Chapter 5 – So desirable
TL: Eevee
Ed: Hungry Panda
The residence of the royal mages, the magician’s tower. There, the office of the youngest royal mage in history-slash-the hero party’s mage was once again experiencing an abnormal day.
“Hehe. Hehehehe. Finally, I finally got it!”
Her age was around seventeen or so. The girl with round glasses and neatly cut purple hair was jumping around excitedly while holding a tightly wound roll of paper in her arms. The girl hurriedly unrolled the paper.
“Ahh… Prince Clarice. Just how on earth do you look so elegant in a wedding dress…”
Shockingly, that was a portrait of the Fifth Prince Clarice. And a very perverted one at that. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but if a picture of a boy in a wedding dress in the arms of an orc making a double peace sign with an ahegao isn’t perverted then what the hell is.(1)
The girl, Senyun heard the rumours from the Citizens that Love Clarice Club, CLC, (Clarice nearly married an orc in the demon king’s castle) and lost sleep for several nights over the rage of missing this limited edition bromide. Having been unable to stand it she trawled through the black market and finally got this bromide on her hands.
If she hadn’t taken the role of buying time for the hero to get to the demon king then she would have been able to see Prince Clarice in a wedding dress with her own eyes. Damn it, what was I thinking back then. Ahh, the real thing would have been more beautiful than this? Huhihihihii….
Knock knock.
The sound of the knocking door brought Senyun out of her happy daydreams. Senyun ignored it and hung the bromide on the wall of her office. Surprisingly, that bromide wasn’t the only copy of its ilk. There were many others, all equally perverted. Not only the bromide, her entire office was filled with Prince Clarice’s figurines, mugs, dolls, signature, all sorts of goods.(2)
Knock knock knock knock.
“I get it! Get in!”
Senyun yelled, annoyed. The door swung open as if it had been waiting for that moment.
“Ho….”
The man that entered could only groan as he came in. The mage captain could never get used to this room no matter how often he saw it. Because just as he was about to get used to it the number of weird things only increased.
“Sorry boss. I’m busy.”
‘Like fuck you are.’
“Senyun. The king is here to see you. Offer your respects.”
The captain moved aside and behind him the king entered, royally stroking his beard, saw the inside of the room and immediately froze.
“Ho….”
The king too, let out a groan. Senyun ignored it and asked the captain.
“Don’t you know that this is around the time that I recharge my Princeium? Get lost.”
“W, wait. Senyun.”
“Ehem. It’s been a while, Senyun. Is it the first time we’ve seen each other since the victory ceremony?”
The king royally coughed and tried to act friendly with her. Senyun ignored it, lit up a fireball in her hand and said to the captain.
“Oi thaid get focked?(3) Do you need me to set your ass on fire to understand?”
“No! His Majesty is here!”
“Khmm! Khmm!! Ehem!!!”
The king very quickly coughed. Haa. With a sorrowful face, Senyun put out the fireball, threw herself into a chair and glared at the king.
“Your Majesty. Why are you here?”
“……Even so, I’m still the king of a nation so isn’t this treatment a bit too much. Senyun.”
“Very funny. The people all know that you cause incidents every other day. You just have to walk along any random street to hear the calls to drag you off your throne and enthrone the hero.”
“Senyun!!”
Please shut that mouth of yours. The captain could only rub his haggard face. Having heard the news of the prince’s kidnapping and immediately chasing after the hero, whatever had happened during her journey, Senyun had hardened. Her original sassiness had only gotten worse as well.
“You try adventuring with a useless hero and an exhibitionist female knight and a perverted priestess to beat up masochistic demon king army soldiers. See if you don’t lose more than a few screws in the process.”
“I know. I’m sorry Senyun. It’s all my fault. So please hear the king out.”
“Ha…. I get it. Sit down.”
Senyun sighed and flicked her eyes over the sofa. Anyone would think that Senyun was the king here.
“Why are you here?”
“Before that I have something to tell you, Senyun.”
