Chapter 51
“Sorry, brother. I kept you waiting a little, didn’t I?”
“It’s all right. You haven’t seen your brother in a long time either.”
I waved a hand dismissively and rose from my seat.
Ellie’s apologetic gaze soon fell on the fairly large paper shopping bag in my hand.
“What’s that….”
“My clothes. I bought them in advance.”
“You bought them in advance…?”
“Yes. You should always use your time efficiently.”
If I got held up here, that meant I’d have that much less time to search for information on soul-transfer magic at Ellie’s house.
I slightly opened the mouth of the paper bag to show her the clothes inside, then walked over to Ellie.
“Brother, you’re an idiot.”
“Huh?”
I could have sworn I’d just heard something strange….
I stopped and blinked. Ellie snorted and abruptly turned away.
“Then let’s head straight to my house.”
Her voice sounded strangely sharper than before.
“Did something bad happen?”
I asked cautiously.
Ellie remained turned away for a while, then finally let out a deep sigh and looked back at me. Her expression still seemed a little pouty.
“So you picked out all those clothes yourself?”
“Ah… these?”
Actually, every one of them had been chosen for me by that Kairos guy.
Even after hearing my resolve, 『I will never, ever, ever be conquered by someone like you!』, he had shown no sign of being discouraged and kept following me around, helping me choose clothes.
“Yeah, well… I did.”
Of course, telling Ellie the truth felt somehow awkward. If I said the wrong thing, her strange tendency to suspect everything might rear its head again.
I handed Ellie the paper bag, meaning she could look for herself if she wanted to.
Ellie obediently took the bag and calmly examined its contents one by one.
“You bought a skirt too?”
“Yeah. I figured I’d need at least one if I’m going to participate in high society from now on.”
It was also proper for women to wear skirts at formal occasions.
Ellie peered into the bag in silence for a while, then nodded as if she understood and handed it back to me.
Then, with an expression slightly softer than before, though still somewhat odd, she continued.
“Your taste is better than I expected.”
“Really? That’s a relief.”
Could that Kairos guy actually have had decent fashion sense after all?
“I didn’t know you were interested in things like styling clothes, either, brother.”
“Haha… well, people change.”
I awkwardly laughed it off and quickly changed the subject.
“So how’s your brother? Is he still healthy?”
“Yes, more or less. He’s always been almost excessively healthy.”
Ellie finally started walking again.
I quickly fell into step beside her, and Ellie’s voice continued.
“He said he’s been a little busy lately because of the monsters appearing along the border.”
“Monsters?”
“Yes. Apparently, large numbers of low-level monsters have suddenly started appearing recently.”
Ellie shrugged as though it were no big deal.
“Well, that sort of thing happens all the time along the border.”
Then she glanced sideways at me.
“Did you perhaps want to meet my brother too?”
“Yeah. It’s already been quite a while since I last saw him.”
Besides, her brother was one of the few people I could actually have a decent conversation with.
I continued with a faintly resigned smile.
“Well, I suppose that would be impossible with the way I look now.”
“I’m sure my brother would believe what happened to you.”
“Oh, come on. Even for your brother, that might be asking too much.”
Having a younger sibling he’d always been close to suddenly turn into a woman and show up one day….
Just imagining how awkward and bewildering it would be made my spine crawl.
“Ahem. Anyway, we’re heading straight to the estate now, right?”
“Yes. Is there anywhere you’d like to stop before then?”
“Not particularly. What about you, Ellie?”
“Hmm… would you be all right not stopping by the antique bookstore?”
Ah, right. McCullen’s Antique Bookstore was definitely nearby.
“How about we stop by the antique bookstore briefly on the way back later? It’s not urgent right now.”
If I thought about it rationally, the odds of stumbling across rare material on soul-transfer magic in a downtown antique bookstore were far lower than the odds of finding some clue in House Klostermann’s vast library.
“Then… ah, how about we have lunch before going to the estate?”
“Let’s eat lunch at the estate. I want to have some of Uncle Bertrand’s cooking again.”
Uncle Bertrand was the Klostermann household’s personal chef.
Whenever I visited Ellie’s house as a child, he had always made piles of delicious snacks for the two of us. He was a good man.
“I see….”
“Hmm?”
Ellie lowered her head with an inexplicably downcast expression.
“You like Uncle Bertrand’s cooking too, don’t you, Ellie?”
I asked, feeling a little bewildered.
“……Ah, yes. Of course I do.”
Maybe her downcast expression had only been my imagination. Ellie quickly lifted her head and smiled brightly again.
“Yes, then let’s return to the estate right away.”
Having answered naturally, Ellie glanced around.
“By the way, did Kairos go home first?”
“Yeah.”
“How long were you together?”
“Uh… that guy?”
Why was she suddenly asking that….
I nervously checked Ellie’s expression, but fortunately, it didn’t seem as though she was asking because she suspected or knew something.
I swallowed a sigh of relief and answered as lightly as possible.
“Only as far as that clothing store earlier. He showed me the way there.”
Well, there was no reason to lie about that part, anyway.
As expected, Ellie replied, “Oh, is that so?” as though it were nothing, then swept her gaze around once more.
