CH 45

Maybe it was because I had gone through so much during my first year or what, but I was unusually moody and felt annoyed by every little thing. Because of that, I tried to practice controlling my emotions and focused on practicing my magic and creating magical items with my door locked. I practiced my swordsmanship in class as well.

When I stayed in my room and basically refused to leave, my father came to my room to ask me if something was wrong. There wasn’t anything wrong. I just wanted to be alone. If I had to explain, my moods were fluctuating after I began to menstruate. Even though my period had stopped at the moment.

But I still spent the morning of new years with my family. Harun and Karim observed my prickly new personality and seemed to fret. I didn’t like how my mood was messing with the family’s mood, so I shot everyone hearts and everybody relaxed. What a happy ending.

Anyway, I stayed in my room practicing magic, practicing the blade, and sleeping throughout the break.

Just because I aged up didn’t mean that much changed.

I still looked the same, and had the same personality, alongside the same dead eyes of mine. I didn’t even grow much in height. My face was still more like a child than more mature.

If I had to pick out things that changed, I thought my boobs grew a bit. My hair grew a bit. Other than that, everything was the same. Well, thinking that I was going to change a lot just because I grew a year older was the wrong thing to begin with.

That was what I thought, but………

“Did you grow smaller while we didn’t meet?”

Hylli asked, mid-duel.

This was the first time we were facing each other after we went up to 2nd year.

Hylli seemed to be curious as to why I went radio silent during the break, but didn’t ask, possibly out of kindness.

The swordsmanship classes didn’t have any special changes other than us going up a year. Oh, no. This year, we had a few female first-year students join the swordsmanship classes. Other than that, nothing changed.

But Hylli, who I hadn’t seen all throughout the break, seemed to be different somehow. It might have been that I wasn’t used to seeing him after so long, but there was definitely something different.

When Hylli asked me, lowering his head towards me, I felt bad. Of course, I knew that he was asking because he cared and nothing else, but for some reason, my mood plummeted.

“Hylli, you probably grew taller.”

I no longer used a polite suffix for his name. He had told me to use casual speech towards him for a while now, but I couldn’t use casual speech to my future employer and that was why I added the suffix, but I didn’t feel like doing that any longer.

When I responded with an attitude, Hylli tilted his head.

“Did I grow taller? I thought it was the same.”

When Hylli asked, I scanned him once more.

When I looked closer, I could see that he had matured somewhat. His lines had gotten thicker and his shoulder got wider. He had also grown taller enough for him to tilt his head downwards to look at me.

His round, child-like features had grown sharper. His eyes were round and cute, but now they looked more handsome than cute.

Thinking of, Hylli’s voice, which had been a high, childlike voice, had undergone puberty and had gotten deeper. Our little prince had changed a lot.

It nagged at me that Hylli had grown up without me.

When I returned Hylli’s attacks, Hylli blocked my attacks with absolute ease. He had already gotten used to my irregulr patterns. Moreover, his strength had changed as well. Hylli had faced me too easily, even with debuff penalty. I had barely caught up to his technical skills through sheer effort and practice, but the disparity between our strengths was high.

In the end, I couldn’t block Hylli’s attack and fell backwards, hitting my butt. Hylli seemed surprised at my fallen form and ran towards me.

“Oh, sorry! I was trying to control my strength!”

I could see just how much Hylli had grown when he came closer to help me get back up. Hylli had his back to the sun, and his shadow covered my entire body.

I swiftly pushed him away.

“Don’t get cocky because you grew bigger during break! If I just drink more milk, if I just try harder, I can…..!”

Hylli tilted his head at my response. Hylli didn’t do anything. I was just angry.

It was my mistake to think that the others stayed the same like me.

Once class ended, I ran around campus for a while to cool off my annoyance towards Hylli’s development. I bumped into Yves.

Yves, after not seeing me for a while, hugged me warmly. At Yves’ question asking me why it was so hard to meet him, I couldn’t say anything.

Yves looked for me the most when I went radio silent during the break. I was kind of sorry, but I hoped he would understand. I’m sensitive these days.

When Yves asked me why I stayed at home all the while, I felt like telling him that I just felt like being alone would get me treated like a kid. The hug felt more awkward than before, so I just shoved him away. Yves seemed to realize that my mood wasn’t the best, and asked me, surprised.

“Is something wrong?”

Yves wrapped an arm around my shoulder as he asked. I stared at Yves.

Yves had also mature. He was already tall, but he had grown slightly taller. His child-like appearance was almost gone, and now he had the face of a handsome budding adult.

Having Yves stand next to me as he towered over me made me feel incredibly small.

This was the first time that gravity felt so heavy. It felt like the air was pressing me down onto the ground. It felt like I had been vacuum sealed.

