A Bond Named Coincidence
"How do I get to the hot spring?"
"Ah, just keep straight down the left side and you'll come to it. The men's and women's baths are separate, so don't worry—take a towel and go on in."
Back at the inn, I asked the clerk at the counter about soaking in the spring, and they pointed kindly down the left-hand corridor.
"Oh, thank you."
I offered a light bow and set off toward the baths, eager to ease the faint weariness that had begun to settle in me, slight though the day's exertions had been. I pushed the curtain aside. To the left lay the changing room, and beyond it steam curled in soft wisps from the warm water. With a little anticipation I opened a cabinet and reached for my clothes—
...Right. Going in without taking them off is absolutely out of the question, isn't it?
Of course. To enter a hot spring, one had to undress. And the body I wore now was not the male one I knew, but Mircania's—a woman's body. One, moreover, in which certain parts were rather emphatically shaped. I hesitated a moment, then squeezed my eyes shut, swearing I would not open them, and began peeling the clothes away piece by piece, starting with the stockings.
The cloth that had wrapped me so gently slid down with a soft rustle, and the cool air against my skin felt somehow more naked for my eyes being closed. The resolve did not last.
Ugh... I-I need to get this off quickly and cover up with a towel...
The stockings came away, baring thighs and legs that might have looked a little thick, and as I slowly undid the ties at my neck the collar slipped from both shoulders. The fabric over my chest came down with it, and I carefully set aside the one-piece garment. All that remained was my underwear, but I could not quite bring myself to remove that as well, and stood with my hands still resting on it, hesitating.
Do I... do I really have to take this off...?
The question filled my head, but a hot spring meant going in bare. I shut my eyes tight, stripped the last of it away, and clutched a towel firmly around myself.
"Mm... nothing's showing past the towel... right?"
No one seemed to be inside, so I hurried in with the towel wrapped around me and sank into the water.
"Haaah... it's warm..."
How to put it—I had entered the body of the Frostflame Dragon, and yet whether it was because the mind inside was still Harang's, or because even a dragon had no trouble enjoying a hot spring, I could not say. Bathing in the body of Mircania, she who was called the dragon of ice blossoms, felt strangely incongruous. It was not truly a problem. Nowhere in the story had it ever been said that Mircania was weak to heat, and among the strategies for facing her as a boss, bringing a fire-type caster NPC along was the lowest-difficulty clear. If one argued that fire-types were traditionally the series' high-output, damage-focused class, there was not much to say against it. So it did not seem that being the Frostflame Dragon made her particularly weak to heat or flame. Still, my cheeks flushed almost at once in the spring, so she was a little sensitive to warmth, at least.
"Haa... it does feel good, the fatigue melting away..."
Once I started looking, the embarrassment and the resistance faded quickly. It was my body; keep looking, and it stirred very little. My chest showing a little above the water did bother me, but it was large enough that there was nothing much to be done. Trying to sink it all beneath the surface made it far too hard to hold the way I was sitting.
"Hoo... I barely moved all day, and my shoulders are already a little stiff. When I get back... I should undo the Polymorph for a while."
I yawned softly and sank into thought, gazing quietly up at the sky. What rose to mind was the news that, five days from now, the Calinix Grand Ducal House would begin interviews to find a private tutor. What should I do? It was something of a gamble, but would it be better to go? Was a dragon becoming a tutor even the right choice? From doubts like that came others—whether I could do the work well at all. A tutor occupied a place not so different from a parent's, and was that something I was capable of? Doubt in my own ability crept in as well. I would never be able to play a mother's role properly. Half a person that I was, all I could offer was that small knowledge: that I knew the shape of his future. From it, at best, I might guide the direction Aiden ought to take, and keep his temperament and character from going astray.
"Well, I don't even know if I'll become the tutor. What's the point of thinking about it..."
Water splashed as I rose slowly from the spring and stared blankly around me. A faint sense of wrongness hung in the air, an odd atmosphere, but it would be better to go on thinking once I was back in my room.
...Would something like this work?
Worried the clothes I had been wearing might smell, I looked at them and quietly wished they would return to a clean state. With a faint glimmer they shone for a moment and came back fresh. As expected—even simple magic could be realized by thought alone. This body was said to have a talent for magic, and it answered well. Day-to-day life should not be too inconvenient from here on.
"Hoo... for now, back to the room. I need to think."
I started toward my room at the inn, already sinking into my thoughts. What I needed to do now was make a plan. The door creaked as I stepped quietly inside, and I found the room still lit by a soft glow.
...Had I left the light on when I went out?
Well. I must have forgotten.
"Hmm... first thing tomorrow, the moment I wake, I'll buy clothes... and I suppose I ought to head back...?"
A soft tap. In the same instant a hand came up onto the open window frame, and my head filled with questions. Had someone else reserved this room? No—I had been told I had it to myself. And judging by the size of that hand, it did not belong to anyone very old. Early teens, perhaps, or a little younger. My room was on the second floor of the inn; if they fell from here, they might be badly hurt. So I approached carefully and took hold of the hand.
"Uh... who..."
"Aren't you going to let go? What do you think you're doing?"
My eyes met those of a boy with silver hair and sharp green eyes, looking quietly up at me. It was only instinct, only a hunch—but the moment I saw those eyes, I knew exactly who he was. Aiden Calinix. White Snow's Guardian Knight, and the protagonist of the expansion that bore that name. And if this world's story ran its usual course, the one who would drive a sword into my heart and grant me eternal rest. That very person had appeared before me as a child, and I stared.
"Ah—the windowsill is dangerous, so come up carefully, and hold my hand tight!"
"Whatever this is, I'm holding the frame just fine, so let go. Can't you hear me? Were you born with something wrong with you?"
"Ahaha... please calm down. You look like you're in danger up there."
The childhood Aiden was fiercer than I had expected. Thinking so, I carefully drew him up into the room.
"Ha. Planning to hold onto me and hand me over to the guard, are you?"
"Mm... now that I've found you, that would be unavoidable, wouldn't it? The Grand Duke—you could call him the lord of this place—sent the guard himself."
He seemed unable to find anything to say against that. Aiden sighed and nodded.
"So. Why did you pull me up?"
Fortunately, he seemed to have learned a measure of manners. He did not openly slight a stranger he had only just met, or curse at them. Even so, knowing the Aiden of the original, looking at him now felt quite alien. That Aiden had been gentle and courteous, a young man anyone could trust with their back. That the same man had been such a troublemaker, with such a fierce temper as a child, was curious enough that a small smile rose to my lips. And because he was a child, the impression was less handsome than simply cute—a little rascal. Smiling at this new side of Aiden that only I had come to know, I spoke to him lightly.
"Even so, if you stay here the guard will catch you before long. You're not going to leave?"
"A moment ago you said you'd tell the guard, and now this? Who are you making fun of?"
"Ahaha... the guard isn't here right this moment, are they? I imagine the young master has his reasons."
Seeing my smile, Aiden's expression turned complicated. Then he abruptly shook off the hand still holding his, flung my door open, and bolted.
"And dress properly. You've got yourself up like some madwoman. You'll have to buy new clothes, just like you said."
"A m-madwoman... mm..."
Madwoman was a bit harsh, but given the clothes I was wearing, I could not entirely call the thought unreasonable. I simply watched him go, then lay down on the bed. Tomorrow I would buy clothes, and I would have to think about the tutoring as well. For now the plan was to buy what I needed and return to the lair. With that thought, I quietly closed my eyes.