I patted Hylli's shoulders and repeated what I said before as if I was consoling a child.
Our royal highness still needed repetitive education.
"Your highness, as I've said before, there's nothing quite like being struck down if you want to improve your senses. For a magician to become wary of the magic in the air and in their senses, they need to practice as well. You have to train under pressure in order to quickly gain skills."
"No need. You're too good at making up likely excuses. I'll learn as we train. The more I see you, the more it feels like you just want to push me around."
How sharp, considering we were talking about Hylli. No, that wasn't it. I, from the goodness of my heart, just wanted to help the prince, who was my future boss. And plus, wouldn't it be killing two birds with one stone if he quickly gained skill and confidence?
I paused for a moment, still deep in thought.
"...That's not it."
Hylli stared suspiciously at my late response.
After we started our training programs, both the prince and I often returned to the dorms covered in wounds. The prince was completely wrecked because I was always beating him up, and my muscles were completely wrecked because of excessive muscle exercises.
I stared at my reflection on the dorm hallway mirror. I looked terrible.
My entire body was covered in sweat, my lips were split, and my orange hair was so messy that it looked as if a cat had gone through an entire ball of orange yarn.
Every step I took felt like I was walking on thorns. Every time I moved, all the muscles in my body felt like they were snapping apart.
"Prince….you son of a...ugh."
I thought about today's muscle training. Unlike other days, I had added weights to my squats.
Whenever I laid down from exhaustion, Hylli had added a rock imbued with healing magic on me. The rock has only briefly lessened my muscle pains and only added to my discomfort. It was obvious that the prince was using the muscle program to get back at me for beating him up.
It just happened that my dorm was at the very end of the hall, too. I barely dragged my raggedy body and opened the door to my dorm.
"Oh my god! Our Shushu, what happened today too?!"
Hazel had been applying a face mask and trying out the leg exercises I had recommended to her on her bed. She immediately stood up when she saw me.
She seemed surprised at my state. With a sullen face, she took out my muscle pain medication from my bed drawer with practiced ease.
"Oh man, I completely forgot. I just saw your state and immediately got ready to apply your medicine. You need a wash first!"
She took off my clothes haphazardly and prepared a hot bath. She was a strange older sister type, uncaring about acting like a servant when she herself was a noble.
When I first started having muscle pains, we were still confused and didn't know how to proceed. This had become a daily occurrence. Soon, our everyday pattern of getting water and applying medicine became completely natural.
At first, I had denied her help because it just felt awkward. As time went on, however, it had become harder to move my body so I naturally welcomed her help.
I was probably the only person in the world who was getting help like this from a count's daughter. I was grateful, but was also sorry. I didn't know how my expression looked, but I was sure it was a very strange expression.
"You can just help me there. I can do the rest."
"Our cute little Shushu? If you're in pain, you can stuff it and just accept help when you need it."
Hazel was kind of scary. I nodded meekly in fear.
Yes, unnie.
Without Hazel, I probably would've passed out on my bed, still reeking of sweat. I probably would have gone to class stinking like that, too.
With Hazel's talents, she dried my hair and applied my medicine, then helped relax my muscles. It felt like I was at a beauty salong.
With her face smooth and clean, Hazel and I both laid down together, legs on the wall. On my face was a face mask that Hazel put on for me.
My last schedule for the day was chatting with Hazel. Recently, our daily stories had become a cussing session regarding the prince.
Hazel unnie didn't seem to know that I gave the prince just as much as I got, and always cursed out the prince about the state I came back in.
I laughed as I heard her curse the prince to high heavens. I wasn't laughing out of politeness–she was legitimately hilarious.
With her easygoing attitude, she was also great at cursing. The worse my state became, the further up the family line she went in her cursing, so I stopped her from talking.
Even cursing the prince was a very serious crime against the royal family. You didn't have to go that far, unnie.
The days really just sped by. It felt like the days were going faster because my days were so busy.
I shifted Hazel into a proper sleeping position after checking that she had dozed off during our chatting session, and pulled up her blanket to her chin.
I headed over to my bed to sleep as well. I must've trained too hard–I fell asleep the moment I laid down.
But I couldn't sleep right away. With a creak, the worn door opened and let out a noise.
Right before I fell asleep, someone came into the room. I didn't have the strength to look up, so I just listened to the footsteps.
They were quiet. Thinking that I was asleep, they tiptoed over to my bed.
My blankets rustled. My blankets were warm from my body temperature, and briefly cooled and became warm again.
Soon after, a small arm curled around my waist, and I saw pink hair peek from under my chin. The thin body hugging me shifted around. Cold feet searched for a warm spot under the blanket.
