House of the Scarlet Rose Pt. 05

"You want what?" Angeline asked, scrunching her forehead.

Anri exhaled, as he did not wish to repeat himself and make his situation further awkward. "A shrinking potion," he answered.

The alchemist studied him intently. She rested her chin between her thumb and a finger in the most exaggerated, yet somehow genuine, expression of thinking he had ever seen.

"Aight," she said at last and turned to her stacked shelves, considering what ingredients would this item require.

"That's all? No questions about what is it for? No warnings about side effects? Nothing?" Anri pried in surprise.

"I don't need to ask what you need it for," she answered and shot him a smug look. He regretted his question. "And side effects of shrinking wholly depend on how much smaller you want to get. Or whoever this potion is meant for. I don't need to remind you that making someone unknowingly drink a potion is not only against the House rules, but also extremely illegal, right? Whatever you're brewing here, boy-o, I hope it's consensual."

Anri waved a hand, not noticing the pun. "Yes, yes, don't worry. I am not some late-night bar dweller, pouring potions into someone's drink. It... It's for me," he added the last part under his breath.

"And just how much smaller would you like to get? Please, stand on this," she pointed to an odd scale in the corner of the lab.

"Like, half my size."

Angeline stopped and lifted her head from her instruments. "What?"

"Eh, is that too much?"

"That's too little," she answered and actually sat down onto her chair. "I thought you wanted to hook up with a fairy or something. I'm not even sure I can mix something this weak. I mean, what would you even want such transformation for anyway?"

"That's personal," Anri mumbled, studying the floor.

Angeline looked hard at thought. She swayed left and right in her rotating chair, staring into the distance at nothing.

"If it's not possible, then I'll be on my way. I'm quite tired from today's lessons and I am starting early tomorrow, so maybe I should get some sleep."

She stopped him before he reached the door, pointing her slender finger at him. "No! Stay! I didn't say It cannot be done." She rose from her seat and fetched a stack of some alchemical recipes, spreading them across her work desk as she compared notes. "I will just have to improvise a bit. How much did you say you weight?"

Anri quickly finished removing his shoes and stepped onto the scale, the alchemist already standing next to him with a measuring tape.

"Hmm. Yes, that should be fine. Big question! Would you mind if your appearance changed while shrunk?"

Anri's eyes widened. "What sort of change are we talking about? Because I would really like to remain myself for the... transformation."

"That's alright then. I promise, you will recognize yourself just fine."

"Uhm, if that's all you need, then I will go now and pick it up tomorrow," he carefully approached the door, waiting for the alchemist's reaction. She waved at him without lifting her eyes from her papers and he considered himself dismissed, closing the door behind him.

Genuinely tired, Anri headed into the living quarters and straight to his room, collapsing onto the bed without so much as losing his shoes. He almost drifted into sleep, before he collected his remaining strength to at least undress, if bath wasn't an option anymore.

Strange as it sounded, the House was quiet without Jarill. Sure, there was a whole palace-sized magical brothel just downstairs, but since his days consisted mostly of law lessons and playing at an accountant, he scarcely wandered into that part of the building. Frankly, he missed Jarill's constant interventions. As much as they slowed down his training, he had to admit, they made it so much more bearable. This place just lost a part of its charm when she was gone.

She wrote him a letter last weekend. Apparently, her own education at the university wasn't any less boring than his own, which shouldn't be a surprise, given that she had five times as much subjects as him, although each less frequently. She would be coming back at the end of the month, even if just for a quick visit, but that was still way too far and Anri desperately longed for a distraction from his suffering.

That's why he had hatched this whole plan.

The next day a morning lesson awaited him, and he had to sit through the whole thing until noon, before he was finally free for the weekend. He quickly ate his lunch and headed directly to the lab to pick up his order.

Sure enough, the brothel's personal alchemist didn't disappoint, and a flask of turquoise liquid awaited him at the table.

"Sooo, this won't turn me into a salamander or something, right?"

"If you wanted advanced polymorphism, you should have come a week earlier."

"All right then," he said and pocketed the potion. "Thanks!"

"My pleasure!" she called from her workbench without sparing him a glance. He was already out the door.

