Fortunately, the clothes were shrunk to appropriately fit her current height.
Adrisha blankly stared at her cute hand in disbelief.
"Huh?"
Adrisha and Dalia blankly looked at each other.
"...."
"...."
After a brief silence.
Adrisha spoke with a lisp.
"By, by any chance…..is the powder on the desk a different one...."
"...."
"I thought it was the same thing, so I mixed it.….."
She now figures out what had happened.
'So it wasn't fake...'
So there were times when Meldon told the truth. As soon as she figured out the situation, her hands were moving on their own.
"Kyaa! So cute! Adrisha is so so cute!"
Dalia lifted up Adrisha, who had shrunk to her waist height and held her in her arms.
The six-year-old Adrisha was slender and thinner than her peers. The surprised Adrisha was held tightly in Dalia's arms.
"Da, Dalia..…."
She's cute even when she talks! Small hands, small feet, and plump cheeks!
Adrisha, who was originally pretty, was as pretty as an angel when she went back to her child form.
Dalia, who was excitedly rubbing her cheek on Adrisha's cheek, belatedly thought of something else.
"...Since I ate a bit. Won't I also get smaller?"
"...Dalia will be fine since you only ate a little. This kind of powder is triggered only when you consume more than a certain amount."
'Oh, that's right.'
Dalia was excited that she didn't need to worry that she would become like Adrisha herself too, and shook Adrisha in her arms.
Adrisha tried hard to maintain a serious expression, but her lips twitched as if she was in a good mood.
Then, with her small hand, she hit Dalia's chest and said.
"Dalia! This is magic right? You bought it from that person right?"
The quick-witted Adrisha seemed to have already remember the powder that Meldon sold at that time.
She closed her eyes tightly and tried to figure out what kind of spell was used, but soon gave up and shouted again.
"Th, this is not the time for this!"
"Huh? Wh, what?"
"How many employees do you think we have left since that child went upstairs?It's suspicious!" (*t/n: not sure about this one)
"Huh? Is it that important?"
Dalia didn't think too much of it.
Adrisha shook her head vigorously in frustration.
"Come to think of it, it's weird. There are a few people working here, but the mansion is too quiet."
"It's the weekend, so most of them went home."
Employees also had to rest, so during the weekend the mansion was operated with minimal manpower. But Adrisha shook her head.
"No. It's quieter compared to last weekend."
She clenched Dalia's collar with her small fist and spoke with a serious expression.
Dalia closed her mouth for a moment and listened to the various sounds of the mansion.
'It's definitely quiet.'
She thought it felt empty because the place where Hikan left was big, but when she heard it, the mansion itself was quieter than other times.
The small Adrisha bit her fingernails nervously.
"I wasn't going to say it at first...but there are people who are after Dalia."
"People aimed for me...?"
It must be regarding the Holy Empire.
Come to think of it, Adrisha doesn't know that Dalia has already heard from Hikan about Aceras.
Adrisha looked nervous.
"Now that I've become like this, I can't protect Dalia. So I think it would be better to make sure of at least one thing."
Adrisha motioned to let her down.
Dalia bent her knees and let her down. The small Adrisha waddled and held out her hand against the ceiling with her back against Dalia.
A faint blue light flashed in her hand.
In an instant, an elaborate magic circle was drawn in the empty air. There were traces of light-blue colored light in every spot where Adrisha's hand passed.
She knew how to use magic. It is also at a high level comparable to that of an imperial wizard. She also learned this in her hometown when she was raised as a spy and assassin.
Dalia knew it from the original, but it was the first time that she saw it in person.
Usually, there were very few noble lady who know how to use magic, so Dalia just pretended to looked surprised.
'Wait a minute, if she knows how to use magic, can't she also remove the magic on her?'
It was a reasonable question, but that was not the point right now.
After a while, the back of the ceiling, where Adrisha drew the magic circle, turned transparent and some of the first floor was revealed.
The maid who had just gone up was opening the front door to the guests who had just passed through the front door.
The guests were two men. One was tall and the other was short, both seemingly have common face that could be seen everywhere.
Dalia quickly noticed something strange.
Both the maid welcoming the guests and the incoming guests were expressionless. As if they knew each other and had nothing to introduce and greet each other.
At that time, another servant approached the two guests in confusion. From the shape of his mouth, it seemed that he was asking who the guests were. At that moment, the maid's hand moved like lightning.
The servant, who had been hit in the nape of the neck, slammed against the wall and slid down.
