Arima, having defied the odds of a 1/5 chance to become the "mother," was still struggling to accept the reality. But no matter how much he resisted, the roulette’s result wasn’t going to change.

In the end, Arima gave up and accepted his new role. As we moved to the lab together, he began voicing some complaints.

“Eight? Now that I think about it, the boss has blond hair, right? Neither you nor I are blond. How are we supposed to play the role of her parents? One of us needs to be blond, or it’ll look weird. So—”

“Don’t worry about that. I prepared something just in case.”

“...Prepared something?”

Arima asked with a bewildered look. Without saying a word, I showed him a container filled with shimmering golden liquid. Upon seeing it, Arima’s expression shifted to one of disbelief.

“Hair dye? You’re not suggesting we dye our hair blond, are you?”

“Well, if you want to call it hair dye, I guess it is. Go ahead, give it a try.”

“You want me to drink hair dye?”

For a moment, Arima was flabbergasted, arguing that hair dye should go on hair, not be consumed. But cautiously, he drank the entire bottle. Even after finishing it, he examined his body and, seeing no immediate changes, looked at me skeptically.

He didn’t suddenly turn into a woman, nor did his hair turn blond. Unsure of what had actually changed, Arima glared at me. I shrugged nonchalantly and responded.

“Take a look in the mirror.”

“In the mirror? But nothing ha—huh?”

Crack! The moment Arima looked into the mirror, a chilling bone-cracking noise echoed from somewhere. Arima also seemed startled by the sound. The transformation continued. His face gradually softened, becoming more feminine and strikingly beautiful.

Starting from the roots, his hair began to turn a bright golden color, eventually transforming into a shimmering blond. The masculine muscle that once defined his physique melted into softer curves, and a slight bust appeared on his chest.

Before long, the reflection in the mirror showed a stunning woman who looked as if she could be Regalia’s older self. Arima let out a half-laugh at the sight.

“Not even polymorph magic works this easily...”

“You had magic for this? Why didn’t you say so?”

“It’s not really the best kind of magic♠. I can change to look exactly like the boss, but it’s not the kind of spell that lets me pretend to be her mother.”

Arima explained that mimicking someone else’s appearance was easy, as it only required looking at the person and copying their form. However, it was much harder to transform into someone imaginary. To change into an older version of someone, you had to envision that person’s future appearance in detail, which was incredibly difficult.

You could force the transformation, but it often resulted in something missing, like an ear, or a sunken face—something was always off. That’s why magicians hadn’t developed such techniques extensively; there was no need to.

“If you can already turn into yourself, why would you need to change into someone else?”

“That’s true.”

“And besides, polymorph magic is pretty high-level stuff. Wizards who’ve reached that level of mastery don’t usually need to impersonate others.”

Listening to Arima, I realized that magic wasn’t as all-powerful as one might think. Like machines or tools, the effects depended heavily on the skill of the user.

Magic could only be omnipotent if the caster was. Only those capable of achieving everything without relying on magic could truly make magic all-powerful. It was a paradox.

“What exactly is this stuff made of? I can’t even begin to imagine.”

“Uh… the boss’s hair.”

“…The boss’s hair? And why do you have something like that?”

“I just asked the secretary for it, and she gave it to me.”

“…I see…”

At that moment, I could almost read Arima’s mind. He was probably thinking that the secretary was a dangerous individual. I thought so too.

Who would’ve imagined that if I asked for something from the boss’s body, the secretary would just hand me a neatly packaged strand of hair in a plastic bag? The feelings I had when I first saw it were beyond words.

I looked at the remaining golden liquid. I had made this one with extra care. Not because I would drink it myself, but because it was designed for men.

If only the boss were a man, this would’ve been so much easier…

Since the boss was a woman, extracting masculine traits from her chromosomes had been incredibly challenging. There was no Y chromosome to work with. I had to use my own Y chromosome to compensate.

In other words, this wasn’t exactly a potion to turn into the boss—it was more like a potion to turn into someone who would be the offspring of both the boss and myself.

Gulp!

“Ugh…”

Crack! After hearing the same bone-cracking sound that had come from Arima, I cautiously looked into the mirror. There was no doubt that the transformation had succeeded. Just seeing Arima’s glowing eyes was proof enough that the potion had worked.

But as I looked into the mirror, I realized this experiment had gone even better than I had expected.

…This is going to cause a stir.

At City E’s elementary school, during the parent-teacher observation day:

“Well then… Who wants to solve this problem?”

The teacher’s question was met with silence. It wasn’t usually this quiet. Even when the parents had first entered, the room had been noisy, not this subdued.

The children had started behaving this way after two new parents entered the classroom. The teacher, glancing at their faces, instinctively understood why the students were reacting like this.

The newcomers possessed an appearance that would make any adult swallow nervously. Their charisma was overwhelming, making it hard to believe they were just regular workers. They exuded an aura of royalty or nobility.

“Ria, didn’t you say your parents were ordinary…?”

The teacher threw a glance full of reproach at Regalia. In the personal information she had submitted, it said her parents were ordinary employees at a regular company.

But how? How could these two be considered ordinary?

“You could’ve said they were royalty, and I would’ve believed you.”

With her looks, uniform, and natural elegance, the teacher should’ve realized long ago that Regalia wasn’t just the daughter of an ordinary family, and her parents certainly weren’t regular people either.

And so, the class dragged on. The children, who were usually lively, now appeared somewhat subdued, but none of the parents complained about it.

Because they too were intimidated!

“Well, who would like to read the textbook?”

“…I will, teacher.”

“Oh, really? Then why don’t you go ahead, Ria?”

Sensing what was going on, Regalia stood up and took the lead in the lesson. Her clear voice filled the classroom, and her sweet, melodic tone soon melted away the tension that had gripped the children’s hearts.

While the two standing at the back of the classroom were imposing tyrants, Regalia herself was a benevolent ruler who embraced her people.

The children found themselves gradually captivated by Regalia’s dignified presence, their hearts and souls slowly surrendering to her. For the rest of their lives, they would never forget their queen, Regalia.

Time passed, and the class ended. The children ran to meet their parents. Regalia did the same.

“…Eight?”

“Regalia. I enjoyed your presentation.”

So, it really was the scientist. Even Regalia, who had begun to doubt it, let out a small laugh as she looked at Eight, who now looked so much like her that he could easily be mistaken for her father. She had asked him to play her father, but she hadn’t expected him to actually come as her father…

She was curious about how he managed to resemble her so closely, but there was something even more pressing on her mind.

“So, if you're the scientist… who exactly is this?”

The person next to Eight was a beautiful woman with blond hair who looked like she could be her older sister rather than her mother. Regalia didn’t recall ever seeing such a stunning woman within the evil organization.

Could it be that Eight had found a woman? Surprisingly, that wasn’t the case.

“It’s me, Boss♠.”

“…Arima?”

“Yes—Arima-Mommy, to be exact.”

Realizing the woman’s true identity, Regalia groaned. Arima? That Arima?

Arima, the world-renowned mage, was cross-dressing as a woman? As if in disbelief, Regalia prodded Arima’s chest, only to realize that he wasn’t just cross-dressing.

“Huh…?”

“Oh my.”

There were real breasts there.
I mean, not just cross-dressing - Arima, a real woman, was there.
Regalia felt her head spin.