After our ominous conversation was cut short, with a heavy heart, I leaned back against my backseat and waited for the new arrivals to enter the room. I fully expected Emrum with her wife, who was called Nerha, if I remembered correctly, to walk into the guest room. What I didn’t expect was the small child that practically burst through the door, ignoring the frustrated calls of a woman behind her.

I was slightly startled by the sound of quick footsteps and the thrown open door, but before I could react, I was already under heavy scrutiny. By none other than the small dwarven girl standing next to my seat while bouncing on the balls of her feet. She was pointing wildly towards my face, then my ears, then my hair while making surprised gestures and shouting out her happy observations to the world.

“Your eyes are pretty, just like the moons in my picture book. I always wanted to see the real moons, but mommy says it’s too dangerous. Have you seen them yet?” — She giggled. — “But your ears are funny, you look kind of like an ant with antennas, but backwards, hehe! I really like your hair, but it could definitely use a combing. Did you lose your comb? I can comb it for you later. I hear we are going to be sisters. Are you really my big sister now? I always wanted a big sister, but mommy said I can only have younger sisters. I guess she was wrong, W-R-O-N-G, do you know how to spell it? I learned it just yesterday! Oh, my name is Nadwabella, but you can call me Bella, since we are sisters now and everyone says it’s too long, anyway. What is your name?”

I stared at the girl with slowly widening eyes, as the flood of questions were thrown at me mercilessly. There were a few that sounded quite rude among the throng, but I was not going to get angry for a young girl’s curiosity.

Based on her appearance, she was somewhere between six to eight years old. It was hard to place it right, since dwarfs were shorter than humans, but based on what I knew, they grew at a relatively similar pace, disregarding their life’s length.

The little girl was staring up at me happily, clearly waiting for my responses. Unfortunately, I didn’t really remember all of her questions, and because of that, I decided to start with the ones I clearly remembered.

“Uhm… hi, my name is Selora, and I guess I kind of lost my comb, yes…“ — I offered her a shy smile.

She gasped, patting me on my arm as if to comfort me for a great loss. — “That’s horrible. I will give you my spare one later! Since we are sisters!” — I gave a genuine smile at the unexpected offer. No matter how old you get, you can never get accustomed to the simple honesty of young children.

I took a closer look at the smiling girl, who was supposed to be my sister, of all things. Yes, it was easy to see the resemblance between her and Emrum. The girl had the same reddish hair, while her eyes were also dark brown, if a shade lighter than his.

It was at that moment, when a somewhat embarrassed looking woman stepped into the room. When I looked up, the first thing I noticed was that she had the very same shade of dark brown eyes as the girl that was bouncing around me. She even wore her brown hair in a similar singular braid as the little girl. If all that wasn’t enough to ascertain her position, the furious look on her face that was mostly focused on the happy little girl dispersed any remaining doubts.

“Bella!” — The exasperated voice of the woman easily filled the guest room. — “How many times did I tell you to not run around the corridor…” — She started then froze in mid speech when she noticed that the girl was presently combing through my hair with her fingers. — “And stop bothering our guests already!”

“It’s fine. We are going to be sisters, anyway!” — The girl shouted back, which resulted in the formation of a momentarily speechless expression on the face of her mother.

It seemed that Dalorsaer could only watch the spectacle silently for so long, as he suddenly burst out in jovial laughter, startling all of us in the room. I looked around hastily, noticing that Camilla was similarly struggling to keep down her laughter, snickering next to me, and to my surprise Aria didn’t seem to hold out any better either.

I felt my cheeks blush lightly under the other’s stare.

Luckily, the situation was resolved by Bella’s mother, who stormed up to her daughter, grabbing her by her scarf and pulling her to the opposite side of the table where she forced her to sit down as she took a position behind her chair.

There was a moment of flustered silence, then the woman gathered herself and began. — “I apologize about my daughter’s antics. She is usually a well-mannered child, but she has been all about getting a big sister recently. It caused her to get uncharacteristically excited. In fact, she was the one who first spotted the change in the family tree… At first I dismissed it for an innocent prank, but she was unusually vehement about it, so I went to check the family tree next morning. You can imagine my surprise at finding the results.”

“Mommy called me a lier, but she was wrong, W-R-O-…” — The girl was easily dismissed by a light slap to the back of her head from said mother.

