Research (9)
We'd been traveling for about seven hours when the high city walls finally came into view.
"Finally…"
At last, the end was in sight. I'd been feeling unwell since morning, and the entire journey had been pure misery.
Thankfully my companions had carried my luggage for me. Without them, I might well have collapsed somewhere along the way.
"Just hold on a little longer."
Right. Just a little further…
My stomach ached, my mood swung wildly, and everything felt impossibly hard. Life has its share of pain and suffering, sure, but this was really rough.
"Hah… hah…"
Damn it, why was this so hard…
At least the checkpoint line was short, so we got into the city quickly. That was a relief.
My companions discussed what to do while I struggled.
"Let's get an inn first."
Sister Mary wanted to take me to the temple, but I firmly refused. If I went there, the fussing devotees would make it impossible to get any real rest.
We had money to spare and I was in bad shape, so they chose a somewhat expensive inn so I could rest comfortably.
The room for us women wasn't even a regular room — it was a special suite.
"I-Isn't this room way too expensive?"
A full twenty gold a night left me speechless. True to its special-suite status, the room was spacious enough for three people with no trouble, and the beds were large.
"You're exhausted, aren't you? Come lie down."
"Ah, well…"
I was definitely tired and worn out. Sister Mary took my hand and peeled off my outer clothes. As if entranced, I kicked off my shoes and naturally sank onto the bed.
"There. You must be tired — get some rest."
"Mm. I'll wake you when it's time for dinner."
"Really?"
Hearing Sis and Sister Mary say that put me at ease somehow.
I was tired… maybe I should rest a bit?
The moment I closed my eyes, sleep seemed to drift over me.
But I couldn't sleep deeply. My stomach hurt. It felt like being stabbed with needles… or like someone was punching me. It really hurt.
I wished I could just fall asleep, but the pain made me toss and turn. It hurts, it hurts. Was thinking about it making it worse? Why did I have to go through this? I'd endured worse pain before, but that didn't make this any less real.
My lower abdomen especially ached. The pain was intense, but as time passed drowsiness gradually won out, and I slipped into sleep with the pain fading from my awareness.
At first I enjoyed the sweetest sleep. The bed was comfortable, and the long journey had left me exhausted.
But before long, discomfort crept in. I just wanted to sleep… to forget the pain and sleep… but my mind gradually sharpened.
My lower abdomen hurt terribly.
I curled in on myself, trying to suppress the pain. Even clutching my belly with both arms didn't make it stop. I drew my legs up and curled into a ball like a baby in the womb. The pain seemed to ease a little.
But it came right back. Only temporary relief, then…
If it had been only pain, I could have endured it. But it wasn't only pain. There was an unpleasant sensation in my lower abdomen…
A strange, unpleasant feeling.
It was unpleasant and sticky. The sheer unpleasantness jolted me fully awake, and my eyes snapped open.
"Ugh…"
As my mind cleared, the sounds around me came into focus. Not a commotion… just worried voices about me.
"Ah… this fucking sucks…"
That was the first thing I said when I opened my eyes.
The unpleasant sensation in my lower abdomen was beyond description. Carefully sitting up, I glanced sideways to find Sister Mary watching me with mild concern.
"What's wrong?"
Was something the matter? Had the swearing been the problem? Coming from someone supposedly the Saintess of the church, it was a pretty vulgar thing to say…
"Julian, carefully — carefully get down from the bed."
Uh… hmm? That sticky feeling in my lower abdomen was still there.
Right. Exactly like I'd had an accident…
For now, I carefully got down from the bed as Sister Mary instructed. The moment I did, I felt something trickle down from my lower abdomen.
Had I wet myself in my sleep? I frowned and looked down.
"What is this…"
In that instant, my heightened senses… from my nose… I caught the scent of blood.
"B-Blood…?"
Had I been bleeding? I was briefly confused, but soon I realized what had happened.
All hail sex ed from my previous life.
A period… the phenomenon every woman supposedly goes through once a month.
I was clearly going through it right now.
"Haa…"
I let out a long sigh. It had been a year since I'd become a woman, and until now I'd never had a period. I didn't know why, but I'd assumed it was because magic had transformed my body. And now, of all times, a period?
Had my transformed body simply needed time to adapt?
I was tangled up in complicated thoughts when Sister Mary brought me back to reality.
"Let's get you changed right away."
"Let me wash up first."
Given how expensive the room was, it had an attached bathroom, and I shuffled toward it in an awkward crouch.
Damn it. With every step I could feel something flowing from my lower abdomen. The sensation against my crotch and inner thighs was utterly disgusting. Still, after a year of living as a woman, I'd figured a day like this might come eventually.
If I hadn't, I would have completely panicked…
Once in the bathroom, I stripped off everything and turned on the water. True to an expensive room, the magical fixtures were good ones — warm water came out.
Whoosh…
Warm water cascading over my head from above snapped me fully awake.
"Damn it…"
A period… I knew I'd become a woman. But a period!
