Cain spoke to me from beyond the partition.
“There’s something I’m really curious about, Rye.”
“Yeah. I’m not curious~.”
I cheerfully brushed off Cain’s question. I could roughly guess what he was curious about. He’d probably ask questions like ‘Are you crazy?’ or ‘Is your life boring?’
“No. I’m really, really curious about this—if you have as much money as you do, do you lose all sense of fear? Do rich people enjoy heart-pounding situations?”
Whew. My guess was right. Correct. Lionel Mellans, you match the answer and take 300 points!
At Cain’s honest question that finally came out, I just laughed. Even I found my situation funny.
This was a fitting room. And not a men’s reception room decorated with black and walnut interiors, but a reception room with white-pink interiors filled with pink frills and ribbons.
And right now I was… getting help from Lucy beyond the partition to put on a dress. An off-shoulder dress with exposed shoulders and a boldly revealed neckline in a subtle blue shade at that!
Because Cesare was wearing dark navy formal wear close to black, Lucy had chosen a light blue tone for me.
“Yeah. I once took out my sense of fear and boiled it into soup. It was chewy and delicious. Does that answer your question? Huh? Aren’t you curious how I cooked my sense of shame? I buttered it and grilled it, you bastard!”
“With this recklessness, it’s strange you’re still alive. Be grateful to your parents, you bastard.”
“For leaving me a large fortune and guts?”
“No. For giving birth to you cutely. If you weren’t born that way, you’d have already gotten beaten by me… Ugh. Let’s not talk! I’m going to get more snacks!”
As Cain grumbled and left, Lucy smiled while placing a white crystal hair ornament on top of my head.
“Lionel. All done! So pretty…. Come out and look in the mirror.”
“R-really? Is this okay?”
I awkwardly grabbed the hem of the dress. There wasn’t much time left until the ball, so there was absolutely no time to make a custom transformation potion, and I could only get a deceptive potion that just made my frame and thick lines slimmer.
Thanks to that, my body right now had my face, waist, hips, legs, and such changed to be delicately feminine.
Still, Lucy said she could cast confusion magic on the day of the party so people couldn’t recognize me, so Cesare and others wouldn’t be able to recognize me.
“From what I see, Lionel, I think you’ll be the prettiest that day.”
With legs wobbling like a newborn fawn because of the high heels, I held onto Lucy and walked out beyond the partition. Then I looked at the wall mirror attached to one side of the reception room.
Then.
Chinese-style music playing ‘Oh, oooh?!’ immediately flowed in my head as mini-Ce floated while sitting on a large throne.
This is…! Delicious! (Mimi!)
“Wow, wow….”
I was speechless at the scene unfolding before me. Beside me, Lucy proudly pushed up her glasses.
I slowly walked to the mirror and murmured while caressing my face reflected on the surface.
“Lucy…. I can feel a wall. Can you see it?”
Every time I spoke, the girl in the mirror’s lips also moved, so that really must be me.
“Is, is it awkward…? I did my best but if you don’t like it, I’m sor—”
“Right. A wall. The wall called perfection.”
“……”
Between the short wavy side hair, the white crystal hair ornament flowed down prettily, and there were dark green eyes, white skin, pink lipstick, and a subtle water-blue dress spreading downward.
This works. This really works.
I could hear the sound of a failed movie surpassing its break-even point.
When a movie is boring, if the actors are ugly too it’s called a terrible work, but if the lead is overwhelmingly handsome, it remains as that actor’s filmography or visual pictorial. This was at least my visual pictorial.
“Lucy. Don’t I look too pretty? How can a person be this perfect? Rich, handsome, not a nobody, and even pretty. Ah, what if Cesare really falls for me? Lucy, you’re in big trouble. Hmph.”
“……”
Whether Lucy looked at me with dead eyes or not, I covered my mouth and squealed internally. In my heart, I was already holding mini-Ce’s hand at the ballroom and spinning around.
Actually, wearing women’s clothes and becoming Cesare’s partner instead of Lucy was shocking, but I was also full of contradictory feelings of excitement.
I don’t even know what my heart wants anymore. Even if I want to escape him, it’s magic that loves him with my whole body.
And since Ju Shinyoung said the artifact would come out soon, I just wanted to fully enjoy my time with him now.
Like a child who puts off vacation homework until the day before school starts and has fun.
‘I’m going to dance with Cesare with these hands.’
The thrill and ticklishness of doing mischief I shouldn’t do, I wished time would stop while I was soaked in emotions somewhere between those feelings.
Definitely. The time of loving someone isn’t only painful. Being able to taste this sweet and sour flavor must be an advantage of unrequited love too.
“I need to go downstairs and pick out a few more necklaces. When Astol returns, I’ll teach you how to be escorted and your posture when dancing.”
“Okay. See you.”
