The dormitory lobby was quiet.
Standing in front of the landing, Nigel gasped for breath and gripped his wet sleeve tightly. His stomach was queasy and his head throbbed again.
‘It’s because I’m tired. I’m seeing things because I couldn’t sleep.’
He muttered as if brainwashing himself. But he couldn’t stop his fingertips from trembling finely.
“Your Highness.”
At the voice from behind him, Nigel’s shoulders stiffened. The person who approached quietly like a shadow was Eden Lake.
“Did I startle you? I apologize.”
“…It’s fine.”
Nigel turned to look at him, pretending to be calm. Eden had his characteristic expressionless face, but was staring at Nigel with sharp eyes beyond his glasses.
“Your complexion still doesn’t look good. Your sleeve is… wet as well.”
Eden’s gaze tenaciously scanned Nigel’s damp sleeve ends and pale face. His eyes were full of worry.
“The medicine you took earlier, was the effect alright?”
“…Very good. I’m completely clear.”
Nigel lied.
“Thanks to it, I handled my afternoon work perfectly too.”
“Is that so?”
Eden Lake smiled slightly. Light reflected off his glasses, momentarily hiding his expression.
“That’s fortunate. I’m glad I could be of help to Your Highness.”
Not knowing the meaning of that smile, Nigel smiled back and patted Eden’s shoulder a few times.
“See you tomorrow. Rest.”
Until the moment the door separating the grade levels in the dormitory building closed, Eden didn’t move, keeping his head bowed. Through the gap in the closed door, Nigel felt an inexplicable chill.
As soon as he entered his room and locked the door, Nigel sank down at the entrance. It was the moment when the string of tension snapped.
“…Ugh.”
It felt like all the bones in his body were creaking. His skin pulled as if it would tear from dryness. It was a terrible dryness incomparable to the thirst he’d felt at the fountain earlier.
Nigel untied and threw off his cloak with trembling hands and staggered toward the bed. Since he’d taken the medicine Eden gave him earlier, the pain-relieving effect would appear soon.
He believed it would put this pain to sleep as it always had.
‘…I’ll be fine when I wake up.’
Extreme fatigue swept over him. A languidness that made him not want to move a single finger dominated his entire body. He took off his sweat-soaked uniform jacket. He felt the heavy weight of the inner pocket. The glass bottle containing Silvanus’s scale.
Nigel briefly considered taking the bottle out and placing it at the head of the bed. Just in case. But his body felt heavy as a thousand pounds. Moreover, the scale was only for emergencies, and what he needed right now was rest.
“…Tomorrow morning.”
What could possibly happen while I’m sleeping?
He’d taken the medicine Eden prepared today, so there would be no problem. Thinking complacently, he hung his uniform jacket on a hanger out of habit. Neatly in the highest part of the wardrobe so it wouldn’t wrinkle.
Nigel crawled into bed, forgetting even to wash. As the cozy blanket wrapped around his body, his consciousness was cut off in an instant.
Tomorrow will be fine too.
That was Nigel’s last thought.
***
Chirp, chirp.
The sound of birds chirping came from outside the window. Nigel opened his eyes.
He’d slept soundly. The pain and fatigue from yesterday had disappeared like a lie, and his body was light as a feather. He had no headache at all.
Mmm.
He stretched his arms out to yawn in a refreshed mood. But his arms wouldn’t extend. No, more precisely, his arms didn’t reach.
And his vision was strange. The ceiling was too high.
The high ceiling he usually saw was today dizzyingly far away. In front of his eyes, a giant white snow mountain blocked his view. It was a pillow.
‘…?’
No way. With a trembling heart, Nigel looked down at his hands.
Round green fingers.
And damp front paws with webbing.
His heart sank. The nightmare had become reality.
To become a frog again! No, was everything about returning to human form yesterday all a dream? Nigel fell into a panic and hopped around on the bed in his frog form.
He instinctively turned his head to look at the wardrobe.
The scale Silvanus had given him was inside the uniform jacket pocket. Way up there, dizzyingly high.
Ribbit….
Nigel gritted his teeth. Who could he blame for this? It was his own fault for complacently stuffing it in the wardrobe last night.
