Morning sunlight was a torment.
"Ugh, ugh... "
Couldn't sleep a wink.
I'd ended up pulling an all-nighter because I couldn't calm down after what happened in the bath.
Me... I touched someone else's dick...!
And it wasn't just touching.
I'd even caressed it.
Sure, it was nominally just washing him, but looking back rationally, it was basically the same as giving him a handjob.
That fact had shocked me to my core.
An overwhelming sense of self-loathing tormented me.
"Arrrgh! You crazy bastard! Crazy bastard!!"
I bounced on the bed, flailing my arms and legs wildly.
The part that made me feel even more self-loathing was that I'd thought it was fun while grabbing and shaking that dick.
To be precise, it was the Princess's twitching reactions that I'd found amusing.
But isn't that basically the same thing?
"Sigh..."
It was about time for my daily duties.
I struggled to drag myself out of bed and got ready to head out.
"Getting ready" just meant changing clothes and tying my hair, though.
Swish, swish.
I slipped on my bra.
Then I stuffed my overflowing breasts back into place.
It was a hand motion that had grown fairly familiar over the past week.
"Ugh."
The fact that I was getting used to it sent chills down my spine.
What if I couldn't return to being a man?
Did I have to live as a woman forever?
I wanted to go back to being a man.
I am a man, damn it.
"...Get it together."
I shook my head vigorously.
My mind had gone foggy for a moment there.
Since my mind was still that of a man, it was rejecting this woman's body.
"Yeah, I just need to undo it. If it's a curse, there's definitely a way to break it."
There was no curse in this world that couldn't be undone.
No, let me correct that.
There is one kind.
If you fail to lift the curse within its time limit, it becomes permanent.
Once it's permanently imprinted on your soul, the curse's effects last forever, no matter what you do.
Not even a saintess's miracle could change that.
"If only I at least knew the validity period for this curse."
I mulled it over as I tied my hair.
"That's it!"
One method sprang to mind.
Curses came in all sorts of varieties.
Among them, a curse like this one was very likely tied to the soul.
If that was the case, I could momentarily amplify the curse's power by elevating my soul.
Then, I could analyze it while its power was boosted.
I might not learn its full nature that way.
But I could at least get a sense of its outline.
"All right! Let's do it!"
I clenched my fists tight.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
"So."
I shared the method I'd come up with to the Princess.
"How exactly do you elevate the soul?"
The Princess, who had been leisurely sipping her tea, showed some interest.
After what happened yesterday, she's awfully relaxed...?
Guess I'm the only one dwelling on it.
Still, since the Princess was acting unfazed, I could talk to her like normal.
If she'd been watching my eyes for any sign of discomfort, I wouldn't have been able to.
Ha!
I laughed inwardly.
The Princess minding my feelings? What a ridiculous thought.
Anyway.
"The thing most closely connected to the soul is human emotion. Curses that imprint on the soul typically use emotional shifts as their trigger. The theory was first established by an ancient undead sorcerer, and it still holds true today..."
I explained the theory in detail.
The Princess rested her chin in her hand and listened.
I had no idea if she actually understood, but hey, she was listening.
"So, in conclusion, elevating your emotions is basically the same as elevating your soul."
"I see."
The Princess leaned back and crossed her legs.
"So how do you plan to elevate the emotions?"
"There's a really easy way."
I puffed out my chest and declared confidently.
"Get mad."
"Mad?"
"Anger is the most energetic and intense emotion there is. It's not just a figure of speech when people say their soul burns with rage—your soul is literally on fire. It's a different concept from the usual kind of 'elevation,' but from the perspective of excitement, they're the same."
So, we'd use anger.
"Princess, make me mad."
I was usually annoyed with the Princess anyway.
She kept teasing me!
It was hard to know how to respond every time she tossed out one of her lewd jokes.
It wasn't outright unpleasant,
but whenever she said something sexually harassing, my face would heat up to an embarrassing degree.
Was it heating up from the embarrassment?
Even so, my fear of the Princess was greater, so up until now, my anger hadn't been able to show its full power.
At the very least, for this moment, I'd set aside my fear of her.
"B-but... no physical stuff."
If she slapped me, I'd be in a bad mood right away, but slaps hurt.
And I hated pain.
"Fine."
The Princess crossed her arms and thought for a moment, then smiled as if she'd had a great idea.
"Sir Withbel is so feminine."
"Pardon?"
"Maybe you were supposed to be born a girl and got the wrong parts by mistake?"
