Chapter 83 : Bitch! Do you think you’re going to die by my brother’s hand?!

Usher had a dream.

It was a dream where ten muscular men wearing pink dresses were fighting, each grabbing the other’s hair.

You bitch! You started it!

You slut! Die! Die!

Ahhh! My hair got pulled out! What should I do?!

Mooooom!!!

Bitch! Do you think you’re going to die by my brother’s hand?!

The muscular men screamed loudly with high-pitched voices and cried.

One man screamed viciously.

Usher was trying to stop them.

He was in the form of Bersia.

“Y-you guys, please don’t fight…!”

Then, whoosh! The muscular men stopped abruptly and looked at Usher with serious expressions.

Usher froze.

He swallowed dryly.

Disgusting bitch.

Only you’re happy.

We’re dying alone like this.

“Ugh?!”

The background changed.

The hill became a swamp, oozing dark goo, and the muscular men turned into monsters as their flesh melted away.

Startled, Usher ran away without realizing it.

From behind, only horrific shrieks could be heard, and the presence of the men sent chills down Usher’s spine as their footsteps grabbed his ankles. Usher hurriedly tried to run, his eyes welling up.

That was the end.

“Ugh!”

Suddenly, the ground beneath him gave way, and he was sucked into somewhere.

“Wow!”

When he opened his eyes again, he was on the bed, sweating cold all over his body.

Usher gasped for breath.

He then recalled the dream and his face twisted.

“…What is this?”

What kind of dream is this?

Had the aftermath of facing Gester’s cross-dressing come to him?

There was no nightmare worse than this.

Usher chuckled weakly.

He staggered to his feet.

And the moment he stepped into the bathroom to shower…

“…E-eh? Is this a lie?”

On his lower back, the curse of Galay had grown to the size of a pinky nail.

Now it had reached the length where it touched his shoulder blades.

Usher’s eyes wavered.

He recalled that this was a curse that was triggered by something sexual.

That nightmare, in fact, was a wet dream. Had he always had this kind of preference?

‘OFLI, OFLIOF…!’

A desperate anomaly, more confusing than an identity crisis.

Usher was facing the worst morning.

He staggered out of the room.

The first person he faced was Bersia.

“Are you sick? You look pale.”

“No, it’s… I had a nightmare…”

“What kind of nightmare?”

It was a dream where muscular men in cross-dressing chased me, and when I woke up, my… my… part had grown longer.

…He couldn’t possibly say that.

Usher gave a forced smile with an expression full of doubt.

Although the mechanism wasn’t completely clear, it didn’t seem like a huge change.

To be honest, even if Usher combined the little bits he had raised, it still wouldn’t come close to the level Bersia reached when he briefly returned to his original form.

He suddenly found Bersia annoying.

He was glaring with a frustrated look when, before he knew it, he had met Halia, Diego, and Gester in the living room.

“Everyone’s up! It’s a busy day, so it’s good you woke up early! Hmm!”

Halia seemed in a good mood.

Today was the day of his entry into the royal palace.

The competition had ended, and the awards ceremony had concluded.

Along with that, he had received an invitation to the royal palace and was invited as one of the main guests for the banquet with accommodations.

“When we arrive, all the heads of the Big Ten will be there. There will be royalty too, and somewhere among them, there might be the witch you’re looking for.”

“They won’t be openly active.”

“I don’t know. I have doubts. Couldn’t they have used the witch’s power to succeed in the rebellion that day?”

“Artificial witches only appeared less than a year ago. The rebellion happened more than ten years ago. The timing doesn’t match.”

Gester closed his mouth, but his expression didn’t seem convinced.

Lately, there had been some disputes about this opinion.

For Usher, there were still many doubts about the success of the rebellion that day.

The way the sandstorm took the royal palace and brought down the king was strangely smooth.

However, Usher also couldn’t deny the claim that the witch played a role in the rebellion’s success.

It had been ten years. No matter how independent the outlying country of Baern was, if the witch’s hand had reached that far, Baern couldn’t possibly have remained intact.

Wherever the witches’ influence spread, in historical terms, it became a land filled with the energy of paganism within three years.

