Inside the room within the inn, Charles was feeling very tired. The truth was that he hadn't slept in a few days as he had been tending to Maxine for the entire time since her collapse. On more than one occasion, he had felt as though he was on the verge of collapsing, but he would always be able to keep himself up and going.

Asla had asked him on a couple of occasions that he got some sleep but each time he refused. The truth was that Charles was simply refusing to rest until he knew that Maxine would be alright. Even if it meant working himself to the bone, he would do that just to ensure her survival.

With every passing hour Asla became more and more tempted to simply tell him about the confession that Maxine had told him. However, for now, she still kept it to herself but there was something that she had noticed about the muscular giantess. It was something that at first seemed to be unnoticeable at first but as time went on, it couldn't be avoided. It was definitely something that could not be put to one side and none of them could really explain what was happening.

It was Maxine's groans that first alerted Charles to the fact that she was awake. In his fatigued state, he didn't even notice at first but as it continued, he quickly went over to her and knelt to the bed. He could see her moving around a little and her eyes were beginning to open.

A wave of excitement overtook him as his greatest fear seemed to have come to naught as he quickly grabbed onto hand. It felt warmer than he had expected but after she had been suffering from a fever for so long, it wasn't too surprising. However, the others were still sleeping and thus, didn't know what was happening.

"Maxine, thank the gods that you're awake," said Charles as he looked into her eyes. He could see that there wasn't too much activity behind them. Rather than getting a straight answer, he simply received a groan. "Don't try to strain yourself, you've been through a lot so just rest."

"C-Charles," replied Maxine. Her vision was blurry and there was a loud ringing in her ears but with each passing moment, it was returning to her.

"Don't worry, I'm here." He watched as she looked at him and she was beginning to recognise his face. "Just take things nice and easy."

"W-What happened, where am I?" There was a distant tone in her voice, almost as if she wasn't entirely there mentally. Something else that she couldn't help but notice was the fact that her voice sounded different. Almost as if she was speaking on a slightly higher pitch than normal.

"You're safe, that's all you need to think about." He continued to smile down at her, but he was also still feeling worried about what had happened to her.

"I-I am?" Her senses were returned to her and although it was quite difficult for her, she began to sit up in the bed that she was lying in. One thing that she did begin to notice was that her feet weren't sticking out at the end. She knew that her body had been stretched out and she even thought that her feet should be touching the ground. Instead, they were still within the bed and this did surprise her. There weren't many, if any beds in Angleland that was long enough to accommodate her very tall frame. She could also feel something else that she thought was off. Charles was holding onto her hand and she could feel that it seemed larger than she remembered. She even thought that his hand was bigger than her own which was something that was normally impossible.

"Yes, let me get you some water. You're probably feeling thirsty after everything that you've been through." Quickly he got up from where he was and went to get a glass of water. Upon his return, he immediately passed it over to her and there was one thing that she noticed was that it felt huge in her hand. Almost as if someone had given her a very large mug of ale. She took a few moments to look at it and she seemed to be confused.

"W-What, why did you bring me something so much?" She did take a sip of it as she was simply thirsty and simply wanted to rehydrate herself.

"That's just a standard glass Maxine, I think there's something that you need to see." There was a slight hint of hesitation in his voice as he thought that she might not like what she was going to find out.

"What is it?" Her vision was still blurry but slowly it was returning to her. The first thing that she could properly see in front of her was Charles but he looked different to how she remembered him. His overall appearance looked the same but she could clearly see that he was larger than she remembered. To her, he had always been very small but now she thought that he was likely taller than her. "W-Wait, you're bigger."

"Unfortunately, it's not me that's grown, it's you. You've…" He didn't say the last word of his statement as he saw Maxine looking down at herself.

This was the first time that she realised that she was no longer the nine-foot, muscular titaness that she had been before. Instead, she was barely above half that height and her frame was very small as well. She was in some shock and yet it wasn't the first time that she had seen herself like this.

Immediately her first thoughts were of when she had the magic within her body removed and she found herself shrunk down. As she looked at herself, she thought that the same thing had happened and she began to become very worried. When she was like this, she was smaller and weaker than an average woman.

