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“Aaaahhhh!”
Leonard screamed at a sudden discovery. On and on until his throat grew sore. In the mirror, there reflected someone else who looked identical to him. Well, to a frightening perfection.
With the same dark-bluish hair at ear length, the same indigo eyes with horizontal pupils, and the same goat horns and ears. Even the tail violently wagging from behind wasn’t a forgotten tiny detail…
That you could almost mistake said person for his close relative. His own sibling, in fact.
Well, in the case you don’t pay attention to her mimicking the gestures and expressions he was doing; a mouth also growing wide with both hands pressed to her face. Out of bone-chilling horror, he then proceeded to look down, examining himself…
His eyes grew wide as well, finding two huge melons bouncing with every movement he made. And the more he looked into himself, the more horrified he became;
A more rounded face, narrow waist, wider hips, and more than that…
His habit still looked similar in essence, but a huge difference in style as if it had been altered; in place of his hat and high collar was a veil in skims of white and purple, a tight-fitted coif that stretched out to a guimple, but from there…
It was his usual white shirt with purple robes and a shoulder strap except for the long-pleated skirt that moved in flowery flows.
Leonard could only feel despair when it finally dawned on him…
From the fact that he turned into a woman. The back pains that came with sporting such large assets were of no help to him, erm– her at all! ‘I feel like I’m carrying a burden instead!’ she cried out, a hand placed to her shoulder in pitying support as her back hunched over.
She can’t even stand straight in this form!
As her physical suffering continued, her mind went from giving full attention to this unbearable pain and to letting it drift elsewhere the next...
Once her ears picked up on something that echoed right outside the walls of her bedchambers. Little snickers, she heard it clearly. Though low in volume, it kept echoing. That voice, she knew whose voice that belonged to.
With the entrance door as her new destination, she averted her eyes from the mirror and onto that. Starting out, her legs had trembled from the pressure of supporting her body. It weighed a ton, much more than the coffins she carried on a daily basis. But she managed to take a step forward, limping though. But not because she wanted to!
She winced with every step she had taken as throbbing aches would come bursting out from her back. But she soon bit on her lower lip, silencing those sounds at once.
For the sake of getting to the bottom of this, she had to. And so, she continued making her way towards the entrance door. When she reached that side, her hand took hold of the doorknob and twisted it around. Her fingers shook a bit as she did so.
Upon opening the door, it swung slowly to the other side which gave her a gradual view of the hallways…
As well as a certain captive princess who stood right there. Her forbidden grimoire at hand. “Eeek!” the vessel, that was contained in that grimoire, shrieked at the sight of her. But she heard no further from him as the Princess closed the book, keeping that boy inside as well.
‘Poor thing,’ was simply her thought as she could see the surface of the grimoire bulging, it was obvious that boy was trying to free himself out. But the Princess had a firm hand on the cover, being equally as stubborn.
A few minutes passed by and…
Soon enough, the grimoire returned to being a somewhat regular book, in which had signalled the Princess in shoving it somewhere into her pyjamas. How she managed to, she hardly had a clue. Then, she finally raised her head.
Leonard stood rigid once she saw and felt the latter’s gaze fall on her. A look too keen and curious on her…
Was no good for her heart. It thumped hard and loud that her own ears could practically hear it while she was unable to say anything right. Even what she needed to do (as in questioning the Princess about this situation) had flown out of her head. Instead, such thoughts were replaced by her ‘maidenly’ woes.
It was something Leonard didn’t want to do, but she can’t help it! How can she not when it was…
Unfair…? How totally unfair that she always felt this way around her. Like a fool who can’t get her act together and it was just because the Princess was looking at her! How can one look be this devastating?
And yet, despite a thousand worth of grievance rushing through her head, Leonard kept her mouth shut. Barely managing to stare back at the Princess and holding onto the doorknob for dear life.
After all, if she did let go, it’ll be the floor her body will be facing the next second.
Thankfully, the Princess averted her eyes from her which, in turn, left her chest as light as a feather and not constricted by an abnormally beating heart. She could finally breathe easy, thank goodness. However, she kept her grip on the thing. Though her feelings weren’t that much of an issue now, her body still was. The muscle pains never seemed to stop, much to her frustration.
Then, she heard the click of one’s tongue. Twice the time and almost in distaste. Her focus went back to the Princess who shook her head soon after. “How come Leo’s chest is much larger than mine? You’re not even an actual lady…”
Leonard blinked, startled. With that being said in varying tones of displeasure, the latter went as far as to make rapid hand motions that hovered over her own chest. As if in an attempt to measure it.
And it seemed the all too humbled size of it made her pout…
She couldn’t believe it, the nerve of this girl!
