The Prince on the Brink of Castration, and the Transgender Who Sets Men's Hearts Aflutter (3)
The Shemale Special.
Draw a woman, then insist it's a man.
And the perfect specimen for exactly that was sitting right in front of me.
Face, bone structure — wherever you looked, it was a woman. It was absurd that a man could have hips like that. Even the voice was thin enough that you'd believe it belonged to a slightly husky woman.
"I am called René!"
Having introduced himself, the shemale naturally took the seat across from me. For reference, Lily, who had been sitting opposite me, shifted over to the seat beside me instead.
"So you're saying you're a man?"
"No need for such formality — speak casually if it pleases you."
"So you're saying you're a man?"
"That I am."
Honestly, there was no way I could believe it.
"Mind if I check for myself?"
"Oh my, how bold of you."
I slipped over to his seat and casually slid a hand under his skirt.
Squish.
Soft.
"………"
Unbelievable. This was real?
But even after touching a package slightly smaller than my own, I couldn't deny the fact.
When I returned to my seat, Lily was looking at me with an expression of considerable distress. Probably because I had genuinely just touched that thing, and because I'd come back without saying a single word about it.
"It was there."
"Y-you really didn't have to tell me that...!"
Lily's face flushed red.
Anyway, it felt like I'd touched something filthy. I pulled out a handkerchief and scrubbed furiously at the palm where the sensation still lingered.
René spoke with a cowed look on his face.
"How could you... You were the one who touched it, Lord Owen... Treat it like filth like that, and I'll feel hurt..."
"I'm a man who's harsh on other men. If it bothers you, go become a woman."
I clicked my tongue and tossed aside the handkerchief I'd wiped my hand with.
"So, you've placed a request. I want to become a woman!"
"Oh, right. I saw the request. It's mostly finished, actually."
I'd had plenty of time to make it, but I hadn't yet filled the quantity René had requested — because the steroids Kylian had ordered were selling far too well. Naturally, you sell what's in high demand to make good money. Thanks to that, I was raking in quite a tidy profit, and René's request had naturally been pushed down the priority list.
"But you look plenty feminine already. What exactly makes you need those drugs?"
An appearance you wouldn't believe was a man even if he told you to your face — why on earth?
Truthfully, I hadn't even tried to learn the reason. How could a normal person like me hope to comprehend the mental state of a shemale? I had no way of understanding, and no particular desire to, so I simply hadn't thought about it at all.
"I truly want to become a woman and live a woman's life. Also, I dislike my small chest, and I worry that my body might grow larger."
"Uh, right."
"They say if you knead them, they grow, so I've tried touching them myself. But they haven't grown any beyond where they are now."
"You can stop talking now."
"Understood."
So he wanted bigger breasts. If that was all, then the drugs could handle it well enough. In reality, injecting female hormones into a man does make breasts grow, after all.
"If you want to become a woman, though, what are your plans for... down there?"
"Hmm... In my heart, I would like to cut it off, but this body was granted to me by my parents. It is not mine to do with as I please, is it?"
So he wouldn't cut it off until he got his parents' blessing. Got it.
"Understood. I have things to explain, so come pick it up today. As for additional batches after that — where should I send them?"
"Send them to the Knight Faculty!"
The Knight Faculty? That place overflowing with men thirsting after a woman?
"Very well."
I could see the future. The students of the Knight Faculty, hearts fluttering at René, even more radiantly feminine now that female hormones were flowing through his veins. And then, when they happened to shower together and glimpsed what hung between his legs, the Knight Faculty students would taste defeat even as men.
I had just poisoned the Knight Faculty. Not particularly sorry about it. If those bastards got hot and bothered over a man, that was none of my business.
The next day.
"MAGE!!"
I was having an ordinary chat with Lily and about to head out when an enraged shout rang out from somewhere. Judging by how furious she sounded, the mage that woman was shrieking at must have committed some terrible offense. But I had committed no such terrible offense, so the mage she was calling for couldn't possibly be me.
Or so I thought, as I kept walking.
"You there, mage! Why do you pretend not to hear me?!"
My, my. The mage in question was apparently quite shameless. Or maybe it was just a bastard who'd never known his own fault in the first place.
I'd been sipping on the coffee I'd brought wrapped to go, thinking I might enjoy watching whatever commotion this was, so I turned around. And there was a knight charging straight toward me like a wild boar. None other than Bell, the escort knight of Kylian I'd seen a few days ago.
Right. So the mage Bell had been shrieking for was me.
"What seems to be the problem?"
"You're asking because you don't know? You! Why didn't you explain that the drug has side effects?!"
"I did explain them. To Kylian."
I had explained them, certainly. Only to Kylian, who seemed like he'd be obsessed with building muscle. If I'd told his escort knight, I doubted she would have approved the purchase.
"What...?"
Still, wasn't she a VIP who'd bought the drugs in bulk? Brushing it off with 'I already explained it' would be irresponsible of me.
"In any case, did Kylian develop side effects? Let's check on him, shall we? Would you kindly ask him to come to the clubroom?"
"...Actually, there are no side effects."
"I'm sorry, what?"
After hearing Kylian's explanation in the clubroom, I couldn't make heads or tails of it. That escort knight had clearly said there were side effects. Or had he deliberately hidden them, afraid I'd stop prescribing the drugs if I knew?
As I was turning over such speculation, Kylian added an explanation of his own.
"Bell — that is, my escort knight — appears to have misunderstood something."
Judging by how shame kept him from elaborating, I had a pretty good idea what the misunderstanding was.
