The Beautiful Girl's Secret (?) Situation
Poverty always hits you right in the bones.
I opened my leather pouch and counted the remaining coins.
“...Where the hell did all my money go?”
After paying back two gold coins—part of what I owed Mina—my wallet was painfully empty.
All that remained was ninety silver coins and a handful of coppers.
“...At this rate, forget preparing to tackle the fourth floor. I’ll barely have enough to keep food in my mouth for a day...”
Well, if I really ended up flat broke, Mina would probably slip me something.
“But my pride probably won’t allow that...”
More than anything, the real problem was Lucia’s gear, with her trailing after me like a lost puppy.
In her hand was that splintered wooden staff.
“By the way.”
“Y-yes?”
“How long are you planning to carry that thing around? Throw it away already, for god’s sake.”
“...My mother bought it for me five years ago...”
“...Then all the more reason to keep it safe at home. It’s a precious item!”
“Ah... is that so?”
“Y-yeah... something that valuable...”
Fortunately, Lucia seemed to accept what I said to some degree.
Thank goodness...
The Gray Market in the third district.
The air reeked of iron and oil from every direction.
This was the holy land for low-rank explorers, cluttered with non-standard secondhand equipment of every shape and size.
It was also where broke adventurers struggled desperately to save every single coin on their gear.
“Miss Nixie, where are we going?”
Lucia asked, lightly grabbing the hem of my clothes.
I glanced at her.
“To buy a weapon. For you.”
“M-my staff? But I don’t have any money... and magic staves like that are expensive...”
“Just follow me. I’ve got a plan.”
I stopped in front of a weapon stall.
All sorts of swords, axes, and dented shields were piled up in heaps.
“Let’s see...”
“U-um, Miss Nixie. It doesn’t look like they have any staves here...”
“This looks good.”
Ignoring her, I picked up a pair of used iron gauntlets shoved into the corner of the stall.
No shine, and the surface is covered in scratches.
But items like this usually had better durability than the flashy ones that only looked good on the surface.
Worn meant it had survived.
And surviving was proof that it was strong.
“Boss, how much for these?”
The bearded merchant grinned, showing his teeth.
“You’ve got a good eye! They’ve seen some use, but the frame is solid. Just sixty silver.”
I slammed the gauntlets down on the counter.
“Fifty silver.”
“Hmm... I’ll need at least fifty-five.”
“Or I can go next door?”
“Aigoo, you’re in such a hurry! Fine, take them!”
Clink—
I paid fifty silver and tossed the gauntlets backward.
Lucia fumbled to catch them against her chest.
“Why... why are you giving these to me?”
She looked completely confused.
I tapped the gauntlets she was awkwardly holding and said.
“They’re your weapon from now on.”
Her face hardened instantly.
“But... I’m a priest...”
“No, you’re not. Starting today, you’re my reliable warrior who’ll be taking hits in front of me.”
“Ughhh...”
A priest who wrapped healing magic around her fists and exploded monsters with them.
It felt more like some monk from a distant foreign land.
Well, I’ve never actually seen one.
Anyway, a wooden staff was a luxury for her.
While I was at it, I also looked at chainmail linked with iron chains.
“...Thirteen gold? That’s too expensive.”
My current balance was about thirty silver.
The equipment I could buy with that...
“Boss, ring this one up too.”
I pointed at a shabby light armor padded with tough leather.
“That’ll be twenty-five silver!”
“Cheap is good.”
Clink—
A quiet meadow on the outskirts of the city.
A refreshing breeze brushed past my hair.
Lucia, wearing the leather armor and heavy iron gauntlets, was glaring at the empty air.
“Hoo...!”
She threw a punch.
“Haaap...!”
Whoosh—!
The sound of cutting wind was quite heavy.
But still.
“It’s full of openings, for real.”
With my arms crossed, I pointed out her stance bit by bit.
“Hey. Don’t extend your fist so rigidly.”
“Y-yes?!”
“If you straighten your elbow all the way, your joints will shatter first when you collide with a monster.”
Lucia jumped in surprise and pulled back her fist.
“I-I’m sorry...!”
“No need to apologize. Just relax your shoulders.”
Her posture was stiffer than a rookie explorer’s.
It was strange.
In real combat, when her eyes rolled back, that same Lucia had flown around like a berserker.
Yet the moment I tried to teach her proper punching, she became completely hopeless.
I sighed and said.
“Should I catch a slime or something and tie it up in front of you?”
At my sigh, Lucia’s ears drooped.
I approached her side and recited the rules I had organized in my head.
“Lucia, listen carefully.”
“Yes, Miss Nixie!”
“From now on, there are exactly three rules you must follow in real combat.”
I held up three fingers.
“First, only punch the ones I mark.”
Lucia swallowed hard and nodded.
“Second, if I shout for you to fall back, you retreat without question.”
“Retreat without question...”
“Third, never, ever wrap healing magic around your fists outside the labyrinth or near civilians.”
