“…You’re safe, Your Highness. I’m truly relieved.”
Sir Rodrick glared at Rowen with sharp eyes.
“An explanation seems necessary. Young Master Rowen, if His Highness was here, why didn’t you inform us earlier and instead locked the door? This is clearly defying an Imperial order and could raise suspicions of kidnapping and confinement…”
“That’s enough.”
Before Rowen could make any excuses, Nigel’s voice cut in. He was leaning against the headboard. The hand sweeping back his sweat-dampened bangs was trembling slightly.
“It was my order, Sir Rodrick.”
“Your Highness?”
Nigel glanced at Rowen, who sat beside him fidgeting restlessly. Rowen was currently under suspicion. He was on the verge of being branded a traitor for trying to protect him.
Nigel gritted his teeth. It wounded his pride, but there was only one way.
“Rowen has been nursing me through my illness.”
“…Pardon?”
“Chronic headaches… I mean. They suddenly became uncontrollably severe. So severe that I couldn’t bear even a single ray of light or the sensation of a collar brushing against my skin.”
Nigel’s voice sank. Though it was mixed with lies, it was also pain he’d suffered his entire life.
“I didn’t want to tell anyone. If word got out that I collapsed at the Academy, unable to take care of even my own body… Mother, Her Majesty would be disappointed.”
It was an answer befitting the perfectionist Crown Prince. At the words that he’d hidden away because he didn’t want to show weakness, Sir Rodrick’s eyes wavered.
“So… to Young Master Rowen?”
“Yes. Rowen was the only one I could show this state to.”
Nigel gripped Rowen’s arm tightly. As if leaning on him.
“He’s the one who accepted me in that state and stayed by my side for three whole days without asking anything.”
Nigel stared directly at Sir Rodrick.
“Please don’t press him too hard. I was the one who told him to lock the door.”
“Ah…”
Rowen stared at Nigel blankly. It was a lie, but he was amazed that Nigel was covering for him to this extent.
Sir Rodrick’s gaze swept over the close proximity of the two. Too close for simple friendship, and the air felt strangely sensual for mere nursing. But to think the Crown Prince had only one person he could show his weakest self to.
‘This doesn’t seem like… just a friendship.’
The only person he sought when ill, and the friend who stood up to the captain of the knights for him. Wasn’t this a relationship no different from lovers? Sir Rodrick cleared his throat and averted his gaze.
The suspicion had been mostly dispelled, but a strange atmosphere of a different meaning remained.
“…I didn’t realize the bond between you two was so much deeper than I thought.”
“We’ve grown up together our whole lives.”
Nigel added quietly as if driving in a wedge. His voice sounded strangely sensual, and Rowen swallowed dry saliva without realizing it.
“Fall back! His Highness is safe. He needs time to… compose himself with his friend, so don’t disturb him.”
The knights hastily bowed their heads and withdrew. Beyond the tattered door, Sir Rodrick gave one last respectful bow.
“I’ll wait outside. Please come out at your leisure.”
Then he walked away down the corridor with measured steps—tap, tap, tap.
Perfect silence descended in the room. Though in truth, with the door blown off, it was a stretch to call this a room anymore.
On the narrow dormitory bed, Nigel, sitting there naked, bit the inside of his mouth once before speaking.
“…Clothes.”
Rowen, who had been staring at him with a blank face, said “Huh? Uh… yeah,” and spun around, walking toward the wardrobe. The tips of Rowen’s ears were red.
Nigel pulled on the shirt Rowen tossed him while irritably sweeping his hair back. He could feel Rowen’s gaze piercing the back of his head from behind. If they were strangers, he could at least kill him to silence him.
Of all people, it had to be Rowen Ashfield who witnessed this entire situation from the sidelines.
“…Rowen.”
After a long while, Nigel spoke.
“Yeah.”
Rowen’s answer was short.
“…Keep what happened these past few days a secret.”
“What? Which… which part?”
Though his tone was as indifferent as usual, there was unmistakable embarrassment hidden within.
“Don’t play dumb. You saw everything.”
“What? What did I see?”
