It had already been five days since the people of the Evergarden family arrived at the academy.
Rosaria was comfortably settled in a single dorm room, while Felix had practically set up house in his lab and was doing well.
Most students and professors had their own private spaces where they rested, studied their fields, and spent their time.
But what about the staff who had come to assist them?
“Yaaawn… Achoo…! It’s really getting chilly now!”
Bennett rubbed her arms and got out of bed, stirred awake by the crisp, cold air that tickled her nose.
Thump
“…Ah, I don’t want to get up.”
She flopped back onto the bed.
At Evergarden Manor, four people would be crammed into one room, huddled together under a thin blanket for warmth, but here at the academy, even the staff were provided with high-quality beds—one for each person—which made for a vastly better sleeping experience.
Of course, even back at the manor, the number of staff had been reduced, and new furniture was being brought in to improve their welfare.
However, Bennett had left for the academy on the very day new furniture was supposed to arrive for her room, which meant this was her first time sleeping in a bed meant for personal use rather than just cleaning.
To Bennett, who was used to sleeping on a hard floor with a blanket over a layer of straw, the soft bed and thick duvet were like a whole new world. It had become increasingly hard for her to get up in the mornings.
“…But I need to get up.”
Despite the devilish temptation of the bed, Bennett, diligent by nature, managed to push it aside and rise again.
After quickly tidying up her bedding and stretching to shake off the lingering drowsiness, she turned her gaze.
Snore… snore—
“She’s still asleep. Well, she always got up around noon back at the manor, too.”
One of the reasons she’d been assigned to a two-person room was Tené, who was peacefully asleep, clutching her pillow like a stuffed animal and breathing steadily.
Tené, who had originally been a guest at the manor, had decided to accompany them to the academy as a self-appointed maid to assist the eldest son.
Bennett had wondered why Tené would choose to come all this way when she could have stayed back at the manor, living comfortably without needing to do such tasks. In response, Tené had simply smiled brightly and said, “It looked fun!”—a memory Bennett couldn’t forget.
“What on earth is she about…?”
Muttering to herself, Bennett leaned in close to look at Tené’s sleeping face.
She had suddenly appeared at the manor one day, didn’t behave like a typical noble, and got along well with the staff.
Yet, she was treated as an important guest. She didn’t seem like an ordinary serf like Bennett, but she also didn’t exude the haughtiness typical of nobles.
Come to think of it, around the time Tené showed up, the Evergarden family had started becoming more amiable and kinder toward the staff.
…Though, the mistress had retained her noble elegance, in a good way.
As Bennett lost herself in thought, staring at the sleeping Tené, she finally spoke up.
“Tené, it’s time to wake up.”
“Eek!?”
Since Tené was no longer a guest of the family but a fellow attendant like Bennett, the latter showed no mercy in yanking off her blanket to wake her up.
“Ugh… Is it morning already…?”
“Yes, now hurry up, get ready, and let’s get to work.”
“…Yaaawn. Okay…”
Even though she’d been abruptly woken from a deep sleep, Tené rubbed her eyes and dutifully responded to Bennett’s words.
After tidying up the bedding, Tene said,
“I’ll turn around.”
“You really don’t have to.”
“But I need to!”
Bennett began to quickly strip down to change into work clothes, ready to get on with their tasks for the day.
Tene, however, turned her head immediately to face the wall. Seeing this, Bennett spoke as if she couldn’t quite understand. But Tene’s resolve was unwavering.
‘I must resist…! But it’s just me and her here… Maybe just a little peek—no! Get a grip!’
Though she looked like an adorable girl on the outside now, inside, Tene was still a high school boy at his peak. He battled fiercely with the angel and devil in his heart once more.
Despite her outward appearance as a girl, Tene was still unused to being around women.
‘Maybe she’s just young…’
Unaware of Tene’s inner turmoil, Bennett found it odd that there was any issue with changing clothes between girls. Still, she let it slide.
Finally, after much awkwardness, the two of them finished changing.
“Wait, Tene! Are you planning to go out with your hair looking like that?”
“Oh, right.”
