CH 220

Mia Experiences the F.A.T.

“You’ll need a swimsuit if you’re going on a cruise, right?”

Rafina asked after the boys left.

“Hm? A swimsuit, you say?”

Mia gave her head a scratch. She didn’t know what the word meant.

“Yes. It’s clothing made to be worn in the water. I think you’ll want to change out of your usual clothes. It would be very unpleasant to try to swim in this,” she said, pulling up the bottom of her uniform to make her point.

“You’re right.”

Mia agreed, thinking back on the times she almost drowned and remembering how hard it was. There was the time she fell into the lake, and there was the time she fell into the river.

She felt cold.

“Yes, I do think you need some new clothes. Hm…”

She probably wouldn’t have much luck in Tearmoon looking for swimwear…

“Miss Rafina, do you happen to know any tailors who make clothes like those?”

“Well, I sometimes go on trips to Noelige Lake, so I got a swimsuit for those times.” She said, “Maybe I can show you that store,” as she chewed on her lips.

“Yes, I think that tailor will be fine. It’s important to pick the store carefully, because the designs are different, and I’ve heard that some of them are very indecent.”

“I-Indecent?”

Mia’s eyes got bigger.

“Yes. Some of them, it seems…” Rafina moved her hands around her stomach. “Don’t put anything in this area at all.”

“My! So, it’s bare at the stomach?!”

What a horrible thing to do!”

Mia’s hands naturally rubbed her stomach, where they felt the comforting feel of fabric against her skin. The material was…tighter than she thought it would be. A lot more…

“Unbelievable! How rude of them to show their bellies!” She was very angry and said, “That kind of behavior shouldn’t be allowed!”

Rafina nodded firmly to show that she agreed.

“Because of the nature of swimming, you can’t avoid showing some skin, but showing too much skin hurts the moral fabric of our society. We’ll need to check out the design carefully first…”

“I completely agree. Hmph, showing my stomach? It’s unthinkable! Why would I ever wear those clothes?”

“Right? Oh, I’m so glad you understand, Mia!”

Others in the room must have thought that the two girls were talking about something they both understood. Most likely, the two people talking about it thought the same thing.

But none of the people there knew that there was a major difference in how upset they were. One was about morals and was critical of society and its habits. The other was a lot more realistic and had to do with a rather annoying part of metabolism.

No matter what, they kept talking.

Rafina said, “Now that I know we’re all on the same page, I’ll call the tailor for us. I’ve been meaning to order myself a new one, too… Oh, but what about the other people? If you want, we can all do this together.”

So, it was decided that all of the girls on the student council would get their own swimsuits made.

Three days later, Rafina’s favorite tailor showed up.

“I’m grateful for your business. Now, let’s get started.”

She was a woman with a short temper and a careful look who got to work right away. She didn’t start by taking precise measurements. Instead, she had the girls try on some swimsuits.

“Sizes can be changed in the future. First, I’d like to get your approval on the designs. Lady Rafina told me to show as little skin as possible, so if you could take a look at these, I’d appreciate it…”

She put several swimsuits out on a table.

Design-wise, they were similar to the dress Mia had worn to the evening ball, but the skirt was shorter and what looked like shorts were worn under it.

“Let’s see… I think this one might fit Princess Mia better because she is smaller,” the tailor said as she pulled out a pair of pants. “These would be worn alone, close to the skin.”

“Ah, you mean like undergarments?”

“It’s a good comparison. As for how big it is… The better you can swim, the tighter the fit. To make sure it does its job, I’ve made it feel a little tight.”

Mia nodded as she tried to put them on after hearing what was said. She’s not joking.

In all honesty, I think this is more than “slightly” tight. It fits like a corset. I wonder if all of them are this way.

As she struggled to get the thing over her hips, she had those thoughts.

She heard the tailor say “Huh!” in a surprised tone just then.

“…Hm?”

She gave the woman a quick look.

“Is there something wrong?”

