“What about that grimoire you gave me this time?”

“The grimoire? Why?”

Among the miscellaneous junk she had gotten back after doing favors for the ghost royals, there had also been a grimoire.

Apparently, it was an incredibly precious book written long ago by a great archmage.

Big deal.

To her, it had just been a thick, heavy lump of unreadable paper covered in characters she couldn’t understand.

Still, she had taken it, thinking Ravi might like it if she tossed it to him, but his reaction had been even more intense than she expected.

‘Y-you... you, you! W-where the hell did you get this?!’

‘Found it on the way.’

‘What kind of nonsense is that?!’

‘Brother, did you just raise your voice at me? So you don’t need this book, then?’

‘Mmgh!’

‘...’

‘Mmmgh!’

‘...Fine. That’s enough. I’ll give you the book.’

Just facing Ravi as he clamped both hands over his own mouth and shook his head violently at such a pathetic little threat had been so absurd she’d almost been speechless.

Anyway, with that one book, she had gotten a lot of good use out of Ravi for quite a while.

‘Brother, eat.’

‘Don’t want to.’

‘Book.’

‘...I can eat, can’t I.’

And it had become a lot easier to drag Ravi out of the lab when he shut ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) himself in there.

‘Brother, put a heat-preservation spell on this place.’

‘I’m busy.’

‘Book.’

‘Hey! Don’t you think that’s too cheap?’

‘So you’re saying you won’t do it?’

‘I’ll do it, all right, I’ll do it!’

Things had been very nice for a while.

“But what about that book? Did it have healing magic in it?”

“Not healing magic. More like a kind of time magic.”

“Time magic?”

The moment Camilla showed interest, Ravi seemed to perk right up and immediately picked up the mana stone he had been handling just moments ago.

“You use this mana stone to turn part of the body back into the past.”

“The past?”

“To the state it was in before it started hurting.”

“What?”

So that meant turning certain organs back to the healthy state they had been in when the body was younger?

“Is that possible?”

“If you do it exactly as written. Of course, it’s only possible because it’s me.”

Even to someone like her, who knew absolutely nothing about magic, it sounded like an incredible spell.

When she looked impressed, Ravi lifted his chin a little higher.

BZZZZ— BZZZZ—!

Just then, the communication orb set off to one side began to ring.

“Yes.”

“Ravi, you little punk! Why aren’t you at the tower again?! I gave you work to do, and instead of handling that, you’re off doing some other research—”

“Hold on a moment.”

As if embarrassed to be scolded like a child, Ravi glanced at Camilla and then took the orb and headed outside.

That was probably his master, the vice master of the magic tower, wasn’t it?

[Kyuu!]

“King?”

While Ravi opened the door and stepped out, King slipped inside. He must have been waiting for her outside the whole time.

“Did you come to see me?”

[Kyukyu!]

Camilla picked up the bouncing King, who was asking to be held, and settled him on her lap, then lightly stroked his head.

[Kyuu.]

At her touch, King let out a pleased little purring cry.

She thought he might fall asleep like that, but the little cat... no, tiger, who had been sitting quietly, suddenly stretched his neck out.

“No, King.”

King sprang up from Camilla’s lap and landed on Ravi’s worktable.

What had caught his interest was the mana stone Ravi had just been handling.

[Kyu!]

Tap.

Had the round mana stone looked like a ball?

At the sight of King batting at the mana stone covered in strange writing with his front paw, Camilla hurriedly shook her head.

“You’re going to get scolded if you do that.”

If Ravi got mad, he was scary, all right.

“Come here, stop— ...Huh?”

Tap! Roll roll—

“Uh... uh-oh...!”

In the end, with one trivial little kick from King, the mana stone rolled across the table and fell to the floor.

The moment she saw it, Camilla threw herself toward it.

If that thing broke...

That would be a complete catastrophe. How was she supposed to deal with Ravi and that filthy temper of his?

THUD!

“Ow....”

Camilla let out a small groan as she slammed straight into the worktable. Still, thankfully, she managed to snatch the mana stone in her hand.

Bzzzz—

“...Huh?”

Bzzzz—

“Huh?”

But her relief only lasted a moment. When Camilla opened the hand clutching the mana stone, she had no choice but to freeze in confusion.

A strange vibration was coming from it, and when she looked closer, the mana stone in her hand was cracked.

