“Why are you a girl?!”

Through the Quartz Kingdom’s halls, two people’s bickering voices can be heard. 

“What do you mean I’m a girl?! I am a man?!”

“Shut up! You can’t be this cute and be a dude!”

“I still have my manhood so I’m definitely a guy ! What about you, Why do you look like a typical  hentai protagonist?”

“What’d you say to me?! You take that back!”

“It can’t be… You’re going to pin me down on the bed and strip all my clothes… Noooo I’m not ready!!”

“ I’m not going to do any of that!? Thinking about it gives me chills….”

Their screaming banter continued on and even reached past the door to the hallway where the guards stationed became anxious.  

How did it come to this? Let’s go back to the grand hall of chamber before all the screaming started.

 The king is seen waiting for the answer to his plea towards the two heroes. 

The two couldn’t immediately answer and requested to be given more time. The king agreed and provided them hospitality to his castle along rooms to rid of their  mental stress. The question had been delayed until tomorrow under the pretense of having the heroes rest.

They were presented with a large guest room that was decorated extravagantly. It had two double king sized beds along with couches and a table full of confectionaries.

The two heroes aim to ease their tension with the current situation. It was truly something extraordinary that the two have never experienced before.

Guards were stationed outside of their room  to heed their call.

As the sun was setting, Connor and Vinny  were awkwardly staring at each other.

Connor glanced through the polished silver platter by the confectionaries and noticed they were the same clothes he was wearing as before the light engulfed him. Looking at the cute girl in front of him, he realized she was wearing the same set of clothes his friend had on. 

 Being aware of this, he knew she was definitely his friend . Even with the facts, he just couldn’t accept it. His fat friend became a cute little girl.  As this thought circled through his head, he received a massive headache from the possibility.

The same thing was also going through Vinny’s mind. Noticing Connor experiencing some kind of pain, Vinny took the initiative.

“Hey Con, is that really you?”

“Yea… I guess you’re Vin huh?”

After confirming this,they went back silently staring at each other. Connor finally took his first steps towards Vinny, making him nervous. ..

With how Vinny was reacting, Connor got annoyed and smacked his back as hard as he could.

“Aaccck!! *cough* *cough* What was that for?!”

“Don’t go dragging other people to your trouble!”

“Haaa?! Well I’m sorry I panicked and tried to get help!”

“This is all your fault ya know! I shouldn’t even be in this mess to begin with.”

“And who was the one that  kept saying they wanna be isekai’d or tensei’d? Oh, that’s right. You did!”

“Shut up! You know I was being sarcastic about it!”

“Tsk, tsk… Reason, reasons… You got your wish now so you better thank me for it.”

And thus their fight began and continued on until they'd run out of insults with each other.

Unnoticed by them, maids would occasionally pass by their room and would slow down their walking pace. It was obvious they were eavesdropping on the duo’s screaming banter.

Maids in the castle barely have any form of entertainment; any type of gossip to them was a godsend to their boring work. 

Sooner or later, the room became  quiet and the air around the duo calmed down. Connor still couldn’t accept that Vin turned into  a cute girl. It’s most likely something he will never get used to.

As night befalls, Connor was sitting in one of the couches and looked annoyed while staring at Vinny. Vinny, trying to ignore Connor’s glare, was more focused on  checking out his new body.

“Will you please stop? You’re giving me the chills. Also what should we do now?”

“What? I’m just  curious about my body. Isn’t it obvious what we should do? Pretty sure we’ve both read a lot of novels to know where this is going.”

“Don’t be an idiot and base our situation with books we’ve read.”

“ We don’t know anything about this world, and the only thing we can reference are the  stories we’ve read.”

Connor agreeing with Vinny’s suggestion came into deep thought. Both of them didn’t know anything about the world they were in. They never expected the stories they were reading would soon become reality, but that doesn’t matter anymore since what’s happened has happened.

After Vinny was done looking through his new body , he sat across the couch  where Connor was sitting in. Vinny then grabbed one of the biscuits on the small table placed between them.

As Connor  was staring at Vinny eating the biscuit. He thought to himself that although his face was cute, he still had the same sloppy manners his friend had that negated such cuteness.

He couldn’t concentrate on his thoughts because of Vinny’s loud munching. Thus, he gave up and joined Vinny in eating the biscuits on the table.

After some time, Connor tried to compare their circumstances with the situation the characters from the stories they’ve read find themselves in  . He remembered  some who accepted the king’s plea while others blatantly refusing to help.   He recalled stories of kings treating  the heroes as tools used for their selfish goals. Connor, not wanting to consider the worst case scenario, knows he can’t disregard it. The two had been close friends for a long time and could roughly guess what their answer to the king would be. Even if their opinions may differ, one thing is certain for both of them. They could only trust each other.

 

“Con, tell me you’re not gonna say to the king what I think you’re gonna say.”

“Alright, I’m not gonna tell you  what I’m gonna say to the king tomorrow.”

“Con, I’m serious. You know how the stories went.”

“I am serious. Besides, it wouldn’t really matter right? We’re already stuck here. They most likely can’t even send one of us back.”

“Then we…”

“That’s why I’m doing it.”

Vinny stayed silent at Connor’s  response and could only smile wryly. 

Some time passes. Connor, while blankly staring at the wall looking bored, tried to know how Vinny’s feeling about all this. 

“Oh yea, how are you holdin up by the way? I’m sure you already miss your laptop and girls at home.”

“Please don’t remind me… I’ve been internally crying since…”

“I see… Same….”

When the two were transported to this world, the only things they manage to keep were their clothes and whatever their pockets carried. The rest were left behind and both  were immensely attached to their material belongings.

Connor decided to call it a night with Vinny following soon after. Both  fell heavily on their respective beds and went to sleep…. Is what would have happened but Vinny was apparently an insomniac  and had trouble sleeping all night .

 He decided to keep pestering his friend, dragging Connor with him on a sleepless night.

Needless to say, both of them only managed to get a broken wink of sleep worth 2 hours in total.

 

Morning came and the maids had come to wake the two heroes. What met them were demons who barely got a wink of sleep. 

Fast forwarding a bit later, guards escorted the heroes back to the grand hall ; where they met with the   king now sitting on top of his golden  throne.

“Welcome heroes. I trust you had a good rest?”

“Yea…”

Connor being sleep deprived could only reluctantly replied while glaring at Vinny. Vinny was feigning ignorance with a pure innocent smile. The king ignored such matters and proceeded to continue on with the previous subject.

“I see. That’s good. Now, heroes, I am sorry to push the subject forward yet again. I now ask you  to please lend your strength  to humanity against the Crimson Demon Lord.”

 As the king’s request echoed throughout the chamber, the people present awaited both the heroes’ response.

 After a brief moment of silence, Connor, about to step forward to answer the King’s plea, was taken aback by Vinny’s sudden act. Responding to the King’s request, Vinny provided his statement. . 

“ I’m not interested in helping you subjugate the demon lord.”

 Loud ruckus could be heard through the hall as people immediately scowled upon the hero’s answer. The king with unwavering emotions, remained silent as he expected the outcome of at least one of the heroes to reject his plea.

“I see… I  am disappointed to hear  you have rejected our plea, Hero Vinny. And what of you, Hero Connor. What is your answer?”

The halls  quieted down expecting the other hero’s answer. Connor took a deep breath and responded.

“I will lend my strength and fight the demon lord.”

As the hero declared this, the halls ruptured with people celebrating as their pleas for help were answered. The King, upon hearing the hero’s answer, made a small grin.