Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 5 - Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

Soul Swap

I AWOKE TO GLORIOUS GOLDEN beams of sunlight streaming in through the open window. But this wasn’t my room. From the bed, I studied my surroundings. The most striking thing about the room was the soothing light-blue wallpaper. Nearby was a selection of cute-looking furniture. When I shifted my gaze to the white bed I’d woken up in, I noticed a huge, plush black bear toy, just sitting there by my side.

What is this? Why am I even in this room? 

I reached for Greed to ask his opinion, but he wasn’t there. I was exhausted after seeing Memil, and I’d gone right to sleep. That much I remembered. Had I gone sleepwalking and ended up in a different bed in a different room? I couldn’t understand it at all, and I let out a great sigh.

“Huh?! My voice…!”

It was a girl’s voice, and one I knew very well. It was then that I looked down at my body. I was wearing a white sleeping gown with a beautiful frilly collar. And underneath, I saw the curving outline of breasts. 

Have I turned into a girl?!

Whatever drowsiness had filled my head completely evaporated, and I spoke so I could listen to my voice one more time.

“No way… Ahhhhhh!”

There was no mistaking it. I shot out of bed to the room’s full-length mirror to make sure I was who I suspected. My movements were clumsy—I wasn’t used to this new set of legs! I almost fell on my face, but somehow managed to stumble to the mirror. Why is this happening?!

“I’m Roxy! I’m Roxy! Whaaaaaaat?!” I gripped the mirror with both hands and cried. “Huh?! What?! Ahhhhhhh!”

I paced aimlessly around the room, trying to calm my rapidly beating heart and failing miserably. Then I tripped on the carpet with a shriek and fell to my knees. What was going on? I couldn’t help myself and started laughing. 

Oh, it’s a dream. It has to be.

I rolled around on the carpet, waiting. Five minutes passed, ten minutes passed, but I still didn’t wake up.

“It’s not a dream!” I cried. “What is this?! What do I do?!” 

I rolled left and right along the carpet, and then I heard the door burst open. I turned to find myself face-to-face with…myself. I was looking at Fate Barbatos, still dressed in his pajamas, his hair an unruly mess, and his face a portrait of stress as he walked over to me. He grabbed both of my shoulders and straddled me as I lay on the carpet. I shrieked.

“Help! I’m being attacked by myself!”

“Calm down. That’s you, isn’t it, Fay?” 

“Huh? Roxy…is that you?” I gaped. Whoa, what?

All my strength left my body. Then, our voices spoke as one, confirming our fears.

“We’ve swapped bodies!”

Roxy—in my body—stood up and reached a hand down toward me. “Stand up,” she said, “the floor’s no place for a nap.”

“Yeah, I know.” I took her hand and got to my feet. 

Then the two of us sat side by side on Roxy’s bed. As we started to regain our composure, Roxy speculated on how this could’ve happened.

“I was me until I went to sleep last night. And when I woke up, I was you. Speaking of, you’re not much of a sound sleeper, are you? I literally fell out of bed.”

I laughed. “Yeah, you’re probably right. But, uh, setting aside my sleeping habits, the same thing happened with me.”

“Did it? Hm. I’ve been thinking it might be because we got caught in that magical seal while we investigated the Hobgoblin Forest yesterday.”

“Ah, right, we were both bathed in that strange red light just before it faded.”

Roxy leaned in closer to me. “That’s right! Perhaps it was the red light that caused us to swap bodies. And perhaps the only reason the swap didn’t happen immediately was because your attack interrupted the spell.”

“Hmm… So if the spell had worked right then, we would have swapped bodies instantaneously?”

We considered it, but Roxy shook her head decisively. “I don’t think so. Do you think that perhaps the real goal was for the goblins to swap bodies with us?”

“If that’s the case, we’re actually really lucky. If I had to swap bodies with anyone, I’m glad it was with you. I don’t even want to imagine swapping bodies with a goblin.” 

“I’m glad too. I would have hated becoming a goblin.”

We laughed for a moment, but we still had a serious problem on our hands. We couldn’t stay trapped in each other’s bodies forever.

“Swapping bodies like this is a real bother. I didn’t even have a chance to mentally prepare myself…” Roxy murmured.

“That makes two of us,” I replied.

We sat there at the edge of the bed, dejected. However, there was still one girl who might be able to help us find an answer: Laine. She was likely still hard at work in her laboratory within the Military District. We’d given her all the clues we had and asked her to analyze them. 

“There’s a chance that Laine has already discovered something about that magical seal and the gray arm we gave her,” I said. “Let’s go pay her a visit.”

“Indeed, let’s go. But first!” Roxy gripped my shoulders in her hands.

“Huh?! What?!”

“Come with me,” she said.

I followed her to her closet, where she opened it up and began taking out her holy knight equipment.