“Ow…” — She complained, but didn’t continue her previous sentence, she was evidently too engrossed with pouting.

The woman sighed deeply, and continued speaking hastily, as if wishing to put this behind her back as fast as possible.

“Now, I do realize that I am yet to introduce myself. I am Emrum’s wife, Nerha Dimhollow and this is her daughter, Nadwabella Dimhollow. My son is unfortunately not home at the moment, so I will have to introduce him later. To cut to the chase, I believe I have managed to get most of the truth out of my oaf of a husband, and I believe we owe you an apology, or several.”

I wanted to say something, but the woman cut me off preemptively with a raised hand and a short glare.

“I do realize that this is a very fragile matter, so before you answer, I ask you to let me finish first.” — I closed my mouth and nodded curtly, which was enough for her to continue with her hasty monologue.

“I know that my husband have wronged you with continuously dismissing your attempts in clearing up the misunderstanding about your actual age. Insisting that you must be under a hundred, which is quite lucid considering that at the same time, he was in possession of the knowledge that you were of a race believed to be extinct. Therefore, it could be hardly considered well documented. Judging you solely based on appearance was inexcusable, and I do apologize once again.”

She took a deep breath than continued.

“I am not entirely sure how the process of your adoption went, or from where the idea was born to begin with, since Emrum kept being suspiciously vague about that part.” — She paused for a short time then turned to me with a suspicious look.

“Would it be alright for you to enlighten me about it?” — She suddenly turned the table on me, further narrowing her eyes.

I was startled by the sudden questioning, which paired with the image of that memory appearing in my mind, resulted in a downcast look and a light shade of pink crossing my cheeks.

“I… ugh…” — I peaked up momentarily between my sudden wave of embarrassment and glimpsed the passing storm of emotions on the woman’s face.

I gulped silently, my heart skipping a beat in fright. Sorry Emrum, there is no way I won’t throw you under the bus in this situation, even if I said it otherwise. It’s your fault anyway… you should be the one who deals with it.

There was a moment of heavy silence, then Nerha continued. — “I see. I believe I have a certain suspicion of what might have happened. We will have to talk about this later, in private.” — The woman directed a frosty glare at me, one that was making me squirm.

My eyes widened with another burst of fear, as I suspected that she might have misunderstood something, and I started to speak in an attempt to clear up the misunderstanding. — “Ugh, I swear it’s nothing like that…”

She smiled sweetly, an ominous glint playing in her eyes. — “Nothing like what?”

I froze, hearing her sarcastic words, then I finally remembered about the rest of the people in the room. First noticing Camilla’s shit-eating grin, then Aria’s infuriated expression, and then I promptly shut up, not even daring to look at the others.

The woman, seeing this, sighed again, then continued her words.

“Putting that aside, I do realize that most of this issue was caused by my husband’s thoughtlessness. It is only right for us to take a share of the responsibility. While the fact that you are actually an adult, which fact was willfully ignored by my husband, will be confusing in certain situations, your adoption into the family is not something that could be revoked so easily. The only way to nullify it is to effectively cast you out of the family, but that would come with a variety of uncomfortable side effects for you, both in dwarven and human kingdoms. Therefore, I do not recommend taking that action.”

“While I do not know you personally, after we have cleared all the remaining misunderstandings...” — She coughed politely.

“I believe that we can create an amicable relationship. Do keep in mind that as a member of the Dimhollow clan, and an official daughter of mine, you will bear certain expectations. For example, you will be required to call me mother, at least in front of people outside of the main branch who do not already know of your unique situation. I expect that it will feel strange at first, but understand that in noble houses, being a mother or a daughter is as much of a title as being a knight or a shaper. Therefore, you are expected to refer to Emrum as father, no matter if the fool says otherwise. You may also refer to your siblings with the appropriate terms, just as the rest of the family.”

“There are, of course, other expectations, but based on the fact that you have already gifted our house a title received from a prince, I don’t think that most of those will place that much of a burden on you. Not even mentioning your magical aptitude.” — She paused, then asked. — “Is that fine with you?”

I nodded and said. — “Yes, mother.”

“Good start. Now one last thing. Since you are a witch of sorts, I will warn you only once. There shall be no witchcraft performed inside the mansion or in my garden. Cross me on this and there will be dire consequences.”

