the romance don't happen before the timeskip when she will be 17 y old, and much taller than now, looking like a perfect lady.
The 60 first chapters are more like a big prelude to develop all characters and start slowly.
If a 17-18 y old with a 25 y old is shocking for you, i suggest you should go out a bit more.
Ah, and remember we are not in a modern world here, people died earlier than us, for a lot of reasons.
And as i said last chapter, you must be BLIND to not expect this ship with this cover (the one in the beginning of this chapter) or the Novel covers i posted before.