...I see. Lacking in masculinity, is he. Enough to make a confession impossible out of sheer embarrassment. I understood, but the situation itself was downright hilarious. I knew I shouldn't laugh, but it was coming out anyway.
Why? A man's pride can be divided into three great categories, can't it? One is pride in his drinking. One is pride in his gaming. And one is pride in what's between his legs.
Even the guys who'd take insults with a heh-heh and a grin normally would go into full convulsions the moment you touched those. That last one especially — its potency was such that it got deployed in racial discrimination and gender wars alike. Truly the most staggering convulsion button men possessed.
And that thing of his was so small that his childhood friend and escort knight Bell had gotten the wrong idea? He'd belatedly tried to explain himself, only to be told it looked exactly the same as it had back when they bathed together as children, so there was no way it could be a side effect?
Frankly, this was funny. There was no way I couldn't laugh.
"Heh heh."
"What, pray tell, is that finger of yours doing?"
Oops. I'd unconsciously made the bad hand. I hastily spread my fingers wide. Terrifying. Was that saying true — that you come to resemble the one you despise? I smacked my own cheek hard for that unconsciously raised finger. I am a man of sound principles who does not condone those who traffic in contempt, after all.
"In any case — Kylian has no intention of stopping the drugs, I take it?"
"Well, no."
Once I learned that fact, Kylian looked different to me. Now that I thought about it, he wasn't madly pumping himself full of drugs for the sake of muscle — since there was no way that particular part of him could get any smaller, he seemed to be taking them to at least build up his body instead. No wonder he hadn't hesitated even after I explained the side effects. So this is what makes people with nothing to lose so frightening.
"You're having an extraordinarily rude thought right now, aren't you?"
"It was rude, which is why I kept it as a thought."
"Uh, ah... I see... Yes, quite right, one really shouldn't attempt to control even another's thoughts..."
Knock knock. A knock sounded, and the door opened.
"Pardon the intrusion!"
It was René, come to have his condition checked and collect a spare supply of the drug.
"Lord Owen! Do look at this. I've only taken the drug a single time, and already my chest has gr—"
The guy was dressed just as girlishly as ever. A loose, slouchy shirt with his shoulders fully bare, and — in stark contrast — a pair of short shorts. René, wearing fashion centuries ahead of his time, was joyfully kneading his own chest when he spotted Kylian and me sitting on the sofa mid-conversation, and immediately stumbled backward out the door.
He peeked his head just barely around the doorframe, watching us warily.
"Oh, I hadn't realized you had a customer ahead of me. Would it be better if I returned in a little while?"
"We're just about finished. Wait about five minutes."
"Understood!"
Thud. René shut the door and vanished.
"I apologize. That's the guest I told you was coming today."
"Ah, is that so."
"Shall we continue where we left off? The promised week's worth of additional doses is right here. The advance payment covered it, so you can just take it with you."
"Much obliged."
Kylian gathered up the box of drugs I'd slid across the table. But for all that he'd collected them, his attention seemed to be somewhere else entirely. His gaze kept drifting toward the firmly closed door, and his body had turned half sideways, showing only his profile.
Don't tell me this guy—
"It seems this guest suffers from an affliction much like mine. Am I right in my guess, mage?"
"Yes, you would be correct."
Strictly speaking, yes. The only difference being that he was worried about his chest being small despite being a 'man'.
"Do you know, mage — falling short, in every sense of the word, wounds a man's pride."
"Does it? I wouldn't know."
"......"
"My apologies. It's simply never been something I've experienced."
Kylian's hands trembled. I hadn't exactly set out to twist the knife, but somehow it had ended up that way.
"It saps your confidence, you see. The very reason I began training in the first place was to overcome my own complex."
I gave noncommittal murmurs of agreement and listened.
"I suspect that guest is much the same. His confidence shrinks, he begins searching for a solution, and he comes to depend on the drugs. Mage — are there no side effects to the drugs that guest is taking?"
Side effects? There were. Truth be told, for a drug to have any effect at all, side effects are an unavoidable necessity — you'd be hard-pressed to find a drug without them anywhere in this world.
Hearing my explanation, Kylian nodded.
"Here is what I think. I wonder what path I would have walked if my brother had never advised me, back then, to try training. I'd probably still be crawling through life, unable to overcome my complex, my self-esteem in the gutter."
Wouldn't it be better to have a good body and ample masculinity downstairs?
I almost said it, then held my tongue. Since I'm the one who has, I couldn't hope to understand the self-consolation of the one who hasn't. If training had filled him with self-esteem, that was a good thing, wasn't it? And so, I refrained from pouring ashes on the fire.
In any case, I had absolutely no idea what point he was trying to make. If he had something he wanted to say, he could just say it outright — this habit of pointlessly circling around a topic was the worst vice of nobles.
"In that spirit, I would like to say this to your guest: even without large breasts, he is already a person brimming with charm. What matters is not size."
"......"
"After all, if your guest stops taking the drugs because of me, that becomes a loss for you. So if it comes to that, don't seduce him down the path of side effects — just tell me. Whatever I've cost you, I'll compensate you for myself."
What a sweet, gallant man. But here's the problem. That guest of ours isn't a woman.
And the drug he's being administered doesn't just enlarge breasts — it's a compound designed to diminish masculinity while enhancing femininity. That's precisely why he takes it.
But I explained none of this to Kylian. I simply left things as they were. It seemed like it would be far more entertaining that way.
"Would you call the guest in for me?"
"Sure."
And I opened the door.
René, who had been leaning against the wall kicking at the floor, asked "All finished?" and stepped into the clubroom.
A faint blush bloomed across Kylian's face.
Kylian... you're gay, aren't you...