A Story Beginning to Tangle
Morning sunlight seeped in past my eyelids. Through a gaze still tinged red with sleep, I stretched with a long groan and pushed myself upright.
"Haaah... my body feels so heavy."
When I lifted my arms overhead, my chest swayed in answer. So this is what women haul around every day, huh. Mine aren't that big, so maybe it's fine? Or maybe Eriana's figure is just unfairly good.
I got up and peered into the mirror. Hair a complete disaster. From half-lidded eyes, a drowsy voice slipped out.
"Seriously, the outside package is disgustingly pretty."
Dark eyes that seemed to catch the light. Long, delicate eyelids you could practically tie a pencil with. Even half-closed with sleep, they still gave off a strange kind of presence.
Less villainess, more like a strong-willed older sister type? Well, I'd been a guy until not that long ago, so "older sister" felt about right.
"Hmm... older sister, huh. Come to think of it, Lunel asked if she could call me Unni."
Looking back on it now, I must have seemed pretty terrifying from Lunel's point of view. Beating monsters to death with my bare hands—how could that not be scary?
Even if she was on my side, a woman who punched monsters out cold with her fists would still give me the creeps.
I figured I ought to act a little more normal, but being a villainess noble lady and all, the thought just wouldn't stick. Besides, this body of mine was on the brutish side—it had a habit of charging ahead on its own.
A body that moved before I could even think. Honestly, it was frightening how fast it was.
By the time I'd come to my senses, before I could even get a word out, my body had already lunged forward and kicked a wild boar clean into the air. One kick, an explosive boom, and the pig went flying. That kind of monstrous strength... yeah, definitely not your average young lady.
Being born into a mage family was the real problem. If it was going to be like this, I'd have been better off as a farmer's daughter.
"Well, they still pay me on time, so I guess it doesn't matter?"
The room was smaller than I'd expected, but it wasn't bad. In my previous life I'd lived in something even tinier than this.
And it came with its own bathroom, so that was a plus...
I swallowed hard. Glancing toward the attached bathroom, I couldn't help shivering.
The magically outfitted bathroom had proper plumbing. When I'd tried the water yesterday, some kind of magic circle had glowed faintly and water had come pouring out—honestly, it had been pretty amazing.
Calling it a bathroom was generous; it was basically just a shower stall, a little bare-bones, but that was fine. The real problem was that until very recently, I'd been a man.
I was supposed to wash myself while staring at a woman's body I'd never seen before in my life. Yesterday I just couldn't bring myself to do it, so I'd gone straight to bed.
And thanks to skipping a wash, I already felt sticky and gross, so this was really...
"Haaah..... Do I seriously have no choice?"
If I kept going like this, I was going to start smelling. Even so, a smelly woman was a bit much, right? It wouldn't fly for a guy either, and for a villainess noble lady to be walking around reeking was just...
I swallowed again and slowly stepped toward the bathroom.
Honestly? I was in a whatever-happens-happens kind of mood.
Warm water hit my skin with a rushing sound. It was a familiar sensation, so why was my body trembling like this?
As the heat soaked in, it felt like my whole body was slowly warming through. But my eyes stayed locked firmly upward.
I gulped and did everything I could not to look down. Until not long ago I'd been a man, and suddenly I had a chest and had shot up tall on top of it—I was losing my mind trying to figure out how to deal with any of this.
"Huuuh... just once. Just one time."
Muttering to myself, I carefully lowered my gaze. All I could see was chest.
"Ha..."
This figure was so good that I couldn't even properly see anything below. Wasn't that taking things a little too far?
I ran my hands down my body, soaking myself thoroughly.
Water only, for now. If I started lathering up and scrubbing every inch of myself, my sanity wouldn't survive it. So I just let the warm water rinse over me, washing myself down as calmly as I could manage.
Every so often a soft sensation brushed my hands and nearly short-circuited my brain, but I somehow managed to hold it together. Once I'd scrubbed away all the sticky grime, I turned my attention to the next problem.
My long hair hung heavy and dripping with water. I figured I could just wash it with whatever looked like soap—then it hit me. How exactly was I supposed to wash this?
