I'm Off! (Part 2 Begins)
“Did you pack all your clothes?”
“Yes.”
“Your shoes?”
“Those too.”
“The emergency communication crystal?”
“That as well.”
“Then…”
“Ah, Da—! No, Mom! I packed everything! How many times is this now?!”
At the front gate of the Evergarden mansion, where the morning sun had only just begun to rise and its bright light filtered through in intermittent shafts, Rosaria finally lost her patience and shouted.
It had already been three months since she had transmigrated into the body of the villainess Rosaria Evergarden in this romance-fantasy web novel world called Starlight of Dawn.
She barely had time to marvel at how quickly the days had flown by before the season to return to the Academy arrived.
“But this is the first time our family will be living apart since we all transmigrated… I’m still so worried I can’t help myself…”
“Doesn’t it break your heart to watch Bennet unpack and repack my bags over and over because of that?”
“Oh my, I’m so sorry…”
“I-I’m fine, milady! Madam!”
“I already finished my military service. This is nothing…”
Ever since arriving in this world, the family had never once been separated. The thought of living apart in this fantasy realm rather than the modern world had left Freya so anxious she had barely slept, and poor Bennet was the one paying for it—sweating buckets as she repeatedly unpacked and repacked Rosaria’s luggage.
“It’s fine. What could possibly go wrong?”
Felix, who had already boarded the carriage and been watching the whole scene, poked his head out and spoke up.
“…Daughter.”
“Yes?”
“…Please don’t cause any incidents. Don’t just do whatever looks fun on a whim. And especially don’t go firing magic at people—”
“What am I, some kind of psycho?!”
Freya’s expression hardened the moment she looked at Felix. She began earnestly listing every precaution in a deadly serious tone, and Felix recoiled in pure disgust, hopping in place.
In the end, Freya’s greatest worry was not Rosaria but Felix.
With Rosaria she fretted over what might happen to her; with Felix she fretted over what kind of disaster he might cause.
“B-but still! I’ll be there! Don’t worry!”
Tene, who had likewise boarded early, poked her face out as well. She clenched both fists tightly as if to say everything would be fine.
“That’s right. With Tene around, if anything happens we can just hop on her back and fly home anytime.”
“That is a relief. Still, Tene, will you be all right?”
“Yes! Ever since I came to this world I’ve wanted to see the Academy for myself!”
“…All right. Please look after our son and daughter.”
“Yes!”
Seeing Tene settled Freya’s heart somewhat.
Compared to the two children about to leave, Tene possessed a decent amount of common sense and a kind heart—and her true identity was the strongest living creature on the continent. Even if something went wrong, she would somehow manage to stop it.
“So… what about Dad and Grandfather?”
“Those two… both overdid it last night…”
When Rosaria suddenly realized only Freya had come to see them off and turned to ask, Freya pressed a hand to her forehead as if nursing a headache.
“…Ugh.”
“Ever since they found drinking buddies, the two of them are drunk more often than not…”
Darian and Estel’s personalities clashed in almost every way, yet the one thing they shared was a love of alcohol.
They snarled at each other every day, yet a single glance was enough to set a drinking appointment. Their relationship somehow managed to be both terrible and excellent at the same time.
“Anyway, we’re really leaving now!”
“Nothing’s going to happen! We’re off!”
“I-I’ll be back…!”
“…All right. Take care, everyone.”
At last the final traveler, Rosaria, grumbled her way into the carriage. The three of them called out their farewells to Freya, and Freya raised a hand in a light wave to see them off.
“Hiyah—!”
Rattle—rattle—
The moment the carriage door shut, the coachman lightly flicked the reins. The two horses hitched to the carriage struck the earth with powerful strides and the vehicle lurched forward.
Freya remained standing in place, waving continuously until the rattling carriage shrank to a tiny speck in the distance.
“…Gordon. Sir Fenril.”
“Yes, madam.”
“You called for us.”
Once the carriage had vanished beyond the reach of the naked eye, Freya finally lowered her hand and spoke. Gordon and Fenril appeared at once behind her and dropped to one knee.
Their posture was the usual respectful one, yet an indescribable solemnity and weight hung about them. Fenril, instead of the casual clothes she normally wore for paperwork, was clad in polished, clanking armor.
“It seems we’ll be busy from now on. We can finally handle all the matters we couldn’t finish while the children were here.”
Muttering to herself, Freya turned and walked back into the mansion, the two of them following close behind.
The doors of the Evergarden mansion closed.
“So how much farther do we still have to go?”
“Five days.”
“Five whole days stuck in this carriage?! Ha… I’m seriously going to lose it.”
Time passed. Once the carriage had put a fair distance between itself and the Evergarden territory and was racing along at a good clip, Rosaria twisted her stiff shoulders and her face crumpled into a look of pure misery.
“We could just ride Tene~ Why do we even have to take a carriage~”
In the modern world the distance would have taken less than half a day, but in this fantasy realm—where asphalt was unheard of and even properly maintained roads were rare—travel was truly inconvenient.
There were no cars, no highways. Crossing from one territory to another meant at least one overnight stay, and the longer trips could stretch to three weeks.
