Mo'an looked at her reflection in the tall mirror before turning her head to the left, then to the right, observing her new facial features with a hint of curiosity in her eyes. She had to admit that her male form was not bad.
Although her face retained a bit of her feminity, it wasn't enough to question her gender as her chest was now completely flat and her hips, quite narrow. Her feminine curves were nowhere to be found, which made her sigh lightly. She wasn't the most alluring girl in her tribe, but she still loved those discreet yet enticing curves of hers. In her eyes, they were perfect. Now, they were gone.
Her pretty face also underwent significant changes. It was manlier and less delicate. There wasn't any baby fat left, and the contour of her jaws was better defined, but overall, it still held a trace of wild grace.
After the transformation, Mo'an's height didn't change much. Her musculature, in general, was also quite similar to her original appearance. She already had a lean body after years of training and hunting in the jungle, so it wasn't necessary to modify her build and add what she called decorative muscles. She didn't want to become like those bulky men who were slower than a snail and had no agility. Her fighting style was based on speed and flexibility, and bigger muscles would only hinder her movements.
In the end, the only part of her body that hadn't gone through any modification was below, as she refused to have an extra member. No matter how many times her parents try to convince her, telling her how it would be safer, she replied with the same words every time, "Over my dead body!"
Anyway, she didn't plan on walking around without any clothes on, and she certainly wouldn't argue with the male students about who was bigger, so she didn't need it. Frankly, she quite loved being a girl. If it weren't because of her particular situation, she would never pretend to be a man.
Even without that extra piece of meat, she still looked like a handsome teenage boy.
Well, she had to admit that the 'boy' in the mirror did seem a bit too thin. He also seemed shorter than average. The Fake Reverse pill she took wasn't god-defying and could only do so much, but it was enough to deceive anyone that wasn't close to her.
The sound of someone knocking on her door made her raise an eyebrow, and her gaze left the mirror to land on the closed door. "Come in."
A young man silently entered the room. Without any shame, he sized up the person in front of him before mumbling, "Why do you look manlier than me? It's so unfair!"
"You want to take a pill?" asked Mo'an as she shook the glass bottle she was holding in her right hand. The gray pills in it jolted, and the young man furiously shook his head.
"No, thanks. I don't want to have some extra, useless lump of fat on my chest."
"I'm sure it would suit you, though," shrugged Mo'an while throwing the bottle in her backpack, ignoring her brother's lousy mood.
The Fake-Reverse pill slightly changed a person's appearance into the opposite gender. A girl would lose her curves, and her facial features would become manlier, and her voice, huskier. As for a man, he would gain some curves and a woman's bosom to some extent, while the lower part would shrink a little. His facial features would become more delicate, and his voice, softer.
Because the person would turn into what they would have looked if they were born with the opposite gender, their appearance wouldn't change too drastically. They were somewhat recognizable. That was the effect of the Fake-Reverse pill.
If Mo'an had taken a Reverse pill, though, she would have become a man from head to toe. She would have gained a little son. It was this pill that her parents wanted her to take, and she had to negotiate with them for who knew how long before they changed their mind, agreeing to let her swallow a Fake-Reverse pill instead of a Reverse pill.
The Fake-Reverse pill's effects weren't as good as the Reverse pill. Mo'an needed to take a grey pill every two months to keep her male appearance. Otherwise, her female characteristics would slowly start to appear once again.
The Reverse pill worked differently. If Mo'an wanted to regain her identity as a girl, she would need to take a second Reverse pill, and it would cancel the effects of the first pill. As long as she didn't take it a second time, her body would be male forever, and no one would ever know that she was born as a girl.
Mo'an knew it would have been safer to comply with her parents' wish and use a Reverse pill, but the cost of a single pill was outrageous, not to mention two of them. She already found a bottle of Fake-Reverse pills expensive, enough to cause her a heart attack, so when she saw the Reverse pill's price at the black market, she almost fainted.
She couldn't allow her parents to buy the Reverse pill! It wasn't worth squandering all their tribe's money to guarantee her safety – not wanting an additional member was the truth, but it was also an excuse to refuse her parents' goodwill. The real reason she said no was due to the price.
