The interior was like the study at Avondale Mansion in Nine Holder. Going down a few short steps and standing on the carpet, she looked around the two-story study.
There was a magic plate on the mahogany desk placed in the center of the large room, and Cider was examining the structure of the entire laboratory with a hologram projected above it. He, who had been looking down at his laboratory like a king surveying a small kingdom, slowly raised his head.
He leaned against the desk and tilted his head slightly as he asked. His fingertips, half-hidden by the hologram, busily tapped the desk surface.
"Your impression?"
"What impression?"
"Is it a bit scary after all? Disgusting? Though you can see it quite commonly 13 years later, right? Thinking that way, there shouldn't be much to fear."
Among incomprehensible words like scary or disgusting, Esperanza quickly opened her mouth upon finding the one question she could answer.
"First of all, there's nothing like this 13 years later. Not at all."
Cider frowned. As if completely unexpected.
"Why not? You said I died."
"I don't know that either."
Nine Holder 13 years later was certainly a world that had developed dramatically compared to now. But in Esperanza's view, it was 'still just the 20th century.'
"So are you scared?"
"It was a bit disgusting."
Cider waited for the next words with his arms propped on the desk. His fingertips pressing down on the desk had turned white, but neither of them noticed.
"Why are all the automatons rabbits? You're really bad at design."
"Ah, those rabbits were made when I was young. You know, Detective Bronze... Is that all?"
"Make the light switch sowhere visible. I had so trouble because I couldn't find it."
"That's it?"
Was he hoping for praise? Esperanza thought while pursing her lips.
"Hmm, and it seed impressive. It looks about a hundred years ahead of what I saw at Avondale Mansion. Everything in this laboratory was made by you, right?"
Even without an answer, it was obvious. She was newly amazed. He made all of that by himself. His confidence had good reason. Esperanza, who had been looking at his eyes lowered over the hologram, secretly thought. There's no reason I couldn't be proud of this man.
"I especially liked the flying chanics, but the lawyer says creepy things every ti he speaks, so do sothing about it. Arson, murder—who on earth made that?"
"I'll take note."
After seeming to choose his words for a mont, laughter quickly returned to his voice. Esperanza, who had been propping her chin and pondering what else to say, quickly turned her head.
"Why are you laughing?"
"May I hug you?"
She thought she had misheard. Her mind raced quickly for a brief mont. It wouldn't be completely unacceptable, would it?
The thought 'this isn't right' flashed through one side of her mind, but Esperanza didn't think deeply and spread her arms.
"Yes, well... but why?"
Without answering, Cider pulled her waist into an embrace, buried his cheek in Esperanza's shoulder, and let out a ticklish laugh. What was so enjoyable that he might as well tell her.
When she placed her awkwardly wandering arms on top of his arms, she felt strength enter his arms. Her mood beca strange and she felt she should say sothing.
"But is it okay to show
sothing like this? Putting up cards like 'Do you trust ?' The one who should doubt trust isn't
but you. What would you do if I told others?"
"Do you even have anyone to tell? When you only have
in this world."
That statent from that day was a sin. How many tis is he milking it now? I really brought up unnecessary words.
"It's true, but please don't say it like that."
"I like it."
"Ah, of course you'd like it. But I don't really..."
"Don't say that. It hurts my feelings."
"Are you drunk?"
Cider suddenly lifted his head while maintaining the embracing position. He was shining his eyes with a genuinely delighted face. Except for being too close that their noses might touch, it looked much better than before. Esperanza tried to pull her body back, but her waist was held so she couldn't.
"You're fine."
Esperanza realized that was an answer to the previous question. No further 'why' was aningful. Just as Esperanza hadn't doubted when she saw Cider's card, he too would have done so naturally and obviously.
"So, did you tour well?"
"I barely did. Where is there such a thing as inviting soone and making them co all the way inside alone? Coleman looked like he was trying to stop
from going, and the lights weren't even on inside."
"Just leave Coleman alone. It would be pure worry. More than that, the lights weren't on? I sent the security guard and turned on all the lights."
"They weren't on."
At those words, Cider got up without hesitation and checked the switchboard attached beside the bookshelf. After turning several dials and opening the interior to inspect the circuits, he frowned.
"There must have been so interference. I worked on the whole thing this morning. But I turned off everything that could be dangerous if you touched it, so don't worry and feel free to touch anything."
This wasn't a museum with explanations attached to each machine, and she had no intention of touching this and that like a child on a field trip. But being told she could touch them made her curious.
"Then at least show
around. What would I know seeing it alone?"
Cider hesitated for a mont. But soon he nodded briefly.
Esperanza read a strange resistance in his eyes. Since it couldn't be resistance toward Esperanza, was it about this laboratory? The strange attitude he'd been showing since earlier, the sudden embrace too. Sothing was shaking him, but she couldn't be sure what it was.
But for such a thing, Cider showed definite confidence and attachnt to his inventions.
They went into each room connected along the laboratory's corridor one by one. In the first room, a pen nib attached to a brass chanical arm was making clean sketches like a printer.
"It's drawing circuits."
At those words, she approached and looked closely at the drawing, and it really was a circuit mixed with pipes and various components.
