"Haaah~, I'm back."
Sitting in the helicopter, the young man who had a pretty good ti in the Type-Moon world gazed at the small island in the distance, his mood cheerful.
"Yes, you're back."
Beside him, Miss i, with her gentle voice, looked at the young man who seed to have... shrunk a little, her expression a bit strange.
Is it my imagination?
The answer was no.
"Zihan, did you... put on makeup? You look younger than before."
Miss i, having clearly noticed the change in his physique, organized her thoughts and then spoke the awkward words.
Li Zihan's ntal age was around sixteen to nineteen, the sa as hers, but his body was clearly that of a fourteen or fifteen-year-old.
The adjective for soone who looked even younger than fourteen or fifteen was... childlike.
"For various reasons, my physical age has regressed slightly."
The young man, whose age had been rolled back because of Aoko, blinked and explained.
"Once I complete a certain study related to ti, I'll be able to return to my original state."
This was a fact.
Accelerating or slowing the flow of ti within a Reality Marble, which was not subject to the world's interference, was the Emiya family's magecraft.
It was originally a family magic that specialized in manipulating the ti within one's own body or small-scale causality. However, in the fourth generation, the head of the Emiya family—the unlucky bastard who was KO'd by his son's single shot—was a super genius who elevated the family magecraft to the realm of a Sealing Designation.
The legitimate heir, Emiya Kiritsugu, only inherited less than twenty percent of the Magical Crest—the Magus Association took most of the valuable research results, leaving the scraps for him.
The Emiya family's magecraft was by no ans as simple as what Emiya Kiritsugu had displayed.
After seeing Aozaki Aoko alter the state of things by disrupting the order of ti, Li Zihan had suddenly beco interested in ti manipulation. Thus, he had paid a small price to take the Emiya family's true Magical Crest.
The knowledge Zelretch had taught him included a section on ti—entering a parallel world, then jumping back to the original worldline, choosing a new arrival point midway.
The prerequisite for such ti travel was the ability to observe different points in ti across multiple worldlines and then accurately perform a cross-worldline spatial transfer.
Li Zihan couldn't learn such an insane maneuver at all, so he had to honestly stick to practicing spatial magecraft.
However, after seeing Aozaki Aoko reassemble a new tiline by disrupting the flow of ti and destroying order, he had so ideas.
For example, integrating the knowledge of the Fifth Magic he got from Aoko into the Emiya family's magecraft, allowing him to manipulate ti more easily by destroying the ti flow itself.
As long as the integration was successful, achieving ti stop, deletion, and reversal within a Reality Marble would be as easy as eating and drinking.
The young man, who had already thought of nas for a series of future skills, had a faint smile on his lips.
For example, The World, King Crimson, Bites the Dust, Made in Heaven...
"Then... Zihan, you should probably speed up your research."
Miss i looked at the young man, who looked quite compatible sitting next to the girl who was said to be Bronya's sister, and reminded him awkwardly.
She felt that if she stood next to the current Li Zihan, outsiders would definitely see them as brother and sister.
To be seen as an older sister while standing next to the person who was practically her fiancé—just thinking about it made Miss i feel terrible.
"Mhm, I'll try to accelerate the research."
The young man, who would be practically invincible within a Reality Marble if the research succeeded, nodded.
"Big Brother seems so amazing."
Miss Seele, who had seen everyone look at Li Zihan with a sense of awe, whether at the Clock Tower or in Fuyuki Town, had clear admiration in her eyes.
Researching ti... just thinking about it sounds incredible.
"It's just so-so."
The young man, who had probably put only slightly more effort into learning magecraft than Miss Banya put into cooking, shrugged and said sothing that was asking for a beating.
He was also running on pure talent.
"You just have to look at it a few tis and then experint a little."
Experinting is not sothing that can be sumd up with "just so-so," Murata Hiko thought.
"Vice-Commander Li, you're quite the scholar."
Murata Hiko, a top student herself, looked at the man who was actually the second-in-command and captain air-dropped from Schicksal's European HQ to the Far East Branch, and decided to test the waters.
A certain hat wholesaler who wished to remain anonymous was not very fond of the Schicksal Far East Branch because his granddaughter had left him to establish it.
Therefore, the developnt funds received by the Far East Branch had always been insufficient.
He seed to hope that through these economic sanctions, he could make Theresa return to his side sooner.
However, it didn't seem to have much effect.
Theresa still remained in the Far East, rarely returning to Europe.
This had continued until about twenty days ago—
The Overseer who disliked the Far East Branch had air-dropped a second-in-command.
Such a developnt truly made one suspect if there was sothing fishy going on.
"May I ask, what ambitions do you have for coming here?"
Miss Murata A—, ahem, Miss Hiko, looked at the air-dropped commander, her expression a bit strange.
She wasn't doubting Li Zihan's ability, she just felt that this guy's appearance was a bit off right now.
This guy was completely reverse-aging.
I'm here in the Far East for three things: my salary, my salary, and goddamn it, my salary!!
Li Zihan thought to himself, but the words that ca out were sothing else entirely.
"Probably to establish the Organization for the Preservation of Human Order, Finis Chaldea."
The young man, who was simply here to fulfill his promise to Otto, didn't ntion his salary at all.
The reason was simple: the financial authority of the Far East Branch had been handed over to him, the Vice-Commander.
Where was the logic in demanding a salary from himself?
The young man, who would probably be using Theresa's salary to take Seele to the ocean park, decided not to hold a grudge over Theresa having previously used his salary.
"What's that?"
Magic Big Aunt Theresa, who felt she could understand every word but couldn't comprehend them when put together, had a look of pure illiteracy in her eyes.
She did not yet understand that her salary card was facing an unprecedented crisis.
"A very money-burning project."
Li Zihan summarized Chaldea's greatest feature in incredibly concise language.
Maintaining Chaldeas's operation was an extrely expensive affair. The power supply alone required multiple nuclear power plants; it wasn't just your average money-burner.
Everyone present was stunned.
This introduction... wasn't it a little too concise?
"Huh?"
The shorty white-haired old hag who had asked the question made a bewildered sound.
"This thing is super complicated. I can't explain it clearly in a short ti."
The young man, who was simply too lazy to describe the functions and operating principles of Chaldea, shrugged and said.
"You just need to know that once it's built, it can modify many tragedies that have occurred."
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