Side: Theiamillis
Though Theia had blossomed into a splendid princess, she was far from perfect. She was proud, short-tempered, impatient, and could get hung up on the tiniest of things. Moreover, she was well aware of all this. But as far as she was concerned, her biggest shortcoming was... well, her height.
“What’s wrong with being short?”
“That’s easy to say when you’re tall. For someone like me, just a few more centimeters would make all the difference.”
Theia was presently using a specialized camera to optically measure her height—which was something of a sore spot. She’d always been among the shortest in her class, and she was always reminded of it. Whenever they lined up by height, she was right there at the front of the line and she hated it.
“A few centimeters wouldn’t really make all that much difference, you know? You’ll still be just as angry when someone taller stands in front of you.”
Koutarou shrugged in response to Theia lamenting her stature. As far as he was concerned, her height was an advantage—especially considering her terrible personality. There had been plenty of times she’d caused trouble in public and people had been willing to overlook it because they mistook her for a younger child. And because he knew her personality would probably never change, Koutarou hoped she’d stay petite forever too.
“Those are two completely different issues.”
“Talk about selfish...”
“If I were a little taller, I could endure someone standing in front of me.”
“Do you really want to grow that badly?”
“I do.”
Hearing Theia say that, Koutarou realized just how serious she was. It wasn’t every day she said she’d be willing to endure something.
“So... how tall do you want to be?”
“Stand up for a moment, Koutarou.”
“Huh?”
Theia extended her hand to the sitting Koutarou. He obliged and took it, standing up in front of her.
“About this tall.”
Getting up on her tiptoes, Theia was about ten centimeters taller, putting her head right at Koutarou’s shoulder.
“I have to be at least this tall before I attend any official Forthorthian functions.”
“Why’s that?”
“You and I won’t fit in the frame together otherwise.”
Theia was worried about attending official functions with Koutarou. As the legendary Blue Knight, there would be demand after demand for his presence at state dinners, balls, and the like. Such events were always heavily covered by the press, and as things stood, Theia was so much shorter than Koutarou that she’d be cut out of any picture that captured him from the shoulders up. That’s why she needed another ten centimeters.
“I could never stand for the humiliation of being cut out of the picture!”
If she were ten centimeters taller, a tasteful pair of heels would be all she needed to stay in the frame with Koutarou. And because she wanted to keep her place right next to him—to show the world that he was her knight—those ten centimeters were a necessity to her. It was getting them that was the real problem.
“Heh, and here I was worried about what was bothering you so much... Talk about short. Shortsighted, that is.”
“Tease me all you like! You wouldn’t understand! You’re a legendary knight, you know?! Your picture will go down in all the history books of Forthorthe! Now, imagine what that’s like for me! The only part of me that will be in those pictures is the top of my head! My very legacy will be an embarrassment!”
“But there won’t be any problems if Master simply carries you in his arms everywhere he goes, right, Your Highness?”
“Great idea, Ruth! That’s exactly what we’ll do!”
“H-Hey, wait a minute! Come on, Ruth-san!”
“What’s the matter? The armor will do the real lifting for you, so it shouldn’t be much of a burden.”
“You heard her, Koutarou! And besides, you carrying me is the best way to show off our relationship to the world!”
Thanks to Ruth’s intervention, the conversation at hand took a strange turn. Now, instead of Theia worrying about her height, Koutarou was worried about his dignity.
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