I fondled the fluffy thing for a bit. I could feel that it was somewhat triangular in shape.

‘Wait, she asked me if she could…. Is it my ear?!’

My hand instinctively reached for the side of my head—where my ears were supposed to be. However, it only slid across my hair. There was no sign of anything but hair ever being there.

‘Okay, my ear’s replaced with a beast’s ear. So what? It’s not good to panic over this.’

Just as I was calming myself down, kid Ihwa slowly opened her mouth,

“Can I touch your tail next?”

“My what?!”

I touched the space right above my rear, only to find a similarly furry and fluffy protrusion; one that got progressively thinner the more my hand moved away from my body while tracing its length.

I buried my face in my hands and let out a deep sigh. So what if I also had a tail? It wasn’t the end of the wor—

Wait, something was wrong.

My hand was thin, but it wasn’t supposed to be this thin.

“Just wha— ah! My voice!”

It was definitely a few pitches higher than my usual one.

‘Now that I think about it…my body feels a lot lighter…and weaker. I can’t be…right?’

I gulped and prayed to whatever Gods that would hear my prayer right now that what I was thinking wasn’t true.

Then, I placed my right hand on my stomach and slowly traced my finger down to my crotch.

As my finger reached the end of my underbelly, I hesitated to go further. Still, I persisted by convincing myself that I was just being delusional. 

“...”

“...”

“...”

Empty.

I trembled. And now, I could feel that my tail and ears were also trembling.

‘HAHAHAHA! I’m just hallucinating, right?! That must be it! Someone must’ve messed with my sense of touch!’

And to prove my point, I told kid Ihwa to get me a bowl of clear water. 

She nodded and left the tent.

I stayed still and waited without touching anything else. I was under a hallucination, so it was no use touching things and confusing myself even further.

Eventually, kid Ihwa came back with exactly what I requested and placed it near me.

Before I looked into the bowl, I closed my eyes to clear my head.

‘Come on, just open it and confirm that nothing has happened already.’

I opened my eyes and stared into the clear water.

Silvery-white hair, similarly colored and furry ears and tail, a cute face, and a pair of silver eyes that looked just like mine; albeit much softer. That was the appearance of the girl that looked back at me.

I moved my hand over the water. The strange girl in the reflection copied my movement perfectly.

‘N-No! This can’t be me! I have black hair!’

I focused just a bit of Aura on my fingertip and cut a strand of hair, and then brought it before my face. Although it was somewhat dark inside the tent, I could make out the color of the hair—silver…

‘The hallucination must’ve affected my vision too a—’

{How pathetic.}

‘Ah, I must’ve truly gone insane. Now I’m hallucinating Avaron’s voice in my head. There’s no way I would summon that haughty bitch of my own accord.’

Then, I buried my face into the bowl of water to really clear my head.

{Man, I’ve seen you in denial before, but this is just on another level.}

Avaron’s voice had still not ceased by the time I removed my face from the water.

‘Yeah, I must have Mom take me to a psychologist when I get home.’

{Okay, this is getting annoying. I’ll just beam you my memories and get this over with.}

The scenery around me changed. No longer was I inside the makeshift tent. Instead, I was now in the Volcanic cave.

Judging by the pile of ashes on the floor, and the fact that kid Ihwa was still hugging me, I was sure that this was the time just after I’d fainted.

I watched as kid Ihwa take out some kind of potion and pour the content in my mouth. As soon as she did so, I stopped convulsing.

However, something else also happened.

From the top of my head, my black hair was slowly dyed white. Then, a pair of Fox ears popped out from my head. After that, a tail appeared.

Then, my body got slightly smaller and more…feminine.

That was when I was kicked out of the memory. Now, I was back inside the makeshift tent.

‘I-It can’t be…!’

But I knew that I was in denial.

If the voice I heard wasn’t a hallucination, then…

I turned to my right. Leaning against the wall of the tent was a sword too fancy for my liking. Her hilt was decorated with intricate golden patterns, and her blade was made out of a shining silver material. 

Compared to Kirion, she was much sharper and much more beautiful…for a sword, at least.

However, I knew that no matter how sharp she was, or how beautiful she decorated herself, her inside would always be rotten.

‘Avaron, you fucking bitch, why are you here?’

