Perpetual Woman

Ayla woke up, finding herself in bed under the covers within the inn, dressed in the same black kimono that she had worn yesterday.

"I last remember being in the bathtub. Did I fall asleep? How did I end up in bed clothed in my black kimono, then?"

"It was my doing, mistress."

Hearing the feminine voice, she turned her head to the side, noticing a young woman clothed in a pitch black kimono with pale skin, moderately sized breasts, and purplish-black eyes.

"You're my shadow servant, aren't you?" She felt a faint connection with the woman before her, similar to the one she had felt with the shadow servant she had previously summoned.

"Yes, and I refer to being called a shadow maid."

"I see. Do you have a name?" Ayla asked and got out of bed, standing next to her.

"No, I do not."

"Do you want me to give you a name?"

"If you're willing, I would love to be named by my mistress."

"Alright, you will now go by the name Kiera from now on."

"It is such an honor to be given a name by my mistress." Kiera kneeled, expressing her deep gratitude.

"Enough with the formalities. I don't like that kind of thing."

"If I weren't formal to you, then it would imply that I'm no longer your maid but on equal footing with you, which I as a maid could never do, so I'm sorry, but I can't follow this order. I'm sorry for my incompetence. So please punish me for not obeying your order."

"Why would I punish you for that? Since you want to be formal, then be formal, even though it is a bit annoying, but I won't judge or punish you for your choice."

"Thank you for understanding, mistress."

"We need to get going, so can you enter my shadow?"

"Yes, mistress." Kiera entered her shadow as Ayla stretched her arms, dispelled the tub, did her hair, and left the room.

Ayla walked up to the coachman's room and knocked on it since they were supposed to be leaving soon.

"Are you in there?"

She heard no response. She waited for some time. After a while, she decided to open the sliding door and found out that no one was in here, including his stuff.

'Did he run off?'

[Oh, I forgot to release the little curse I placed on him.]

'What did you do?'

[I got annoyed with him moaning so much, so I gave him a temporary female body and sent him to a brothel.]

'Undo it and take him to the carriage house.'

[I will, but we have another problem. You know how I said I gave him a temporary female body?]

"Yeah. I have a feeling that it's no longer temporary."

[Yeah, it is permanent now since he seems to have gotten pregnant at the brothel.]

'I don't care if he is a woman now; erase the memories of the ones that know about her and bring him to the carriage house.'

[Alright, sigh.] Cynthia sighed in relief, seeing that she wasn't irritated.

'You think I would be irritated over him turning into a woman? If she couldn't drive the carriage, then it would be different, but since his gender just changed, I don't mind.'

[That's good, but what about her clothes?]

'Just have him use the same kimono but cover her breasts in bandages so they don't stick out too much.'

[Will do.]

Ayla walked out of the inn after paying for the two of them for the night and headed to the carriage house, where she found a gorgeous woman in a man's kimono sitting in the coachmen's seat of the carriage she rode in yesterday.

"Did you do this to me?" Once the woman noticed her, she immediately inquired in confusion.

"No, I was sleeping."

"I can't believe that a man like myself would one day become a woman and get pregnant."

"I never asked, what's your name?"

"My name was Honda Shigeru, but now that I'm a woman, I'll now go by Naruse Masa."

"You should be grateful that you are a woman, since you will no longer be hunted down by the Uchida Clan."

"I still can't accept it completely, but I'll still bring you to the three locations you desire. Just so you know, I'll give you three days to come back; otherwise, I'll assume you're dead and leave. Once I'm done with serving you, I'll live in an isolated place and raise my child to be strong."

"That's a good goal, but it seems you've changed since last night."

"When I became a woman, my personality also changed to fit my body, so that's why."

'I'm assuming you have something to do with this?'

[Yeah, but it didn't completely change her, so she is still her previous self, sort of.]