In the mirror, an unfamiliar girl looked back in shock. Her jaw dropped so far that her mouth hung wide open.
The scarlet slicked-back hair was gone, replaced by long hair styled in a hime cut that fell down to her waist. Beneath long eyelashes, her red eyes blinked, and her chest swelled into gentle curves.
Her fingers and wrists were thin. She wasn’t all skin and bones, but she was definitely slim. The defined muscles he had built through rigorous training had vanished.
The calluses on her palms were gone, replaced by soft, smooth skin. When she brushed her fingers over her arm, the sensation felt both stimulating and delicate. She shivered involuntarily.
Her skin was sensitive. The oversized clothes she wore now irritated her skin, causing goosebumps with every rub. It would even hurt if it was swept a little harder.
"⋯⋯⋯⋯."
Her first thought was that in this state, torture would be unbearable. Not even torture, she felt like even a gentle massage might be enough to make her cry out.
Unless some evil wizard was pulling some bullshit on the mirror, this, this was reality.
“What the fuck!”
The voice was irritatingly refreshing—a cool yet slightly cute tone that lingered in the ear.As that voice came out of her vocal cords, her anger flared and then subsided.
What happened? What happened to me?
Roderus, a fine man until yesterday, desperately retraced his memories. The root of all these events was clearly the commotion in the hills last night. And…
Pirong Pirong-♬
『Transformation device (Dreaming Mirror)』 was on the table as if it was flaunting itself. It had a large crack in the middle.
This thing, I’m sure I returned this. Why is it here?
Crash!
Roderus picked up the transformation device with both hands, gritting her teeth as she looked at it. Last night, she had used this cursed artifact to transform into a girl. There had been no other choice.
But he was told⋯⋯ that the transformation would wear off over time!
"Fucking hairball, come out right now! WHY AM I STILL A GIRL-!!"
The scream of a man who had lost his masculinity echoed out.
The story rewinds a few days.
===============================================================nnn
Failure brought punishment, naturally.
Roderus Redburn was imprisoned in an underground prison for failing his mission. The inside of the prison was deplorable because it wasn’t managed and the walls were full of moisture and mold was blooming everywhere.
It was pitch dark, with no windows, no lighting, not even a torch. He had no sense of how many days had passed.
No food was provided. For hydration, he licked the moldy walls, and he considered himself lucky if he could catch a passing cockroach.
His entire body hurt from the whippings he received before being thrown in the cell. Some wounds hadn’t healed properly and were still bleeding.
‘You are useless.’
Duke Redburn’s voice kept ringing in his head making his head throb with guilt. He should’ve completed his mission somehow. His failure to carry out the mission had made him worthless in the Duke’s eyes.
Raised to be the Duke’s blade from an early age, Roderus had no personal attachments, no memories, friends, or love. The only thing that remained in his world was his blind obsession with being the 'Duke's Right Arm.
Once, it felt like a small star of hope shone in his empty mind, offering some comfort, but⋯⋯ now he had forgotten it. He couldn’t even remember what it was.
So, he endured all this time clinging to this single shred of pride.
"Damn it⋯⋯ just to, a peasant⋯⋯!"
The sacred blood.
The noble blood that was always superior.
Next time, it will be different. Next time, I will give it my all. I would have won if I hadn’t let my guard down. In the end, the blade fell short by a hair.
On the contrary, if he had performed better by that narrow margin, he would have won. So, he⋯⋯ wasn’t wrong.
Roderus crouched in the corner of his dungeon cell and went to sleep.
As soon as he fell asleep, he found brief relief from the pain. In dreams, no one persecuted him. He closed his eyes tightly, trying to escape the throbbing pain.
However.
“EUAAAAACK──!!"
His dreams were no longer his own.
Roderus woke up screaming, rubbing his tear-streaked eyes as if they were broken faucets. Once again, he had lost his family in his dreams.
"Abraham, no⋯⋯ I don't know him. I have, never seen such an old man⋯⋯!"
It was an illusion. Everything was an illusion.
Since being struck by the black arrow named 『Stygian Arrow of Mind Destruction(破心玄箭)』, he had been plagued by nightmares every night. In his dreams, he was both man and woman, but he always woke up losing something precious to him.
It was a nightmare.
It was completely dark and black. It was a void so dark that he could not tell if his eyes were open or closed. So he couldn't even tell the difference between reality and dreams. Either of them were terrible.