{Did you already forget yourself crying for my help like a whiny little bitch?}

As if Avaron’s words triggered something in my brain, my memories flooded back. I could now vividly recall my desperate pleas for a Sword of some kind. But never could I imagine that it would summon Avaron!

To be honest, Avaron was the perfect sword for that situation, but still…I’d rather not deal with this haughty bitch.

‘Kirion…’

He was gone…for now. As soon as I get a hold of enough blood, I could summon him back again.

{You’re such a bitch. I spent all of my Mana reserve absorbing and reflecting that [Fireball] to save your life, and here you are, thinking about that blood-sucker.}

‘You know why I like Kirion more? It’s because you keep insulting me whenever possible.’

{Oh my, I never knew you were into ‘good boys’ like Kirion. Wait, you’re a girl now, so it might not be too weird for you to like him.}

Hearing Avaron’s sarcastic passive-aggressive words, I couldn’t help but wonder which of my Gifts was really the Demon sealed inside a Sword, and which one was an Angel trapped inside one.

‘I wouldn’t even be surprised if Avaron turns out to be the Lord of Hell.’

{How dare you say that?! I’ll have you know, my Sisters will smite you from the Heavens if you go around and flap your mouth like that!}

‘Yeah, yeah, very scary, Archangel Athenir— oh sorry, I meant Ex-Archangel Avaron! Your true name got changed when your God casted you aside, wasn’t it?’

{This bitch!}

“Ummm…are you okay?”

Hearing kid Ihwa’s voice, I blinked and pinched the bridge of my nose to distance myself from the mental link with Avaron. From kid Ihwa’s perspective, it must’ve been weird glaring at an inanimate sword for several minutes.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Mhm.” She nodded. Then, she hung her head down low. “Sorry…”

“...For what?”

“For turning you into fluffy— I mean a Fox girl...”

“It’s alright.” I sighed.

“T-Truly?”

“Yeah, I’m not mad anymore.”

Just…a bit dejected and defeated.

I’d already known what happened when I viewed Avaron’s memories. It seemed that the potion that kid Ihwa used to save my life had the side effect of…turning me into a Fox-kin girl. And judging by her surprise at the time, it seemed that she was unaware of the side effects.

Still, she saved my life, so it’d be unreasonable to lash out at her.

‘W-Well, that asides, let’s look at the upsides!’

First, with the absence of my manhood, one of my major weaknesses had been removed.

‘Never. I’ll never experience that kind of pain again.’

That was all. It was the only benefit I could think of.

Now, onto the demerits.

Although they weren’t noticeable right now, my breasts would most likely grow in the future. It goes without saying that having two mounds of fat on my chest would mess with my balance quite a bit.

‘Let’s just hope that I’ll continue to be flat in the future…just like my Ihwa. If you’re watching, p-please don’t be offended!’

{Knowing the Mage girl, she’d definitely crawl out of Hell just to kick you in the nuts for saying that.}

‘Good thing I don’t have them anymore.’

After listing out every disadvantage to myself, I came to the conclusion that—

‘Being a woman fucking sucks.’

{As a woman, I agree.}

‘Do Angels even have genders?’

{What do you think we were before we became Angels?}

‘I don’t know, maybe floating particles of arrogance, haughtiness, and bitchiness waiting for their Gods to put them together?’

{Fool, we were Mortals, just like you.}

‘Aren’t you supposed to be the one most sensitive to sarcasm?’

{I’m simply educating that tiny brain of yours.}

‘Whatever.’

Leaning back on the mattress I was sitting on, I told kid Ihwa to go outside. Now left alone inside the tent, I muttered,

“Status.”

‘Status changed all the pronouns related to me to ‘her’...fuck, even this is acknowledging me as a girl.’

But fussing over my gender now wouldn’t do me any good, so I decided to focus on something else instead.

‘My strength got decreased…but my dexterity increased…what even is this?’

It didn’t help that my sword style depended on strength more than speed.

‘Well, I’ll make it work, somehow.’

And then, there were the race-exclusive skills.

'[Iron tail] seems somewhat useful. {NS} probably means 'non-standard,' but the [Garden of Illusion] skill is magic so...no. I'll ignore it for now.' 

After checking out everything else, I saw some sort of flickering notification in the corner of my eyes. I directed my focus to it and soon, the blue window enlarged.

“Do you even have to ask? Of course, I do!”

