The Academy’s Ankle Reaper – Chapter 43

The drug didn’t bring any changes to my body.

Just to be sure, I closed my eyes, gathered my mana, and assessed my body’s condition; it felt strange.

It was a fact that the drug had given my body some special stimulation.

The sensation that spread evenly from my head to my toes hadn’t brought any change to my body.

The drug, which was supposed to supplement the necessary ingredients for rapid growth that I had consumed, was also clearly used, but it brought no changes.

My hands trembled slightly.

It felt like I was so close to my goal, yet the emptiness of not reaching it lingered around me once again.

“Again… this…?”

The intense feeling of loss soon turned into anger.

This time, it was somewhat of a rare opportunity that happened by chance.

“Uh… uh? What’s going on? Why isn’t there any reaction??”

Professor Praha was extremely flustered when the drug failed.

He had obviously thought it would succeed.

While glancing at me cautiously, Professor Praha pondered the reason and arrived at a conclusion.

“Could you tell me about your family background…? We also need to consider genetic limits…”

“Do you want to keep making me angry? My parents are all tall, and my younger sibling is taller than me. Where do you get off talking about genes!!!”

That sounded like it could make a vein pop on my forehead.

The cruelest part of my height issue was that.

In this world, the most basic shield of genetics was impossible.

In our family… both sides, no matter where I looked, had never had a genetic record of such short stature, so my height became entirely a personal problem.

“Then it might be a fundamentally different issue from the growth of others…”

Professor Praha, flustered, started to explain clumsily.

“Generally, growth deficiencies are due to environmental, social factors, or medical issues; with medical issues, it usually boils down to nutritional imbalance or a lack of hormone secretion leading to stunted growth.”

“I understand that much.”

“However, this drug provides all the nutrients necessary for rapid growth from the first treatment… and it orders the body to grow rapidly while stimulating each part.

So, the general medical issues can be resolved.”

“… Just in case, how long has this drug been around?”

“Uh… I can’t say for sure. Let me check the label… about 8… years?”

“Is it okay to keep a drug that’s been sitting for 8 years?!”

I said this in a desperate attempt to cling to a straw, wondering if the drug was spoiled and therefore ineffective.

“It’s under preservation magic, so it should be fine.”

“Is it really okay?”

“Preservation magic is the most significant magic that changed history. It can be preserved for ten years without risk of degradation.”

If it’s fine because of the preservation magic, it ultimately implies that the drug isn’t the problem.

Then what on earth is the issue…

“So what is the problem? Please don’t say anything mental. I had a wonderfully happy life around the time my growth stopped.”

“Could it be a curse…?”

“That was the first thing I thought of, so I even went to see a saintess. She said there was no problem.”

People who hated Titans seek revenge in the most horrific ways, and I had thoroughly investigated with a hefty cost as well.

When everything I could think of turned out to be false, only bewilderment remained on Professor Praha’s face.

“Then… I don’t know either. We might find out with a detailed examination… I’ll ask the medical team if this is something I can do. I’ve never done anything like this before, so we might need proper data.

I will definitely… definitely resolve the problem…!!”

———————————-

That night, I had a nightmare.

It wasn’t anything grand as nightmares go.

Ghosts or monsters didn’t scare me at all.

All those things I had already killed, so there was nothing to fear.

The dreadful nightmare revealed the things I couldn’t kill, the things I couldn’t cut off.

The nightmare was the days I spent living in the Titan family’s mansion.

I still remember the day I ultimately couldn’t sever the bond with my mother and father, and fled to the Knights’ Order; I couldn’t break away by my own hand.

“What a terrible night.”

When I woke up in the dormitory, I was drenched in sweat.

Was it because I ate something strange yesterday? The things that I hadn’t thought about recently came flooding back.

Thinking of my family, my younger sister, who was leading the Titans on her own, came to mind.

From the lack of any notable rumors, it seemed she was doing well, but there must surely be some internal problems that would be hard to tackle.

Memories of the Titan mansion were mostly unpleasant, so I still felt uneasy, but I resolved to visit as soon as the holiday season arrived.

The difficult tasks she had to handle as the head of the family wouldn’t be a huge problem for me.

I took a quick shower and headed out to the common area where we usually gathered.

This time, I was the first one to arrive.

… No, I was alone. I might be dazed from the nightmare.

Both of them couldn’t have been released from the hospital yet, so who was I waiting for…

Before starting my workout, I took out a short dagger from my cloak and leaned against a tree.

I accurately aligned my toes and head and marked the height of the tip of my head on the tree.

“… Huh?”

The sensation I felt at my fingertips was different.

Normally, I should have drawn a mark right where it always would be, but this time it felt like I was drawing in a spot that didn’t have a mark.

Just to be sure, I measured again, and the result was the same.

“….. No way, did I shrink…?”

The fact that I drew in a different spot rather than the usual one didn’t mean I had drawn higher; it could also mean I had drawn lower.

It’s common knowledge that height can decrease over time after growth has stopped.

The space between vertebrae narrows a little as time passes.

But I had been strengthening the back muscles to prevent that, so I couldn’t believe it was really happening.

