The two years until your birthday pass uneventfully

You had spent the last two years dedicating yourself to the study of the political landscape of Natira, the kingdom you were born in, among other things. You were correct about your assumptions of an aristocracy but it had more complexity that your thought.

The ruling family is the Castir. Women were the ruling gender however a man was able to inherit titles, if they marry that title is transferred to the wife, likely explaining why your father never remarried even if he had found someone. There were also more ranking nobles than you expected, below the Queen and their direct decedents are the Duchesses who govern a variable number of Viscountesses who's lands were overseen by Baronesses who would employ local Ladies to look after towns and villages. There were also non-noble titles corresponding to military and bureaucratic ranks. You didn't know how many of each noble and non-noble rank there were and gave up on trying to remember all the family names. You did learn that your father was a Lord which was odd since you'd never seen him interact with his Baroness, whoever that was.

After your mind was suitable dulled by all that, you engaged with your swordsmanship. You were still fundamentally unable imbue any material. You swapped from swords to staves, to bows, for a day you even tried a warhammer but that was short lived after you swung it over-corrected your grip and crushed the handle sending the head through several trees. Even giving yourself massive physical strength was pointless. The best you could do was shatter your weapon on whatever you were hitting, utterly pointless since even you were able to harden your skin enough to make that shattering little more than a slight graze. Speed was all you had without being able to imbue your weapon. So you focused on speed. You really thought you were reaching a point of being able to dodge most weapons, but no, still average, so you would have to think of something else. Your disintegrate spell was effective but only if you could land it and no one countered it.

With you mind and physical learning being occupied your last few spare moments were spent researching **** contracts. Aside from the histories, that provided very little actual detail, you had to scrounge together the rumours and ideas of others. You probably could have made more progress if you had told your father why you were so interested. However, that would entail giving him the details of Anastasia's sponsorship. You knew him well enough to know that he would have tried to get you out of it, even though you nullified the **** contract he wouldn't be happy with your name on it. Plus you missed your opportunity to tell him.

Surprisingly true to her word, Anastasia and Edin did come to visit you. A few weeks after your debut the pair came to visit for two days. Considering it was a two day trip from the capital you assumed she had discovered your alteration to the **** contract and was here to talk to you about it. Then she never even brought it up, so if she knew, she might be going to use it against you, given how illegal it was she would need to pick the time and you being in the capital was going to be it. She gave nothing away so there was no point worrying about it when you had no way to counter anything she did.

The reason she stated for her visit was to confirm your sponsorship. The look on your father's face when she presented the offer was priceless.

The actual sponsorship was essentially a signed written agreement, no magic this time you made very sure. The signed agreement would be provide to the Royal Academy's bursar and you would officially be a student. Thankfully, either out of assumption it was normal, or to get a better hold on you, the agreement even included on site accommodation and amenities, daily meals, even a cleaning service for your room and clothing.

It was far more than both you and your father were expecting. Honestly without all that you hadn't even considered how you would survive. You took it as a lesson to start coming up with back up plans. The first thing you had to do at the capital was find some way to secure your position, with money or political power preferably however, you would need to secure money anyway so it would be a good start. Your father said he would provide an allowance but you declined. As it was, you were far to reliant on the support of others and more importantly, in the last two years you had taken notice of the estate and found your father was in debt due to your expenses. He had provided the best education he could afford and you were only adequate, asking for more wasn't something you wanted to contemplate.

With the agreement signed and a day to spare you had spent it with Anastasia and Edin. You had no idea what sort of relationship Anastasia was aiming for with you, she certainly appeared to be friendly and was oddly physical, constantly finding reasons to hug or touch you. It wasn't uncomfortable and her aura had no indications of ill intentions towards you so didn't you protest, plus it was nice having such a beautiful woman being so attentive.

Seeing Edin was fun. He looked much happier than he had at the debut though that was probably not the best time to establish a baseline, you were rather stressed yourself after all. You also noticed that he had taken up illusions, for the entire two days he maintained a glamour that accentuated his softer features. Lips fuller, eyes a little bigger, nose and ears smaller. It did make him look, as Anastasia kept saying, 'pretty'. It also made him very popular with the female staff. He could barely spend any time with you before some member or another would strike up a conversation. You and your father had very lax formality with the staff and you thought their joining the two of you might be rude but he enjoyed the attention.

After that first visit both Anastasia and Edin had regularly written to you and you wrote back. Over the years you had sent each other several dozen letters. While you did not consider Anastasia a friend, since the first thing she had done was demand you sign a **** contract, you didn't see her as an enemy, at least not yet. At best she was an announced threat. She did provide you with some insight into herself and her family.

She was older than you thought, she turned seventeen shortly after your debut and was now nineteen. She also had three sisters. One younger, one older and a twin, though she rarely mentioned her twin beyond her name being Elizabeth. The eldest, Mary, was in her late twenties and, supposedly, rather popular amongst both the nobles and populous at large. Considering it was her sister you were not sure how honest she was about that popularity but knew better than to question her credibility.

