voice, of course. It was Ruru’s voice, the same tone when she was crying out in the circus. This time, however, it sounded soft and heart-wrenching.

“Ruru...

Just what did you do to my door...?”

In that morning, a tear of a man fell to the floor. Not because he felt thrilled or pitying the girl, but it was the result of him realizing that he could not afford...

...A new door.