Princess Connect: The Gender-Swap Curse - A Romantic Comedy of Maidens and Men - Cathedral of Light — The Forbidden Spell's Name is Morganian

Broken shards of pottery lay scattered across the stone pavement. Had someone thrown it, or had it simply been dropped? Yuuki stepped around the fragments as he walked the streets of Frostveil. (...This is a disaster.) It had been three days since the old book he'd brought back from the forest ruins had begun to glow. The town looked like the aftermath of a battlefield. The market stalls held no vegetables or fruit. Shop shutters were drawn, and few people walked the streets. Every so often, shouts and sobs echoed from inside the houses. " Stay away from me! Who are you?!" A woman's shriek rang out from one of the homes. Yuuki stopped and looked toward the sound. (...That's the curse too.) A sharp pain tightened in his chest. Yuuki gripped the wooden spoon hanging from his neck. His mother's keepsake. He always wore it as a charm. (If only I hadn't brought that book back.) He'd been searching for moonlit mushrooms in the Frostveil forest when he found the old ruins. Inside was that book—the Curse Tome of Gender Reversal. "If you wish to break my curse, find true love." The moment he'd read the runes carved on the cover aloud, the book had blazed with light. That night, a wave of light had spread across the entire town. By the next morning, people began swapping genders one after another. Men became women, women became men. Their entire bodies transformed. Yuuki himself, for some reason, hadn't changed. (I'm the only one who's fine. ...And that somehow makes it worse.) He looked out over the transformed town. The sky was blue, yet the whole town looked gray. "...Let's go." Yuuki started walking toward his destination. The Temple of the Light—the "Sanctuary of Light." The largest building in town, dedicated to the Goddess of Light, Celestia. A priestess named Seraphina was apparently investigating the curse. (Maybe I'll find some kind of lead.) Yuuki looked up at the white stone walls of the sanctuary. Atop the pointed roof, a silver bell swayed in the wind. Normally, this would be the hour when the morning prayer bell rang. But today, it was silent. "...Excuse me." Yuuki pushed open the heavy wooden door. Cool air spilled out from within. The sanctuary was larger than he'd expected. Colorful stained glass adorned the high ceiling. The figure of the Goddess of Light, Celestia, shone bathed in seven colors. White stone pillars lined both sides, and at the far end stood an altar. And then— " I'm a man! This body is wrong!" " I was a woman until yesterday! Why does my voice sound like this?!" " I-I... what am I supposed to do..." Several townspeople were shouting at each other in front of the altar. One had a woman's body but wore men's clothing. Another had a man's body but wept with a woman's speech. They all pointed at each other, hurling insults, as if their bodies no longer belonged to them. (...This is awful.) Yuuki wanted to look away from the scene. But he couldn't. This had happened because of the book he'd brought back. " Everyone, please calm down." A woman appeared from beside the altar. Her long silver hair caught the stained glass light, shimmering faintly. She wore white priestess robes, with the emblem of the Goddess of Light at her chest. Tall and slender. Her ears were long and pointed, her skin white as snow. An elf. And a long-lived one at that. She looked to be in her late twenties, but her presence was different. " Gender is not your essence. The Goddess of Light sees the soul." Seraphina's voice was quiet and carried well. " That's easy for you to say! When your body changes, your whole life changes!" " I'm scared to face my husband looking like this..." " I'm a monster... I've turned into a monster..." The townspeople's confusion wouldn't settle. Yet Seraphina's calm expression didn't waver. " I understand your suffering. But you must not call yourselves monsters. You are you—nothing less." She looked into each person's face as she spoke, slowly weaving her words. " There is surely a way to break this curse. Until then, please do not abandon hope." The townspeople still looked dissatisfied. But Seraphina's quiet voice seemed to restore a measure of calm. " ...Can we really go back?" " Yes. The Goddess of Light will never abandon us." Seraphina smiled as she said it. That smile was like the stained glass light—soft and warm. (...She's amazing.) Yuuki found himself staring. She didn't shout at the confused crowd, didn't force them into submission—she simply reasoned with them, quietly. (To be able to reassure people like that... that's incredible.) After a while, the townspeople trickled out of the sanctuary one by one. " ...Thank you, Lady Seraphina." " Not at all. Please come again anytime." When the last person left, the sanctuary fell into silence. Yuuki stood frozen before the altar. " ...And you are?" Seraphina turned toward him. Her blue eyes looked straight at Yuuki. " Ah, um... I'm Yuuki. An adventurer with the Gourmet Adventurers' Guild, Grimoire..." " Ah, of Grimoire. Baldur's group." " You know them?" " Yes. I'm quite fond of the Golden Pot's stew, after all." Seraphina chuckled softly. " That stew is the best! The runebear meat is so tender, and the herb aroma is just incredible!" Yuuki leaned forward without thinking. When it came to food, his eyes lit up on their own. " Hehe. You really do love to eat, don't you?" " Ah, sorry. I got carried away..." Yuuki scratched his head. " No, I think it's wonderful." Seraphina began neatly folding the white cloth laid before the altar. " ...So, what brings you here today?" Yuuki swallowed hard. (...I have to say it.) The book was in his pocket. Heavy and solid. " ...It's about the curse. The night the light spread across town." Seraphina's hands stopped for a moment. " ...Do you know something about it?" Her blue eyes fixed on Yuuki once more. Different from the gentle air she'd had before. Serious, probing