C 20
"It's cold...."
My mind was numb.
My body was cold, and at least I couldn't feel my tail coiling around my body.
"So cold."
The moment I thought it again, something warm wrapped around my body as if it had been waiting.
Wrapped in warmth as if I had stepped on a stove, I woke up very slowly after realizing that all these sensations were completely unfamiliar to me after a long time.
Flash.
When I regained my senses, an amethyst shone in front of my eyes.
"Oh, you opened your eyes."
"Kwu-wook!"
They were human eyes, not amethysts.
I screamed in surprise, but a strange cry came out.
"Do lizards cry too?"
"… Lizards?"
Am I still a lizard?
I quickly turned my head, and there was a small mirror right beside me.
"I'm still a lizard, really...."
I was speechless for a moment.
A strange lizard with pinkish-silver scales moved as I moved.
And it was very small.
"Nonsense...."
I didn't know that I still couldn't turn back into a human.
"How the hell can I become human again?"
No matter how much I closed my eyes and forced my body, there were no signs of going back.
"I can't believe I have to live like this for the rest of my life, right?"
I felt terrified.
At that moment, the boy suddenly put his face right in front of me and gently stroked my hair with his index finger.
"I was going to use you as a test subject if you died, but I'm glad you're alive."
"…….."
I was startled by the words that gave me goosebumps.
"What, where are you going?"
He was a boy who seemed a couple of years older than me.
A child with dark amethyst-colored eyes and unique hair that got lighter as it fell.
The long hair, which is not often seen, is like...
"… It reminds me of someone."
For example, "Richard Collin," one of the male sub-protagonists who should be in the Germination Time Orphanage.
"… What is this, isn't this Richard Collin?!"
Uncommon long hair, uncommon hair color, and even uncommon patterned earrings!
Anyone can see that these are not adjustments given to an extra.
And I only knew one person who looked like this.
Richard Collin.
If there's Erno Etham in the Etham family, there's Richard Collin in the Magic Tower.
This guy was the second crazy one who was scheduled for an epic epic that would become the future owner of the magic tower.
Erno Etham received a cute nickname, like "Psycho Etham," a reference to his name, but Richard Collin, as readers call him, was just a "crazy guy."
Because...
<—Hahaha! Try running more! More! If the soles of your feet are hot, you don't have to dance anymore!
—What? Do you want me to save you? Hahaha, okay! Because I'm a benevolent wizard. If you touch that tree in 10 seconds, I'll save you. Now, start-start! 10, 9, 8, ..., 0! You failed.
—Did I count wrong? Isn't that right? Do you know why? Because I'm right.
—Hey, aren't you curious? Humans say they'd rather die after going through several death obstacles, right? I've been wanting to experiment! What do you say? Why don't we do an experiment together? I'm a researcher, and you... Well, you'll be a lab rat! Don't worry. I won't kill you!>
Because he was a jerk.
I hope you don't forget that. The fact that this story originally started as a child-rearing novel.
Of course, there was a reason for that madness.
He was sold back and forth to slave traders as a child, and as an adult, he decided to annihilate three generations of those involved to avenge himself.
"… Still, he must have been quite normal when he was young, right?"
The impression was much milder than what I saw in the description.
Well, when he appeared in the novel, he had almost passed adolescence and was about to reach adulthood.
I remember it was around that time when I found out that Richard was the lost youngest son in the Collin family.
Of course, many of the main characters, excluding the female protagonist, have a sad narrative, and the story unfolds for the heroine to embrace them.
Later, Richard Collin's crazy personality changes a bit.
<—Sharnae, I'll protect you. So stay by my side, understand? I'll take care of all these bastards.
—... You want me to stop? Okay, if you kiss me, I will.
—Because Sharnae told me not to... Should I turn it into something completely unexpected? If he disappears from the world, there's nothing I can't do.>
So... from just a crazy guy to a crazy guy obsessed with the female protagonist.
"If it weren't for me, you'd be dead."
