Chapter 2
When Dokgo Jin lowered his gaze, a full pair of breasts sat there.
They weren’t the bulging male pectorals he’d had just yesterday, but breasts with the graceful curves unique to a woman.
“Why… are these here?”
Dokgo Jin began fondling his breasts with trembling hands.
“No…, fuck….”
Even after confirming the soft feel of his breasts, Dokgo Jin lowered his head further, as if refusing to accept reality, and checked between his legs.
Then he collapsed right where he was.
Instead of the manhood he’d lived with for decades, there was a tightly closed pink vulva between his legs.
“…I became a woman? This Lord did…?”
As he looked down at the floor, a lock of red hair caught his eye.
‘…Did even my hair color change as a result of this physical transformation?’
Dokgo Jin ran a hand through his hair.
It wasn’t the coarse, unruly, unkempt hair of a man.
It was soft, fine hair, like a woman’s.
“…”
Dokgo Jin got to his feet and looked for a bronze mirror.
Only when he stood in front of the mirror in the corner of the room could he fully see what he looked like.
“I… Is this really me…?”
As if unable to believe it, Dokgo Jin ran a hand over his face.
A frail body nearly two heads shorter than his original height.
A soft-looking, fragile body with not a trace of muscle.
Hair as red as autumn leaves, falling all the way to his waist.
“…”
Dokgo Jin’s legs gave out, and he dropped to the floor with a thud.
Just then, a thought flashed through his mind.
‘My inner energy?! If that’s still intact…!’
Dokgo Jin hurriedly sat cross-legged and inspected his dantian, only to be hit with a shock that nearly sent him into qi deviation.
‘H-How can there be this much inner energy?!’
The immense yin energy settled in his dantian was far purer and more powerful than the inner energy he’d accumulated as a man.
‘With inner energy like this, maybe becoming a woman isn’t so bad…?’
He was about to circulate his inner energy and examine his new body again when he was hit with another shock that nearly sent him into qi deviation.
‘…All the Eight Extraordinary Meridians are blocked?’
It was an unbelievable situation.
To use inner energy, a martial artist had to perform a Minor Circulation, stimulating the meridians other than the Conception and Governor Vessels with inner energy, or a Major Circulation, which circulated inner energy through all of them, including those two.
But if the meridians were blocked to begin with, circulating inner energy was impossible.
“…”
When Dokgo Jin opened his eyes, all that remained was a profound sense of despair.
“Heh… Heh heh… Hahaha….”
A hollow laugh escaped him, and Dokgo Jin began laughing like a madman.
“Fuck… Heh heh… Even after a physical transformation… all my meridians are blocked… so I can’t use martial arts…?”
Dokgo Jin clenched both hands and began to tremble.
“FUUUUUUUCK!!!!!!”
*
Though he’d been plunged into shock and despair for a moment, Dokgo Jin quickly pulled himself together.
‘First…, let’s think this through. I’m Dokgo Jin. I won’t let something like this get me down.’
The first thing Dokgo Jin did was check just how useless his body had become.
“Shit…!”
His beloved weapon.
The enormous executioner’s blade, the Beheader, originally made to chop off horses’ heads, was obviously too heavy for him to lift.
It weighed seventy geun (42 kg), so he’d expected that his frail body wouldn’t be able to lift it. Still, he felt a lingering attachment and tried to raise it several times.
“Ngh…!!!”
But the Beheader didn’t budge an inch.
“Hah… Hah… What a useless body this is….”
After staring at the Beheader, which wouldn’t move no matter how much he sweated, Dokgo Jin finally sank to the floor.
“Damn it….”
Even without a weapon, he was the Mad Demon. He was Dokgo Jin.
But it kept bothering him that he’d have to leave behind the weapon he’d used for ten years in some nameless inn like this.
‘…I’m sorry.’
After fondly stroking the worn hilt once, Dokgo Jin took a deep breath and shouted.
“…Waiter! Waiter!!”
“Yes! Coming!!”
Creak.
The moment the waiter opened the door and came in, he was startled and covered his eyes.
It was only natural. A naked woman was sitting on the floor with her legs spread.
“Well…, um…. My lady, if you’re going to be undressed, you should’ve told me…”
“Shut up. Bring me some cold water.”
“…Yes.”
“And you. Hey, you little shit! Open your eyes! How are you supposed to see anything if you keep them shut?!”
“Yes! …Then, if you’ll excuse me.”
