They Said Kids Grow Up Fast
Two young children stood in the hallway.
With a tense atmosphere, they knocked on the door of the director's office.
“Director, it’s Sugar.”
Upon hearing the response “Come in,” the door opened. Inside, the director, who was busy packing something, was rushing around without a care in the world.
“Busy. Say it quickly.”
“That is, Director. Tommy said he wasn’t feeling well today, so-”
“What?”
“-so they brought another child. How is she?”
The director, tossing aside her bag, walked briskly towards Frallin. With each step, Frallin’s body shrank, suddenly becoming even smaller than Sugar’s.
“So this is the child?”
“Yes, it’s Frallin.”
The director, not even knowing Frallin’s original face, grabbed her chin and examined her from all angles. Frallin’s eyes bounced around like a pinball. It was a situation where she didn’t know where to look. If looking into eyes was scary, she should have been told to look at the forehead instead.
“Hmm.”
“...”
“Mmm.”
“...”
Time passed as if an eternity had passed.
“Alright. Go upstairs to get dressed and come down.”
Sugar let out a breath she was holding. It had gone smoothly. It was just as she thought, her aesthetic sense was not ordinary.
Frallin also bowed her head and let out a sigh of relief as she left the director’s office.
“... You always do unnecessary things. Just do as the adults say.”
“It seems like the director would be troubled if we brought a sick child.”
“Exactly. That’s what I mean by unnecessary thinking for kids. Anyway, since you’re busy, I’ll let it slide! Now get out!”
The director shouted loudly and gave a scolding, then went back to packing. Sugar quietly left the director’s office.
It’s fortunate that things worked out well.
***
Seeing off the departing director and Frallin with some of the children.
With the matter settled, there was some free time.
Sugar headed straight to the backyard. It was to finish setting her future plans that she hadn’t been able to do in the morning due to the commotion of the departure.
Under the shade of a tree where the children didn’t usually play, she sat down holding a stick.
Swish swish-
She drew on the ground and carefully thought.
“First, how did I get kidnapped?”
The cult’s kidnapping. It wasn’t particularly targeting Sugar alone. Among the many orphans randomly kidnapped to be offered to the Dark God, Sugar was included.
Of course, the cult side had no greater fortune.
“Since she didn’t take the sacrifice, she would have been greatly delighted and opened her arms to embrace them, and all those gathered would have been impressed.”
It was an unprecedented situation that the Dark God, who swallowed the sacrifice without leaving a trace, stopped eating and decided to keep the girl beside him.
Originally, it was a being whose temperament could not be predicted at all, but since Sugar arrived at the cult, she had become somewhat docile.
It was only natural that Sugar was called the ‘Saintess’ in the cult. It was indeed a bizarre thing for a cult to do, removing the senses and voice of the Saintess, but anyway.
The important thing was that the cult didn’t know about the kidnapping.
Even now, the cult side didn’t know about the existence of ‘the child who matches their preference.’ So, as long as she wasn’t caught, it was fine.
“Not creating the situation of being kidnapped... not leaving the building.”
But that wasn’t possible.
She only knew she was kidnapped when she turned 14, but not the exact time. She couldn’t have stayed in the orphanage for a whole year.
She had no choice but to go out for errands, sponsor interviews, and other miscellaneous tasks. Due to the nature of group living, she couldn’t just skip work.
“A year in the medical room... or adopted and living in another house...”
All of it was crossed out as impossible.
The former: She didn’t have any serious illness, and even if she did, she would be thrown into the sewer, not the medical room.
The latter: Statistically, it didn’t make sense. Even in her previous life with a good environment, adoption didn’t happen easily, and in this world where everything was more backward and more children were abandoned, it was unimaginable.
Moreover, being adopted wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
Then, what other options were there?
“I have to become strong myself.”
She needed the power to overcome it alone.
As long as she could shake off the kidnapper at the moment of capture and escape.
But it wouldn’t be that easy. If a girl just struggled a little and could escape, everyone would escape.
Using her body size for a preemptive strike so that even the kidnapping attempt couldn’t be made?
No matter how crazy the group was, they wouldn’t try to kidnap a 180cm tall girl, right?
Having reached that thought, Sugar looked around and checked her surroundings. Then, she slowly walked behind the tree and pressed her back against it.
“A little... it should have grown a little, right?”
Her heart raced with excitement.
It was time to check the results so far.
-Swish.
She drew a line with a stone at the position of her forehead, then pulled it away. All that was left was to check the position of the line.