"Having a machine make new inventions after you make one invention would be convenient."
"This can't do inventions."
Cider said while tapping the joint parts of the chanical arm. The process of the finished circuit being printed on a tal plate, gold being traced over it, and machine parts whirring and assembling according to the circuit. Through this process, a four-legged machine that flew around puffing steam was born without passing through Cider's hands. It was the sa as the chanic Esperanza had seen earlier.
Since she said she liked it, he seed to have deliberately made this. Esperanza stood on tiptoes and reached out to catch the chanic flying around puffing.
"You take it."
He didn't seem to find it particularly precious. Well, he could make it again anyti he wanted. But it was useless to Esperanza too. Receiving the odd gift, Esperanza put the small chanic struggling with its stimulator-equipped feet into her inventory and asked.
"Naturally, there's nothing like this outside either, right?"
"Right."
"If sothing like this existed, it would have many uses. It would be good for finding books. Could be used for patrol too."
"There would be many uses, but I have no intention of making it public."
"Why?"
Cider's lips ford a straight line. Quite firmly.
"I make many things the world can't handle. I have no intention of taking responsibility for the results either. But at least to make them public, I have to think about the repercussions."
She had never thought Cider would care about such aspects. Yet sohow this conversation wasn't unfamiliar. It would have been when she first rode the steam carriage to the magic item shop. She seed to have had a conversation like this.
'Is that all?'
'That's all.'
What had she said then?
While pondering, they moved to another room. In a room with a brain model in the center, machines were repeatedly assembling and disassembling parts.
Automatons assembled parts, other machines put magic stones inside and checked reactions then disassembled them, typewriters moved on their own recording numbers. Another machine moved typewriters and chanical arms simultaneously, pouring out numbers with the typewriter while endlessly drawing graphs with the chanical arm.
"This is the process of making your favorite Bronze series. Though I made the early works you saw by hand."
When did I say I liked that series? His natural fabrication skills were no ordinary talent. I just clearly said they were disgusting.
"Then is this one also a rabbit?"
"I have no intention of making it into a rabbit, I'm just collecting data. The fra is the sa anyway, only the contents going into the head are different."
The machine rolled up the graphs drawn that way and put them into a cylindrical carrier. And when placed under the pipeline connected to each room, the carrier was sucked in.
"What's that? Where did you send it?"
"To the study. There was that thing in the study too."
An empty carrier returned shortly after. When Esperanza couldn't take her eyes off the pipe, Cider asked as if puzzled.
"Haven't you seen sothing like this at a bank?"
"What would I have to go to a bank for?"
"True."
With that large inventory, there was no reason to entrust money to others' hands. Cider looked at the space behind Esperanza with greedy eyes for a mont. Just when she seed to be acting decent lately, here he goes again. Esperanza muttered defensively.
"I won't give it."
"I never asked for it."
"You were coveting it."
Cider answered with an incomprehensible smile and opened the door to co out. Eight more rooms remained in the corridor.
"Only the two rooms we just saw are currently used research rooms, the rest are mostly for storage."
All those many rooms were for storage. The more she opened each room, the more amazed she beca. From small music boxes to a huge interpretation engine occupying half of a large room. Objects that could turn a country upside down if even one leaked were piled up like miscellaneous items.
"What's this?"
Among them, what caught Esperanza's attention was a machine about knee-high. It was buried among the large machines, but she didn't know how it caught her eye.
Dusting it off, the machine was shaped like four legs standing like an insect carrying a large basket. She could guess it was for transport, but couldn't tell what the sensor attached in front was for. Esperanza crouched in front of it and touched the sensor part. No reaction ca. Was it out of magical power?
"That's..."
Cider's eyes clouded when he saw what Esperanza was touching. A gaze full of dismay touched Esperanza then fell away. His lips moved slowly as if reluctant.
"It's a cart that transports minerals mined through narrow tunnels of magic stone mines to the surface. Before that, it was work done by hiring children."
Esperanza's face also beca gloomy. Soti ago, she had seen pictures related to mine labor during the Industrial Revolution period. Though it was just a small sketch, it was so miserable that it took her breath away and she couldn't look anymore and turned her head away.
"What about other mines?"
Magic stone mines were a problem, but places like coal mines really wouldn't be places for children to work. Given the child labor environnt of this period, where would conditions have been good?
"Other places find it more profitable to hire people. Magic stone mines can grind in low-quality magic stones with no comrcial value, but other mines have to buy and use magic stones so it doesn't pay off."
Cider's voice as he said this sounded quite dry. Esperanza frowned. Her narrowed eyes flashed.
"Then they still use young children?"
"Because of the Child Labor Law enacted four years ago, they can't do that, so they'll use small-built won over 16."
Whenever the world tries to improve, they sohow find loopholes.
"Still, since they don't use children, it's a little better..."
"I wonder. Where did they send the children who can no longer work in mines? Match factories? Textile factories? They'd be lucky to find work, otherwise they'd starve to death."
'That's all.'
The vague conversation from before surfaced. The reason for cynicism that contradicted pride in his research.
"Is that also why you said you wouldn't make automatons?"
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