“What?”
“Let’s not do this and go right now.”
“Where.”
Nigel shook off Rowen’s touch trying to support him with an indifferent face.
“The infirmary. I need to confirm that you go to the infirmary.”
“There’s no need for that.”
Snorting curtly, Nigel walked ahead toward the main building.
“Because Eden Lake has the medicine.”
So stubborn. Rowen briefly clicked his tongue while looking at Nigel’s back, but didn’t stop him further and silently followed behind. When the Crown Prince came out like that, it meant he wouldn’t go to the infirmary even if he died.
“Know that I’ll drag you there right away if he doesn’t have it.”
“Do as you like.”
Nigel answered half-heartedly.
He didn’t even think that Eden Lake wouldn’t have his medicine.
Where is he and what is he doing right now? Can’t even get the timing right. Nigel briefly clicked his tongue with a tsk.
Normally, he would have grasped Nigel’s movements like a shadow and been waiting in advance, but today he couldn’t see even a single hair of Eden’s. Surely by now he would have heard the news that this Nigel Kaiserion had returned to the Academy.
‘He must be here.’
Nigel somewhat irritably flung open the Student Council room door.
But what he saw as soon as he opened the door was a completely different scene.
“Nigel?!”
“My goodness, you’re back.”
The Student Council room, which had been peaceful under bright sunlight, instantly became noisy. Student Council members who had been buried in piles of documents preparing for the final stage of the festival all sprang up from their chairs at once and rushed toward Nigel.
“Just where were you all this time? We couldn’t even reach you for several days.”
“You’re not hurt anywhere?”
Questions mixed with worry and curiosity poured out. Nigel frowned as if fed up. He’d returned safely, so wasn’t everything over now?
“Where’s Eden? Where is Eden Lake right now?”
Nigel asked while looking around. But the answer that came back was disappointing.
“Ah.”
“If it’s Eden….”
The Student Council members exchanged glances with each other and trailed off as if troubled.
“Mm? Why, did something happen to him?”
“Well.”
Excluding Nigel anyway, there were no students close to Eden Lake. Since the Crown Prince went missing, he only came when he had business that absolutely required him to be at the Student Council room. He only stopped by with a stiff face when there were important meetings or when writing meeting minutes.
“Well… that Eden Lake guy, we don’t know the details, but he’s been strange since Your Highness disappeared.”
One student scratched his cheek as if troubled and continued.
“Not eating, not sleeping…. A classmate said he skipped most of his classes too. He seemed to have fallen into great shock when Nigel-nim suddenly disappeared.”
“…….”
Rowen Ashfield, who heard that story, tilted his head slightly. He recalled the situation when he’d delivered the news to Eden Lake when Nigel first disappeared.
The excessive reaction that guy had shown remained uncomfortably in Rowen’s mind. But seeing him now run over looking like he was about to collapse, he had no choice but to accept that it was just excessive loyalty being too conspicuous.
Nigel pretended to be indifferent, but he couldn’t help the corners of his mouth rising inwardly. To think he guarded the empty seat without its master so desperately. As expected, my person is different.
Nigel chuckled and replied.
“…How dramatic. It’s not like I’m a child.”
“That’s what I’m saying. Anyone watching would think Your Highness had been kidnapped or something.”
At those words, Nigel flinched. Not kidnapped… but since he’d experienced something more absurd than kidnapping, it wasn’t wrong.
‘Anyway, he’s not here right now.’
Thunk. Nigel placed the parchment from his pocket onto the nearest table.
“While I’m here, process this.”
“Yes? What is this?”
Someone unfolded the parchment. Inside, Ezra’s chicken-scratch handwriting and Nigel’s elegant signature coexisted strangely.
“It’s the Alchemy Department’s budget proposal. They said they revised the plan a bit from the previous one.”
“Th-the Alchemy Department? Did you go there? In person?”
“Right. Later, at the meeting, formally review it—”
That’s when it happened.
BANG!
The glass greenhouse door opened roughly as if it would break. At the sudden loud noise, everyone in the Student Council room looked toward the door with startled eyes.
Disheveled jet-black hair, a sweat-soaked forehead, and a face pale as if about to collapse at any moment.
The person standing at the doorway gasping for breath as if they’d been running for a while was.
“Haa, haa….”
None other than Eden Lake.
His usual neat and composed appearance was completely gone. He swept the inside of the Student Council room with desperate eyes.
“……!”
Eden’s pupils dilated widely as if they would tear. The emotions in his eyes were complex. Shock, relief, and joy. Eden approached Nigel with staggering steps.
“Y-Your Highness……?”
