On The Other Side: I Quit Being Human

Shoulder length grey hair, azure eyes, sharp chin, slightly angular jaw, and pale but healthy skin tone—it is a face that looks effeminate and manly at the same time ... My face.

"I... I have..." I try to say something, but emotion quickly overwhelms me. "I have become handsome! I don't look pretty anymore!" Tears trickle down my eyes, as a bittersweet feeling fills my heart.

"Now, my face can be considered as a man's face. I just need to work my way up to make it look even manlier." I look at my reflection on the water once again, and smile in satisfaction. "Damn, I'm gorgeous!"

I sweep my hair to the back, then pose like a model. "Kuhum! That's embarrassing even if I'm here alone, as expected." Of course, it also doesn't take me long to realize how stupid I would look if someone were to see me.

"Why do you think you are here alone?"

"Kyaa! Pervert!"

I know who the voice belongs to, but seeing her suddenly appear in front of me still makes my weak heart jump. Luckily this time, my reflex is faster than her eyes—I think—as I have already covered every forbidden parts of my body, i.e., chest and genitals.

"Hoh? Just a meal has such an effect on you?" Valeria quirks her eyebrow in, what I can say, interest. "You have grown ... At least, physically."

I am aware that my body has also gotten bigger and taller—not that much, but visible—however I am more excited about what happened to my face. The only thing I am ever insecure about is only my girly face, after all.

I never felt insecure about my height or the lack of muscles on my body, but don't get me wrong, getting taller and gaining some muscles are gladly welcomed. Still, the excitement is not as much as what I got upon seeing the change on my face.

"Hm? Oh, my junior has also gotten bigger ... Eh? I think my junior has the most explosive growth." I don't actually know how big it is compared to the other man's, but it is, at least, thrice bigger than its previous size.

"Holy fuck! I fiddled with it too much, I ended up stimulating it!" I immediately grab it tighter to prevent the pervert of a woman standing a few inches in front of me from seeing what is happening. "Miss. Valeria, can you please give me some privacy?"

Valeria frowns lightly, then snorts coldly. "Hmph! I am your mentor. As long as you are still weaker than me, I am your God; you can't order me around. If you want to relieve yourself," she makes a shaking motion with her hand, "just do it now. I don't mind."

"I heavily mind! And, I'm not going to relieve myself!" It's hard to tell whether Valeria is just teasing or being serious since she controls her expression very well, but I hope she is just teasing me. "Don't tease me, please. It's not good for my heart."

"Do I look like joking?"

"What are you? Pervert?!"

Instead of getting offended, Valeria lightly smirks. "You do have the most entertaining reaction, Laylow." I don't bother to correct her, since she moves past me immediately. "I'll observe your butt."

"You are a pervert, aren't you?!" I sigh to myself, then stare at the waterfall in front of me. "Huh? Is this a deja vu? Whatever." I lightly shrug, before lamenting. "Ah, it feels so wrong, yet why am l slightly excited?"

Luckily, my junior seems to understand my sadness, as it stays down the entire time I am bathing.

...

I have already finished my bath, and I am now walking to the hut with Valeria beside me. I have also asked her about why she met me sooner than the schedule, and she told me that she was originally there to deliver me my new outfit.

"Oh, so the changes that occured to me is caused by the food I ate last night?"

"To be exact, the special ingredients; not just any food of this world can do something like that to your body."

"What was actually contained in the food I ate last night?"

"Mana, and hormones stimulant."

"So that's the case." I nod my head. "No wonder I feel slightly more active 'down there.'" Valeria quirks her eyebrow at my musing, and I quickly clear my throat to clear off the awkwardness. "Kuhum! Anyway, why can't I just immediately wear my new clothes."

"Do you think you can adjust the size of the clothes without me?"

"Oh, that, I can't do. I can do many womanly things, but I am never good at sewing."

"You seem to forget that this world is not the same as your world." Judging from her tone, Valeria is not very amused with what I said. "Here, we use a Spell called [Adjustment] to resize our clothes. Sewing? That's primitive." She ends her speech with a snort.

'Okay, lady. No need to spite the backward people of Earth that much.' Although I think my thought is pretty harmless, I don't want to bet on her mood. So, I keep it to myself.

When we arrived at the hut, I open the door, and let Valeria in. It happened so natural, I only realized doing it after I closed the door.

Valeria crosses her hand, and looks at me sternly. "Undress yourself." She said it so rightfully, I doubted my hear. "You heard it right. I want to see you naked."

"Uh... Why?"

"So I can measure your size."

"Body size?"

"..."

"Hey, don't mess with me, lady."

Luckily, Valeria puts a stop to her teasing as she hands me my new outfit. I take it in my hands respectfully, but Valeria seems to still have something to say as she doesn't immediately let go of it.

"I won't turn around while you are wearing them."

"I am the one who have to turn around then ... Why do you love my butt so much?"

"Hmph! Stop talking nonsense, incompetent protege."

"You haven't even trained me anything though..." Sighing to myself, I turn around facing the wall, and undress myself. I can feel Valeria's gaze on my back, but I have somehow grown accustomed to it.

When I have fully worn the clothes, I turn to the left to look at myself in the mirror. My new outfit is consisted of a black long tail coat with red lining, a black cotton shirt underneath it, a pair of black pants, and a pair of black boots with red colored patterns.

"Wow. The clothes are bigger than I thought." Ignoring the size, my new outfit looks awesome. Turning to Valeria, I gesture at my clothes. "Well, I am waiting for the adjustment."

She doesn't respond me verbally, but she waves her hand to indicate that she knows what her job is ... Or so I thought.

It is much to my surprise that right after she waved her hand, the clothes on me immediately tighten, and stick close to my body. It is to the point where my body is forcefully straightened due to how tight they are.

"Miss. Valeria, it's too tight."

"Can you breathe?"

"Yes, but it hinders my movement."

"You will get used to it."

"Is this really necessary," I ask while twisting my waist. "Ooh, they're so tight."

"I made it that way so you can fix your posture." Stepping slightly forward, she puts her hand on my shoulder. "That is the reason why I have been watching you from the back: to find the root of the problem of your wrong posture."

'No, no, no. You don't need to phrase it as if you have done a noble deed; it's too late!' Needless to say, no matter how I actually think of the matter, I still put on a grateful face. Luckily, Valeria doesn't know what I am thinking if her calm face is any indication.

Valeria takes her hand off my shoulder, then glances at the hourglass. "It's exactly 6 in the morning already. Let us start your first training." A blind mask appears in her hand out of nowhere, and she immediately puts it on.

Gulp.

Her aura instantly changed; I can no more feel the slight light-hearted mood surrounding her. She looks even sterner and scarier than before. In other words, she now looks like a proper, professional mentor.

"Let us go outside. We will train your stamina by running."

"What about the breakfast? I can't run with an empty stomach. You know how weak I am even when I am full."

"You will get it once you finished running."

I try cracking a joke, but she doesn't even bat an eyelash at it, showing her professionalism. At that moment, I realized, though Valeria looks cooler this way, I don't like how dark she has become.

"Hey, when I finished running..." Valerie, who is about to exit the door, turns to me, then gazes at me from behind her mask. "Will you take your mask off, and have a breakfast with me?"

"I don't mind a romantic relationship between a Mentor and a protege, but it's still too soon for you." Valeria smirks coldly, then adds, "You can dream about it once you have proven yourself to me."

Though it lacks the usual feeling she always directs at me, it doesn' matter to me. I want to know which one is the real Valeria, and my resolve is strengthened at that thought.