“And whose fault do you think it is?!”
A sudden soreness came bothering her throat, preventing her from speaking further. At her own carelessness, she could only rub at both the front and nape of her neck, trying to massage them…
Even if such efforts did little to nothing to ease the pain down. Just then, she saw the Princess approaching her in strides. One hand lifted and her mouth shaping out letters though all she heard was incoherent mumbling from her. That was her initial thought until she felt a tap at her elbow.
A tingling sensation, she felt. Something like that of a faint touch or a gentle breeze brushing against her skin. Then, it crawled over and with each place it travelled to…
It would snatch the throbbing aches away as if it never existed in the first place. First her arms, then her back, and up to her neck. Curious, Leonard swung her waist a couple of times. Even with such a strenuous activity, at least to her standards, the unbearable pain wasn’t felt.
Not at all.
As much as she didn’t want to admit it, how nice it was to move around with ease and Leonard figured out what she did. ‘An incantation,’ she thought with a sense of awe and wonder. ‘I’ll have to check which one she used later, but for now…’
At that, she redirected her attention to the Princess…
Only to see the latter slipping past her and entering her bedchambers without a care in the world. Just from the idling expression on her face, she made it seem like it was a natural thing to do…
When clearly, that shouldn’t be the case!
“Princess!” she called out to her, her eyes frantically switching between the hallways, with hopes that no prying eyes had caught sight of this intruder which would lead to misunderstandings, and the Princess. With a huge gulp of breath and then releasing them all at once, she continued, “you mustn’t enter the rooms of an unmarried–”
But the Princess immediately cut her off, “since we’re both women at the moment,” with a logical reasoning for once, “there should be no problem, right?”
She even finished her statement with that smug of a grin and both arms crossed to her chest. Standing straight, which she normally wouldn’t do, in complete triumphant. Her mouth hung wide open, uncertain of what to say. When she put it like that, how can she refute against it?!
“B–But still,” her next words hardly sounded convincing, “you shouldn’t enter… someone else’s bedchambers, just because you feel like it.”
A pathetic attempt, that she knew and..
Embarrassed, Leonard could only shut her eyes tight, bracing herself for what was to come.
But no response came from the Princess, only the sudden silence which confused her more the longer she stayed there. Frozen in place and waiting.
A minute passed by and still, there was nothing. Leonard fluttered one eye open, and then another. The Princess no longer stood in front of her.
Letting her eyes wander around the place until there, she found her sitting on top of the backrest of her couch. Her legs swinging in idle and her back facing her. If she did ever feel her gaze, the Princess made no reaction to confirm it. Especially not when she still sat there, her back only shown to her.
She was confused for a good while.
It was then she saw how slow and deliberate the movement of the Princess’s hand was when she lifted it. If she did that to grab her attention, it worked well. “Have a seat,” she said and pointed to her bed, out of all things. Still, Leonard decided it to be a much better choice than sitting right beside her.
Nodding to herself, she followed suit.
Shutting the door behind her, she turned and strode over. An arm pressed to her chest, keeping it in place. It hadn’t even been an hour since her temporary transition as a woman and yet, she faced far too many problems that could barely be counted with her hands and tail.
It was a pain to sum it up, at least in her own case. She didn’t know about other people’s thoughts on this, after all. ‘And by the time the Princess’s spell lost its effects, I’ll return to a limping mess,’ she thought with shivers to her back and shoulders. How she so dreaded the experience.
‘Remember, many of her spells would only last for a day. A couple if she has extra mana,’ Leonard told herself with more enthusiasm to the idea of turning back; a growing appreciation for her original self than what she felt before.
Nonetheless, she had to keep her attention in line with the Princess. From the somewhat solemn air she gave off, it was too huge a contrast from her playful attitude a minute ago. It must be something important. And with that, Leonard didn’t allow for her thoughts to stray from it as she made her way towards her bed.
When she got there and sat down, getting as comfortable in her seat as she could. She cast a curious glance her way…
But the Princess tilted her head slightly downward, making her forelocks seem longer than they should and concealing almost the entirety of her features.
Well, except for the firm line that had set itself in her lips. This conversation might not end well, that much she gathered from bits of observation on the latter. “Leo,” she began, but with a tone oddly too sober in that midst of usual monotone, “you always tell me not to go near you. Why is that?”
The Princess lifted her head, revealing a face that was hard to draw a clue from…
Anger? Disappointment? Annoyed? She couldn’t tell apart from any of these emotions, not when the latter’s almost blank features hardly gave anything away. Still, there was a certain distinctive sound she heard from her. Some sort of steely edge to them that had her flinching and her fingers curling on her lap. An anxious beat to them.