Anri's heart was picking up on speed as he walked back up to the ground floor. He held a hand over his pocket, carefully guarding his prized possession as he found himself almost running in nervousness. He tried to tell himself it was purely because of the potion, but truthfully it was at least partially because he still didn't get fully accustomed to actually requesting any of the local services.

And this wasn't going to be just any service.

"First step done. Time for step two."

He reached the great hall, where people and workers hanged out when not preoccupied by any of the activities this place offered and looked around. It wouldn't be easy to spot her, if she was even there in the first place. Since Anri's plan was resting on the option that she would, he started getting uneasy when he couldn't find her, until he practically ran straight into her by a complete accident. He really should have been looking down.

"Oh, Anri! Glad to see you. Finally enjoying free time?" the halfling woman asked.

"Hi Mellina! Truth is I was just looking for you. Hope you aren't in the middle of something."

"Oh, no, not right now, but I'm still working today. I would love to chat for a bit, but I'm afraid I can't really find the time now."

"Actually, I was thinking maybe we could spend some time together, you see. Like, if you'd be willing. I would pay and all!"

Mellina seemed to think for a moment, then her eyes widened in surprise, her expression quickly changing to half excited, half regretful.

"Oh Anri, I'd love to, really, but... there is a reason I don't usually take human clients, you see?"

"Oh, don't worry about that. I took care of that issue. Everything will be perfectly fine."

She tilted her head at him, looking confused. "You have?"

"Yup. I thought it through, you know. Trust me. Sooo..." he awaited her answer nervously.

She narrowed her eyes, an amused but suspecting grin creeping into her face. "Anri, what did you do?"

"That's a surprise," he said.

She didn't seem convinced but shrugged and smiled. "Alright then. But I'm afraid my usual room isn't big enough to accommodate someone of your height. You wouldn't happen to have taken care of that as well, would you?" she teased.

"As a matter of fact..." he spun a key on his finger by the keyring.

"In that case," Mellina said with an exaggerated politeness and outstretched her hand. She had to lift it almost to her eye level to take his.

"Actually, maybe you could go grab a bottle of wine and find me there? I have something to prepare first," he said and flashed her the number on the key. "Two hundred and twenty."

"Well, if you insist," she smoothly transitioned her hand hold into kissing his knuckles and winked at him as she disappeared in the crowd. "Be quick. I won't be long."

Nice. The awkward part is over. Now the scary one.

Anri quickly rushed to his rented room and sat down on the bed. Then he stood again, smoothing out the sheets and paced through the room. He was all sweaty and hyperventilating.

"Alright. Now or never."

He took out the flask and stared at it. The room he rented had a full body mirror, which was fully intentional, but now he started to regret it. He undid the stopper and brought the flask to his nose. It was completely scentless. His shirt was sticking to his skin now and he was burning. Anri took a deep breath and downed the turquoise liquid in one go, then coughed. It tasted like dirt and rotten pears and burned like alcohol.

He set the bottle on a shelf, which was purposefully low enough for a halfling to reach and waited. He had no prior experiences with transfigurations and when nothing happened after twenty seconds, he started to doubt Angeline's professional integrity. Suddenly, nausea took him, and he fell on his knees as the world spun around him. He briefly felt his bones burn through him from the inside, but his mind was too clouded to process it. It was too clouded to process anything.

When it finally cleared someone had covered him by a blanket. No, it was his shirt. Except, it was way too big for him. Too big for anyone. What was he doing again?

He sat up and stared directly at his own reflection.

Oh, that's right, he thought as he screamed. He didn't look like himself at all!

He stood and his clothing fell to the ground, only his shirt stayed hanging on him like on a coat hanger. He looked... he looked...

"What!?" a shout came from behind him.

Anri quickly turned, even after all this, somehow startled, and saw Mellina. She stared at him, eyes wide, jaw dropped, grasping a bttle of wine in one hand. Various emotions shifted through her face: confusion, shock, realization.

And then she burst into laughter.

"That's not funny!" Anri yelled, then staggered. His voice vas too high pitched!

"Yes, it is!" Mellina opposed. She actually laughed so hard, tears were gleaming in her eyes. She took a few deep breaths until she stilled, and the laughter ceased. "So, I assume this isn't the surprise you had in mind."

