Chloe

“Mmm…….”

I woke on my own to the faint dawn light filtering in through the glass window.

At the slight glow, my eyelids trembled, then slowly opened.

What came into view at once was the spacious second-floor room Chloe had given us.

The inn-like buildings I usually stayed in always had some flaw somewhere, no matter how well they were built, but this place was different.

It wasn’t something she’d made to sell to someone else, but a house she would live in herself, so of course it had been built with things like efficiency simply thrown out the window.

The windows, too—most of the ones I’d seen until now had just been shoddily made wooden shutters, whereas here, they were glass panes through which the other side was clearly visible.

When I looked down into my arms, Illyana was still sleeping soundly, traveling through her dreams.

Normally, I would have carefully gotten up without waking Illyana.

But for that, the bed was far too soft.

Perhaps it was the softest, most comfortable bed in existence in this world.

At the sensation I hadn’t felt in so long, I chose not to resist and simply closed my eyes again.

◇

Chloe had been the type to sleep in ever since I taught her, so we ended up starting the day rather late.

When I woke after going back to sleep, the morning sun had already risen, and even then, Chloe was still asleep.

If it had been like the old days, I would have given her a refreshing morning with an electric shock, just as I did when waking Cassian.

But now she was more or less the owner of the house we were staying in, so doing that felt a little awkward.

Cassian himself, thanks to my thrilling alarm clock, had developed a habit of waking up early.

Even today, when Illyana and I went down to the first floor, Cassian was waiting there with an incredulous look on his face.

We had a late meal that could have been called both breakfast and lunch, then spent the morning quite leisurely.

We had a cup of tea, sat in rocking chairs and read books, and gathered together to eat fruit and chat.

After spending time like that, when the sun had reached about halfway between the middle of the sky and the horizon, Chloe suggested we try a light mock battle.

Since she would be assisting me with teaching while we stayed here, she said she wanted to know roughly how skilled the children were.

Normally, it would have been about the time we set up camp and began light training, so the timing was just right.

“Hehe, I’m looking forward to this a little.”

“From your perspective, they’ll still be lacking by a long way.”

Naturally enough, Chloe would be forbidden from attacking at all, and would only defend against their attacks.

Even if Chloe intended to attack lightly, for Cassian and Illyana, even a graze would be a fatal blow.

No matter how far removed Chloe was from combat, the difference in their weight classes was like heaven and earth.

Cassian was the first to have his mock battle.

Illyana and I sat on the steps of the house, while Chloe and Cassian went out into the broad yard in front of it and stood facing each other at a distance of about thirty paces.

Chloe stood relaxed and empty-handed, while Cassian waited with his staff aimed forward.

“That’s a good staff. But you shouldn’t rely on it too much, all right?”

Chloe spoke first, but perhaps because Cassian was so tense and focused, he didn’t react, as if he hadn’t heard her.

Well, if he was looking with magic sight, it wouldn’t be strange. He would be seeing an insane amount of mana before him, not dozens of times his own, but easily hundreds of times greater.

Still, I didn’t think I had ever taught him that it was fine to lose his composure that much.

Seeing that, I let out a small sigh and used magic to make a sound, signaling the start.

Since Chloe had made no preparations at all, Cassian was the first to move.

As always, pale blue sparks crackled at the tip of his staff, then surged toward Chloe at a speed no human could even perceive.

A human, that is.

Chloe accurately followed the path of the arc discharge with her eyes, then turned her body slightly and dodged it with ease.

“That’s impossi—!!”

Cassian cried out in shock, then realized that wasn’t what mattered right now and immediately swung his staff again.

At that, seven large spears made of ice appeared in the air and flew toward Chloe all at once.

But those ice spears never even reached Chloe’s vicinity, turning into mist in midair and disappearing.

She had manipulated mana to pinpoint only the heat energy and raise it, instantly vaporizing them.

A white, hazy fog covered the surroundings in an instant, and from beyond it, Chloe spoke in her gentle voice.

“Your mana manipulation is quite impressive, but as expected, there’s still a lot of waste. Even so…….”

Chloe stopped speaking, raised her right hand slightly, and suddenly clenched her fist.

And when she slowly opened that fist again, a small pebble fell from inside and rolled across the ground.

Taking advantage of her obstructed vision, Cassian had swiftly aimed for her blind spot and attacked.

“Your combat sense isn’t bad.”

At those words, a fierce wind blew between the two of them, clearing away the fog that had been blocking their view.

Cassian’s expression plainly showed the feeling that there was simply no answer.

Even so, Cassian didn’t give up. As if he had no thought of holding back, he poured out attack after attack, using as much mana as he could.

However, Chloe easily dismantled Cassian’s attacks without even using defensive magic.

When magic got him nowhere, he wrapped himself in body enhancement to the limit and tried close combat, but instead, he failed to land even a single hit and only exhausted his stamina.

Putting her movements aside, even their dynamic vision and physical abilities were on entirely different levels, so it could be called inevitable.

“Hah, hah……. I-I lost. This seriously makes no sense…….”

The result of the mock battle.

Even after using more than eighty percent of his mana, Cassian collapsed on the ground in exhaustion without landing a single effective hit.

Next was Illyana.

Illyana looked up at me as if asking whether she really had to do it, but there were no exceptions.

Well, the result wasn’t much different.

Since it hadn’t been long since she started learning offensive magic in the first place, the mock battle with Illyana ended even more blandly.

She did her best to cast spells, but because she was using magic in a way she wasn’t used to, she quickly grew tired and ended up plopping down on the ground.

“Hah, hah, hah…….”

“Good work. Here, water.”

“Hah, th-thank you.”