"Hestia?"
I was wondering who it was. As soon as I called her name, Hestia raised her head to look at me.
It was dark, but I could still make out her face. Hestia looked surprised. She paused for a moment, then whispered quietly.
"Shushu, you're not asleep?"
"Yup, you came in just as I was going to fall asleep."
I looked over at Hestia while I spoke. She didn't move a muscle.
I finally relaxed and quietly whispered at Hestia.
When I brushed my hand through her hair, Hestia closed her eyes.
"You can't sleep?"
At my words, Hestia responded with her eyes still closed.
"No, I slept a biiiiit….. Well, it was scary because I had a nightmare..."
Her words slurred slightly, as if she was sleepy. Even before attending the academy, Hestia came by often to sleep over at my estate.
She must have had a hard time getting used to a new environment. She hardly had nightmares.
It seemed that she had nowhere else to get solace from, to come look for me.
I was exhausted too, but I was worried that Hestia might be scared if I fell asleep first. I tried my best to stay awake.
I patted Hestia's back as I spoke quietly.
"You had a nightmare?"
"Uhuh, and you were in it tooo..."
I paused. Wait, it was a nightmare and I was in it? I listened carefully to hear what Hestia was saying.
"I'd never seen you like that, Shushu. I was calling you, but you never responded... You were surrounded by people, and you were laughing even when I wasn't with you..."
Hestia blinked away tears as she held tightly onto my clothes. She didn't seem completely awake. She cried in the middle ground of dreams and reality.
She seemed really sad about her dream. There were quite a bit of tears wetting my clothes. The wet part of my clothes became hot, then clod.
"Me....without Shushu I'll be all alone….."
"Hestia….."
Hestia's throat closed up. Her voice was wet and shaky.
"I'm...scared of growing up, Shushu. I want to be childish like this forever. Right now, we can be forgiven for being childish."
With half-lidded eyes, Hestia looked at me. She lowered her gaze back down and muttered quietly.
"...so I'll be childish for just a bit longer."
Her hot tears had grown cold. Hestia soon fell asleep. I wiped away her tears and held onto her anxious form.
I thought I would fall asleep as soon as Hestia fell asleep, but I stayed awake a bit longer. I was deep in thought, and ended up doodling a few more snails on the paper I had lying on my desk.
When I woke up the next morning, Hestia was no longer in the room. The only things left were my headache, my muscle aches, my stomachaches, my arm aches, my leg aches, and the piggy bank on my desk. (TN: This is a rhyme in Korean.)
The Hestia I met in my morning classes were just as childish and bright as usual.
My rich school created a women's dressing room building for the physical health and swordsmanship courses.
I was, once again, in awe at the power of money. The magic of money, of creating something from nothing. I clapped in joy.
Because it was still a rare occurrence for women to choose a life of physical exercise, it wasn't an exaggeration to state that I would be the only one using this room for a while.
Usually, I had changed in the restroom. Now, I could walk around naked in this giant building.
…honestly, I was exaggerating just now. I shyly took off my clothes and folded it onto my clothes hanger.
My body had changed a lot from my recent muscle training.
I stood in the mirror wearing my tight swordsmanship clothes. It was a bit unfamiliar.
If I looked thin before, now it looked like I had enough muscles to look toned. My butt looked lifted because of all the squats I had done, and my arms looked thinner as well.
I posed in front of the mirror. Then, I touched the muscles I had recently acquired.
"…biceps."
"…gluteus maximus."
"…deltoids."
I thought I was alone, but I heard a few girls' voices behind me.
"What's she doing?"
What is she doing?
I grabbed my things and rushed out.
After eating lunch with Hestia, I went to the school store and had the luxurious dessert of frozen fruit juice.
Hestia had said that she wanted ice cream, so I went to the store to look at the price.
I was sure they had added gold powder to the school ice cream. There was no way they could ask for 1 silver without that. They froze an artificial product and demanded 1 silver. What a rip off.
Because Hestia was whining about it, I decided to buy two grape juices, which were about 1/4ths cheaper than the ice cream.
To be honest, I had an ice-generating device, and I was able to freeze liquids as I wanted. As I bit into my frozen ice cream, I sent Hestia over to her club and headed to the training halls.
There was still a bit of time before afternoon classes, so I was alone in the hall. I admired the artificial taste of the grape juice knowing that there wasn't a single grape in the juice and took a seat.
As class time rolled closer, the swordsmanship students slowly began entering the hall. There were only three students that had entered. Each of them had red, yellow, and green hair.
They looked like a traffic light.