From the pockets of the king with a careworn face he brought out a tiny magic tool.
“Isn’t this a recording device? What’s this for? Does it have Prince Clarice’s voice on it or something?”
Senyun smirked and complained. The king nodded.
“It does.”
“Whhaaaaaaat!!?!”
Bang! Senyun slammed the table and bolted up. M, m, my god. The prince’s voice that not even I’d managed to record…
“As a bonus my voice is recorded as well.”
“I don’t need that.”
An immediate answer. For the however manyth time now the king coughed to restore his calm.
“Take a listen.”
The captain, having received the magic device from the king input magic power into it. The device lit up, and voices could be heard from its depths.”
-Clarice. Do you like the hero that much?
-To the extent that you’d marry the hero if you’re a woman?
-……..yes.
-Hm? You do want to marry him?
-M, marriage…., th, the hero is…. An amazing person.
-……I yearn for him.
“………..Your Majesty.”
“What’s the matter, Senyun?”
“Th, this, the fu, no, ha, ……is this real?”
The captain had never seen this pleading side of Senyun before. For the first time since coming here the king smiled brightly and said.
“It’s nothing if not real. Senyun.”
Senyun fainted.
In truth, that was the oft-called ‘devil’s edit.’ The captain had gone over the magic tool that had secretly recorded Clarice and adjusted the circumstances accordingly. However having no way to know of this, just before Senyun fainted, she could only think.
‘Prince Clarice has already had his heart and body tamed by the hero.’
***
“Ha!”
Senyun’s eyes flew open. Haa. Haa. Her breaths heaved as she wiped the sweat off her forehead, and spoke to the captain who was making sure she was alright
“Captain. I. Had a scary dream.”
“Senyun.”
“You know, what that dream was…”
“Senyun that wasn’t a dream.”
“What?”
She finally noticed the king that was leisurely observing the Clarice goods, was horrified, and screamed.
“You crazy little!”
The king laughed ‘ho ho,’ stroked his beard and looked back at Senyun.
“So Senyun’s love for our Clarice is incredible after all.”
It was incredible to the point where Clarice would faint if he ever saw it. Senyun stuck her nose up and puffed out her meagre chest.
“Of, of course! Although my short period of activity means I’m not in the inner circle of the CLC! You can’t discuss appreciation for the prince in the capital without me present!”
“Of course, of course. I’ll admit that as the father.”
“……for some reason that doesn’t exactly feel all that great.”
Senyun sighed, picked up the limited edition Clarice shota figurine and looked at it with longing eyes.
“But that’s all over now as well. To think Prince Clarice would… the hero… to love that bastard…”
“Hm. Why is it all over?”
“Why is it over? That’s…”
The king had a rarely seen serious, solemn expression and said,
“An impossible love? Was your love for Clarice ‘only’ to that extent?”
“What?! ‘Only?!!’ Your Majesty, what do you know!”
The king looked around the surroundings and replied to the enraged Senyun.
“I know very well. Just by looking at this office. Which is why I’m asking whether it only comes to that extent.”
“That, what…”
“As you say I’m an old fool who only causes incidents, but I haven’t lived this old without a reason.”
The captain thought. I think you have lived that old without a reason.
“This is what I think. True love! No matter how your own love can’t be requited, to support and be at the back of the one.”
“Your Majesty…”
Senyun’s eyes that looked on at the king’s passionate speech changed. Looking at the eyes that started firing up with excitement-
The king thought. Ah, this girl. Is really easy to fool.
“Clarice is encountering a difficult love right now. Surely Senyun, you know it as well? The love between two men.”
“That’s right. Prince Clarice is a man, and that bastard hero was a male.”
The captain thought. Somewhere down the line the hero was downgraded to an animal.
“As the father, I want to help my son’s love bear fruit. Help me. I need your strength. I wish for you to make a Potion of Changing Gender.”(4)
“P, Potion of Changing Gender?!”