“Oh, no, no, Your Highness. Don’t mind me. There’s nothing wrong. Hm, hm… I see, I see. That would definitely make it feel tight… All right…”

The tailor started to talk in a shaky mumble.

Mia looked at her for a while and then nodded to show that she got it.

Aha. Rafina likes this woman’s designs, so she must be a good designer, but she doesn’t seem to be very good at figuring out sizes, does she?

But what the tailor said next made her stop and think.

“Does everyone else’s fit fine? Yes? So the princess is the only one who needs a slightly bigger size. Hm, hm, okay…”

Mia made a frown and didn’t understand what the tailor was saying until she saw how sad Anne looked.

“That reminds me,” the maid said to herself, “some of the dresses have been feeling a little tight lately. No, but Milady is still growing, so it’s always possible that it’s not.”

Mia’s mood changed when she heard the worry in Anne’s voice. She put her hands on her stomach and gave it a pinch.

A big ball of meat rose up in her hands.

“…Anne, tell me what you really think. Am I…fat?”

“Of course not, no way… Milady is getting bigger! Yes, you still are growing. So it makes sense that your body would grow…”

“Hmm, I’m aware that I’m still growing. But if my horizontal growth is faster than my vertical growth, doesn’t that mean that most of my gains are in weight and not height?”

She looked at her maid with a steady eye and said it again.

“You are my loyal subject, Anne. I believe you won’t lie to me. So, I’m going to ask again. Tell me the truth. Am I…fat?”

Anne couldn’t meet her eyes, so she turned away and gave in.

“Maybe…kind of. Only a little bit. But that’s probably because you’ve been eating so many cakes and sweets lately. I thought it might have been too much…”

She knew it was true.

She had been the one to ask, after all.

But hearing it from her faithful maid made her feel like she couldn’t breathe. She gave a short gasp as the weight of a fact that couldn’t be argued with sunk into her mind, both figuratively and literally.

In her mind, she saw scenes from the recent past.

She saw herself getting on a horse, and she remembered how the animal seemed to tighten up as she did. She saw herself roll across her bed, and she remembered that the creaking of the wood was louder than it had been before.

More and more memories kept coming back to her, and they all pointed to the same terrible truth. She put her cheeks together.

They seemed too big.

She patted her stomach.

It looked like it moved.

That’s all. There was no way to get around the clear evidence.

It was all to do with the food she ate. Her body was showing a lot of tummy-fication in her abdomen. In other words, she was going through what is called F.A.T.

“Princess Mia, um…” Chloe said with worry. “Books say that you can lose weight if you work out.”

She looked at Chloe, who had no trouble getting into the swimsuit the tailor had given her. It fit her perfectly.

Mia scowled because she felt very betrayed, but her anger soon turned into sadness.

“All right… I guess that’s just the way things go… I haven’t been practicing dancing as much as I should have, now that I think about it. Most likely, that didn’t help…”

Mia turned away from Chloe’s stuttering words of comfort because she was worried.

“Don’t worry. I know. I’ll ride horses more and try a little bit harder at dance practice.”

“That is a very good way to act, princess. Keep going, and you’ll see results for sure.”

The tailor said yes in a tone that was a bit condescending, like a teacher telling a struggling student what to do.

“Although it has nothing to do with swimsuits, I should also tell you that your upper arms are also a little bit fat.  Still, it’s not too late to change this trend. Even a small increase in how often you work out may be enough. Riding will also help you get your legs and behind in shape, so it’s good that you’re doing it as part of your routine.”

Even though the tailor spoke in an arrogant way, her words had the authority of experience, which Mia found comforting.

She felt her motivation come back because she knew that the things she was doing were already on the right track and only needed minor changes.

“Okay, then. I will do it. I’ll ride every day when I get back to the empire. As well as dancing… In any case, I’ll see to it that it gets done!”

In the end, Mia chose to have her swimsuit made according to the current measurements, trusting that she would make the necessary changes to her body to fit it.

Now that the clock was going, the race was on.

Could she lose enough weight to fit into her swimsuit?

Time would have to tell!