Nigel clicked his tongue seeing that state. Looking at his sweat-drenched face, it was obvious without looking how much he’d been running around outside.
“Right. It’s me.”
“Ha….”
Eden exhaled a deep breath while holding the doorframe. Eden Lake’s fingers gripping the doorway stopped abruptly for a moment upon seeing Rowen beside Nigel.
Soon he seemed to understand in his own way the situation of Rowen and Nigel returning to the Student Council room together.
“Really… you really came back. Thank goodness. Really… thank goodness.”
Eden roughly removed his glasses and gripped them in his hand. His lowered shoulders were trembling finely.
“Where were you? Do you know how much… how much I searched?”
“There were some… circumstances.”
“You should have at least given me a hint beforehand. I thought something terrible had happened to Your Highness…!”
It was nagging mixed with resentment. Usually so taciturn that it was hard to hear even one word, but it seemed he’d suffered mentally for several days. Nigel didn’t dislike it.
“Eden. Save the nagging for later.”
Then he held out his hand.
“You have the medicine, right? My head feels like it’s splitting, so give it to me.”
At Nigel’s demand, Eden Lake’s hand reflexively moved toward his pocket. But Eden didn’t take his hand out from his pocket.
“…….”
A brief silence filled the space between them.
Why is he being like that? When Nigel raised his eyebrow with a puzzled face, Eden Lake, who had been hesitating for a moment, slowly pulled his hand out from his pocket.
Contrary to thinking a medicine bottle would emerge, his hand was empty.
“…I don’t have it.”
“What?”
Even Nigel himself asked back with a flustered face.
“You don’t have it? There’s no way you wouldn’t have brought my medicine.”
“I apologize.”
Eden bowed his head deeply. As if to hide his shaking pupils beyond his glasses, he bent at the waist more deeply than usual.
“I was so shocked at the news that Your Highness had disappeared… I was running around frantically and failed to bring it. I left it at the dormitory… right now.”
“…….”
It was a mistake Eden Lake would never normally make, but looking at his current state, it made sense.
How much Eden had worried about and searched for him was proven by that sweat-drenched face and disheveled clothing.
“…I’m ashamed. I’ll go get it right now.”
“Forget it. No need to go through that trouble.”
Nigel irritably waved his hand.
“I can just go to the infirmary. The medicine prescribed before should still be there.”
Nigel turned around without lingering and moved his steps first. Rowen passed by Eden and glanced at him with a strange look, but didn’t say anything in particular and followed Nigel.
Eden, left behind alone, stared blankly at Nigel’s retreating back. He gripped the medicine bottle in his pocket tightly once more, then slowly released it.
Eden’s expression was unreadable. He merely silently adjusted his disheveled glasses.
* * *
The footsteps heading toward the infirmary were heavy. The throbbing headache was a problem, but the fact that Eden, whom he’d trusted, didn’t have the medicine strangely drained his strength.
“That’s why I said to come to the infirmary from the start.”
“…Shut up.”
At Rowen’s reproach, Nigel replied weakly. He didn’t even have the energy to refute.
Creeeeak—
Pushing open the heavy oak door and entering, a subtle herbal fragrance wafted over. It was different in texture from the pungent stench that pierced the nose at the Alchemy Department.
It was a quiet space where the scents of well-dried lavender and sage, and the refreshing smell of holy water imbued with divine power lingered. Under the sunlight coming through the window, a healer dressed neatly in white robes looked up from grinding herbs.
“Oh? Nigel?”
She removed the safety glasses she’d been wearing with a slight frown. Professor Vera. A talent called the Empire’s finest, who was in charge of herbology lectures and oversaw the Academy infirmary.
“Professor.”
Nigel briefly bowed while holding his throbbing temples. Normally he would have been respectfully courteous, but right now he wasn’t in the mental state for it. Instead of blaming him, Vera clicked her tongue familiarly and approached.
“Just where were you for several days?”
Professor Vera strode over and grabbed Nigel’s shoulders, looking him over front and back. It was a doctor’s instinct to check if he was injured anywhere, but her voice was full of bewilderment and worry.
“The school was completely turned upside down. The Imperial Knights even barged in and searched like catching mice, nearly ransacking even my research lab. Thanks to you not showing even your nose, my research time was cut in half.”
“…I apologize.”
Nigel apologized neatly. Normally he would have retorted that it wasn’t his fault, but right now he had neither the energy nor grounds to make excuses. He could guess how chaotic the school had been while he was going between life and death as a frog.
“Your complexion is terrible. Your head still hurts, I see.”
“Yes. With that medicine you always give me….”
“I definitely sent you enough through Eden Lake to last until next month, though?”