“Mommy’s gonna spank yo-… OW” — After another, slightly harder slap to the back of her head, coupled with an icy glare directed at her, Bella was silenced.

The visibly exasperated woman continued with a light cough. — “If you want to practice your spells, there are places specially assigned for that reason spread around the compound. They will be showed to you in due time. I believe that is all for now. That will entail me officially welcoming you into our clan. I expect to see you in my room tonight an hour before curfew so we may tie up the remaining loose treads. Do you have any question?”

I blinked up at the woman and shook my head hesitantly.

She offered me a quick smile, then spoke to the rest of the group. — “Then that will be it for now. I have to head back for the clan meeting.” — She pointed a narrowed look at the old dwarf sitting by the table, who noticed her glance and straightened himself subconsciously. — “I expect that, grandfather will take good care of the guests.” — She glanced back at me, then her gaze hovered over to Aria and Camilla taking in our appearances with a frown. Meanwhile, she was already grabbing onto her daughter’s hand and tugging her along. Said daughter enthusiastically waving us goodbye, which caused a subtle tick in the left eye of the woman. — “For starter, a change of clothes and a bath might suffice, along with some well-deserved rest in some of the guest rooms.”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

While on her way towards the door, she noticed the barely touched tray of food, and added. — “Of course, only after you have sated your appetite. Now excuse us.” — With that said, she marched out of the room, closing the door behind her with a loud bang.

There was an exasperated silence left behind her. I looked around our group, noticing that the sole dwarf in the room has miraculously conjured a bottle of alcohol from somewhere and was in the process of taking a long chug from it. Making a grimace after knocking the bottle back against the table.

“She is a sweet woman.” — Was the only thing he said, then lifted off a piece of grilled rib and effectively stripped the bones off the juicy meat.

We followed his example and started to eat our share, too.

~oOo~

The rest of the day went by in a daze. Each of us were led to our rooms by Dalorsaer, who was quite tipsy by the time and left us there without other instructions.

I waved to the girls and went into my room.

The first thing that grabbed my attention was the empty metal bathtub placed in a corner of the room, next to a movable wooden wall placed to help one preserve their modesty. To my surprise, the bath was connected to a built in water faucet that released warm water. This novel discovery left me quite shocked.

I looked around the room with growing excitement.

My elation quickly plummeted as I noticed that there were several pairs of female clothing carefully folded on the bed. The various combinations of skirts, stockings and girlish blouses, along with one piece dresses, left me quite uncomfortable. Still… I couldn’t help but feel relieved at the sight of clean undergarments.

I took a quick look at my current clothes. Seeing the various layers of blood and dirt at this point practically fuzed with the material, likely on an irreversible level, the sight was quite pitiful. I knew that there was no way that I will be allowed to keep wearing them in this state. Still, wearing a dress or a skirt was a bit…

My eyes kept hovering over the room. Until I accidentally noticed a mirror innocently hung on the wall next to the entrance. It was the first real mirror I encountered since coming into this world. It made me stop in my thoughts.

Hesitantly, I stepped in front of it, as if drawn by an invisible hand.

I blinked, taken aback by the image of the woman reflected in the mirror.

The girl I saw was covered in grime and dirt. Her clothes were ripped in many places, missing small chunks here and there. Her black hair was a complete mess, and her face was still showing signs of a fist sized bruise, one that I thought I had healed completely.

Apparently not.

Even under all that damage and dirt, her lithe, feminine form was unmistakable. She looked gentle yet sharp. Her facial structure was pointy, with sharp lines that, thanks to some invisible sculptor’s masterful touch, still managed to keep a girlish softness.

The round eyes that stared back at me were of a silver grey, that from certain angles seemed almost white while from others shined with the unrelenting color of steel. Unfortunately, it was impossible to ignore the stark, dark circles under the girl’s haunted eyes.

I bit into my lips anxiously, the girl in the mirror following the action. Seeing this jolted something inside me… A certain recognition flooded me. The last gate that was stubbornly holding to my old self seemed to give way, and I knew that there was no return from this point.

A deep, deep sigh broke out of my throat as I continued to stare at the image… — “Why are you still pretending?” — The girl, I spoke. — “Just look at yourself, you fool…” — I said while staring at the image. — “You are a girl, an honest to god G-I-R-L. Wearing female clothes is the least of your problem if you are worrying about your past male pride. You might as well wear them at this point, and stop complaining.”