Senyun gasped, thinking she hadn’t heard right. The king nodded sagely.
“Yes. Using that, I want to turn Clarice to a woman and join the two together. If it’s you Senyun, the granddaughter of the great sage and the one who has been passed down his knowledge, wouldn’t you be able to do it?”
“Of course! Aside from grandfather there’s no mage that can surpass me in this kingdom!”
Senyun confidently puffed out her meagre chest. That was true. By pure magic skill alone, there was no active mage that could beat Senyun. Even the captain.
“But are you sure? Once changed, it can’t be reversed?”
“……I only wish for Clarice’s happiness.”
Although the trap is that he doesn’t necessarily care for Clarice being a woman.
“Will you make it for me?”
The king’s quiet question caused Senyun to clutch her head with a serious expression on her face. She needed time to think. True love. That even managed to move Senyun who thought of the king as nothing but walking trouble. That had little to do with accepting the king’s request.
When she had first left her grandfather’s side and come up to the capital with dreams of being a royal mage, she had fallen to the prey of a fraudster. The one who had saved her then was Prince Clarice. Having secretly snuck out to observe his citizen’s daily lives, even with his shabby disguise there was no hiding his eye-catching beauty.
Having fallen for her prince on a white horse at first sight, the first day on her job as a royal mage she immediately found out that was the Fifth Prince Clarice and felt the ‘pink lit fate.’ That very same fate that was described in the romance novels that she secretly read at night away from her grandfather’s eyes!
It was a love that started with such fate….
‘To think I’d lose to that ridiculous retard of a sea cucumber squirt anemone. Not even to a woman, to a ma, the hero….”
She was so enraged she felt like she would collapse at any moment. Furiously scratching away at her head, she looked at the secretly-taken photo of Prince Clarice from afar.
Yes. She knew it! That she’d acquiesce to the king’s request anyway. Because she loved Prince Clarice! To help fulfil Prince Clarice’s love. But her heart still wasn’t ready…
“Ah that reminds me. I have some comfort gifts for you Senyun.”
“Comfort gifts?”
The king pulled out and unwrapped a gift box, and inside was a fragment of cloth. They were-
“Panties?”
Men’s panties. Senyun scoffed. Are you playing games with me now. Disgusting. Why on earth would… Senyun’s face hardened. From the panties, came a familiar scent.
“These are Clarice’s panties.”
Thud!
“Whhhaaaaaat?!?”
With her reddened face Senyun looked at the panties, looked at the king, looked at the panties and with steam coming out of her nose she carefully took the panties with both hands. It was exactly like the movements of a priestess receiving a holy item.
“If you help me by making the Potion of Gender Change, I’ll give you that. Whether you wear it or smell it is up to you.”
“Ha, ha, haha, you’re funny. Do you take me for a p, pervert or something? I’ll have you know that I love Prince Clarice, but w, w, with this…”
“Ah, by the way, I’ve prepared seven pairs so you can change them every day.”
“Deal.”
They were panties that were just oh-so-desirable.
Author’s Note
King: Think of it as an honourable defeat.
Senyun: Honourable defeat?
King: You couldn’t go out with the prince anyway, but now you can’t date him because of the hero, right? You can take it as an honourable defeat.
Senyun: Sob! Thank you, hero-sensei…!
Translator’s Note: I did think about calling it the Potion of Gender Bender as well, but ˉ\_(ツ)_/ˉ
(1) Orgasm-face. Eyes rolled back, tongue out, drooling, the works. NOT to be confused with ahoge or idiot hair/cowlick. Use the tag function on your nearest friendly H-website for more details. And yes, author actually said ‘ahegao.’
(2) As in, idol goods, e.g. nendroids, dakis, cups, phone cases, etc. with a picture of said idol, 2D or 3D, printed on them, official or not.
(3) (faux) Cutesy shit ways of saying crap, the bane of my existence as a translator…
(4) I tried to name it like Elder Scrolls potion names but… ˉ\_(ツ)_/ˉ