"I am, I am Roderus⋯⋯ Roderus, Redburn. I am⋯⋯."
In both dreams and reality, he had no choice but to cling to a broken shell and hang on.
This abnormal state began on the seventh day of his imprisonment. At some point, he began to have a very strange dream⋯⋯.
===============================================================nn
A meteor.
Roderus was a meteor.
He saw a dazzling night sky and the ground rushing up to meet him at a frightening speed. But it looked quite different.
Looking down on the world as he was falling felt very strange. The shape of the continent was vastly different from what he learned, and the buildings on those strange lands also looked alien.
There were countless buildings taller than the Imperial Palace of the Empire and the Gold Magic Tower. There were so many that it looked like a forest of bricks.
The ground drew closer.
People wore a wide variety of fashionable clothes and wore strange rectangular devices on their ears. The roads were neatly paved with unknown black materials, and horseless carriages sped by at high speed.
Roderus realized he was in a completely different world. There were so many things he had never encountered or seen.
Then, Roderus crashed into a mountain.
===============================================================nn
Of course, he should have died from the fall which had been high enough that he could see the shape of the entire continent.t But for some reason, Roderus's limbs remained intact.
"⋯⋯What is this?"
His voice came out properly. As he touched the ground, he felt the rough texture of the soil against his bare feet. He could also move his fingers.
Could this be a dream?
It probably wasn’t. Because he could feel the wind ruffling his hair. As he took a deep breath, he could feel the chill of the air filling his lungs.
There was no pain. All the wounds from the whip had healed.
Then how had he become like this?
Had Duke Redburn decided to dispose of him? Maybe he had been thrown into a rift in an unstable realm while he was asleep.
If so, then⋯⋯ what should he do now?
Roderus' head mind went blank for a moment. Without orders or objectives, what was he supposed to do ⋯⋯?
"⋯⋯⋯⋯."
Sususuk. Susuk.
While Roderus struggled with these thoughts and hesitated, his attention was drawn to a rustling sound, and he sensed Mana. Instinctively, he reached for his rapier, but his waist was empty.
The only thing he had was his tattered prison uniform.
Hop.
Some kind of hairball popped out of the bushes, followed by a girl dressed predominantly in yellow.
"This way mong! I sensed a massive amount of Pure Energy over⋯⋯! A GUY?!”
"Since the meteor fell, could it be that the new mascot⋯⋯ A GUY?!”
The girl and the hairball were stunned when they saw Roderus. He quickly scanned the unfamiliar creatures in front of him.
A four-legged hairball. It looked like some kind of spirit.
A girl in a dress ornately decorated with all kinds of ribbons and frills. She was holding a wand encrusted with a bunch of jewels in her right hand. He could sense the faint Mana emanating from it.
He could take them on.
He was unarmed, but his Mana capacity alone was high enough.
His Metamorphosis involved the materialization of Mana. If he could channel and solidify his Mana, he could create a Mana rapier even without a physical weapon.
Just like this, if he manipulated the Mana⋯⋯.
Manipulate Mana⋯⋯?
"⋯⋯⋯⋯?"
There was no mana.
The Mana that should have flowed through his body was nowhere to be found even though he checked. As Roderus was stunned and a cold sweat trickled down his brow, the girl glanced around and asked.
"Hey, Oppa. Have you ever seen a strange-looking creature around here⋯⋯ that looks similar to him? It looks like soft, steamed bread."
“I don’t look weird, mong-!”
Honorifics? And ‘Oppa’?
Judging by the informal language, they clearly weren’t high-class nobles. In Roderus’s mind, a switch flipped to commoner contempt.
"⋯⋯What a farce. Continue your unproductive skits without me, peasants."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯!!"
The girl looked as if she had been struck by lightning.
"Wow. Holy, rude ass bitch. This kind of character only appeared in the 2000s."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯."
Roderus didn’t exactly understand what those sentences meant, but he nearly exploded in anger. Their tone had no respect for nobility. Then, he scolded those peasant fuckers.
"I am Roderus Redburn. Bow down to the noble!"
"⋯⋯This person was the 『Meteor』, right?"
"⋯⋯It seems like it, mong.”
Hmhm, the girl said after clearing her throat.
