As Mengdie released the pent-up frustration in her heart, she felt a sense of relief. Now that she had spoken her mind, how would Father Kotton, the priest, the sage, respond to her story?
“Hmm…” Father Kotton stroked his chin thoughtfully, then suddenly gave Mengdie a very strange look.
“Young lady, I might say something that could anger you.”
Mengdie perked up her ears, curious: “What is it?”
Father Kotton hesitated, his clear, unpolluted gaze fixed on Mengdie. He finally sighed and slowly said, “Actually… you might be suffering from a disease. A mental condition known as ‘Letomuk.’”
Mengdie was completely taken aback. Her tail coiled around her knees, her ears twitching with confusion. Her eyes were full of question marks.
Mengdie: “Leto… muk?”
Father Kotton: “Ah, it's the name of a disease. Simply put, patients with this condition always believe they are not their biological gender. Men think they are women, and women think they are men. In my travels around the world, I’ve encountered both male and female patients. Mengdie, you… seem to have this condition.”
Mengdie huffed dismissively, not responding. After all that, the priest still didn't believe her! This sounded no different from 'gender dysphoria' on Earth. Talking seemed pointless.
Unsatisfied with the response, Mengdie stood up and walked towards her tent, overcome with post-exercise fatigue and needing to rest for tomorrow's journey.
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“However, young lady. What if this condition of yours is the reason your strength can't improve further?” Father Kotton suddenly said as Mengdie was leaving. Indeed, Mengdie stopped again and turned around, looking at him questioningly.
The priest smiled kindly and patted the stone where Mengdie had been sitting. She thought for a moment, then sat down again.
“Young lady, I'm a magic user and a priest, so I don’t know much about physical combat. But after hearing your story, an idea came to mind.”
“Could it be that your Letomuk condition is preventing your combat abilities from improving faster?”
The idea of gender dysphoria being related to combat ability was new to Mengdie. She decided to listen to the priest's understanding first.
“You said you were a man before. Alright, let's accept that hypothesis for now (Mengdie looked a bit displeased, but didn’t object). Now, you, as a girl, stand before me. This discrepancy may have caused you to resist this body, using training and fighting techniques not suited for a female body. Could this be why you can't significantly improve your strength?”
Father Kotton, not well-versed in physical combat, took a while to articulate his thoughts. The concept he described was simple, something any martial artist would encounter: Mind, Technique, Body. The unity of these three is fundamental to martial arts, but achieving it is difficult. They are closely related yet distinctly different. In regular training, it might be manageable, but in actual combat, any deficiency in one aspect could lead to defeat or death.
Technique, Mengdie had in abundance. Her twenty years as a man had provided her with unparalleled combat skills.
Body, if her body could develop faster than normal, that wasn’t an issue.
But the Mind...
Mengdie looked down and pressed her hands against the "useless excess flesh" on her chest, feeling a chill as her fingertips sank into her skin.
Impossible! How could this "Body" ever align with my "Mind"? I am a man, absolutely, a hundred percent (almost) a monk!!!
Mengdie resisted, and she would continue to do so! She had thoroughly grasped the path of a martial artist with the unity of Mind, Technique, Body as a man, and had adapted each combat skill to suit herself, even deliberately omitting lethal techniques to align with her beliefs. But now! Her "Mind" and "Body" were in severe conflict. The unity was gone. The "Body's" reality made many of the "Techniques" developed for a male body impractical. It was no wonder her strength was improving slowly under such a split.
The girl shook her head fiercely. Having pinpointed why her power couldn’t improve significantly, her resentment towards her body intensified. Biting her teeth, she suddenly grabbed her chest forcefully—!
“!!!~~~~~~~”
Pain… intense pain! Mengdie crouched on the ground, trembling, holding her chest. Her tail curled between her legs, and her ears trembled against her hair. The forceful grip had been too much, leaving her breathless.