One Plus One
A pretty face and good looks are a blessing.
They make it easy to win someone's favor on the spot. Sight takes up the largest share of the human senses, and no one is free from it.
When a face is beautiful, even the things a person does somehow look prettier. When a face is beautiful, you start to imagine they smell good for no real reason. When a face is beautiful, even their voice sounds nicer.
In other words, they get a free filter applied. Two people who are identical in every way except appearance can do the exact same thing, and the evaluation and reaction they receive will still split like heaven and earth.
Humans have always pursued beauty. You only have to look at the art and legends handed down from ancient times to see it.
There is the story of the lawyer who failed to defend a beautiful courtesan, tore her clothes to bare her body, and won an acquittal. There is the statue of Venus, still called a perfect work of art. By contrast, records remain that Socrates—known as a great philosopher—was so ugly in his day that people called him a monster and mocked him. His looks probably played a part in why his teachings never spread as widely as they might have.
If Socrates had been a handsome young philosopher, far more statues and stories about him would have survived, I think.
In short: an ugly person has no right to teach… That was the idea. Not my opinion—just a guess at what the people of that era, who ignored Socrates' knowledge and teachings, must have thought.
Sad, but unavoidable. The pursuit of beauty is practically human instinct.
Even now, in an age crowded with intellectuals and people who follow ordinary moral norms, looks still quietly sort people into ranks, and handsome or pretty people still get preferential treatment—even if no one says it out loud.
Pretty people and handsome people are loved.
That is an unchanging truth that does not shift with the times.
I already knew it. It was a fact I never even needed to bring to mind.
Because stories about people like that had nothing to do with me. Purely someone else's business.
I would listen the way you listen to tales from another world, think huh, I see, and move on—or, sometimes, click my tongue like an ascetic who had just run into an unfair truth.
Yeah. That was how it used to be. Used to be…
That was why I had suddenly launched into a whole speech about looks. Things that once would have been someone else's business, something I could simply let slide, had become my business now.
The digression ran long, but the summary was simple.
Even among the characters in the game, Camilla was always ranked high enough in appearance to sit near the top of the beauty charts.
And I had become that Camilla.
Therefore, I was pretty.
"…What?"
"O-one plus one! Grab one more!"
Pretty enough to receive goodwill so obvious you could see it with the naked eye—something I had never experienced before.
It was morning. Around ten a.m., maybe. A little late to call it morning, honestly—kind of embarrassing.
"Nngh…"
I usually woke up at that unhurried hour and got on with my day.
Today should not have been any different.
Or so I thought.
"…My stomach feels awful."
Somehow this was not the usual peaceful morning. My stomach was vaguely queasy and my head throbbed with a soft, dull ache—symptoms I had felt more than a few times before.
"Hangover…?"
Yes. This was a hangover.
A hangover sensation I could not deny even if I wanted to.
Come on, how much did I even drink to get a hangover?
All I had was four cans of imported canned beer.
…Thinking about it again, that was a lot. Camilla's stomach was not small at all.
But that was a lot in volume, not a lot of actual alcohol.
Beer was barely even liquor—just a drink that made you feel good. The idea that a little barley beverage with a mild kick could give me a hangover was ridiculous.
I had never been much of a drinker, but one bottle of soju never left me wrecked the next morning, so I had not expected this at all.
"Ugh…"
I staggered up from the bed.
I needed something warm to soothe my insides.
Ramen, for example. I barely ate noodles on ordinary days, yet somehow that was exactly what I craved at times like this.
Truthfully the broth was the real goal, not the noodles. Maybe I should just boil the soup without them.
I was rummaging through the cupboard and thinking that when—
"None?"
My plan collapsed on the spot. Looks like I was completely out of ramen. The moment you need something, it is always gone.
That left only one option.
"Ah…"
Going outside was a pain.
But my empty stomach was already screaming for something to put inside it, and there was nothing decent in the house.
Delivery… would take too long, and yesterday's spending had been bigger than expected, so the cost was a burden too.
