When at last the two of them were left alone in the realm, the thick, formal atmosphere shattered in an instant.
The woman released a long, heavy sigh of relief, placing her hands on her hips and rolling her eyes with sheer irritation.
“Finally, that hag is gone...” she muttered under her breath, shaking her head.
Julian immediately sensed the perfect opportunity to boost his standing. Adopting the most submissive, endearing expression he could muster, he quickly nodded along, agreeing with her without a shadow of hesitation.
“Spot on. Peace and quiet at last,” he said smoothly, before adding with a dash of excitement.
“So, are we good to go?”
The woman let out a quiet chuckle, regarding him with an amused glint in her eyes.
“Hold your horses, cutie. First, I have to align your soul to our world,” she replied in a leisurely tone.
Julian winced slightly, narrowing his eyes with distinct curiosity.
“Align my soul? What does that mean, exactly?”
The woman nodded, displaying a remarkable degree of chattiness and patience - fitting for a true Demon Queen.
Stepping closer, her shapely fingers began tracing an intricate, glowing pattern in the air directly above his floating soul, etching strange, magical marks straight into the fabric of his spiritual form.
“You hail from another world, and clearly, something like a System simply didn't exist in your dimension,” she explained in a soft, expressive voice.
“In our world, every human, demon, elf, or any other living creature possesses their own System and an assigned calling from the moment of their birth. The System measures your progress, organizes your power, and allows you to grow.”
A look of pure, boyish enthusiasm instantly bloomed across Julian’s face. The gamer gene in him awakened in a fraction of a second.
“Seriously?! A real System with stats, levels, and skills?!” he blurted out, staring wide-eyed at her working hands.
“Of course,” the Demon Queen replied proudly, continuing to carve small, luminous runes onto his soul. She showed him examples of various attributes, indicators, and interfaces that were about to become part of his reality.
“Everyone has their own System and role in this world. Me, for instance - I'm the Demon Queen, so my class is literally called... Demon Queen.”
Julian’s eyes widened further as he drank in every word.
“So there are even official classes?! That’s incredible! How do you even get a class like yours? Can you just advance into it?”
The woman smiled mysteriously, shaking her head.
“Only one single person in the entire world can hold the Demon Queen class. Only when I die will that unique role be passed on, reincarnating within someone else upon their birth.”
Julian offered a soft, appreciative hum, looking at her with unabashed admiration.
“So you’re basically one-of-a-kind in this whole wide world...” he tossed out with a smooth grin.
The Demon Queen laughed out loud, clearly bolstered by the suggestion and making no effort to hide that the compliment had landed straight on her inflated ego.
“Alright, sweet-talker!” she called out enthusiastically, making one final, deep stroke of her finger across his soul.
“Your System is woven in. Now all that's left is to grant you a class!”
Julian froze for a second upon hearing those words.
“You... you can just give me a class? Just like that?”
“Naturally,” she answered without a trace of hesitation, pausing her hand in the air for a moment. She scanned him with an ambiguous gaze before asking gravely.
“What rank of class do you want?”
“Rank...?” Julian repeated, stunned.
The woman nodded, explaining patiently:
“In our world, there are various classes, and each carries a specific rank - from the weakest, E-rank, all the way up to the mighty S-rank. The sole exception, of course, is my Demon Queen class, which completely transcends that standard ranking system and stands above it.”
Julian immediately seized the chance to butter up his new patron once more.
“Unbelievable... Your power even defies the boundaries of the universe's rules,” he said, awe bleeding into his voice.
The Demon Queen puffed her chest out proudly and laughed radiantly, practically bursting with pride.
“So then, sweet-talker... which rank do you choose?”
Julian fell silent for a long moment, thousands of thoughts racing through his head.
Screw it... If I’m already risking everything by putting myself in the hands of the Demon Queen herself, I need to squeeze every last drop out of this situation.
The price down the line will probably be steep - she's a demon, after all - but an opportunity like this only comes around once in a lifetime!
He straightened up, absolute determination flashing in his eyes.
“I want an S-rank class! Give me an S-rank!”
The Demon Queen burst into a loud, wicked laugh, sizing him up from head to toe.
“Oho! Not a modest one, are we?” she teased.
“Well... I’m learning from the very best,” Julian replied brazenly, flashing her a quick wink.
The woman went silent for a moment. She looked at him with an unusually sudden softness in her eyes, shaking her head as she muttered under her breath.
“You know... you really do have an amazingly sweet mouth.”
“If you’d lived in an absolute void for as long as I did, with nothing to do for eons but talk to yourself in your own head... you might’ve turned out like this, too,” he replied with a light, melancholic smile.