"W-What happened?" asked Maxine as she continued to look at herself. "Why am I so small? D-Did someone steal the magic from me again?"

"No Maxine," replied Charles. She was able to glance behind him and saw that Taiyun was close by. Asla and Jaxin were nowhere to be seen and it was likely that they were resting somewhere. "While you've been out, you've been slowly shrinking smaller and smaller. Well, until you became what you are now."

"What?" This made things even more terrifying for her as she stopped and thought about it. Last time this had happened, she had a clear way of returning back to her large and muscular self. However, if what she was hearing was correct, then she wouldn't be able to return to her former self any time soon. "W-What happened to me?"

"Well, I have a theory, but I don't think now is the time for it. Instead, you just need to rest and recover your strength."

"N-No, I need to go and regain my strength!" Her voice was still quite weak, and she attempted to get out of the bed. However, as she went to stand up, she immediately collapsed as she had no strength in her legs. She would have fallen to the ground, if Charles hadn't been there to catch her.

One thing that did surprise him was how light she felt. He thought that he would have struggled to hold her but found it actually being very easy. For a few moments, he had forgotten how light she was when she was like this and just how short she was. He was quite a short man and yet, he towered above her by more than half a foot. It did make him feel like an average sized man.

"What you need to do is rest," said Charles as he continued to hold onto her and keep her steady. He knew that if he were to let go, she would fall and most likely cause herself some kind of injury. Right now, he knew that she was very fragile and thus, there was even more need to protect her. "I know that you want to be up and around, but you've just survived something that Asla said had killed everyone else that has been exposed to it. You should be thankful to be alive."

"I-I what?" replied Maxine. She was still confused and she sat herself down onto the bed. It was still strange being so small and the fact that the bed wasn't straining itself under her weight. "What happened to me?"

"From what Asla told me, you were exposed to not one but two doses of a very deadly poison. One dose was normally enough to kill a person, you took two and survived. I think that your sheer size was what saved you. But unfortunately that is completely gone now, as you can clearly see."

"I-I did?" The small woman was able to remember what had happened shortly before she keeled over. There was the memory of two sharp pains in her neck and a burning sensation throughout her body. She figured that this was the poison being injected into her body like Charles had said. "B-But why am I so small now?"

"That, I don't actually know for certain. All I can do is give you my own theory. To purge the poison out of your body, it had to burn through the magic that was inside. Which is why you've been shrinking more or less as soon as you came here. This time, the magic wasn't forcefully removed from your body. Believe me, over the last few days, I've watched you slowly shrink."

"A few days?" She was still confused, but right now she was also moving herself on the bed as she wanted to lie down. "How long was I asleep for?"

"Around four days or so, I'm not exactly sure. I've been up the entire time and after a while, the days kind of blend into one."

"You've been awake for four days? Never mind me needing rest, you need rest as well Charles."

"I-I'll be fine." It was clear that fatigue was getting the better of him as he began to stagger a little. "I couldn't sleep while I knew that you needed my help. From what I can see, you still need it."

"But you won't be doing yourself any favours by not sleeping." She then glanced at the bed and she could see that it was very large. "Look, the bed is large enough for the both of us. You go to sleep here and try to regain some of the energy that you've lost."

"T-There is no need, I'm sure that I'll be alright by…" Before he could even finish his sentence, he found himself nodding off and he even began to lean on her. This was something that she wasn't entirely expecting as she could feel how heavy he was.

With some effort, she was able to lie him down onto the bed and she was able to place the covers over him. Already, he was beginning to snore as he truly needed to sleep. She looked down at him and thought that he looked quite cute while he was asleep but she still couldn't help but think that he looked different.

In a way, everything seemed different to her as she was a few inches shy of being five feet tall. She went from feeling as though the world was too small for her, now being too big for her. Her greatest fear was that she would never regain her size and that she would be stuck like this for the rest of her life.

However, there was also a part of her that actually wanted to accept what had happened. While she was like this, one of her other fears would subside as when she was like this, she looked more or less like any other woman. The only difference was that she was shorter than the average person, other than that she thought that she was perfectly normal. Meaning that she could do things that she had felt was closed off to her before. For now, she wouldn't say anything about it.

