“AWESOME!”

 

Once again, my eyes were wide open. The reason for it was not because of the scenery, but the girl standing before my eyes. She is just wearing casual clothes, but the impression I had of her was inverted 180 from the usual. Her maid outfit was gone. Instead, she was dressed in a sleeveless turtleneck coated in an outer jacket. Her short jeans accentuate her plump white thighs. The bottom of the turtleneck was short so it showed the girl’s belly button. Opposing her usual dress code, her new outfit is more astonishing, at some point it makes me blush.

 

Yes, she is Jade. My family’s proud virtual AI. Her trademark braided jade-colored hair was now flowing in a ponytail. 

 

“That's cool Jade! You look so different. I almost didn’t recognize you”.

 

“Fufu~ It’s a nice surprise, isn’t it? You also looked different, young miss.”

 

“You’re not surprised though.” I pouted.

 

“No, no, I’m quite shocked. Especially for your hair and eyes.”

 

Right now, I am wearing somewhat simple clothes. A plain long sleeve shirt, short pants with high knee socks, and a pair of sneakers. It was my first time crossdressing. Hence, I picked the simpler choices. Besides, I was extremely reluctant to wear a skirt and other girly stuff.

 

What Jade meant for my hair and my eyes was because I changed its color. Part of my hair was dyed and my black pupils were altered to Jadeite.

 

“Hehe, I matched your color.”

 

“Yes, we matched. We looked like sisters if we stood side by side.” Jade commented.

 

My little surprise worked. I don’t know why, but hearing Jade mentioned we looked like sisters made me grin happily in my heart.  

 

"Did young Miss choose the human race or...?" 

 

"Mystic Race," I answered briefly. I chose this race because out of the nine initial race's flavor text, the mystic race was the most interesting one that I had read. Plus, the weird flavor text isn’t added here.

 

*****

[Mystic Race]

 

An ancient race. Not much information is known about this race except they look the same as normal humans. An ancient grimoire also mentioned the Mystic Race born from mana.

*****

 

"And you Jade?"

 

"The same as Young Miss, mystic race, looks like we matched again."

 

"Hehehe." My grin now broke out. I don't care if Jade matched the race purposely or happened coincidently. I just feel a little fluffy and giddy. I haven't experienced this feeling before. Maybe this was the side effect of the gender change my sister mentioned last time. 

 

Ughh… Will this sort of thing happen regularly from now on? 

 

Seeing my face suddenly darken, Jade called out to me.

 

"Young miss, are you okay?"

 

I ignored Jade's call though. My mind was preoccupied. And my heart was thrown into chaos. It's flipped so easily. On one chance I was enjoying something happily but a minute later an anxious feeling wrapped me up.

 

"Young miss!" She called more intensely this time.

 

Am I going to be okay? I don't want to be a girl, but… turning back will take a long time… 

 

Thoughts like that creeping up my mind again. Fortunately, before my worries got bigger, Jade shook my shoulder and shouted. 

 

"Miss Juna!!!"

 

"Awuh? W-what?!" Surprised, I let out a weird voice.

 

Then, she grabbed my head and pulled it close to her. Our noses almost touched because of how close it was. She stared straight at my eyes. Two translucent green eyes met each other.

 

"Were you thinking about your condition again?"

 

How did she…

 

"How did she know? You're making that sort of face."

 

Am I that easy to read?

 

"Of course I would know. I have been looking for you since you're in Madam's care after all." She proclaimed rather proudly. Madam referring to my mom, mom has been looking for me until I was in grade school. After that, she left my care in My sister and Jade.

 

"When you're worried, you always have that dark expression and your eyebrows knitted over." 

 

I scratched my head. Troubled how to respond at her pointer. 

 

"Geez… Usually, you're exceptionally reliable when dealing with daily life, but as soon as unexpected situations come out, you lose your cool easily. It's rather concerning." 

 

Uguh… 

 

Ashamed. I feel the blood rushing up to my face. What Jade said had been mostly true. 

 

She paused a bit after saying that. Because of it, I noticed a few glances surrounding us. Remembering at present we were in public, talking about personal situations rather freely, my shame boiled further more than before.

 

"Miss Juna." Unfortunately, Jade, who seemingly didn't care about the public gaze, called me soothingly.

 

"Y-yes?"

 

"I don't know if an AI like me saying this will reassure you but… You'll be fine. Look, even when you changed, you still have me, your clumsy maid. I am ready to listen to your rumbling all day."

 

No, Jade, you're not a clumsy maid. You're my dear reliable AI.

 

"And… You know, your sister, although she acts like a prick in front of you, she likes to brag about her reliable sibling in front of her colleagues."

 

Guess, I'll apologize to my sister after smacking her head once for all. 

 

"And your close friends, I bet they don't mind having a new cute friend like you."

 

Awuuhh! No! don't call me cute!!

 

"So," she concluded, "I'm sure you'll overcome this." 

 

"Yeah, thanks, Jade." I smiled at Jade. Informing her that I'm fine now. At that moment, a flash of an idea came to my mind.

 

"Then, as a start, why don't you call me by my name and treat me like I'm your girl friend, Jade?"

 

"Ohh! That's a nice idea! While we are at it, why don't we decide our nickname in this game too?'

 

At some point, a floating holoscreen appeared in my view. It's requesting to fill in what name to use in this game. I hadn't noticed it until Jade said it because of what happened before.

 

"I'm using 'Dii' as my nickname, are you fine with it, Jade?"

 

"Sure!" She agreed energetically.

 

"Well then, Put the name as 'Dii' and enter. Done!" 

 

"As for me… Hmm… do you have any thoughts, Dii?"

 

She sure put my nickname into use quickly. 

 

"Why don't we leave it as 'Jade'. I'm already comfortable with it anyway." I responded.

 

"No! That's a BIG NO! This is a once in 50 years chance for me, so I want to enjoy it to the fullest."

 

Her hand making an X sign. Her face flushed a bit making an expression like a child throwing a tantrum.

 

Umm… Jade, calm down a bit okay? We are in public right now.

 

I don't know when her flip was switched. Jade already started acting as an energetic girl. The previous scene had happened again. Better to put a name fast before she's doing something weirder.

 

“How about ‘Lea' from the word Leaf? It’s simple and it suits your green hair too.” 

 

"Hnng…" she's contemplating for a second, "It's pretty good but… do you have the other names?" 

 

"I have, but it's worse than Lea, how about I put the name for you?" I smirked at her. Putting a mischievous smile on my face. 

 

Sensing me urged her, she said a bit meekly. "Uh, no thanks. I'll just use Lea."

 

"Good." Inside my mind, I sighed.

 

Fiuh... I managed to reel her back.

 

After inputting her nickname, she calmly observed the platform. Her eyes were a bit surprised seeing many gazes at both of us. A hushed murmur could be heard one or two from where we were standing. At last, she noticed the surrounding gaze. 

 

"We were making quite a scene, weren't we?" Whispered jade with one of her hands in her mouth and grinned devilishly.

 

Not answering her obvious question, I silently took Jade’s hand and moved towards the city. A  tinge of red shaded my cheeks because I was not used to being the center of the crowd.

 

___