漫画大王

Chapter 286

The only saving grace was that there were very few participants. That meant there were no preliminaries, and so I didn’t have to go through the absurdity of observing a bunch of cross-dressed males trying to charm their way to advance to the finals.

During the contest, participants would take to the stage in turns, present themselves, and then the winner would be decided by a simple vote.

I couldn’t become a completely different person, but with a slight touch-up to my face and with a completely different outfit and air, even someone who knew me wouldn’t recognize me as Reinhart.

I had the key cheat for this situation—Sarkegar’s ring.

As much as I hated to say it...

There wouldn’t be anyone prettier than me there.

The first thing I needed was a dress.

Then, I had to decide what kind of performance or act to present during my stage time to appeal to the audience.

‘Should I dance...? Or sing...?’

I really, really wanted to cry. There had been countless times in this otherworldly life when I had felt wronged and resentful, but this was the first time I felt so wronged that I wanted to cry.

‘Why... Why is this happening to me...?’

I absolutely couldn’t let anyone know I was Reinhart. I had to make sure no one could even guess it was me. I had to suppress my usual, terrible temper.

If I suddenly lost my temper and caused a scene, someone might guess, “That guy—isn’t he Reinhart?”

Most of the people coming to watch the contest wouldn’t know me, but there might be someone who had heard of my infamy, and there was a very high chance that Connor Lint would appear as well.

Eleris returned not long after, empty-handed.

“Um... So, I went to the boutique and... most of the dresses are custom-made... they need to take measurements before they can be made... Of course, there are those that aren’t tailored, but... for Your Highness to wear them... well, um. Yes.”

“...”

I was about 181 cm tall. Not excessively tall, but still on the taller side. While I could change my appearance with Sarkegar\'s ring, adjusting my height was risky.

—“Why did you enter the cross-dressing contest?”

—“But wasn’t he shorter earlier on?”

—“What did you do?”

I might end up facing such questions later on, so it was better to be on the shorter side first.

“Let’s go with a dress that has a long skirt. I can make myself slightly shorter. If anyone asks, I can just say I was bending my knees.”

“Ah, you’re talking about a hoop skirt.”

I didn’t know what that meant, but it seemed like that was what the dress I had in mind was called.

I could use Sarkegar’s ring to make myself slightly shorter. If this dress with a hoop skirt covered my legs, I could later claim that I wasn’t actually shorter, but was just bending my knees. This would also lower the chances of anyone recognizing me during the contest.

As long as the organizers kept my identity secret, there was nothing to worry about.

It felt like I was conceding defeat by preparing for the possibility of being caught, but I had no choice. It was easier to adjust my body to fit the clothes rather than finding clothes that fit my body.

Eleris was just about to head back to the boutique when I stopped her.

“Also, um... the sleeves should be long too,” I said.

It would be weird to leave my arms exposed.

Elerise nodded, her lips trembling again.

“Ah, yes... Your Highness.”

‘Damn it. Damn it, really.’

I hated myself for seriously considering how to cross-dress properly.

‘But... I have to win...’

If I wanted to win, I had no choice. If I ended up in second place, I would seriously feel like killing myself.

While waiting for Eleris to return with the dress, I stared blankly at the ceiling with my mouth agape.

‘What should I do during my self-promotion time?

‘... Someone, please, just kill me.’

***

In the end, I spent the entire Sunday preparing for the cross-dressing contest.

I should have been focusing on the tournament finals, which were beginning the next day.

Why did it feel like the cross-dressing contest was the more important issue?

Eleris brought back collections from various boutiques in catalog form, and I went through them. The design of the dress was important, but the key was that the sleeves and skirt had to be wide.

I chose a dress with a hoop skirt in the style of a wedding dress, and Eleris purchased the dress and brought it back in a garment bag.

It was a series of humiliations, but I couldn’t afford to do it half-heartedly.

As I said before, if I wasn’t properly prepared and ended up placing highly without winning, it would all be meaningless.

If I didn’t win, this ridiculous effort would be for nothing.

“...”

“...”

I was in the process of trying on the dress that Eleris had brought. The top priority was to make sure it fit.

I needed to be able to put it on by myself. There I stood, wearing the dress that Eleris had brought.

I hadn’t changed my facial features yet. I had only adjusted my height to match the length of the dress and changed my hair. To ensure no one would recognize me, I altered the color of my hair from its usual blonde to silver. A drastic change in hair color would significantly alter my appearance.

Eleris looked at me with a lukewarm expression.

