Flying fortress, bunker, ultra-small reconnaissance automatons.
"Where are you planning to evacuate?"
"Sotis you want to make things like this, right? And that flying fortress is purely a recreational facility."
Given the scale, it wasn't completed and only blueprints, models, and major components had been manufactured. Due to spatial constraints, it wouldn't be possible to make it the size of a real fortress.
"It would make money."
"If it catches the trends well. But it would violate international law, so there's no possibility of comrcialization."
"Oh dear."
Enjoying a vacation on a flying fortress seed like quite a wonderful idea though.
The room entered through a doorless passage had another machine.
"What's this now?"
"Air purification airships drive out smoke and steam from Nine Holder twice a day, but thanks to that, the factory districts on Nine Holder's outskirts have beco uninhabitable. This absorbs and compresses smoke entirely. Though the magical efficiency is poor."
Compressing the lengthy explanation, it was a type of smoke purification machine.
"Isn't that good? Why would this be sothing that would cause social controversy? This country's air pollution is quite serious."
"No matter how much you compress it, the absolute amount of smoke is too much to handle. Then the cabinet would try to sell that waste to so convenient colony and receive gold as paynt as they always do, which would worsen conflicts with the colonies and eventually lead to diplomatic problems."
"That seems like a bit of a stretch."
"It could be."
It was just an excuse. Esperanza chuckled and moved to the next room. This ti too, chanical devices densely filled the space without room to step, and though she didn't know what they were, they sohow felt more dangerous than what she'd seen earlier.
"What kind of machine is this?"
"It creates earthquakes..."
That's not a matter of social controversy. When she glared at Cider with her back to the motionless machine, he made half-hearted excuses.
"It would be good for research."
"Who would create real earthquakes for research?"
"The Royal University would buy it if I sold it to them."
Trying to sell it to people just like himself. Esperanza shuddered.
"You really made all sorts of things."
"I made everything I wanted to make over 10 years. Even though I discarded about half, there's still a lot left."
If what she'd seen was like this, what else and how much more had he made? To that question, Cider said aningfully.
"It was a ti when I was young and had abundant imagination."
"So what did you make with that abundant imagination?"
Cider smiled with creased eyes but didn't answer until the end. Esperanza clicked her tongue and changed her question.
"Doesn't it take long to make them?"
"If it's just making circuits and logic systems, it doesn't take that long."
The next room had a large freezer. Though the inside was empty, cold air circulated throughout the room making it chilly. Co to think of it, only this room had an iron door.
"What's it used for?"
"It's new research I'm starting, so nothing's decided yet. Investigation is needed."
Of course it could be because of temperature, but the chill on her neck suggested it definitely wouldn't be ordinary research. Not knowing the contents bothered her more than knowing would have.
Heading to the next room, there was a strange sll around. Cider, who had casually turned the doorknob, hastily slamd the door shut. However, in that brief ti, Esperanza's eyes had seen what was inside the door. An... arm? Inside so unidentifiable green liquid.
"A, a person? Don't tell
a person..."
Cider frowned as if asking how she could say such horrible things. Utterly shaless.
"It's a dead person."
"A dead person..."
"Buying corpses for dissection is sothing many people do. Though it's illegal, it's not a major cri."
Esperanza's eyelids trembled. Even so. While corpse dissection might not be morally problematic, where that corpse ca from was the issue. Her 21st-century human ethical consciousness knocked on her mind saying 'that's not right.'
"You said you weren't interested in biology."
"I'm not interested."
Then why? To the unasked question, Cider easily answered.
"How do you think the automatons you saw move like humans? To imitate people, you have to study people."
It made sense. It made sense, but. Esperanza glanced at the closed door and asked.
"What were those arms, no, those people originally doing?"
Cider smiled warmly.
"Death row inmates, unidentified deceased. It's not a pleasant story to hear. But it helps with research. There's a lot you can't know from just ager pictorial materials."
She understood it was necessary for research. But instinctive revulsion was unavoidable.
"And buying and using corpses is better than digging up bodies from others' graves. Things that were buried once have poor preservation."
"...Ah, yes."
In an era when digging graves to obtain corpses for dissection was rampant, buying corpses of death row inmates or the deceased was rather humane.
That was true. But still. Did it absolutely have to be done that way?
When Esperanza kept glancing at the closed door, Cider asked in a subtle voice.
"Should I not do it?"
"Yes."
Unlike how he had spoken as if it was absolutely necessary, he nodded quite easily. Only then did Esperanza let out a sigh of relief.
"Well, it's not like there are no other thods."
Though the follow-up was strangely concerning.
"Don't smile like that. It's not because it's disgusting."
"I didn't say anything."
If you don't say it, think I wouldn't know? Esperanza snorted.
The last room they arrived at while bickering again was an empty room.
"Why is this empty?"
"I emptied it today. For new research."
New research?
"Did you forget why we ca here? We ca to find ways to increase your mobility."
"You emptied this place to do that? Do you need such a large space?"
"Well, that's true for now, but let's talk about that slowly."
Cider guided Esperanza back to the study. They ate as usual, drank tea together, and had trivial chatter in a study similar to the one in Nine Holder. Ti passed quickly. Just because they had brought up a few old stories and toured his secretive research laboratory that he had kept hidden, nothing would change.
'But would things really be this identical?'
Esperanza was startled to find herself lying long on the study sofa as usual before she knew it. Cushions that Cider had brought were placed under her knees and behind her back. The laboratory owner was at a desk visible just by lifting her head, repeatedly flipping through books and playing with his fountain pen, then adjusting circuits on magic plates.
