Looking again, they really were beautiful eyes. And sohow they seed like eyes that shouldn't be carelessly touched. So he resembled her in that aspect too.
"Your eyes are exactly the sa."
"Are they?"
"Yes. Really exactly the sa."
Cider neither showed joy nor made a face of missing his mother. It would probably be a similar expression when told he resembled soone he didn't know.
Esperanza squinted and looked up at Cider. Thanks to careful attention to lighting, in the gallery bright as midday, his eyes bore exactly the sa light as the woman's eyes in the portrait.
"Do you perhaps not like being told you resemble your mother?"
"No, I have no particular thoughts about it."
Cider slowly took his gaze off the portrait. It was a dry voice.
"Actually, that portrait doesn't seem to resemble the mother in my mory much, so it feels unfamiliar."
"Really?"
"The portrait is sowhat more idealized. Father's too."
He naturally sold out his father's portrait wholesale as well.
"Well, portraits just need to be recognizable."
Esperanza, who had lived in a world rampant with filters and editing, wasn't particularly shaken. If you considered the function of portraits to be like ID photos, Esperanza's passport or interview photos hadn't resembled her much either.
'That's how it originally is. Photos just need to be recognizable, they don't need to be identical.'
And Esperanza walked a few more steps to the side to look at the portrait of the 13th Count Avondale, Cider Claiborne. Her eyes narrowed.
Ah, right. He's pretty even without idealization.
Cider was still looking at his mother's portrait. Really as if looking at sothing unfamiliar. But what was unfamiliar wasn't the portrait but his mother.
It couldn't be helped. He and his mother had similar personalities but completely opposite tendencies. They weren't the type to get along by adjusting to each other from the beginning.
That didn't an he had any ill feelings toward his mother at all. The mother-son relationship was smooth without occasion to fight or get hurt feelings.
His mother wasn't soone with strong maternal love, but Cider was satisfied with such a mother. Appropriate levels of affection raised him firmly rather than clumsy maternal love veering in unpleasant directions.
Anyway, his parents loved him. That's why they managed to raise their son, who was so extraordinary he seed slightly like a demon's seed, reasonably well. With so neglect and appropriate levels of discipline.
Perhaps their standards beca slightly strange from raising him, but that was also within a certain margin of error. He would have liked to enjoy more pouring worry and attention, but he couldn't create facts that didn't exist.
Esperanza slowly nodded.
"Actually, I haven't heard stories about your parents in half a year. So I guess I thought you didn't get along well."
It was fortunate that wasn't the case. Cider chuckled and answered.
"I grew up ordinarily receiving ordinary discipline from parents who were ordinarily distant from each other."
The part about being ordinarily distant from each other was concerning, but if you considered that aristocratic parents of this era were all like that...
'But why are you like this then?'
If there was no problem with upbringing either, where exactly did you start going astray?
"What's that rude look?"
There was laughter in his words. He seems to know what the problem is himself.
Esperanza still rembered Cider Claiborne who had suddenly asked for blood just one day after eting. It was also strange to let soone who ca in with a gun sleep in your house. If you examined each thing in detail, there would be no end. But it was also true that everything beca smoother thanks to that favor that wasn't a favor.
"It's fortunate for
that you're a strange person."
Cider laughed again. They took one more look at each portrait and went outside.
The path back relying on one lamp was eerie.
Though gas lamps were densely installed in the external ceremonial hall where outsiders frequently ca and went, there was no reason to install gas lamps throughout the entire mansion that had dozens of tis more rooms than people living there.
The main apartnt used by the count was located in the eastern corridor of the third floor, and the structure of corridors and stairs that had to be passed to get there was quite complex to walk without gas lamps.
Esperanza floated several more round spheres of light.
"You're good at it."
"I can only do tricks like this."
"Others can't even do that."
That was true. With just this one thing alone, she wouldn't have to worry about making a living anywhere. Esperanza burst into small laughter and changed the color of the light wildly. Light of all colors flickered on cheeks that were sharp and elegant. Cider eventually frowned and covered his eyes.
"How about doing it moderately? Anyone who sees will think it's a ghost. Even at night, maids faint because of ghosts in corridors around here..."
Esperanza abruptly extinguished the lights. Then she spoke in a quite firm tone.
"I hate ghost stories."
"Ah. Really?"
"I can't sleep when I hear them."
It would be the first ti hearing this. Because it was an uncommon weakness of Hunter Esperanza who was afraid of nothing in the world. She watched splatter films well but was weak against horror.
"Oh my. Tonight will be a bit scary. You saw portraits of dead people and heard ghost stories."
Cider said leisurely, pointing to Esperanza's apartnt door they had arrived at. On the way to the bedroom inside the passage after entering the empty room, there was one large full-length mirror. Esperanza quietly floated two more round light clusters. Cider quietly clicked his tongue. As if he could clearly see Esperanza's sleepless dawn.
"If you really can't sleep, co to the study. Even if I can't do anything else, I can at least play chess with you all night."
While obviously knowing she doesn't know how to play chess.
"I appreciate the thought, but no thanks. I can sleep during the day anyway."
"I'm saying this because I'll be researching for a while and might sleep next to you."