The waiter demurely lowered both hands between his legs, then stole glances at Dokgo Jin.
Dokgo Jin, the person in question, paid no attention to his gaze and raised a hand to point at the floor.
There lay the impurities that had poured out of Dokgo Jin’s body during his physical transformation.
“Can you see these? These dark, filthy things.”
“…Yes.”
The waiter kept blushing as he glanced between the filth on the floor and Dokgo Jin, and Dokgo Jin grew more and more irritated.
“Clean all this up. And you.”
“Y-Yes!”
“If your eyes keep darting around like that, I’ll rip them out. You’re not some beggar from the Beggars’ Sect.”
“…Yes.”
“Oh, and I’m all sweaty and uncomfortable, so prepare some bathwater too.”
“Understood.”
The waiter lowered his head and cautiously glanced at Dokgo Jin.
“…But, what about payment…?”
“Payment? What the hell are you talking about? I paid everything yesterday.”
“Ah…, are you her companion?”
“What companion, you little shit? It’s me!”
“…”
He’d raised his voice, but only then did Dokgo Jin understand his situation.
‘…What should I say?’
“I’m…”
“The young lady…?”
The waiter tilted his head.
“Sigh…. I’m that man’s daughter. My fath…er has gone out for a morning stroll, so hurry up and prepare some bathwater.”
“…Yes.”
Creak.
The waiter left the room and went down the stairs, his mouth hanging open in a daze.
Once he reached the bottom of the stairs, the innkeeper looked at him with concern.
“…That guest from yesterday’s room, right?”
“…Yes. But something strange happened…”
“You fool! What have you done this time?!”
“It… it’s not that.”
“Then what is it, you little fool?!”
“Y-You know that scary guest from yesterday?”
“Did he say something? Or go on another rampage?”
The waiter shook his head.
“…He has an incredibly beautiful daughter.”
“With that face?”
“Yes.”
“…Was she pretty?”
“Very. I thought a fairy had descended from heaven. Her hair was bright red, too… Could she be a demon? And she talks like an old man…”
The innkeeper smacked him upside the head.
“Nonsense, you fool. What demon?”
“…But it’s true…”
“So… what did the young lady want?”
“It looks like she fell into a cesspit or something. She asked me to clean up the foul-smelling stuff on the floor. Where did she even get that stuff…?”
“I don’t know what that guest did, but she’ll probably be taking a bath, then.”
“Yes. She asked me to prepare bathwater and women’s clothes.”
“All right. I’ll heat the bathwater. You go wake Sua.”
“…Yes.”
As the innkeeper turned and headed for the bathhouse, the waiter called out to him.
“Um… do I have to clean the room too?”
“Who else would do it, you fool? Me?”
“No, sir. Hehe.”
Thinking he’d get to see the beautiful young lady again, the waiter grinned from ear to ear.
“Was she really that pretty? Your mouth’s about to split in two.”
“Hehe. It’s nice to feast my eyes, at least.”
“Oh, give it a rest. Go wake Sua, you fool. Judging by that eccentric guest’s temper, he’ll make a scene if anything goes wrong.”
“Yes.”
After the waiter went off, the innkeeper glanced back toward the room upstairs where Dokgo Jin was staying.
“…When did another guest come in? He said he had no companion…”
Thinking they must have arrived while he was dozing, the innkeeper headed for the bathhouse.
*
As the waiter cleaned up the dirty filth on the floor and kept sneaking glances at Dokgo Jin, he growled.
“Hey, waiter.”
“…Yes, my lady.”
“Do you remember what I said I’d do to your eyes?”
“You said you’d rip them out…”
“For fuck’s sake, do you think I’d feel good if someone looked at me like that?”
“…I’m sorry.”
While the waiter bowed his head and cleaned up the filth scattered across the floor, the room’s door opened.
Creak.
A sleepy-eyed girl who looked about the same age as the waiter came in.
“Hello. The bathwater you requested is ready.”
“All right, let’s go.”
“Oh my…!”
The female waiter, Sua, saw Dokgo Jin and covered her mouth in surprise.
The sleepiness vanished from her drowsy eyes, and her pupils began to waver.
“M-My lady! H-How can a grown woman show her bare skin to a man she doesn’t know?!”
“Huh? What the hell do you mean, ‘grown woman’…?”
“You have to put some clothes on first! Jangil, you perverted bastard!”
“No, I… She just told me to hurry up and clean…”
“Get out!”
