Roylotte, As Seen By Yuri

My name was Yuri Claudevel.

I was an E-rank adventurer who had just been expelled from the Hero’s party.

If Roy, the adventurer who happened to be there, hadn’t taken me in, I had no idea what would have happened to me.

He really saved me… If things had stayed as they were, I would have ended up penniless and stranded on the streets.

Roy had said he was a B-rank adventurer, but he rode a wyvern with ease, even though S-rank adventurers often struggled to ride them.

Did that mean his true ability wasn’t really B-rank?

But Rosa had called him an eternal B-ranker… He was a mysterious person somehow.

He was a little enigmatic, but one thing was certain: he was incredibly kind.

He had even arranged for me to stay at the same inn as him tonight.

He was covering my lodging fee too, so I wanted to pay him back as soon as possible… and just as I was thinking that, Roy came out of the bath with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist.

I-I’d just seen a man’s naked body for the first time.

Unlike me, his body was forged like steel from constant training.

The only man I’d traveled with before—the Hero—had shared meals and journeys with me, but when we camped, I wasn’t allowed inside his tent, and whenever we stayed at inns, I was always put in a different one.

So this was the first time I’d properly seen the body of someone of the opposite sex.

So that was what a man’s body looked like… If you trained hard enough, you could end up like that.

One thing caught my attention, though. There was something like a mark on Roy’s right shoulder.

It was far too distinct and patterned to be an ordinary bruise.

The design was shaped like a gear and resembled the divine script handed down from ancient times.

Come to think of it, hadn’t the Hero possessed a stone with a similar pattern on it…?

I wanted to ask about the mark on his shoulder, but we’d only just met, and I thought staring at his naked body would be rude, so I couldn’t bring myself to ask.

Roy urged me to take a bath, so once I entered the changing room, I let out a long sigh.

Then I looked over my own body again.

No matter how hard I trained, I would never become as powerfully built as he was.

Maybe because I’d lived as a boy for so long, even after reaching that age, my body hadn’t become particularly feminine for quite some time, but recently my chest had grown larger and my figure had started becoming rounder… It had become impossible to keep living as a boy.

Rosa had called Roy plain, but from my perspective, there was nothing plain about him. He was incredibly manly.

His stubble stood out, but if you looked closely, his features were actually handsome.

His golden hair was smooth too.

And from the way he moved without letting anyone sense his presence, and how effortlessly he handled that huge wyvern, I could tell he was much stronger than I was.

…Why was this happening?

When I remembered the sight of him gallantly riding that wyvern, my heart suddenly started pounding for some reason.

Ah, right. Speaking of my chest, I didn’t need to hide it anymore.

I removed all the cloth I’d wrapped tightly around my chest and let out another breath.

I’d already been dismissed from the Hero’s party, so there was no longer any need to pretend to be a man.

From now on, I could openly live as a woman.

When I entered the bathroom… wow, there was an actual bath.

The wood smelled wonderful.

There had been no baths in my village, so normally we either cleaned ourselves with magic or rinsed off our sweat in a spring. Even after I started traveling, the inns I stayed at almost never had baths, so this was my very first one.

After washing my body, I nervously dipped a foot into the tub.

Ahhh………… it was warm.

Warmth enveloped my entire body.

When I let out a soft sigh, it felt as though all the exhaustion I’d accumulated until now was melting away.

How could soaking in hot water feel this good?

It made me feel incredibly happy.

Even though I was someone who’d been driven away by my companions for being useless.

Was it really okay for me to feel this happy?

I wanted to stay in the bath forever, but I eventually started feeling like I might overheat, so I got out.

When I went to put on my clothes in the changing room, I noticed… huh? My clothes were gone.

In their place was a brand-new set.

Had Roy prepared these for me? I felt bad just wearing them without asking, but my old clothes were gone too, so I didn’t really have a choice.

I timidly slipped my arms into the shirt… Ah, so this was what new clothes felt like against your skin.

They were thick, but surprisingly light.

For the first time, I put on clothes without wrapping cloth around my chest.

Aaaaaah… My body felt so light.

I never had to bind my chest tightly again!

I’d been devastated when I was expelled from the Hero’s party, but right now, the sense of liberation was starting to outweigh everything else.

I was free now.

“S-Sorry… I thought you were a boy, so I bought men’s clothes.”

Roy looked genuinely shocked when he realized I was a girl. At the same time, he also looked apologetic.

I’d spent my life making sure no one realized I was female, so there was really no reason for him to feel bad.

I tried changing the way I referred to myself from “boku” to “watashi,” but Roy told me I didn’t have to force myself to change.

Roy really was kind…

Talking with him was fun too, and more than anything, he actually smiled at me.

None of the companions I’d traveled with before had ever smiled at me.

“Yuri, you’re in the way. Go over there.”

“Don’t get in my sight.”

“You’re still here?”

…If they’d found me that irritating, then I never really needed to be in that party, did I?

It was strange that being with Roy, someone I’d only just met, felt more comfortable than being with the companions I’d spent all that time traveling beside.

The Hero, Vanrost, already had excellent companions.

Every one of them was an S-rank adventurer or higher. As for me, all I could do was support everyone with enhancement magic during battles, prepare comfortable places to sleep when we camped, and provide warm meals.

The others had always told me that anyone could handle chores like those.

So my role there was already over.

From now on, I have to learn how to live on my own.

Though before that, I needed to repay Roy for the lodging and clothes he’d paid for.