Chapter 276: Becoming the Dark… Lady

In that room, all eyes were on Luke: Mason, Evangeline, Jack, and Allison. They all knew the truth. The key to escaping the tutorial was completing this mission. There wouldn’t be another chance to enter Bastion, not without a full scale war and the loss of countless lives.

Luke’s gaze dropped to Allison’s hand, where the gender shifting necklace glimmered faintly. He sat in silence, elbows on his knees, weighing the risks. No one spoke. They just waited. Finally, Luke raised his head, meeting the four expectant faces.

“Fine. I’ll do it…” His voice carried the weight of resignation.

Allison let out a long sigh of relief. “Thank you, Luke.”

He buried his face in his hands, barely able to believe what he had just agreed to.

‘Luke, don’t worry. Your sweet and precious friend Artemis is here to support you in this beautiful journey of self discovery. By the way, you’ll let your precious friend watch you bathe in your new female form, won’t you? You don’t want to be punished by fate again, do you?’

Shut up…

Mason turned back to the fortress map. “I’ll have to disappear for a while, spend these last days closer to Bastion. I can’t just show up at the festival and ask for an invitation after months away, it’d be suspicious. I’ll need to rekindle a few connections and secure a second invite for Luke.”

“One moment. I’m not feeling well,” Evangeline said abruptly, bolting from the room and shutting the door behind her.

Only a few seconds passed before muffled laughter echoed back through the wood.

“I can hear you laughing, damn it!” Luke shouted, scowling as her cackles spilled through anyway.

When she came back in, her expression was composed and serious. She closed the door behind her.

“Finished laughing?” Luke asked flatly.

“Yes,” she answered… then immediately broke down into laughter again.

Luke just stared at her while she struggled to breathe through the giggles.

“It’s all right, Luke. You’re making an important sacrifice for us,” Allison said gently. “I’ll lend you some of my clothes.”

“Oh god… I never thought I’d hear a girl say that to me,” Luke muttered, hands covering his face as reality sank in.

“Don’t worry,” Evangeline added, laying a hand on his shoulder. “I’m a tailor, remember? I’ll craft a dress worthy of you.”

When Luke finally lifted his eyes to her, he caught the smirk she was fighting to hide.

***

Luke spent the rest of the day slouched in his chair, mind elsewhere while the others laid out the plans for the days ahead. They had to set a few ground rules, some Luke demanded, others the group accepted willingly, knowing how critical the mission was. The first rule: no one outside the five of them could know about it. Which meant total secrecy, including the fact that Luke would be disguising himself as a woman.

To keep things safe, they decided to move into Evangeline’s hideout. Staying there was smarter; it meant no chance of anyone spotting Luke in disguise as he left the fortress. They couldn’t risk one of Bartholomew’s scouts catching even a glimpse.

Before Mason split off, he handed Luke a dossier packed with everything he knew about Bastion’s inner workings: guard rotations, patrol hours, restricted wings of the fortress, even the names of some of the maid assassins. Jack added his own analysis, ranking each individual by danger level. At the top of the list sat Erza Grimhart. Luke had to memorize it all, every shred of class data, every dangerous name.

The next morning, Mason departed for the Safe Zone alone, playing it cautious. His plan was to hole up in an inn near Bastion, reestablish contact with its soldiers, and even pretend he was trying to sell some tools he had made as a blacksmith. With luck, he’d reconnect with people like Oswald and slip his way into the festival, securing not just an invitation for himself, but for his “girlfriend.”

A few hours after Mason left, Luke, Jack, Allison, and Evangeline headed for her hideout. Those still at the fortress didn’t ask many questions once Allison said it was better to pause operations. Most assumed it was to avoid drawing attention while the wounded recovered, while the scouts finished mapping, and while they all waited for the next wave of event reward chests.

At the hideout’s entrance, the four of them descended through the old well, stepping into Evangeline’s underground refuge.

“Well then, time to take some measurements,” Evangeline announced.

The other two immediately looked at Luke.

“What?” he asked warily.

Allison pulled the necklace from her inventory and set it on the table. “Y-you know… it’s time for you to, um, transform.”

“The deal was I’d only do that once it was time to infiltrate Bastion,” Luke shot back.

Evangeline drifted closer. “And how exactly am I supposed to craft a beautiful gown if I don’t even know my model’s measurements?”

“I don’t care. I’ll wear whatever you’ve already got lying around,” he muttered.

She inspected her nails as if bored. “I don’t work like that. But if you insist… well, it’d be such a shame if the only outfits available for you on the big day turned out to be rather… revealing.”

A vein throbbed in Luke’s temple. “You… cursed… witch. You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

Jack stepped between them. “Look, if you do it now, at least you’ll get to choose what you’ll wear. Best option. Don’t worry, my friend, I won’t judge you.”

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‘Yes, Luke, none of us will judge you. Go on. Show us the woman within.’

Luke drew in a long, heavy breath and sank into a chair.

Allison cleared her throat softly as she held the necklace out toward him. “It’s better we start now, so you can get used to it. This isn’t just about putting on an item, it constantly drains mana. You’ll need to learn how to manage the flow, like controlling the water from a faucet. If you don’t, it’ll keep sucking you dry.”

She held the necklace close to him. “Can I put it on your neck?”

“Go ahead…” he muttered, feeling the weight of what was about to happen.

‘Look at you. Now it’s your turn to have someone fastening a necklace around your throat. Truly, fate has a sense of humor.’

Allison stepped behind him. The chain settled against his skin, and though Luke didn’t know if it was actually heavy, it felt like someone had dropped a boulder across his shoulders. She clasped it shut and touched the crimson pendant.

“The light will flare the first time. After that, it won’t,” she explained.

“Light?” Luke asked, confused.

And then it came. A blinding white radiance filled the room. Luke shot up from his chair, body convulsing as if on fire. His vision vanished. Every sense rebelled against him. His balance collapsed, his nerves screamed, and pain surged through his body like he was being crushed and stretched all at once. His eyes burned, his nose and mouth seared as though kissed by living flames.

When the brilliance finally began to fade, he staggered. The first thing he noticed was a strange weight pulling at the front of his chest. Then the air, cooler than it should have been, brushing against skin that wasn’t where it used to be. His hair, already long, now cascaded further, spilling across his face.

Disoriented, he blinked into the dim light as the transformation settled. The fire was gone, leaving only the dull throb of a headache. Even the torchlight looked sharper, brighter than before.

He pressed a hand to his temple. “God… feels like I’m drunk.” But when he heard his own voice, his hand flew to his mouth in shock. The tone was different. Higher. Softer. Feminine.

Luke swayed forward, his center of gravity still skewed. When his vision cleared, the three of them were staring at him, eyes wide, faces pale.

The headache faded. “Better now…” he muttered, then frowned. “Why the hell are you staring at me like that?”

Silence stretched.

“Holy shit…” Evangeline breathed.