First Egg-Laying
Ugh.
"Is something wrong?"
"…I don't know. My stomach's been weird since this morning."
After abandoning Huey, who'd barricaded himself in his room the moment he got back — door locked and all — I was out walking the city with Lucy, shopping for a few things she'd asked for.
"Perhaps you should see a healer?"
"Mmm… it doesn't really hurt, so I'm fine. Probably just from eating too much greasy food lately."
I'd only recently discovered how good meat tasted, and I'd been overdoing it.
"If you say you're fine, I won't press the matter. But if anything does go wrong, please consult someone."
"Yeah. I will."
I rested a wing atop Lucy's head and nodded. She was wearing an uncharacteristically worried expression.
"If you're not feeling well, we should stop here for today and rest at the inn."
"You sure?"
"It isn't as though today is our only chance."
Lucy looked up at me, both hands wrapped tightly around the wing perched on her head.
"Alright. Let's head back and rest."
"Yes."
…Looking at her like this, she really was cute.
"I'll come fetch you when it's time for dinner, so please rest until then."
"Yeah. See you later."
Back at the inn, I sent Lucy to her room. She watched me with worried eyes the whole way — like a cat that usually kept its distance, only to draw close the moment its owner fell ill. Once she was gone, I carefully rubbed the uneasy feeling in my belly.
"Did I actually get food poisoning…?"
The slight swelling around my lower abdomen was one thing. The way it felt firm and packed even without tensing — yeah, that pointed to a stomach bug.
"Ugh, I should keep dinner light."
I'd heard that starving yourself when you felt like this only made things worse. Figuring I'd have some soup and turn in early, I threw myself onto the bed.
Knock. Knock.
"Ren, you in there?"
I'd been lying on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling, when Huey's voice came through the door along with the knocking.
"It's open. Come in."
I hadn't planned on sleeping, so I hadn't bothered locking it. Huey eased the door open carefully, and I started to speak.
"What do you nee— pffft!"
"…Don't laugh."
One of his eyes was a vivid shade of purple. Lucy must have gotten to him in the short time since I'd left. I couldn't help it — the laugh just burst out of me.
"Let's eat dinner early. I heard you're not feeling great."
"Lucy already told you?"
"Don't even start. She was going on about whether I'd fed you something weird last night. Absolute chaos."
Honestly, if he showed that side of himself more often, it'd be nice.
"Maybe getting sick once in a while isn't so bad?"
"Say that where Lucy can hear you and you're on your own."
"…Yeah, healthy is better."
That girl. If she ever found out I'd said something like that, she'd come charging in to scrub the memory of his black eye right out of my head.
"Anyway, let's eat early. Soup or something would be good for you."
"Alright. Let's go. Where's Lucy?"
"She went downstairs first to grab a table."
I followed Huey down to the first floor, where Lucy waved at us from a corner table.
"How are you feeling, Ren?"
"No need to worry. I'm fine."
"Truly? I can trust that?"
"Yeah, yeah. Just a little stomach trouble."
Only then did Lucy let out a sigh of relief. I stroked her hair with a wing. After seeing nothing but her usual prickly attitude day after day, this side of her was surprisingly refreshing.
"Whew. That hit the spot."
After finishing a light meal of a single bowl of soup—
"I'm gonna go check out the market. I heard earlier there's still plenty worth seeing in the evening."
"Then I shall accompany you."
"You two have fun. I'm gonna rest a bit and turn in early."
"Alright. Get some good rest."
"See you in the morning, Ren."
I saw the two of them off as they left the inn, then headed back upstairs.
"Ugh, maybe I shouldn't have eaten at all."
I rubbed my lower belly — heavier now than it had been before.
"Haaah."
No one was watching, so I stretched out a leg, grabbed the handle, and pushed the door open. Once inside, I used both wings to catch the latch and lock it.
…Since when had I started caring whether the door was locked?
Well, when your body felt off, you started fretting over little things like that.
"Ugh. Just sleep it off."
I'd feel better after a nap. I surrendered myself to the drowsiness flooding in.
So… it was probably around dawn, I think.
A little too dark for morning, a little too bright for night.
"…Nnh."
Pain hit me without warning. I curled in on myself, clutching my lower belly.
"Ugh… what the hell all of a sudden…"
My body had already been in rough shape. On top of that, the comfortable bed had let me fall into a deep sleep for the first time in ages — maybe that was why.
"Haahk."
The sudden pain radiating from my lower abdomen left me half-adrift, still tangled in the remnants of sleep. I could do nothing but lie on the bed and moan.
"Ah— nngh!"
In that state, the only thing I managed was to follow some instinct I couldn't explain — that I absolutely should not be wearing anything below the waist — and somehow shove my pants and underwear off, tossing them haphazardly onto the bed.
"Hyaah?!"
And then the pain that had been building, without any warning, transformed into a pleasure I'd never experienced and crashed over my entire body.
"Wh-what is thiiis…"
I swear on everything I am — this was a sensation I'd never felt even once in my life. As if something that had been filling my belly since yesterday was trying to force its way out.
