A tall, well build black haired boy was walking alongside the busy street while securely holding a small package to his chest. His name was Iku Yagami and he was a student in a sport-oriented high-school. He was returning home from picking up the package he was too ashamed to order to his house afraid that his parents would open it and check it's content.

Because inside the package was a limited edition physical copy of Iku's favorite game 'Im streben nach glück!' And it was an otome game, essentially a dating sim where the heroine was approached by several handsome capture targets and depending on her actions she would end up in a relationship with either one or every one of them.

It's not hard to imagine what his strict parents would have said after discovering their son is into that sort of games.

But nonetheless, Iku loved this game to no end. The characters were well crafted and interesting, the events were exciting and most of them were battle oriented too!

The setting was similar to medieval Europe in the middle of the warring times, the heroine an adopted daughter of the ruler of an independent state was sent to attend a school for nobility in a neutral city in the middle of the continent. There she would encounter a completely different world then she knew until now. Young noblemen and noblewomen would live there completely detached from the dangerous world. She would get approached by high-born and wealthy noblemen who, at first glance, cared more about their look than their families territories.

But all that was only the surface, the tip of an iceberg. The school for nobility, Ranorosso Academy, was a place of unceasing intrigues and skims where fighting was done not with swords but with words and intrigues.

From the first time Iku played it, he completely fell in love with it. The world was sparkly on the surface but became dark and gritty when you wiped off the pretty icing.

The capture targets were the most interesting, from a hasty hot-blooded prince of the biggest country on the continent to the sickly and weak son of a general of the most aggressive country. That last one was Iku's favorite character of them all. Even though that particular capture target named Terres Aboy, just couldn't get stronger at all no matter how hard he tried but even so, he never gave up and never surrendered in the face of the danger. He would always face his problems without running away even when there were no chances of him being victorious.

Although Iku was healthy and his physique was strong he shared Terres's drive to become stronger and better.

And since Iku liked the game so much, it was no surprise that he bought the physical edition as soon as the developers of 'Im streben nach glück!' announced the preorders for it.

Iku was in the middle of thinking where he should hide the box with the beautiful art of all capture targets on the cover when suddenly a loud screech of tires on the asphalt and a sound of collision rung out loudly.

Iku looked in the direction the sound came from just in time to see an unmanned bike flying right at him, exhaust-pipe-first.

And then everything got dark.

Iku Yagami opened his eyes in an unfamiliar place, surrounded by unfamiliar people.

Beautiful woman in an expensive looking dress was kneeling by his bed and holding his hand while crying.

Iku looked at his hand and frowned.

Why is my hand so small...?

He wondered and fidgeted nervously.

"Terres...!?"

The beautiful crimson-haired woman looked at him in shock and her chin trembled.

"Terres! My baby! You woke up!"

She cried out and embrace shocked Iku.

"Mommy is sorry! Mommy will let you practice with daddy, so don't try to train on your own anymore!"

The woman cried and cried and all the surrounding people in servant-like attires made relieved expressions.

"U-um, what is...?"

Iku opened his mouth but then something in his brain unlocked and he was flooded by a wave of memories.

He clearly reincarnated because in this life he was Terres Aboy, only son of the general Timotheus Aboy and Laurianna Aboy. And the world he was living was the world of 'Im streben nach glück!'!

The woman that was hugging him while crying was exactly his mother, Laurianna, and she was so shaken because after she refused his pleas to let him go and train with his father and he, a terribly stubborn seven-year-old decided that it would be a great idea to just sneak past all the servants in the house and go practice sword-fighting and strength-training in the garden while it was raining.

And since his physique was just awful, since apparently when he was a baby he refused to drink his mother's milk, he collapsed in the rain only after ten minutes of running. He was found by a gardener who, luckily for Terres, was checking up on the new flowers that general Timotheus bought for his wife.

"Terry, I know you want to be strong as your daddy, but please, don't scare your mommy like that!"

Laurianna sniffled while pressing Terres into her chest.

And Iku, no, Terres Aboy felt really bad for making his mother worry so much.

"I'm sorry mom... I thought that I could do it..."

He said in a high-pitched childish voice.

"I just don't want to be weak..."

This was a trait that Iku Yagami and Terres Aboy shared and it made the two personalities become one.

Then a fist-sized green orb drifted into Terres field of view.

