"I don't know either."
I shook my head.
Even if I told him that the me of some sixty years in the future had used regression magic, that something had gone wrong, and that our bodies had swapped, he wouldn't believe me anyway.
"Uh, then......."
Watching him waffle, a good idea came to me.
"I think you....... Ahem, ahem!"
What is this?
Did I overeat because it was a meal I hadn't had in so long?
It feels like my whole body is swelling?
Unable to control my own gluttony. How embarrassing.
Well, anyway.
"I think you're the suspicious one, though?"
At my words, Aizel's shoulders twitched.
"M-me?"
Just looking at him, he had a timid nature. And in the body's memories stored in my head, his behavior and thinking were the same.
For a guy like this, it's better for someone else to take the lead.
This was my opening move toward that.
"The moment our bodies swapped, I was being water-tortured, wasn't I? Didn't you use some kind of Dark Magic to swap bodies because you thought you were about to die?"
"N-n-no! I was a knight. I don't know anything about magic!"
Aizel waved his hands frantically.
I needed to push a little harder.
"No? Then how did our bodies swap at exactly the moment before death? You're telling me that exquisite timing was a coincidence?"
"B-but I d-d-don't know anything about it either!"
Flustered, he stuttered badly.
Ah, that's bad.
If a real man like me suddenly turned into a personality like that, anyone would find it suspicious.
Well, I'd fix that gradually.
"That water torture. If it hadn't been me, you'd already be dead. Bodies swap out of nowhere, and I get dragged through a brush with death. And you? You swap bodies and become the Legitimate Heir of one of the continent's Three Great Houses? Of a rival House, no less? Don't tell me you were trying to infiltrate House Renhardt like this?"
"N-no, I wasn't. I-I swear. I don't know anything."
Aizel's face began to drain to a bluish white.
He wouldn't have had a fingernail's worth of such intent, but even to him it must have looked plausible.
"And yet the situation lines up this exquisitely?"
"I-I was shocked too. I had no idea what was what, so I spent ten whole days holed up in this study. I didn't know what would happen if I got caught."
"So all of this is pure coincidence?"
Aizel spoke with a strained expression.
"I said it's true, didn't I?"
Even to him it apparently seemed too exquisitely timed to call coincidence.
That should be enough to have seized the initiative.
Then, on to the main point.
"Fine. I'll believe you for now."
"T-thanks."
It was my own doing, so this pricked at me just a little.
But if I hadn't done it, he'd already be dead.
It's someone else's body, but I saved him this way, so that's that.
I threw out another question.
"We can't know the reason for now. So what should we do from here?"
"W-well?"
Clearly he'd never once thought about it.
An Aizel Renhardt this timid and passive.
It twisted my gut a little, but there was nothing to be done.
"The bastards who kidnapped you. I mean, the bastards doing the water torture. I found something out about them."
"What is it?"
"Those bastards are after the Triarch. The Three Great Houses."
This was true.
Based on the intelligence I'd gathered before the regression, that much was certain.
"H-how?"
Aizel asked with a look of genuine curiosity.
They were the continent's Three Great Houses. The most powerful houses on the continent.
Powers so strong that not even the Empire touched them carelessly.
Targeting the Three Great Houses was unimaginable, and it was only natural to be purely curious about the method.
That said, I couldn't tell him what was going to happen in the future.
"That I don't know either. But seeing how they kidnapped House Facial's Legitimate Heir like that, it's clear they're no ordinary bastards."
"That's true."
"So the way I see it, we have two things to do."
"Two things?"
"First: uncover the identity of the force targeting our Houses, and destroy it."
"Uh, uh-huh......."
Aizel nodded with an unconfident face.
"And second: find a way for the two of us to return to our original bodies."
"Ah!"
Aizel let out a cry of astonishment.
What? He hadn't even thought of that?
Without realizing it, I looked over my body.
A body perfect for wielding a sword. On top of that, it overflowed with talent for the sword.
And the standing of Legitimate Heir of House Facial, one of the continent's Three Great Houses.
That someone could turn out this timid and passive in such a perfect environment was nothing short of remarkable.
In truth, even I had no idea whether there was a way back to our original bodies.
I'd debated the matter at length with Velkarion and searched for methods.
No particular conclusion came of it.
So in fact I'd all but given up.
But to motivate Aizel, bait like this was necessary.
And I hadn't given up entirely, so it wasn't a complete lie.
"So we'll....... Ugh!"
Something really was off.
That bloated feeling in my lower abdomen from before hadn't been from overeating.
Checking now, my stomach wasn't full; my Dantian was packed with Internal Energy.
Why is this happening?
I hadn't even done any mana cultivation, though?
I'd have to look into it once the conversation was over.
I finished what I was saying to Aizel.
"That's what we'll have to do, right?"
"Ah, right. Why hadn't I thought of that?"
Good. He's coming around.
"And to do that, you'll first have to adapt here, right?"
"Yeah, right. But how?"
He asked again with that guileless face.
Haa, I went through all kinds of hell just getting here.
What do I do with this transparent dimwit?
I'd already told him back in the study that I'd teach him, and he'd forgotten already.
Suddenly I felt a little at a loss.
Still, what could I do?
"For a start, I found something out by chance. There's a way to load the memories carved into the body into the soul as well."
"Huh?"
"More precisely, it might be a process of the soul assimilating with the body. Either way, do it and you'll be able to know the body's memories."
"H-how do I do it?"
For me it was swordsmanship. I pushed the swordsmanship ingrained in the body until I nearly died, and soul and body assimilated.