As Tene was about to leave the room, Bennett pointed out her messy hair. Realizing her mistake, Tene quickly tried to fix it.
“Come here. I’ll brush it for you.”
“Okay…”
Tene, who had no idea how to manage her hair (she had relied on nothing but a towel in her previous life), sat down obediently as Bennett picked up a brush.
“You should at least know how to handle your own hair.”
“Hehe…”
Bennett sat by the bed and began brushing Tene’s hair.
“Wow, your hair is so silky.”
“Is it? I never really noticed. Isn’t this just normal?”
“If you say that, the other girls might come after you!”
As Bennett admired the texture of Tene’s hair, Tene muttered nonchalantly. Being a dragon, Tene naturally exuded beauty and cleanliness, appearing exceptionally attractive in human eyes.
Yet, having always kept her hair short in her previous life, she was unaware of how remarkable it truly was.
“Other girls spend a fortune on oils to get hair as nice as yours… But you don’t do anything, and it still smells fresh.”
“Hehe, thanks, Noona.”
After finishing the brushing, Bennett set down the brush, and Tene smiled as she expressed her gratitude.
“When are you going to stop calling me Noona? It’s Unni, you know?”
“Eh… B-but… I’m not used to it yet…”
“Then practice now. Un-ni. Come on.”
Bennett leaned in close, urging Tene to call her “Unni.”
But Tene hesitated. The word felt awkward and unfamiliar to her. Despite her pretty, cute, and undeniably feminine appearance, Tene still thought of herself as male.
“Um… Uh… Oh! I just remembered—I have something to do today! See you later!”
“Hey! Don’t run away like a coward!”
Tene hesitated for a moment but eventually sprang to her feet, flinging the door open and fleeing the room.
“Phew… I made it out alive.”
Tene let out a sigh of relief as she hurriedly left the awkward situation behind.
“Alright, I’d better get going.”
Though she had escaped the uncomfortable moment, it wasn’t entirely an excuse.
Tene truly had something to do, and she quickly picked up her pace, her maid uniform’s skirt fluttering wildly as she rushed down the hallway.
Knock, knock—
“Felix… Sir, are you awake?”
After a brief pause, Tene stood in front of a door, knocking firmly enough for her voice to be heard beyond it.
Her primary purpose for being at the academy was to assist Felix, so attending to him always took top priority.
While this mostly meant waking him up in the mornings and handling simple tasks, it was still considered her most important duty. Most of her time, however, was spent on various other odd jobs.
As she always did, Tene respectfully knocked on Felix’s laboratory door in the morning, making sure to use formal language, worried someone might overhear otherwise.
Although Felix had accommodations assigned to him, he had practically moved into his lab, which naturally made it the place Tene visited first.
“Still sleeping?”
Creeeak—
“Pardon me~”
After knocking three times and getting no response, Tene finally opened the door to Felix’s lab.
“Geez, at least open a window. Why is it so dark in here?”
The room was pitch black, with blackout curtains drawn tightly shut. Felix had installed them, claiming that sunlight could interfere with his experiments.
Combined with the lack of ventilation, the air in the lab was always heavy and stifling. It had become Tene’s habit to pull back the curtains and open the windows to freshen the space each morning.
“Now, if I do this…”
“–And then the circuit’s magic formula will…”
“Huh?”
As Tene moved to open the curtains, she caught the faint sound of murmuring. Turning her head, she saw a faint glow and two silhouetted figures near the desk.
Curious, Tene approached the source of the light.
“What? You’re already up?”
“…Huh?”
There was Felix, sitting at his desk, staring at a glowing magic circle, muttering under his breath. He sluggishly turned his head to look at Tene, seemingly only now noticing her presence.
“What time is it? Morning already?”
“Don’t tell me… you haven’t slept yet?”
Noticing the dark circles under his eyes and his exhausted voice, Tene quickly realized that Felix had once again pulled an all-nighter, completely absorbed in his research.
“…Ah.”
“Huh? Who is this person…?”
However, today was different from usual.
Someone was beside Felix, who was always alone.
Startled by the unfamiliar presence, Tene cautiously asked.