Rowen Ashfield, who had been sitting on the bed pretending to stare intently out the window, jumped and turned his head toward Nigel. His face was deathly pale while only his ear tips were red as if about to burst.
“I didn’t see anything!”
“…What are you talking about?”
Was he even having a proper conversation? Nigel frowned slightly and stared at Rowen intently as if asking if he was serious.
“You didn’t see the frog?”
When he asked back like this, Rowen’s eyes shook back and forth in confusion.
“Fr-frog?”
Rowen, who had been hesitating like a student who’d done something wrong, straightened up abruptly. He seemed to finally realize that Nigel wasn’t interrogating him.
“You were with me the whole time.”
“…With you? I was?”
“……”
Right, that’s where things went wrong and they couldn’t communicate. Rowen finally asked, as if curious about his whereabouts. No, he seemed to have a guess but couldn’t believe it.
“You… you, where were you all this time?”
“……”
Silence circled between them for a moment.
“No way.”
Rowen Ashfield spoke with a face that couldn’t contain his shock. Honestly, at this point, he should think Rowen’s perception had improved a bit. Nigel squeezed his eyes shut as if groaning.
“No way that frog was?”
“Yeah. That… that was me.”
“……”
Silence descended once more in Rowen’s dormitory room. Tick, tick. The sound of the second hand on the clocks on Rowen’s wrist and desk could be heard clearly. After a long while frozen with his mouth slightly open, Rowen rubbed his face and muttered.
“…You’re lying, right?”
“Why would I lie?”
“No, even in a world where all sorts of magic runs rampant, you becoming a frog doesn’t make sense. You’re teasing me, right?”
Rowen desperately tried to deny reality. But Nigel leaned his head against the headboard with drooping shoulders as if he didn’t even have the energy to respond.
“I wish it were a joke. These past few days have been a nightmare for me too.”
“Really… that was you?”
“Yes, it was me! How many times are you going to make me answer this with my own mouth?”
Nigel snapped irritably. Only then did the confusion filling Rowen’s eyes slowly lift, and in its place, even greater shock began to fill it.
“Wait.”
His face turned bright red in an instant.
“Then… I put you on my palm… and put you in my shirt pocket?”
“…What do you want to hear?”
“I held a plate to your mouth for you to drink water…”
“Stop.”
“And at night, you deliberately fell asleep next to me…”
“I said stop.”
Unable to bear it any longer, Nigel picked up the pillow beside him and flung it. Perhaps his training hadn’t been in vain, as Rowen easily caught the somewhat forcefully thrown pillow in midair.
“My god…”
He covered his face with both hands and bent forward.
“I carried you around in my pocket…”
So he finally understood the whole situation.
Nigel let out a deep sigh and sat on the edge of the bed. His legs felt weak. He looked up at Rowen and this time threatened in a serious, low voice.
“Rowen Ashfield.”
When his full name came from Nigel’s mouth, Rowen straightened his back quickly like a knight receiving an order.
“…Yeah.”
“I’m really serious about this.”
Rowen’s blue eyes were as clear as an arrow flying precisely toward its target. He understood that Rowen was shocked, but what was important to Nigel right now wasn’t soothing Rowen’s startled heart.
“Are you listening?”
“…I’m listening.”
Rowen Ashfield pressed his lips firmly together with a resolute face. Nigel knew that expression well. Right now, Rowen would probably jump out the window immediately if Nigel told him to die.
Nigel clenched his fist. Memories flashed through his mind of being carried here and there in Rowen’s hands while in frog form, drinking the water he offered, and even sleeping in the same bed.
“What you saw these past few days. And the fact that I turned into a frog. Don’t let it pass your lips until the day you die.”
“……”
“What you saw, what you heard… erase it all from your head. This isn’t just some simple incident. If word gets out that the Empire’s Crown Prince became a mere frog and lay there helplessly, the Imperial Family’s dignity will hit rock bottom. If my political enemies find out, they’ll try to tear me apart. So if you go somewhere, get drunk, and accidentally let it slip…”
Nigel’s eyes flashed.
