Novice Reincarnator

Hot! Hot! Hot! It was suffocatingly hot. Sweat soaked my clothes and my body felt like it was in a furnace. I struggled to escape and suddenly, the ground disappeared from underneath me.

“Urk!”

A gasp of pain escaped from my lips as I fell out of bed and onto the carpeted floor below. I found myself in the same guest room I was in the last time Cecilia invited me to her place. My memories came back to me in a rush.

That was right. Cecilia had picked me up after my bath and I had chosen to reincarnate while in her limo. I shot to my feet and glanced down at my body.

“My chest is flat!”

The joy that hit me was so strong that I grew dizzy. I no longer had a pair of twin hills to bother me. I had finally returned to being a man! That thought lasted all of the two seconds it took for me to catch a glimpse of my skin tone.

Ash had unhealthy pasty white skin from being shut inside for a month. Asta had a healthy white skin that was lightly tanned. My current skin looked like I had spent years being baked under the sun. It was darkly tanned, so much so that it started to stray into the territory of a brown skin tone.

“D-Detailed Status.”

 

Name: Fang

Gender: Female

Race: 0 Tailed Beastman

Class: Adept

Level: 1/20

Personal Skills (1/5): [Ash Demon Princess]

Racial Skills: [Instinct I]

Class Skills: [Adept], [Growth I]

 

My heart sank. My name had changed, my gender was female, and my race was a Beastman. This wasn’t the change I was hoping for when I set about on my journey to change myself. At the very least, my disappointing [Weak Bladder] skill had been replaced by a strange skill, [Ash Demon Princess].

My contracts to Lime and the others were still in place. I could feel the shadow space they rested in, but I could not activate [Summoning Magic] to bring them back.

Even if I had lost the skill, but there should have been some kind of feedback and mana drain from trying to cast a spell. Instead, I felt nothing. It was like I was back in the days where I could not sense my own mana.

Additionally, my class had changed from Novice to Adept. Few Novice explorers manage to reincarnate with the Adept class. Like everyone else that gained the Adept class after reincarnating, my talent upgraded from Common to Uncommon as shown by my 5 personal skill slots and my new level cap of 20.

I set the matter aside for now and instead, found a mirror. My golden eyes hadn’t changed, but my short ice blue hair had become pure black. My skin was much darker and my height looked to be just a little shorter than my days as Asta Ashford.

Nobody would call me a little lady ever again. I had a friendly face with an unremarkable build. I would be a run of the mill explorer if it wasn’t for the quiet strength buried in the depths of my golden eyes.

There were no beast ears on my head and I had no tail. In fact, I looked like a normal human. 

“Is the air condition working? It still feels too hot in this room.”

I frowned. I was practically sweating even though I wasn’t covered by a blanket anymore. I unbuttoned a few buttons on my white pajamas. That certainly helped, but it wasn’t nearly enough. My senses captured a figure stopping in front of the door to my guest room and I ended up glancing over the moment before they knocked.

“Come in.”

My voice sounded a little different to my ears, but not different enough that I failed to recognize it. Helen in her usual maid outfit opened the door.

“Good morning Lady Ash, or do you prefer Lady Fang?”

“Morning, Helen. Either name is fine.”

“Lady Fang, please follow me.”

First Asta, then Ash, then Fang. I had hardly gotten used to being called Ash and now my status gave me a new name for this reincarnation. I worried that this would become a recurring trend. Surely, I would return to being Asta soon.

I followed Helen to a sunroom. Cecilia was reading a book while buried in small animals. Another girl I didn’t recognize looked up at our approach. She had curly blonde hair and bewitching red eyes.

“Cecila, are you trying to tell me that this girl is Ash? I don’t believe it. How could a noble Demon Princess reincarnate into a tailless Beastman!”

“It is true.”

Cecilia flipped a page in her book without looking up. The cat sprawled across her lap meowed in a lazy voice.

“Unbelievable, but if it is you that is saying it, then it has to be true.”

The demon girl scanned me up and down. My eyes had trouble knowing where to look. The buttons on her blouse threatened to burst due to her plump breasts. Healthy thighs peeked out from her modified miniskirt version of the school skirt.

She had a sinful body with curves in all the right places. Not even her face was a safe place to look. She had a beauty mark underneath her mesmerizing eyes and lush, kissable lips. A pervert like Black Cecilia was no doubt thrilled to have her around.

“Look as much as you like. You and I are going to be seeing each other a lot from now on.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to stare.”

The demon girl brushed her hair back with her hand. Her beauty and confidence attracted my gaze like a magnet. She knew full well the effect she had on others. My face was on fire at getting caught staring.

“I am Byleth Evernight, the 71st daughter of the Demon King. I must thank you for allowing me to be with Cecilia again, but you probably have no idea what I am talking about. Please, take a seat.”