Come to think of it, this was serious, wasn't it?
I'd started menstruating.
What did that mean?
It meant my body was capable of pregnancy.
Honestly, magic had transformed my flesh, but I had no idea how thoroughly or in what ways. I knew my genitals had changed, but my internal organs? A uterus? There was so much I couldn't know.
Had only the outside changed, or everything?
I'd never been examined by a professional institution, so there were limits to what I could figure out.
But my period had started. What did that mean? It meant my body was a real woman's body with nothing wrong with it.
It was a fact I could no longer deny.
"Well, that's not the real problem."
What annoyed me more were the warning symptoms. So all that weirdness in my body since last night had been because of this?
I dredged up the sex ed from my previous life… The memories were old and weathered, so not much came back, but I could grasp the situation well enough.
Women on their periods have it hard…
"I have to deal with this every month? And bleed too?"
But the women around me never made a huge fuss about it, did they?
Maybe it gets better once you get used to it?
I scrubbed myself thoroughly all over. Then I diligently washed the bloodstained panties and pants. Blood gets harder to wash out the longer you wait, so it had to be dealt with quickly.
I missed laundry soap…
Washing helped ease the unpleasant sensation in my lower abdomen a little, but…
"A woman's period doesn't end in a single day, does it?"
Women in my previous life wore sanitary pads during their periods — what about here? Did they have them?
Should I go out and ask Sis or Sister Mary?
What kind of humiliation play is this…
I heaved a deep sigh.
"Julian? Are you finished washing?"
Sister Mary's voice came from outside the door.
Ah, right — I'd only brought my body in here. I needed clothes, underwear, and a towel.
"Yes, could I have some clothes and a towel, please?"
I cracked the door open and stuck my hand through the gap. A towel landed in my hand first, and I took it and carefully dried myself. I paid special attention to the crotch area…
A little blood stained the towel.
So I was still bleeding a little…
What a nuisance.
If I put on panties, wouldn't the blood just soak right into them?
When I cracked the door open again for clothes, something soft landed on my hand.
None of my clothes felt this soft. My wardrobe was mostly cheap stuff — this softness was something else entirely.
"It's silk. Put that on first, then your undergarments."
Silk…
An expensive item. Of course, even a commoner could get some if they spent the money, but…
I brought it inside and examined it. It looked like panties, but smaller somehow? The part that would touch the genitals had thicker fabric.
This must be the sanitary pad women used in this world.
I carefully put on the silk undergarment. Silk was definitely soft. Next I received my clothes and underwear and put them on.
"Ugh…"
Coming out of the bathroom was so embarrassing.
"Is something the matter?"
Sister Mary looked very worried.
"Ah, no."
But among women, it wasn't something you couldn't talk about…
"I heard this is your first time. Are you all right?"
She heard it was my first time…?
I looked around the room for Sis.
She was sitting in a chair, playing dumb. Wait — had she already figured it out?
"S-Sis?!"
When I called out, she turned her body and completely avoided my gaze.
"Haa…"
I sighed deeply and went over to her.
"You knew?"
"Yeah. I could tell by the smell right away."
Ah… Awakening mana heightens all the senses. Even I had gotten considerably sharper senses after gaining holy power, and I'd heard that mana awakeners — martial artists — experience it even more strongly.
So Sis could tell whether I was on my period just by whether she smelled blood on me.
I had nothing to say. It wasn't like she'd hidden anything — she'd simply been able to tell, and she'd pretended not to know. I couldn't get angry about that.
Sister Mary still looked worried.
To put her mind at ease, I told her the truth. That this was my first time, and I hadn't known it would be this hard on the body…
"I see. Because it's your first time, you didn't know how to handle it."
Apparently even in this world periods weren't something you could talk about openly. Women just took care of themselves carefully when that day came, or something like that? I heard a few things, but nothing particularly important.
"S-So, what do I do with the s-silk?"
When I asked, Sister Mary and Sis both looked a little awkward.
"Wash it quietly."
Swap it out for another, wash it, dry it, and reuse it?!
Well, unless you had a lot of money, recycling was inevitable.
Sis said she didn't use silk — just ordinary cloth — and if it was too much of a bother she just ignored it, or something. The fact that she figured washing cloth and washing underwear were the same told you something about how commoners thought.
Sister Mary said she usually just layered cloth, and that at the temple, female devotees and nuns on their periods didn't wear their habits, didn't leave their rooms, and quietly stayed put.
It wasn't that they considered it unclean or anything… It was about maintaining proper conduct, she said.
But to me it seemed like a leftover from older times.
"More importantly, this silk…"
"I went out and bought it."
Ah… she'd bought it for me? Sister Mary quietly held out a box.
I carefully took it and opened it. Inside were several items that looked similar to the silk undergarment I'd just seen.
"Ahem."
Sister Mary's instruction to quietly change into a fresh one and wash the silk whenever it felt sticky or seemed about to overflow left me feeling conflicted.
The thought of having to do this every month was genuinely annoying.