Suna

“It would have been better if they let us have a one-day break before the meeting.” I commented as both me and Clairmont prepared ourselves to meet the king of Rustaval a.k.a Elfina’s big brother a.k.a one of the love interests in the novel. It was only yesterday that the news of me and Clairmont being an SS-rank adventurer got out to the public. I thought that there would be at least a couple of days delay before I met another love interest, namely the king. Who knows that the day after we became adventurers, was the day I was granted an audience with the king?

I was literally living up the dream of those adventurers who wanted to be granted audience with the king of a country. I would be the same as them if we were to overlook my OP stat. Now that I think about it, my OP stat has given me several wondrous results, from being able to morph, slapping the heck out of a rare monster, to saving the princess of a country who was supposed to be dead in the original plotlines.

I wonder if Elfina is still alive? I hope she had safely arrived in this country and reunite with his big brother.

Or should I escort her back myself? Now that I am able to literally travel from one region to another in less than a day.

While pondering about Elfina and reminiscing about the days after I woke up in this world, I was trying on some dresses that I bought from the online store, while Clairmont was enjoying an entire jumbo cheesecake the size of a dinner table. Unlike his behaviour of eating messily like a pig in the tavern yesterday, his behaviour took a complete 180 turn when he carefully cut the cake and ate it normally on a plate.

“Isn’t it better to meet them as quickly as possible? What’s there to delay?” Clairmont said, answering my monologue from earlier. He then cut a considerably large piece of cheesecake before putting it into his mouth. I gave him a narrowing gaze as I turned to look at him and the jumbo cake beside him. I dare bet that he could finish the whole cake and still feel hungry.

“Have you never heard of the word ‘nervous’ or something?” I was so nervous I could only finish a bowl of cream soup for breakfast this morning.

Clairmont shrugged. “I don’t really care about your nervousness. That, you have to handle by yourself.” I grumbled at his statement. More importantly, why is this corset so hard to wear? Do I have to pull the strings tighter or what?

“I am just here to accompany you on your adventure anyways so you can do what you want, and I’ll be there just to watch you.” Clairmont added. He then stood up to cut some more cheesecake before putting it on his plate. Meanwhile, I huffed in exasperation.

“Yeah right. You just want me to cook for you, isn’t it? Even now, you are happily eating up all those fat and proteins while I struggled to wear this corset so my flabby stomach didn't show." I huffed again, this time in annoyance. Remind me again why those nobilities wore corsets? Apart from maintaining bodily feature, I'm sure this creation has killed many people before.

“Then why bother wearing one?” Clairmont slowed down his eating pace. It was strange seeing him not focusing on the feast in front of him, as he shifted his glance to me. “I don’t see any fat protruding from your belly, so what’s the use of wearing that stupid corset?”

I angled my head towards him, who was sitting at the dinner table somewhere behind me all this time. Of course, it didn’t show. I was literally wearing a white inner dress that hung slightly above my knee. Don’t ask me why I was dressing up in Clairmont’s bedroom. It was either I’m mad or I’m crazy. Both sounded the same but I don’t care! I just want to dress up in his room.  

“You can just wear the dress without the corset. I can assure you the nobles won’t even realize any fat on your body.” Clairmont’s voice sounded like a persuasion.

“Easy for you to say.” I grunted a bit as I tied up about one third of the strings of the corset. Okay, a little bit more and we’re good. “I have to abide by the dress code before meeting the king so I didn’t get kicked out of the palace. And unfortunately, wearing a corset is one of them.”

Was what I said. But oh, how I wish to meet the people who designed that rule and give them a good smack on the forehead. I didn’t originally want to wear a corset or anything, but I remembered the setting of this world being in the middle-ages, where wearing corset is a must for ladies.

Styling Clairmont was easy after persuading him with that cheesecake. His bronze skin showed its hidden charm when paired with a royal blue three-piece suit. It’s also because his stature is tall and toned that the outfit looked annoyingly perfect on him. Contrary to him, I had to go on and hide all the necessary fat I had in my body. If I had some, that is. It had been on my mind from the time I morphed into a human being about the matter of my thighs which looked less plump than usual. I had looked at my face on a small mirror before and notice the difference in shape and features, but I didn’t get the chance to fully eye my whole body as we were busy travelling to Rustaval.

