My demand was accepted in the end.
Chloe would travel with me alone, without an escort.
"Sis."
Ah, it doesn't get any easier each time I say it.
It's clear that before the regression I was not a man whose words and conduct matched his age.
Looking back now, for all those years I was still rather immature.
In my own small defense: after the war with House Facial I spent decades unable to go outside, doing nothing but research.
After escaping I learned Dark Magic, and dragged criminals who deserved to die around as sacrifices while playing at being a boss.
A life that made growing up difficult, is what I mean.
But.
Even so, the word 'sis' at seventy-four is genuinely hard.
"What is it, Kai?"
Chloe, who had been skipping along in high spirits ever since we left Summer Castle, stopped and looked at me.
"Erase the [Marking] spell."
"Uh, huh? Mm?"
Fluster spread across Chloe's face.
Did she think I wouldn't know?
I moved before she could deny it.
I tapped my left shoulder precisely and spoke again.
"Right here. You put a [Marking] on me."
"Huh? H-how on earth did you know?"
"Since the illness was cured, how do I put it? I feel like I've grown more sensitive to magic power and mana."
"That....... wouldn't tell you what kind of spell it was, though?"
"In this situation, what other spell would you put on me?"
A lie.
I hadn't felt it.
I'd seen it, with eyes. Not mine, but Velkarion's.
Velkarion had watched Chloe secretly shape magic power and carefully attach it to my body.
He's become very useful.
How to put it.
Seeing magic power, mana, and Ether with his eyes has made him a kind of reader.
But there's another curious thing.
Ether is energy drifting in the air.
Strangely, he says he can't see that Ether.
It seems he can only see what has been artificially processed.......
This needs some study.
Well, it's fortunate from Velkarion's side.
Otherwise the whole world would look blanketed in pure white fog.
"My youngest....... y-you've gotten so much smarter."
"I was always smart, sis."
In fact, going by the body's memories, Kalian Facial had a good head.
Not as good as mine.
It was only that the pain of a long illness and an introverted, timid nature worked together to keep that good head from being used.
"Uh....... W-well, it's because I was afraid of losing you again like last time."
"Doing it without my consent isn't worry, it's surveillance."
"I only did it out of worry......."
"Erase it. Now."
"Hng!"
At the firm demand, Chloe pulled a tearful face and moved her hand.
-It's gone.
At Velkarion's confirmation I nodded to Chloe.
"There, it's gone now."
Another astonished look rose on Chloe's face.
"Wow, if I'd only pretended to erase it, that would've been embarrassing, huh?"
Isn't that something you're supposed to think to yourself?
"Ahem, ahem! Let's go."
An unpredictable woman.
-Huh? Master. There's still.......
'Ah-ah. Wait.'
-What was that tone just now, Master?
'What about it?'
-I'm not some house dog.......
'Ah-ah. Wait.'
***
The first day of the journey.
We reached the city of Morben in a single day.
A city nearly seventy kilometers from Summer Castle.
An ordinary person would struggle to cover that distance on foot in one day.
A trained martial artist of the Second Circle or above could manage it easily, but a mage would find it hard.
Chloe, though, is different.
Hers is a body steadily tempered through her mother's family's brutal secret cultivation method.
She could overpower an average First or Second Circle knight by strength alone.
So that much walking wasn't difficult for her.
Even now she didn't look tired in the least.
"Kai, how do you even know how to do this?"
Chloe asked, eyes shining.
We were at the Morben Grand Hotel.
Eating at the dining table in the suite's sitting room.
As you can see, Chloe was in fine form.
For the guest register we used false identities made at Summer Castle.
No. They were identity papers officially issued by Summer Castle, so not even false.
It's more accurate to say they were genuine papers with false names written on them.
Naturally the signature on the check paying for the room was the alias too.
I was Kan Solian; Chloe was Riv Solian.
Chloe was saying that after watching me check in so competently.
It's a very easy thing.
Stating the number of guests at the front desk, asking for the sort of room you need, filling in the register, paying. Ordinary business.
So depending on how you heard it, her remark could sound sarcastic.
But it wasn't.
Chloe was purely impressed.
Seen from that angle, the crazy b-tch called Chloe is certainly not a common type.
She is an outstanding combat mage.
She has field experience against monsters, and performed well in it.
Tell her to sleep on the road and she can lie down on bare ground without a single blanket.
Throw her hard rye bread that barely chews instead of the fine dishes she's used to, and she'll gnaw through it briskly.
She's used to rolling around in the dirt.
But this she can't do.
She'll camp rough in the field, but she can't boil soup in a pot hung over a fire.
She knows how to catch fish with magic.
But she can't clean them, skewer them, and roast them over the fire.
She doesn't know how to check in at a hotel front desk either.
Because all of it was done by someone else.
Her escort, her attendants and maids, her subordinates in the field.
Chloe was a noble daughter unlike a noble daughter in that way.
Which is why she was genuinely impressed at the sight of me taking a suite, checking in, and paying with ease.
"I read it in a book."
This is quietly an all-purpose answer.
Reading was a hobby the quiet, introverted Kalian greatly enjoyed.
Because his chronic illness kept him inside Summer Castle, reading was his only way to experience the wider world.
And now it serves as my all-purpose answer.
"I see."
"By the way, sis."
"Hm?"
"I have a favor to ask."
"A favor? A favor, Kai! You only ever have to demand things from your sister. Favors are for Mother or big brother Walter."
