"Ah, can I flip this over?"
After a brief silence, when she pointed to the wings and changed the subject, Cider answered as if giving in.
"Be careful, it's sharp."
One wing was longer than an arm and was made entirely of tal. It wasn't easy to cleanly flip a machine with a pair of wings that size alone without hitting the ground. Since the machine was heavier than expected, Esperanza subtly channeled magical power into her arms.
"If it's heavy, just leave it."
When the gears, sensitive to magical power, began to turn, Cider pulled Esperanza away from the machine and sat her in a nearby chair.
It's not even a thinking chair, what is this?
Esperanza sat blankly in the chair and just watched Cider press the switchboard.
"There are many machines bigger than this, how did you move them when I wasn't here?"
"You weren't much help."
Cider said while replacing the still trembling gear with a completely different one. Esperanza glared at him with dissatisfaction.
Even the mad scientists in comics had assistants. Though they were usually stupid and constantly getting beaten by their eccentric masters. Anyway, even those explosive-haired people had people who might be master's or doctoral students as assistants, so why was Cider Claiborne doing everything alone?
"In the old days, Millen helped... Ah, not the current Millen, but his older brother."
"What happened to the brother?"
"He died from an epidemic."
"...Ah."
"I tried having the current Millen help a few tis, but he was hopeless, so I just decided to automate it."
When Cider pressed sothing more on the switchboard, the wall opened and brass chanical arms appeared. Long pipes descended from the ceiling to suck in steam and exhale air.
The machines really worked well. Esperanza, who had been watching blankly, put her feet up on the chair and hugged her knees so the machines could pass by. She felt like she should at least reduce the space she occupied in this laboratory so the smart machines could work comfortably.
"With machines that work so well, why were you doing everything by hand? And why did you call
when I'm no help?"
Perhaps noticing she was a bit sulky, Cider burst into low laughter.
"Because you were loafing around with nothing to do."
"Ah, yes."
"It's also an excuse to see your face. In that sense, won't you look over here?"
Again. This silence again. This feeling again. Cider said such things so easily, and only Esperanza was conscious of it. Esperanza propped her chin on her knees and sighed. Then she brought up a question she had long been unable to ask.
"Why exactly do you like ?"
A silence even deeper than before descended. She had asked an unnecessary question. Cider took off his work gloves. The machine sounds seed to grow distant from her ears.
"...You don't have to answer. I think I said sothing pointless too."
Why did I really say that? When I don't know what to do whenever things get 'that' kind of atmosphere. A question I have no confidence to handle.
"You ask questions as you please but find hearing answers burdenso?"
Cider bent down to match Esperanza's eye level. She could feel suppressed displeasure. It probably wasn't just because of the rudeness of the question. However, he soon smiled warmly as usual and said.
"If you directly saw the way you look at , you'd know."
Esperanza's pupils hid under her eyelids then flashed with light again.
"What did I do?"
There was no other way to directly see her own gaze anyway. When Esperanza averted her eyes, Cider grabbed her cheek and lifted it. They quickly beca close enough for their noses to touch. As if they might even kiss.
However, he stopped at breathing distance. The off-beat heartbeats intertwined so it was impossible to tell whose was whose.
"Look."
Esperanza's gaze, which had been wandering helplessly, stopped at Cider's eyes. Esperanza's face was reflected in his clear pupils. Though other things were distorted and hard to see, only the intense violet pupils in a dreamy, relaxed state were clearly visible.
'That's ?'
I was looking like that?
Her face burned hot. It felt like a shaful secret she didn't even know about had been discovered. To think she had been looking with such entranced eyes.
"I told you you'd know if you saw it directly."
The hands cupping her cheeks fell away. Callused fingertips brushed past her jawline. Esperanza could only repeatedly breathe in and out deeply, unable to hide her flushed face. Cider, watching this, pulled one corner of his lips up crookedly.
"Actually, what you just saw was just your focus relaxing to look at sothing close by."
What?
Her burning skin cooled at an amazing speed, as if the blood was draining. Her startled heart pounded frantically. Was it real? She was half relieved, half suspicious. Cider twisted up the corner of his mouth.
"But seeing your face turn this red, it seems you don't entirely dislike
doing this?"
Really, there's no mischief like this mischief. What a shaless person.
But then what was this situation where she was just taking it all as he played his mischief? He clearly liked her first, but why was she always the only one losing composure? At tis like this, she had no choice but to grab herself and ask. So what did 'I' want to do?
??????°??☆????°??????
She had never spent an entire day feeling bad because of soone else's thoughtless words like this.
An awkward atmosphere flowed. There wasn't a single word until evening. Esperanza was desperately avoiding Cider, and Cider also had no intention of speaking to her.
If she didn't have confidence to be sincere, she should have pretended not to know. She should have kept blinking innocently until the end, as if she knew nothing, like just a poor man who happened to be entranced and caught. He had even set the stage for her to do that.