“... Eh.”
But what?
There was no new line.
Even squinting, what she saw was the line she had drawn right after recovering her memories from her previous life. Today, because she drew a new one, it had become even deeper and was showing off.
In other words, it meant she hadn’t grown at all.
“They said kids grow up fast!”
A complete lie!
She had sold her conscience and stolen her friend’s lunch!
Setting aside whether conscience existed, it had only been a week since she measured her height. Yet, Sugar was jumping around expressing her anger.
As her body went up and down, her hair whipped around, and her white cheeks shook.
With each landing, there were light sounds, tap, tap.
What is this. It was no different from a tantrum. It was a sight commonly seen in toy stores. It was the look of someone sulking because things didn’t go their way.
“Haa... haa...”
The sudden anger subsided.
Soon, she came to her senses.
Breathing in the humid slum air, she calmed herself. Getting angry at the world like this was not mature. Sugar admitted it.
What remained was emptiness and shame.
“Me too...”
Surprised by her childish anger, Sugar cleared her throat and straightened her posture.
And what she faced was Tommy with a bewildered expression.
“...”
“...”
She was standing awkwardly holding a bucket full of worms. Probably, she had come here to release the worms she caught earlier into the empty grass.
From the look of it, it seemed she had witnessed Sugar jumping around and getting angry.
Sugar was also stunned by being seen.
A moment of silence.
At the end, it was Sugar who spoke first.
“Go.”
“...”
While glancing at her, she left the place without hesitation.
After confirming that she had gone far away, Sugar picked up the stick again and started drawing plans on the ground.
As if nothing had happened just now.
“Um, then this?”
She wrote the word “magic” on the ground and drew a circle.
Magic, huh. Good. No matter how small a girl, she could have power.
But how to learn it?
Unlock new knowledge through classes.
Invest the skill points received from leveling up there.
In the original game, magic was acquired in this way, but this world was not a game. There was no status window or skill points.
She had to learn magic spells and even basic mana manipulation methods herself, but in this slum, who would teach such things? Even if there was, she couldn’t pay the price. To an 11-year-old orphan, magic was like a dream.
“The mana amount should be sufficient.”
She recalled the original Sugar. The reason her body was fine even after receiving the Dark God’s embrace. It was due to her unique mana properties and quantity.
Since she had such talent, it was just a matter of learning it.
Having thought that far, Sugar climbed onto the tree, took a comfortable posture, and closed her eyes.
Let’s try something. Whenever you see something like this, don’t you start meditating?
A very common cliché: Wake up your own power through meditation!
Since it was a pretty good plan in her own thinking, the earlier anger was gone, and she felt proud.
***
“Why did she get so angry...”
“Tommy” recalled the incident while releasing the worms in the grass.
The sight of Sugar, who was leaning against the tree, suddenly jumping around and getting angry.
Her always relaxed face was scrunched up and she was throwing a tantrum. She was shouting sharply as if something didn’t please her.
For Tommy, it was a sight she wanted to see once, but her current feeling was not so much joy as curiosity.
What had made her like that?
Since she had wanted to make herself look like that directly, if it was due to other factors, it would have no meaning.
Tommy, having calmly understood her emotions, turned her steps towards the tree where Sugar had been earlier. She intended to find out why Sugar was angry and use that as a hint to make her own emotions fluctuate.
Today, since she had woken up big time, let’s quietly find clues.
Hidden in the grass, Tommy approached the tree where Sugar had been and peeked out her face.
But, there was none.
“What?”
Just a moment ago, she was here.
She came out of the grass and looked around.
On the ground, there were only unknown letters drawn, and not a trace of Sugar was visible. Thinking back, she had been holding a stick and drawing something earlier, so this must be it.
“...”
Wait, unknown letters?
Tommy immediately lowered her posture and scanned the letters.
She couldn’t make sense of the meaning at all.
During the process of interpreting the Grimoire, various characters written there were automatically acquired, so she thought she knew many languages.
Due to this side effect, she had difficulty using standard language, and even practiced familiarizing herself with the continental common language through meditation.
But what was this letter?
“... It must be meaningless scribble.”
Tommy shook her head and suddenly spotted a fluffy white thing in her field of vision, so she immediately looked up at the tree.
Eh, there it was.
The earlier angry expression was gone, and she was sitting comfortably enjoying the breeze. It was unbelievable. In this state, she couldn’t find clues.
Why was she making such a smug expression?
While staring hard, she noticed, and quickly turned around.