“Hey... Say something, will you?”

‘If it looks terrible, say it looks terrible! If it looks weird, say it looks weird! Don’t just stare at me like that!’

“I just... can’t understand why Your Highness has to do this...”

Eleris’s lips quivered as if she was genuinely troubled.

Although there was no Demon Realm, the supreme ruler of the Demon Realm was now having his cross-dressing appearance inspected by his subordinate. It would be strange if she didn’t have a mental breakdown.

“Still... strangely enough... it suits you well.”

Even though it felt bizarre to me, Eleris did not find it overly awkward or strange.

‘Damn it! Don’t look at me so proudly!’

“The important thing is this: can you recognize me?” I asked.

“Well, the hair color has changed, but the impression I get of you hasn’t changed much...”

Of course, it hadn’t. The foundation was still the same, and I hadn’t put on any makeup, so it was obvious it was me.

“Do you want a mirror?”

“...”

I didn’t want to see myself.

I really didn’t want to.

“Show me...”

But I had to see it.

Eleris summoned a reflective barrier in the air, and I could see my reflection in it.

A grim-faced Reinhart (with silver hair, wearing a dress) stared back at me, looking as though he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders.

I felt nauseous. I felt dizzy.

Why... Why was I doing this?

‘Is this my karma?’

All this seemed to have begun when I first used Sarkegar’s ring to transform into a girl and trick Connor Lint into confessing to me. The candy vendor hadn’t thought of that possibility at all, but I had shown it to him. This really was all my fault. My karma was coming back to bite me.

Regrettably, since I had made Reinhart appear somewhat good-looking, it didn’t look too strange.

However, there was a problem.

Even from a distance, anyone who knew me would recognize me up close.

Hence, the next step was necessary.

“Um... Your Highness. Shall we... begin?”

Eleris carefully laid out the makeup kit she had brought in front of me.

Eleris knew nothing about makeup prior to this, since she had no reason to learn.

So, while going around looking for dresses, she had quickly learned how to apply makeup.

I didn’t know how much she had learned in that short time, but I didn’t need to worry. Eleris was Eleris. She would probably do well.

The problem was that she would be applying makeup not on her own face, but on mine.

I took off the uncomfortable dress and plopped down into a chair. I had tried on the dress, so I didn’t need to wear it again until the cross-dressing contest.

I let out a sigh. “Alright, let’s do this.”

“Yes...”

It felt like I was walking to the gallows.

***

If I were entering the Miss Temple contest, the situation would be easier. I could just change my appearance entirely, which might actually be more straightforward.

However, this was a cross-dressing contest that I had entered under Reinhart’s name. I had to maintain Reinhart’s appearance while turning myself into a completely different person. The organizers would keep my identity secret, but they would still know who I was. If I showed up looking entirely different, it would raise suspicions.

First, I changed the length and color of my hair. I could pass that off as a wig.

Second, makeup. Heavy makeup could make me look like a completely different person.

Surprisingly, despite never having used makeup in her long life and only just learning how to apply it in such a short time, Eleris seemed to be doing an excellent job. Her delicate touch was extraordinary. Even if she hadn’t done it herself, she must have seen it done many times.

I sat there, dying bit by bit inside, as I let Eleris work on my face.

There was one key issue—Eleris couldn’t enter the Temple.

That left me with two options. Either I learned how to apply makeup from Eleris, or I came to her on the day of the contest to get my makeup done before returning to the Temple.

Both options were terrible.

“...”

Both Eleris and I looked as though we were slowly losing the will to live.

Eleris’s eyes darted around and she seemed to be wondering what on earth she was doing, but she continued to apply makeup on my face. As for me, there was nothing to be said.

However, as time went on, Eleris’s expression became increasingly bizarre.

She looked like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

“... Why do you look so uneasy?”

Eleris’s lips twitched. “Well... um... it’s just that... It suits you too well....”

“... Mirror.”

Eleris summoned the reflective barrier in the air again so that I could see my almost fully made-up face.

“... Damn it.”

Even I had to admit it.

The makeup looked too good.

Eleris had done an exceptionally good job for her first try, but the face she was applying the makeup on was already good-looking, so it would look good no matter what.

Still, Reinhart’s face wasn’t even my real face. It was just a character I could customize.

I could change my face as much as I wanted.

I barely remembered what my original face, Baalier’s face, looked like. Of course, that face had also been decent, but having spent so much time as Reinhart, this face felt more like mine.

