43. Why Is This...?
43. Why Is This...?
The drug produced no change whatsoever in my body.
Just in case, I closed my eyes, gathered my mana, and examined my body's condition. It was a bizarre sensation.
It was certainly true that the drug had applied a specific stimulus to my body.
The stimulus, which had spread evenly from my head to my toes, produced no change whatsoever in my body.
The other drug I drank alongside it, meant to supplement the nutrients essential for rapid growth, had clearly been consumed as well, yet it produced no change.
My hands trembled.
The sense of loss and emptiness, of reaching for a goal that had seemed so close at hand and failing to grasp it, swirled through my entire body once again.
"Again... no...?"
The dreadful sense of loss soon transformed into rage.
This time it had been an opportunity that came about by chance, but it wasn't a common one.
"Uh... uuuh?? Strange, why is there no reaction at all??"
Professor Praha was extremely flustered when the drug failed.
He must have naturally assumed it would succeed.
Professor Praha, who had been stealing glances at my reaction, thought through the reasons for a while and then reached a conclusion.
"By any chance, what is your family history...? The upper limits of your genetics must also be taken into account..."
"Are you trying to piss me off? Both my parents are tall, and my younger sibling is taller than me. What's this crap about genetics!!!"
It was a statement that made the veins in my forehead bulge.
That was the cruelest part of my height problem.
The most basic shield from my original world, the genetics shield, was impossible.
In my family... whether you looked at my father's or mother's side, there was no gene for being this short, so my height became purely my own personal problem.
"In that case... it might be an issue fundamentally different from other people's growth..."
A flustered Professor Praha hastily began to explain.
"Ordinary... growth disorders stem from environmental or social factors, or medical impediments. And as far as medical impediments go, it's usually nutritional imbalance, or failure to grow because hormones aren't being secreted."
"I know that much myself."
"But this drug... the first one provides all the nutrients essential for rapid growth...
and commands the body into a state of rapid growth while stimulating each part.
So generally, what are termed medical impediments can be resolved."
"...I'm just asking on the off chance. How long ago were these drugs made?"
"Uh..... I haven't counted so I don't know. Wait, the label should say... About 8... years?"
"And it's been stashed away for 8 years since you made it. Are you sure it's still fine?"
I said it with the mentality of grasping at straws, wondering if the drug had spoiled and thus been ineffective.
"It has a preservation spell on it, so it should be fine."
"Are you sure?"
"The preservation spell is the greatest magic that changed history. It can preserve something for ten years without any risk of deterioration."
If he said it was fine because a preservation spell was cast on it, that meant the drug itself ultimately wasn't the problem.
Then what the hell was the problem...
"Then what is the problem? Don't give me some nonsense about my mental state. Around the time my growth stopped, I lived quite happily."
"Then maybe a curse...?"
"That was the first thing I thought of, so I went and saw the Saintess. She said there was nothing wrong."
I had also spent a lot of money to thoroughly investigate whether anyone who hated Titan had resorted to the most horrific method of revenge.
When it was confirmed that none of the first things one would suspect were the cause, only bewilderment remained on Professor Praha's face.
"Then... I don't know either... If you undergo a detailed examination we might find out...
I'll try asking the hospital side. This is the first time for me too... I think I'll need proper data.
I will definitely... definitely try to solve this problem...!!"
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That night, I had a nightmare.
As far as nightmares go, it wasn't anything grandiose.
Ghosts appearing or monsters coming out weren't frightening at all.
I had killed such things before, so they held no fear.
In that terrible nightmare, the things I had been unable to kill, the things I had been unable to sever, appeared.
That nightmare was the days I had lived in the Titan family mansion.
The ties to my father and mother, which I could not cut with my own hands until the end. I still remembered the day I fled to the Knights Order, ultimately unable to sever those blood ties.
"A damned awful dream."
When I woke up in the dormitory, my whole body was drenched in sweat.
Maybe because I ate something strange the day before, things that hadn't even come to mind lately surfaced.
Recalling my family made me think of my younger sister, who was now leading Titan on her own.
Given that I hadn't heard any particular rumors, she seemed to be doing well, but there were surely internal problems that were hard to solve.
Most of my memories of the Titan mansion were unpleasant, so it was still uncomfortable, but I resolved that when the break season came, I would visit there first.
That was because things that were difficult for her to handle as the family head would not be a big problem for me.
I took a light shower and went out to the clearing where we always gathered.
Once again, I was the first to arrive.
...No, I was alone. I must have been out of sorts from the nightmare.
The other two couldn't even leave the infirmary yet; who was I waiting for, honestly...
Before starting my workout, I pulled a short dagger from my chest and stood it against a tree.
I precisely aligned my toes and my head, then used the dagger to measure the exact top of my head and made a mark on the tree.
"...Huh?"
The sensation at my fingertips was different.
Originally, the mark should have lined up exactly with the groove that was always etched there, but this time it felt like I was scratching a spot with no previous mark.
Just in case, I measured again, and the result was the same.
"..... It didn't shrink, did it...?"
The fact that I hadn't marked the usual spot but a different one could mean I had marked above it, but conversely, it could also mean I had marked below it.
It was common knowledge that height actually decreases over time after growth ends.
That was because the spaces between the vertebrae gradually narrow over time.
But I had built up my back muscles supporting the spine precisely to avoid that, so I believed that couldn't be the case.
I had built those muscles to prevent the spinal gaps from narrowing, so I didn't even lift heavy things.
With a pounding heart, I turned my head to look at the marks on the tree.
