I waved to Pauline the moment I saw her, rising up from my chair to ensure she’d see me. She did, too, raising her hand in turn and hurrying on over. As she got closer, however, a frown crossed her face. It wasn’t hard to guess why - she was looking right at Firanna.

“Sorry,” I explained, when she got close enough. “I know I probably should have asked before inviting Firanna, but it sort of just… happened? And I do think she deserves to know what’s happening with me and my stalker, in any case.”

I half expected the demon to appear just to protest the appellation, but once again they disproved my expectations. Perhaps they were busy with something, today?

“Right…” Pauline said, smiling at me. “Your stalker…”

“What’s this about a stalker? I thought we agreed to talk about Bridgette, not… whatever you’re going through.”

“I see no reason why we can’t do both,” I replied. “Though… did the king seriously not tell you? Even though we’re… you know…”

“Know what?” Pauline asked, looking between the two of us with a hint of concern in her eyes.

“Nothing you need to know about,” Firanna replied, before glaring at me. “And if you intend to reveal actual secrets then at least take some basic precautions before saying them in public.” 

Saying so, she pulled out a smooth, round stone. It was painted an icy blue, with a gryphon emblazoned on it. It looked rather fancy - and yet…

“Why is it always stones?” I asked. “Samestones, truthstones - what is this? A privacy stone?”

“A screen stone, actually,” Firanna replied. “And why wouldn’t we use stones? They’re common, sturdy, and easy to enchant.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” I conceded, “and yet I have to wonder - why not gems? Surely the royal family has plenty of those?”

Firanna laughed at that - a sharp and bitter laugh. Then she narrowed her eyes at me. “Tell me - what do you know about imprinted enchantments?”

“Are those the ones where you copy someone’s special ability onto a stone?” I asked. “Because if so, I know little - mostly just that it can be done, really.”

“There’s not really much more to it,” Firanna admitted. “And yet if you’re asking me why we use stones, you’ve obviously failed to put any thought into it.”

“That hardly seems fair,” Pauline protested. “It’s not like she grew up with this stuff.”

I shot Pauline a grateful look, but Firanna merely scoffed and shook her head.

“All the more reason for her to focus on learning. You’ve survived so far by staying to the outskirts, Amy, but a day will come when you’re forced to deal with the nobility, and when it comes I fear you don’t even know enough to realize when someone’s insulting you…”

“Insulting me?” I asked, frowning. “What do you mean?”

“Enchanted items such as these aren’t exactly rare, but they are uncommon,” Firanna said, in lieu of explanation. “Generally speaking, when someone has an actually useful ability, they’re pressured into imprinting as many enchanted items as they possibly can in their lifetimes. It’s a limited commodity, after all - even if someone else is eventually born with a similar ability, it likely won’t work exactly the same way. Where one person may make a screen stone that stills the air, another might make use of illusions to cover up noise, or - like mine - create a mist that obscures vision and muffles voices.”

“That’s interesting,” I admitted, “but I don’t see what it has to do with insults…”

“I’m getting there,” Firanna assured me, rolling her eyes. “The point is that - despite their inherently limited nature - most enchanted items are actually mass produced, and only personalized after the fact. Getting one made custom from the start - using a gemstone, or some such… it’s not something money alone can secure, for the most part. It’s the sort of things kings present each other as gifts upon grand treaties, and the like, not the sort of thing you can simply walk into a shop and buy.”

“But surely the royal family must have some?” I asked her.

“They have plenty,” she replied. “Someone with a screening ability was born in this very country, after all, a mere seventy-ish years ago. And yet I, the illegitimate princess, had to be gifted one by my brother. A pretty one, of course - painted just to suit me - but a mass produced product, all the same.”

“…It was an insult,” I concluded, speaking softly.

“Just so,” Firanna confirmed, with a nod. “And it’s exactly that sort of subtle barb you’ll need to be on the lookout for, if you intend to… Well, you know…”

“Now who’s blurting out secrets?” I asked, unable to resist sticking my tongue out at her.

“You…” She stared at me, flabbergasted. “You really aren’t Amelia, are you?”

“Only figuring that out now?” I quipped, a little annoyed by how hard it was proving to get this particular fact through people’s heads.

“Um… About the screen stone,” Pauline said. “Shouldn’t you activate it?”

