After drinking heavily and dozing off, his head throbbed as though a hangover had compounded atop a light slumber.
Earei tossed and turned, unable to fall into a deep sleep, yet unable to wake fully either.
Even covered with a thick blanket, his body trembled.
No doubt the air outside the blanket was even colder.
His clouded mind dredged up sorrowful memories amidst it all.
“Only thus can I remain with you.”
Seorin, who had said she must take additional husbands despite already having him as her husband.
“Only thus can we sustain our marriage and protect our child.”
Seorin, who had said that while keeping him—the first husband—she had to bear a child with another husband first.
“Our emotions are running too high. Let us meet again after we have cleared our heads.”
Seorin, who had turned away coldly when he could not accept this.
At each vision, his tossing continued, but his headache worsened and his trembling would not cease.
After the headache came chest pain.
Tears welled beyond his control and streamed down.
Though he did not want to open his eyes, Earei ultimately could not overcome the pain and rose from the bed, clutching his head.
“Hngh…!”
The air was cold, as expected.
Perhaps it was because the clothes wrapped around his body were thin?
More importantly, why was he wearing a sleeveless shirt?
He had always preferred thick shirts that wrapped his body snugly.
“Cold.”
Hugging his shoulders, he crouched like an outcast.
Burying his face between his knees helped slightly.
But without a blanket covering him, he quickly grew cold again.
Still, long hair covered the back of his neck, so at least his back was somewhat warm.
“…?”
Long hair?
Come to think of it, even as he hung his head, hair draped down long beside not only his neck and back but also alongside his arms.
Feeling around the sides and back of his head, his fingers caught fine hair.
“Huh? …Ack!”
Startled out of his wits, he jerked his head up, only for a hangover-like pain to surge forth; he clutched it again.
A lush handful of hair filled his grip.
The hair he had kept cropped short in a military style was now long and slender, straight hair with a gleam like obsidian.
Tap.
In confusion and shock, Earei rose from the bed and stood on both legs upon the floor.
“Huh?”
His shoulders had narrowed, and his arms and legs had grown slender.
“Huhuh?”
Then, feeling a weight that was far from insignificant, he lowered his gaze to find his chest bulging out prominently.
“…….”
As luck would have it, the sleeveless shirt left the cleavage between the bulges blatantly exposed.
‘It must be sweaty.’
Earei pressed his temple.
He hated himself for having thought such a thing unwittingly.
He tried to look at the tops of his feet.
They were hidden by his chest and hard to see.
While stretching to check his body’s condition, he tried bringing his elbows together in front.
They wouldn’t meet because of his chest.
“Wow….”
Earei pressed his temple again.
He hated himself for letting out an unconscious exclamation of wonder.
Admonishing himself that now was not the time, he looked around.
The bed he had lain in was covered with a thick blanket, and the room overall had a warm color palette.
Even though a small place had deliberately been chosen, it was larger than Earei’s own room.
The most eye-catching object among them was none other than a dressing table made of solid wood.
A large half-length mirror was embedded in the dressing table itself, and a full-length mirror stood beside it.
“Ah!”
The moment he took a step, his legs gave no strength and he nearly collapsed.
It was strange.
Strength would not flow properly throughout his body.
Like trying to flee or throw a cotton-stuffed punch in a dream, his body refused to obey.
Clinging to the walls and desk for dear life, he made his way to the full-length mirror.
That alone made him break into a sweat.
Panting heavily, he grasped the dressing table and looked at his reflection.
“Ah….”
It was a black-haired young beauty.
Her hair fell to her waist, mixing in a slight wave at the ends, and pitiably, her frame was small.
Of moderate height for a woman, but perhaps because of her slightly drooping outer eye corners and eyebrows, she looked timid and all the more pitiable somehow.
And her chest was full.
“…….”
Earei brought a finger to the tightly pressed cleavage.
It was a place where skin folded and stuck together, so he had wondered if perhaps…
Slip.
And indeed, it was damp with sweat.
Emboldened, he went to touch the fold beneath his breast, too…
Creak.
“Awake?”
“Hurk?!”
Suddenly the door opened, and a handsome blond man entered.
It was Yurien Rineora, the younger brother of the queen.
Earei, who had been wiping sweat from his chest, stiffened in shock.
Yurien stiffened as well.
After a moment, the royal prince curled his lips in a smirk.
“Well, aren’t you already a fine woman.”
“Ah—…”
“Hm? Do you have something you wish to say?”
Earei screamed with all his might.
“Kyaaaaaaaak—!!!!!”
And in a very girlish manner.
“Calm down, calm down!”
“Kyaaaaaaa!!!!”
“You are the very embodiment of a woman!”
Earei screamed, covering and pressing his cleavage with both arms.
He didn’t even realize that in doing so, his chest was being pressed and its volume spilling out to the sides.
“I shall subdue her.”
“Kyaa… kuhk!”
An old noblewoman with a hoarse voice passed Yurien and moved toward Earei.
A strange light gleamed in the old woman’s eyes as she instantly seized Earei and pinned him against the wall.
“Hoo, I tried to knock you down, yet you even counterattacked. As expected of the one called Earei, is it not?”
“Hnn… h…!”
He had clearly stepped on the old woman’s foot as she tried to sweep his leg and rammed a fist into her throat, yet his strength was too weak to do any good.
The old woman, having felt firsthand what Earei had aimed for, smiled slyly and turned to Yurien.
“My lord, even having become a woman, the spirit of an unparalleled prodigy remains. However, due to the shock of having her soul torn asunder and the resulting loss, her strength has weakened so much that she is less than a half-penny.”
“Then?”
At Yurien’s question, the old woman—Baroness Basyupoteu—met Earei’s glaring eyes.
In Earei’s eyes, rage burned large, but sorrow even greater welled up.