Even if everyone in the tribe would gladly give all of their money to protect their chief's daughter, she couldn't accept it. She knew what consequences it would bring about. They weren't a wealthy tribe, and the Empire would soon send an expedition to collect the annual tribute. If they couldn't pay it, the soldiers would use them as an example, and her tribe would be no more. The loss outweighed the gain.
However, the people of her tribe didn't think so. They were proud, and they preferred death over abandoning a fellow clan member.
Their tribe hadn't been subdued for long, only ten years, and the hatred towards the Empire was still strong. They had no sense of loyalty toward the Emperor. Sadly, they couldn't win against his army, and they could only swallow their anger and grind their teeth.
Even though they appeared to comply with the Empire's orders, they often played tricks when the soldiers weren't looking.
And everyone had been protecting the secret of her gender for years.
When a girl was born into the chief's family of a tribe under the Empire's tutelage, they had to send her to the castle at the age of thirteen. Then, the Emperor would decide what to do with her life.
No one in Mo'an's tribe wanted the chief's daughter to be taken to the Emperor's courtyard, where she would serve as a maid, a concubine, or a slave. Everyone knew that her life would become a living hell.
They also knew that if the soldiers found out that they hid her gender, the consequences would be tragic, yet they still tacitly decided to hide it.
At first, when the missionaries came to visit their settlement after their defeat against the Empire, everyone said that their chief only had sons and no daughter. The missionaries didn't think they would lie to protect a single child and put the whole tribe in danger. Thus, they didn't verify the gender of the chief's children.
Later, when Mo'an's body started to develop into a woman, she was hidden in her room with the pretext of frail health every time soldiers or missionaries visited their village. When they insisted on meeting the chief's younger son, they would bring them to her room.
Mo'an was always lying in her bed underneath a bunch of bedsheets, pretending to have a fever. She was coughing loudly as if she was about to throw up her lungs. She was disheveled, her lips appeared cracked, and her eyes were slightly red. There was also a rancid smell lingering in her room, making the men of the Empire grimace every time they came in.
The uninvited guests would then immediately step out, afraid of catching her virus. They would shut the door and stop asking about the young son of the tribe, staying far away from his room. Their body wasn't strong enough to fight the diseases and viruses that circulated in the jungle where Mo'an's tribe lived.
That was also one of the reasons it took them so long to subdue such a small tribe.
During the war, there had been several epidemics in the military camps settled near the jungle, and the soldiers fell like flies for months until the military doctors found a vaccine. It had deeply traumatized the people of the Empire, and Mo'an's tribe used it to their advantage. If even this child from their tribe had it rough and couldn't fight this disease, how about them? How long would they last before collapsing?
For years, the tribe orchestrated a false disease for the young girl. They were always afraid that the men would bring a doctor with them on one of their expedition, but in the end, the child wasn't worth the effort. He was only the son of a tribal chief. It was infuriating, but it served them well. Otherwise, they couldn't have hidden her gender for so long.
Now, the tribe didn't have a choice and bought her a bottle of Fake-Reverse pills without a second thought. They knew this day would come sooner or later, and thus, they had economized for many years in order to buy enough pills for five years. The mandatory military service lasted this long.
Although Mo'an had been portrayed as a frail and weak little boy, the army still required her presence. Every three years, all tribal chiefs had to send their sons, who were sixteen years old and older, to the military academy. There, they would study for two years. Afterward, they would serve in the army for three years, and if they were competent enough, the military would keep them and compensate their tribe. Those benefits were appealing, but Mo'an's tribe wasn't interested in them.
As for the ones that the army saw as useless, an officer would send them back home after their military service was done, and the tribe wouldn't receive any benefits, on the contrary. The military slandered their name far and wide. Nevertheless, this was what Mo'an's tribe was aiming for.
Everyone shared the same opinion, which was that Mo'an mustn't reveal her true potential. Never mind their reputation; she was far more important than any prestige she could earn them on the battlefield. If she were to stay in the army to elevate their tribe's position, it would increase the chance of someone discovering her gender. It was out of the question. All they wanted was for her to come back home safe and sound.
Mo'an smiled. Her tribe was the greatest. They were few and lived quite poorly, but they all had a heart of gold. She couldn't let them down, could she?
Her eyes turned bright and resolute as she took a step toward her brother.