Even a sturdy, plush carriage built exclusively for nobles jolted violently every time it hit the rough dirt roads, making the seating experience abysmal. The knowledge that she would be trapped inside for five full days filled Rosaria with utter despair.
“For the last time, I am not a taxi.”
“Come on, can’t a dragon at least do that much?”
“I will say it again—do you have no respect at all?! Who uses a dragon as a taxi?!”
“I am the eternal darkness, the one who insults the gods themselves—Tenebrix Nox!”
Listening to Rosaria’s complaints, Tene puffed out her cheeks in a sulky pout and fired back.
“…Heh. Wearing that outfit while saying all that completely kills any credibility.”
Rosaria gave the ranting Tene a once-over and twisted one corner of her mouth into a mocking smile.
Seated beside her, Tene was not in her usual casual clothes but in a frilly maid uniform that marked her as a lady-in-waiting.
On the already petite and adorable girl, the outfit made her look exactly like a cute, scatterbrained youngest maid.
“Th-this is…! I don’t have a choice! If I want to enter the Academy I have to pretend to be a maid serving a noble!”
Tene’s face flushed bright red at Rosaria’s jab. She shouted in defense of her situation.
As a rule, each noble attending the Imperial Academy was allowed only one attendant.
Because students of every status—from commoners to nobles—mixed together in the same classes, the limit had been set to foster closeness between the two groups.
Thus Rosaria had brought her personal maid Bennet (who was riding in the trailing carriage), while Tene would enter the Academy under the cover story of being Felix’s attendant.
And once she was playing the role of a maid, the uniform became non-negotiable—so Tene insisted she had no choice but to wear it.
“You wanted to go to the Academy that badly?”
“Yes! An academy in a world where magic actually exists… it’s basically Hogwarts! How could I not go?!”
To fantasy-loving Tene, the Academy was a place where grand adventures awaited.
“Still, the design’s pretty nice. It suits you.”
“Hehe… right? I especially like the frilly parts.”
If she was willing to put on a maid uniform she supposedly hated… hated…? and even volunteer for the attendant role, it was clear just how serious Tene was about the Academy.
“You’ve completely turned into a girl now.”
“…!? I’m a guy!!”
“Sure~ sure~”
“You little…! Hyung, a few days ago I saw you in front of the mirror playing with your hair—humming a little tune while you did it!”
“Ugh…! Wh-when did you…!”
“Be honest—you like this body now, don’t you? Right?”
“Wh-what are you talking about…? No I don’t!”
Rosaria had been teasing Tene, but the unexpected exposure of her own embarrassing moment made her turn her head away in a show of nonchalance. The flush rising on her cheeks, however, was impossible to hide.
“Heh. Looks like everyone’s happy with their new bodies. I still vividly remember the first time Oppa and Dad got their periods after coming to this world.”
“Waaaaaah!!!!!!”
Watching the childish bickering, Felix’s expression lit up with pure mischief. The moment he opened his mouth, Rosaria literally leapt from her seat and lunged at him.
“Ah, aah~ That time, right?”
“You… you…! Say one more word and you die…!”
“Mmph—! Pwah—! No, seriously…! One morning she suddenly started screaming and running around the mansion like a madwoman, and the reason was…? She thought she had some fatal disease… Pwahaha?!”
“Ah, right, right! That was seriously hilarious!”
Felix nimbly dodged Rosaria’s charge and kept talking. Tene, the memory flooding back, also burst out laughing—pfft!
It had been exactly one month after the Evergarden family transmigrated into this world.
In the very early hours of the morning, a sudden scream echoed through the mansion, startling everyone into searching for its source.
Felix and Darian had also jumped in fright and gone looking. What they found was Rosaria, clutching a blood-soaked blanket in her arms and completely at a loss for what to do.
She had been so frantic that she stood barefoot in the mansion corridor, hopping from foot to foot without even shoes on. The moment she spotted Felix and Darian, tears welled up and she wailed at the top of her lungs that something terrible had happened, that she was going to die—an incident that became one of Rosaria’s deepest black marks.
Waking up to find the bedsheets soaked in blood, she—still far too accustomed to a male body—had never once connected the situation to the concept of menstruation she theoretically knew about.
Ah, Freya had been a bit more composed.
She had simply huddled in the corner of her bedroom with a gloomy expression, crouching and muttering to herself.
And thus the legendary period-adjustment saga of the two former men—now mother and daughter—was written.
“Hey! I woke up and there was that much blood… how was I supposed to think of that?! It never even crossed my mind!”
“And why are you just laughing? You’re gonna get one too, you know?!”
“Huh? I don’t, though?”
“….”
Rosaria scratched her head in irritation under their teasing and turned her fire on Tene, only to freeze speechless when the girl simply shrugged her shoulders.
Dragons, conveniently, did not have that particular issue.
“One of the best parts of becoming a guy is not having periods. I love that so much!”
“I hate it! My underwear’s damp all day, stuffing cloth in there feels stuffy, it’s still gross, and my stomach hurts like hell! Argh! Why couldn’t I have been a dragon or a guy?!”
Felix, free from the shackles of menstruation, smiled with pure satisfaction. Rosaria, thoroughly jealous, stomped the carriage floor and yelled in outrage.
And so the first day of their journey to the Academy passed.