Chapter 2: The Girl, Yoschua Verdi

Yoschuko Verdiol. Once the most famous S-Rank Hunter on the continent.

That person—no, she—was now…

“…”

Standing in front of a mirror, wearing a skirt with adorable frills.

That was me. It was strange that I didn’t feel any sense of rejection.

I had always been a man. But suddenly, I’d become a silver-haired girl.

And now, I was wearing a little girl’s clothes.

Of course it was fucking awful. Shit, and I didn’t even have a dick anymore.

‘What do I do now?’

I stared at the mirror and thought about what lay ahead.

First of all, there was no way anyone would look at me now and think, “S-Rank Hunter Yoschuko Verdiol.”

Like Mr. Luca said, I was basically a complete stranger now, with no connection to Verdiol at all.

If that was the case… maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to start a new life, just like Mr. Luca said?

To be honest, even I thought I’d been living a pathetic life.

Every single day, I just drank like a fish and did nothing.

‘Yeah. I’ll start over from scratch.’

I clenched my fist. It was a life I’d already half-given up on anyway. I’d just think of this as an opportunity. At least I wasn’t a pot-bellied old man anymore, right?

‘First things first…’

I needed to come up with a backstory for who I was.

I mean, if someone came up to me right now and asked, “Who are you? Where did you live? Where are your parents?” and I couldn’t say a word, that’d be pretty awkward, wouldn’t it?

It sounded like the kind of question you’d ask a kid, and I was an adult… but it wouldn’t hurt to be prepared.

But the moment I actually tried to think about a backstory, a headache started creeping in. There was too much to think about. There was no way I could handle all of this on my own.

So.

—What is it this time?

“…So, you’re asking me to help you create an identity?”

“Yeah.”

I called Mr. Luca over. He must have been pretty free, because he responded to my call right away.

“Why should I?”

“So I can go earn some money, right?”

“Fair point.”

The moment money came up, Mr. Luca’s expression turned serious, and he stepped into the room.

“First, let’s think about a name. Got any ideas?”

“A name, huh…”

“How about Modrić?”

“That sounds way too masculine.”

What was this old man doing, pulling out a soccer player’s name for a girl?

“Then… how about Verdi? I took one letter from your name.”

“Verdi? Verdi, huh…”

It did sound feminine. And somehow kind of pretty.

“Yoschua Verdi.”

Mr. Luca slowly recited the name he’d come up with.

Oh? It actually wasn’t bad.

“Yoschua Verdi…”

The ring of it wasn’t half bad either.

The moment I spoke the name Mr. Luca had given me, I felt like this name was destined to be mine.

“…I like it.”

“Good. Then we’ll go with Yoschua Verdi.”

“You’re pretty good at naming.”

“Of course. I named my daughter too.”

Mr. Luca grinned at me.

Please tell me your daughter’s name isn’t something like Jović or Toni.

“Next—”

And like that, we kept talking until the sun went down.

*

It was finished. Yoschua Verdi’s profile. From origin to background.

Thanks to memorizing it over and over, I could answer right away if anyone asked.

“Come to think of it, what about your magic?”

“Magic? Ah.”

Now that he mentioned it, I hadn’t tried using it even once.

‘No way…’

With a nervous feeling, I reached out my hand. Then I imagined the spell I wanted.

A violet magic circle formed at my fingertips.

The moment I saw that magic circle, a faint smile spread across my face out of joy.

The magic had activated without me even chanting a spell.

“Looks like you can still use magic.”

“Looks like it.”

I said that and let out a sigh of relief.

It was bad enough that my crotch was empty down there; if I’d lost the abilities I originally had too, I’d be too pissed off to handle it.

Aside from magic, when I fell into this world, I gained one special ability.

Incantationless Casting.

Literally, the power to wield magic without chanting an incantation.

No one else has ever seen magic cast without an incantation. So this must be a special ability I gained when I fell into this world.

While other mage Hunters are dodging Demon Beast attacks and struggling to chant their spells, I can activate magic just by imagining the spell I want to use.

It was because of this broken ability that I could take down Gates with just me and one partner.

So then…

“Mr. Luca, is there an ‘Abandoned Mine’ nearby?”

“There is, yeah. But why an Abandoned Mine? There’s no money in going there.”

“I want to check if my skills are still the same even after my body changed.”

No matter how Low-Rank a Gate is, you should never underestimate the danger to your life.

Because any Gate, regardless of rank, demands you risk your life.

—You killed them!

The problem is that I realized that too late.

Anyway.

Just because I can use Incantationless Casting doesn’t mean the power of my magic is the same as before.

What if I go in without checking and end up in danger?

So I need to see it with my own eyes.

* * *

Following behind Mr. Luca, we arrived at a hill a little ways away from the lodging.

Not long after we started climbing the hill, a large hole emitting a murky gray light came into view at the edge of my sight.

The entrance to a dungeon. A Gate.

“Why are you walking all shifty-eyed like that?”

“In case someone might have noticed who I am.”

“I told you, nobody gives a damn.”

Mr. Luca said that, but I felt like I was going crazy.

The thought kept nagging at me: what if someone recognizes me?

Honestly, I’d felt eyes on me the whole way here. No one talked to me, but…

Anyway, when we got to the Gate, I saw a Hunter standing guard.