To think that this was the only exception seemed like too much of a leap.

It was understandable that his thoughts would go in that direction, given there was someone to blame.

“Ugh, sorry.”

Gester apologized. The atmosphere calmed down, and they ate breakfast, which Diego had prepared.

No doubt, his cooking skills were exceptional.

After a hearty meal, they prepared to head to the royal palace.

A welcoming party had come to greet them.

“Are you the mercenaries of the Blue Sword?”

The royal guards had an overbearing attitude.

In other words, they were mercenaries from the Sandstorm Mercenary Corps.

When Usher nodded, they pointed to the carriage with a jerk of their chin.

Their insolence was understandable; after all, the Blue Sword had tarnished the reputation of the Lion’s Guard in this recent competition.

As members, it was impossible not to feel resentful.

The only one who would snap at that would be Halia, but today, as the victor, watching the loser with a sense of triumph, Halia didn’t express any frustration.

“Heh, it’s amusing watching them yap without being able to bark.”

“Lady Halia, you seem so cruel…”

“Cruel? It’s only natural for a victor to enjoy this!”

Is it really right to call this person a saintess?

Usher couldn’t wipe the awkward smile off his face.

Looking back, he had lived a life far from banquets.

Most of Usher’s childhood memories were in the Therbion Mercenary Corps, and thinking about his later life, he had only rolled in the dirt every day as a trainee knight.

However, all of this wasn’t entirely unfamiliar.

“It’s the royal palace. Really…”

Gester murmured softly. Usher silently agreed with his thoughts.

It felt like home.

As a member of the Lion’s Guard, Usher had visited this royal palace many times. Gester had lived here and spent his childhood here.

The distant garden was the place where they had practiced sword fighting.

The annex to the east was a warehouse full of rare treasures.

The library to the west held the history of Baern. It was there that Usher read stories of heroes and nurtured his dreams.

The royal palace was such a place.

A place to recall beautiful memories, a place that made one’s chest tighten with nostalgia.

As he continued to reflect, Usher snapped back to reality.

“The enemy is near. Don’t relax.”

There was a witch somewhere in this palace. From now on, he had to do everything he could to hide his identity and carefully observe everything around him to notice any changes.

On the outside, not much had changed.

Aside from the royal banners, the palace still maintained the grandeur it had kept throughout history.

“Change your clothes. We have prepared something for you.”

This was familiar to Usher’s memory.

For mercenaries, there was no special banquet attire.

Historically, the winner of the competition attended the banquet in formal clothes provided by the palace.

After briefly separating from his party, Usher followed the maids to a room to help him get dressed.

That’s when the trouble began.

“…Why are all these clothes like this?”

“What? Oh, you wouldn’t know, being an outsider. In Baern, the women’s banquet attire usually looks like this!”

Usher’s gaze wavered.

It couldn’t be helped. Even though he was a priest, in surrounding kingdoms, extravagant attire was the norm, so the fact that the banquet dress was so thin was something Usher hadn’t anticipated.

First, it was too light. Was it made of silk? The white dress that exposed the shoulders was translucent, and everything underneath could be seen.

Underneath, there was a dress that only reached from the chest to the hips, a one-piece design.

“Why is there a hole in the stomach…?”

With this kind of dress, even if he wore everything properly, his belly button would inevitably show in front of others.

Usher’s face turned bright red. His eyes welled up.

Now that he thought about it, he remembered that Harlan wore such a dress.

It was an unavoidable outfit.

Usher shivered, tightly closing his eyes.

There was no choice.

‘It’s part of the mission…!’

He had to endure. He made up his mind and spoke.

“I’ll change by myself.”

“You can’t do it alone! You need help with the accessories!”

The cheerful maid reminded him, and for some reason, Usher saw her resemblance to a member of the Order.

Looking back, hadn’t he always been in situations like this since his body changed?

It seemed he had often been the victim of women’s dressing-up games during their prime.

The maids reached out their hands.

Usher’s body stiffened.

“Ugh…”

“We’ll make you look pretty, don’t worry!”

“Ughh!”

Usher began to be dressed up in a chaotic manner.