Side: Theiamillis
Theia was short for her age, and Koutarou had a theory about why.
“Hey, Theia, do you think being such an active girl is the reason you never grew any taller? I think I read something about that in a baseball magazine once...”
“What are you talking about?” Theia asked, leaning in close. She was sensitive about her height.
“Getting too muscular can apparently keep you from growing.”
Koutarou wasn’t teasing her, however. He was being quite serious. Realizing this, Theia crossed her arms and nodded.
“Hmm... You’re suggesting that early muscle development can inhibit bone growth. That doesn’t sound too implausible,” she mused as she looked down at herself.
Theia was indeed an active girl, and she had quite an impressive build to show for it.
“Hang on, Theia-chan,” interjected Shizuka, who was drinking tea with the two of them. “I hear newer research has debunked that.”
Shizuka loved karate as much as Koutarou loved baseball, so she had an interest in this kind of thing too.
“Really?!” Theia exclaimed eagerly.
“Apparently the same growth hormones that can give you bigger muscles also help your bones grow or something. However, it’s true that repetitious training can damage cartilage and your skeleton,” Shizuka explained.
“I see. So, in other words, you need to moderate your training if you want to grow,” Theia mused as she pantomimed swinging a baseball bat. “I guess I’ll just keep doing what I always do, then.”
“Hmm, yeah, I guess so.”
Theia was naturally competitive and loved sports. So if what Shizuka was saying was true, then she could continue to play whenever she felt like it. Koutarou, however, had a question about all this...
“Do you really want to grow that badly, Theia?”
While he had a hard time admitting it, Koutarou felt that Theia was a splendid princess as she was. He couldn’t imagine that being a little on the short side was a strike against her.
“Well... Stand up, Koutarou.”
“Okay.”
Theia got Koutarou to his feet and then stood next to him. Her face came up to about his chest.
“This is what I’m concerned about.”
“What, exactly...?”
“You’re so dense. Listen, imagine some sort of serious incident happens.”
“Okay...”
“You’re my knight, so you’ll resolve said incident splendidly.”
“I don’t know about that, but sure. I’ll do my best.”
“We’ll make all the headlines, and our picture will spread across the empire... like this,” she said, pulling up a hologram of some old news footage she had saved on her bracelet.
“Oh, so this is what’s bothering you so much.”
“You can only see me from the nose up! It’s humiliating!”
The footage in question showed Theia standing next to Koutarou—and only half of her face was visible. News outlets ate up footage of the princess and her knight, so it always spread far and wide. The idea that the entire nation saw her like this infuriated Theia, which was why she wanted to get taller as fast as possible.
“So let’s go out and play, Koutarou.”
“As you wish, my princess.”
“Why are you crying?”
“I’m not. I just got some dirt in my eye...”
“Whatever. Let’s go.”
“Yeah.”
And so Theia and Koutarou left room 106. Koutarou had certain thoughts about all this, but chose to keep quiet. He thought it would be more knightly just to exercise with Theia as she pleased.
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