18. Wait, Juana.

* * *

“…What? You’re saying Aran?”

“That’s right.”

She responds to my question with such a refreshing smile.

“…….”

“…….”

The two women stared at each other for a moment, unmoving.

Aran is waiting for Cornelia to understand, and Cornelia is turning her mind over to understand the situation.

‘Aran… you say?’

A woman I’ve never seen before breaks into the palace and calls herself Aran.

This completely unexpected situation has overloaded me.

Her gaze automatically scans Aran.

First, I looked at her hair.

Her hair is long and falls smoothly like silk, and it’s black like Aran’s.

The length reaches at least to her waist, and the side hair also reaches the point slightly past her plump chest.

Secondly, her face.

Aran also has a handsome face, but since he’s a man, it’s angular.

However, the woman in front of me was a proper beauty with an oval, slender jawline and distinct features, and no matter where or how I looked, there was no trace of ‘man’ at all.

Thirdly, her figure.

Well, there’s nothing to say about this. She has a well-defined line without any excess fat that would make most knights cry, and her breasts and butt, which symbolize a woman’s charm, are also large.

If you add a haughty expression to that, there’s a rather subtle sexiness lingering.

Conclusion.

The person in front of me is not Aran.

The only thing she has in common with Aran is her hair color.

“I don’t know what method you used to deceive the guards and sneak in here, but I will hold you greatly accountable for trespassing in the palace without permission.”

Cornelia stretched out her hand into the air and drew out her beloved sword, which she had carefully stored in the subspace.

“I thought you’d do that.”

Aran nodded, even while smiling bitterly.

She has a splendid (?) track record of stabbing Aran out of the blue on the first day they met.

In a situation like this, it would have taken longer.

“If I really had impure intentions, I wouldn’t have taken Aran’s name in a woman’s body. Don’t you think so?”

“Shut up. There’s no way Aran could have become a woman unless his egg broke.”

“……Even if the egg breaks, he won’t become a woman.”

“Where did you learn to speak like Aran!”

“Because I’m Aran.”

“Ik!”

Cornelia rushed in, enraged.

She can’t stand the fact that a woman she’s never seen before has come and is impersonating her son.

“But it’s true….”

Her pitiful muttering didn’t reach Cornelia’s ears, and it didn’t stop her movement.

Swae-aek!

Cornelia’s sword falls.

The ultimate domineering aura is so chilling that if you get hit, you’ll die instantly.

No, it doesn’t end with just instant death.

At least the floor of this audience hall will be shattered, and maybe the building will collapse.

But the opponent is bad.

None other than Awakened Aran.

He’s a Tier 7 powerhouse, and not just a simple Tier 7.

Archery, swordsmanship, and magic are all Tier 7, and he subscribes to mana, so his mana is unlimited, and he also subscribes to Bamgnir, so he can even handle Bamgnir’s power.

No matter how strong Cornelia is, she’s only Tier 5.

She was no match for Aran.

“Please don’t hate me too much.”

Aran grabbed the sword that had come right in front of her with her hand.

“What…!”

Just as Cornelia, surprised by this, was about to retrieve her sword,

The sword, unable to overcome Aran’s grip, broke with a cracking sound.

Cornelia’s beloved sword was neatly cut in half from the middle of the blade.

At the same time, Cornelia’s mind was also cut in half.

“Aaaaargh! My sword!!!”

She screamed and collapsed, even though there was an enemy (?) in front of her.

Then, she shed tears like chicken droppings and stroked the broken blade.

“Um….”

“W-What kind of sword is this… what kind of sword…!”

She was as sad as if her daughter had died.

A wail that would make you cry just by looking at it.

Aran suddenly thought that she had gone too far.

“…Shall I reattach it for you?”

“What!”

Cornelia’s face turned like a golem’s.

An enormous gaze was shot at me, so much so that even she, who thinks of herself as a god, flinched.

“Who the hell are you to commit such atrocities!”

“I told you, I’m Aran….”

“Shut up! Do you think I’d believe even a hair of what you’re saying?”

“Then why did you ask?”

“…….Anyway, shut up!”

She picked up the broken sword and rushed in again.

“Sigh….”

In the end, she suppressed her mana.

The enormous amount of mana that had been flowing through her body rapidly decreased, gradually changing her body.

And by the time the halved sword was about to fall on her crown, she had returned to a complete man’s body.