“Right…” Firanna murmured, blushing faintly, before placing a hand upon the stone. “This one’s a particularly troublesome model - it requires an active input of mana to function.”

“Is that uncommon?” I asked, even as mist began to seep from the stone.

“It is,” Firanna confirmed, frowning. Or at least I think she was frowning. Her face was lightly obscured, even sitting so close to her. “Most of the time enchantments only even work if they’re passive. There’s no way to direct them, or to turn them on and off, short of putting them in containers that block magic. It’s the main reason why Pauline hasn’t been pressured into making healing items…”

Pauline bobbed her head. “My healing is active - I guess? They told me it’s like a spell, where I have to will the mana to leave me…”

“So… What?” I asked. “You can make a healing stone, but the stone… wouldn’t heal anyone?”

“Pretty much,” she confirmed. “Stones can’t have a will, right? There’s no way for them to trigger an active ability.”

“Then… this ‘mist screen’ or whatever was… what? A passive aura, of some sort?”

“Yes,” Firanna confirmed. “From my understanding, the man was quite willing to create items - he preferred keeping his mana empty, because any time he had enough in his system this would spring up.”

“What about Bridgette’s ability, then?” I asked. “It has a passive element to it, at least.”

“It does,” Firanna confirmed, looking uncomfortable all of a sudden. “But it’s rather useless as enchantments go… For one thing, the stone merely whispers what it hears, so softly that you’d have to keep the stone next to your ear at all times just to hear it. For another, it only goes off at random - entire minutes without a word, and then suddenly you’ll hear someone three doors down talking about how much they like cake. I’m of the opinion that Bridgette’s base ability must be connected to what she wants to hear, at least on some level, or else it’s a miracle that she ever hears anything usable ever.”

“I suppose that’s a good thing, though?” I said. “Since it means she has the freedom to pursue knighthood instead of being forced into making enchanted items all day…”

Was that the fate that awaited me? Being turned into some sort of magical stone making factory, every minute of my day spent enchanting stones?

“It would hardly be all day,” Firanna said, as if reading my thoughts. Though if she was, she was being rather dismissive of my fears so far as I was concerned. “It takes magic to imprint an enchantment - both from you, and from the actual enchanter who needs to imprint your ability. Generally speaking, one can only make a set number of stones a day before they need to rest and recover. At most, I’d say the average enchantment makers work perhaps… four hours, give or take a bit?”

“Well that’s something, at least,” I muttered. “I don’t suppose there’s weekends?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Firanna replied. “But if you’re quite done with questions, I’d like to get down to business.”

“Right!” Pauline said. “I um… I’d still like to hear about you - I mean, about what you’ve been through. You said something about a stalker?”

“I meant the business of getting me together with Bridgette!” Firanna protested.

“After, I promise!” I said. “But if you two are going to be spending time with me, I really think it’s for the best that you know the full story.”

Firanna made a sound of discontent, before making a gesture I couldn’t really interpret properly through the mist. She didn’t say anything else, though, so after a moment I assumed she meant for me to start talking.

“See, I’m not from this world, Firanna. I was brought here against my will, and stuffed into this body - by a demon.”

Pauline gasped.

Firanna did not.

“Do you think my father engaged me to you without mentioning that?” Firanna asked. “He might not win any father of the year rewards, so far as I’m concerned, but he at least cared enough to inform me of your situation.”

“Wait, engaged?” Pauline asked.

“Merely for political reasons,” Firanna said - and I swore I saw her smirking in Pauline’s direction through the mist, though I couldn’t imagine why. “Amy is free to date whoever she wants on the side. Just as I intend to date Bridgette.”

“You say that as if anyone would even want to date me,” I scoffed, shaking my head. “I mean, even putting aside the unpleasant associations with Amelia I bring to people’s minds, there’s still the fact that I’m a former guy - no straight girl is going to want to date me, looking like this, and I doubt there’s many lesbians who would be willing to settle for a man in a woman’s body either…”

“You were… a man?” Pauline asked, blinking.

“Father didn’t mention that,” Firanna confessed, pursing her lips. “Not that it matters much, in the end, I suppose. It’s not like we’re marrying for love, in any case, and you certainly look nice enough.”

