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“URGH, I’m cold.”
When Nina got home, she went straight to her room, her body shaking like a leaf.
She dried off and changed clothes, but it seemed she’d done it too late—she couldn’t stop trembling. It wasn’t surprising really, after walking all the way home from the academy while soaking wet.
If she had this super heroine buff, why didn’t it give her a super hardy constitution to endure all this bullying?
She didn’t care if she got a cold herself, but it was no joke if she passed it on to her mother. She wasn’t cured; she was just made to feel less pain. If Nina put too much strain on Aida’s body, things might take a turn for the worst, and there was no coming back from that.
Nina told Aida not to come into her room, leaving her with nothing to do but get some rest and try to recover quickly.
But, while she was tottering toward her bed, she heard a familiar voice from the window.
“Good evening.” His fur was as sleek and beautiful as ever, his form backlit by the moonlight. Normally, she’d have the urge to cuddle him, but she didn’t even have the energy to pet him right now.
“Hi, Ed. Why are you here?”
“I came for an update on your progress.”
Now that he mentioned it, she realized she couldn’t exactly refuse to interact with the messenger of a god, and she had to thank him anyway. She put down the blanket she was holding and sat on the edge of her bed.
Ed moved from the window to the desk to take his place on the cushion.
“Ed, did you get rid of the buff outside the academy for me?” she inquired.
“No, I wasn’t able to completely eliminate it, but I did have the god prevent people from interacting with you even if it was working on them. How has it been since?”
“They don’t keep pestering me and try to touch me anymore. Now, they look at me from the shadows.”
They were interested in Nina since the enhancement was working on them, but the god’s power kept them from approaching her. That must have been what led to the current situation. It was an improvement from the previous situation, at least.
“Well, that’s good then,” responded Ed. His white tail bounced happily back and forth. That was incredibly enchanting, but Nina decided not to bother with his tail because she only wanted to get her report over with and go to sleep.
“Lady Clarissa is as bad with execution as always, but I’m pretty sure I’m still acting like a heroine,” Nina continued.
“Nina…wait a moment.” Nina started rubbing her arms to try to hold back her shivering, which caused a wrinkle to appear on Ed’s nose. “Are you feeling unwell? You’re shivering.”
“She dumped a bucket of water on my head, and then I waited for Prince Dino. I wish Lady Clarissa had checked if Prince Dino was there before throwing water on me.”
She wasn’t against the water idea at all since a flashy move like that would’ve been good for Nina to use as material for claiming Clarissa was harassing her. She was all for going along with it. But if Clarissa weren’t even going to check if the bare minimum of cast members were there before doing it, Nina would just end up wet and sick for nothing.
The students who saw it would only think less of Clarissa, and Nina couldn’t even step in like a heroine to defend the villainess, which positively made the whole thing worse.
“Don’t push yourself if you’re not feeling well. You should get in bed now,” urged Ed, pointing to her bed with a charmingly fuzzy forepaw.
She honestly wanted to grab that paw, stroke it, feel the squishiness of his paw pads on her cheek. She even wanted a little kitty slap, the sort of joyous attack that didn’t hurt at all.
She must really be feeling unwell if she didn’t even have enough energy to do that.
“Is there anyone who can look after you while you’re ill?” asked Ed, looking up at her from beside the bed as she spread out the blanket with shaking hands. His gold and blue eyes were so beautiful that she felt like she would be swallowed up in them.
“I told Mom not to come in; I can’t let her catch this. I’m pretty sturdy, so I should be good after a night’s rest.” She tried to smile, but she was shaking so much it turned into a strained grimace. Nina knew this was no good, so she slipped quickly into bed and pulled the blanket over her.
“…There’s nothing I can do for you, is there?” uttered Ed, standing on her pillow, his head drooping sadly.
It wasn’t like she planned on asking something of a cat serving a god anyway. He shouldn’t feel the need to worry about her. That part of him seemed really human too—such a weird cat.
“You’re so nice, Ed. Do you wanna warm me up, then?” she ventured.
“Huh?” He froze. Cat’s eyes were already so big that when they were opened wide, they looked like they might roll right out.
“Please? I’m cold.” She lifted the blanket.
He hesitated for a moment, then let out a heavy sigh. “Just…this once,” he relented, slowly slipping beneath the blanket. His fur was soft, fuzzy, and, most importantly, warm.
Nina wrapped her arms around Ed and drew him to her chest like she was trying to steal his warmth, but then it hit her. “Wait, you might catch my cold like this. No, let’s not do this then.”
“It’s okay. Don’t worry. Could…you let me go?”
“Let go?” She loosened her grip as he requested, and he wriggled a little bit away from her. She peeked under the cover and saw a white fluffball plopped down there, which was a sight to heal the soul, too.
“Let me stay like this, please,” he requested.
“Oh, right. If you’re too close, I might roll over and squish you. Thank you, Ed. I’m warm enough now.”
“That’s not the reason. I just…have my limits.”
“Limits?” He was already so fluffy and warm; maybe he’d get too hot under the blanket next to her.
“It’s nothing. You should sleep, Nina.”
She didn’t completely understand, but she was shivering a little less, thanks to Ed. Nina was also tired; she needed to rest up. There were still her duties the next day as well. “Okay, thanks. Good night, Ed.” She reached out and stroked him, then closed her eyes.
When she woke, it was light outside, and Ed was nowhere to be seen. She touched the sheets but didn’t feel any warmth. He must have left during the night.
She hoped the god would give him overtime for agreeing to her heating request.
“I’m not shivering anymore, but…I’ve got a pretty bad fever.” She touched a hand to her forehead. It was quite hot. It looked like she’d have to stay home from school today.
Going in was still an option, but she couldn’t spread this cold to Clarissa or Dino. A leading lady wasn’t going to cause trouble for the people around her.
There might be scenes like that in some otome games, but Nina’s role was to end up the fallen heroine. She didn’t need to play the sick girl, giving Dino and the other boys an opportunity to care for her and allow them to grow closer.
Anyway, she drank some water and sat up when she noticed something at the window. Moving closer, she saw it was a small bottle. It looked expensive, a vivid blue with gold lines containing pills. A slip of paper beside the bottle read, “Cold medicine.”
“From Ed? Probably.”
She didn’t know how a cat would write, but she definitely wanted to see a cat struggling to wield a pen. She smiled at the thought of the cute cat doing his best to keep the pen between his toebeans while she popped some pills in her mouth.
By night, she was feeling much better, likely due to a combination of rest and the medicine.
It’d been years since she’d spent a whole day at home on bed rest. Aida made the best honeyed milk on those days. Maybe it wasn’t so bad to have them every once in a while.
Nina wanted to thank Ed, but he didn’t appear that night. It wasn’t like he usually came every night anyway, so it wasn’t a problem. She was only worried. What would she do if she accidentally gave him her cold? Was there someone who could look after him? Other cats, maybe.
She imagined a cat wringing a damp towel and placing it on another cat’s forehead. The first one got his paws wet, so after that, he got absorbed in cleaning them off. And, maybe there wasn’t any point in putting a damp towel on a cat’s forehead since the fur would get in the way of it actually touching the skin.
It wasn’t clear how effective the whole thing would be, but the setup was so cute that she absolutely wanted to see it.
Nina smiled, remembering the kind servant to a god with his humanlike qualities.