As soon as I finished my sentence, the blue screens disappeared, and a small red stone the size of a pebble appeared in my hand.

“So, this is the Mana stone…”

It looked…uninteresting. Of course, it was only because I had so many of these things in my past life.

“A stone this small would rapidly lose its power over time, and I don’t have any immediately way to use it so…”

I glanced at Avaron.

{Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!}

I really, really didn’t want to do this.

But…this was the most efficient and pragmatic approach.

Sighing, I picked Avaron up. Feeling how neatly she fit in my palm, I couldn’t help but think about how great it would be if her personality was simply not shit.

Then, I threw the stone into the air and shattered it with Avaron.

[ARC has increased by 0.4]

As the fragments of the stone was absorbed into her blade, Avaron let out a moan,

{Ahhhh~ yessss~ Swo good~ It’s been so long~}

‘Can you…not? I’m a five-year-old, you know?’

{Fuck do I care. You’re thirty-three mentally. Thirty-eight, if you count the weird five-year gap between your death and your rebirth.}

‘Speaking of which…do you know why and how I reincarnated?’

{No. Even if I do, I won’t just tell you for free.}

‘Seems like you’re even more of a pushover that I thought. So much for an Ex-Archangel.’

{H-Hey! You take that back right now! Back in my days, I used to command an army of—}

‘Don’t care.’

Ignoring Avaron, I stabbed her into the ground (near the insects, where she belonged). Then, I inspected the message Status last gave me.

‘Well, do I?’

After all, there might be more rewards if I stayed here. However, there was one thing that kept me from doing so.

‘It must’ve been more than eight hours in the real world already…’

I’d better come back as soon as possible.

Thus, after a heavy sigh, I muttered,

“Yes, send us back.”

Then, the world around me turned back.

.

.

.

.

After what felt like minutes, I was back in the real world. Bare trees, snowy ground, and the sound of flowing water nearby; everything was just as I remembered them to be.

Only,

‘It’s already morning.’

The warm rays of sunlight had already pierced through the forest of leafless trees.

I turned around and looked at the Dungeon entrance; it wasn’t there anymore. Instead, in its place, there was literally nothing. Thus, creating a weird gap in the scenery.

“Noooo!”

I then stared at the source of the squeal. It was, of course, kid Ihwa. She was scratching the ground where the Dungeon was, screaming, ‘I haven’t said goodbye!’ over and over again.

‘...Maybe I shouldn’t tell her that I was the one that ejected us out.’

{Fooling a little girl…you’re really worthy of the Swordsmaster title.}

I buried Avaron in the snow and approached kid Ihwa. Placing a hand on her shoulder, I said,

“Don’t worry too much, I’m sure that they’re safe from the Coldsapes now.”

“R-Really?” She looked at me with hopeful eyes.

“Y-Yeah.”

To be honest, I haven’t got a clue. I never really thought about what would happen to Monsters once their Dungeon was cleared.

‘Well, that doesn’t matter. As long as I can keep her from crying, I’m good.’

As I was still thinking about it, kid Ihwa sneaked up behind me and put her coat over me.

“Ah!”

“It’s cold. You’re only wearing bandages.”

I couldn’t deny that. It was indeed cold, especially for me, who had just turned into a girl. But…kid Ihwa herself was also shuddering.

However much I insisted on returning the coat to her, she firmly refused.

Left with no choice, I thanked her and made my way back to the mansion. However…

“Why are you following me?”

“...You’re still hurt. Unnie can’t leave you alone.”

‘...She’s already considering me a girl.’

Knowing that I couldn’t get rid of her no matter what, I sought for a compromise.

“Take back your coat and I’ll let you follow me.”

“...No.”

“Okay, then don’t follow me.”

“...I will follow you.”

“Fine, follow me, but we must part ways at the creek.”

Kid Ihwa thought about this for a while before nodding. “Okay.”

Since I was injured, it took us almost an hour to reach the creek. 

I took off the coat and handed it back to her.

“Well, it looks like that we must part ways here a—”

“NOVA!”

Hearing the voice that I least wanted to hear right now, I slowly creaked my head around.

There she was, Mom, still donning her sleeping gown, bawling her eyes out as she finally found me. Judging by how red her nose and hands were, she was probably looking for me for quite a while now.

However, something was strange. I looked totally different now; not to mention, my race was also not the same.

Just how did she recognize me…?