eyes. " ...Um, well..." Yuuki's words caught in his throat. (If I tell the truth, she might get angry.) (But if I keep hiding it, nothing will be solved.) (...Say it. Tell her it was me.) Yuuki took a deep breath. " ...It was me. I'm the one who brought that book back." Seraphina waited silently for his words. " I found an old book in the forest ruins... and it was a curse tome. Because I brought it back, the whole town ended up like this..." Yuuki clenched his fists. His nails dug into his palms. " Everyone's suffering because of me. ...I have to take responsibility." Only Yuuki's voice echoed through the sanctuary. Seraphina said nothing for a while. (...She's going to be angry.) (Of course she is. Because of me.) Yuuki closed his eyes. " ...Yuuki." Seraphina's voice was surprisingly kind. " You have the curse tome, don't you? May I see it?" " ...Huh? You're not angry?" " I have no reason to be. You came here to resolve this situation, didn't you?" Seraphina smiled quietly. " Besides, blaming you won't break the curse. Right now, learning the facts comes first." Yuuki pulled the book from his pocket. An old leather cover. Worn corners. Tarnished gold ornamentation. And runes he'd never seen before. Seraphina took the book and stared at the cover. " ...This is..." The smile vanished from her face. " ...There's no mistake. This is the Curse Tome of Gender Reversal." " The Curse Tome of... Gender Reversal..." " Yes. A forbidden curse created roughly three hundred years ago by a woman named Morganian, a court mage of the Kingdom of Grandveld." Seraphina placed the book on the altar. " Morganian lost her lover during the Millennium Beast War. It's said she despaired at the wall between genders and created this tome." " The Millennium Beast War... that's the war that lasted a hundred years, starting a thousand years ago, right? The Demon Lord Valgaros against the allied forces of humans and elves." " Yes. A war that claimed a million lives across the entire continent. Morganian lost her lover in that war. ...And perhaps, by becoming something neither man nor woman, she sought to escape the suffering of gender itself." Yuuki stared at the book. (The person who made this... suffered that much?) " ...Is there a way to break this curse?" Seraphina walked toward the back of the sanctuary. She opened a small door behind the altar. " This way." Yuuki followed her. Beyond the door was a stone staircase. Down and further down. The air was cold and damp. Magical lights flickered along the walls. " This is the temple's archive. We keep ancient documents from the Millennium Beast War era here as well." At the bottom of the stairs was a small room. Old books and scrolls lined every wall. A musty smell tickled his nose. Seraphina pulled a scroll from a shelf. " ...This is it." She spread the scroll across a desk. Tiny writing covered the yellowed parchment. " This scroll contains records about the Curse Tome of Gender Reversal. ...To break the curse, it says 'a confession and acceptance of true love' is required." " A confession and acceptance of... true love..." " Yes. The cursed person must confess their true love to the one they sincerely love. And that person must accept that love. ...By doing so, the curse is broken." Yuuki peered at the scroll. But it was full of difficult characters, and he could barely read any of it. " ...However, there's a problem." Seraphina pointed to a section of the scroll. " Everything from here on is missing. The detailed method isn't written." The edge of the scroll was torn. The crucial part had been completely lost. " ...Then what are we supposed to do?" Seraphina carefully rolled the scroll back up. " Asking the one who cast the curse directly would be the most reliable option." " The one who cast it... Morganian?" " Yes. Morganian is said to reside in the deepest part of the Frostveil forest—the Tower of Lament." " The Tower of Lament...!" Yuuki gasped. He'd heard that name before. A tower eighty meters tall, deep in the northern forest. Danger level SS. A place where even rank-A adventurers were said to struggle to return alive. " ...It's a dangerous place. But we have no other leads." Seraphina looked Yuuki straight in the eyes. " Yuuki. You said you feel responsible." " ...Yes." " If you feel responsible, then turn it into strength. Not as a weight to blame yourself with, but as power to move forward." Her words seeped into his chest. " It was coincidence that you brought the tome back. But how you face it—that's something you can choose." " ...I can choose." " Yes. You could run away. But you didn't. You came here and told the truth. That took real courage." A warmth spread slowly through Yuuki's chest. (...She acknowledged me.) (She understood how I feel.) " ...Thank you, Seraphina." Yuuki bowed deeply. " I'll go. To the Tower of Lament. I'll meet Morganian and find out how to break the curse." Seraphina nodded quietly. " ...Understood. But going alone is dangerous. First, regroup with your guildmates." " ...! Right, everyone!" Yuuki pictured his companions' faces. Pecorine. Kyaru. Kokkoro. He hadn't seen any of them since the curse activated. (Please be safe, all of you...!) " Thank you, Seraphina! I'll go find everyone first!" Yuuki dashed up the stairs. " ...May the Goddess of Light watch over you." Seraphina's prayer reached his back as he left. Bursting out of the sanctuary, the outside light was blinding. "...Let's go." Yuuki ran through the transformed town. The tavern "Golden Pot" stood in the center of town. The guild's base. Where his companions should be waiting. " It's your fault! You used weird magic, and now the whole town's gone crazy!" " Hah?! It's not my fault! I'm a victim too!" " Stop it... it's nobody's fault..." In the streets, gender-swapped townspeople blamed ea

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Episode 2

Name: Princess Connect: The Gender-Swap Curse - A Romantic Comedy of Maidens and Men
Author: Novelia

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