The youngest was Isabelle at seventeen and was a ball of royal energy. She had apparently taken to combat magic and was something of a favorite subject of Anastasia. Whether it was out of familial love or some tactic to setup some further control over you, you honestly didn't know. Again you were not sure how truthful Anastasia is but she made Isabelle sound like a magical talent well beyond her years and the apple of her eye. Every mention at some point included a reference to how she was going to bring her along to meet you.

As for Edin all of his letters mostly consisted of how amazing the capital was, how amazing Anastasia was for sponsoring the two of you, how amazing she was in general, how excited he was to see you again, and other generalised amazement. You hoped he would have expanded his vocabulary over time but apparently his amazement stayed remarkable stable.

You looked over the edge of the reading room balcony. You had been sent here by your father so he could set up the party. He hadn't actually told you there was a party but he was also terrible at hiding it.

Looking down at the forest surrounding your estate you considered how much your life was about to change. And how dangerous it could be. You had no idea what Anastasia was after and how it was going to affect you or Edin.

"Is this brooding, boredom or both?" Anastasia asked as she joined you, putting her hands on the railing. She had used an illusion to paint her nails in colours that shifted as she moved.

She had grown up in just the year since you had last seen her. Her features were largely the same but she had grown into them. Her nose and ears now perfectly accentuated her flawless skin. She had gotten taller, where before she was only at your shoulders now she was only slightly shorter than you. Her hair had been allowed to grow and reached down past her shoulders it's stark crimson had faded into a more pale red. The redness to her cheeks had softened into only a faint colouring that brought out her how green eyes were and she dropped their enchantment. Her lips had filled making their cupid bow shape more pronounced. Even her aura had matured. Rather than different colours she was maintaining a cool white with only minimal patterns, nothing eye catching or distracting.

What drew your eye now was her attire. It had shifted drastically. Now she wore pants and form hugging tunics that accentuate all of her physical attributes. As much as you tried to avoid it you also saw her chest had filled out, which might explain the subtler aura since she had other things to show off.

"Neither anymore." You couldn't stop yourself from saying that as most of your teenage mind was too occupied looking to think clearly. Her aura tinged a little red at your words and as she noticed where your attention had shifted. The colour spreading around her chest making you look a little more intently.

Considering the difference in your social standing it was more surprising she didn't make a comment about keeping your eyes to yourself. This wasn't the first time she had seen your eyes wonder. She had been here for a full day now and you had noticed that she was showing off slightly whenever you were near. The two of you turned to face each other.

Even now that you were out of the worst of the puberty you were still hormonal. Combined with the fact she is still the only woman your physical age you know and it was harder for you to ignore your feelings than your would have thought. You coughed and turned back to the forest. "How is your sister liking the estate?" You deflect, after all of the letters about Isabelle you were surprised about how understated her introduction to you was. She stepped off the royal carriage and bounced around for a while saying hello to everyone. She didn't even say anything else to you just hello before bouncing off.

Anastasia didn't turn away from you but grinned a little. "Isabelle is having a great time. Your staff are delightfully impertinent and Edin is making sure she stays out of trouble." With all of Isabelle's hellos the staff hadn't realised she was a princess, instead thinking she was Anastasia's personal attendant and had promptly swarmed the energetic girl and lavished her with attention that hadn't stopped. You weren't sure if some of the staff had been told of Isabelle's linage even now.

"They are." You were still worried the royals might take offence at just how impertinent the staff could be. Since you had aged out of doting very quickly the staff had apparently been saving it up. Isabelle is the victim of a lot of attention, not that she seemed all that concerned but there is a risk of one of the staff being a little to patronising.

"It's fine." Anastasia placed her hand over yours. "She's the youngest so she usually gets palmed off on the staff anyway. I am sure she _loves _being the centre of attention for once." You looked from Anastasia's hand up to her face that was very close to your own. You swallowed as a sudden dryness hit your mouth. She smelled like jasmine. The hand over yours ran delicately up your arm. "You've grown quite a bit in just two years." You had to admit that two years of focusing on training your swordsmanship had certainly giving you a boost to your appearance and her noticing was making you a happier than you thought.

It was baffling. At this point your mind would almost be halfway though a life span yet here you were getting embarrassed by a girl coming onto you like some stuttering teenager. Which you supposed you also were.

A large part of you really wanted to keep going. Anastasia was beautiful and she smelled incredible and her delicate tracing finger tips were taking a lot of focus to ignore. However, she is a princess and this seemed like a very dangerous situation to do something short sighted.

You shift slightly to move her fingers off your arm and into your own hand. You wrap your fingers under hers and rub her knuckles with your thumb. You can feel slight roughness from calluses on her fingers, you'd assumed she trained to fight but didn't think a royal would train enough for calluses. "I needed a lot of sword practice to get up to speed." You smile at her. "We should go to the party before someone comes looking."

