As he stepped into the headmaster’s office, cool and refreshing air entirely different from the corridor touched his skin.
Morning sunlight poured through the domed glass ceiling, and all four walls were filled with massive bookshelves reaching from floor to ceiling. The shelves held knowledge that seemed older than the Empire’s history itself, from ancient parchment scrolls to grimoires embedded with jewels.
Silvanus headed toward the massive desk in the center of the room, then carefully unfolded his hands that had been cradling the frog and set Nigel down on the desktop.
“Wait here for a moment.”
He spoke briefly to Nigel before disappearing somewhere. In any case, there was nothing else he could do but stay put.
Before long, Silvanus returned carrying a teacup from which warm steam rose. He set the cup down in front of himself, then immediately placed a very small dish (though it looked just right for a frog) on the opposite side. Then he poured clear water from the teapot in a gentle stream.
Seeing no steam rising from it, it appeared to be cold water.
“Drink.”
This? Nigel looked back and forth between him and the small water dish with an absurd expression. He tried to open his mouth to respond somehow, but only a stupid sound like “ribbit—” came out.
“……”
Lowering his gaze to the dish, he saw transparent, clear water. Gulp— did frogs even have Adam’s apples?
But.
Nigel had never drunk water from any vessel other than a teacup or cup. No matter how much he’d been reduced to this state, he wasn’t a beast—how could he stick his head into a dish and drink water?
Nigel pointedly turned his head away. He was thirsty, but thirst was something he could endure as much as he needed to. Compared to his pride, it was nothing.
“……”
However, slowly Nigel’s gaze drifted downward toward the dish below as if drawn by instinct.
His skin, which had dried out from running all over the dormitory being chased by maids since morning, began to cry out the moment he saw the clear, cold water before his eyes.
Hurry and immerse yourself in that water, drink that water. Every single cell in his body seemed to cry out desperately. The sight of the transparent water rippling in the dish looked more beautiful and tempting than any jewel in the world.
Nigel held out with his head stubbornly turned away.
“Don’t you need it?”
Silvanus was quietly observing Nigel’s behavior with his chin propped up, looking intrigued.
“You must need it though?”
Silvanus’s eyes had the light of a child watching the behavior of a new toy. He was right. But that was precisely why Nigel didn’t want to move according to Silvanus’s words even more.
“……”
Gulp, his throat moved as if urging him to drink water quickly.
Clean water.
Silvanus’s pure white eyes remained still as stone, as if they would never turn their attention elsewhere until Nigel moved. A time like eternity passed.
Right, Silvanus was a being who could remain in this headmaster’s office with Nigel in this state for eternity. There was no way being stubborn in front of him would work. Dragging it out would only be a loss for him.
In the end, Nigel had no choice but to swallow his pride and very slowly, reluctantly lower his head toward the dish. He needed to quench his thirst first. If he wanted to return to his original body, that is.
Finally reaching the dish, Nigel hesitated for a moment before slowly lowering his head.
The moment the cold water touched the tip of his snout, a thrilling shiver ran through his entire body. His mouth filled with cool water, and Nigel unconsciously closed his eyes.
Splash splash. The sound of water echoed.
It wasn’t just drinking water—it was almost like he’d buried his mouth in the water’s surface, his entire body’s dry skin absorbing the water. As moisture filled him, the symptoms that had made breathing difficult until now seemed to improve somewhat.
Was the reason he’d been struggling all this time entirely because his whole body had dried out? The thirst that had been burning throughout his body was relieved in an instant, and only now with that refreshing and cool feeling did he feel like he could live.
A perfectly emptied dish appeared before his eyes.
“……”
Tap, a single finger touched Nigel’s back. It was a brief moment, but he felt as if something had scanned his condition.
When he slightly raised his head (though for a frog without a distinct boundary between neck and body, it was more like lifting his entire body), he came face to face with Silvanus’s pure white eyes still staring intently at him. Then he immediately folded his eyes in half in a smile and said:
“As expected, you’re much better now.”
What? If he could have frowned, he would have done so immediately. Whether he’d read the frog’s expression or not, Silvanus continued speaking while resting his chin on the desk, examining Nigel as if appreciating a rare jewel.
