A Sinner’s Chance

My body was extremely sore and every movement as I slowly cracked away at whatever shell I was encased in sent small jolts of pleasure as Masochism converted the pain to pleasure. The first part of my body to emerge was my right arm, followed by the left which then worked in unison to break apart and tear away the stiff material that was keeping me from moving.

I could hear faint voices as I worked to pull my head out along with my chest so that I could sit up. I felt somewhat confused as when I was finally able to see it seemed that the shell I had been breaking out of was something like a cast of my body. I felt strangely off balance as I freed my legs and stood up, in fact my entire body felt off.

Since I'd cracked out of my old body, I was naturally naked which let me confirm that I was still humanoid, though my skin had lost all trace of the tan I'd worked hard to try and maintain, though on the plus side, my skin was smooth and flawless, like polished marble. The second most notable change was my chest, as it had used to be in the middle of growing and wasn't that large, now I was probably about the same size as Ashara had been, which is to say, on the bigger side, something I wasn't necessarily thrilled about, and I hoped that they wouldn't be getting any bigger.

It took me awhile to find out where the strange sense of imbalance came from but it turned out that besides my chest, my height had also increased quite a bit as well. I'd been maybe, around five foot and nine inches, but I was pretty sure I was at least six feet tall now as I was at least a head taller than Reine who was standing to the side looking at me in shock along with Marian and Arya.

I just waved at them with a brief  "Morning" assuming that their shock came from the drastic change in my form rather than any other reason as I made my way over to the full length mirror next to the wardrobe. Other than the obvious changes I'd already noted, I found that my hair had changed quite a bit as well. Besides the fact that it was long enough to hang below my waist, there were barely noticeable streaks of purple that ran through it, along with a purple to black gradient at the tips. 

My face had lost all trace of childishness it had once had, there was a strange sense of disconnect since rather than a gradual change it was like I had become an adult overnight. After admiring myself for a while longer I made a mental note to go buy some makeup, something I didn't understand why I hadn't done before, I had such good features that I was wasting by letting them be plain.

It took me a moment to realize that I had been influenced by the memory of Vellastria, in the same way that I was influenced by Velen and his memories. While it was odd I realized that it was something I couldn't help, the Queen of Hell had told me that some memories of my past lives would be returning. Even if I changed a bit it should be fine as long I don't lose who I was.

I was suddenly surprised when I felt the hands of the three women who had been looking at me suddenly grasp me tightly as they clung to my body and felt me up as if trying to determine if I was a fake. It was a pleasant experience but one I couldn't say that I understood, especially when I felt some dampness when one of their faces brushed against my skin. "What's wrong?" I asked innocently, completely confused by their reactions.

There was a short moment of silence before Arya pushed herself away from me and gently rubbed her eyes. "Don't worry us like that!" She yelled lightly punching me. "You can't just collapse while coughing up blood and then worry us for a week while you're in a coma. Then you suddenly break out of your body like you just discarded it, and you don't even acknowledge us or what we went through."

I smiled sheepishly as I heard her rant against me. It felt like I had taken a nap and just woke up so how was I supposed to know that I'd been gone for a week? Regardless I acknowledged that I had been insensitive and did my best to comfort the three women and reassure them that I was completely fine.

It took a while but I managed to get them to calm as I listened to the story of how a mysterious spider woman had invaded the manor and told Arya that I wasn't in danger and would wake up eventually. I could also tell that Arya had left something out of the story, but I chose not to pursue it as it seemed like she didn't want to mention it front of Reine or Marian. 

She also mentioned rumors that stated Hiroshi's plan for me after I lost was to become engaged, something that bothered me greatly, even if the rumors were false. I couldn't understand why he'd choose me anyway since he should know that I was a man in my past life, but it was possible that he didn't particularly care, or perhaps he was into that kind of a thing.

Either way I'd already missed the deadline that I'd set for myself, but I still planned on challenging him, after all I wanted to hear who he had heard the name of my past life from. I was going to have to take some time to readjust to my new stature and refit both my armor and weapon for it as well, but I planned on at least challenging him before the end of the month, which was only around five days from now.