The Demon Queen folded her hands over her chest, speaking in an impossibly sweet, almost maternal tone:
“Awww... my poor little cutie... In that case, this Queen will personally aid your tormented soul and bestow upon you a mighty S-rank class!”
Suddenly, a powerful, golden light erupted from her spread palms. The Queen pressed the radiance straight into his body.
Julian - or rather, his soul - felt a violent, irreversible transformation take place in the deepest depths of his spiritual framework. He couldn't put the sensation into words. The air around him grew heavy, and his senses rapidly began to fail him.
Darkness pulled at his consciousness. The surrounding world blurred, dragging him toward a strange, mysterious realm of transmigration.
The last thing he heard before completely losing consciousness was the dominant, amused voice of the Demon Queen echoing right beside his ear:
“Rest up, cutie... When you open your eyes next, you’ll awaken in your new, extraordinarily sweet body...”
***
Julian woke up slowly.
His eyelids felt heavy as lead, and a dull, throbbing ache pulsed in his head, as if someone had taken a solid wooden mallet to his skull.
He would have loved nothing more than to roll over and go back to sleep, because the bed he was lying in was outrageously, impossibly comfortable.
Yet somewhere beneath his conscious thoughts, a suffocating, bizarre gut feeling gnawed at him that something was terribly wrong.
And then, in a single second, the memories hit him like a battering ram.
The Demon Queen. The System. The soul alignment. The unique S-rank class.
“I reincarnated!” he gasped in excitement, bolting upright.
That sudden movement, however, caused a thick, silky curtain of snow-white strands to completely obscure his face.
He blinked in bewilderment, trying to see anything through the pale veil.
“Wait... Snow-white hair? What the hell...?” he muttered, shocked.
Cautiously, with trembling fingers, he ran a hand through the hair. It was extraordinarily thick, fluffy, and soft to the touch.
As he dragged his hand further down, he discovered to his utter astonishment that it reached all the way down to his buttocks.
“Damn, it's so long...” he mumbled to himself, only to freeze dead in his tracks.
He clutched his throat, pure terror blooming in his eyes.
“Wait... Since when do I have such a squeaky, girlish voice?!”
Panic took complete control of Julian. Trying to leap frantically out of bed, he got tangled in his own hair and crashed onto the plush carpet with a dull thud.
“Ow... Damn it, who thought it was a good idea to lay me right on the edge of the mattress?!” he groaned, lying on his stomach and cupping the back of his head with his hands.
As his fingers slid over his nape, however, he accidentally brushed against something long, extraordinarily fluffy, and warm situated at the top of his head.
“Ahn-~!” A loud, deep gasp escaped his lips before he could even react.
He turned to stone on the floor.
“Do I... do I have ears now?!” he whispered, utterly dazed.
He ran his hands slowly over them. They were truly long, covered in soft fur. By accident, he squeezed one of them a little too hard and let out another soft gasp, instantly snatching his hands away.
“Damn it... they’re terrifyingly sensitive!” he cried out in his new, high-pitched voice.
Pushing himself up on his elbows to finally stand up off the floor, he looked down at his body. What he saw triggered an instantaneous reaction.
“AHHHHHH!!!” he screamed at the top of his lungs, nearly suffering a heart attack on the spot.
Adorning his completely naked body were breasts. Soft, firm, a perfect C-cup, with intensely sensitive pink nipples that immediately hardened against the draft of cooler air in the room.
“Damn it... why do I have curves?! Why isn't my chest flat?!” he panicked, cupping his own chest with both hands.
“Don't tell me I'm a woman now!”
To make matters worse, as he tried to twist around, he felt another shockwave. Glancing behind himself, he saw his butt was round, soft, and perfectly shaped, featuring a distinct dimple just above a tiny, fluffy bunny tail that twitched nervously with his every movement.
“I’m... I’m a bunny girl now?!” he forced out, thoroughly bewildered.
Yet when his trembling hand slid between his thighs out of sheer desperation, he froze once more.
It was still there.
His little brother.
He exhaled a deep sigh of relief, feeling like he hadn't lost everything... but a second later, he went rigid all over again.
Something was very, very wrong.
Why is it so small...? a panicked thought flashed through his mind.
I could've sworn it was way bigger than this before... Or at least, I thought it was?
His memories of his old body were distressingly hazy after the countless eons spent in that cursed void. But the difference was staggering nonetheless.
Why do I still have my manhood when the rest of my body looks and smells like a hundred percent sweet girl?!
What the hell is going on here?!
“Damn it, what is actually going on...” he began to say out loud.
In that exact fraction of a second, the quiet click of a brass doorknob sliced through the silence, and the heavy door to his room began to slowly swing open.