Chapter 2
“Shall we start by introducing ourselves?”
Bellatrix sat down in front of Belver, who was trembling with a kind of embarrassment he'd never felt before.
Her face wasn't wearing the demonic expression Belver had imagined. Instead, it was filled with curiosity and fascination.
She looked so intrigued that Belver, who was shivering at the strange sensation he'd never experienced before, felt a little relieved.
At Bellatrix's offer to talk, Belver perked up and met her eyes.
Then he immediately lowered his gaze.
She had the same appearance he'd seen before going to sleep, and yet her whole air was completely different.
Unlike Belver, who had looked innocent and a little clueless, Bellatrix made his body look incredibly handsome and imposing.
Her innate air of a ruler blended with the protagonist's looks, making him seem like a womanizer.
In other words, he looked like the sort of person Belver would be afraid even to speak to.
For someone as shy as Belver, she was practically a disaster.
“I'm in a good mood right now, so I'll go first. I'm Bellatrix de Salazar, eldest daughter of House Salazar and the second-ranked freshman. And you?”
“I'm Belver….”
Bellatrix had said that because she really was in a good mood, but it sounded different to Belver.
To him, it sounded like she was enjoying herself while thinking about how to tear him apart and kill him.
That was how well he knew her.
Bellatrix would never forgive Belver.
Even if he hadn't done it willingly.
Even so, he gave her a brief answer so as not to offend her.
It was the best answer Belver could manage.
He couldn't tell her anything about being the protagonist or any of that.
Nor could he tell her the secret about the protagonist's origins that only he knew.
“That's it? I'm starting to get annoyed. Can't you give me a more sincere answer?”
“I really don't have anything else to say! I'm an orphan, so I don't have a last name, and my exam score was third from the bottom….”
“I thought so earlier, but you're really a commoner, aren't you? Did I end up in a commoner's body? Me, a noble?”
“Ugh….”
Belver didn't answer Bellatrix.
Aside from the secrets that would get him treated like a lunatic if he mentioned them, what she said was true.
Right now, Belver was doing everything he could not to upset her.
Bellatrix said nothing to the cowering Belver and briefly closed her eyes.
The eldest daughter of a noble house had ended up in the body of a lowly commoner. She must have had all sorts of thoughts running through her mind.
Then she snapped her eyes open and looked straight at Belver.
“I've decided. I rather like this body and the situation, so I'll let you off the hook.”
“Pardon…?”
“It's not as if you did this on purpose, right? Or did you?”
“No! I really don't know anything about it.”
“I thought so. Then, for now, we'll keep the body swap a secret. Commoner, do you think you can live as me?”
“Uh… I'll try?”
Belver couldn't tell whether this was a dream or reality.
He was having such a gentle conversation with the infamous Bellatrix.
He hadn't even considered it a possibility.
For Belver, this was a tremendous stroke of luck.
His body had become Bellatrix's, but at least he was still alive.
Now the question was how he could get a happy ending, but Belver's thoughts hadn't gotten that far yet.
He couldn't know what the future held when he didn't even understand the present.
He was too afraid to ask what she meant exactly.
All he could do was worry about it in his head.
Belver couldn't understand at all why she liked this situation.
A noble young lady had ended up in the body of a lowly commoner.
And not just a different body, but that of the opposite sex.
It wasn't as if she knew she'd ended up in the protagonist's body, which had the greatest talent of all.
“If it were something you could manage just by trying, I wouldn't have asked. Do you even know how much people expect of me? I guess you wouldn't, being a commoner.”
“I do….”
“Then do your best. It's harder than you can imagine. I'll make a special effort to help you. You might switch back at any moment, so you need to keep up appearances.”
“Can I ask you just one thing?”
“What?”
Belver felt emboldened.
He felt sure that he could ask a question now without getting killed.
Her seemingly friendly attitude gave him that confidence.
He'd be sad if he was wrong, though.
“Why do you like it…?”
“You don't like it? You've become me, someone so noble you'll never reach me in your entire life.”
“But Lady Bellatrix, you're a woman. I'm a man…. We're fundamentally different….”
“I like it, though. I'm having so much fun, and it's all so fascinating. I like the face, too, and you're nicely tall. Looking at you like this, I realize how tiny I am.”
He couldn't say for sure why, but Bellatrix clearly liked the change.
She wouldn't be smiling like that if she didn't.
The Bellatrix he knew was definitely not the sort who smiled much.
“You're the weird one, Lady Bellatrix! And stop patting my head!”
“No.”
Belver pushed away the hand on his head and cried out, as if to protest being teased for how much shorter he was now.
That body had definitely been his, yet it felt like he was looking at someone else entirely.
So much could change depending on who was inside.
He only had a moment to find it fascinating.
Bellatrix kept putting her hand on his head no matter how many times he pushed it away, so he couldn't find it fascinating for long.
The strength of Bellatrix's body, that of a mage and noble lady, and Belver's, that of a commoner aspiring to be a knight, were worlds apart.
No matter how hard he pushed, it was like trying to cover the sky with his palm.
Sniffle. No matter how much he tried, it wouldn't stop, and tears gathered in Belver's eyes.
He was so frustrated that his body reacted before his mind could even process it.
He'd been so busy trying to stop her that he didn't realize he was crying until he heard the sniffle coming from himself.
Once he realized it, his mind swiftly processed what was happening.
The tears that had only been welling in his eyes now streamed down his pale cheeks.
And when they reached his mouth, they made him blurt out words that had risen instinctively from deep within him.
“Stop it! I'm going to hate you!”
