"Tch... Dad's got something seriously wrong with his head. This is obviously a wife hunt, so why did he stuff me in here?"
The boy with the short, pale pink hair leaned back against the wall, muttering under his breath.
The castle corridor ran on past where the eye could follow, portraits of the previous Dukes hung one after another along the wall.
Sunlight speared in through the narrow windows and cut the shadows into countless small pieces.
Hands clasped behind his back, standing on the border of light and shade, Ella wasn't paying attention.
His gaze wandered between the ducal portraits and the row of boys and girls beside him. Two lifetimes in, and he still couldn't work it out. They were recruiting a wife, so why allow a male like him to join in at all?
Unless the young Duke was gay?
Ella shuddered, a chill crawling over him.
He touched the dragon jade pendant hanging at his waist, a thing utterly out of place among castles and knights and swords and magic, and felt that faint humiliation again.
"Damn it! I'm the protagonist. Instead of making a name for myself, here I am standing around like merchandise, waiting to be picked over."
A knot of air sat in his chest, and his resentment toward the discount dad he'd spent fifteen years with deepened another few degrees.
Still, there was nothing to be done about it. The family had run into difficulties. He might be the protagonist, but he hadn't "awakened" yet.
"The hidden dragon lies in the deep. Bide your time."
"Hey. Is there something a little wrong with your head?"
The girl beside him gave him a sidelong look.
"Protagonist" this, "hidden dragon in the deep" that. He had to be sick in the head, surely?
"You—! Hmph. A gentleman does not argue with the petty."
Ella turned his head away and went back to drifting.
He waited quietly. A long while passed, and footsteps sounded from the far end of the corridor.
"Milady is coming. Everyone stand up straight."
A maid hurried over, giving the order.
"..."
Ella said nothing, only slouched a little further and let his head droop.
He had no intention of being anyone's wife. Money was tight at home, sure, but the way his old man told it, simply showing up here paid, chosen or not.
"A duke, huh... Loaded."
The novels and manga of his past life had been full of characters like this. Ella closed his eyes. Truly, hearing a hundred times was nothing next to seeing once. Only now, standing inside the castle itself, did he understand what the word actually weighed.
"Tch. Still, I'm the protagonist. One day I'll be greater than some mere duke."
"Pfft... Delusional."
The girl standing next to him let out a scornful snicker.
Ella neither agreed nor argued. But, and perhaps he was imagining it, he noticed that the boys and girls lined up around him all carried some measure of fear and tension in their eyes.
"Cowards. I really am the protagonist after all."
Unable to make anything of it, Ella went back to muttering to himself.
Then came the clang of armor. Guards cleared the way, and a golden-haired girl in a magnificent gown came walking slowly toward them from the far end.
Only then did Ella catch what was odd about the maid's words.
Milady... So the young Duke was a girl? But how does a girl take a wife?
While he was puzzling over it, the duke's young lady had already drawn near.
There was an allure in her brows and eyes. Long golden hair spilled down her back, and a strand at each temple had been braided and tied together behind her.
Pale blue eyes held a smile in them as they swept across the row of minor nobles' children, and Elos walked from one end of it to the other.
When her gaze touched Ella, some of the smile drained out of it.
"Lift your head. Would you?"
Careless, the last syllable tilting up, a laziness in the words that softened a person's bones just to hear.
"?"
Puzzled, Ella raised his head, and the duke's young lady's face filled his vision.
A slender oval face, willow-leaf brows, a high straight nose, a full forehead. Mm. One look was all it took: very pretty. No memory of her, though.
"Luo Chen?"
Thin lips parted, and the duke's young lady spoke a strange name.
"Huh?"
Ella went blank. Wasn't that his name from his past life? How could this young lady, a total stranger, know it?
"Heh..."
Seeing Ella's blankness, the smile in Elos's eyes thinned further, and then went out entirely.
"Him, then."
"Yes, milady."
After an exchange Ella couldn't follow, the rest were driven off.
The girl who had bickered with him left him a gloating smile on her way out, and Ella got a bad feeling.
But he touched the jade pendant at his waist and settled again.
It was fine. He was the protagonist.
Elos left soon after, leaving two guards and a maid to stare at Ella while Ella stared back.
"...Hey. Look. Hasn't something gotten mixed up here? Your milady is a woman. She's taking a wife?"
Ella's mouth twisted. He hadn't been able to hold the question in.
"Mm-hm?"
The maid gave him a smile that never reached her eyes and watched him in silence.
"And I'm a man! Keeping me here has to be a mistake, right?"
Ella still couldn't make head or tail of it.
He turned to go, and a halberd came down across his path.
Ella stopped short.
"Take him over."
"Hey! Hey! You people... Ngh!"
Before he could finish, something struck the back of his head.
His vision went black, and he passed out.
***
When he woke again he was lying in an unfamiliar bed. He opened his eyes blankly and stared up at the ceiling.
"Sss..."
Memory filtered back a piece at a time. His head was splitting, and he groaned aloud.
"What animals. I said a few words and they actually hit me. No, wait. My voice..."
Indignant, and just about to get up, he registered that something was off.
His voice had gone thinner, and softer with it, warmer, nothing like his usual solid, blunt one.
He touched his throat, and something tickled the back of his hand. He lifted it and found pink strands of hair lying across the skin.
"Wha—!"
Shock mounting, Ella shot upright.
"Sss..."
He struggled to get out of bed. A cramp twisted through his abdomen, then his legs gave out, and he went down on the floor and rolled over twice in a graceless heap.
Luckily the floor was covered in thick carpet.
"Sss... hah... hah..."
The muscles in his stomach and legs cramped. Bracing both arms against the floor, long pink hair falling across his eyes, Ella dragged himself up.
Swaying, he looked around the room, then made straight for a full-length mirror, unable to wait.
"Ah..."
His mouth fell slightly open. He... no. She, now.
Ella looked at herself in the mirror. The slightly worn men's formal suit from home hung loose on her, and an unfamiliar curve pushed out the front of it. The short pale pink hair had grown down past her waist, and since no one had touched it, it was a tangled mess, like a bird's nest.
The mildly handsome face had become a woman's. A round face, almond eyes, the golden irises stretched wide and brimming with disbelief.
"I... I! Ah, right, the pendant, the pendant."
Everything else forgotten, Ella fumbled at her waist.
"Phew. Good. It's still there."
After some searching she closed her hand around the jade pendant hanging by her thigh, and calmed.
"I'm still the protagonist."
Just like that, she accepted the transformation outright. It took some getting used to, but it hardly mattered.
"I'm the protagonist. Transformation arcs aren't exactly rare. Worst case, I change back later."
Ella inched her feet along, trying to make it back to the bed.
Since she was here, she might as well settle in. Panicking now would do nothing. Everything on her was screaming with pain, and she felt sticky all over. Better to rest properly than to frighten herself.