Cherry & Lime

Content warning:

Self harm mention.

Jade’s hand was still in mine when the king said that, and her grip became incredibly tight. Looking at her, she had become completely rigid with fear.

'No etiquette needed', the king says? Fuck it, then.

“What in the hells are you playing at?!” I growled.

He leaned back slightly in surprise. “Ah. What I mean is, someone needs this kind of help. When I heard about Jade, I brought her here. Even if she can’t help physically, she can help me understand what’s going on.”

“Alla,” Jade said gently. I looked at her and saw her gentle and concerned expression. I began to cool down a bit. Still pretty pissed, though.

Turning to the king, she timidly asked, “Um, s-so, what do you need exactly? And why? And how did you find out about me?”

“I’ll start with how I found out,” he began. “As you know, I received occasional reports on Allamyne. Ordinarily, they were pretty mundane and brief. That is, until recently.

“There were a lot of clues about you. Your party left the city with a human and came back with you, wearing clothes that obviously didn’t fit.

“None of your party members seemed sad or concerned at all about the supposed death of one of their members, who had been replaced by you before their death was even reported. As the observation continued, they even seemed to get along with you to the same degree as before, if not more.

“When you want to the Magical Afflictions Order, it was mentioned that you were previously human and that your body was a different shape, though that shape was unspecified. And another of the first things you did was have all your money transferred from your old account to your new one.

“Observation over the next couple weeks showed that you were incredibly excited about doing feminine things that most women would’ve found to be mundane or routine.

“You were also still an excellent ranger with decent dagger skills.

“Normally, no one would’ve bothered to look into you so much. It is simply by chance that the one giving the report went into an unnecessary amount of detail.

“In that report, you stood out to me as someone who may be able to help, so I ordered you to be observed, then had a nearby messenger go to collect you once I’d made up my mind.

“Long-range communication enchantments made getting this done pretty easy. The more difficult parts were using some connections to get the information on your visits to the bank and the MAO.”

“Um… Okay, so you s-spied on me. Uh… A-Anyway, what do you need exactly?”

He frowned and looked at the untouched tea kettle, still warm because of the heating enchantment beneath it. “My… daughter. From a young age… she’s only ever wanted to do feminine things.

“Wearing dresses, playing with dolls, having long hair, makeup, anything girly she could get her hands on.”

Is this going where I think it’s going?

“She was dissuaded, of course. She was told what she could and couldn’t do, and instructors, doctors and various other people tried to set her on the ‘right’ path.

“Even so, she persisted. She talked about how much she hated being a boy, how she hated her body, the way people treated her, what people expected of her and so on. It culminated in self-harm a couple years ago.”

“What did you and those people do?” she asked icily. “How did they try to change her?”

“By telling her what behaviors were acceptable and enforcing those things.”

“’Enforcing’ how?”

“If you’re asking if she was ever abused, she wasn’t. That kind of thing doesn’t do any good. No, she had teachers who tried to convince her that she was wrong and didn’t know herself or what she was saying. They’ve since been dismissed.”

Jade’s grip on my hand eased slightly.

Seeing that Jade was satisfied for now, he continued. “It was after that that we began to take her seriously. What child so young could be so relentlessly adamant about something? It’s generally assumed that adults always know better, but when your own kid tries to…” he choked up slightly. “Tries to do that to themselves, it’s obviously not just some child’s whimsy.

“So we began encouraging her rather than forcing her to be something she’s not. Someone she’s not. We also began seeking solutions to that end.

“The Elixir of Within was our first choice, but she was… deathly allergic to one of the ingredients. She nearly died again. And the formula can’t be altered, nor are there any other consumables with the same effect. Alchemists have been trying and failing for centuries, but we put some people on that anyway.

“With the elixir no longer an option, we sought out transformative potions, spells and even old legends. Most of those turned out to be nothing, or just do what she needed them to.

“And now, you’re here,” he looked up at Jade again. “If there’s anything at all you can do for her, that’s why I brought you here.”

Jade was crying beside me. I pulled her into a hug and gently rubbed her back. “How old is she?” she asked.

“She’s 10.”

I can’t believe there’s a princess! Noble children usually make their debuts at 5… So her problems go all the way back, then. Why haven’t I even heard of her? Even away from the capital, there would’ve been at least some news.

Unless… they’re keeping her hidden? It makes sense, if she refuses to be seen as who people expect her to be. Aristocratic society is brutal. Jade’s been through some awful treatment herself, and she’s not a princess.

“…I don’t even know how I made it through my own childhood, and I didn’t have anyone to help me,” Jade said quietly.

Once she had calmed down some, she asked him, “You saw in the MAO’s report that there was ancient ritual magic involved in my transformation, right?”

He nodded. “I did. And it’s been thoroughly investigated across thousands of years, so I’m not likely to find anything new on the topic. Nor is messing with that even a good idea. It could just as much kill her as help her.”

“Well, I unfortunately don’t know how to help her, then. I barely know anything about how magic works as it is. I couldn’t use it before my transformation, and after, I can only use a few abilities that are innate to slimes.”

“While you were on your way here, I did research on those as well. A court mage I trust explained that if you are able to emit mana, just that, then it might be enough. She’ll have to do a lot of work on her end, but that would be all you would have to do.”

“What do you mean? What would happen exactly?”

“You’ll have to hear the details of it from her. Basically, with complex enchantments and her casting some intricately-crafted spell through you, it might be possible to change another person.”

“I would really only have to do that much?”

I could tell Jade was getting a bit excited now. The prospect of potentially being able to help others like herself is definitely something she won’t pass up.