“Okay, that’s everything,” she said. “Now, close your eyes.”

“Close my eyes?”

“Of course! I don’t want you to see me naked! So you have to close your eyes!”

There was no use arguing, so I let her blindfold me with a piece of fabric and did as I was told. I lifted both of my arms and felt my sleeping gown get taken off and replaced with Roxy’s holy knight uniform. It was a whole lot of raising arms and raising legs to put it all on, and when Roxy accidentally touched me, I let out a surprised yelp.

“Fay, please try not to make such weird sounds with my body,” Roxy said.

“I can’t help it. This body is different. It’s more sensitive.”

“Fay! Please don’t talk about my body like that!”

It was probably because winter still clung to the streets that Roxy’s—that was to say, my—hands were cold. I hadn’t known my hands got so cold, and I shrieked a few more times before we were finally done. Finally, Roxy took off my makeshift blindfold.

“Wow,” I said. “I’m kind of exhausted.”

“Don’t be like that. We have to head straight to Laine after this! And we’re still not finished. Come here, please.”

Roxy made me sit in front of her makeup stand, where she used a comb to brush my long, beautiful, golden locks. It felt amazing.

“Wow, you’re really good at that,” I said.

“Because I do it all the time. It’s not easy being a woman.”

I nodded. “It really isn’t.”

“Okay, we’re done!” said Roxy, pulling me before the full-length mirror. 

Yeah, I look good, I thought. Bringing my thumb and index finger to my chin, I struck a dashing pose. I looked chic. I looked cool. But Roxy, who was watching by my side, told me to knock it off.

“Okay, I guess now we’ll go back to your manor, Fay, and then… I’ll…get…changed.”

“Yeah…let’s…do that.”

Just as we were getting up to leave, we noticed Lady Aisha peeking in through a crack in the doorway. Her mouth hung open wordlessly as the color drained from her face. She entered the room silently before finally speaking.

“Roxy. Fate. I don’t really want to have to tell you this, but I’ve been watching you for a little while now, and I think…it would be best if you stopped doing…whatever it is you are doing. There’s an order to things, you know. Bursting into each other’s rooms, holding one another on the floor, playing dress-up games involving blindfolds… I have to say, I never, ever imagined my own daughter would be interested in such things. I’m shocked!”

“Mother, that’s not it at all!”

Roxy jumped toward Lady Aisha in an attempt to explain, but it had entirely the wrong effect. Lady Aisha was taken completely off guard by the sight of my body walking toward her.

“Come now, Fate, get a hold of yourself,” she said, her voice rising in pitch until she was yelling. “Take your hands off me this instant! What’s gotten into you?! Is Roxy not enough for you? Now you’re after me?! I’m sorry, Fate, but I—just what are you trying to do to me?!”

This is bad! This is terrible! She has no idea what’s going on! She’s never going to trust me again! I wailed internally.

I leaped between the two of them, hoping to explain. First, I told her about waking that morning in the wrong body, then described the events in the Hobgoblin Forest and the possibility that these things were related. I kept at it stubbornly until Lady Aisha finally grasped what had happened to the two of us.

“Ah, I see. You gave me quite the shock! I thought it was going to be a case of Fate assaulting both mother and daughter! You had my heart fluttering quite a bit, even at my age,” Lady Aisha said with a teasing grin.

I breathed a sigh of relief, but I suddenly found myself in the grip of Lady Aisha’s arms. Didn’t she know it was me inside of her daughter’s body?

“Please stop, my lady,” I said.

“What’s wrong with a little motherly love? We’re mother and daughter after all—on a physical level, that is. And the more you resist, the more I don’t want to stop!”

“Save me! She touched my butt!” I shrieked.

Lady Aisha had crossed a line, and it infuriated Roxy. Her mother couldn’t help but enjoy watching me squirm, even when we were in the middle of a serious emergency. Roxy once again leaped toward Lady Aisha, this time pinning her to Roxy’s bed.

“Mother, please! Stop it with all the jokes and the teasing!”

“Fate, stop! My heart still pines for my husband.”

“Mother,” Roxy groaned. “I’m Fate now! It’s me, Roxy!”

“My lady, let’s save the playing for later, I’m begging you.”

Roxy kept her mother pinned to the bed in anger and frustration. I looked on in shock, unsure of what to do.

Then I felt another gaze at the open door, likely drawn to all the commotion. It was Haru, the head servant, and her glasses fogged up as she peeked at us from the doorway. Roxy and Lady Aisha seemed to realize it, too, and they turned their eyes slowly toward her. Haru’s face blanched, and she bowed over and over nervously.

“I’m so sorry. I won’t tell a soul, I promise. I had no idea you were all engaged in this sort of relationship. I’ll never tell anyone! Never. Please, allow me to excuse myself!” 