“Ah… This is Professor Lumillion. We’re currently working together on magical research. This is Tene, a servant from my family who came to assist me.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Lumillion Ordine, a professor specializing in elemental magic.”
“Oh, hello. I’m Tene.”
‘Wow, a rabbit.’
Tene, distracted by Lumillion’s long rabbit ears twitching as he gave a slight bow, belatedly bowed her head in return while murmuring inwardly.
‘The academy has so many beastfolk. Back at the mansion, Fenrir was the first one I met.’
In the modern world, beastfolk might seem like something out of a comic book, animation, or cosplay festival. Yet in this fantasy realm, they were very much real.
In the mansion where Tene had lived, Fenrir had been the only beastfolk.
But here, at the academy…..a place that drew people from all across the continent….encountering beastfolk wasn’t uncommon.
Although Tene had only been here for five days, she had already seen a variety of them, so seeing Lumillion didn’t surprise her too much.
“Anyway, let’s get some fresh air in here.”
Whoosh!
“Ugh… the light… it’s blinding…”
“Is it morning already? I didn’t even notice the time passing…”
Despite being slightly startled by Lumillion’s presence, Tene calmly went about her tasks.
She opened the curtains, flooding the room with light, causing the two researchers to squint and writhe as if they were vampires reacting to sunlight.
“Wow, I cleaned yesterday, and it’s already like this…”
When Tene drew back the curtains and opened the window, she finally took in the mess of the brightly lit lab. She was horrified.
Crumpled papers filled with scribbled formulas were scattered everywhere…so many that she couldn’t take a single step without stepping on one.
“I guess we got too focused on the research to notice.”
“Yes… that was careless of us…”
Felix had never been good at keeping things tidy, even back at the mansion. But Lumillion was no better—once immersed in research, he, too, ignored his surroundings. As a result, Felix’s lab was a complete disaster.
“Whew—let me clean up, then.”
Despite the chaos, Tene let out a light sigh and began cleaning up without hesitation.
‘Is this how my mom felt…?’
As Tene bent down to pick up the mess, resembling the women gathering grain in *The Gleaners, she suddenly recalled her mother’s constant nagging to keep her room tidy.
*The Gleaners is an 1857 oil painting by Jean-François Millet, depicting three women collecting leftover grain from a harvested field.
…Sniff.
‘I miss Mom.’
For a moment, Tene found herself longing for her parents back in the modern world.
‘They must be so worried…’
After speaking with the other transmigrators—members of the Evergarden family—Tene learned that she had apparently already died before coming to this world.
Accepting this as a second chance at life, she tried to console herself, thinking of it as a blessing in disguise.
Still, it seemed she couldn’t easily let go of the longing for her parents.
“But, by any chance… are you a dragon in polymorph form?”
“…Pardon?”
“Hiccup?!”
Thud—Roll—
Immersed in her bittersweet emotions, Tene froze at Lumillion’s sudden and pointed question. The trash she had been holding slipped from her grasp and rolled away on the floor.
“Honestly, with talent as remarkable as yours, why would you have hidden it all this time? Are you secretly a dragon that swallowed the original you whole, only to take on this form for amusement?”
“Haha…! Professor Lumillion, you have such a vivid imagination. But there’s no way that’s true, right?”
“Hmm, you’re right. If I were a dragon, I wouldn’t bother polymorphing into someone like you. You look too sly, sneaky, and conniving.”
“Uh, isn’t that a bit much…”
“Well, anyway, I’ve finished cleaning, so I’ll step out now!”
Realizing that Lumillion wasn’t actually accusing her, Tene hastily wrapped up her cleaning and quickly exited the lab.
“…Phew, that scared me! I thought I was caught…”
Outside the lab, Tene muttered to herself, trying to calm her racing heart.
Lumillion’s remark had struck eerily close to the truth—that a dragon was indeed polymorphed right there, and he had somehow guessed almost correctly just by intuition.
“…Hmm, I’m hungry. What’s for breakfast today?”
Her momentary panic fading, Tene suddenly realized it was about time for breakfast. Brightening at the thought, she broke into a cheerful smile and sprinted energetically down the corridor.
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