I finished scolding myself through the mirror and turned around in a dazed sense of elation. I felt lighter, almost relieved. Also, I found that I wanted to discover the rest of the room now.

The room was equipped with every standard furniture that a noble girl might need. It took me approximately fifteen minutes to finish my exploration, which time I spent alone, if you put aside the few occasions when Camilla came over to squeal some barely understandable words about hot water flowing from the wall and stuff like that.

I could imagine Camilla excitedly bouncing around her room with little to no care in the world, while Aria was probably glaring daggers at the wall from her bed, just because she could.

Unfortunately, I was still too anxious to truly enjoy my situation.

I glanced into the mirror with a frustrated sigh, locked the door with a key, then started to forcefully peel off the different layers of dirty clothes.

It was high time to clean up my appearance.

~oOo~

After a relatively quick bath, and a change of clothes, I was walking up and down in my room with a towel carefully wrapped around my head. I was wearing a modest one piece dress with short sleeves and a knee-length skirt. Its color was dark blue, its material soft to the touch, possibly made from silk or something similar. I even pulled on a pair of stockings out of sheer curiosity. I mean, if you commit to something might as well go all the way. I kicked up my legs from the side of the bed. They looked quite charming in the shiny stockings. I could already see that the frivolous type of clothing did little to nothing against the cold.

Not that it was cold in my room. Come to think of it, the entire city seemed to have a comfortable temperature, which was even more true for the noble district. There must have been some sort of central heating put in place. The fact that I have warm water flowing from the tap only strengthens this opinion.

Aside from that…

I had a feeling that Nerha was seriously misunderstanding something, and it was putting me into a weird and extremely uncomfortable position. Of course, I hoped that it was all a figment of my imagination, but at the same time, I kind of knew it wasn’t.

Was this one of those female-intuition things that I have heard about in my previous life? I wondered to myself while waiting for curfew.

At that moment, I had an unfortunate realization. I had never even asked where Nerha’s room was. Which turned out to be just another thing I could get anxious about… Great. It was one of those times when you really needed a servant to help you out. Alas, this house doesn’t seem to employ any of them.

~oOo~

A few hours have passed, and my hair was mostly dry now. It was definitely good to be clean again, to wear freshly scented clothes, not even mentioning the underwear. The one I have been wearing since the dark elf ambush, where I lost the rest of my stuff… Well, suffice it to say that it went straight into the trash.

At least thanks to the mirror’s presence, I have managed to properly heal the lingering bruise on my face. I know I told Nerha that I won’t do witchcraft inside the house, but I just couldn’t leave that be. It reminded me too much at a past mistake.

It turns out anxiety had a limit as well. Thanks to that, I was currently laying limply on the side of my bed, staring at the door like some old philosopher that expected all the inquiries in the world to be answered by a single opening door.

Just as I came up with that thought, I heard a soft knock.

I jolted up and rushed over to the door, opening it quickly.

In a second, I found myself eye to eye with Nerha, who was standing in the door with a lit candle held on a small plate. She offered me a hesitant smile. — “I realized too late, that I have failed to tell you where to find my room. So I have come instead. May I enter, Miss Selora?”

I stepped aside, opening the door wider and inviting her in. — “Of course, please come inside!”

Nerha stepped into the room, discreetly looking around, until her eyes found a small table with two chairs in a corner, which I didn’t really notice until now.

“Let’s take a seat and put this issue behind us.” — She said with her usual directness and I followed suit sitting down opposite to her.

Then we stayed like that, for a minute, then another. Not a single word exchanged between us.

I felt seriously uncomfortable as the woman looked at me with silent judgement in her eyes, right from the other side of the table. She seemed to be uncomfortable as well, even if not nearly as much as I was, or at least hiding it better.

Unfortunately for me, there was nowhere to hide here, at least not in the literal sense. I internally cursed my rotten luck. Apparently, I managed to hit the nail on the head when I suspected a major misunderstanding.

Am I going to be bitch slapped like some characters in those ridiculous Spanish soap-operas my wife used to enjoy? I wondered internally, seeing how this situation was turning out for the worst.