Haru turned tail and vanished down the hall. Lady Aisha left, too, her expression that of a woman who knew she’d taken her joke a step too far. The three of us burst from the room in pursuit of the retreating Haru.

***

Once we cornered Haru, we were able to explain the situation, and we finally headed for Barbatos Manor. When we arrived, I waited in the main hall while Roxy dressed herself. I didn’t intend to play any blindfold dress-up games again, not after what we had just gone through. Conversely, Lady Aisha offered to help Roxy get herself together, but Roxy vehemently opposed the idea. 

I couldn’t help but share in Roxy’s anxiety; something about leaving my body in Lady Aisha’s care struck me as exceedingly hazardous. Lady Aisha even proposed that, if I didn’t get back to my body by the end of the day, we should take a bath together. I hoped more than anything that she was just kidding.

Once she finished changing, Roxy came down the stairs with Aaron, Memil, and Sahara by her side. They’d caught her as soon as they realized someone different was inside of my body. Aaron laughed when he saw me trapped in Roxy’s.

“Ah, Fate. Looks like you’ve got yourself wrapped up in yet another bizarre circumstance,” he said.

“Well, who would have guessed I’d end up in Roxy’s body?”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to let anyone outside of those gathered here—and those employed at the manors—know about this. You have your positions as holy knights to think of. In fact, let’s keep this between those who already know. And if you’re heading to the Military District, don’t forget: You’re Roxy Hart now.”

“I’ll be careful,” I promised.

Aaron’s advice made it clear how worried he was for both of us, so I knew I had to do my best to follow it. However, I could tell I was talking too much like a young man, so if I wanted to pass as Roxy, I had to stop opening my mouth so wide. 

Then I noticed Sahara approaching me with a worried look on her face. “My lord…” 

“I’ll be fine, Sahara! I’ll be back to normal in no time. But I’ll be counting on you to look after the manor while I’m gone, okay?”

“Okay. Leave it to me!”

I smiled at Sahara to reassure her worried heart and ruffled her hair a little. 

Meanwhile, Memil was discussing something with Roxy before she turned to me, delivered a polite bow, and strode toward the kitchen.

“We should get going,” I said.

Aaron and Sahara saw us off, and we walked toward Laine’s laboratory in the Military District. I asked Roxy what she and Memil had spoken about, and she smiled.

“She’s worried about you, Fate. She asked me to look after you.”

“Memil said that? Really?”

I always felt like she maintained her cold, aloof attitude in order to create distance between us, but perhaps we were closer in our hearts than I realized—never mind the fact that I was irreplaceable to her because of what happened to her on full moon nights. I was a little worried about it all, but hearing Memil’s words made me happy.

After a short while, we reached the gate to the Military District. Only holy knights were permitted entry, so fortunately the gate was rarely frequented. The gatekeepers saw us approaching from a distance and began opening the gates as we neared. Because Roxy and I were both from the five esteemed families, the guards recognized us on sight.

I thought back to Aaron’s advice, and I knew I had to be careful not to ruin Roxy’s reputation. As I passed through the gates, I looked at each guard to give them a bright smile and a greeting, just like Roxy always did. With those two actions, the guards seemed to melt before my eyes.

What power is this? I thought. I guess I should expect nothing less from the goddess of Seifort. 

I still felt something was a little off, so I turned to look at Roxy behind me. She strode through the gate in her usual manner, giving the guards a bright smile and a wave.

“Hello, everyone! Thank you all so much for your fine work!”

The guards were immediately suspicious of the new and improved Fate, who walked with such a feminine gait that his toes pointed inward. They muttered polite replies. 

“Roxy,” I hissed. “This is bad!”

“What is?”

“You’re being you! You’re being you in my body!”

“Oh. Oh, my. Now that you mention it, I am, aren’t I? I’m Fate Barbatos now.”

She straightened up and did her best Fate impression. It was awkward in parts, but it got the job done. However, Roxy must have thought she’d nailed it, because she turned to me with a smug look on her face.

“How about it? I’m good, aren’t I? It’s because I’m always keeping my eyes on you, so I know just how you walk.”

“I think you’re laying it on a bit thick with the swagger, honestly.”

“No, this is exactly how you walk, Fate.”

I groaned and made a mental note to be more aware of my gait from now on. 

Then Roxy gave me a cheeky grin. “Just kidding.” 

She fooled me again! 

But instead of annoying me, her joke helped me relax. Sure, we’d swapped bodies, but it wasn’t as mortifying as I would’ve guessed. In some ways, because I swapped with Roxy specifically, I didn’t have to be too worried.

We walked on, imitating one another, as Laine’s laboratory appeared in the distance. I prayed she would have good news for us. If I stayed in Roxy’s body much longer, there was every chance I would end up in a bath with Lady Aisha later that night. There was no telling what would happen if that were to occur.