This Was My Reality
I stared at the woman chatting awkwardly with Leticia in front of me, my face twisted in disbelief.
“That’s the hero?” Her?
“Technically, the former hero. Hero Leo Starfield. I figured you might have heard the name at least once. Or… not?”
“She might not know. If you asked a newborn baby if they recognized you, they wouldn’t be able to answer either.”
“Well, that’s obviously different.”
I watched the woman with a skeptical expression. This is Leo?
Her gorgeous golden hair cascaded all the way down to her waist, and her crimson eyes sparkled like they held actual jewels. Her delicate nose and lips were more than enough to steal anyone’s gaze. She was that beautiful.
It might be rude to say about a living person, but her face was so perfectly sculpted it wouldn’t have been strange to call her a doll meticulously crafted by a master artisan. Those long lashes casting a slight shadow over her red eyes gave her such a dreamy look that imagining Leo’s soul inside her felt incredibly surreal.
…Not that it’s important, but her chest is pretty big too.
Was it some kind of universal rule that turning into a woman made your breasts grow along with your beauty? Then again, since his original face had been handsome, it wasn’t that surprising.
Looking closer, there were suspiciously many similarities to Leo. That signature brilliant, almost fiery golden hair was his pride and symbol, so it stood out even more. Plenty of imperial citizens had blond hair, but none possessed that vivid, radiant shade like Leo’s.
Even so, it was hard to believe. My two best friends had both changed genders and were reuniting like this—what kind of absurd nonsense was this? Back when we were guys, we had joked about what it would be like if the two of us turned into women, but I never imagined it would actually happen. Life really was unpredictable.
I hadn’t wanted a reunion like this in the first place. That’s why I denied it. Who would believe a rumor that the hero had turned from a man into a woman? Of course, Leo’s old dream of becoming a big-breasted beautiful girl if he ever became a woman seemed to have come true.
I rubbed my eyes once with a sour expression and let out a dry laugh. Then I asked Leticia,
“…As far as I know, Leo Starfield was a man. Did the hero have a younger sister or something?”
“That’s what I just told you. He was cursed. This idiot went into an ancient dungeon left behind by the demon race all by himself and touched what appeared to be an ancient artifact left by them. That was the beginning.”
At Leticia’s sharp glare, the woman I presumed to be Leo awkwardly looked away. Leticia simply sighed.
“He claims he didn’t touch it because he wanted to, but it’s still mostly his own fault.”
Leticia added that the curse he happened to trigger was ridiculous—it preserved all his power but only changed his gender. The complex nature of the curse left even her feeling troubled. When I looked at her with a face demanding the truth, the woman who I guessed was Leo shrugged her shoulders.
“I may look like this, but I really am Leo Starfield.”
“……Really?”
“Why would I lie? Just revealing that the hero turned into a woman in front of a demon race member is already a huge deal. Can’t you trust me a little?”
“Leo, don’t be so pushy.”
Leticia coldly cut in at Leo, who was grumbling irritably. Leo glanced at Leticia’s fierce gaze that warned her to stay in line, then raised one eyebrow in mild surprise.
“Never thought I’d see the day you’d defend a demon. The world really has changed. Is she that special of a demon or something?”
“…She is special. She’s the demon who holds the hope of breaking your curse, so don’t hate her too much either.”
“Looking at your attitude, it seems there’s another reason. But if that’s the case, then I have no reason to like her either. After all, the demon race bears some responsibility for why I ended up like this.”
Leo spoke in a low voice with a menacing expression. This time even Leticia had nothing to say and closed her mouth.
Yeah. That rude attitude, the occasional dirty jokes, and that light yet heavy way of speaking—it was definitely Leo. It looked like he really had been hit with a gender-swapping curse. On top of that, he’d touched a suspicious ancient artifact, and a demon had been involved. Seriously, what terrible luck.
Among the demons I knew, there was only one who would leave behind a curse like that on the hero.
‘Was it the Demon King?’
But why would the Demon King need to turn the hero into a woman? If he wanted to kill him, he would have just killed him. He wouldn’t have gone through the hassle of turning him into a woman. Unless the Demon King had some weird fetish for turning men into women, it didn’t make sense.
The more I thought about it, the more tangled everything felt. I furrowed one eyebrow. If the Demon King had planned all of this from the start, he wouldn’t have just turned the hero into a woman—he would have sealed away his power as well. But even though Leo had become a woman, it didn’t look like her power had been restricted at all.
Just looking at the mana wrapped around her body like an iron wall without a single gap made it impossible to think that she had grown weaker. I had been quietly leaning against the wall, observing the whole situation, when I snorted at Leo’s behavior.