Her pain and anguish were a great delight to the Basyupoteu couple.
“We must forge her into a perfect woman.”
“How do you intend to forge her?”
“A woman, too, becomes a lady through thousands or tens of thousands of temperings.”
“Tempered poorly, the blade breaks and bends.”
“Before that, one simply places it back in the charcoal kiln and reheats it.”
Yurien was not pleased with Baroness Basyupoteu’s answer.
However, the price for the Basyupoteu family—who took on the royal palace’s dirty work—to support Yurien was, first and foremost, inflicting pain upon their enemies.
The couple wished to avenge their child who had died beside the half-year tyrant during the rebellion, and one of those enemies was none other than the prodigy Earei, who had led the rebel army.
He who had led the rebel army on the brink of defeat and turned the tide of war was, together with the queen, their true enemy.
“I am concerned she may become crippled.”
“I shall fulfill my entrusted duty.”
“Can you make her a lady within three months?”
Baroness Basyupoteu scrutinized Earei’s face from every angle.
“I believe I can report back to you after instructing her for about a week.”
“Did you not say you would fulfill your duty?”
“My duty is to exert every effort to make her a lady, my lord. No matter how much I polish and buff, a lack of innate brilliance is not my fault.”
“It matters not. I desire the brilliance that is her very self.”
“Very well.”
Only then did the baroness remove the arm that had been pressing against Earei’s throat.
“Keh-hek! *Cough, cough* Basyupoteu! Do you know who I am!”
“Of course I know. Are you not the enemy of my son and the consort of my enemy?”
“Do you think Her Majesty will remain silent once she learns I have disappeared!”
This time, a different voice—not the old woman’s—cut in.
“That remains to be seen.”
Hoarse it was, yet distinctly a deep bass.
At the same time, a merciless kick struck Earei’s abdomen.
Thwack!
Unable to make a sound, she flew into the wall, her back striking it, and slid down with a scrape.
Struggling desperately not to lose consciousness, she looked at her opponent to find an old man of advanced years looking down at her with indifferent eyes.
It was Baron Basyupoteu.
“I doubt the queen, seeing you as you are now, would deem you her first husband. No, this old man wonders when she shall even learn of your disappearance.”
“You…!”
“You pitiful wretch. Your soul was torn asunder by harboring a love you could not sustain, turning you into a woman, yet you still cannot abandon your heart for the queen?”
“I am Seorin’s husband.”
“Does Her Majesty not already have husbands in abundance? She seemed always to worry each night over which rod to use, did she not? Ah! Yet it seemed she only ever wavered between two.”
Baron Basyupoteu had quite the silver tongue.
Coupled with the lewd coarseness of an old man, Earei—cornered as she was—could not endure the provocation.
“Impudent wretch!”
She lunged at the old man again but was easily thrown down.
When Earei, having fallen back-first to the ground, gritted her teeth and opened her eyes, a dagger was already pressed to her throat.
“…Kill me. I shall not grovel for my life.”
“Indeed, is that the full measure of your love for the queen?”
“What?”
“Prodigy Earei. You are the queen’s most fearsome weapon. Both Dereubek and Hairaen cannot help but tense when the blade that is you is pointed their way. Not only within the kingdom, but even the foreign barbarians of Apallenchia dare not advance south rashly because of your renown. Yet if you die, the Kingdom of Revantorte itself shall tremble. The queen shall tremble. And yet, because you despise your own wretchedness, you bid me kill you.”
“…….”
She had forgotten after being so battered.
In this world, Earei’s very existence served as an excellent deterrent.
At this newly realized fact, Earei fell silent.
“Beg for your life. For the sake of the queen you love.”
Baron Basyupoteu whispered.
“Otherwise, I shall kill you on this very spot.”
Baroness Basyupoteu intoned coldly.
Yurien was inwardly agitated but remained silent.
He knew the couple had a plan, and judged that having heard such words, Earei would not easily throw her life away.
And his prediction proved correct.
The girl’s nose and the corners of her eyes reddened.
“…Please spare me.”
“To whom is whom asking for whose life?”
“I ask Baron Basyupoteu to save Earei Birensya—”
Thud!
In that instant, a dagger stabbed into the floor beside Earei’s face.
Baron Basyupoteu pushed the dagger deeper into the floor as he spoke.
“Wrong. Earei is a man. Therefore, you are not Earei Birensya. You are nothing more than a mere foolish girl.”
“Then…?”
Baroness Basyupoteu caressed the girl’s cheek.
“You are Rearine Birensya. The younger sister of Earei Birensya, a woman brought into this world shouldering the mission of the Birensya clan to fulfill their role after Earei.”
Screech.
The dagger’s blade scraped along the floor, approaching the girl’s face.
“Who are you?”
The baroness asked.
“My name is… Rearine Birensya….”
The girl answered.
“To whom is whom pleading for whose life?”
The baron asked.
“I am begging Baron Basyupoteu to save Rearine Birensya.”
Rearine answered.
“Rea. Henceforth, your nickname is Rea.”
“It is the name we would have given a daughter of our own, so repay this grace with gratitude.”
The baron spoke, and the baroness reinforced sternly.
Screech.
The dagger touched skin.
“…Thank you for sparing me.”
“Very well.”
The dagger was withdrawn.
“We shall begin lessons on ladyship from tomorrow, so rest well now.”
“…Yes.”
The Basyupoteu couple looked at Yurien.
Yurien nodded and spoke.
“Who are you?”
“Rea… I am….”
“Rea.”
Yurien smiled in satisfaction and left the room.
“A pretty name, indeed.”
Click.
With the Basyupoteu couple gone as well, the girl left alone—Rea—covered her face with both arms.
“H-huek…!”
Another hell had begun.