The reunion of the handsome young knight and the long-unseen Ancient Witch beneath the snowy sunset was certainly touching. But there was one extra person in the picture. Emilia, dressed in an Academy uniform and gripping the straps of her shoulder bag with both hands, stood awkwardly to the side, strongly suspecting that Shade had not noticed her at all.
Still, she felt it would be best not to suddenly speak up at a time like this. At that moment, the tiny witch Vanessa descended from the sky and landed beside her. Vanessa sized up Miss Olanord, her gaze lingering briefly on the ears of this "half-elf" with one-eighth elven blood, before reaching the conclusion: blond hair was still golden hair, so Shade really did like blondes.
"You're back? It seemed to have gone fairly smoothly."
In the glow of the setting sun, Vanessa carefully examined Emilia Sinode's current appearance, then immediately furrowed her lovely brows:
"But you don't seem to have grown any taller."
"I'm back. Taller? Excuse me, who are you?"
Emilia asked timidly. This also showed that she truly could not distinguish how different people looked at different ages—Vanessa had not yet taken on this appearance when Emilia left.
Emilia was taller than Vanessa at the moment, but that was only because Vanessa had become smaller. In the Earth Witch's eyes, the little elf had not changed at all compared to when she left a week and a half ago. Forget her temperament—even her hairstyle was unchanged. After all, Emilia had left the Sixth Epoch for the Fifth Epoch, and most of her time had merely been spent attending school and raising a Unicorn. Her life there was not all that different from her original life; even the location had not changed.
"Since she hasn't grown up,