Chapter 70: Daughter

“It’s Ephnel…”

Ephnel decided to confess.

She had thought about this scene before, but she was still mentally preparing herself.

She had intended to find a better time to say it, but she didn’t expect to be cornered so quickly.

“Ephnel??”

Now, both Yanase Kaoru and Yanase Takuma were stunned for a moment.

“You probably don’t know her,” Ephnel glanced at Yukina.

“Lend me one of those.”

After speaking, Ephnel went to the storage cabinet behind her, casually pulled out a neatly folded poster, and explained to her still-dazed parents, “Although it’s a bit casual, if you want to see a picture, this is her.”

With that, Ephnel unfurled the poster.

“Hey, wait!?”

Yukina suddenly remembered something, but just as she started to speak, the poster was spread open with a whoosh.

The Yanase couple subconsciously looked at the poster, and then they saw…

Bright sunlight, an azure sky.

By a spacious swimming pool, a silver-haired girl wearing only a thin swimsuit was shyly bending slightly, her slender, delicate foot gently touching the surface of the water.

Her eyes were lowered, a faint smile on her face.

Her thighs, abdomen, shoulders, and neck were fair and smooth, like poured milk.

The moment the picture was frozen captured a perfect and graceful beauty, youthful and moving, yet charming and sexy.

Anyone who saw it would immediately be captivated by the girl in the picture.

Seeing her parents stunned for another moment, Ephnel was about to start explaining when she heard Yukina’s faint voice.

“Um… Onii-chan… the one in your hand is from my collection… the Magical Girl swimsuit limited edition…”

Swimsuit limited edition?

Ephnel glanced at the poster in her hand, and then…

Her face flushed crimson.

She had only intended to use it as an entry point for the next topic.

Now, the fact that she was Ephnel had become even harder to say.

‘Your son is a beautiful gravure model!’

She would probably be disowned, right?

…

That swimsuit limited edition wall scroll taken by the pool was a prize Yukina had won in an offline random gacha event.

It was a prize with a rarity of “SR” in the prize pool at the time.

Above it, there were even rarer “SSR” and “UR” prize tiers.

The SR prize was set as—”one random photo wall scroll.”

Interestingly, the official options for the wall scroll at the time were a random selection of fifty from ten different scenes.

There was a difference in quantity among the different types of wall scrolls.

This swimsuit-themed photo wall scroll was limited to one, and in terms of rarity, it was close to a “UR” level item.

As an exceptionally rare limited-themed wall scroll of Ephnel, this item, which was set as a third-tier rare SR level prize at the time, was instead hyped up to the ranks of the rarest and most popular collectibles.

Countless people crowded in front of the gacha machine.

A single pull of the gacha cost less than a meal, and each participant could purchase ten pull qualifications with their entry ticket.

In other words, the price wasn’t high, but the opportunities were limited.

At that time, many people bought pull opportunities at high prices just for this wall scroll, but all returned empty-handed.

In the end, Yukina had won it by chance.

According to the officials, this was a limited edition, one-of-a-kind rare series, meaning it was the only one.

At the time, countless people were envious, and many contacted Yukina offering to buy it at a high price, but all were mercilessly rejected by Yukina.

However, not many people knew that this wall scroll was actually taken by Ephnel specifically for Yukina.

Yonomikenami had tampered with the quotas and the gacha machine during the live lottery, ensuring it ended up in her sister’s hands.

Later, Yukina had stored this wall scroll in the storage cabinet, along with her other photo collections, as one of her treasured items.

It was just very unfortunate that since most of the things in the storage cabinet were her sister’s treasures, Ephnel rarely went through them.

Ephnel didn’t know it was her own swimsuit wall scroll, which led to that scene.

Both Ephnel and Yukina had very subtle expressions.

For Ephnel, this was supposed to be an introduction to explain her “work.”

Now, it seemed her “work” had suddenly become hard to explain.

A gravure model was, of course, a legitimate job, but in her parents’ eyes, she was a boy!

And for Yukina…

If her sister were still her “brother,” she wouldn’t have felt anything special…

But after knowing that her sister was Ephnel herself, the feelings in her heart had suddenly changed.

Taking out her most cherished photo of her sister in front of her sister herself—there was nothing more embarrassing than this.

…

Ephnel pulled out another magazine.

The cover of this magazine was much more normal than the swimsuit limited edition that Yukina had carefully collected.

“Ahem, th-that was an accident just now…”

Ephnel finally managed to escape from her parents’ subtle gazes after a great deal of effort.

Now, to get to the point, she cleared her throat.

“Dad, Mom, what I’m about to say, please don’t be shocked, and you must believe that everything I say is the truth.”

Ephnel said seriously.

“We won’t.”

“Go ahead and say it,” the Yanase couple also composed their expressions.

“Son, no matter what you say, I will believe you.”

“Mm…”

Ephnel met Yukina’s gaze and received encouragement from it.

Anyway, Ephnel hadn’t planned to keep this a secret any longer.

It was just a confession.

If she hesitated and wavered this time, it would only be more difficult to take the step again.

She took a deep breath and spoke slowly.

“Actually… I am Ephnel.”

“Pfft—”

This time, it wasn’t just Yanase Kaoru.

Even the usually stern Yanase Takuma couldn’t hold it in and almost choked on his breath.

Yukina also covered her small mouth, her eyes hazy with laughter.

Ephnel covered her face, suddenly feeling the urge to find a hole to crawl into.

“Naoto, you that…”

“Moooom~~~~~”

“S-sorry, I couldn’t hold it in… hahaha…”

“No, look!”

Ephnel opened the magazine and thrust it in front of her parents, who were laughing uncontrollably, pointing at herself in various poses in the magazine.

“Don’t you think this… E-Ephnel looks very familiar!?”

“Actually, she does feel a little familiar,” Yanase Takuma said sincerely.

“But even if you say that, I still don’t understand…”

Yanase Takuma was still able to communicate normally.

He spread his hands, feigning innocence.

“If I said your son turned into a girl in an accident, would you believe me?”

Ephnel’s cheeks turned slightly red.

Even for her, saying such a thing was a bit embarrassing.

“What are you talking about…”

“Dad, Mom… I’m telling the truth…”

Ephnel pursed her lips and struggled for a moment.

This wasn’t getting anywhere.

She took two steps back from the dining table, hesitated for a moment, and then took off her wig.

The Yanase couple, who had been joking just a second ago, suddenly widened their eyes, watching their son throw the wig aside.

A head of beautiful, ink-black long hair flowed down, and in a flash, he had transformed into a proper beautiful girl.

Clatter—chopsticks fell beside a plate.

The table suddenly fell silent.

Ephnel’s gaze drifted to the side, her eyes lowered in embarrassment.

The rush of shame made her face flush.

“I really am Ephnel…” Ephnel switched back to her original, crisp, girlish voice and said helplessly, “Now you should believe me, right?”

…