The frog looked up at Veil with eyes mixed with despair and shame. All the puzzles fit together like lightning in Veil’s mind. The missing Crown Prince, the artifact, the corpse-cold skin.
‘This frog… is him?’
Veil thrust his hand into the cloak.
And carefully touched the terrified frog’s back with his finger. At the same time, a heavy leather pouch fell with a thud from inside Nigel’s jacket pocket and rolled into Veil’s palm. Scale fragments shining silver-white clinked inside the pouch.
Hm? What’s this now?
First, Veil stood up, gathering Nigel’s mysterious belongings in his hand.
“Nigel.”
Veil stared piercingly at the frog’s eyes and whispered.
“This is serious. What do we do—you let me discover something this fatal.”
Contrary to his sarcastic tone, he preciously cradled the frog-turned-Nigel in one hand.
Just then.
“Is something wrong there? Should I call the Administration Office?”
Other students approached him after he had left his position while dancing. Veil, who had been looking down at what he held in his hand, raised his head. The eyes beyond the half-mask flashed fiercely.
“No, it’s nothing.”
He tightly embraced the bundle of clothes in his arms and the frog inside them as he coldly snapped.
“My partner isn’t feeling well. I’ll have to be satisfied with the dance ending here.”
“Oh, really?… It doesn’t seem like just not feeling well…”
Veil’s friends made way while showing question marks on their faces. They probably thought it was that kind of incident again, since Veil had caused so many accidents using magic within the Academy.
Without looking back even once, Veil boldly left the ballroom with the frog-turned-Nigel in his arms and his time captured.
The cold night wind by the lakeside fluttered Veil’s red cloak.
“…Ribbit.”
Because that bastard took even the leather pouch containing the Headmaster’s scales, I can’t take them out and eat them. Just let me eat that and I’ll turn back! He couldn’t even shout this.
And Veil Khalid looked like he had absolutely no intention of missing this opportunity.
“Shh, be quiet. I’ll hear your story in my room, Nigel.”
Veil whispered so tenderly it was chilling even while walking quickly.
It was unnecessary kindness.
***
Click.
The heavy magical lock released and Veil’s door opened. Then he placed the frog on the sofa along with the clothes he’d gathered with the cloak.
Nigel blinked and looked around the space where Veil had set him down.
It was the same dormitory room, but no matter how he’d decorated it, the atmosphere was completely different. It was closer to a luxurious bedroom. Dark Gothic-style furniture and a burning fireplace, and a huge navy blue velvet sofa placed in the middle of the room.
Veil carefully set Nigel down on the sofa, on a soft silk cushion. Then he pulled out the leather pouch and shook it. The silver-white fragments collided, making a clear yet cruel sound.
“Now, Prince. Let’s hear a proper explanation.”
Veil knelt on one knee in front of the sofa and looked down at the frog. The amber eyes beyond the mask glinted like a beast in the darkness.
“I can feel Headmaster Silvanus’s magic power from these scales. Why are you carrying them around?”
“……”
Instead of answering, the frog glared at Veil with light green eyes. But even those eyes were faintly wet.
“Aha, you can’t answer in that state right now.”
Veil chuckled lowly and took out one scale fragment, bringing it to the frog’s mouth.
“Here. I don’t know the details, but the Headmaster must be helping you, right?”
Nigel instinctively started to open his mouth but hesitated. He didn’t want to show the appearance of a beast begging for food in front of Veil Khalid. But as if mocking Nigel’s pride, Veil pressed the frog’s soft belly with his fingertip.
“Why, do you want me to feed you directly? That’s fine too—”
Something was pushed into the frog-Nigel’s mouth.
“…!”
He had forcibly pushed in the scale. The moment Headmaster Silvanus’s scale touched his tongue, familiar coldness swept through his entire body.
The terrible yet wondrous pain of bones lengthening and muscles expanding. Nigel squeezed his eyes shut.
Poof!
From within the thick fog of magic power, a long, white human body was revealed again.
Huff, huff.
No matter how many times he experienced it, it was a feeling he could hardly get used to. Nigel gasped for rough breaths with his upper body bent forward, arms on the plush sofa.
I’m back.
To a human body. Nigel regulated his breathing while looking down at his elongated fingers.
Of all people, I transformed into a frog right before Veil Khalid’s eyes. It was the worst situation Nigel had never considered. His violet eyes swept over his body from top to bottom.
Because whenever he transformed into a frog and returned to human, he would inevitably become completely naked without a thread on him. Rather than being embarrassed about this point, Nigel had come to consider it troublesome.
Fwoof—
A soft blanket that flew from somewhere covered Nigel’s head, back, and even waist. The one who gave the blanket belatedly said, “…What a shock.”
“I thought it was strange after all.”
Veil Khalid’s calm voice penetrated through the blanket. It seemed to be an item he’d personally brought to the Academy rather than a blanket distributed to everyone in the dormitory. He could feel the distinctive decorations of the Brion Royal Family and the texture of materials not commonly used in the Empire.
“A frog getting into the Kaiserion Academy dormitory—that doesn’t make sense.”
“…That’s a long preamble.”
Nigel pulled down the blanket placed on his head and sat properly on the sofa. Even though he was covering his body with just a single blanket, his arrogant attitude remained unchanged.
Veil sat diagonally on the edge of the sofa, leisurely appreciating Nigel catching his breath while wrapped in his blanket. His gaze was persistent from Nigel’s neckline completely exposed without a shirt collar down to the white toes peeking out from under the blanket.
“What do you want to say to me, Veil Khalid?”
“You’re not denying it. Was that frog really you back then?”
“Do you really have to ask that question after seeing that state with your own two eyes? Will you only believe it after being reported for unauthorized intrusion into a dormitory room?”
When he mentioned information only Nigel and Veil would know—about how he had entered the room without permission, touched the package, and left the frog on the bed—Veil Khalid’s golden eyes softened.
“…Certainly the rumor that you’re passionately involved with Rowen Ashfield was much better than the Crown Prince being missing for several days.”
He’s smart, so he understood the situation quickly without having to explain everything. Nigel leaned back comfortably on Veil’s sofa and observed the expression of the bastard earnestly trying to understand the current situation.
Veil still crossed his arms as if dissatisfied about something and fiddled with the bracelet he’d introduced to Nigel as Guardian’s Eye.
‘Until just a moment ago, the fluctuations were constant… Now it’s quiet.’
Once Nigel transformed into a frog and then returned to human form and regained stability, the red jewel that had been blinking and vibrating as if screaming had become as quiet as death as if nothing had happened. It was clear proof that Nigel’s body had escaped the dangerous state.
“How many times has this happened?”
“…What?”
“I’m asking how many times you’ve transformed into a frog so far. Seeing you searching for books in the library back then, it seems you transform into a frog again even after returning to human, so I’m asking.”
“……”
Nigel briefly wondered whether it would be better to tell the truth at Veil Khalid’s words or just focus on roughly settling this situation.
“What are you deliberating about at this point? Tell me the truth. Nigel.”
“……”
Veil Khalid’s thin, refined fingers swept across the shoulder area of Nigel sitting upright with his back straight on the plush sofa.
“There’s probably no one in the Academy who thinks about you as much as I do?”
Nigel couldn’t help but react to those words. Unless that ‘thinking’ Veil Khalid spoke of meant rivalry, looking at the bastard’s face, it didn’t seem to mean that.
“…What are you talking about now?”
“Why else would my artifact react only to you? Hm?”
