Chapter 24

A vast black space stretched out in all directions. Before I realized it, I was standing there. I looked around, but there was nothing to see, nothing to hear. Still, I could tell—it wasn’t the real world.

"This is a dream, huh."

"Correct. This is a dream. And also... a place deep within your unconscious."

Suddenly, I heard someone’s voice. I turned toward it and saw a woman standing there. She looked familiar. No—wait.

“…Are you… me?”

The one standing there was me—as a woman. Shoulder-length black hair, soft eyes that drooped slightly. A face I’d gotten used to seeing in the mirror lately.

"That's right. You’re me, and I’m you. More precisely, I’m a part of you that once existed."

"A part of me?"

"How should I put it... I’m your feminine side. The part of you—Aiba Yūya—that always existed."

"My feminine side…? I don’t get it. So, like… multiple personalities?"

"Hmm, not quite. I’ve always been here. It’s just... hard to explain."

"That's kinda vague."

"Well, I’m only starting to grasp it myself. I just woke up recently."

"What do you mean, 'woke up'...?"

"It’s probably because of the first spell Lord Albert used. I think that triggered it. I woke up after that. And now, things are starting to change."

"Change? What do you mean?"

"I mean the relationship between you and me."

"What’s happening to it?"

"Right now, being a woman still feels strange to you, right? But... can you tell that discomfort is slowly fading?"

"Isn’t that just because I’m getting used to it?"

"That’s part of it, sure. But as time passes, being a woman will start to feel more and more natural. To the point that you might forget what it felt like to be a man."

"You're saying..."

"Yeah. Not just your body—your heart will become female too."

"No way..."

"Don’t worry, you won’t lose your memories. You’ll still remember being a man. But deep down, unconsciously... you’ll start thinking of yourself as a woman."

"What happens to my sense of being a man?"

"It won’t disappear. But it might start to fade into the background."

"Fade into the background… Hmm. I kinda get it, but also don’t."

"Let’s see… Oh! I’ve got a good metaphor. The Taijitu—y’know, the yin-yang symbol. It’s split into black and white, right? But it’s not a perfect divide. There’s a little black dot in the white side, and a white dot in the black side. If you think of the white as your masculine side and the black as your feminine side, you started as mostly white with a bit of black. But now it’s reversed—mostly black, with a bit of white."

"Ah… yeah. That makes some sense."

"You seem oddly calm. Not worried?"

"Well… if you’re me, then you should know what I’m thinking."

"I do. More or less."

"Honestly, this job helps a bit, but I still have this deep aversion to working."

"Yeah."

"And to be real… I feel like I’m more lovable as a woman than I ever was as a man. No one loved me when I was a guy—except maybe my parents. I wanna be loved, even if I’m a useless mess. But it’s not like anyone would do. I’d like to be taken care of... not do anything... just be a NEET forever..."

"Wow. Your self-esteem isn’t just in the basement—it’s drilling into the Earth’s mantle. And you do realize how messed up that sounds, right?"

"Nooo! I don’t wanna work anymore! I just wanna be spoiled by Lord Albert and everyone at the mansion! Just pamper me endlessly!"

"Hey, you know… you might’ve forgotten thanks to the whole TS and reincarnation thing, but we were already in our thirties, remember? Gender aside, who wants to see a grown adult throwing tantrums like that?"

"But come on, can’t I just enjoy it? It’s been forever since someone loved me that much."

"This is so painfully awkward—especially since you’re literally me. It hurts."

"That said... I will work to repay Lord Albert. I’m not about to ditch all of this."

"Good. So you haven’t completely lost your sense. That’s a relief. If you’d said you were giving up on Lord Albert, I would’ve had to punch some sense into you."

"Wait, hold on. Aren’t you being kinda harsh? Aren’t you supposed to be the one who totally accepts me and says it’s all okay?"

"I want to say that. But if I did, you’d end up annoying everyone, getting dumped, and spiraling into ruin. So yeah—tough love it is."

"The world is so cruel to me..."

"No, your own brain is cruel to you."

"Well, setting that aside for now—what are you going to do?"

"About what?"

"Getting revenge on them."

"I'm going to kill them."

"That's fine."

"You're okay with that?"

"I told you, didn’t I? You’re me, and I’m you. If you were in pain, then I was in pain too. I’ve got no objections to killing them."

"Then what are you trying to say?"

"I was thinking… if you want, I could lend you my power."

"Yuka—or rather, as an Archdemon, a high-ranking demon—I’ll give you my strength."