With my tush still stuck up above my head, my sister and I locked eyes. The guards were also staring at me. It felt like minutes have passed by the time I finally snapped out of it and got myself together. I stood up, picked up my torn underwear, and fastened it to my crotch with great difficulty as my hands were trembling. I think my entire body flushed red as I felt hot all over with embarrassment. I smoothed down my sack-dress and sat down on the chair by the desk as if nothing happened.

Inside I felt Yuri desperately trying to force down his laughter that seemed to bubble up from deep within him. AAARGH!!! I can’t believe this guy! This is all his fault! If we weren’t sharing a body right now I would murder him dead!

Yuri’s glee got stronger. It seems like he can feel my emotions and intentions too. The bastard wasn’t even feeling sorry, he wanted to laugh even harder! Shit!

I quickly bowed my head to hide the twitching of my mouth, but I couldn’t stop a naughty ‘Pfft!’ from escaping. Dammit, you idiot shut up! SHUT UP! SETTLE DOWN! What the hell are you laughing about, can’t you see that they are here to decide our fate?!

…Wow. He fell quiet really fast at that. I should have brought this up in the first place. Yet another exasperated sigh left my lips.

“…ner? Prisoner, are you listening?” ‒ seems like while I was doing my darndest to supress that fool, my sister, Thea was talking to me. I blinked as I looked up at her.

“Sorry, Thea. What did you say?” ‒ I asked her. She stared at me with anger and indignation. Thea walked over to where I was sitting and swung her hand to slap me. Out of reflex, I blocked her strike by catching her wrist.

“Thea?”

“How insolent! For a lowly prisoner to address a highborn person such as I so casually, is the greatest insult! Let go, cur!” ‒ Thea glared at me angrily. What was she saying? She is acting like we didn’t know each other our entire lives. Unless… Oh…

“Executed or exiled?” ‒ I asked as I released her from my grip. “Which is it?”

She rubbed her hand vigorously as if she was worried she would catch whatever crazy cooties I had unless she scratched her skin off. My relationship with Thea ‒ or rather with my entire family wasn’t very good, but she was never this hostile towards me before. She mostly just ignored me. But then again, I never killed a prince of another country on my wedding day before, so I guess her enmity is understandable. And then there is also the fact, that my possessed self must have looked like I went nuts over wedding jitters to her and everyone in the reception hall. Yay. Her impression of me must be so low, it might be underground already.

“Silence! You don’t get to speak! Gag her!” ‒ Thea ordered the guards who came with her. One of them pulled out a cloth from a pouch that hung on her waist. She had me bite on the cloth and then she tied it tightly on the back of my head, pulling my hair in the process painfully. This guard, by the way, was someone I used to train together with, Marlah. I often wondered before if she was nice to me only because of my family, but now, I guess she doesn’t have to pretend she likes me anymore. Yuri grumbled at her treatment of me. I don’t think anyone has pulled his hair before.

“Put the shackles on her as well. Behind her back.” ‒ Thea gave further instructions. Marlah twisted my arms behind my back and put the thick, enchanted steel handcuffs on my wrists. Involuntarily, Yuri let out a muffled moan from the hurt. I followed up with a sigh. It’s painfully clear, that this boy was no warrior. I mean, come on. Twisted arms are not that painful. But he was a male, so him being weak and whiny was expected.

Before the handcuffs were put on, Yuri noticed the enchantment patterns on its surface and tried to ask me through the gag what that was. Didn’t he just promise he wouldn’t try to talk with others around? And besides, I had a gag in my mouth, so he couldn’t speak right now anyway. Really, he is so stup‒

“Ghuagh!” ‒ I was punched in the gut. See? They are not happy about that, so stop talking…

“You were ordered to keep quiet, prisoner! I suggest you follow that order.” ‒ Marlah growled at me and puffed a breath in my face. Sprayed some saliva too. I think she had garlic bread again. I know it’s her favorite. I just wish she would brush her ugly, crooked, yellow teeth afterward, so I would be spared from having to smell her garlic-bread-breath.

“Though I really hope you won’t comply…” ‒ she added with a toothy grin, while she put a collar around my neck with a thick chain attached to it. She was holding the other end, and I could tell she couldn’t wait to pull me after her like a dog.

I rolled my eyes and decided to make a show of ignoring her. I thought I would answer Yuri’s question instead to distract myself, while they led me wherever they wanted to take me. But how should I go about it? I couldn’t speak out loud right now… Wait. Earlier Yuri tried to speak, and all that came out was incoherent, muffled nonsense. Like ‘mmm-mmph-mnnn-uufh’, and yet I understood him. If words don’t have to be formed for us to comprehend each other’s meaning, then do they even have to be spoken out loud in the first place? I mean, he could understand my feelings and intentions before… Alright, let’s give this a try.

