Chapter 7
Chapter 7
Her jaw clenched tight trying to hold back tears, scrunching up like a walnut. Even in her dazed state, the glasses she’d grabbed kept slipping down her squashed nose.
“Bova! You haven’t been to class! What’s going on with you!”
A voice cut in. Milana looked up and saw Bova’s classmates from the Swordsmanship Department standing there.
“Something happen?”
“Ah… well…”
She was still trying to figure out what to say when the friends carried the conversation on their own.
“Were you following that outcast from the Magic Department… I mean, that top student girl?”
“Milana Ven? That loser… I mean, that tiny girl?”
“Yeah, her. The stubborn one who holds onto her scholarship no matter what… I mean, the diligent model student who never misses class. But apparently she hasn’t shown up for three days. I figured you were tailing her like you always do. But here you are, eating alone.”
“Hey, my girlfriend’s in the Magic Department. She had a group project with the top student. She went to her room to find her. Said she wouldn’t open the door and just screamed, ‘Get lost!'”
“Whoa. Did her brain finally… I mean, maybe all that studying got to her… She’s human, it happens.”
A chill ran down her spine. Three things in that short conversation made her heart stop.
One. Bova had been following her around. That explained why she kept running into him way too often on such a huge campus.
Two. Bova was in her body. She’d only guessed before, but now she was sure. No way those words would ever come out of her own mouth.
And the third, most important thing…
She shot up.
“Gotta go!”
She dumped her leftover food, stacked her tray, and bolted out.
‘No, no, no! My scholarship!’
Bova, in her body, hadn’t been to class for three days. That meant all her tearful efforts for a full semester scholarship could go up in smoke in an instant. Fear turned to shreds in the face of money. She crushed it underfoot and sprinted full speed toward the women’s dorm.
♥ ♥ ♥
‘Was my door always this big…?’
Why did the plain wooden door look so massive? Her eye level had shot up along with her new height, but still…
Milana clenched and unclenched her fists a few times, then swallowed hard and steeled herself. She knocked with grave determination.
Tap. Tap.
The resolve was grave. The knock itself couldn’t have been more timid.
“Um—”
She hesitated, unsure what to call out, then awkwardly said her own name.
“Mil… Milana?”
No answer. She thought about raising her voice, but then remembered the story about the cursing and tried a different approach.
“Bo… va?”
A rustling sound came from inside. Hurried footsteps drew closer, and the door swung open.
“Milana?”
The most familiar face in the world appeared in the gap. The face she’d seen in the mirror for 22 years until she was sick of it. Dull, blank eyes. Unremarkable, blurry features. A face she’d never liked much. But right now, it was so welcome that tears sprang to her eyes.
“Bova, I’m sorry. I mean…”
Dark lord or not, apologizing first was basic human decency. She scrambled to get the words out. But something strange caught her eye. She got that a different soul might make a person look different, but this was too off. She couldn’t not ask.
“Bova… why is your face so red? Are you sick?”
The air around her small body was way too heated. A thick wave of warmth radiated from everywhere, like the whole room had a heater blasting on full. Those brick-red eyes she’d secretly hated for being too big were damp, like a wall wet with condensation. The skin around them was flushed all red, as if from drinking.
A feverish face. A neck blooming with heat. Messed-up hair. And the… chest?
Her mouth fell open in shock. The small body wore nothing but a thin shower gown. The knot was loose, half the chest exposed. The gap in the front was so wide she could almost see a n****e. She swore to the god of magic, Milana had never once worn anything like this in her life. With her pathetically light pockets, a shower gown wasn’t even on her shopping list. A luxury she never needed.
“You were… in the middle of a bath? S-Sorry. I mean…”
“Did you see?”
The question came out of nowhere and Milana jumped.
“N-No, I didn’t! The clothes didn’t slip that far down, thankfully—”
She kept making excuses, but a part of her felt ridiculous. This was her own body. Did she really need to apologize this much? But the aura radiating from her small frame was so menacing she felt like she had to shove her words back down her throat. Menacing. A word that had never once appeared in the life handbook of Milana Ven.
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