"Trispi...!"

Terres gasped and the green orb drifted towards him and nuzzled against his cheek.

In this world existed beings called spirits, for humans they looked like differently colored orbs of light and every spirit would attach itself to a human since birth.

Different colors meant different abilities that the spirit granted.

It wasn't anything as grandeur as magic, there were no humans who could shoot fire from their hands or anything like that though.

For example, Terres's father had a red spirit that would boost his physical strength.

His mother had a pure-white spirit that made her immune to poisons.

And the green spirit that chose Terres was enhancing his recovery.

Many people were agreeing that without the green spirit's help, Terres would have died right after being born.

"See? You silly boy, you even made Trispy worried!"

Laurianna sniffled and scolded her son while smiling.

"I'm sorry..."

Terres blushed and patted the green orb. It vibrated as if it was purring.

"Mom? Will you really allow me to train with father?"

Terres looked at his mother with downcasted eyes and asked in a hopeful voice.

"Oh, you cheeky boy!"

Laurianna laughed and messed up Terres's hair.

"Yes, but only if you promise me that you will train only under daddy's supervision!"

She said sternly and Terres beamed with happiness and hugged his mother with all his strength.

"Thank you, mom! I love you!"

He exclaimed happily.

Laurianna hugged her son back but her face became cloudy. She knew her son was hugging her with all his might... The thing was, he was so incredibly weak that she was afraid that he would shatter if she embraced him too hard. She knew that her son wanted to be strong like his father and didn't have the heart to tell him that it would never be possible...

Years passed and Terres's health became only a little bit better. He was focusing on his studies and training but his knowledge was the only one to grow exponentially. The thing he wanted the most, his strength and endurance basically didn't change at all. When e was training with the sword he would have problems with breathing only after a couple of minutes, to somewhat counter that his father got him an order-made light-weight sword and focused on teaching him the techniques. Terres would give it his all but still, in a direct confrontation, any opponent would just smack the weapon right off the boy's hands even if they were controlling their strength!

But Terres didn't give up and trained even harder even when he could barely breathe.

Terres would feel terrible nausea after running for a bit.

But he didn't give up and fought with his weak body to take one more step than the day before.

He was so dedicated that he would often collapse and his father would have to carry him to bed and his mother would nurse him.

No matter how hard he tried, Terres grew up to be a fragile petit boy with somewhat girl features. His mother's genes were to blame here, both mother and son had similar faces and while Laurianna was proud of her beauty, Terres, who admired his father's manliness, was kicking himself over his slightly feminine looks. Long brown red-tinted hair and big violet eyes made it even worse.

And certainly, a particular pre-game event that happened according to the game's script for Terres back-story didn't boost his confidence either.

It happened on his twelfth birthday. One of the presents turned out to be a mix-up. One of the friends of the Aboy family ordered a set of clothes for Terres but what came from the tailor was... A dress...

"Oh no...!"

Terres gasped terrified when he pulled up the dress from a neatly packed box.

Of course, he knew about that thing from his back-story that the game provided but reading about it and experiencing it...

"Oh my! What a beautiful dress!"

Terres breathed through his teeth when he heard his mother's excited voice.

"M-mom, there must have been a mistake..."

He said weakly, silently praying that maybe things will play differently.

"Well, of course... but... Terres, would you wear it for mommy? Please?"

Laurianna looked at her son with sparkling eyes.

Naturally, Terres wanted to straight up refuse her but...

Laurianna always wanted to have a daughter but after giving the premature birth and some complication during labor, she became unable to safely give birth to a child and every pregnancy would end up in miscarriage.

Terres couldn't help but blame himself.

...If it's for mother...

He thought reluctantly and clenched his fists on the dress.

"You don't have to force yourself! Mommy is just teasing you!"

Since Terres didn't respond Laurianna became worried that she hurt him and hurriedly backtracked on her words but then Terres took a deep breath and turned towards her while holding the dress in front of him.

"If mom wants to see me in a dress I can try it on... Mom, will you help me to put it on?"

He said completely red from embarrassment.

"Ah!"

Laurianna perked up and smiled overjoyed.

"Terres, you're such a good boy!"

She said excitedly and took the dress from her son's hand.

Dressing up went faster than Terres expected. He felt a bit breezy between his legs but it was nothing if he could make his mom happy.

"You look so adorable!"