She flashes a predatory grin at you but doesn't push further. She turns to leave taking her hand from yours and running fingertips back up your arm, resting them on your shoulder giving your muscles a gentle squeeze. "So glad you take our contract so seriously." She whispered into your ear before withdrawing her fingers and leaving the balcony.

You have to remain where you are and tense your thighs for a moment before turning to leave. When you did you saw Anastasia bending slightly to look at some of your books. Your eyes immediately flick to her ass as she very slightly waved it side to side. Her training hadn't just callused her hands, it had made her body almost as toned as your own. With it's hypnotic waving despite your best efforts you couldn't not comment. "See anything that takes your interest?" You were amazed your voice did break halfway through the question from all the hormones currently flooding your system.

"I do." She stood back up and turned to look at you. Her eyes, unlike yours, did not bashfully flick toward the parts that caught your attention she looked directly at your crotch and grinned that predatory grin. "Perhaps you could show me something I should take." She put a hand on her hip hooking her thumb into her pants to pulled them a little bit below her hip showing off the flawless porcelain skin beneath.

You let out a shaky breath and take a step forward, your restraint was very easily being overridden by Anastasia. It maybe should have concerned you just how easily she could manipulate you even with the **** contract nullified.

"Christopher are you– oh sorry." Edin appeared in the doorway and froze. The tableau of you and the princess would be hard to mistake for anything other than a ongoing and soon to be successful seduction. Edin unfroze for a moment to look at Anastasia. She didn't say anything but you saw the pattern in her aura shift slightly and Edin opened the door more. "The party is about to start."

Apparently the two of them were close enough for codes because that was rather obvious. But it without doubt saved you from making a possibly very serious, if extremely likely enjoyable mistake, so you pretended to not have seen anything.

"I suppose we should attend." Anastasia said sauntering over to the door. "Edin be a dear and help Christopher. I think his pants need to be let out," She turned her head to look at you but her eyes were focused on your crotch again, "quite a bit." She looked up to your face and winked then walked past Edin leaving the two of you standing there.

You were well aware of how this worlds flipped gender dynamic affected social standings. Now you got to see how it affected romance and sexual chemistry. You hadn't really considered that would be the case and you weren't sure if this is good or bad. You enjoyed those exchanges with Anastasia a lot more than you would have thought. But does this mean you are going to be on the receiving end of this sort of attention a lot more? And if so how exactly are you supposed to respond?

"Um do you..." Edin had taken a step inside the room and was holding the door behind his back about to close it. Much like Anastasia he had grown in the two years. He hadn't however gotten taller so he was now a little more than a head shorter than you. His slender body hadn't filled out as you would have thought, his shoulders were narrow and his hips had widened slightly. He wore loose clothes so you had no idea if he had managed to gain any muscles but from how small and delicate his hands were you doubted he would have put on much. His features had actually softened even further and he wasn't using anymore illusion to accentuate his femininity, his cheeks were a fuller and his lips looked a little larger. Most striking was that his hair had grown out. It hadn't been short coming down a little past his neck but now it almost reached his shoulders. When he'd first arrived you had only recognised him by his eyes.

It took you a moment to put two and two together. You had told Edin you were terrible with enchantments and he must have told Anastasia. When she told him to let your your pants she must have been teasing you both. "No they will adjust on their own," you joke hoping the humour will speed up that process, "no need for any enchantments." You smile at him.

"En–right enchantments, ok then!" Edin shouted as he spun, flinging the door open and dashing out letting the door rebound closed as he went.

Now you feel bad. He was trying to help even if it wasn't needed, though you weren't sure what you said that made him react like that.

You spend a few more moments tensing your thighs to get some blood moving before leaving the room yourself.

Only to run into Isabelle right outside sending the smaller girl tumbling back. "I am so sorry." You rush out and offer your hand to pick her up.

"I could have you executed for that." The coldness in her voice makes you freeze. It was the first thing she had said besides 'hello'. "But Annie would be upset at me so you're fine." She grabbed your hand and pulled herself up. As her fingers touched you tiny electrical shocks made your fingers tense. "Now now Master Christopher what will my sister think?"

"I ah..." You don't have a response but notice that you are still holding her hand and quickly drop it.

"Don't worry, we both know Annie doesn't care all that much about you." She giggled slightly as she said that. You don't say anything because you have no idea what to say. "But if you do want a princess to like you, perhaps you could tell me some of what you two talk about. She is so sensitive about those letters."

You suddenly feel like a rabbit staring at a wolf. "I don't think–"

"Shhh. You don't really have to think. When you get to the capital I'll make sure we have some time to talk." She walked past you as she said it. As she does you feel more electric shocks along your side.

Once she is gone you really hope you haven't figured out why Anastasia wanted a **** contract. Because you would be in a remarkable good person to use as a scapegoat for a sibling proxy war. Nobility but no one significant enough to actually care about if your go missing. Or if you got embroiled in a scandal that could alter who inherits what. Though you really thought Anastasia care about Isabelle, so maybe it might be a one sided war.