“Thanks… I guess…” I muttered, a gloomy feeling settling upon my heart. I’d never really put my lack of romantic prospects into words before, but now that I had it honestly stung to think about.

“I mean… you’re… a girl now, aren’t you?” Pauline asked, sounding almost frantic.

“Well… yes,” I said. “I mean, I look like one, at least - and the average person certainly sees me as one, but…”

“If you want to go back to being a man, there are spells for it,” Firanna said.

“There are?” I asked, blinking. “But I thought… the beastkin?”

“Most people can’t afford spells like that,” Pauline said, softly, sounding almost reluctant. “And even if they can, they might not have connections to find someone who can cast the spell…”

“I suppose that’s true,” Firanna said, sounding thoughtful. “Though I don’t know what that has to do with beastkin.”

“They… to my understanding…”

“They can’t afford spells like that, so they have to change themselves in a different way,” Pauline said. “I… I don’t think it’s right, the way everyone judges them for it…”

“Really?” Firanna asked, before… I think shrugging? It really was hard to tell through the mist. “Well, whatever. The point is I’m sure we can make it happen if you really want. Assuming you can get me together with Bridgette, I’ll personally spearhead the mission to find someone.”

“That’s… I mean… I’d rather not put you out,” I muttered, my heart beating faster in… anticipation? Maybe? But then why did the thought hurt?

“It wouldn’t be any trouble at all,” Firanna promised. “I mean, I suppose it’s mildly detrimental to me, in that I’ll have to at least appear to be in love with a man, but other than that-”

“I mean, if it’s a problem - at all - we really don’t have to do it,” I supplied. “I don’t mind looking like a girl, at all. In fact, looking like a man might even mess me up a little. The demon said that I feel comfortable as a girl because Amelia was a girl, you see, so… I think looking like a guy might actually be… um… Uncomfortable for me?”

“Is that how it works?” Firanna inquired.

“But… if you look like a girl, and you want to keep looking like a girl, then… aren’t you one?” Pauline asked.

“I mean… I look like one, but I’m not really one,” I tried to explain. “Just because I wouldn’t be comfortable looking like a guy doesn’t really mean I’m suddenly a girl…”

“Does that mean you’d go back to being a guy if you could?” Pauline asked. “If it didn’t make you uncomfortable, I mean?”

“Well…” I hesitated. “I guess? I mean… if it was like before, it… I mean, I kind of like this body more to be honest, but it’s not like I minded my old one, and at least if I looked like that again I wouldn’t be lying to people by making them think I’m a woman when I’m not…”

“It would solve your problem with looking like Amelia, too,” Firanna pointed out.

“Yeah, I… I guess…” I admitted. “But it’s a moot point, right? Since I wouldn’t be comfortable in that body, anyway.”

“I suppose,” Firanna confirmed. “But we’re getting off topic in any case.”

“Right…” I murmured. “We were um… talking about… the fact that I’m from another world?”

“Oh, who cares about that,” Firanna grumbled. “I want to talk about Bridgette already!”

“Yeah,” I said, relieved to be moving on at last. “About that… Have you considered perhaps simply confessing your feelings over a romantic dinner?”

~~~

Author's Notes

This was, to be honest, something of a painful chapter. Mostly because Amy is denser than just about anything I can think of, and the whole, "Oh, I feel fine being a girl because Amelia was one" thing is not helping. (Damn demon accidentally gave her some industrial eggshell glue)

Oh well. I'm sure she'll figure it out eventually, right? Preferably before Pauline has an existential meltdown about what this means for her sexuality...

Probably going to work on some Naughty Magic next? So look forward to that if you're a fan of the series! (I finally finished a chapter of My Oni Love, too, which brings Patreon back up to 2 bonus chapters. When I get around to 9, I'll release chapter 7.)

Of course, if you wanna read those chapters a bit early - as well as two advanced chapters of Naughty Magic, and five chapters of My Own Villainess - do please consider joining my patreon, where you can read it all for as little as $1~! Both paid and free members also get access to my discord! (And I've been posting some free chapters of my fanfic, My Next Life as a Heroine - All Routes Lead to Het!? on my Patreon, too, for those interested!) 

PS: I still can't wait until I get to share chapter 32~! Gonna try to release chapters every two days until we get there, but we'll see how that goes.