Not to mention, that question. Now, she knew the reason behind this. The reason as to why the Princess had cast that life-alternating spell. It was for this, all along. “That’s,” upon answering, she tried levelling her voice, “because my work occupies most of my time that I can’t have you or anyone–”
“But you still get to indulge in afternoon teatimes with Twilight and Fluffy Dog, even take evening walks with them. I find that strange.” She bit the insides of her cheek, cursing at herself for that clumsy-made answer. The Princess could easily counter them if she so wanted, how did she not learn from earlier?
“At least tell me the reason.”
The insistence in those words made her hands sweat and her eyes want to look away. Though there was nothing to be done with her hands, Leonard resolved to keep her eyes trained on her. She can’t look away from this situation. Absolutely not.
And yet, her mouth remained unmoving. Unable to part and utter something, just anything. How can she when she knew the weight of what those words hold? More so, the impact it will have on the present time. ‘If I answer this now,’ she swallowed down a lump in her throat.
This discomfort she was feeling, not even the Princess’s spell could shield her from the headaches that came with these racing thoughts, ‘this will only put the Princess in a difficult position…’
No, she can’t tell her that truth. No matter what, not when their status of a captor and a captive princess still stood; a respectable line she had set between herself and the Princess. But then, unexpectedly she caught feelings for her that pushed her to increase that gap.
To think the Princess took notice and now, she was facing this.
She fought to calm the thumping in her chest and thought hard, just anything to evade the truth from being spilled out of her own mouth. After all, now was not the best of the time.
‘When the conflict between humans and demons has settled over and we reach for that common goal of uniting both race in peace and harmony, only then can I tell the Princess,’ Leonard asserted this to herself over and over. A constant reminder to refrain herself from doing something foolish. Something she will come to regret for the rest of her life.
Despite the fact her heart ached and her chest suffocated from this heaviness, she can’t tell her. ‘Whether or not she will acknowledge my feelings in the future, that’s fine with me. I… I can bear with that. But for now, there’s no way I can let her shoulder this burden…’
Yes, that was for the best. For both of them.
“Well?”
Finally, she found it. Her solution.
“Well, y–you see, I’m actually quite shy around others…”
A lifted brow as the Princess’ response. Not a good sign. “Though you’re no chatterbox, but you don’t seem the type.” There was no need to sound convincing, she just had to say it. Thus, Leonard went with that. “What I mean is… I’m not exactly used to you to be specific. After all, y–you’re the hostage we’ve had the longest…”
A pause and then, a twirling hand as if she contemplated over her words. “Since the other human captives are naturally afraid of you demons, you must have developed… extra wariness around them. Is that it?”
Leonard resisted the urge to wince. From the way she put it, especially towards her own race. Her regard of them seemed rather cold and distant. Or perhaps that was just the figment of her imagination speaking.
“Such a pity really,” the Princess continued, a dismaying sigh soon followed, “you lot provide well for them with three meals a day and a roof over their heads during their short stay here. But I must say their cells are rather cramped and such poor tastes in furniture.”
‘But they’re regular human prisoners unlike you!’ She wanted to scream this out but held her tongue.
“I apologize if I acted with such discourtesy,” this half-truth and half-lie had flowed out so seamlessly from her tongue, “I’ll try getting used to you.”
Then, came the sudden tightness in her chest. It was unbearable, but she did what had to be done.
‘This is for the best,’ once more, she asserted.
“We’ll have to work on that, then.”
Blinkingly, her gaze shifted back to the Princess. A gasp almost escaped her as she watched her getting closer with a gait of a wolf prowling and in hunt for her prey.
In other words, her.
Shivers crawled down her spine while she found herself leaning back. In fear of what the Princess intended to do to her…
Only to see a head full of silvery locks landing on her lap. A slight bump of an impact from her thighs confirmed that this was no vivid imagination of hers.
“P… Princess?!”
“In order for you to get used to me, we should get right to it,” was simply her reply as she nuzzled her head as if trying to find a comfortable spot in her legs. Warmth tickled her stomach and her heart had sped up. Surely, her face must be burning right now, much to her embarrassment. ‘Of course, this is something you would do!’
“Oh, and Leo.”
“Y–Yes?”
“Whether a gentleman or a lady, your legs sure feel nice.”
“Ahh! Princess, please refrain from… saying such misleading things!”
Helpless against this situation she was suddenly placed in, Leonard covered her face with her sweaty pair of hands. She could practically feel the warmth radiating off her face and…
It seemed like the quick thumping of her heart won’t die down any time soon.
“Ahh, truly nice…”
“Princess, please stop making those sounds!”