"Huh?"
I doubted my eyes.
Unable to believe the reality before me, I stood with my mouth agape, staring endlessly at the marks.
I didn't know how long I had been looking.
As I stood there alone, staring endlessly at the marks etched into the tree, I suddenly realized someone was standing right behind me.
The two people I usually exercised with couldn't come right now, so who was it?
"Atlas... I heard you were exercising alone.. think I could join you too for a while..?"
From the voice, I could tell the person who had quietly approached was Lucia.
Lucia, who had spoken hesitantly, found it strange when I didn't answer. She lowered her head to look directly at my face and was startled.
"Atlas.. are you crying? I-if I was that much of a bother.. I'm sorry..."
Tears were trickling down my face.
Thinking that I was crying because she had suggested we exercise together in the morning, Lucia became downcast.
"No."
Tears were trickling from my eyes, but my voice was remarkably calm.
No, it would be more accurate to say I was overwhelmed with emotion.
Because I was currently witnessing a truly historic moment.
"It went...up."
"..Went up?"
Lucia, not understanding my meaning, tilted her head.
She wouldn't know what those three hairline cracks in front of my eyes signified.
Had she ever lived her life paying attention to such things?
"The mark went up by one."
On the tree, a new mark had been added between 150 and 149.5, so close they appeared to be stuck together at a glance.
The newly recorded measurement was 149.6.
I had grown by a mere 0.1.
Depending on the person, they might call it an insignificant number, but to me, the significance was immense.
It had been nearly ten years since my height had stopped growing at 149.5.
My height, which had remained the same even at the moment I leaped over the colossal wall between the peak of Expert and Master, had grown by 0.1.
"A whole... ten years...!!
In ten years... I grew taller, goddamm...it...!!!!!"
It was only 0.1, but it was incredibly moving.
I clenched my fist and swung it through the air several times before hugging Lucia, who had been standing there blankly beside me.
"Huh? Atlas??"
I didn't just hug her; I wrapped my arms around her waist, lifted her up, and spun her around.
Her frame was far larger than mine, but since I wasn't lacking in strength, her feet left the ground and she flusteredly spun along with my movements.
Probably because I had lifted her up, the soft chest that used to be at the level where my face was buried now rested on my head.
The soft sensation of her chest was on my head, but the waist I was holding felt firm.
But none of that bothered me.
I was so happy I felt like hugging anyone.
"I don't really get it... but are you happy right now?"
"I can't even express how happy I am right now, dammit!!!"
In terms of objective happiness levels, I was happier now than when I became a Master.
I thought briefly about why I had grown taller now, of all times. Could it be that the drug I took yesterday actually did have an effect after all?
I hadn't experienced rapid growth, but it was clear there had definitely been an effect.
I felt incredibly good.
Emy had been trustworthy.
As expected, Niko Praha had reliable skills.
I should support him even more.
Not just the support from Titan, I would use my personal fortune as well to see it completed.
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Niko Praha found himself in an extremely awkward situation.
'What am I supposed to do about this....!!'
Yesterday, when the Titan family, who supplied his research funding, suddenly showed up for a surprise interim inspection, he honestly thought his heart would drop.
Titan was a prestigious house recognized even within the Empire... A fearsome family called the Giants of the Treacherous Blade Mountains.
He didn't even know why such a place was supporting this research, but since they had only received interim reports and handed over money until now, it wasn't something he had paid much attention to.
Atlas, who came to inspect, had initially reminded him a little of the younger sibling he left behind in Daewoorim, but he was actually a grim reaper.
'Uh... what do I do..? I really have nothing to show...??'
Up until the point he first made the height-increasing drug, he thought the research would progress smoothly, but from then on, he couldn't advance at all.
So he had to bring out the same materials he had shown initially, which effectively meant he had been taking money and showing no results for several years.
While scrambling for materials, he panicked and impulsively hid... but that only made the situation worse.
The sole result, the height-increasing drug, which Atlas downed saying he would test its effects himself, didn't even work.
He fell into panic once more.
The fact that there had been no progress at all in the research had been revealed, and on top of that, it wasn't even effective?
He was in a situation where no one would have anything to say even if the funding was cut off and he was grabbed by the scruff of his neck and told to pay back everything he'd received.
It was a tremendous relief when they told him they'd give him another chance.
And then the next day....
"Professor, I believed in you, dammit...!!! I grew taller!!!"
Early in the morning, Atlas came to his lab, grabbed his hand, and shook it wildly.
"I think the drug did have an effect, so let's refine it a bit more and next time, really make a drug that can make me grow to 180 like you said, huh?
And if you need anything else, contact me anytime!! I believe in you!!"
Atlas said that, even adding that he could increase the budget if necessary.
It was truly... truly something to be grateful for, but at the same time, it terrified him.
'How is that even possible?'
What Atlas said was something completely outside his control.
Even now, he could explain nothing about what had happened after Atlas drank the drug yesterday.
Why the drug designed for 'rapid growth' showed no effect right after drinking it...
Even if one were to say the growth happened a beat late, the next day... why had Atlas, for whom others would usually grow by 10 or more, only grown by 0.1...
In the first place, he couldn't even explain whether his growth was indeed influenced by that drug.
Without the drug's influence, he might have simply grown because it was his time to grow.
This and that, everything was a mass of anomalies.
'I don't even know how this happened... and he wants me to reproduce it? No, go beyond that?'
The most terrifying thing was the fact that he had no right of refusal.
Somehow, it seemed the decision on the support for this research rested in his hands.