“What…!”

As he became a familiar figure, Cornelia quickly retrieved her sword and moved away.

Then, she pointed the broken sword at Aran.

“…What are you?”

“…I’m Aran.”

“….”

A situation that is hard to believe.

It’s surprising that a woman became a man, but it’s even more surprising that it became Aran.

No matter how you look at it, there’s nothing that resembles Aran, so how could he become such a figure?

“…Are you really Aran?”

“It’s true. I look exactly the same.”

“….”

She approached cautiously, one step at a time.

She didn’t let her guard down at all.

It was almost too much, but it was understandable since he had suddenly appeared without any warning.

After several minutes of approaching, she poked Aran’s cheek with her finger as if it were a mysterious object she had never seen before.

“….This touch is definitely Aran.”

“How exactly are you classifying me?”

She lowered her sword.

“What happened? You suddenly appeared as a woman. Did your egg break or something?”

“I told you, it didn’t. More than that, where did you get that logic from?”

Perhaps because the appearance was so shocking, she had a pouty face.

“What about this?”

“Um……I’ll reattach it for you. But is this sword that precious?”

“Precious? This sword is made of dragon heart.”

“Pardon?”

“It amplifies the user’s mana tenfold.”

“….”

Aran looked at the sword with new eyes.

It’s a sword that doesn’t look very impressive, but it had such a secret hidden within it.

It’s not mithril, but a dragon heart.

“Eek? Wait a minute. Dragon heart? Can you make a sword out of that?”

“Then would you make it out of a human heart?”

“That’s not the point. Not only did you get a dragon heart, but you made a sword out of it……If the dragon finds out, won’t they come and attack?”

“It’s okay. The dragons already know about it.”

“…….”

“And it wasn’t obtained by killing them, so don’t worry. More than that, can you really reattach it? It’s not enough to just reattach it.”

“Um….”

He began to observe more closely.

Then, he began to see the flow of mana that he hadn’t seen until just now.

An enormous amount of mana was leaking out from the broken cross-section, to the point where it could be said that it was pouring out.

‘To think that so much mana is flowing, and I didn’t even sense it…!’

That was a new shock to him.

Originally, it’s not easy to sense the mana in objects or people. However, someone like Aran should be able to get a rough idea, even if he doesn’t know the details.

But this sword was emitting a huge amount of mana while hiding it.

Truly an amazing ability.

“…This is going to be difficult.”

“W-What?!”

“Ah, I mean it’s going to be difficult for me right now, but it doesn’t mean I can’t reattach it.”

Aran can’t reattach it.

Male Aran can’t.

But female Aran can.

‘Ha… but I have to become a woman again….’

Aran hesitated for a moment, but she had no choice but to transform into a woman to fix what he had done.

Her short hair grew longer, and her angular face was refined into an oval shape.

Her flat chest swelled up greatly, her waist became slender, and her hips gained fullness and elasticity.

Cornelia was greatly surprised by the sight and took a few steps back.

“……H-How mysterious. So, the egg really did break….”

“I told you, it didn’t.”

Aran, who had become her from him, reached out her hand towards the broken sword.

Then, the sword and the broken pieces floated into the air, and countless formulas began to be drawn around them.

“T-This is…!”

Moving mana.

It’s an unusual amount.

It was more enormous and terrifying than any flow Cornelia had ever seen in her life.

‘This guy….since when!’

As she was surprised, Aran was already calculating hundreds of formulas and drawing a purple magic circle.

‘This isn’t just made of good materials…?’

In order to create a formula, you must calculate the basic formula of the corresponding magic, the coordinates of the space you are trying to unfold, and the various variable values that occur due to the environment there.

But right now, this sword was subtly changing its own state and the surrounding environmental values, making it very difficult to create a formula.

To be exact, Aran’s calculations couldn’t keep up.

‘What’s with this annoying bastard?’

She reached out her other hand as well.

It didn’t make the calculations any easier, but it felt like she had to do this.

Chwaaaaa!!

As if struggling,

A round mana barrier spread around the sword and the pieces.

And from that moment on, an outrageously huge amount of mana began to spew out in all directions. It was as if it was telling me not to touch it.

“Iik! Let’s see who wins!”

Her pride was hurt, and she frowned deeply.

And without realizing it, she drew out the divine power she had obtained by eating the god’s semen.