I sat down across from Byleth in confusion. Helen had mentioned five princesses that used to be by Cecilia's side. Could Byleth be one of those princesses?

The Demon Princess poured some sugar into her tea and stirred it with a spoon before taking a sip. A content smile formed on her lips. Byleth set her teacup down and addressed me.

“Seeing as you have been asleep for a week, I will fill you in on what has happened.”

A week!? The demon princess ignored my confusion and continued her recount.

“The name of the Ash Demon Princess has spread across the entire Upper Realm. If it was any other race, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal. Unfortunately, we demons have very few individuals that have reached the noble rank of prince or princess. Outside of the Demon King and his family, there are no more than ten of them.”

I recalled what Cain had told me when I first reincarnated as a Demon. There were so few members of the Demon race that they celebrated the arrival of the lowest ranked Demon. Additionally, he had said that the Hornless Demon Ash had received several marriage proposals.

If even renowned bloodlines were desperate enough to marry a female Hornless Demon, then what would the Demons in the Upper Realm do if a Demon Princess suddenly appeared? Dread pricked my heart.

“It was chaos. When Papa learned of you, he immediately tried to claim you as his newest concubine. Of course, your opinion doesn't matter. Who can say no to the Legendary Demon King that rules one of the 7 territories of the Upper Realm?”

My face turned as white as a sheet. A man I had never met wanted to turn me into a baby making machine and there was nothing I could do about it. Just when I thought it was all over for me, a quiet voice spoke up with strong conviction.

“I can.”

Cecilia Snowlight, the Legendary Archangel, spoke up in my defense. Byleth continued with a friendly smile.

“Once Papa heard that Cecilia took you in, he gave up on the idea of taking you as a concubine. Instead, he sent me. Cecilia and I are best buds. She wouldn’t say no to my presence. In the best case scenario, we would have a threesome. In the worst case scenario, I would take you as my wife should neither of us prove capable of capturing Cecilia with our charms.”

“What!?”

My mind blanked out. This bewitching Demon princess wanted to have a threesome with Cecilia and I? I couldn’t understand her thought process. We had just met.

“Alas, you are a tailless beast now. There is no point in knocking you up while you are a beast.”

“Why are you acting like I would sleep with you?”

“Oh, are you saying you can resist my advances?”

Byleth licked her lips and suddenly, my body was filled with overwhelming heat. Byleth’s appearance grew more pleasing to my eyes and soon, she was all I could think of. Cecilia hit Byleth on the head with her book

“It hurts!”

I woke up from my trance. Fear chilled me to the core. It was like my soul had been stolen away.

“Don’t tease Fang.”

“Okay, okay. Whatever you wish, Cecilia.”

I stared at the Demon Princess with a new sense of fear. It was just as she said. If she wanted me in her bed, then she could easily make me crawl into her bed of my own free will. I spoke up to cover my sudden nervousness.

“So, what happens now?”

“Now? I will do my best to make Cecilia fall in love with me. You can do whatever you wish.”

“I… see.”

Cecilia didn’t speak up, meaning that she agreed with what Byleth said to some extent. I suddenly found myself at a loss of what to do. My entire time as Ash was focused on overcoming my trauma and defeating a Crystalline Colossus. Now that I had accomlished that, I was without a goal. I wanted to turn back to a man, of course, but that was more of a long term goal.

My reincarnation as a Beastman was proof that I had changed. Still, I wasn’t ready to confront Leah Maxwell yet.

So far, all of my time in the Upper Realm has been spent hiding. I wanted to stand in front of the young Hero as an accomplished explorer with my head held high. I had the best resources to accomplish that. All it took was to stop running away.

I was a student of Saint Mikhail Explorer Academy. There was no better academy in the world to teach me how to become an accomplished explorer.

“I would like to attend classes to become an intermediate explorer.”

All new explorers were classified as beginner explorers. Beginner explorers tended to range anywhere from level 1 to level 25. Only by taking the intermediate explorer exam and completing a dive into a dungeon suitable for level 20 explorers would one be allowed to call themselves an intermediate explorer.

“It is fine for you to attend classes, but Demon Princess Ash needs to disappear. You will have to start fresh as Fang.”

“I, uh, hadn’t attended classes once as Ash, so that is fine with me.”

Byleth looked at me like I was an idiot. I couldn’t face either of them and instead turned to the various small animals for comfort. I wasn’t stupid. I just had a bad start.

Violet eyes examined me at great length. The angel spoke a few words that sealed my fate.

“You can’t go back to your dorm. Stay at my place and work as a maid.”

“That is a great idea. No one will connect the Beastman working as a maid to the Demon Princess Ash.”

Byleth agreed with Cecilia’s outlandish opinion with a huge smile. I suddenly felt outnumbered and outranked.

“Please spare me.”

Wouldn’t I have to wear a skirt if I was a maid?