Ah, that's a lot to carry.
She's utterly besotted with her little brother.
Seeing this, it was perhaps only natural that the Chloe who lost her brother before the regression laid hands on Chimera research.
And I'm the one who saved your brother from that.
So I have a lifetime free pass with you.
"I'm curious about liquor."
"Liquor?"
"Yes. I'm curious what it tastes like."
"Huh? Uh......."
Fluster rose on Chloe's face.
"What? Have you never had a drink either, sis?"
-Bleurgh!
Velkarion's retching noise arrived without warning.
'You want to die?'
-Haf oo nevah had a dwink eivah, thith? Bleurgh!
The bastard was aping my speech in exaggerated fashion and sneering.
Does he want to die.......
But honestly.
Urgh!
My own way of speaking gives me gooseflesh and turns my stomach too.
That doesn't mean I can let the insubordination slide.
'I let you off once and you keep climbing on me? Shall we try six months of no talking?'
-Hup! W-what did I just say, Master?
'Tsk. Keep acting up and see what happens.'
-I-I am a faithful servant who listens well to his Master.
Chloe hesitated a moment, then spoke.
"Uh, liquor is, well......."
"Ahh, so you've never had a drink either, have you?"
Chloe shook her head hurriedly.
From her face it was clear she'd taken on some strange sense of duty.
"H-how could that be? Of course I've had a drink."
"I want to taste it too."
"Liquor, all of a sudden....... why?"
"A glass of malt met at the end of a weary day erases every noise in the world and brings peace to my heart. The kindest companion of the night."
"What does that mean?"
"A book described single malt that way, you know? It was a novel, and a middle-aged knight in it said so."
"I-is that so?"
After the sense of duty, thick curiosity rose on Chloe's face as well.
It was certain.
Chloe had never drunk before.
"Your papers say you're twenty-one, sis. You can order easily."
For the convenience of travel we'd raised our ages by two years on the false papers.
Mine says nineteen instead of fifteen.
"Then....... shall we?"
Chloe asked, full of anticipation.
I checked the room service list quickly and spoke.
"Haimunt Cask. That name looks splendid."
A fine single malt from the Haimunt domain in the Empire's southwest.
Chloe nodded stiffly, and I pulled the cord in the room to call a member of staff.
And then.
"Khraaaaaaa......."
Thunder began to roll in the room.
Chloe Facial.
She was absolute trash at drinking.
A fact I naturally already knew.
Before the regression, once or twice a month that witch would cry that she missed her brother too much and reach for drink.
And one glass of whiskey would knock her out like that.
Apparently, never having drunk before, she didn't know her own capacity.
She poured a glass full to the brim.
That isn't how you pour it.
Then she threw it back in one go and in three minutes became a thunder machine.
You could carry her off on your back and she wouldn't know.
I lifted Chloe, laid her on the bed in her room, and came back out to the sitting room.
-What are you going to do?
Velkarion asked.
'Leave, of course.'
-Where?
'Should I take that witch along to go meet Newcomen Watt?'
Newcomen Watt is the genius who invented the steam engine before the regression.
-Ah, that's fair. Huh? Come to think of it, Master. That necklace, the necklace.
'I know.'
It was what Velkarion had been about to say when I had the [Marking] erased earlier.
The necklace Chloe gave me, saying she'd had it prepared for me.
An artifact-grade, that is, Relic-grade magic item storing [Phase Shift], which on activation in danger moves you to a safe spot within a hundred-meter radius.
But there is something Chloe didn't tell me.
That this necklace is one of a pair.
There were two spells stored in it.
The aforementioned [Phase Shift] for escaping danger, and [Phase Displacement] for moving to wherever the other necklace is.
Meaning that wherever you are, with this necklace you can go straight to the side of whoever wears the other one.
The price would be enormous.
I have plenty of interest in magic items and some talent of my own, so I know well.
To make something of this level you'd have to grind up a dozen of the finest mana engineers and theoretical mages.
A moment of mourning for them.
The intent in gifting it was surely to keep watch on me whenever she liked.
But I'm not so easily handled.
I packed my things in my room and came out.
Of everything prepared for the journey I left only Chloe's, and put the rest in my pack.
Cash included.
'Right, let's go.'
-But.......
'What?'
-Isn't leaving Chloe Facial like that a bit heartless?
'Don't tell me you think of that witch as your sister?'
-Ack, h-how could I? It's only that, depending how you look at it, it seems a rather cold thing to do?
'Like hell. Chloe Facial is nothing but the witch who experimented on me half to death before the regression.'
-Huh? Uh....... True. That's fair. Well then, let's set off!
And so I quietly left the Morben Grand Hotel.
***
"Ugh, my head......."
Chloe Facial woke to a headache like hundreds of needles stabbing her brain.
A vicious hangover.
"Kai......."
She called her brother the moment she opened her eyes, but there was no response.
No. Not even a sign of anyone there.
"Ngggh!"
Chloe all but crawled out of the room and into the suite's sitting room.
"Kai!"
But her brother still didn't answer.
"W-water!"
A sudden thirst sent Chloe hurrying to the table.
A note lay on it.
'Since you told Mother the lie that I had run away from home, I will make it true for you.'
Chloe's eyes widened until they might tear.
The hangover headache felt as if it had cleanly blown away.
Read it again and again, the content didn't change.
And at last.
"Kalian~!"
Chloe's scream shook the suite of the Morben Grand Hotel.