"No, it most certainly isn't! I look like a kid!"

Mellina stopped. "No, you definitely don't."

"Yes, I do! Look!" he shouted as he studied himself in the mirror.

"Just because you lost your super manly stubble, that doesn't mean you look like a kid. I've seen human kids, and this isn't what they look like. You look more like a halfling. Or a gnome."

"And I have seen halfling men and this isn't what they look like," he grumbled.

"What even is this anyway? Did you get that from Angeline?" she asked as she inspected the empty bottle, setting the wine on the shelf.

"Yes. Remind me never to ask her for anything again!"

"Hmm. Looks like she mixed a little bit of shrinking potion with de-aging potion and a gnome transformation serum. Honestly, I'm amazed she even pulled this off at all. Shrinking this little is extremely difficult, even for someone of her caliber."

He looked at her. "What?"

"Oh, I had human customers approach me before, so I did my research. I didn't think anyone would be bold enough to do this."

Anri just blinked. Sometimes he forgot what an information sponge she was. It was the primary reason he liked hanging out with her, she could talk about anything.

"So anyway, how is this little fella," she said smirking and leaned before the edge of his oversized shirt.

Anri immediately covered himself. He didn't have the time to realize his underpants were down. Or to examine his significantly shrunk endowment.

"Oh please, Anri. This was the whole point!"

"I just... I didn't expect it to also shrink proportionately to my body." Mellina gave him a look. "Yes, it is supposed to be bigger than this, I swear!"

"Hmm... Must be the gnome part."

"Or the de-aging part," he added as he inspected himself further. He was missing most of his body hair as well. "Ehm. So how is this for a halfling?"

"Pretty decent, actually," she answered, looking at it critically, which somehow made it more believable.

"So, should we, you know... get to the business?" he asked with an awkward smile, trying to sound smooth even in this temporary body.

"Oh, yeah, right. How long does this last?"

"Angeline said transformations usually last between one and two hours. We might want to hurry, you know."

"Yeah, but wait! I'll be right back. I must do something first."

"What? What else could you possibly want to do now?"

"Sorry. I just gotta do this. I can't pass up opportunity like this!" and she was out.

Anri was left dumbfounded in the now quiet room. Looking around, he finally took the time to notice the change in perspective. He was approximately just one meter tall now, something which made him glad the room, despite it being big enough to accommodate a human, was fully set up with halflings or other shorter races in mind. The bed itself was around as big as any other he saw but featured a small step on one side for someone like, let's say: a person who drank an overly complex shrinking potion, to climb into it comfortably. Most other things, like cabinets and shelves, were purposefully shorter as well, but the doorhandle, for example, remained above his eye level now.

Bored, he took to examining himself again. He looked vaguely like he used to, it's just that his body changed more than just in height He hadn't simply shrunk like he expected to, his entire body adjusted proportionately to his altered height. His limbs were slightly thicker, that is, compared to his waist, which was also disproportionate. His face was more rounded as well and he had lost his stubble, which, in combination with his shrinking, had not only made him appear younger, but he was ashamed to admit, also made him as self-conscious as Mellina claimed. Still, he was lacking the typical pointed ears of gnomes, or the signature figure of halflings. But he didn't look exactly like a human either.

A door clicked behind him, and he turned around. "Finally. I was starting to think you bolte..."

But the person entering wasn't Mellina.

He froze. Surely, she couldn't possibly recognize him.

"Anri?"

Fuck.

"Uhm, hello Siera."

The tall Holstaur was giggling franticly. "What... what have you done with yourself? Is that look permanent?"

"GODS NO!" he yelled. "It's just eh... a singular occasion."

She seemed to be taking in his miniature body, which made him, again, suddenly aware he was practically naked. She, on the other hand, was wearing a simple white dress reaching halfway down her thighs, which seemed appropriate as her legs were truly a sight to be admired. Her enormous breasts were barely contained within the fabric and were practically pouring out of her cleavage. Finally, her curly, dark brown hair was held by a hairpin on one side, exposing her ear and neck, while it flowed down to her shoulder on the other side. If one was looking carefully, he would have noticed tiny little white horns protruding from beneath her rich mane, a hint to her inhuman nature.