“Wow, shit.”

I practically threw myself for it, so why is it broken anyway? Why the hell is it this fragile?

“That bastard Ravi is going to be so pi—”

FWAAASH!

“......!”

Camilla couldn’t finish her sentence. An enormous burst of light poured out from the cracked mana stone.

She hurriedly tried to throw the stone away, but the light swallowed her body faster than she could move.

For a moment she squeezed her eyes shut, thinking it might explode.

Then—

“...Hm?”

Feeling the light die down, Camilla slowly opened her eyes.

What the hell?

Did only the mana stone break?

Just as she let out a sigh of relief at the fact that it hadn’t exploded—

[Kyuu... ?]

King, who had been running toward her, blinked his round eyes over and over as if startled by the bright light.

“King, you little— I told you to get down... Hm?”

What was that? Why did her voice sound kind of strange?

Camilla, in the middle of scolding King, stopped short.

[Kyu, kyukyu!]

And that wasn’t all. King, who always stayed shameless no matter what kind of trouble he caused, looked strangely flustered.

The little lump of white fur circled anxiously around Camilla.

“What’s wrong with you?”

Rustle.

“...Huh?”

Camilla’s eyes went wide as she reached a hand out toward King.

Why... why can’t I see my hand?

And what was this huge sleeve?

Staring at the sleeve hanging down where her hand should have been, Camilla blinked again and again.

BANG!

“Hey! The magic power that just flared up in here—”

At that moment the door flew open and Ravi came rushing inside. He must have sensed the magic leaking out when the mana stone broke and come in at once.

“......”

The moment he saw her sitting collapsed on the floor, his mouth slowly fell open wider and wider.

“Um, Brother? I wasn’t trying to break it on purpose....”

Tap.

Looking genuinely shocked by the sight of the broken mana stone, he dropped the communication orb from his hand onto the floor.

“I-I’ll give you ten mana stones!”

“......”

Ravi came closer to her, dropped to one knee, and met her eyes. Seeing that dazed look on his face, Camilla hurriedly kept talking.

“I can even throw in top-grade mana stones—”

“Haah.”

Was even that not enough?

With Camilla on the verge of tears in front of him, Ravi kept dragging both hands down over his face like he was washing it dry.

“This is driving me insane.”

Then he looked at Camilla again.

At his younger sister, who had turned into a tiny little child.

*****

“So....”

The Duke of Sorpel’s gaze turned to one spot.

A tiny little girl struggling to climb onto a chair. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Pink-blond hair. Red eyes. And instead of sharp lines, soft white cheeks that looked a little plump.

“You’re saying Camilla ended up like that because of your magic.”

“Yes....”

A long sigh spilled from Ravi’s mouth at his short answer.

How was he supposed to know that the mana stone with time magic engraved into it would break in Camilla’s hand?

And as if the crack had disturbed the magic formula, an even earlier point in time than the one he had originally set had been applied.

“She looks about four.”

Judging by how similar she looked to Rio of Sepra.

Slide.

“Ah! Thank you, Brother.”

Since Camilla still couldn’t get herself onto the chair, Ludvill quietly picked her up and set her in her seat.

“......”

Without saying much, he carefully stroked Camilla’s round little head, as if he were handling fragile glass.

When Camilla smiled brightly out of habit at that touch, Ludvill couldn’t take his eyes off her face so easily.

“What is it?”

Camilla tilted her head and stared right at him.

“Just....”

Letting the end of the sentence trail off, Ludvill stroked her head again.

The Duke of Sorpel, who had been quietly watching that scene, suddenly called her name.

“Camilla.”

“Yes?”

“Come here.”

“...?”

At the Duke of Sorpel’s call, Camilla hopped down from the chair she had only just managed to get onto.

Ludvill tried to catch her, but she refused, saying she was fine, and trotted over to the Duke of Sorpel.

Seriously.

Now she understood why kids always bounced around when they walked.

She had only meant to hurry over, but somehow her steps just naturally turned into this pitter-patter little run.

“What is it, Father?”

When she stopped in front of the Duke of Sorpel, Camilla had to tilt her head up much farther than usual to meet his eyes.

“That....”

“Yes?”

“Come here.”

The instant Camilla stepped forward without hesitation, the Duke of Sorpel lifted her into his arms.