I doubted my ears.
It wasn't technically an insult, but it sure felt like one.
"Maybe being a man was the curse, and this is you with the curse lifted."
"That's not it...!"
"You've got talent. Sir Withbel, you're a real female genius."
"No...!"
I let out a shrill screech.
It made me feel bad hearing it, but I wasn't actually angry.
"Don't joke around—give me something serious that'll actually piss me off."
"I wasn't joking."
The Princess's expression turned a little pouty.
It seemed she really had been serious, in her own way.
"Sorry. You're being serious, Princess, and here I am complaining too much."
"I actually was joking."
"Knew it!"
I scowled and stomped my feet on the floor.
Thud thud.
"How was that?"
I stopped stomping.
"Did you feel the curse amplify even a little?"
In the end, she'd succeeded in making me mad, but I hadn't sensed the curse's power growing at all.
"Not enough. I need all my emotions focused on anger."
"Sounds tough."
"You can do it, Princess."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I mean..."
"Are you saying I have an annoying personality?"
"No, that's not what I meant."
Yes it is.
Annoying personality.
Never serious, always joking.
I swallowed the words.
"It's nice that you're counting on me and all, but this isn't a joke—it's seriously hard. I've never said anything harsh to anyone."
Liar.
"You just thought I was lying, didn't you?"
"N-no, of course not. Ahaha, ahahaha."
"You must be misunderstanding because of the rumors, but I'm not as foul-mouthed as you think, Sir Withbel."
The Princess gently caressed the sword leaning against her side.
"My hands might be a bit rough, though."
A bit?
"But does it have to be anger?"
"It's the easiest method."
"According to what you said, Sir Withbel, the condition is that your mind gets dominated by a single emotion, right?"
"'Dominated' is a bit strong, but... strictly speaking, yes. Your soul reaches maximum elevation—and the curse's power amplifies—only when one emotion takes over."
Assuming it really was a curse on me, that is.
"If that's the case, there's an even easier way."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Why didn't you mention it sooner?"
"I was going by your words, Sir Withbel. You were the one who came up with the idea."
She's got better character than I thought.
Aside from the sexual harassment, the Princess's personality was way better than the rumors made it out to be.
The gossip said she bullied her maids every day and tormented her knights relentlessly.
But from what I'd observed over the past few days, that wasn't the case.
The maids attending her looked tense, sure, but not terrified.
"Then this time, we'll go with your opinion, Princess."
"You will?"
"Yes."
I thumped my chest with my fist.
My breasts jiggled.
"Cool."
The Princess smiled.
I puffed up with pride at being called cool, oblivious to how wicked that smile looked.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
"Eh...?"
In life, there are times when you encounter a situation your mind simply can't process.
Like when I'd turned into a woman, for instance.
I'd wondered if something like that would happen again...
And here it was.
"Princess?"
When I came to, my limbs were restrained.
My arms were pulled above my head, wrists bound with rope.
My legs were folded up over my shoulders like my body was bent in half.
My ankles were roped in place, securing me to the bedposts so I couldn't move.
My hips were naturally lifted, flipping up my robe.
My panties were on full display for the world to see.
"This color doesn't suit you at all, Sir Withbel~"
The Princess critiqued my forsythia-yellow panties.
"Wh-what the hell is this?!"
I thrashed and yelled.
No matter how much I struggled, with my limbs tied down, I couldn't budge an inch.
"The most intense emotion, the one that maximally stimulates basic human instinct."
The Princess undid the buttons on her sleeves.
"Pleasure."
"Untie me...!"
"You said you'd follow my opinion this time."
"Even so, this is too much...!"
"Aren't you a man? Going back on your word?"
I bit my lower lip hard.
I never imagined the words I'd said in pride would come back to bite me like this.
"I told you before, right? That we'd teach each other about the opposite sex."
"That was just a joke, wasn't it?"
"No way. I like jokes, sure, but I don't only joke around."
Please, just say it was a joke!
"We'll use that promise as an excuse to run the experiment."
The Princess placed her hand on the mound of my pussy.
"Hik...!"
Just having someone else's hand there made my buttocks tense up, my body reacting with hyper sensitivity.
"Don't worry too much. I'm a woman, so I know a woman's body inside and out."
"That's what worries me most!!"
"I'll make you feel good in no time."
The Princess tugged my panties aside.
She wedged them between my plump pussy lips.
"Wow, your pussy lips are so thick."
My mind went hazy at her admiration.
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