After about three to five minutes of silent treatment, the woman across the table sighed frustratedly and decided to break the ice. She crossed one of her legs over the other with nervous momentum while cursing under her breath. I was pretty sure she didn’t intend it to be overheard by me, so I did my best to not react to it. — “I am going to strangle that bastard one of these days…” — I was really hoping that she didn’t talk about me there. — She rubbed her fingers against her temple in a desperate move, then looked me in the eye.

“I don’t know how to ask this in any less awkward way, but I have to know. What is the real relationship between you and Emrum?” — She asked.

I wasn’t quite sure what she meant by that… More like I didn’t want to know. — “W-what do you mean? We are friends… comrades, perhaps?”

The woman snorted derisively. — “Of course you are, it’s completely reasonable to adopt your friends and comrades into your family without talking it over with said family.” — I blinked at the hostile tone, wincing slightly when the woman sneered at me.

“Why don’t you stop with your bullshit and tell me the actual reason? Or is it that you are ashamed of coveting someone else man?” — She asked in a threatening whisper.

It was a pity that I was too shocked by the implication to answer properly at the time. — “I… what?”

She rolled her eyes. — “Do I have to spell it out for you, daughter? Admit it here and now, so we may find an acceptable resolution for this… issue. Believe me, I know how men are, so I won’t skin you alive just yet.” — She narrowed her eyes dangerously. — “I won’t be so gentle if you continue to play the fool.”

I gulped drily, saying in a thin voice in the presence of the open threat. — “I-I am honestly not sure… why you are so angry, ma’am… You should calm down and-…” — I was cut short with a heavy glare and a hissed question.

“Fine, play the fool, then. I will ask so even you can understand. Have the two of you slept together?”

I blinked, then blinked again. Feeling dumbstruck by the notion. My mouth opened then closed silently as I apparently could not know where to start denying such accusations.

“…” — I fucking knew that there was a misunderstanding here. I wasn’t sure what exactly I expected, but it wasn’t this… It didn’t even cross my mind, since I deep down still tend to think of myself as a man, while that is not true anymore, and should have been obvious based on the direction of this whole conversation.

Seeing the pretty image in the mirror after I cleaned and dressed myself up was starting to take root in my lizard brain, too. Apparently, I was quite hot, even if I didn’t know how to feel about that just yet.

Yep… in retrospect, this is not that much of a surprise to be asked by Emrum’s wife, especially considering the specific situation. I mean… my situation as an adopted child hardly made any sense when knowing this body’s actual age.

Silently making sense of the question, I gathered my scattered mind and answered. — “… No?”

The woman opposite from me didn’t seem to be entirely reassured with my answer as she leaned closer over the table and demanded. — “Are you sure?”

I nodded swiftly this time, saying with more momentum as the weight of the words finally sank in. — “Absolutely, certain! Ma’am!” — My face was starting to get red like a paradise under the embarrassing interrogation.

The woman leaned back into her chair with a relieved look. Alas, she was still not entirely calm. — “I don’t understand then.” — She stated. — “Why is he hiding the reason he adopted you, and why wouldn’t you want to explain it back then?”

Hearing her mumblings, I decided that it was time to clean the plate before the situation could get even more awkward between us.

Therefore, I started to explain the entire incident to her, from the moment Emrum brought me back to my room utterly spent from that misadventure in the tunnels, to me forgetting to close the door with a key, then him appearing next morning along with Tymur and opening it without proper warning with the worst timing… All the things about Balgrun’s advice to them and me accidentally missing that particularly important explanation about getting a ring as a compensation and completely misunderstanding the situation.

By the time I finished my incredibly embarrassing explanation, Nerha was slapping her thigh, literally crying with laughter.

Between her failed attempts in suppressing her roaring laughter, she managed to say a few words. — “Oh, sweet gods… I can literally see it in front of my eyes… You utter bunch of morons! Every one of you! Ha-ha-ha! Are you sure that you are not a man, in fact? To be this much of a bumbling buffoon!” — She screamed, clutching her sides while struggling to stay in her seat.

I stared at her with a dumbstruck expression. Thankfully, she completely missed the way my entire body went rigid at her last comment. That one really took me by surprise. I guess I can’t underestimate female intuition in the end.

Either way, my face was still rosy from the recent retelling of my new life’s most awkward incidents.

At least, based on her reaction, I seemed to be in the green now.

Was it worth it, though? I wondered internally while listening to Nerha’s laughter.

I guess it’s better than to get bitch slapped…