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When I woke up again, there was no one in the room… Or so it seemed. I couldn’t see so I couldn’t be sure. Maria and others were most likely in another room trying to come up with a plan. My vision was still wrapped in darkness. I hadn’t been treated as of yet.

“So my condition is so bad even Maria has trouble handling it.”

I confirmed my situation with a hoarse voice. My stamina had been shaved off to the limit, and I could faint any time. Even now, my body is trembling from fever. Pain in my eyeballs also remained strong. Maria said my eyes were crushed, so it was possible that the eyeballs themselves were destroyed.

“Being unable to see sure makes you feel uneasy.”

I rose up and looked around, but naturally, I couldn’t see a thing.

“Is there anyone here?”

I asked to make sure if anyone was here. No one replied back, so it seemed I really was alone.

Crushed eyeballs I… can’t heal I guess. I have no talent in healing magic.

Even so, I had a way to deal with this.

If healing my eyes was impossible, I could just transform my body into one that could see. This was also one of the practical applications of Polymorph. It has been a month since the last time I used it, so I could use it now.

I loitered inside the room while feeling around with my hands, and it turned out they were using my room as my sickroom. Fortunately, my luggage was left as it was, so I managed to take a spare Polymorph scroll from inside.

“I would’ve had a hard time if I had to take it out from someone else’s luggage…”

It took longer than I expected, but I still managed to take out one scroll. Based on the shape of the sealing wax, it was most definitely the Polymorph scroll. Even if it turned out to be a wrong scroll, using the wrong magic activation keyword would not activate it, so there was no risk of an explosion.

For now, I imagined my figure before activating the formula. But then, I stumbled on a wall. That is, I didn’t have a clear grasp of my body that was growing day by day.

I did look at myself in the mirror every day when getting dressed… But I wasn’t sure how big my breasts were, for example.

“Hmm… Well I just need to gain some time, so I’ll go with Reid’s appearance I guess. After that, I’ll just ask Maxwell for help as always.”

We were in Berith now, but I could use teleportation so I could jump to Raum. If I explain the situation and ask for his help, he should come to Berith with me. For the time being, I just wanted to get rid of this despondency and pain.

“Okay, here we go.”

Deciding on my course of action, I stripped down. Reid wasn’t exactly tall, but Nicole was even shorter. If I remained in a young girl’s nightclothes, I would come off as a pervert. Well, there was no one to witness it, but they could still get torn.

I fumbled around and undid the seal, then invoked the spell.

The usual sharp pain assaulted me in moments. But my eyes were hurting even more now, so I didn’t feel it as strongly. But that only lasted for a moment, after which an even stronger pain spread through my eyeballs.

“Ghaaaaaaah!?”

My body raised creaks as it transformed into Reid. But there was some foreign substance inside my eyes so they were unable to transform. No, more accurately, something seemed to be eating the newly transformed flesh.

Moreover, I could even feel that something squirming inside my eyes.

“Lady Nicole?!”

And in the worst timing, Finia stepped into my room just then. She probably came running here when she heard my scream. Either way, it was the worst timing for me.

“Fi..nia…”

I squeezed out a word while gasping violently. But the voice that came out didn’t belong to the usual me, but to a dense male voice.

Judging from it, I realized that I had transformed into Reid.

“Lord Reid? Why… No, more importantly, where’s Lady Nicole?!”

Finia exclaimed in bewilderment, but I had no composure to answer her now.

I was lying and having spasms on the floor while desperately suppressing a scream. If I raised my voice again, more people would come running, after all. Finia also rushed to my side, perhaps realizing the situation when she saw my nightclothes next to me.

“Could it be, you’re Lady Nicole? Why did you turn into Lord Reid… No, were you Lady Nicole all along? No, that’s not important now!”

Finia lent me her shoulder to get me back on my bed. But for a dainty elf like her, it was very difficult to lift up an adult man.

“Lady Nicole, please cancel the spell. The Polymorph spell is most likely preventing eyeball regeneration, which only increases pain.”
“…G-Got it.”

At any rate, I had things to explain to her. There was no way I could make up an excuse at this point. As I canceled the ongoing spell, my body swiftly returned to my original form. The pain I felt was the usual Polymorph pain.

“Haah, haah…”
“Are you alright? There seem to be Slime fragments remaining inside your eyes, Lady Nicole. So when you try to reconstruct them with Polymorph, it starts to devour the new flesh.”

So that’s how it was. If Slime was left inside my body, no wonder it couldn’t be healed. Moreover, it would keep getting worse from Kufar’s Disease Slime’s effect, and even if I tried to find him and attack, he could eat my body from the inside.

“He really did a number on me…”
“Please get to bed for now.”

Just as she tried to lift me up, the door on the opposite end of the corridor was opened. Maria rushed out of the room. She probably feared whether my condition had worsened.

“What’s wrong, Finia!”

Before her voice reached us, I felt Finia kicking my nightclothes away.

“Lady Nicole was having a nightmare due to pain and fell down from the bed. Her clothes got caught on and got torn during the moment, so I’m helping her change now.”
“I see, is she alright?”

Hearing my clothes got torn, I felt Maria close the door. She probably saw me naked with nightclothes scattered around.

It was probably a bit pushing it as an excuse, but she couldn’t let others see me like that. Lyell and Cloud were right behind her, after all.

“Yes, but please give us some time. I’d like to wipe her body too.”
“Alright. Please do. But call me if you notice anything strange happening.”
“Understood.”

She seemed to have been convinced with them, so the two of us sighed in relief. I managed to avoid Maria finding out about me, but now I had to explain the situation to Finia. Realizing that gave me a big headache.