For this one it would probably be magic.
"You know I'm a mage, right?"
"I know."
"If you keep casting the magic I trained in, the body's memories will surface naturally."
"Uh....... Really? But I don't know any magic, you know?"
"I'll teach you that, so don't worry about it."
"T-thanks."
Genuine gratitude showed on his face.
Unless he was a born actor, that wasn't an expression you could fake.
For now, I'd completely succeeded in pulling him to my side.
From here I'd train him and make him a fully loyal retainer of mine.
In a situation like this, it wouldn't be all that hard.
"All right, so what is it we have to do?"
"Find the way to switch our bodies back, and track down whatever force is targeting the Three Great Houses."
A gleam of sharpness rose in his eyes.
He was timid, but his character didn't seem entirely useless.
I'd train him well.
Hm? But.......
"Nkk!"
A faint groan suddenly leaked from my mouth.
W-what is this?
The wrongness in my Dantian I'd been feeling since earlier.
A mage stores magic power in the Mana Ring in the heart; a martial artist stores Internal Energy in the Dantian in the lower abdomen.
Once the body becomes that of a mage or a martial artist, magic power or Internal Energy steadily accumulates through breathing.
But.
That feeling of a full Dantian I'd noticed earlier.
It wasn't simply full now. It had passed its limit.
The Internal Energy that had piled up in an instant churned as if to burst the Dantian.
And finally.
The Internal Energy escaped my control, left the Dantian, and raged violently along the Mana Circuit inside my body.
"Gaah!"
At last a scream burst from my mouth.
From the unintended rampage of Internal Energy, pain fierce enough to blow away my mind clawed at every nerve in my body.
CRASH!
My body collapsed under the pain, scattering the empty plates on the table in all directions.
GRRRIT!
I forced down pain enough to grind my teeth.
"Uh, uh, this......."
I seized the wrist of the flustered Aizel and asked.
"What is this......."
My labored words drew an answer from Aizel.
"T-this is hyperventilation......."
Hyperventilation?
Aizel had recognized my condition at once.
Which meant he'd been through it many times.
This sensation, this pain.
The feeling of my whole body suddenly swelling.
The mana still raged fiercely out of control.
The Mana Circuit was heated to the point that it might turn to ash at any moment.
A sensation and a pain this uncommon would surely be branded into memory.
"Kk-kkgh!"
I endured the pain, my whole body trembling.
And I groped through the memories.
As I've said before, this body's memories could only be recalled by searching with a key word or a date.
And I found it.
I shouted out despite myself.
"Goddamn it!"
-W-what is it? What's wrong?
Velkarion, silent until then, asked in a flustered voice.
I was in the middle of being shocked myself by the phenomenon that had surfaced in the memories.
"Ether Hyperventilation Syndrome?"
At my shout, Aizel nodded hard.
"T-that's right."
-H-holy hell! Ether Hyperventilation, of all things!
Velkarion cried out in horror too.
It was absurd.
Put simply, Ether Hyperventilation Syndrome is a constitution that absorbs twice the Ether, Ether being the original form of both Internal Energy and magic power.
Since twice the energy a human can hold gets absorbed, it eventually runs wild and a seizure occurs.
That is Ether Hyperventilation Syndrome.
Suddenly I was pissed off.
"Y-you bastard....... So this is why you swapped bodies......."
It was enough to make me suspect the bastard really had swapped bodies on purpose.
Had it failed before the regression, only to succeed this time thanks to the special circumstances my regression created?
"I-I told you, no! M-more importantly, calm the seizure down first......."
He spoke as if about to cry, his face full of grievance.
It probably wasn't a lie.
But the situation lined up so exquisitely that I couldn't help the thought crossing my mind.
"Kgggh! How did you usually calm it down?"
Velkarion's voice burst out before Aizel's.
-Pour it out. Whether it's mana or magic power, pour out everything in your body! That's the only way it settles!
Aizel answered next.
"By modifying Ether Suppression Cuffs......."
I roughly understood.
Put together with what Velkarion said, the answer came out at once.
An item used when imprisoning a criminal martial artist or mage, to keep them from using their power.
Cuffs that restrict the use of the magic power or mana held in the body.
I groped through the memories once more.
Sure enough, Chloe Facial had taken the principle of those cuffs and modified them in a different direction.
Rather than suppressing the magic power or mana, she'd modified them to burn it off quickly.
That would certainly stop this seizure.
The problem was.
"You crazy bastard, we don't have it here! I'm asking what you did when you didn't have it!"
"W-well, by just discharging mana blindly......."
Damn it, how crude.
It's like poking a needle hole in a bucket filled to the brim.
There was no telling how long that would take.
Which is why, searching for a method, that once-in-a-generation genius Chloe Facial had thought of modifying the cuffs.
Kkgh!
The pain kept worsening.
At this rate I might lose consciousness.
-Stay awake! If you let go now, the rampaging mana will tear your circuits to shreds!
'I know that, you skull-head.'
There was no choice but to use the crude method.......
"Ah, that's right!"
There is one.
A method, no, a failed product!
I wrung out every bit of strength to speak to Aizel, who was staring at me with a flustered face.
"Take me to the study......."
"H-huh?"
"I said take me to my study, you idiot!"
"Ah, o-o-okay!"
My senses began to dull.
In the middle of it, I felt someone hoisting me onto their back. Aizel, faithfully carrying out my words, apparently.
Hurry up, you dimwit.
-Master, stay with me! You mustn't die!
Velkarion cried out desperately.
'I'm not going to die, punk!'
Once I reach my study, there'll be a way.