“So that’s the main point. You’re saying you can’t break the curse without my help. And judging by your attitude, you don’t seem interested in going back.”
“…Are you seriously picking a fight? You’ve got no manners at all.”
“I’d call that mutual. Or maybe species self-loathing. You’re the one with no manners, but I’m not sure if you realize it.”
“Oh wow, you’ve got a real talent for twisting ‘let’s fight’ into something roundabout.”
Her foul personality hadn’t changed at all from before. Crude and rude, yet still the hero who faithfully carried out her missions, a solid sword and shield who always looked ahead. That was the Leo Starfield I remembered.
That’s why I’d provoked her a little, both to confirm she really was Leo and to test her. I hadn’t expected her to fall for it so easily. Thanks to that, I could be certain she really was Leo.
The divinity that surged up like a volcanic eruption proved that the title of “swordsman blessed by the gods” wasn’t an exaggeration. The brilliant holy power filling the space in front of me was so intense it felt like it would blind me. So this was what demons felt when facing Leo? I learned something I didn’t want to know.
The moment Leo placed her hand on her waist, furrowed her brow deeply, and tried to draw her holy sword—
"Don't fight in my room. It's full of important research materials—are you really trying to burn everything down?"
—Leticia stopped her.
“I told you to fix that short temper. You still haven’t fixed it even after getting married… Isn’t Chloe the one who suffers the most because of you?”
At Leticia’s fist that came down with a solid thwack, Leo clutched the top of her head and teared up. At the same time, the mana that had gathered around her scattered and vanished into the air.
It was such a pathetic sight for a hero that I wondered if becoming a woman had changed her personality too. She was getting provoked much more easily than before. Maybe her personality had shifted closer to a woman’s than a man’s? It was hard to put into words.
Looking at her now, it was clear a lot had happened in the meantime. Had life been that difficult after turning into a woman? Her face looked a bit more gaunt too.
“I know your nerves are on edge right now, but keep in mind that this room is filled with crucial research materials for breaking your curse.”
“…I know.”
“Charlotte too.”
“I already told you I don’t pick fights I know I’ll lose. I never intended to fight from the start.”
Maybe because she was half demon now, just seeing the holy power radiating from the holy sword made my body tingle. It felt like purification. It wouldn’t have bothered me before, but now the holy power felt repulsive. Enduring it was pure torture.
When I casually waved my hand, Leticia smiled as if she had no choice. In contrast, Leo glared at me with the face of a third-rate villain muttering “Just you wait,” before turning her gaze away. The difference was striking.
That’s why the words slipped out before I could stop them.
“That’s the hero?”
“Keep those thoughts inside your head!”
“If you hadn’t picked a fight, those words wouldn’t have come out of my mouth either.”
“As if that’s easy…”
The situation felt like déjà vu. Leo seemed startled by her own words and shut her mouth. I did the same.
Leo stared at me like she had seen something she shouldn’t have.
“You… Never mind. Forget it.”
Leo, who had been about to say something while looking at me, glanced at Leticia beside her and closed her mouth again. The sudden awkwardness between us made Leticia tilt her head in confusion.
“What’s wrong?”
“…Nothing.”
Leo looked at me with a slightly uncomfortable expression, narrowed her eyes, then hesitated to speak. Had she overlapped me with Damian Radius? Or was it something else? Since Leo wasn’t saying anything, I had no way of knowing.
That was when a selection window appeared before my eyes.
[Choose one of the options and say it.]
1. Why did you stop talking? Go on, say it.
2. How about showing me now? Exactly what the curse is. And that suspicious ancient artifact the hero touched too.
3. Enough with the pointless chatter. Let's get straight to business.
It had to be option two.
“How about showing me now? Exactly what the curse is. And that suspicious ancient artifact the hero touched too.”
“Ah, back to the main topic.”
Leticia wiped the intrigued look off her face and continued with a serious expression.
“We’ve identified the curse the demon cast. It was the curse placed by Lisatra of ‘Lust,’ whom we subjugated before. As for the artifact in question… it was destroyed the moment Leo touched it, so we have no way of tracking its whereabouts.”
That’s why we need your help. If it’s a devil or a demon, they might be able to resolve this situation.
Leticia said. In other words, she was willing to use any means necessary to return to normal.
I listened quietly to Leticia’s continued explanation, stroked my chin, and casually tossed out,
“If there’s no discomfort, wouldn’t it be fine to just live as a woman like this?”
Her behavior already screamed female, so there was no need to break the curse and return to being a man. Living as a woman was one option.