Throwing out such a question as if she'd play along, then quickly pulling back her tail was cowardly. The montary surge of anger quickly subsided when their eyes t, but that didn't an she wanted to act coquettish without any substance.
Instead, what he chose was quiet observation. Esperanza wouldn't be unaware of that gaze, but she also wouldn't be able to read his inner thoughts from just a gaze. So comfortably, aning for her to be more uncomfortable. Cider looked at Esperanza, who was concentrating on uninteresting bookshelves with her back to him.
The hand leaning diagonally against the bookshelf and turning pages was peaceful. She seed to have forgotten why she started reading the book in the first place as she concentrated. A faint smile played at her lips. Cider shook his head. This was the difference in interest. Esperanza probably thought she was the only one being conscious, but.
But even knowing that, he didn't withdraw his gaze.
He wanted to disassemble and analyze all the elents that made up Esperanza, while also wanting to hold her completely in his arms without touching a single hair. Under this contradictory desire, all he could do was observe.
Abundant curly hair tied low and eyes that held light. Her wrinkled nose bridge and round curled lips still retained a youthful air.
It was a pretty face. Both objectively and through eyes that had already lost objectivity. But he knew when that face beca more radiantly beautiful. He also knew that boring books scribbled by magical engineers couldn't bring out that face.
And he knew that there were tis when he couldn't bear wanting to see that face.
Can't be helped.
'I was going to show you after confirming your leg was completely healed.'
He changed his mind. He was getting used to such impulsive actions now.
When Esperanza tilted her head and closed the book, Cider got up. The ear of the woman slyly avoiding his gaze was reddish. Cider spoke straightforwardly.
"I thought about it a bit. The conclusion is that you seem to be having strange thoughts because you're too bored."
Esperanza, who realized the aning a beat late, quickly turned her head.
"...Did you start talking just to say that?"
Elegant eyes smiled warmly.
"What were you going to do if I had explained convincingly with a plausible reason? If there had been a reason worth falling in love?"
Of course, she had no backup plan. Esperanza was half out of her mind, floundering over the expression 'falling in love,' so she couldn't even create a plausible answer. After a long silence, Esperanza, who looked displeased, asked back.
"So what's the conclusion?"
"Put that down and co out."
"The conclusion is kicking
out? Where does that even exist!"
"Similar. Co on, hurry."
Even so, to kick her out. Even as she was pushed out, she couldn't hide her disappointed feelings. How could he?
Being pushed along going "Huh, huh," by the ti she ca to her senses, she was already going down the stairs.
Leaving the floor where Cider's study was, they ca down to the spacious hall on the first floor. Walking a bit more through the corridor from there, an empty space she hadn't entered yet appeared. Cider pulled a long lever attached to the floor. The door opened inward without a sound.
"Wow..."
The unconscious exclamation echoed inside. A space the size of a fairly large auditorium. Several pieces of exercise equipnt. The identity of the machines placed uniformly along the walls was roughly guessable. On the opposite wall was a rail with a machine equipped with targets. Co to think of it, how long had it been since she properly held a gun after the dungeon at Pinent House? She clenched and unclenched her fists.
"Can I use this place?"
"I made it for you to use."
"Really?"
"It was originally an empty space, so I just installed rails and added a few more machines."
A few were similar to pitching machines she'd used before, and one looked exactly like a cara. It had a screen attached, so it was probably a machine to help see posture. Besides that, there were three more machines. Though crude in appearance, they were cutting-edge machines that required almost no human operation.
21st century Taereung, what the...?
Even a national representative team probably couldn't have such a luxurious training ground. What should she try first? Where should she start? It was hard to get her bearings. Her heart pounded wildly.
"Do you like it?"
"You call that a question! I love it so much!"
Esperanza, who had been wandering around touching this and that, suddenly stood up with a smile filling her face.
"It's really the best!"
Her hands gripping Cider's arms tightly filled with strength. This was good for this reason, that was good for that reason. If she listed the good points, there would be no end.
"I'd want to live here."
Gasp. Esperanza, startled by her own words, took a big breath. The excitent subsided in an instant. Her body, which had been gripping Cider's arms and almost hugging him, also slipped away.
"...S-sorry."
"It's not the first ti you've hugged
on your own, is it?"
She was speechless. That was true. But it was different from then. Back then, she wasn't this flustered. Whether this confusion and unspeakable embarrassnt reflected the other person's heart or her own heart.
Cider pulled the hesitating Esperanza into an embrace. Arms that completely supported her spine wrapped around her waist. They were pressed together enough for their hearts to touch.
"Now, up to here was your doing."
"...Who's hugging who right now? Why did it beco my doing?"
Cider, who lightly ignored those words, propped his chin on top of her head and said.
"You can't bla
for accepting it with a bit of selfish intent."
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