"Hwaah… nnh…♡"
Reason screamed that if I let this continue, something irreversible would happen. I clenched down hard on my loosening lower belly, trying to stop whatever was trying to leave my body.
"Ka— hhk!"
But I couldn't keep holding it back forever.
"H-how am I supposed to…"
I spent a moment frantically trying to figure out what to do about this situation — and then my eyes happened to catch the full-length mirror in the corner of the room.
"……Ah?"
For a second, I doubted my own eyes.
There, sprawled face-down on the bed with her legs bare, eyes brimming with tears, panting out heated little moans — was a girl. A thoroughly undignified one.
"That's… a lie, right?"
That was… me?
Hmm, now that you mention it, that is strange… At your stage of development, you ought to be laying eggs about once a fortnight…
"…No way."
Frozen in disbelief, I suddenly heard Carol's voice flash through my mind.
…
Come on.
There's no way…
"Hnn?!"
I shook my head hard, trying to reject the thought that had surfaced — and reality answered with another wave of pain and pleasure, as if telling me to accept it.
"Damn… it…!"
…I knew. I knew that the only way to end this was to push out whatever was sitting inside me.
"I don't want to… I said I don't…!"
I fought it, desperately suppressing a body that kept writhing and trying to expel the foreign thing from my womb.
"Hyaang…?!"
In the end, I couldn't hold out. Something slid free from deep inside me with a smooth, gliding sensation, traveling down through my passage—
Slick.
—and a sticky white fluid ran down between my legs, soaking into the sheets.
"Kh— hnn, hhk!"
Pathetic.
If I could still hold a sword right now, I'd have split this damned belly open myself and dragged the thing out.
"Damn it, damn it, damn it…"
If I'd just become an ordinary human woman and suffered through periods, I could have at least understood that. But not this. I couldn't accept this. Not like this.
"Hnn… hhh…"
Me — the one who'd shattered every arrogant bastard who swaggered around relying on nothing but their racial traits, with nothing but two swords in my hands. Reduced to a form that couldn't even grip a blade… and now I had to lay eggs on top of it, looking like this.
"…Just you wait."
I had no idea who to even blame, but I made a vow. If I ever found the one responsible for turning me into this, I would pay this grudge back in full.
Then I fixed my posture.
"Goddamn it."
If I had to lay them anyway, better to stop wallowing in humiliation and just get it over with.
"Huuu…"
I sat upright, bracing myself with both wings, spread my legs, and bore down on my lower belly.
"Haahk."
First — the one that had started coming down and gotten stuck halfway.
"Hnnn… hyaang?!"
It felt like the egg was bouncing back and forth against some thin, elastic membrane, stimulating me from the inside — and then, with a smooth slide, it slipped free.
Schlick…
Sticky white fluid stretched between my legs, and with a sound like flesh being forced open, a milky-white egg larger than a chicken's settled onto the bedding.
"Haah… haah…"
I forced down the heat flooding my body — the pain fading, pure pleasure taking its place — and bore down again.
"Hyaang…♡"
Maybe because this time I was doing it on purpose. Sweet little moans spilled from my lips on their own, pleasure past anything I could control.
…Knowing that was my own voice made me want to die of self-loathing. But—
"Hnn… nnh!"
These damn eggs came first.
"Huuu… hnn… haahk!"
I glanced at the window, where daylight was beginning to creep in. The second egg came down more gently than the first, sliding through me with relative ease.
Plop.
That made two.
Judging by the sensation, probably one more…
"This is… the last one…"
The moment I pushed to expel the final egg, a wave of pleasure hit me — completely different from anything before. Vast. Overwhelming.
"Ka— hnn…!"
It was as if my mind had been set ablaze and burned white. When I came back to myself, I was still sitting in the same position, upper body arched backward, drooling, convulsing.
"Haah… haah… hiyaang?!"
I could barely breathe. I forced myself to take deep breaths and claw my way back to clarity — and the aftershocks of climax, waiting for exactly that moment, crashed over me again.
Fsssh!
A clear fluid sprayed out of me as if I'd wet myself, and my lower belly kept convulsing without pause.
"Hhk… hahh… I-I'm going insane…"
Pleasure so far beyond imagination it defied description. I'd been gasping so hard my breath itself had started to smell sweet.
…Still. The last egg had to come out.
"Huuu… hnnn… hmpf…!"
Crrrk.
The final egg was a little larger than the first two. It caught at the entrance and started a tug-of-war, half in and half out.
"Kh… come on, just get out already!"
Press.
Pride be damned — I just needed this cursed egg out of me. I lifted one wing and pressed down hard just above my crotch. Without the faintest understanding of how stupid that was.
"Hh… ah?"
To cut to the chase: I saw stars.
Trickle…
"Ah… uwaah… hnn…"
When I came to, I was already mid-stream, pissing myself — and I could see myself drooling, making idiotic little sounds.
"…I'm going to lose it. Seriously."
And so, staring blankly at the three eggs I had laid myself, I clutched my head and spent a long, long time trying to figure out how the hell I was supposed to clean up the disaster on this bed.