Even while saying this, Cider reached behind Esperanza and turned the doorknob. The appearance of the neat small living room was revealed. Cider looked at the living room over Esperanza's head. Under his chin, Esperanza blinked.
"What's wrong? Like you're seeing this room for the first ti."
"It is the first ti."
"...I heard it was the previous countess's room?"
Cider, who had looked puzzled for a mont, let out an "Ah!" exclamation. He looked down at her troubled-looking face. He could tell what she was worried about.
"If it was the countess's room, there would be a door between it and my bedroom."
Esperanza, who had hesitated, understood the aning and averted her eyes. The purpose of the door was obvious without saying. Her cheeks flushed. Cider laughed briefly.
"Strictly speaking, it's not the countess's room. It's the room my mother used when she visited as father's fiancée."
Cider briefly wore a bitter smile. He added to her face still full of uncomfortable expression.
"I didn't tell you because I was worried you'd react like this."
Before Esperanza could answer anything, the bitter expression disappeared, and he brushed Esperanza's hair behind her ear while saying.
"But it seems my consideration encouraged your impure imagination."
"What impure imagination, I was just asking."
Esperanza protested in a whispered shout. Though it was true that she had been troubled and embarrassed wondering if Cider had given her an unmanageable room.
"Let's say that's the case."
"It's not 'let's say,' there really wasn't any such thing."
"Well, then go to sleep embracing your impure imagination."
Cider really turned around without any lingering attachnt. He didn't even look back once. Esperanza couldn't hide her sense of injustice and pouted before dropping her shoulders.
It seed like only Esperanza was being overly conscious of this situation.
??????°??☆????°??????
It had already been over two weeks since Cider's research began. Several more days had passed after the month changed.
During this ti, the place where Cider and Esperanza mainly spent their ti wasn't the antique Glailly House but the laboratory that could only be reached after riding forest paths for 30 minutes.
[Welco.]
The security guard automaton creaked as it bowed. Esperanza stared at them blankly then asked Cider.
"Why do they have a bowing function?"
She probably didn't particularly want to receive greetings from machines.
"I was researching that kind of thing when making them. Reproducing joints was harder than expected. I tried bringing market prosthetic legs and arms to make similar ones, but tin-can-like materials were most convenient."
"Ah, so they're all..."
Tin cans... Co to think of it, they really did look like tin cans. Like they'd make clanging sounds if hit. Precisely, they seed to be aluminum or sothing similar, but he didn't seem inclined to explain in detail.
"So mine will be a tin can too?"
"Well. Since it's for flying and combat, lighter would be better, but those are heavier than expected. Even excluding the weight of magic stones. Let's wait and see for now."
He certainly seed to have many other things to do. A small steam train model moving along rails installed on the ceiling was piling up books containing pre-entered words on the floor.
Esperanza had nothing to do so she rummaged through the pile of books next to him.
"But why am I here?"
"Because you followed on your own feet."
Cider answered without taking his eyes off the book. Esperanza sighed and asked.
"Do you have work for ?"
He had definitely asked for help, but during these two weeks, Cider hadn't given her any work. For Esperanza, who had been guarding the laboratory instead of going out because she didn't know when she'd be needed, it was quite disappointing.
Cider paused for a mont, eting eyes that glared as if saying 'just try saying there's nothing today again.'
"Not right now. Um, if you go to the end room there should be a prototype, try it on. I just matched the size and weight."
"You said you'd make it smaller."
"Yes. But not now."
Since he said he'd make it smaller, he probably would. Esperanza found a youth magical engineering book among the bookshelves and settled on the sofa, thinking.
Several more days passed like that. aningless hamring sounds ca from outside the study, and magic plates and circuits appeared on Cider's desk that had been full of only books and papers. When Esperanza blew magical power into them, Cider observed the flow of magical power and hamred sothing else again. While fixing the internal structure several tis like this, the empty prototype wings were also remade with different materials several tis, but the size remained the sa.
'With that size, it won't fit anywhere, what is he thinking?'
Does he think you can run through alleys wearing that on your back? Just carrying it would seem to reduce mobility. It was even heavy. It was at a level where Esperanza would stagger backward wearing it, so anyone else would have been lying down unable to move.
"Esperanza, if you have nothing to do, could you hold that side?"
Cider fixed a thin pipe without giving even one glance to the dress hem swaying before his eyes. Esperanza grabbed the wing tip and watched his fingertips move skillfully.
The hands pressing the front part with his foot while fixing the central circuit seed to know what to do without looking at structural diagrams.
"Is this the end?"
"Far from it. This is truly just the basic structure, and the core technology hasn't been implented yet."
Cider said, taking his hands off the chanical device and trying to wind the spring. Esperanza put down her hands that had been holding the wings as instructed and asked.
"Are you trying to develop so new technology in just ten days?"
"I've been developing it since right after eting you. It just happened that a use arose."
True, no matter how much over-technology he had hanging around, he couldn't create non-existent technology in ten days. When Esperanza chuckled, Cider narrowed his eyes and added.
"I didn't say I couldn't do it in ten days."
"Ah, yes."
"You don't seem to believe ?"
Cider glanced at Esperanza with suspicious eyes. Esperanza, who had been conflicted between courtesy and sincerity, slyly averted her eyes.
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