There was nothing more to see. Small Adrisha turned to Dalia with a pale face.
Dalia muttered.
"...It's true."
"Don't ignore my words just because I'm a kid!"
Adrisha said as if she was wrongly accused. She looks so tremendously cute that it did not suit this situation.
"What about the imperial wizards?"
"Looking at the situation, seems like they already...."
"...."
"If I am right, they are the elite. It's probably hard to stop them unless you're a transcendent."
'I see. This is the danger that brother mentioned.'
Dalia pondered for a while, and took out the quartz piece that Meldon gave her from the pendant.
'If Meldon is really purified because of me, he will definitely come again this time.'
But she was worried that he had already left Vesta. This quartz piece seemed to be usable only at close range.
There wasn't much to believe. Dalia turned away from Adrisha and secretly grabbed the quartz piece with her two fingers and gave it strength.
The quartz piece surprisingly broke easily and the powder flowed down between her fingers. Since the suspicious magic powder was real, so this too must be real.
The meeting between Adrisha and Meldon should be avoided as much as possible, but she couldn't help it in a situation like this.
Small Adrisha spoke in a serious tone.
"...When the situation is sorted out, I'll explain everything to you then."
However, there was no sign that the situation will be resolved.
Bang! Bang bang!
Before she could finish speaking, she heard loud noise coming from upstairs.
Adrisha, who came to her senses first, rushed to the basement door and tried to latch it.
However, she was small and couldn't reach the latch. Instead, Dalia pulled herself together and barely managed to lock the latch.
After a while, the men who arrived at the door checked the locked door and whispered among themselves.
Soon after, she heard another person climbing the stairs. And the other....
Bang!
He crashed hard against the door.
One seemed to have broken the wooden latch with his body, and the other who climbed seemed to have gone to find something to cut the locked chain.
The force was so strong that the wooden latch broke in no time.
The man outside the door didn't move, he was probably going to wait for his colleague instead of doing more.
In the meantime, Adrisha drew some magic circles and chanted spells, but she sat down with a depressed expression as if the results were not good.
Dalia came close to her and patted her shoulder as if comforting her.
"...Adrisha, you know how to use magic, but you can't remove it?"
"I would remove it if I could, but this magic is too high-level. We have no choice but to cast a reverse-attribute magic after the validity period expired."
Dalia felt sorry. Why did she ask to make cookies today..….
"Sorry. I shouldn't have...."
"Dalia didn't do anything wrong."
Small Adrisha frowned as if she was about to cry and tapped her eyes with a handkerchief. Dalia was surprised.
"Why, what's wrong Adrisha? Are you scared?"
"It's not like that. I have to protect you, but I'm upset that I couldn't."
"You don't have to do that. We're friends."
"It would have been different if Sir Hikan or Sir Cedric was here. I wish I was a little stronger at times like this."
I didn't know you were thinking like that.
Dalia looked at this world's heroine, who was sobbing. For some reason, she thought that her small appearance might be closer to the real Adrisha.
A point in the past where she stopped. (*t/n: not sure about this one too)
Adrisha, who pretended not to know Meldon until the end and was wary of Dalia, came to mind.
Adrisha was like that in the original.
She was buried in the past, and always resents herself for being weak.
But she liked Adrisha because she was a weak and ordinary person, not a transcendent. Because she tried to be a good person in the end without losing to anyone under any circumstances.
Dalia hugged Adrisha, who was smaller and more delicate than her.
"That's not true. That's why you're special."
"...."
"Adrisha is like the main character of this world."
Small Adrisha looked at Dalia with a crying face. Then she put her in her arms and hugged her neck. She could hear a voice squeezing tightly.
"I... I've lied to Dalia all this time."
"What is it?"
Adrisha didn't say anything for a moment. Then she said in a hoarse voice.
"Will Dalia continue to like me no matter who I am?"
"Of course."
"Even if I'm not the kind of person Dalia thinks I am?"
'Ah, no way.'
Dalia looked at Adrisha in her arms in surprise. She looked determined as if she had made up her mind.
Something that never happened in the original work. No matter how much pain she suffered because of it, she did not admit it to the end.
Adrisha was about to confess her past.
"Later, I'll tell you later."
"...yeah."
"And now I will protect Dalia. No matter what happens from now on, please don't be surprised."
At that moment, the small Adrisha escaped from Dalia's arms and went to the door. She then began to draw a blue magic circle on the door.