“I like you much better than when you were the Crown Prince. I’d like to keep you on my desk forever.”
His eyes were sincere. Silvanus truly liked Nigel’s current appearance. The characteristically glossy surface of reptilian eyes that couldn’t be hidden even in human form glinted.
…Could it be that dragons, being reptiles too, prefer frogs to humans? In any case, it was a much better situation than the headmaster having no interest at all. Nigel decided inwardly.
‘Good, if I explain my current situation to him a bit more—’
“How about here?”
What? When Nigel raised his head again, he saw Silvanus stroking with his finger the glass boxes arranged on one side of his massive desk with a proud expression.
What are those…
Nigel carefully examined the inside of the glass boxes his finger was pointing at. Inside them were…
Various snakes, salamanders, and things like turtles lying on fluffy leaves and sand.
“……!”
Looking at Silvanus’s slightly flushed cheeks as if excited, he seemed to feel good just thinking about it.
That’s when he realized.
Silvanus had no intention of helping Nigel—he was only thinking of keeping him as a pet.
‘Even if he’s a dragon, I’m Nigel Kaiserion, and this is Kaiserion Academy, so how could…!’
Having expected to at least receive some advice about suddenly turning into a frog, Nigel trembled with an inexplicable sense of betrayal.
It was a desperate situation. With even the faint hope he’d placed in that dragon now gone, Nigel leaped down from the desk with a big jump.
“Aha, you want to play more in that form. Good choice.”
Silvanus’s voice from behind sounded distinctly clear as if whispering right next to his ear. A small laugh—”haha”—followed.
“Yes, go have fun playing. In the meantime, I’ll prepare a box for Your Highness.”
Silvanus didn’t stop the frog leaving the headmaster’s office. He only felt a gaze watching from above, as if observing an insignificant creature struggling.
Ribbit, the sound that had been suppressed inside until now burst out. Unable to shout at this reality where nothing but absurd things kept happening one after another since waking up, that was the only expression Nigel could make.
* * *
Perhaps because there was still plenty of time until class, the academy corridors were quieter than usual with no people around.
For Nigel, it was at least fortunate.
Ribbit.
Nigel swallowed that detestable sound into his fist-sized body. Damn it, couldn’t he go even a moment without making this sound?
In any case, he needed to use this time to seek a way to return as much as possible. Or was this entire situation even real? Nigel banged his head on the floor.
Normally it should have made a loud thud! but being a moist frog, it made a strange squelch! sound instead. Hearing it directly made the current situation feel even more dreamlike.
Waking up in bed having turned into a frog—yes. This couldn’t possibly be real, could it?
However, even when he closed his eyes tightly and opened them again, all Nigel could see in his vision was the cold floor of the academy.
“……”
What now?
After crouching on all fours for a moment in thought, Nigel raised his head. The fact that the dragon Silvanus, whom he’d at least somewhat trusted, had absolutely no intention of helping him was shocking.
‘……First, I need to return to my room.’
That thought filled his mind. Right, I need to check the place where I woke up as a frog again.
The cleaning maids were probably still searching the building for the frog that had suddenly appeared. There wasn’t much time. But he wanted to check the state of his room before they returned to resume cleaning.
There might be some clue left that could explain the reason for this chaos. Though he had no idea what it might be.
Nigel hopped along (midway, the urge to bash his head against a wall and die surged up, but since he couldn’t die in this state, he firmly suppressed it) and safely arrived in front of his room door that the maids had left open.
Creak— Nigel wedged his body into the gap and squeezed through the massive dormitory room door.
As soon as he entered, the familiar scenery of his room came into view. But everything felt strange. The bed that had always been comfortable looked like a massive cliff, and the desk legs looked like towering pillars.
Because the maids had run out in the middle of cleaning, everything was scattered about haphazardly. Nigel looked around briefly and listened carefully. Fortunately, he didn’t hear the sound of the maids returning.
I need to find a clue.
Nigel immediately began searching every corner of the room.
Hop, hop. The sensation of jumping around on the carpet was still terrible, but now wasn’t the time to worry about such things. He headed to the top of the desk, under the sofa, and finally toward the bed where he’d been sleeping.
The very place where Nigel Kaiserion had awakened. On the floor beside the bed, something white and glinting was scattered about.