Instead, she just lay on the bed and wrapped her arms around Charles. He was already asleep as he needed to regain all the energy that he had lost while he was tending to her. Maxine did feel some guilt towards this although she didn't have a say in the matter. But she did appreciate what he had done for her but she found herself unable to go to sleep.

Thanks to being asleep for the last few days, she didn't feel fatigued enough to sleep. Instead, her body was still recovering from the poison and felt very weak. Rather than completely resting, she simply lay there and held onto Charles. She was still in disbelief over how large he felt within her arms. But she had to remind herself that it wasn't him that had grown, it was her that was smaller.

Eventually, morning did come and Asla was one of the first people to stir in the room. She hadn't been overly thrilled with being stuck in this room for the last few days but for Maxine's sake, she accepted it. She did glance over to where the former giantess had been sleeping and she was quite surprised with what she could see. There she saw Charles sleeping but with Maxine holding him in her arms.

This put a smile on the foreign princess's face as this was a good sign. If she was still too weak from the poison, then moving in the way that she had done would have been impossible. This was a clear indication to her that Maxine was recovering and that she might even be back on her feet soon.

There was even some astonishment from Asla as she realised what this meant. As far as she knew, Maxine was the first person to be exposed to the poison of the Fatal Frog and survive. A feat that many would have considered impossible, but it seemed that her size had been a key factor to her survival. Unfortunately, it seemed that she had paid the price for this as she was now much smaller than she was before and if she was exposed again. It was unlikely that she would survive.

Maxine did notice Asla stepping by the bed and because of this, she sat up which did come as a shock to the foreign princess. She took a step back and gasped as she had not expected this to happen. In a way, she felt a little silly for what she had done and couldn't help but smile for a moment.

"Y-You're awake," said Asla. Her voice was nothing more than a whisper as she knew that others in the room were still asleep. "It's good to see that you were able to make it through your ordeal."

"Y-Yes, thank you," replied Maxine. She looked over to the foreign princess and for now didn't attempt to get out of the bed. "It's still a little jarring to find myself like this. Then again, it's not the first time I've been this size."

"What, you mean you've shrunk before?" There was a great amount of surprise in her voice as this was something that she hadn't expected.

"Yes, once when I had the magic removed from my body, I became like this. But that time I clearly knew how to get back to my old self. This time is different, I fear that I might never be what I was before."

Asla didn't really know how to respond to what Maxine had just said. She still found it very hard to believe that a woman who had been so tall that her head would press against the ceiling of an average room. Was now about her height and it clear that there was a lot more to what was going on than it first seemed. Even she knew that people didn't normally change size and it wasn't to this extreme.

"Then what will you do if you don't return to your former self?" asked Asla as she continued to look at the small woman. She could see Maxine moving so that she could stand up from the bed. She had attempted this several hours before but now she felt a little stronger than she had before.

"I-I'm not sure," replied Maxine. Eventually, she did place her feet on the ground and willed herself to stand up. Like before, she did stagger as her legs felt weak but this time, she was able to keep her balance. Asla even held onto her for a moment so that she could steady herself but when they looked at each other, they could see that the foreign princess was around an inch taller than her. "Wait, you're taller than me."

"I am?" She could see that the former muscular giantess was now having to look up slightly at her and even to Asla, it was a little odd. For the first time since she had arrived in Angleland, she had met an adult woman who was shorter than herself. "You must have shrunk smaller than I originally thought."

"Oh lovely." She gave a sigh. She had hoped that she would be the same height or a little taller than Asla. Unfortunately for her, this wasn't the case and she was facing the fact that she was now the shortest person in the group. "But when I'm like this, I don't think that I'll be that much use for you."

"Don't worry, you've helped plenty already. Just because you're like this doesn't mean that your powerless or useless. This is just another way of you trying to make the most out of the situation that you find yourself in. If you don't grow back, it's not the end of the world for you. Just because you're smaller doesn't mean that you're still not you. All you can do is move ahead and make the best you can with what life has thrown at you."

Maxine didn't immediately respond as she thought about what Asla had been saying to her. In a way, she thought that her entire life had revolved around her being big. It was true that without her great size and strength, she wouldn't have been able to get as far as she had when it came to becoming a knight.