I shoved Yves away and ran through the hall. I just felt like running. Sorry, Yves, I’ll be nice to you next time.

Then, I finally met my final, lone source of hope.

That was Cory. Even until break began, Cory and I were similar heights. I was even just a smidge taller. He and I even had similar physiques. Maybe he was even frailer than me?

I decided to trust Cory. Trust that he wouldn’t have grown, that is. I didn’t like how everybody had grown taller and matured while I was the same.

When school ended, Cory always sat on a nearby school bench with some snacks and enjoyed basking in the sunlight. The weather was slightly chilly, so he had his trusty blanket wrapped around him, too.

It wasn’t hard to locate where Cory was, considering how he had a small radius for movement. I was able to easily find Cory, who was sitting on a bench.

I was just about to call Cory before I paused. It was weird. I was sure that that was Cory’s back.

Cory stared at the sky as he ate a stick-shaped snack, hunched over. So he was supposed to look even smaller, not bigger.

But, the shoulders that were wrapped up with the blanket weren’t the shoulders that I remembered seeing during first year. It was a small difference, but it was slightly wider than before.

I stalked over to where Cory was.

Cory had the stick-shaped snack in his mouth, eyes closed as he faced the sun. It looked like he had fallen asleep because of the warmth. Cory, who had been sitting relaxed on the bench, opened his eyes as I approached him.

“Huh, Shushu?”

Cory, surprised about seeing me after not seeing me in a while, woke up from his nap and looked surprised. He dropped his snack when he saw me greet him after having gone AWOL during the break.

His shock soon subsided. Cory looked at me and smiled sleepily. Cory, just like the others, didn’t ask why I ignored them during break. He just recommended enjoying the sunlight next to him instead. The sunlight made Cory feel warm and sleepy.

Cory laid down the blanket on the space next to him and told me to take a seat. He wordlessly tapped the spot next to him, then closed his eyes and tilted his head upwards again. It looked like he was going to fall asleep any minute now.

I briefly woke Cory back up.

“Cory, stand up for a bit. I need to check something.”

“……….?”

Cory opened his eyes at my words. Cory dusted off the flower dust from his clothes and stood up. He seemed curious at my sudden actions.

I used magic to create a mirror-like device and put it on front of us.

“Turn around. Let’s compare heights.”

“Height?”

Cory put down the blanket and turned around so our backs would meet without a complaint.

Then………I couldn’t help but be shocked. The Cory who had been short like me no longer existed.

“What the, when’d you grow so tall?”

I looked at Cory. It wasn’t only his shoulders that had grown. His fierce pretty boy face had disappeared, and I could see a cold, handsome face beginning to take shape.

Cory gave me a look as if asking why I was asking something so obvious.

“It’s puberty.”

I wanted to complain at Cory’s words. Yeah, that was true, but I was still a shortie. It wouldn’t be so bad if everyone else was short, but I was the only one that was short.

“I’m going through puberty too, but I didn’t grow.”

At my words, Cory put one hand on my head.

“I’ve been eating vegetables recently.”

“So what?”

“I think that’s why I grew taller.”

“I eat vegetables and everything else!”

Honestly, I know that it wasn’t vegetables or food or whatever. It was just that our genetics were different. But I couldn’t help but be angry. It felt like I was losing at something.

What if I entered the knights and was buried alive because of my height? What if I wasn’t able to see because of my short height? Stupid thoughts passed through my head.

Cory stared at me as I went into a panic.

“Seeing you like this, you really are small.”

Cory quietly muttered to himself, but I heard it.

“I like this though.”

Cory tried to say that it was cute before he closed his mouth.

He’d figured out why I looked like I was on the verge of tears. Then, he hurriedly changed his words.

“Being short makes you look more dependable. It looks like you have more perseverance.”

“……….?”

“People call me a stick sometimes because I’m tall. It’s okay. You’re really cool.”

I clenched my mouth shut and didn’t say a word. Cory kept laying down compliment after compliment about being short, but it was no use.

Cory kept looking at my expression before speaking again.

“………sorry. I was trying to comfort you.”

Cory pat my hunched back, then told me that he would help me grow taller before holding both of my arms and stretching them up. He said something about how stretching them would make me grow taller.

Hylli joined mid-conversation, and now each of them took one arm before stretching me left and right. My body floated in midair for a moment when Hylli held me up with his brute strength.

This….this was shameful on its own right. I abandoned the two of them and ran into my dorm.

I didn’t know why I was like this these days.

Hylli seemed to have heard why I was so sad recently. He promised to add height-increasing stretches from here on out.

As he did that, Hylli said, “If you practice hard, you can beat me regardless of strength.” without even an ounce of sincerity. You’re going to be a swordmaster in the future. How am I going to beat you?