He nodded, “As he explained it to me, yes.”

Just then, a door in the back of the room opened up to reveal the queen. I gasped at the sight of her. The queen…! She’s always traveling these days, so she’s rarely seen.

The king smiled as his wife sat beside him. “Hello. I am Queen Shora Siler ve Szikehr. I apologize for the bit of subterfuge, but I listened in from behind that door. We did this because we wanted to be sure about you before having both of us before you.”

“She spends most of her time with our daughter at a private villa,” the king said.

At my look of confusion, he smiled and added, “The ‘always traveling’ thing is a lie. If people knew of our daughter’s situation, they might try to take advantage of it.”

I nodded while my friends were still a bit confused. I can think of several nasty things that nobles might try. I can also think of several nobles who would try to do those things.

“Nice to meet you. Is your daughter here?” Jade asked.

“She’s not,” the queen replied. “She remains at the villa. We didn’t want to give her false hope. She’s already had enough of that.”

She nodded. “Well, I want to help her if I can. I wouldn’t want anyone else to suffer the same hell.”

The queen smiled, “Thank you. You’re certain?”

“Yes,” she turned to me and then the Sanor and Mallok. “U-Um, sorry I didn’t ask any of you. But this is important to me.”

“I understand,” I said, giving her a small hug.

“Yeah, we should do this,” Sanor said, while Mallok just nodded in agreement.

“Thank you, everyone,” she turned back to the royal couple. “So what would be the first step, then? I’d imagine it’s not as simple as just going to her and doing all the enchantments and stuff.”

“It’s not,” King Ellecor said. “You’ll have to meet with our court mage so she can analyze your mana. If that goes well, then we’ll have to find a willing test subject who would be okay with becoming a slime person.

“After that, we’ll have to actually do the test and see what the results are, and then we’ll figure things out from there. Only once we know it works and is safe will we consider doing this.

“That said, you can still meet her beforehand. Meeting someone similar to her could really help. However, you can’t promise that you’ll be able to change her until we know for certain that we can.”

We could actually meet the princess? Not that I wanted to doubt them or their words, but I simply don’t trust nobility in general. And I wasn’t exactly someone who could’ve talked to them before, so it’s not like I knew them personally. They do seem to be sincere, though. I just don’t want them to take advantage of Jade’s kindness.

I looked at my girlfriend, and could see just how fiercely determined she was.

———

With her mind made up, myself and Jade were in a carriage with the king and queen, heading for their private villa. They wanted to limit the number of new people the princess was meeting at one time, so Sanor and Mallok were sent back.

The four of us had all now been granted access to more areas of the castle, so at least they shouldn’t be bored while they waited for us to return.

I was feeling a complicated mixture of wanting to help the princess, support my girlfriend, and terror because we were casually sitting with royalty.

While I did on some level understand the situation, my entire childhood of being surrounded by haughty nobility was making me far more anxious than I really should’ve been. I was finding it extremely difficult to resist the instinct to behave perfectly and monitor the others I was with for any slights they might make.

Jade was also feeling rather tense, but she was able to focus on meeting the princess, which somewhat mitigated things for her.

I just can’t believe this is actually happening right now.

The villa was on the outskirts of the capital, though in a well-off area, with a large distance between the neighbors. We were let through the gate, and as we got off, I could already tell that there were fewer servants around than what they would normally have had.

I guess they’re limiting the amount of people who are allowed to know about her? I feel bad for the girl, and also pissed that this level of protection and isolation is even necessary. Jade’s experiences corroborate this, and she was only a regular villager.

As we walked through the building, the queen began leading us straight toward the library, fully expecting her daughter to be there.

Shora explained, “It’s difficult to arrange things so that she can safely go out and actually experience the world, so she spends most of her free time reading about it, both fictional and not.”

“Uh, forgive me, but what makes it difficult?” Jade asked.

“It’s fine. If she regularly left here or lived in the castle, people would quickly deduce that the flame tiefling child was our own. There are too many people out there who would seek to harm her, or harm us through her, and this isn’t just speculation on our part.

“Keeping my own trips here a secret is already quite a task on its own. And the number of trustworthy people who know of her is few, so she would not be adequately guarded.

“While it was known that we had had a child 10 years ago, her situation prevented her from making her debut on time. When it became clear that forcing her into that life would only cause harm, she was secretly brought here.

“By now, people assume that we either had a problem child or that she died in an unexplained accident. The latter is what we prefer people to believe, and my frequent ‘traveling’ can also be seen as an expression of my grief.

She sighed forlornly. “Of the people who do know about her, there are some who believe that she is being kept secret here as a form of punishment for her behavior, or that we’re hiding someone we’re ashamed of.”

Ellecor added, “We’re not ashamed of her, nor are we punishing her. Though, admittedly, it may feel like that to her. Right now, this is the only place where she can safely be herself.

“After our experiences with her, we realized that things like that don’t actually matter. So we’ve begun working on changing public perception of things like gender, sexuality, marriage and so on as another way to help her. Our hope is to make it so that she can one day live openly and freely.”

I choked, and Jade tripped but managed to catch herself. “What…?” she squeaked out, meeting my eyes for a moment. Yeah, what?

“So you two…? Huh,” he chuckled. “Well, as I just said, that’s not a concern for us.

“Unfortunately, however, changing all the relevant laws and traditions all at once will cause a lot of anger and distrust, so we have to be careful.

“That said, we aren’t taking nervous baby steps regarding this. Right now, we’re focusing on changing the things that will have a significant impact in the future once we’re able to move on to those laws and traditions.

“If anything, the two of you finding happiness gives me hope for her future.”