Laurianna squeaked like a young girl at the sight of her idol, the worst part was that Terres, standing in front of a large mirror couldn't refute her words... As much at it pained his pride as a man, he did look nice, maybe it was because of his long hair? But the long hair was the sign of status for nobility! It showed that you are wealthy enough to take care of it!

"Terres, will you let mommy put a little makeup on you?"

Laurianna asked excitedly.

What are you asking when you already have the equipment prepared, mom!?

Terres screamed internally but swallowed his words and nodded, hoping that he doesn't look completely horrified.

But his mother was having so much fun and Terres was a really good child.

"Done! What do you think?"

Laurianna said proudly and allowed her son to look in the mirror.

"...!"

Terres was stunned. From the mirror, a beautiful young lady with a pale complexion was looking at him.

This was terrible! Honestly, Terres was hoping that he would look either ridiculous or silly but this was so much worse!

He blushed and looked down embarrassed and the young lady in the reflection became even more stunning!

And then the door to the room the mother and son were in opened and a tall handsome brown-haired man entered the room.

"Laurie? Where's, oh..!"

He started asking but exclaimed in surprise at the sight of Terres.

"Oh, hello, little lady...!"

He said while looking around curiously.

"Are you a friend of my son, that came to celebrate his birthday...?"

Terres's pride as a man shattered and he ran out of the room with tears streaming down his face.

"Honey! That was Terres!"

"WHAT!?"

Halfway to his room, he could still hear his parents voices.

Even dad couldn't recognize that I'm a boy...!

Terres locked the door behind him, threw himself on the bed and started sobbing into the pillow.

"It's awful! I want to be strong and cool! Why did I have to be born this weak!?"

He complained loudly while his breath slowly returned to normal after the short run that already strained him.

A curtain of his long hair covered his field of vision.

"It's because of this...!"

Terres gritted his teeth and grabbed his hair.

He decisively pulled out his light-weight sword from under his bed and took it out of its scabbard.

He made a serious face and used the weapon to cut his hair.

He ended up with a handful of hair reddish-brown hair in on hand and a sword in the other. His remaining, unevenly cut hair covered his face.

"...I'll ask mom to help me with cutting them better..."

He sniffled and hid his sword back under the bed.

A few minutes later someone knocked on the door.

"Son? Are you there?"

His father's voice came through the door and the door handle moved. Since the door was locked it didn't open.

"Terry, I'm sorry that I didn't recognize you, it's just your mom's skills are too good, I didn't recognize you because of all the makeup!"

He said apologetically.

But it only made Terres feel worse.

"Mom only put some lipstick on my lips and did something with my eyelashes..."

He complained in a hoarse voice.

"Gack!"

His father exclaimed in shock.

That was true, Laurianna barely did anything to Terres, he just looked that feminine on his own.

"Listen, son, I'm sorry that I didn't recognize you. You don't have to worry about your looks. What's important is on the inside anyway!"

Timotheus Aboy was a general for a reason, he splendidly recovered after his blunder.

"How about your old man grant you a wish, what about it? You can ask me anything!"

Dad is so cool!

Thought Terres.

But he also knew that everything was going according to the Terres Aboy back-story! Now was his chance!

Terres walked to the door and opened it.

"Dad, I want to go to the Ranorosso Academy."

He said seriously and looked his father in the eyes.

"Son..."

Timotheus looked more worried than surprised or anything. He looked at his son's hair and felt really bad for him.

Not because when Terres looked silly with the unevenly cut hair, but because now he could be easily mistaken for a girl even easier.

"But Terres... Your health..."

He started explaining.

"I know dad! But It's slowly getting better, right? And to go to Ranorosso I have to be sixteen! Maybe by the time, I will be old enough I'll be healthy enough!"

Terres wiped his face and interrupted his father.

"You and mom met in the Ranorosso academy, right? I want to go there too!"

He showed so much conviction that his father didn't want to refuse him.

The general of the Nafrezia Empire, the kingdom with the strongest army and the most aggressive policies, smiled at his son and patted his head.

"Alright. If you will get healthy enough by then, I will allow you to attend the Academy. And of course, I will convince your mom to let you go too."

Terres smiled and clenched his fist.

Heroine, just you wait!

He thought excitedly, not expecting even a little bit what an enormous plot twist was waiting in store for him.