"And why did you do it?" She was still breathing quickly from her laughing fit, which had a noticeable impact on her bosom, making it bounce slightly to the rhythm.

"That was for someone else, Siera. And as much as I'd like to chat, I think you should maybe leave now." He said, growing more embarrassed by the second. And "growing" was a truly apt term, as he found this new perspective on... "things" to be quite distracting.

"Oh, so that's what Mellina meant!" she said with an exaggerated face of realization. Except, knowing her, it probably wasn't exaggerated. "I must say, this is a surprise indeed. I'm definitely not going to miss this little show."

"What?" Anri made a strangled sound. "Mellina sent you? But... Why?!"

"Why do you think? So that we could have a little fun together. All three, just by ourselves."

Anri didn't feel like pointing out the obvious contradiction in her statement, as he was more occupied with her deciding to approach him, their height difference made all the more glaring by her proximity. Siera was already taller than most human woman and, as Anri could testify, men as was. Now, his face was in level with her crotch.

He slowly retreated back and found himself pressed against the bedframe, Siera towering above him. The potion was meant to make things easier for him and Mellina, someone far shorter than himself. Compared to Siera, he now felt helpless. He couldn't stop her if he wanted to.

If? Since when was he okay with this?!

He looked up and found he couldn't see her face through her breasts. She took a step back and leaned down to face him.

"Oh, what happened? Shy all of a sudden? Can you only handle women smaller than you?"

Anri looked at her and gulped. Her face, her face was now far bigger than his. Siera's blue eyes were drawing him in and, only now he truly felt tiny. Like a child taking in the comforting gaze of an adult. And below her face, her enormous breasts were threatening to fall out of her dress. They were already bigger than his head when he was the size of an average Anri. Now he could easily drown in them. Hovering mere inches from him, they completely obscured his vision and he felt himself react involuntarily.

"Looks like someone isn't as shy," she said and traced her finger to his groin. Anri immediately reached to cover himself again but froze as she lifted the edge of his shirt.

Her finger was actually bigger!

Not thicker by any means, but compared to it, his rapidly hardening instrument was visibly shorter. Even though he wasn't at his full mast, he still felt a sharp stab of shame at her seeing him like that. He knew this was the desired effect of the potion, but it was never meant to reach this type of audience.

"Ooooh, it's so cute," she squeaked, seeming like she would melt. She started toying with it with one finger, letting it wave in the air, half erect. "What do you say we heat things up a bit before Mellina arrives?"

Anri was about to protest but just as she said it, the door opened again and in came the halfling. All the questions about what took her so long were immediately answered as he saw her. Apparently, she had been changing. Her elegant and revealing dress had been swapped for a simple, white, buttonless shirt which hung bellow her waist. Instead of any pants, she wore a pair of white, thigh-high socks and pink panties, just barely showing from beneath her shirt. In addition, her blonde hair was tied into two tails by pink ribbons.

Before Anri could utter any explanation about how it's not what it looks like, she said: "Ah, I see you weren't wasting any time."

Anri was honestly a little surprised Siera was telling the truth. It wasn't at all beyond her to fabricate a story that Mellina sent her, just to embarrass him in front of her.

"What are you wearing?" he asked.

"Oh, this? I originally bought it to spice up mine and Siera's afterwork playtime sessions," she said and turned around to give him a full overview. "Yes, work is nice and all," she explained when she saw his curious expression, "but it oftentimes leaves you... unsatisfied. We learned that usually it's best to let friends take care of that for you, but even that can grow a little stale with time. Sometimes, you just need to spice things up a little."

They exchanged a mischievous smile, before Siera turned back to him. She hadn't ceased playing with his dick and it was now fully hard and twice as big as she held it between her index and middle finger, stroking it gently. It was still laughably small, but it didn't seem like she minded.

"What do you say, Anri? Do you want mommy to take care of this?" she asked in a tone one would reserve for a child. He couldn't bring himself to do anything but nod, his gaze locked on her ginormous cleavage.

She slowly straightened and helped him remove his shirt, which now looked more like a bedsheet on him anyway. Then she simply picked him up by his waist and placed him standing on the little step built into the bed on one side. She kneeled before him on the ground and just barely managed to lower herself to be in level with his member.