Prologue
“Heinzel. Have you heard that rumor lately?”
“Huh?”
“You know—the one about a tiny little girl who walks around carrying a greatsword far bigger than she is.”
I held my breath and tried to tuck the greatsword standing beside me into my robes.
...It was so much larger than I was that it refused to hide at all.
“Ah, I’ve heard of it. But do you really think that makes any sense? Luci, even you couldn’t haul a greatsword like that around.”
“True enough. But they also say she’s blind, or something of the sort.”
“Ha, come on. Some mad bard must have cooked that up.”
“But you know... they say she came from the East, with black hair and red eyes...”
I flinched hard and squeezed my eyes shut tight.
Of course... I had been keeping them closed the whole time.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake! What’s a blind person doing opening their eyes? Enough with the nonsense rumors—let’s look into some commissions. Tomorrow’s my daughter’s birthday.”
“I heard it’s real, though...”
With that, the two men rose from the table and headed for the reception desk.
Only after they had completely vanished did I move.
Thud—
I set my cup down roughly.
The rebound sent white milk splattering across the tabletop.
“Ah...!”
Glancing around for any watching eyes, I carefully wiped up the spilled milk.
What a miserable life—unable even to manage a proper glass of beer...
I let out a long sigh and tipped the rest of the milk into my mouth.
“...But hearing it out loud, it really does sound ridiculous.”
An absurd rumor.
What kind of 145.7-centimeter girl would go around dragging a greatsword that was nearly two meters long?
And on top of that, a blind person who could see her surroundings perfectly clear thanks to Qi Sensing activating whenever she held the greatsword?
And what else? Red eyes?
Ha, come on. There was no way someone like that existed.
Yeah.
There was no way...
“Time to get to work...”
I secured the greatsword that had been standing beside me to my waist and pulled my robe down firmly over my head.
Then I hopped down from the chair whose seat my feet could barely not reach, and stretched with a long, satisfying yawn.
“Hup—!”
Crack— creak-creak—
“Ah...!”
The greatsword hanging at my waist punched a clean hole straight through the guild’s wooden floorboards.
“Oh no...”
Through Qi Sensing I stared at the hole I had made and prayed once more, even knowing full well it was a prayer that would never be answered.
Please make me just five centimeters taller.
No—even one centimeter would be fine. Please, just let me grow a little taller.