She doubted that if she had never been the nine foot powerhouse that she had been, that she never would have met Charles. Their paths would never have crossed as rather than going to that tavern on that fateful night, Maxine would have likely been at home doing jobs around the farm or finding a husband.

As an average woman, there would have been things that were expected of her although she still thought that her mother and father would allow her to walk on whatever path she wanted. But she couldn't help but glance towards Charles who was still sleeping in the bed and nowadays, she couldn't imagine her life without him. At first, he had seemed a burden and now she knew that she couldn't of gotten this far without his assistance or wisdom.

Something else that Maxine couldn't help but notice was that she was wearing the shirt that she had worn underneath her armour. However, thanks to her severely reduced height, it now looked completely oversized for her and covered almost her entire body. It was hard for her to believe that it had once fit her and had actually been a little tight on her.

"I-I think I need some more clothes," said Maxine as she held onto the shirt. She thought that if she moved too much, it would fall off of her body.

"Yes," replied Asla as she looked at her friend. The size difference between Maxine and the top that she was wearing reminded the foreign princess of a young child trying to wear the clothes of their parents. "I'm sure that we can find something that'll fit you."

It was a couple of hours later after everyone had woken up that Maxine was given a new outfit that actually fit her now much smaller frame. This came in the form of a cheap dress and shoes.

To the former giantess, it was still odd for her to be wearing an outfit such as this. For as long as she could remember, she hated wearing dresses. To her, they were impractical and made people think less of her. Even so, the dress felt a little large on her, as if it was made for a person a couple of inches taller than her.

The shoes that she wore was also slightly too large for her feet. When she walked in them, she felt as though they were going to slip off. Like before, they were designed for a person with slightly larger feet than her but unfortunately, the seller that they bought them from had no smaller sizes. It was either that or walk around barefoot and that was something that she couldn't allow.

When Taiyun and Jaxin saw Maxine in her smaller form, they were more than surprised with what they were seeing. They had seen her gradually shrink smaller over the days, but seeing her standing in front of them made them realise just how short she was. It seemed a little ironic for them that a woman who had seemed to be so large that she could stop a bull in its tracks. Now seemed small enough that a strong gust of wind would be able to send her flying.

Jaxin in particular had conflicted feelings about all of this. He was happy that Maxine was smaller since it meant that she could no longer physically overpower him like they had done during their first meeting. But there was a part of him that liked the taller and more muscular woman. Although he would no longer be in fear of her if she remained like this, he did somewhat hope that she would return to her former self.

There was also another problem that the group faced. This was the fact that Maxine still had her armour and sword lying around. Since they were designed for her former body, it was impossible for her to wear. Last time this had happened, it had been sent back to the Martel family farm but this time it didn't seem likely that they could do this.

Since no one had any idea how long she would remain like this, there was the thought that she could grow back at any time. Because of this, if they sent them away and then she grew back to normal almost immediately afterwards. It would mean that she would be without her very important equipment.

Carrying around the armour and sword was also a daunting task. Each piece was heavy and carrying it all by hand would be tiring and time consuming for them. Leaving it behind at the inn was also not a good idea as it would likely be sold off for the metal and it would never be seen again.

The only option that they had was that they bought a horse and cart but that would eat into their meagre funds and would likely mean that they wouldn't be able to afford any food or a roof over their heads. There was the idea to sell it off but this was something that the group was reluctant to do.

Out of everyone, it was Charles who was the most reluctant as he knew how much the sword and armour meant to Maxine. They were part of her identity and without them, it would be like a part of herself was gone. Although she had been willing to give them up in order to ensure his safety. Even though it had only happened a few days ago, it now seemed as though it was much longer than that.

There was still a lot that needed to be decided on when it came to that, but to Charles, it wasn't the most important thing. What was important to him was the fact that Maxine was alive and out of the danger zone.

She might be a lot smaller than she was before but since she was walking around and talking, he took that as a major victory. His best friend had survived something that no one had ever survived before, but it was likely that it had cost her everything. All he could do was hope that she either regained her lost size at some point in the future. Or found a way to live a happy life with the height that she had left.