As Sua shouted at the top of her lungs, the waiter, Jangil, fled from the room as if running for his life.
Creak, bang!
“…You could’ve taken your time…”
Looking at the door that had been slammed shut, Jangil clicked his tongue regretfully.
“Sigh…. She’s such a beautiful young lady, but her mouth’s filthy. Filthy…”
Jangil sighed as he trudged down the stairs with heavy steps.
Sua watched through the gap in the door until Jangil had gone all the way downstairs, then turned back.
“My lady! You never know what might happen, so you can’t stay like this. You know what kind of man Jangil is!”
“…What are you talking about?”
“What do you mean, what am I talking about? Good grief…. Put some clothes on first.”
“…I’m about to wash anyway. Why bother putting them on just to take them off again?”
“Then are you going downstairs naked?!”
“Why make such a fuss? Stop shrieking. My ears hurt.”
“My lady!! You can’t do that! At least put this on.”
“…”
As Sua kept nagging him and irritation began to creep up on him, Dokgo Jin realized something was off.
‘…Huh?’
Even though he was this irritated, his madness hadn’t come over him even once.
“Hey, waiter.”
“Yes, my lady.”
“Take a look at my eyes. What do you think?”
Dokgo Jin pulled down his eyelids to show the waiter his eyes.
“…They’re beautiful. Like jewels.”
“No, not that. Aren’t they red?”
“…No. They’re shining blue, like jewels.”
“Hmm….”
“Turn around for me. And raise your arms, too.”
“All right.”
Dokgo Jin’s mood improved.
‘Could it be that my madness disappeared when I underwent a physical transformation?’
Dokgo Jin had been born with a fiery temper.
After he mastered the Nine Yang Divine Art, a martial art that wielded extremely yang energy, to the tenth stage, his temper would occasionally flare up and turn into madness.
When Dokgo Jin’s madness took hold, he couldn’t make rational judgments and acted only on instinct, engaging in the most primitive acts of destruction.
The main reason he was called the Mad Demon was that very “madness.”
Now that he thought his madness had disappeared, Dokgo Jin couldn’t help letting out a hollow laugh.
“Ha… Haha.”
“What’s wrong, my lady?”
“No one will recognize me now.”
“…Pardon?”
“It’s nothing. I’m dressed now, so can we go wash?”
“Yes. I’ve prepared a change of clothes in the bathhouse.”
“All right, let’s go.”
“M-My lady! If you take such big steps, everyone will see your bare skin.”
“A true man can’t walk around taking tiny little steps like a coward, can he?”
“A-Ah, honestly…!”
Sua hurried over and grabbed Dokgo Jin’s arm as he headed outside.
“I’ll help you. Let’s go down together.”
“Sigh…. Fine.”
“Hehe, my lady, you have such delicate hands, too.”
“What a creepy thing to say.”
Dokgo Jin stepped onto the stairs, then stopped, and Sua tilted her head.
“Why did you stop, my lady?”
“…Nothing.”
Dokgo Jin suddenly looked up at the ceiling.
After his body changed through physical transformation, the way he saw the world had changed completely.
Even walking felt awkward, and Dokgo Jin furrowed his brow.
‘…Do I have to start over from the beginning?’
The martial arts he’d spent his whole life cultivating had wielded extremely yang energy, but now his dantian was filled only with extremely yin inner energy.
‘I’ll have to regain my extremely yang energy and restore the Nine Yang Divine Art, or learn an extremely yin martial art.’
The problem was that his body was no longer as powerful as it had been when he was the Mad Demon.
What if someone attacked him right now, in this feeble body?
Even if those puny warriors of the Ice Palace came after him now, he’d be captured without being able to do a thing.
As he sank into thought, a foul smell interrupted him.
“…Is this smell coming from me?”
“…Yes, my lady.”
“Ugh, fuck. Let’s hurry up and wash.”
“Yes, yes. Let’s go. And, my lady, please watch your language a little…”
“Hey! Where do you think you’re…”
“…”
Dokgo Jin recoiled, and Sua shrank back.
‘…Let’s think this over calmly while I wash.’
The moment Dokgo Jin stepped onto the stairs again.
“Gah!”
“M-My lady!”
The world turned upside down.
Thud! Crash! Bang!
Only after tumbling down several steps did Dokgo Jin finally come to a stop.
“…My legs got shorter.”
For now, the Mad Demon still had trouble even walking.