"When are we going to talk about my mobility?"
Cider put down his fountain pen and raised his head.
"Then shall we talk about that now? It's getting late too."
Though the outside wasn't visible, looking at the clock, the sun was already setting. It felt like missing dinner ti while playing at a playground.
"Co here."
Esperanza put a book on the cushion and got up. When Cider rose from his chair and Esperanza approached, he pressed down on her shoulders making her sit.
"Huh, huh? I'm sitting?"
"Sit and watch."
He even pushed the chair inside the desk for a better view. Esperanza looked at the desk with a blank face, but there was almost nothing recognizable in the complex circuits. At least reading the youth magical engineering book and half-heartedly listening to about an hour of lectures helped.
"This is a C-type circuit, right?"
"It's A-type."
"Never mind then."
Cider smiled and placed one hand on the backrest, tilting his head over Esperanza's head. He turned the notebook to spread out blank paper. The hand holding the fountain pen brushed past her shoulder.
"Look, it's shaped like this."
Dark ink drew structural diagrams in thin lines. Esperanza's eyes busily followed that flow. Cider was close enough for his lips to touch Esperanza's ear.
"The most important thing for increasing mobility would be speed, but I judged that you already possess that aspect. Then ultimately, the fastest way to move in Nine Holder with many obstacles is flight. So..."
Wherever his large hand passed, parts intricately shed together.
"Do you understand?"
"You can draw pictures this well, so why is your design like this?"
Esperanza added audibly.
"Really terrible..."
Then she quickly snatched the fountain pen from Cider's hand. The pen tip carelessly poked at the picture that looked as if printed.
"Look at this. It obviously looks extrely heavy and big. How would you fight wearing sothing like this? You'd get shot first and fall. The biggest problem is, these are wings!"
Esperanza pursed her lips and grumbled.
"How could you wear sothing like this around out of embarrassnt?"
That was the biggest problem. This wasn't the Hunter era full of costus either. What Cider had drawn on paper were wings larger than a human body. Operated by clockwork.
"I'll reduce the size for you."
"Size is a problem, weight is a problem, when you'd wear this is a problem, and above all, the sha of fighting with wings attached is the biggest problem."
Cider smiled with a face that wouldn't bleed even if stabbed.
"Design problems can be solved after making it."
"How are you going to solve it..."
"There's a bigger problem."
"What?"
"I've never made anything like this before."
What's the problem with that? Esperanza tilted her head back and asked.
"Since when has making sothing for the first ti been a problem?"
"It takes a long ti."
Ah, that won't do. But Esperanza soon realized that Cider Claiborne's 'long ti' would be on a different scale from ordinary people.
"How long could it take... how long would it take?"
"If you help a bit, I'll try to finish within three months. Since you'll need to sightsee and play in the city during that ti, it might take a little longer."
'What exactly could I help with?'
Questions remained, but Cider just smiled warmly.
??????°??☆????°??????
When Cider and Esperanza returned to the mansion, Coleman put his hand under his monocle and pressed his eyes with a handkerchief.
"Our viscount, no, count, who has been practically living in that laboratory or whatever since the previous count passed away, returning to the mansion in less than a day..."
Though he didn't know what kind of mischief he was up to holed up in the laboratory, Coleman knew the count was making sothing quite impious. He had been like that since childhood.
"Was he like that in Nine Holder too?"
Millen fell into thought. Cider Claiborne's lifestyle pattern didn't seem particularly changed. His lifestyle pattern before Esperanza appeared was also monotonous. Was there any particular change besides Esperanza sitting on the study sofa?
"Ah, his wake-up ti seems to have changed to morning."
Barely. About 11:50 AM on average.
"As expected! He wandered for a long ti after you two passed away. Now that he's of marriageable age, he's settled his heart. Yes, he can't keep clinging to those impious machines forever."
Millen realized Coleman was seriously misunderstanding sothing, but he was a servant who resembled his master in not-so-good aspects.
"Yes, it seems so."
"I suspected when he gave that room to Miss Esperanza. Though she's called a ward, she's actually his fiancée, right?"
Whether his intuition was good or bad. Millen answered comfortably.
"Yes, it seems so."
And simultaneously, from behind a pillar in the back of the corridor that they couldn't see, Esperanza poked her head out.
'That room?'
She thought it was given because it had good facilities, but was there another story? Returning to her room, Esperanza asked Annie.
"Annie, do you know anything about what this room was used for?"
"I've only worked at the Nine Holder mansion, so I don't know well. Wait a mont."
Annie, who had rushed off sowhere, ca running back into the room waving her hands shortly after.
"Mr. Millen said it was the previous countess's room!"
"...What?"
The countess's room? Here? This room that Cider specifically entrusted to give to Esperanza?
Annie, who had dropped a bomb but nonchalantly arranged clothes neatly in the wardrobe, winked and left the room.
Left alone, Esperanza threw herself on the bed. The countess's room. Heat rose throughout her body montarily.
As if to extinguish that heat, she wrapped herself in cool bedding. Belated afterglow made her hands and feet tingle. With her face buried in the blanket, she slowly exhaled.
The countess's room. The cold air of the laboratory, completely unsuited to that elegant na, ca to mind.
Sitting so close inside that their hair mixed, close enough that heartbeat sounds traveled through fingertips, he had offered what he had kept deeply hidden. Scraping the bottom of his emotions. His trembling voice, large hands stained with tallic sll, shoulders that still had room even while embracing Esperanza and low laughter.
What he had never given to anyone else, what I had never received from anyone.
"Right. Even friends can get excited, what..."
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