Reborn as the Hero's Daughter

Chapter 252: Half a Year Later, 11 Years Old

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Inside a church of the World Tree Religion located in one of the villages of the Northern Alliance.

There were men gathered in the basement of that church.

It was a meeting conducted under moderate candlelight as if they were trying to conceal themselves from people. They were most certainly not a respectable bunch.

In that gloomy hall, the men started reporting their respective results.

“Three from the East. Two of them have been confirmed to have the “grounding”, thus they are being educated. The remaining one would be sacrificed during the appropriate time.” “Only two have been confirmed? It’s hard to say whether that would amount to anything.” “It cannot be helped. None of us can act openly.” “Four from the Central. Also two with the “grounding”. However, two “students” have died, so the total number remains unchanged.” “Considering that we have to educate them from scratch, it’s better to say we fell back.”

They went over the documents they all brought, confirming the number of personnel. The result was both gains and losses. They gained new ones while losing the same number. As a result, they neither increased nor decreased.

“Still, it seems that we have stopped receiving people from the west? The south seems quite slow too.” “The person in charge there has been hit with an unforeseen accident, so the activities are temporarily on hold.” “Unforeseen accident?” “Something about a meteor falling there. It seems all his allies have gotten rolled up in it, so he has to start from scratch.” “Hmm? So we can’t expect much from the south and west, huh?” “In exchange, we can increase the activity in the north. The Six Heroes who used to keep a watchful eye are absent now.” “It’s Five Heroes now. We somehow got rid of that annoying assassin, but I’d like to get rid of one more.” “Jend Sect has been destroyed, so we can’t go meddling too much.” “There are other assassination organizations there… But, true. We should wait for the heat to settle.” “Yeah. Let’s move on to the next topic. So about the reason why the “education” isn’t progressing as well as hoped…”

The men moved on to yet another topic. In the end, their secret meeting lasted until morning.

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Half a year had passed ever since the bombshell that Maria dropped on us. It might seem like a short time, but a lot of things happened during it.

First, Maxwell returned the certificate to Donovan under the pretext of discovering it through the capital’s tavern. After that, he had finally been cleared of any suspicions and became the lord of Stolla both in name and reality.

I asked Maxwell later on, and it turned out that Klein’s body part had been washed ashore, so he was most certainly dead.

Donovan thanked me deeply, and was treating me as if I was a saint now. I was grateful, but also kinda bothered.

About three months later, Elliot left the academy. He was originally supposed to be a contracted lecturer for six months, but the assault reduced his holiday to half of that.

He seemed reluctant to part with me, but he had the information that Haumea was no longer in Raum, so he returned to his own kingdom in hopes of finding her there. Priscilla included, of course.

I wonder when that blockhead would notice her feelings.

I had a steady growth in the academy, too, and was already learning the middle-grade Interference magic. At this pace, I should be able to learn things like Flight by the time of graduation.

It has been six months since Maria got pregnant, so her belly was already quite conspicuous. Different from fatness, her bulge was more like something packed together. It displayed the vigor of life growing within.

And in the meanwhile, I have also celebrated my 11th birthday. Even my height had increased by about three centimeters in these six months, finally entering the growth period, a bit later than Michelle.

At the same time, one problem surfaced that made me rack my brains.

That is… My ***** were growing.

At first, I thought I was growing a bit plump, but my waist remained thin so I eventually accepted that it was a womanly growth. I had no choice but to accept.

Lately, even my butt has gotten rounder, so this was most definitely another sexual characteristic.

Michelle also had her share of development in these months. To the point that I was looking forward to swimming with her during the summertime. This made me feel like she got added to the list of people I couldn’t reveal my identity to.

Letina, on the other hand, did not develop any womanly parts, but this was perhaps the difference between our races. Elves grew like humans, but many of them remained slender.

“Still, I feel like it’s getting in the way of swinging the sword.”

When I held the sword with two hands, my budding chest felt cramped. This was a sensation I hadn’t felt even in my previous life.

As it was an unknown sensation, it made moving my hands a bit uncomfortable.

“You are still better off, Nicole. In my case, the bowstring keeps rubbing on it and hurts me.” “It’s really uncomfortable when sleeping on the stomach, isn’t it.” “Tell me about it.” “They should just get plucked. You humans get plump so quickly!” “Letina, I’m jealous of how slender you are.” “Are you being sarcastic? You are, aren’t you!” “Um… Can you talk about that when there are no boys around?”

Cloud butted in our conversation, inviting cold stares from us. We were currently in our routine ingredient gathering, so his presence was nothing unusual. Still, that was irrelevant to girls of our age.

“W-What, I can’t help it. I’m part of this group too.” “Oh nooothing…” “Cloud, you perv.” “Have you no delicacy to pretend to not hear it?” “Oi don’t be unreasonable now!”

Cloud was already almost 13 years old. He was already starting to see things differently.

With beauties like Michelle and Letina, not to mention me, in the party, it was natural for him to pay attention to these kinds of conversations.

“Leaving the perverted Cloud aside…” “Don’t brush me off like that!” “Leaving him aside! My mom will soon be unable to move properly, so I want to bring nutritionally rich food home.” “In that case, we have to do our best today.” “I shall do my best for Lady Maria.” “But whenever I need it…” “Is anything the matter?” “No, nevermind.”

Letina’s cold stare silenced his objection. Cloud, do you know? There are countless Adventurers at the Guild dying to be on the receiving end of that stare.

There were also those who wanted to receive Michelle’s sulked gaze or my scornful one, so I think Raum’s Adventurers were already beyond help.

So their envy towards Cloud, who was receiving all three of them, knew no bounds. In fact, he was being tormented by them whenever he had time to spare.

“You said nourishment, but what exactly are we supposed to look for?” “That goes without saying, it’s meat, meat!”

As Letina asked, Michelle insisted while raising her hands. She was as carnivorous as ever.

“Is there a buffalo somewhere, I wonder?” “A big game like that is not normally found here. The Adventurers are being alert for them around these parts.” “Snakes and lizards would be pointless to eat.” “Speaking of nourishment, a Carbuncle might fit that description, don’t you think?” “Squee!?”

As I gazed up, I could sense an immediate twitch from there. There was Kabby, having grown in size over these six months to the point that it was hard to keep it on my head.

Kabby seemed to be young for a Carbuncle, so its growth was quite drastic. It was around the size of a cat before, but now it was closer to a small-sized dog. Moreover, it was growing quite plump and accumulating fat, making it known that it had all the food it wanted.

“You have to start exercising already, otherwise I’m not letting you sit on my head, okay?” “Squee, Squee~”

Hearing my warning, Kabby started exercising in a fluster. I wished it’d stop doing that on my head, however. It was making my head wobble around and it felt really unpleasant.

“That was a joke, but I really have to find nourishment for mom or the kid might become physically weak like me.” “That would be cute in its own way…” “But that would only cause us to worry, so it’s bad.” “I think it’s only you who has mastered the art of fainting when people take their eyes off you, Nicole.” “I’ll get you for that later.”

Getting hit with their unfriendly remarks, I answered back with a vacant expression.