Have you grown?

[Sophie's Pov]

"Seems like freshmen have already started to show up. I wonder if there will be any monsters amongst them like you and... Sorry..."

Sitting in the outdoor seating area of the café, Arthur quickly stopped speaking when he was about to mention the name of our lost friend. Although I knew he stopped himself in respect for me, I felt like he was being incredibly silly.

"Stop that, Arthur. You can say his name, you know? It's not like he is the bad guy from Harry Porter."

"From what?"

Remembering the fact that the fictional books from earth weren't a part of this world, I waved my hand, "Nothing. Anyway, I don't know, but I don't think me and James were the only 'monsters' from our class. After all, if I am a monster, what is the one sitting in front of me?"

Seemingly a bit embarrassed by the fact that I called him out, he scratched his cheek, "Well, I... I probably wouldn't have become strong in the first place if it wasn't for you. Also, now that you are training again, it won't be too long until you are stronger than me again!"

Although it wasn't untrue that I had been getting stronger quite quickly after I got back from Kurat, it wasn't to the point where I felt like I could rival Arthur who seemed to never stop growing. I might have been able to somehow make it up to [C-]-rank during our break, but he was about to break through into [B]-rank already.

He was growing to the point that, even though it was prohibited, people from all kinds of guilds had been trying desperately to recruit him. Sadly for them, I had already talked to him about maybe joining Obelisk after we graduated and it seemed like he was quite keen on following me.

Taking a sip of my coffee, it seemed like he was noticing more than just the growth of my strength.

"By the way, Sophie... Have you grown?"

"Ack!"

Even though I had tried to 'hide it', pretty much just hoping no one would notice if I didn't say anything, it appeared that it wasn't enough for my man not to speak of it. "Yea... I have grown... A bit..."

As if responding to the growth of my stats, my body had followed suit, with me now being more than 2 meters tall. Even with my previous acceptance of my body, it was hard to say that it didn't bother me a bit.

Thankfully, it didn't seem to bother Arthur at all, "It suits you! It's a face I'll gladly look up to!" It was hard not to giggle out loud when I heard him speak such warm words with his amazing smile. So, with a blush on my face, I turned my head down to the table.

No matter how much time I spent with him, it felt like my heart would ever not be restless around him. Disregarding my inner turmoil, he switched the topic to the freshmen once again. "Hmm, but I heard that they were only going to let eight students attend this year. So I guess there will only be an A-class for the freshmen. Hopefully, they will all be strong... no, they will have to be."

The reason for Arthur's words was clear. After our exhibition of the lands of Kurat, the country closed its borders after they thought that the troops of Mensch had been too invasive while looking for our lost friend.

Following this, there had been rumors that things might not stay peaceful between the countries, even going as far as rumors talking about the possibility of demons infiltrating the nation. Or at least that was the words of the church of Theia which supposedly had gotten some kind of revelation.

Luckily the authorities had quickly managed to silence the crazy priest, but the damage had already been done. Now a time of distrust had occurred between the countries, and we could only wait and see how it would pan out.

'Haaa... I guess it's like the game, after all...'

No matter how much I wanted this world not to carry the same story as the game, I couldn't refute that the possibility of a war between the countries was high. However, if that were the case, the solution would be the same as well.

I just had to support the hero and defeat the demons.

"Hey! Didn't you say you would wait for us?!"

"Calm down, Anna. Sophie probably wanted to make sure she got some time alone with her man, after all."

Throwing me out of my thoughts, a group of three had made their way to our table, their faces illuminated by the sun that stood proud. It was pretty weird how our group seemed to have changed during our time at the academy, now replacing James and Sarah with Adriana and Bellatrix.

After what had happened at the ranking events last year, Bellatrix had changed quite a lot, now no longer looking down on people just because they were commoners. Or at least she had tuned it down a lot.

As they sat down, I excused us for getting together a bit before the appointed time, something we had done for exactly the reason Bellatrix stated, "I'm sorry, but you are here now right? I'll treat you to a drink, so don't get too angry."

Just as I was about to stand up and go get their orders from inside, my eyes fell on a person I had never seen before, but still someone I thought I had seen so many times before. With almost luminescent white hair and a small frame, my instincts took over before I could even think, not even caring about Anna yelling at me.

"Sophie?!"

'[Wings]!'

Dashing over the small fence, it didn't take more than a second before I arrived in front of the youth, grabbing hold of his shoulder with my hand to make sure he couldn't run away.

"Ouch! What are you doing, you crazy lady?! Let go of me!"

As he turned his face toward me, I felt my heart sink. Although his blue eyes also matched the person I was looking for, his face was completely different.

Instead of the boyish good looks of James, I was met with the mature face of someone whose appearance rivaled my boyfriend. Even his voice was different, with him letting out a deep almost humming tone.

"Oh! I'm so sorry! I thought you were someone else!"

With me quickly releasing him, he rubbed his shoulder a bit, reminding me of how stupidly I had acted. "And that would make it okay? What kind of psycho would be okay with a woman who just grabs him out of nowhere?"

I didn't know what it was, but something about the way he spoke managed to instantly get me a bit pissed off, "I said I'm sorry! There's no need for you to call me a psycho after I apologized!"

"Yea, yea. You look just like any other noble to me, going around doing as you wish. Or maybe it's because of your size?"

Balling my hands into fists, I tried my best to stop myself from doing something bad to the loathsome, skinny man, "You...!"

"Sophie! What are you doing?"

My group of friends had come to my rescue... or his rescue... Turning away from the boy, I didn't feel like explaining my stupid thoughts to my friends, "Nothing. Let's go back."

Although they sent some confused looks to the youth, I didn't care and started to walk back to our table, eager to get away from that rude boy that I had mistaken for James. Even as I stood there with him, a small part of me sort of hoped for them to be the same person, but as even the being inside of me felt like he was someone else, I had to let go of my hope.

'I'm such an idiot...'

****

[James's Pov]

Looking at my former friends walking away, I was filled with conflicting feelings. Although I was happy that the reconstruction of my body had worked, even though I for some reason couldn't change my hair or eye color, a part of me felt sad confirming the fact that they wouldn't recognize me.

Then, a familiar voice rang out in my head, a voice that I would be hearing a lot from now on. '-Well, wasn't that obvious? Even if your appearance is relatively similar, the essence of your physical form has been changed. Did you already forget what Theia told you?'

With Loki talking as if I was an idiot, I couldn't help but let out a sigh. '-Haaa... I guess you're right... Still, who could just accept that they have become someone else like that?'

As I walked back to my apartment, both happy and sad at the results of my little experiment, I thought back to when Theia had fallen for the ruse of a trickster.