I nodded as if enchanted while looking at myself. I could see Lucy leaving and Cain entering right away beyond the mirror. When I awkwardly turned around slightly, Cain was standing frozen in place staring at me intently.
“Hehe. How is it?”
“……”
Cain was somehow silent. His face was strangely contorted. I’ve seen that expression somewhere before…. It was exactly the same as when he found and ate an old brownie I had hidden to eat later but forgot about.
‘In other words, his face is saying my appearance tastes like moldy brownies….’
After being silent for a while, Cain broke the silence first.
“You… my Rye… right?”
“Right. Of course it’s me! No matter what, the confusion magic hasn’t been cast yet, so you can recognize me right away, right? How is it? Do you think I’ll match well standing next to Cesare?”
“……”
Cain became silent again and approached with large steps. With Cain, who was tall and broad-shouldered, standing behind me, we really looked like nothing but a male-female couple.
I too was scratching my cheek in an awkward and embarrassed mood while looking at the mirror, when Cain’s hand popped out from behind and fiddled with my jawline.
“Wh-why?”
Even in the midst of this, Cain’s gaze was directed straight at the mirror in front, so a sticky gaze that seemed to be surveying my whole body wrapped around me.
“This… really… Rye?”
His finger fiddled with my lower lip. From his hot finger that trembled slightly, I could guess he was greatly shocked.
“Ahaha… It looks totally fine to my eyes, but I guess it’s a bit gross when you look at it?”
“Rye. Shh.”
I shrank back slightly and closed my mouth at the somehow forceful shushing sound. I could see Cain’s eye corners that had become somewhat sharp, like when observing an opponent while holding a sword.
“This is, really, our Rye…? I can’t believe it….”
“Hreup…!”
The other hand that wasn’t caressing my lips swept up my waistline that had become thinner than before. It was an embarrassingly intimate posture, like back-hugging from behind.
When I inhaled sharply at the unfamiliar feeling of the dress fabric heated by his temperature sticking to my waist, Cain squeezed my waist flesh with a tight grip.
“Uh…! Don’t press hard…. I could only get a low-concentration transformation potion, so that’s really my flesh.”
When I slightly shook my head as if to push him away because the lumpy sensation was strange, the long crystal hair ornament also swayed with a tinkling sound. The honey blonde hair and white crystal strands harmonized well, creating a pure yet bewitching charm.
However, his low voice tinged with irritation rang in my ear, as if he didn’t like me chattering away.
“I told you to shh, Rye. Do you want big trouble here?”
“……!”
I shut my mouth again. Normally I would have snapped back asking what he meant, but his current appearance didn’t look different from his sharp appearance when holding a sword, so I somehow couldn’t talk back.
‘Still, this is too close!’
No matter how much I only saw Cain as a close friend, my preference was for men and he was groping my body so stickily, so there was no way I wouldn’t feel a strange flutter.
Beyond fluttering, over my body that had stiffened from tension, Cain’s fingers moved heterogeneously again. The hand that had been caressing my lips slowly came down stroking my neckline and was now sweeping across my fully exposed collarbone line.
‘This bastard’s touch is really…. Women would be falling head over heels.’
With a whoosh, his face approached close to the back of my neck. Along with the sensation of his nose tip rubbing against the short hair that barely covered my nape, the hair ornament tinkled with a clear sound in his breath.
“Rye. You’re… really annoyingly pretty…. I thought you were a cute male. Haah….”
He let out a slow exhale. A sweet fruit cream smell wafted over, as if he had finished off all the macarons prepared in the fitting room.
“This is definitely a female doggy.”
“Now you’re really treating me like a dog…!”
Male, female. It seems this guy really thinks I’m a dog. While I was about to tell him to really get away now in this continuously embarrassing mood, Cain’s face popped out between my neck and shoulder. His lips reflected in the mirror opened wide.
“Hey, hey, what are you do—”
Before I could stop him, he bit my shoulder hard.
— Crack!
“Eek!”
If this bastard needs protein, go find it somewhere else, why bite me!
“That hurt! What are you doing?!”
Shocked, I pushed him away and rubbed my shoulder. When I glared with a grimace at the oval-shaped red bite mark, Cain returned to his usual playful self, raised both hands in surrender, and stepped back.
“It was too good to hand over to Cesare, so I got a taste first, doggy.”
“Why are you tasting! Am I food? Look at this! There’s a mark!”
“Wait. I’m feeling really weird right now, Rye.”
This bastard, after biting someone’s shoulder, he’s good at deflecting.
“It’s just pretty, so what’s weird!”
“No. Beyond you being pretty or ugly. It’s like… the girl next door who always caused trouble suddenly appeared in a dress saying she’s going to have her debutante with another guy, that kind of feeling.”
Then Cain said to me with a subtle expression.
“Rye. You really like Cesare.”