That was the harshest insult Belver knew.
Normally, he wouldn't even say something like that, but so many things had changed so abruptly in just one week that he couldn't keep himself in check.
After he shouted it, he sobbed so miserably that even Bellatrix was taken aback and couldn't do anything.
“Are you crying? You're really crying…? There, there…? My little commoner…? Hush now…? What am I supposed to do when you suddenly start crying?! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!”
Bellatrix, flustered, tried to comfort him the way she'd once seen someone do, but quickly gave up on the attempt.
It seemed like it would only make things worse.
So she apologized, just to smooth things over.
The situation was so unexpected that she hadn't even thought, What, I have to apologize to a commoner? Her apology was completely sincere.
Besides, it had been her body for twenty years, which made it even harder to treat carelessly.
It was still her exact same appearance, of course, but Belver's distinctive innocent air made it feel as if she'd gained a twin or a friend who looked exactly like her.
When someone like that suddenly burst into tears, utterly heartbroken, and even made the cute threat that he would hate her, how could she not apologize?
Even so, Belver's tears wouldn't stop, so Bellatrix could only wait for him to calm down.
They were bound to stop eventually.
***
Fortunately, Belver's outburst of misery subsided quickly.
Perhaps it was because he was in Bellatrix's sharp-minded body, but he was able to assess the situation remarkably well.
Seeing her floundering right in front of him, he couldn't help but calm down.
It was so unexpected.
“Have you calmed down now?”
Nod. Instead of answering, Belver simply nodded.
Now that he'd calmed down, the problem was that a different emotion was welling up in place of his misery.
It was so intense that he could tell what his face looked like without even looking in a mirror.
His ears had to be bright red, too.
What had possessed him to sob so hard?
Even Belver himself didn't know.
He'd just cried because he was so miserable.
He was sure he'd hardly ever cried before.
“Now, let's talk about this calmly. Can you use magic? Oh, are you training to be a knight? Or a warrior?”
“I was hoping to become a knight, but… I'm talented at magic, too….”
“What? What elements? More importantly, if you're talented at magic, why are you trying to be a knight?”
“I'm talented with weapons, too…. I can use every element….”
As he spoke, Belver fidgeted with his fingers.
It wasn't his body right now, but it felt as if he were bragging about himself.
The more he said, the more embarrassed and smug he felt, and his shoulders even puffed up with pride.
But she had asked. What could he do?
He had to answer honestly.
Come to think of it, this might be for the best for Bellatrix, whose fall to darkness had been triggered by the difference in their birth.
She'd have to start over from the beginning, but she'd already walked this path once, and with a body of such different potential, she would soon reclaim her former place.
“Don't say ridiculous things. Even a lie has to make sense.”
“But it's true….”
“Not a single channel in your body has developed. You expect me to believe you? In this state, it would take you a month just to sense mana.”
“Why don't you try…?”
“This is reality, so don't take it personally. You probably don't know because you can't use magic, but with a body like this, even sensing mana is difficult.”
Bellatrix spoke as gently as she could so she wouldn't make him cry again like before.
Even she, despite being educated from childhood and having her channels strengthened in advance with elixirs, had taken three weeks to sense mana after beginning her magical studies.
Even that had been praised as an incredible talent.
With channels so cracked and barren they looked incapable of growing even a single blade of grass, it might be impossible to sense mana at all.
“Just try once…!”
Despite Bellatrix's fairly gentle explanation, Belver was certain.
He was sure that if Bellatrix's experience and Belver's talent were combined, he could sense mana in less than a day.
If he were a game character, his would be the late-bloomer type: a character with the lowest starting stats who'd invested everything in growth and breaking through his limits.
And Bellatrix, a veteran player who might not be number one but ranked in the top ten, had entered that character.
He had no doubt she'd succeed.
“All right. I'll try exactly once. Don't touch me while I'm concentrating.”
“Okay.”
Unable to resist Belver's insistence, Bellatrix decided to try sensing mana just once.
Though it existed inside the body, there was so little mana that it couldn't be felt without extreme concentration. She had to find it somehow and draw it into the channels.
Recalling memories from when she was very young, she tried to recreate the sensation from back then.
And before long, she suddenly opened her eyes wide.
“How did I do it already…?”
“I told you I could! I told you!”
Bellatrix forgot even to answer Belver as she focused on the sensation she'd just felt.
As soon as she tried to find the mana, the mana inside her body latched onto her as if it had been waiting for her.
Even though she hadn't learned a single mana cultivation technique yet, the amount she had already far exceeded that of an average mage.
Belver was saying something about how amazing his body was, but she couldn't hear a word of it.
In her eyes, he now looked like a lucky charm.
A lucky charm that had instantly healed the pain she'd been suffering.
She'd liked him even before learning about Belver's talent, since he was easy to be around. Now that she knew, she wanted to dote on him even more.
But instead of showing that, she replaced the feeling with some light teasing.
“You know what? You're more ladylike than I am.”
“Wha…?”
“I can't sit as elegantly as you do. And I'm not good at speaking gently, either. You'll make a good mother someday.”
“I'm a man!”
“But you're a woman right now.”
“That's…! Anyway, I'm a man!”
“Mm-hmm. Sure, sure.”
Belver felt like he could die from frustration.
He was certain he was a man, but she was denying it right to his face.
To hear that he was more like a woman from someone who'd lived her whole life as one!
There was no way that tone meant she was taking him seriously.
Frustrated, Belver resolved to find a way back to his original body—or make Bellatrix acknowledge that he was a man.