With a racing heart, I turned to look at the mark on the tree.

“Uh?”

I doubted my eyes.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, and I stared blankly at the marks.

I couldn’t tell how long I had been standing there, gazing at the marks on the tree, when suddenly someone was standing right behind me.

The two people I usually trained with couldn’t show up today; who could it be?

“Atlas… I heard you were exercising alone… Can I join you for a while…?”

Hearing the voice, I could tell the person who had approached me quietly was Lucia.

Lucia, who hesitated as she spoke, looked puzzled when she had no response from me and turned to check my face.

“Atlas… are you crying? If… if I was a bother…”

Tears were streaming down my face.

Lucia, thinking I was crying because she suggested morning exercise together, looked gloomy.

“No.”

Although tears were flowing profusely from my eyes, my voice was incredibly calm.

No, saying I was filled with emotion would be more accurate.

I was witnessing a historic moment right now.

“I… grew.”

“… You grew?”

Lucia, who didn’t understand my meaning, tilted her head.

She wouldn’t know what the three new notches on the tree meant in front of my eyes.

Has she ever paid attention to something like this in her life?

“There’s one more notch.”

On the tree, a new mark was added between 150 and 149.5, which seemed to touch each other at first glance.

The newly recorded height was 149.6.

I had grown just 0.1.

For some, that might be insignificant, but for me, it meant a lot.

From the time I stopped growing at 149.5, nearly ten years had passed.

At the moment when I broke through the massive barrier between the top expert and master, my height had finally increased by 0.1.

“After… 10 years…!! I finally… grew taller after 10 years… hell yes!!!!”

It was only 0.1, but I was incredibly moved.

I clenched my fists and swung them in the air several times before lifting Lucia, who had been standing there dumbfounded.

“Wait? Atlas??”

I didn’t just hug her; I picked her up by the waist and spun her around.

She was much taller than me, but I wasn’t weak, so her feet left the ground as she twirled, surprised by my sudden movement.

With her lifted up, the soft hold that used to bury my head was now above me.

I could feel the soft sensation from her chest on my head, but there was also a firm feeling from the waist I was holding.

But I didn’t care about any of that.

I was so happy that I wanted to hug anyone.

“I don’t know for sure, but… are you happy right now?”

“I’m so happy I can’t even express it, damn it!!!”

By objective standards of happiness, I was happier now than when I became a master.

Why did my height suddenly grow at this moment? I thought about it for a bit and figured that the drug I took yesterday must have had an effect, right?

I might not have grown rapidly, but there was definitely some effect.

I felt incredibly good.

Amy was reliable.

Indeed, Nico Praha had some reliable skills.

I would support her even more.

Not just the support from the Titans, I would invest my personal wealth to ensure success in this project.

—————————————-

Nico Praha found herself in quite a predicament.

‘What am I supposed to do…!!’

When the Titans, a prestigious family even known in the empire, suddenly showed up for a mid-check on the research funds yesterday, she thought her heart was dropping.

The Titans were a fearsome house, called the Giants of the daunting Blade Mountain.

She didn’t even understand why they were supporting this research, but until now, she hadn’t been too concerned because they only requested progress reports while providing funds.

Atlas, who came for the check, reminded her a bit of the younger sister she left behind in the woods, but he was more like the grim reaper.

‘Uh… what do I do…? I really have nothing to show…??’

At the time she created the height-increasing drug, she thought the research would go smoothly, but it hadn’t progressed at all from there.

So, she now had to bring the first materials she had shown before, which would essentially imply she had been pocketing their money without showing results for several years.

Panic set in as she searched for the materials, even leading her to hide impulsively, but that only worsened the situation.

The only result she had, the height-increasing drug, had not worked, despite Atlas drinking it in hopes of witnessing its effects.

Once again, she fell into a panic.

To discover there had been no progress in the research, especially if it was found that it didn’t work at all?

She would face immediate funding termination, and they’d demand repayment of every cent she had received so far, leaving her with no argument.

Fortunately, when they said they would give her another chance, she was immensely thankful.

And the next day…

“Professor, I believed in you, damn it!!! I grew taller!!!”

Atlas rushed into the laboratory early in the morning, shaking her hand vigorously.

“I think the drug worked! If we can improve it a bit more, we could really make a drug that grows someone to 180, just like you said!

If you need anything else, please don’t hesitate to contact me! I trust you!!”

Atlas said this, even claiming that if necessary, he could increase the budget.

It was truly… an incredibly grateful thing, but at the same time, it made her anxious.

‘How is this possible?’

What Atlas said was completely outside her control.

She still couldn’t explain what had happened after Atlas took the drug yesterday.

Why a drug aimed at ‘rapid growth’ showed no immediate effect after he drank it, and even if it appeared to work a day later, why everyone else grew by over 10cm and he only grew by 0.1…

It wasn’t clear whether his growth was influenced by the drug at all.

He might’ve simply grown without the drug’s influence; it could happen naturally.

Both sides of this were utterly strange.

‘You want me to replicate something I don’t even understand? No, something beyond that?’

The most terrifying thing was that she didn’t seem to have any right to refuse.

It looked like the fate of this research funding was in his hands.