Sure, some guys grew their hair out, but they were the minority, and I'd always been a perfectly ordinary member of the majority. I had no idea how to wash long hair.
I figured if I just tried, it'd work out somehow. So I calmly worked up a lather and applied it to my head.
Bubbles frothed up. Ah... so this was how you did it?
I thoroughly wet my long hair, then scrubbed the soap through it like I was doing laundry. Something about it felt off, but whatever, right?
Once I'd foamed up the entire length of it, I rinsed out every last bit of soap with water.
Whew. Looks like I somehow made it through. I gave a little nod, privately congratulating myself on a job well done.
At the time, I thought it had gone well.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me..."
While I was towel-drying my hair, something about it felt weirdly stiff and clumpy. I tilted my head, figured it was probably nothing—then I stepped outside, looked in the mirror, and the sight was a disaster.
The long, glossy, lush hair that had been gleaming just moments ago was now a complete wreck, all its shine gone. Probably the soap's fault.
I ran my fingers through it. No matter how you looked at it, the condition was terrible. Was this actually okay...? Well, with a figure this good, a little ruined hair was something I could probably get away with, but still...
I stared at the stiff yellow mop and let out a long sigh. At this rate, I'd be better off just cutting it all off.
Now that I was stuck in this body, wasn't I supposed to make myself look as pretty as possible? Unfortunately, I seemed to have zero talent in that department.
Or... there was one person who might know what she was doing.
"Even so, going to Lunel feels kind of wrong, doesn't it?"
I muttered to myself and shrugged. I was supposed to make that kid hate me. Showing up to ask her how to wash my hair didn't exactly fit the plan.
I clicked my tongue and stood up. I could feel my body drying calmly in the breeze.
Well, leaving the door open while I was completely naked down to my underwear was a bit much, but who was going to care about my body anyway?
People around here liked the flat-and-cute type, and I was the exact opposite. So it shouldn't matter.
I put on my underthings, then threw on another outfit. Nothing with frills—just a simple one-piece dress.
It looked like it might be a little see-through, but nah, no way... A proper young lady wouldn't go around in something that thin.
Even if nobody here paid attention to my body, I still didn't particularly want my underwear on full display.
Once I was fully dressed, I sank down onto the bed. Today, too, I had to go interfere with Lunel.
The story from here was simple. After meeting the male lead and starting to call him Oppa, Lunel would tell her friends about everything that had happened that day, get all giddy about it, then bump into him by chance and blush.
Of course the male lead would sweetly approach the heroine and murmur something concerned, and her heart would tilt just a little—at which point Eriana, unable to stand the sight, would casually start interfering and putting her hands on the guy.
Apparently the original Eriana had been secretly in love with the male lead. Watching him keep giving attention to Lunel, whose magic was terrible, must have driven her up the wall.
Of course, I had zero interest in men, so I had absolutely no intention of doing any interfering. No need to wedge myself between them. They'd figure out the romance just fine on their own.
I'd ended up getting called Unni, but that would sort itself out too, so I wasn't too worried.
Still, if I wanted to earn her hatred, I had to deliberately stick close to Lunel and egg her on... which meant I'd wound up in the bizarre position of having to show interest in a guy I didn't care about at all.
Alright... so how was I supposed to handle this? I had to pretend I was jealous of another girl clinging to a guy and deliberately insert myself between them.
Unfortunately, as of yesterday I'd still been a man. Just thinking about doing something like that sent a full-body shudder down my spine!
So what I actually needed to do was simple. Just casually tug on his shoulder once, do something vaguely affectionate, and then bolt. That ought to be more than enough.
Thinking that, I stepped outside. I trotted downstairs, humming a little tune under my breath—and right up until that moment, I had no idea what was about to happen.
The second I opened the door at the bottom of the stairs, a familiar voice rang out.
"Unni!"
A bright smile, and a girl standing right in front of me. Long, lustrous silver hair, about a head shorter than me, speaking in a soft, delicate voice.
"Lunel...?"
The heroine was standing at the door of the house I was lodging in. Both hands folded neatly in front of her.
My head started to throb.