Something around the price of a pack of ramen felt right—both for the wallet and for warming the stomach just enough.
Which meant, in the end, I had to go out.
Not far. The convenience store five minutes away on foot became the target.
When I got up, the warm blanket tried to lure me into staying a little longer, but I slowly shook my head.
If you decide and then fail to act right away, you just end up dawdling—that was a lesson long experience had drilled into me.
"What do I even wear…"
This was basically my first time going outside in this body, but I was not particularly worried about looking put-together.
I was not meeting anyone. Who dresses up to walk to the convenience store in front of their house?
Throw on something decent, drag your slippers, and go—that was the national rule.
The reason I was hesitating was different.
It was a little embarrassing to say out loud, but the problem was the body that had changed.
In short, the clothes I used to wear for light outings… were a little tight.
Not that the size was wrong.
I had been on the slender side, but they were still clothes a man had worn. Of course they would fit.
Camilla was clearly leaner and more toned than average, too.
It was just that certain parts were a little… developed in that unrealistic, game-character way.
No point hiding it: those certain parts were the chest, the hips, the thighs—basically the whole lower half.
Camilla's outstanding appearance settings had clearly taken that figure into account as well. I now possessed a body that both men and women could only look at as ideal.
Because of that, I had more than once stood blankly staring into the bathroom mirror. It was one of the reasons my showers had gotten longer.
Anyway… for those reasons I was forced to put on an untimely fashion show in front of a closet that barely held a few pieces of clothing.
I really needed to buy clothes. I never imagined not having anything that fit this body would be such a hassle.
It was only a light outing. For today I would throw on something that more or less fit and hurry out and back.
The look I settled on was—
"Hmm…"
A baggy hooded sweatshirt with a hood, and sweatpants.
Even those did not have much room to spare, but at least the hips and chest did not look ready to burst out.
If anything, the size was so exact that the clothes actually looked better on me. My own taste ran more toward the loose and sloppy side, but for now I would have to be satisfied with this.
I pulled the oversized hood up over my head, dragged my slippers, and set out.
Dressed like a half-NEET, yet still showing a face that shone, I walked farther and farther away.
"So… you're saying it's buy one get one free…?"
With a hood big enough to swallow my whole head pulled over me, I asked to make sure I had understood correctly.
The man's face in front of me stiffened awkwardly for a second, then smoothed out again.
A tiny fraction of a moment.
A micro-movement of facial muscles I never would have caught if this had not been Camilla's body.
Having seen it, I roughly understood how the situation was going.
"Ah, aah. That's right! Yes. This is on a one-plus-one promotion right now. You can take one more!"
"But there's no sale tag on it…"
"That, uh—the sale starts today. Yes. I've been busy so I haven't put the stickers on yet, hehe…"
That was his story.
The 800-won triangle kimbap I had picked up was one-plus-one starting today, so I should grab a similar one next to it.
Buy one, get one free. That was correct.
Hearing only the words, nothing seemed strange—but I had already seen things.
That face that had stiffened awkwardly a moment ago, for one.
And right now, too. His face was flushed bright red, eyes flicking to my face, then down, then back.
Reactions that were all too easy to read.
I was not incapable of understanding how he felt, but…
From the position of someone who had already noticed everything, just gulping it down like this felt… a little off, somehow.
I only looked at him and offered a slightly awkward smile.
"Huuurk…!"
Seeing that, the man suddenly clutched his chest and made a pained sound.
No, seriously, that much? If you react that hard, I'm the one who gets embarrassed.
Anyway, separate from that, accepting this felt a little wrong.
Someone might say it was only 800 won, but the angel inside me was furiously shaking its head that even that was not okay.
I was about to open my mouth to refuse when—
"This—"
"Ah, aah! I suddenly have something urgent—something urgent came up! P-please enjoy it!"
The man shot up from his seat out of nowhere, rattled off only what he wanted to say at machine-gun speed, and then walked straight out of the convenience store.
What… what just…
Inside the convenience store that felt as if a storm had just blown through, I muttered quietly.
"Hey, you still have to pay before you leave…"