There was no time to despair. Sir Rodrick had tolerated it once, but wouldn’t turn a blind eye to this incident twice. He had to return to human form before then.
Nigel crawled to the edge of the bed and launched his body onto the nightstand.
Hop! Thud!
His jumping skills had improved a bit from doing it for a few days. Nigel kicked off the nightstand with his hind legs, hung onto the wardrobe handle, and squeezed through the door gap. Then he climbed up the uniform in the darkness. He almost fell several times on the slippery fabric but desperately held on.
Finally, he succeeded in entering the inner pocket. The cold touch of glass touched his front paw. He bit the cork stopper with his snout and pulled with his front paws, opening the bottle with a pop!
Fortunately, he hadn’t pressed it shut tightly yesterday, so it opened easily. Nigel stuck his head into the bottle and swallowed one silver-white scale into his mouth.
Tssss—
Like yesterday, as soon as the scale touched under his tongue, it emitted a terrible chill. And soon, crack, he felt his bones twisting and muscles expanding.
With the feeling of the inside of the wardrobe becoming full, Nigel tumbled out of the wardrobe.
“…Haa, haa.”
Nigel, lying prone on the floor naked, gasped for breath. When he raised his hand, it had returned to long, white human fingers.
“…Silvanus.”
Along with relief, terrible anger surged up.
Nigel opened the wardrobe door and took out the glass bottle. Many scale fragments clinking inside. Silvanus’s words from yesterday flashed through his mind.
I hope this means you won’t bother me anymore…. I wonder if that will be the case.
At the time, he thought he’d given many scales just because he was annoyed. But that wasn’t it.
The dragon had known. That these scales weren’t a complete solution for Nigel.
These scales were merely disposable, a temporary deception.
The remaining scale fragments. They were nothing less than Nigel’s lifeline.
Nigel took out a small leather pouch from deep in a drawer. Then he picked up the silver-white scales that had fallen on the floor one by one and put them in. The chill touching his fingertips was terrible, but he didn’t stop.
Never again… I absolutely must never put them somewhere like a wardrobe again.
He hung the leather pouch full of scales around his neck and hid it deep inside his shirt.
Nigel looked at himself in the mirror and muttered.
“…3 days.”
He just had to endure for 3 more days. With 3 days left until the festival, he planned to visit the Imperial Palace when everyone was happily enjoying the festival. The Imperial Palace physician would examine Nigel’s condition in secret.
I just have to endure with these scales until then.
A total of 7 scales from the Headmaster in the leather pouch.
‘I can come back 7 times.’
Silvanus’s help went exactly that far. He had no complaints about that. It was already surprising that he would help a mere student in the first place.
I definitely won’t get caught for about 3 days. Nigel was confident. With as many as 7 chances, it would be possible.
There were no classes from a few days before the Mardinia festival. Because all the students were finishing festival preparations, the Academy supported that as well. Until last year, Nigel hadn’t particularly liked this period.
Because all sorts of incidents and accidents happened not during the festival period, but right now, during the preparation period.
After briefly looking at his face in the mirror, Nigel sighed shortly as if displeased, then left his room. Originally he was going to meet with Rowen to discuss how to find the culprit… but there was something he needed to find out first.
***
The early morning library was quiet.
Since everyone was busy with festival preparations, no one was reading or studying.
The smell of old paper and dust, and the cool air characteristic of preservation magic wafted over. Nigel walked between the tall bookshelves and ran his fingers over the spines.
<Considerations on Poisons and Antidotes of Different Races>
<Side Effects and Cases of Body Transformation Magic>
<The Principles of Artifacts That Reflect Curses>
He pulled out books at random. The reason he didn’t ask Rowen Ashfield for help was because of this. Since he was so far removed from books, it would just be noisy for no reason.
Nigel settled at a corner table and opened a book. His eyes as he rapidly turned pages were both desperate and sharp. A curse that suddenly turned him into a frog.
If there were no frogs, then reptiles. If there were no magic spells that turned people into reptiles, then animals people disliked. Whoosh, whoosh— The sound of old pages turning filled the empty library.