Anyway, my cross-dressing mode had been activated, and it looked annoyingly good, which made it even more frustrating.

However, there was another obvious problem.

“... No matter how you look at it, it still looks like my face,” I said.

“It does... indeed.”

Reinhart’s face was distinctive, not because I intentionally made it that way, but because it had become so over time. My made-up appearance was the living embodiment of the answer to the question, “What if Reinhart were born a woman?”

Even if someone didn’t recognize me immediately, anyone who knew me would inevitably think, ‘Isn’t that Reinhart’s sister? Does Reinhart have a sister?’ I could already imagine Connor Lint asking me to introduce him to my “sister.”

‘This is the worst...’

There were limits to what makeup could do. While it did a plausible job, it didn’t quite conceal my identity well enough.

Now, onto the third step.

“First, I need to do something about these damn eyes.”

I began the delicate process of making minor facial adjustments using Sarkegar\'s ring. I softened the harsh look in my eyes, made my jawline a bit thinner, and layered on subtle, incremental changes that wouldn’t be too noticeable but would make a difference.

I had to set aside any feelings of self-loathing for now.

‘Focus solely on the ultimate goal.’

I had to win.

No matter what it took, I had to win!

It took ages to finish the fine-tuning while looking in the mirror. I memorized this new look just as I had memorized Reinhart’s appearance, as though saving a preset.

By the time I finished all the adjustments, my eyes felt like they were going to fall out.

“... Your Highness...”

“... What?”

“Now, you just look like a girl... I think... No, I’ll stop now.”

Eleris, seeing that her praise was making me feel even worse, stopped mid-sentence.

Indeed. I hadn’t made any major changes, but with makeup and the all-purpose cosmetic tool that was Sarkegar\'s ring, it would be strange if this face of mine didn’t resemble a girl’s...

Such bizarre and crazy things were possible thanks to the all-purpose cosmetic tool that was Sarkegar\'s ring.

“But... No matter how you look at it, I still just look like Reinhart’s younger sister or older sister...” I said.

“Yes, that’s true...”

Since I couldn’t do any major changes, small changes to hair color and facial features would only make the resulting appearance a derivative of Reinhart’s.

I couldn’t completely overhaul everything.

As things stood, if someone who knew me was at the contest, they would inevitably deduce that I was perhaps related to Reinhart, and since it was a cross-dressing contest, they would eventually realize it was me.

It was hell. Eleris hesitated before finally speaking up.

“Your Highness... I think I know what the problem is...”

“What is it?”

Eleris pointed to my face in the mirror. “Your expression. It’s your expression.”

The expression on my face in the mirror...

I looked as though I was dying, and it was obvious that I was under a lot of stress. The sense of being on the verge of exploding from irritation was almost tangible.

She was right... This was Reinhart’s default expression.

That perpetually annoyed look... My eyes weren’t inherently harsh; it was that I always wore an expression that made them look harsh.

Thanks to the added stress of these preparations, my perpetually-annoyed expression was ten times worse than usual.

At that moment, I looked ten times more like Reinhart than usual.

“Maybe you could... try smiling a bit...?” Eleris suggested.

“... I’m really not in the mood to smile...”

‘After going through all this, what’s stopping me from smiling in the mirror?’ I thought to myself.

I tried to force a smile, but it didn’t come easily. My lips quivered as I tried to lift their corners into a smile.

Forcing a smile was harder than I thought.

‘Damn it. Practicing smiling in front of a mirror... Am I preparing to be a news anchor?’

“A bit more cheerfully...?”

“I’m trying...”

My mood was in the gutter, but I had to put on a cheerful smile.

It was pure torture.

Eleris’s point about my expression was correct.

“Indeed... it seems to be working.”

As I got more used to it, I could see it too.

Just changing my expression made me look like a completely different person from the perpetually-annoyed Reinhart.

It didn’t even remind me of him.

All it took was changing my usual expression to a more cheerful one.

I practiced smiling in Eleris’s basement room for what felt like an eternity, until night fell.

Finally...

“I think... it’s perfect now, Your Highness. You look like a completely different person.”

“Really...?”

Despite feeling mentally shattered, I saw a face in the mirror that was smiling so brightly that it was almost nauseating.

Even I had to admit it.

That didn’t look like Reinhart at all.

With that, all preparations for the cross-dressing contest were complete.

‘So this is what it feels like to have bile rise in your throat. Terrible, bitter bile.’

That night, I almost cried in my sleep.

No... I actually did, just a little.