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“Nghh?!”

I woke up while springing up and immediately checked my surroundings. I was sleeping on a bed with clean closed curtains, and the room was also just as well cleaned up. There was a medicine shelf in the corner of the room and the desk next to it had documents spread on it.

Well, in a word, this was the scenery of the medical room that I have witnessed many times during my elementary days.

“So you are finally awake, Nicole.”

As I rose up, I saw Letina sitting on a stool at the bedside.

She had arms folded at her meager chest—when I did it lately my boobs sat over my arms—and puffed her cheeks in dissatisfaction.

It was a somewhat childish behavior, but nonetheless something I was used to, so it calmed me if anything.

“Are we in the doctor’s office?”
“That is correct. As for your condition… I suppose I don’t need to explain.”
“Yeah. I’m guessing I got poisoned by the drug, right?”
“It’s not a drug that has dependency so she’ll wake up after sleeping enough, is what the doctor said.”
“Where is that doctor now?’
“She headed out to have lunch earlier.”

I couldn’t believe that they left while they had a patient here, but Letina had been told about my condition and there didn’t seem to be any need for nursing, so I suppose that was that.

A surprisingly big number of patients visited the doctor’s office during lunch breaks, so I knew looking at Dr. Tricia that they needed to choose a good time to have their own lunch.

But we were talking about that doctor, so she wasn’t a good subject to take as a reference.

“What time is it now?”
“The second period of alchemy practice has ended and it’s the third period of practical magic theory now. I am here to attend to you.”
“Oh, I’m surprised the teachers let you.”

Letina was healthy, so it wouldn’t have been strange for them to have told her to leave the rest to the doctor and return to the class.

To my doubt, she puffed her chest while her arms remained folded, and declared proudly.

“This level of practical magic theory is not even worth attending. I have already displayed my power to them on the first day of transfer.”
“What in the world did you do?”
“I just did a mock battle against a teacher and scored three consecutive victories.”
“Oof…”

Though Letina didn’t have a Gift, she had an affinity with the fire attribute and polished her skill alongside the rest of us. Teachers who were acting like the kings of the hill wouldn’t be able to match up to her, whose ability was backed up by real experience.

Getting beaten by a student in front of your students would normally break a person’s will. I was both exasperated at Letina for doing that and also impressed at the teacher for enduring it.

“That teacher quit the next day though. I did reflect a little after that.”
“A little? You acted like a fiend no matter how you look at it… Anyway, setting that aside…”

It really wasn’t a good thing to do, but that was unrelated to our goal at hand. More importantly, this could be a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Cain should be out right now, so I could go and inspect his room.

Also, on the topmost floor of the dorm he lived in, there were also rooms for servants other than students. In other words, the servants shouldn’t be in his room unless they were doing the cleaning.

A prideful noble wouldn’t let any servant in his room. Since they would only be let inside with permission, there was a high chance that it was currently empty.

Letina and I who didn’t get angry when they visited us all the time were rare exceptions.

“So what time is it now?”
“It has been about ten minutes since the third period started. Wait, do you mean…”
“Yeah. I can’t let a chance like this go.”
“Then I’ll come too…”
“You stay here and switch places with me.”
“Awww!”

She replied in a bored tone, but even if she was a skilled magician, she was no spy.

Even if his room may be empty, that didn’t mean the top floor itself was the same. It would just be dangerous to bring her along when she wasn’t skilled in this area.

“Besides, there’s no telling when the doctor will be back. I need a stand-in.”
“You ask for the impossible. The two of us differ greatly in both appearance and height.”
“And chest size.”
“Grrr…”

She jabbed at my low height, so I returned it with the one aimed at her chest. Though this kind of damaged me too. Anyway, there was no time for that now.

“Letina, take this.”
“This is… a ring?”
“Yeah. It’s a magic item that can create illusions. If you transform into me with that, you should be able to trick the doctor.”
“Where did you get such a valuable item?”
“Uhh… Well, I adventured a lot once we parted, so I just obtained it during that time.”
“Uh-huh.”

She stared at it for some time, finding out about this ring for the first time, but then she quickly put it on with no hesitation, ran her magic through it, and assumed my form.

“How is it? Do I look like you, Nicole?”
“Hmm, aren’t I a bit taller?”
“No, you are definitely this tall.”
“Really?”

I think I am a little taller but I had no time to get pedantic here.

Besides, the doctor saw me for the first time, so the difference in height that was within the measurement error should not get caught.

“Oh well. I’ll be off then.”
“Please don’t make your typical blunder now.”
“Don’t call it typical!”

I frowned and pulled my tongue at her, then jumped out of the window.

I didn’t leave through the door because I wanted to avoid the risk of running into other students. Even if they were in classes, there could be someone who lost consciousness similarly to me being carried here.

But if I left through the window, there should be no one visiting the backyard at this time.

Of course, the possibility wasn’t zero in either case, but I judged the backyard to be the safer option.