"Earth is not a class-based society. It’s been ages since all nobles and royalty were beaten to death, so don't expect any special treatment and⋯⋯ I'm Oh Hye-in."
“Oheh⋯⋯ what?”
"You're from another world, aren't you? Here, magic doesn’t work for a lot of things, so just follow me. I’ll make sure you have food, shelter, and clothing."
Another world. 『Meteor』. Magic.
They knew Roderus had fallen from the sky and was from another world. If that was the case, they might know why he landed here or how he could return.
But how much could he trust these strangers? Roderus eyed the girl with suspicion.
"⋯⋯⋯ Why should I trust you, peasant."
"Ah, then don’t."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯."
"Stop chickening out for no reason and just follow me. Koreans only ask up to three times."
The girl wiggled her finger and began descending the hill. The hairball, making a ‘mong-mong’ sound, glanced at Roderus before darting through the bushes.
⋯⋯Right.
Although she was a rude peasant, Roderus knew nothing about this place. It was better than being left alone on the hills.
And there was no reason to refuse when she was volunteering to provide clothes, shelter, food, and information.
Roderus started walking and followed behind the girl, Oh Hye-in.
===============================================================nn
Roderus and Oh Hye-in talked as they walked through the creepy hills at night. Roderus asked most of the questions, and Hye-in provided the answers.
"What country's capital is this?"
"Korea. This isn’t the capital. You’d need to take the KTX to go to the capital wayyy over there. It's called Seoul."
"Don't lie, peasant. There are so many tall buildings even in the mountains around here⋯⋯."
"Believe it or not. But are you really going to keep talking shit like that? Aren’t I the boss now?"
Hye-in crossed her arms and tilted her head with a smirk. Roderus, equally defiant, crossed his arms.
"I don't know what that means, but I assume it probably means you have some advantage, right? A noble bloodline is a rule that remains constant under any circumstance. No matter how rich you are, if you have peasant blood, then you are a peasant."
"This man is really⋯⋯fuck, I can't call him a man because his face is too handsome. Hey Oppa, it's been over a hundred years since the class system was abolished."
“Don’t impose your foreign laws on me, peasant.”
"When in Rome, do as the Romans do, don't you know that?! No, call me a peasant one more time. Then from that moment on, we'll be saying goodbye⋯⋯ wait."
Oh Hye-in stopped abruptly, lifting her wand.
Roderus also stopped, gazing at the western horizon. Although his Mana had stopped flowing, his Mana detection still seemed to be working fine. He could feel it.
From far away, there was a massive⋯⋯ and evil Mana rapidly approaching.
"I think it's h-here! This level of Impure Energy, it’s probably one of the 『Four Heavenly Kings』⋯⋯!! Hye-in, we need to run mong!"
"But, you can't leave this Oppa behind!"
"Don't make a fuss, it's already too late. Peasant⋯⋯ no, commoner. Get ready to fight."
"Did you just promote me to 'commoner' because I said goodbye if you called me a peasant again⋯⋯?!"
Shooooo ── BOOOM!!
As Oh Hye-in was taken aback by Roderus’s unyielding ego, something plummeted from the sky, creating a crater on the ground.
“Eukeut⋯⋯!!"
Dust rose from the earth, and a girl with unnervingly white skin and hair emerged from the crater. And what decorated that pure whiteness was a gothic dress, half black and half white.
The girl radiated such terrifying Mana that it made their skin sting. Roderus and Oh Hye-in swallowed hard nervously.
The apex predator in front of them muttered to herself.
"⋯⋯Do I really need to do it? No, I'll do it, okay⋯⋯! But I have my dignity t-, o-okay, okay, you crazy bastard⋯⋯! Don’t include that bed-wetter setting⋯⋯!"
She rambled like a lunatic, venting her frustration, and then… Bam . With a dramatic pose, she shouted.
"I, one of the 『Four Heavenly Kings』, 『Guide of the Abyss and Darkness』, 『Espoir de Eternal Dark』, hail me-!”
"⋯⋯⋯⋯."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯."
After a moment of silence, Roderus finally opened his mouth.
"⋯⋯Is this a mental attack?"
"⋯⋯looking at the synchronization rate, I think it is an attack?"
“I’LL KILL YOU, MAGICAL GIRL-!!”
The ‘Gothic-Lolita’ 7% Outer God quickly attacked.
***
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