As we exited my cell and turned left on the long hallway leading outside, I concentrated on Yuri. He, sensing my attention and intent turned towards me in my mind. At least that’s what it felt like. My body also jerked, as if it also wanted to turn along with Yuri, but I remained facing forward.

‒ Yuri. Can you hear me? Can you understand me?

‒ …! ‒ I felt him become tense and curious.

‒ So those cuffs ‒ I pictured them in my mind and imagined sending it to him. I felt Yuri perk up in surprise, and I could tell he was listening in a way ‒ are enchanted.

‒ …Enchanted? ‒ he asked, stunning the both of us.

‒ Yuri… did you just speak my language? ‒ I asked and I felt my bewilderment showing on my face as my eyes widened.

‒ No… at least I don’t think so. More like I repeated the meaning you thought at me. Do you understand me? I’m thinking with meaning, not with language right now.

‒ Y-yeah… somehow. This is amazing. ‒ I smiled at him in my head, and he smiled back the same way. I was also smiling on the outside, and Thea, who happened to gaze in my direction just then, looked at me like I suddenly sprouted three heads. Prisoners in my situation wouldn’t normally smile after all. With half an ear, I heard her mumble ‘freak’, but I pointedly didn’t pay her any mind and turned my attention back to Yuri.

‒ So those markings were enchantments? What do they do? And why are they on the handcuffs? ‒ he bombarded me with questions.

‒ They are there to prevent people like me from escaping. They seal my mana, to make me unable to break free.

‒ Mana? You can use magic?

‒ No. Not in the way you think. I can only circulate it in my body, to strengthen myself. Doing this makes me stronger, faster and my perceptions sharper. It speeds up my cognitivity too. And my healing as well.

‒ That sounds handy. So what, can you like, regrow a finger and mend broken bones and stuff?

‒ No. I heal normally, just faster. For example, a scratch that would take two weeks to heal would be gone in an hour. Broken bones have to be set first, or they might heal wrong, but it will only take about a week to mend instead of months. The skin would grow over the stub of a lost limb faster as well, but the limb itself wouldn’t grow back. I’m not a lizard after all.

‒ If I didn’t know you were from an alternate world, I would think you made a pop-culture reference just now.

‒ Popp-kalchaa… what???

‒ Never mind. Thanks for explaining, even though you have enough troubles as is…

‒ It’s fine. I welcome the distraction.

‒ I see.

‒ Mmmm.

‒ …So that girl, Thea, was it? I think I saw her at your wedding.

‒ She is my sister.

‒ She seems to hate you. The burly one as well.

‒ Well, they do.

‒ …Is that also because of me? ‒ Yuri asked, apologetic again.

‒ Yeah, but you should know, that they didn’t like me even before you came along.

‒ Eh? Really? Why not?

‒ …Because I’m two of a kind. …As you saw. ‒ The accusation in my thoughts was clear, my feelings blatantly hurt, I made sure he sensed it all.

‒ …Right. Sorry about that. Please understand, I had to know what kind of body I was going to live in in the foreseeable future.

‒ Was that supposed to be an apology?! If you are going to look at my cock, buy me a mead first, you pervert! You really have no manners!

‒ I said I was sorry.

“Hmph!” ‒ I humphed out loud, earning strange looks again.

‒ A-anyway, they hated you just because you are a futa?

‒ Futa?

‒ Futanari for short. It’s what you are.

‒ Oh, I like how that sounds. Less of a mouthful than ‘two of a kind’. And yeah. They hate me for it.

‒ Why? It’s none of their business what you pack in your pants.

‒ That’s rich coming from you.

‒ …

“Haaaaa…” ‒ I sighed out loud.

‒ It’s because this country, The Aldoah Queendom, is a nation of proud warrior women. Men are generally looked down upon, as the weaker sex of my race. They are basically kept as decorations and slaves.

‒ For eye candy and labor that nobody wants to do?

‒ Yes.

‒ How does that work?

‒ …The more fortunate of the really beautiful ones are often sold to become consorts for noblewomen. Those less lucky usually end up at one of the nesting stations that they can never leave. My father was someone bred specifically for the use of my royal family.

‒ N-nesting… what’s that?

‒ Facilities where women go to conceive children. Men are made to breed there until their seed dries up. They are drugged to keep them compliant.