He smiled and reached out his hand to me.
The figure sitting in front of the desk and lightly supporting his chin was really more beautiful than I saw in the description.
I heard that there were many occasions when he was mistaken for a woman just by looking at his back, but his appearance was enough.
"Because I saved you, you're mine. So stay by my side from now on."
He extended his palm to me a little more.
After thinking for a moment, I carefully moved my foot and climbed onto his palm.
Richard Collin's expression brightened when I climbed onto his palm.
It was a bit uncomfortable because I didn't have a tail.
The feeling of losing the body I had felt subtle.
"Did other lizards intimidate you because you didn't have a tail? Rejecting others is something both humans and reptiles do."
Upon hearing Richard Collin's voice, I involuntarily opened my eyes wide and raised my head to look at him.
"I'll make you strong. Get your revenge next time. Show that even without a tail, you can be healthy and stronger than anyone else."
Now that I think about it, he must have lived with many prejudices.
He was smarter than others, more beautiful than others, more talented than others, and unlike others, he had no parents.
"Yes, reality isn't any different from a novel."
Regardless of time and place, eventually, an ugly duckling is born somewhere.
I extended my short hand and put the small, cold sole of my foot on Richard Collin's cheek.
After a couple of pats, Richard Collin's eyes widened.
"What? You're amazing. It's like you understand what I'm saying. Is it because you don't have a tail?"
Um, but it seems I was misunderstood a while ago.
"Is it uncomfortable? Would you like me to make a tail model for you?"
My tail will grow back.
Maybe.
"Since it's a lizard, will it grow back?"
I rolled my eyes.
"Oh, before that, I should decide on a name... What would be good?"
I have a name.
However, now it was impossible to speak.
When I stayed still, Richard Collin seemed to be thinking for a long time, then his eyes lit up.
"Since your skin is silver, how about Huidol?"
I took a step back from Richard Collin's palm with an astonished expression on my face.
"Oh, hey. You're falling."
I quickly shook my head.
"Don't want that? Okay, then, Silver...?"
"......"
Who would have known.
The fact that this crazy person's sense of names is at the bottom.
When I didn't move as if I were in shock, Richard Collin opened his mouth with a slightly sheepish expression, as if he thought he was a little out of place.
"Then, BamBam...?"
"......"
I dropped my head.
"Oh, I like this one. Let's go with this! Please take care of me, BamBam."
That's how I became BamBam.
"Oh, it's annoying. It's time to train again."
"Do you train almost every day?"
What the hell did you think, tilting your head like that...?
"It's completely useless for me. Don't you think so, BamBam?"
Having said that, Richard looked very tired.
It's been three days since I arrived at this orphanage.
In the meantime, I failed to humanize and discovered an unexpected side of this orphanage and Richard Collin.
This orphanage was run by Albion, a war hero who had achieved a great victory in the Great Holy War and then disappeared.
Having lived as a commoner all his life, he became a hero after receiving a revelation from God during the Holy War.
A person who had never killed anything before had to continuously kill on the battlefield.
Still, he led the battlefield to victory as if to prove that he had received the stigma of a hero.
"However, he couldn't bear the situation after the war."
Disillusioned by being hailed as a hero amidst a mass of corpses and people mourning the loss of their families, he quietly disappeared.
Because, in becoming a hero, he had to lose his wife and daughter.
So he began collecting war orphans and other orphans and taking care of them.
This was the "Germination Time Orphanage."
Through it, he strove to impart all the knowledge he had learned while rolling on the battlefield.
Perhaps that's why many famous individuals came out of this orphanage about ten years later.
"I hate taking classes with stupid people."
"You still have to listen, Rich."
Richard Collin's shoulders trembled at the dry, emotionless voice coming from behind him.
My body, which was sitting on his shoulder, jumped and bounced.
When I turned my head, I saw a tall and plain-looking man.
With light brown hair and eyes as green as a dying field...
He was the director of this orphanage and the hero of the Great Holy War, "Albion."