While Illyana gulped down the water in the glass bottle, Chloe came closer and sat down.

“Still, they’re both amazing. I think they’re much better than I was.”

“What matters is what comes next.”

Chloe, so to speak, had been a late-blooming genius, the sort who matured slowly.

“Then, it’s early, but since you’re both exhausted, let’s call it here for today.”

“Mm…….”

“Okay…….”

And so, together with the two who were completely exhausted, plus Chloe, we rested leisurely in the yard.

After using magic to clean up the parts that had been turned into a mess by the mock battles, it was already around the time the sunset began.

◇

The sun set, and a single stream of the Milky Way faintly crossed the night sky from one horizon to the other.

“Hah, it’s warm…….”

“Somehow, it feels nice…….”

After dinner, Illyana and I entered the half-natural hot spring in the backyard of the house and warmed ourselves.

The reason it was only half natural was that while the hot spring heating itself was natural, the one who made it that way was Chloe herself.

They said we had washed clean after getting dirty during the mock battles, but taking a bath like this was another matter entirely.

Cleanliness was one thing, but above all, it felt good.

The air was cold enough to be called early winter now, but submerged in the hot spring water, I couldn’t feel it at all.

“Master, how is the water?”

“It’s perfect. It feels good.”

“Then I’ll join you.”

When I looked back, Chloe had stripped off all her clothes and was approaching. Without hesitation, she entered the water right beside me.

Her body couldn’t be called voluptuous, exactly, but it was beautiful, with everything curving in and out where it should.

If I were still the me who had lived lying in a hospital room, I might have enjoyed the sight, but now, it didn’t stir much in me.

“It doesn’t feel hot anymore, does it?”

“No…….”

Since this was Illyana’s first time entering water this hot, she had been a little scared at first.

But seeing her now, she seemed quite satisfied.

With the three of us here like this, I did feel a little sorry for Cassian, who would be alone inside the house, but what could we do?

If he felt left out, he should have been born a girl. Or changed his sex.

As we spent some time like that, Illyana hesitated for a moment, then opened her mouth.

“U-um……. Lady Chloe, how did you meet Teacher?”

“Me? Hmm, it’s nothing special. I was about to be eaten by a big spider, and Master saved me. That’s how we met.”

In truth, it wasn’t just a big spider, but an enormous spider-type magical beast whose single leg segment was larger than a person.

And she hadn’t merely been about to be eaten, either. The village people had taken the lead in offering her as a sacrifice.

Her parents had joined in as well.

I think there had been some prophecy about a child with pale violet hair being a fitting sacrifice for a god.

So they went and offered her up to the spider magical beast they believed to be their local god.

After seeing those insane people, I took her in on the spot.

“You were so cute back then.”

Chloe at that time had been even younger than Illyana was now.

“That’s true. Though you haven’t changed at all since I was little, Master.”

“…….”

“The chemise you wear as sleepwear still has frills at the hem, and how surprisingly girlish you are about things like that hasn’t changed from then to now either…….”

“Chloe.”

“Ah.”

Chloe belatedly wore an expression that said she realized she had said too much, but it was already far too late.

“Do you know what really hasn’t changed?”

I lightly wrapped my hand in the electric shock I had used unchanged since those days.

Chloe’s reaction was truly dramatic.

“W-wait, it was a joke, you know it was a joke, right……?!”

Chloe shrieked and pulled her body back, but my hand drew ever closer to her all the same.

Looking straight into Chloe’s wavering eyes, I smiled and answered.

“Yeah. This is a joke too.”

“Kyaaaaaah!!”

Still, I wasn’t truly angry, so I went easy on her.

◇

It was night, and Illyana, Cassian, and Rutina, who had newly taken a spot beneath the table in the corner of the room, were all asleep.

Chloe quietly called for me.

Following her, I floated my body into the air and went outside the front door without making a sound. In the yard, there was a table and two chairs that hadn’t been there earlier.

“It may have only been about a hundred years, but don’t you think we ought to have some time to talk, just the two of us?”

As Chloe said that, she lifted a bottle of wine and showed it to me.

And when I saw the label on that wine bottle, I couldn’t help but be surprised.

“My goodness, isn’t that ‘Felt Reze’? How on earth did you get this?”

“To be honest, I’d forgotten it was even there, but a few years ago, I went down to the underground storeroom and found it.”

Felt Reze. In the language of the ancient empire, it meant Red Paradise.

It was a wine made from grapes cultivated with water rich in highly concentrated mana, flowing down from the highest peak in the world in the central mountain range of the continent, also known as the “Roof of the World.” Fewer than a hundred bottles were produced in a year, making it an exceedingly rare item.

In truth, its mana concentration was so high that rather than wine, it was closer to highly concentrated mana water, to the point that ordinary people could die from drinking it.

“It felt like a waste to drink it alone, and besides, you like this, don’t you, Master?”

For people like Chloe and me, who could perceive mana as flavor, it could be called top-class.

Chloe brought over two wineglasses and poured wine into each.

The wine reflected the moonlight, shining with a red glow.

“How long has it been?”

“It’s been ages for me too. I think about a thousand years.”

When I lifted my wineglass, Chloe likewise lifted hers from across from me and looked at me.

“Sitting like this reminds me of when I had just become an adult.”

“How long ago was that? And to me, you’re the same now as you were then.”

“Back then, I never thought I would live this long.”

“It’s thanks to that that we have time like this.”

“That may be true.”

Chloe smiled slightly, still looking at me.

We held out our wineglasses and clinked them together.

Then, beneath the night sky illuminated by the full moon and the Milky Way, we blossomed into conversation about memories of the distant past.