Lucia repeated my words with a desperate expression.
“Only punch the marked ones... retreat when called... no heal-fists near civilians...”
“Recite it a hundred times.”
“Uuuu...”
Some time later.
“Only the marked ones! Retreat when called! No heal-fists...!”
Lucia swung her fists while quietly muttering the rules I taught her.
“Looks like the cramming session is mostly done.”
I sat on a rock and opened my leather canteen.
Lukewarm water flowed down my throat.
Whiiiish—!
“...The wind’s unusually strong today.”
Green leaves from the tree next to me started fluttering little by little.
Then suddenly, the words Iris Belforest had left last night came to mind.
What kind of person... are you, exactly?
“...What kind of person, she says.”
I looked down at my slender fingers.
White, delicate skin and thin wrists.
There was no trace of the body that had rolled around the labyrinth floor for fifteen years.
Nix Grave was dead, and only Nixie Oselot remained.
Astaroth's Blessing.
The unidentified power that maintained this body and gave me abnormal strength.
Perhaps the entity known as Gaia’s Guardian Star had seen through the mismatch between my soul and body.
“...My head hurts.”
I shook off the troubling thoughts by taking another swig of water.
And then.
“.........”
A signal was coming.
From my lower abdomen.
Ah, I need to pee.
I stood up from the rock and shouted loudly toward Lucia ahead.
“Lucia! I’m going to take a piss!”
“Y-yes! Take your time!”
Lucia answered energetically and started punching the air again.
“Sigh, I’m gonna end up wetting myself again at this rate...”
I walked away, heading deep into the thick bushes.
“...This should be far enough.”
It was quiet all around.
Only the occasional sound of insects. A perfect blind spot.
Standing in the middle of the bushes, I let out a deep sigh.
“Hoo... I still can’t get used to this.”
Today marked exactly the sixth day since I became a woman.
My combat ability and reaction speed had improved tremendously, but daily life was still hell.
“Especially this bathroom issue.”
I slowly grabbed the hem of my skirt, recalling what had happened so far.
*
The second day after becoming a woman.
Mina’s house bathroom.
“Khup…!!! Khhuhhhhhh!!!!!!”
“Fuck!”
Mina had been leaning against the doorframe, clutching her stomach, laughing until she nearly collapsed.
“Puhaha! Hey, Nix! You gotta spread your legs more! If you sit all hunched like that, it’ll splash all over your clothes!”
“Stop laughing and just teach me properly!!!!”
Even after all that struggle, I lacked the knack and ended up wetting my panties two more times.
And that wasn’t all.
“Kugh…!!! Goddammit…!!!!!”
At night, I even had an accident in my sleep and drew a map on the bed.
“God fucking damn it!!!! Wetting the bed at my age!!!!!”
Only then did I realize.
That a woman’s bladder structure was different from a man’s.
That the very act of holding it was impossible.
“Kk… Aigoo~ Our cute little Miss Nixie drew a labyrinth map all night long~~?”
Mina had teased me mercilessly while washing my sheets.
“Kugh…!!! Kuuuugh…!!!!!”
That day.
My masculine pride was ground to dust and scattered.
Completely.
It wasn’t until the fourth day that I finally learned how to sit and pee stably.
Spluuuur—
“...Is this how you do it?”
But my soul was that of a man to the bone.
“...I don’t like it.”
The fact itself of having to sit to pee.
I couldn’t accept it.
*
So the compromise I found.
“I can just do it standing.”
The method was surprisingly simple.
First, pull down the undergarments and panties to the ankles.
Shhhk—
Then hold the hem of the skirt with both hands and tilt the pelvis and knees slightly forward.
“Hm. Good.”
The old physical aiming correction device was gone now.
But if I understood the theory of how the water flow moved accurately, it wasn’t an impossible feat.
“Hoooooo...”
I relaxed my entire body and slowly began to do my business.
Shaaaa—
“Mm………”
As my lower belly grew lighter, a pleasant sense of release washed over me.
At times like this, there wasn’t much difference between when I was a man and now.
It even gave me the illusion of having returned to being a man for a moment.
That was exactly when it happened.
Rustle—
The bushes right next to me parted with an unpleasant sound.
“Oh.”
A fresh teenage boy’s voice was heard.
“There was someone here.”
I slowly turned my head toward the voice.
There stood a young explorer who looked about eighteen years old.
More than that, his face looked strangely familiar...
Oh, it’s this bastard.
He was the spearman leader of that novice party who had been flailing around surrounded by a pack of direwolves on the first floor last time.
The greenhorn I had given tactical advice to and saved.
Spluuuur—
“You, are you that spear guy from before?”
“Ah, you’re the one from that time......”
The boy stopped talking.
Spluuuur—
“Uh...... uhh......”
“...What? Why are you like that?”
His gaze moved downward.
My face.
My torso.
Between my legs.
And finally fixed on the ‘posture’ and ‘form of release’ I was taking.
.........
“Oh, right.”