“Actually, Kairos came up briefly when I was talking with my brother earlier.”
“Your brother mentioned Kairos?”
“Yes.”
Ellie nodded and looked at me.
“So if Kairos had still been nearby, I was going to ask him to come to the estate with us.”
“A-ask him to come with us?”
“My father said he’d like to meet him in person at least once, too. He’s curious what kind of boy Petrus Hope is.”
So he wanted to get a look at him in advance….
“That’s too bad. We just parted ways.”
Anyway, it was a relief that I’d sent that troublesome guy away before Ellie arrived.
Especially after Asta’s warning just now, I didn’t want to get personally involved with or hang around that guy anymore.
“That is a little unfortunate.”
Fortunately, Ellie didn’t seem particularly disappointed either.
Soon we reached the main road, and a carriage bearing the familiar crest of House Klostermann approached to pick us up.
“So what did you introduce me as to your brother?”
I asked, leaning deep into the carriage’s plush seat.
“I just said you were a classmate from school.”
“That’s it?”
“Yes, I told him you were the classmate I went treasure hunting with.”
Ellie answered as though it were nothing.
‘Is he taking it more casually because I’m a girl too…?’
By my standards, it seemed a little strange, but come to think of it, House Klostermann had always been somewhat lenient about such trivial matters.
“Then I guess I’ll be able to stay in that room again after all this time.”
‘That room’ was the guest room at the Klostermann estate where I often stayed whenever I visited Ellie’s house as a child.
I nodded with a smile before I knew it, memories of my childhood suddenly coming to mind.
“No, you’ll be sleeping in my room with me tonight.”
But the answer I received was surprisingly firm.
I slowly raised my head and met Ellie’s eyes, and she answered once more with an expression that suggested this was only natural.
“I told you, didn’t I? I introduced you to Father as my ‘classmate.’ What noble girl in the world would go out of her way to put her classmate in a stuffy guest room?”
“W-wait a minute….”
“Don’t worry. My bed is plenty big enough. You’ve seen it before when you were little, haven’t you, brother?”
Of course I remembered it. The enormous pink princess bed piled high with all sorts of dolls.
It was big enough for four adults to lie down and sleep comfortably, let alone two people.
But….
“I’m still a man, though, aren’t I?”
I was so dumbfounded that even a hollow laugh slipped out.
Even so, she was asking me to sleep in the same bed as a girl—and Ellie, no less—just the two of us….
“You’re my brother Evan before you’re a man, aren’t you?”
“No, that’s not the kind of issue I mean….”
“Are you perhaps uncomfortable sleeping in the same bed as me?”
“No, it’s not that either….”
Of course I had no problem with it. As I always said, Ellie was like a little sister to me.
“Are you really okay with it, Ellie? Sharing a bed with me.”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“……”
When she put it so matter-of-factly, I had nothing left to say….
“No, if you’re okay with it, Ellie, then I don’t mind either.”
Right, there was no need to hesitate any further here. It was Ellie, after all—what did it matter?
“Right?”
Only then did Ellie smile brightly. Apparently, I had been overthinking it.
“I’m looking forward to tonight.”
At Ellie’s final remark, I too merely nodded with a wry smile.
※※
“Whew, this library really is enormous no matter how many times I see it.”
The Klostermann library, which we reached right after eating the delicious lunch Uncle Bertrand had prepared, seemed even larger and grander than it had in my childhood memories.
“Books on high-level magic of the seventh tier or higher are in this section.”
Following Ellie, who was showing me around, I headed straight for the deepest section of the library.
The farther I went, the stronger the distinctive smell of old books became, while the subtle magical energy drifting among the ancient spellbooks containing powerful magic grew stronger too.
“Whew, just as I expected, these are all incredibly old books.”
In the section we reached, a tall bookcase was packed full of thick, ancient books that looked at least several hundred years old at a glance.
I pulled out the book at the very front, and Ellie had somehow come right up beside me, looking down at its cover with me.
“It isn’t ordinary magic, after all.”
Then she turned to me and asked,
“Besides books on soul-transfer magic, is there anything else you’d like to look for?”
“Hmm… could you look for some books on demons too?”
“Demons?”
Ellie tilted her head, looking puzzled.
“Yeah. It’s not for any particular reason. I just need something interesting to read while I clear my head for a bit.”
I had been getting entangled with demons in one way or another quite a lot lately, after all.
“Yes, understood. I’ll look for some.”
Ellie nodded without asking any questions and slowly moved away from me toward another bookshelf.
“There’s a desk behind the bookcase over there~~”
“Okay, thanks.”
I gathered about five of the thick books from the front of the shelf into my arms and headed toward the small space behind the bookcase Ellie had told me about.
As expected, there was an old but fairly sturdy-looking wooden desk there.
I set the books down on the desk, then closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
‘Right, for now, let’s focus on this.’
My mind was still a little cluttered over what had happened with Asta, but that was that, and this was this.
The best course was still to break this cursed magic by my own power, without Asta’s interference.
I steeled my resolve once more and opened the book on top.
As expected, words densely written in an ancient, nearly indecipherable cursive greeted me from the very first page.