Just that sight alone told me roughly what level this Gate was.

Normal Gates have barricades set up and staff from the Hunter Association on standby 24 hours a day.

But that Gate — seeing that yawning old man standing there alone — it was definitely an Abandoned Mine.

Dungeons that are no longer profitable or have outlived their usefulness are called Abandoned Mines.

Originally, Gates that should close sometimes don’t, and while Demon Beasts keep appearing, for some reason they’re weaker than normal — not a threat, and they don’t spit out Magic Stones either.

And I’ve heard that ‘Dungeon Breaks’ never happen there. So they’re used like trial dungeons for rookie Hunters or Hunter Academy students.

No one knows why Abandoned Mines appear in the first place. Setting aside how rarely they show up, they don’t make any money at all, so people lost interest in them long ago.

“Hey.”

“You’re here, Mr. Luca?”

Mr. Luca stepped forward first and waved at the guard Hunter.

I saw Mr. Luca press something into the guard’s hand as he greeted him with an awkward smile. It was a pouch of money.

“Buy your daughter something nice.”

“Oh my… thank you.”

Hmph, that’s obviously a bribe.

“Verdi! Get over here.”

“Yes.”

Mr. Luca called my name, so I quickly stood beside him. I could see the guard Hunter giving me a suspicious look. Well, it made sense — a girl who looked like a middle or high school student at best showing up at a Gate with a loan shark would get weird looks.

“Mr. Luca, who’s this kid?”

“A kid I’ll be keeping at our office for a while.”

“I see. Alright.”

The guard Hunter still tilted his head in confusion, but he didn’t ask any more about me.

“Alright, let’s go.”

“…Yes.”

Mr. Luca took the lead, and I quickly followed him into the Gate.

Once inside the Gate, a scene similar to a cave unfolded before me.

A cool breeze blew from inside—

…No, let me correct that. It’s a chilly breeze.

‘Fucking hell!’

The cold wind creeping under my skirt sent a shiver down my spine.

How the hell do women walk around wearing these things?

“You uncomfortable?”

“Yeah, I am.”

When Mr. Luca snickered and asked, I answered honestly without hiding it. The cold wind was already making me shiver, and the ribbons and frills fluttering every time I moved were seriously annoying.

“But you came here… does that mean you’re thinking of becoming a Hunter again?”

“Because it’s what I’m best at. I can’t picture myself doing anything else.”

I nodded at Mr. Luca’s words.

Even though I was now in a girl’s body, I was once a man who’d reached S-Rank.

I still had Incantationless Casting, and if I could just confirm I could use magic like before, why the hell would I choose another job?

Hunter income varied wildly by rank, but if you climbed to High-Rank, you could earn enough to laze around for the rest of your life with no problems.

And.

Honestly, I still had lingering regrets.

Even if I’d wanted to start over in my original body, I couldn’t have.

About ten minutes into walking through the cave.

—Kuo…!

At the roar from ahead, me and Mr. Luca stopped in our tracks at the same time.

“I’ll go alone.”

“Huh? You sure?”

At Mr. Luca’s words, I nodded confidently.

“Then go on. Don’t get hurt.”

Leaving Mr. Luca behind with a snicker, I headed without hesitation toward where the sound came from.

“Kuo…”

The roar sounded again. Definitely a Demon Beast. I immediately started running toward the noise, and before long, I encountered the bastard.

Green skin, a giant that had to be three meters tall. Clearly a Demon Beast. I held out the watch-shaped Artifact on my wrist toward it.

[ D-Rank Demon Beast, Gigas (Weakened) ]

It wasn’t an unknown lifeform. If a Demon Beast had already been reported to the Hunter Association, information like this showed up on the Artifact. The “(Weakened)” written after it was also proof that this dungeon was an abandoned mine.

‘D-Rank, huh. Perfect.’

Let’s see if I can still throw my weight around after all this time.

“Kuooh…”

The Gigas, seeing me, let out a weak roar and charged. Its face looked listless, like it was sick, and its movements were sluggish.

Demon Beasts in Abandoned Mines were almost always like this. Still, given its size, there was a chance I could get crushed to death under that bulk if I wasn’t careful.

But I didn’t move from my spot. Instead, I stretched out my thin, delicate hand. At the same time, I imagined the magic I needed in my mind. A magic circle formed in my palm.

[ Flame Element — Fireball Lv.2 ]

A red magic circle. No need to use a big spell for this bastard. This much would be enough to burn that sickly Gigas to a crisp.

“Kuk…?!”

Flames burst forth and engulfed the Gigas. Its body was instantly scorched black. Its thrashing didn’t last long.

Once I was sure its breath had stopped, I crept over to the Gigas’s corpse.

‘The power’s still the same.’

A flame magic that could burn a B-Rank Demon Beast in an instant. And since the magic activated without me chanting any incantation, my magical aptitude and Incantationless Casting were both exactly as they’d been in my Verdiol days. The only thing that had changed was my body.

‘Good…’

Confidence surged, and I clenched my fist. At this level, it wasn’t much different from when I was active.

I could start working right away with no problem.

I’m starting over.

Not as the thug Yoschuko Verdiol, but as Yoschua Verdi!