My struggle of putting a corset alone continued on for another couple of minutes. At this point, I could see Clairmont staring blankly at me, not eating his cake anymore.

He heaved a long sigh, sounding rather indignant, before standing up to walk to me.

“Let me help you.” He said, and held the two strings that connected the ends of the corset together.

At first, I was pretty glad that Clairmont finally offered his help, because man, he was just sitting there like the finest jerk of all while looking at my endeavours of trying to fit into a corset, when my heart decided to jump into the emotional train and started to beat a little faster than normal.

What is this embarrassment I felt?

Was it because Clairmont was standing close behind me?

Or was it the perfume I chose for him to wear?

I was determined to keep my eyes to the front and act unbothered by the heat behind me, when suddenly, I felt my abdomen free and the corset falling down on the floor.

“Wha-?!” I panicked and broke my stance to look at him angrily. What’s with him, loosening the ties for the corset that I tried so hard to tighten? Now I have to re-tie all of them, didn’t I?

For an unknown reason, he looked pretty flustered when I turned behind to look at him. What’s wrong with this guy?

“Ahem.” Clairmont cleared his throat, sounding more flustered than nervous towards my threatening glare. “You already have a perfect body, so I don’t think the corset is necessary.”

My anger lessened a bit and I looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

I bet Clairmont saw my curious expression, when he used his magic and brought a body mirror near us.

“Look,” Clairmont pulled my inner gown to tighten it around my body. “I don’t think you would need to have a corset maintain your waist shape. Your body is already as perfect as it is.”

I stared blankly at my reflection on the mirror. Did I ever looked at my body after I changed into a human? I don’t think I did because my mouth was hanging pretty widely for a mere looking-at-a-reflection. As a comparison, Clairmont’s huge hands could almost encase the entire length of my waist. I was skinnier than myself back in my old world. Not that I ever complain about my body. Because as a Japanese, I am among the majority of the population who had a normal BMI.

But I never would have imagined having a body like that of a bikini model.

“Do dragons… usually morph into something like this?” I tilted my head up to Clairmont who was standing behind me as he held my waist. I can say I look much taller than my original height, but my head could reach only as far as Clairmont’s shoulders. He is rather tall for a human.

“Like what?” Clairmont narrowed his gaze. It might be just me, but his tone sounded lower than usual, and he was talking to me with a relaxed poise.

“W-Well, I don’t know. Maybe they can turn into a goddess with a sexy and highly sought body?” I shrugged. Clairmont’s hands seemed to rest comfortably on my waist right now, should I tell him that this is a form of sexual harassment and slap him on the face?

Clairmont chuckled before letting my waist go. “What nonsense are you talking about? It’s obvious that we can morph into any being that we like. Though, human form is classified to be one of our original forms, so it would usually follow the splendour of our dragon body.”

“Eeeh… I see.” I fluttered my eyes as I watched him sat back down on his seat. There was this strange air of silence between us, before I retorted, “B-But the law states that I have to wear a corset, so I have to wear them, don’t I?”

“Then don’t wear them.” Clairmont said, resuming to eat the cake. “No one would even notice a shrimp like you not wearing a corset anyway.”

“What the-?!” One of my eyelids twitched. I’m sure that was one of his ways to disperse the oddness between us, and I’m thankful for that.

I then continued to wear my dress, a royal blue satin dress with some golden flower pattern on it, while unconsciously pouting. I thought he would do something to me after that. That was pretty disappointing.

Wait.

My eyes widened a bit.

Did I really expect him to do something to me? My mind seemed to be going wild after Clairmont stood close to me.

I gently slapped both of my cheeks. Get a hold of yourself, Suna Mikiya. Now is not the time to be catching feeling on one of the MC’s love interests. By the time Clairmont met Minerva and is smitten with her, that’s the time when I start my fangirling!