Chapter one: Burning Village

My name is Lilia, and I'm an 11-year-old boy. Even though I say I am a boy, the only evidence I have that I am a boy is the male part between my legs. My looks and appearance are anything but boyish. I have often been mistaken for a girl on many occasions, and I don't blame them because I really look like a girl.

My dark Silver hair is smooth, long, and reaches all the way to my neck. My arms are so thin like a girl's, and my skin is smooth and soft. My figure is thin and looks delicate to the eyes. My face is smooth and beautiful without any form of scar, and the pupils in my eyes are a nice shade of red. Yep, I know, nothing manly about me.

To make my case worse, I love anything and everything cute, and I love dressing in girls' clothes because it looks cute. What makes it even more cute for me is that I look so good in them because of my girly appearance.

Everyone loved me because they all thought I was a girl and I'll admit, those days were quite the happy days of my life. But it all changed soon.

It was when the kids living around me discovered that I was actually a boy that my life changed for the worse.

You see, I live in a remote village that is on the outer part of the kingdom of Bailiwick. By outer part, I mean that it is near the edge of the border between the Kingdom of Bailiwick and the demon continent. What separates my little village from the border is a vast thick forest filled with various dangerous monsters.

I digress. So, due to my village being so small, news travels pretty fast, and in the blink of an eye, everyone in the village knew I was a boy who crossdresses as a girl. The adults were more mature about it, but some of them would give me dirty looks and looks of hate when I go out to buy stuff.

The kids, on the other hand, were more physical in showing their disgust about my preferences. They would throw stones at me, beat me when I go out, and make fun of me anywhere I go, calling me things like freak, disgusting, loser, and so on.

I would cry every time they abused me, and it would always make my poor mother worried. My mother Ellen would always be to comfort me, but it didn't change the bullying I received from the village kids.

It didn't help that I was extremely weak and could hardly defend myself when they surrounded me to beat me up. My life in my own village became hell, and it is all because I like cute things.

I always ask myself whether it was wrong that I love cute things and if I should change, but no matter how much I tried, I can't change what I love just to please others. And so I endured and hoped that it would be better in the future.

Well, besides liking cute things, I also have a dream that I hold dear in my heart, and that is to become an adventurer. My mom told me that my father was a great adventurer before he died and that he could use all forms of spells. I was so moved by that and I made a promise to be a strong adventurer just like him and take care of my mother.

I wanted to be an adventurer, but I know it was impossible because I am very weak. I can't use magic, and I can barely lift a sword due to my delicate body. It was because I was so weak that the other kids always bullied me when I go outside, but I couldn't do anything to them because of my weaknesses.

So here I am, on my way to our farm to bring back the basket of vegetables that my mom and I harvested from our little farm near the village. The distance between our farm to the village is a little far but not that far. It is only a 10-minute walk from the village and another 10-minute walk back, making it a total of 20 minutes walk to and from the village.

After reaching the farm, I carried the basket that was the size of a medium basin filled with vegetables back to the village. Not gonna lie, it was extremely heavy for me, but I persevered due to the expectation of eating my favorite dish with my mom after I return home.

On my way home, I looked up to the village in the distance and froze from shock. Instead of the usual village that I'm familiar with, what greeted me was a burning village.

"Why is the village on fire?"