‒ …

‒ The uglier ones and up as slaves, doing forced labor such as public sanitation. And that’s the healthy ones. Those men, who are born with or received a disability or sickness are either killed off or end up as experiment subjects for research.

‒ T-that’s awful! What about their rights?

‒ They don’t have any. Men in Aldoah can’t talk to, touch, or look at a woman, not unless she addresses him first. They must keep a meter long distance from women at all times, out of reach. A slave woman’s station will always be higher than a slave man’s.

‒ So women can be slaves too?

‒ Sure, in cases like, if they can’t pay back a debt.

‒ Whoa, I’m so glad I didn’t end up here in my own body!

‒ I’m not. After everything, I kind of want to castrate you, and hang you by your balls; a punishment that’s still considered merciful in light of everything you put me through by the way.

‒ Ugh, sorry…

‒ Whatever.

‒ You must truly hate that I’m in here with you…

‒ I do. But not because you are a male, but because you are in here at all.

‒ Sorry…

‒ Stop apologizing. I said this many times, but it’s incredibly annoying.

‒ Sor-

‒ …

‒ …

‒ …Mmmm…

‒ Anyway, do you see now, why I, who have a penis am hated? I am a princess with a dick. I bring shame to my family just by existing, and yet I am also a woman and royal enough that they couldn’t get rid of me. Even though I am the firstborn, I cannot inherit the throne, and everyone treated me as a freak my entire life. An eyesore and embarrassment, my family didn’t know what to do with but wanted to get rid of. When the offer from the Theocracy for an allegiance came, my mother jumped on the opportunity to have someone take me off of her hands. While they, as a society scoffs at everything they don’t think is normal, their people are more tolerant towards their royalty, who are pretty much deified. Because they are seen as divine, the general consensus is that they are impossible to understand, so their quirks are accepted, no matter how weird they may be. And the prince I was supposed to marry was openly gay, but his family and retainers still wanted him to sire children. My mother knowing this explained to them what I was, and they agreed to her terms immediately. The offspring of an Aldonian amazon would definitely strengthen their bloodline after all.

‒ That’s… I don’t envy you.

‒ I don’t need your pity.

‒ I guess not… And you were okay with marrying that guy?

‒ Sure. I mean he wasn’t my type, and he looked like kind of an idiot, but I too welcomed the opportunity to get out of here.

‒ …And then I came along.

‒ Yes.

‒ I’m s- …haaaaa, I will just shut up now.

‒ That’s a good idea.

We walked in silence for a while. By now, we exited the prison grounds and were heading towards my mother’s quarters. The sun just started to rise on the horizon, its rays not yet strong enough to fully disperse the dark of the night. Torches hung on the walls illuminating the way with their flickering orange flame, painting dancing shadows around us. Some early bird servants scurried by gawking at me while trying their best not to stare. They bowed deeply towards my sister, Thea, wishing her good morning before going on their way. The palm trees gently swayed in the cool dawn breeze in the courtyard, and I could hear crickets chirping and birds greeting the day. I looked up at the rapidly brightening sky, catching sight last of the still visible stars. Suddenly, I felt really tired. I wished I could go back to my room, climb into my nice fluffy bed and sleep for a week. I wished yesterday never happened, and I could go back to being a hated-yet-tolerated futa, rather than be my current self. A crazy-soon-to-be-dead futa, that is. I wonder…

‒ Hey… ‒ Yuri carefully interrupted my thoughts.

‒ What.

‒ Just so you know, I don’t hate that you are a two of a kind.

‒ …

‒ I do find it weird, I mean I lived my entire life without lady parts, and now I feel one moving down there. It is a strange feeling.

‒ …

‒ But I don’t hate you for it.

‒ …

‒ It should go without saying that it’s fine for you to be as you are.

‒ …

‒ I hope we won’t die.

‒ …

‒ You are the first real futa I ever met. It would be a shame if we died before I could get to know you better.

‒ …

‒ ‘Cause, I really want to get to know you, Reha.

This bastard. This stupid, foolish bastard! How dare he say this to me now?! What about my composure that I talked myself into not losing?! Huh?! How dare he?! How dare he? How dare he…

‘Sniffle.’

“Mmmffuuuaaaaaaghh…!” ‒ something wet rolled down my cheeks. Must be rain, or sweat or something. My sister Thea and the guards looked at me weirdly again. Like, what are you looking at?

‒ Eh? Reha? Are you crying?

‒ NO!!!

‒ But…

‒ I’m not crying, you are crying, stupid! Shut up! Just shut up!

And he did.