"I hate question-and-answer style lectures."
When Cider spoke seriously, Esperanza, who had been listening quietly, added with an incredulous expression.
"...You always talk like this."
"So I suppose you dislike it."
The main interrogator, the bad cop, stopped interrupting there and sent an arrogant chin gesture toward Cyrus. In short, we're done with what we had to say, so say what you have to say.
It was a sowhat familiar attitude. Esperanza smiled slightly, recalling the day she first t Cider. However, Cyrus couldn't smile at all.
With tension evident on his face, he spoke haltingly.
"You have to make... wounds."
As if it was sowhat difficult to continue speaking, Cyrus, who had drunk more than half his teacup to moisten his lips, continued.
"The monsters in dungeons are life forms from other worlds. We create dungeons to transport parts of those worlds here."
Esperanza gripped her skirt to maintain her composure. But monsters can't be helped. If I don't kill them, I die.
"Other worlds."
Cider muttered as if hearing unfamiliar words. Esperanza glanced sideways at Cider's expression, but there were no other words.
"We used the Golden Claw extensively, which also ans large holes were punched in this world. Holes we can no longer control. Magical physicists said they would self-heal over ti, but even so, dungeons would appear at unpredictable tis until then."
And that would beco an uncontrollable disaster.
"Once or twice is fine. Since there are Hunters everywhere, if we're lucky, we could close dungeons quickly. But we won't always be lucky."
Just a few instances of bad luck would be enough to destroy a nation. Cyrus said this was where he and Daria had their disagreent. Cyrus said they should destroy the rampaging Golden Claw now and close the dungeons to restore this world to its original state, while Daria opposed it.
At first glance, it seed like Daria's stubbornness.
'But the ga is at stake. Money, trust, taxes, legal responsibility. Things like that.'
It was predictable. The slightly more idealistic Cyrus and the slightly more realistic Daria. Their personalities were also vaguely becoming clear.
Anyway, the siblings' disagreent wasn't resolved, and soon signs began appearing in the ga as well. Dungeons that appeared without warning and swallowed entire cities whole.
Cyrus judged he couldn't wait for this conflict to be resolved and eventually acted unilaterally. However, due to so error, Esperanza had ti-traveled instead of Cyrus.
"What kind of error?"
"Well, I... that quest was originally created by ."
He had already said that.
"Why did you create sothing like a quest in the first place?"
Cyrus's ears turned red.
"...I like that sort of thing. It was half for disguise and half because I got a bit carried away while making it."
Ah. Esperanza, who had nothing to say, roughly nodded.
"Oh, right. So the quest was originally created by you."
"I hid it in Esperanza-nim's... yes, Esperanza-nim's system. Daria was monitoring mine."
From his vague mumbling, it seed he ant he had hidden it in the ga system. This was a bit dangerous. Esperanza checked Cider's reaction, but he only narrowed his eyes briefly and didn't raise any questions. Did he understand it as the Hunters' special terminology like 'quest'? Esperanza inwardly felt relieved and quickly moved to the next question.
"Why
specifically?"
Cyrus fell silent again. Then he said in a very small voice.
"Because I... like you... I check on you often."
Esperanza unconsciously turned to look at Cider. Unlike before, displeasure was evident in the hand gripping the armrest. Esperanza tapped that hand twice with her fingertips soothingly.
"I'm not angry."
"I didn't ask if you were angry."
Cider was still smiling. Esperanza turned her gaze back to Cyrus. When their eyes t, Cyrus hastily made excuses.
"It, it's not that kind of aning."
"Since no one's interested, how about you just say what you have to say?"
Despite his words, his tone was deeply displeased. Cyrus looked back and forth between Esperanza and Cider, then hung his head low. He had said the wrong thing.
"So that's how the accident happened. After confirming that Esperanza-nim had moved to this ti period, I followed as well."
"This ti period. Specifically 1837."
"That's right, Avondale. Precisely when you, the creator of the Golden Claw, were alive."
The creator of the Golden Claw.
Cider had never said such a thing. But hearing it, it was naturally convincing. If there were a magical engineer in this era who could make an invention that transcended centuries, it couldn't be anyone else.
Esperanza silently waited for Cider's reaction. The shadow of eyelashes cast on his pale cheeks drew a particularly dark fan shape.
Eventually, Cider, who had been silent, slowly raised his head. He glared at Cyrus with a hardened face, but didn't deny it.
"...Did you know?"
Cider said in a whisper, lowering his eyes.
"I didn't know at first."
But after seeing that object, he had guessed.
"I didn't deliberately avoid ntioning it. It was just a failed research project. I told you too, that I couldn't make a ti machine."
That seed to be the case. There was a vague mory of being surprised because it was the one thing that the suprely arrogant genius said definitively that he 'couldn't' do.
"The research was successful."
"So it seems."
Cider said coldly. It was certain that he wasn't pleased with this sudden situation.
He was soone who still kept in his heart an incident caused by a machine he made in childhood. Even if it was the future, could he listen with a clear mind to the fact that his invention had beco a tool of disaster?
Esperanza noticed Cider's fingertips trembling and covered them with her hand so Cyrus wouldn't see. Cider silently grasped Esperanza's hand. His cheeks were still pale, but he no longer looked anxious.
"My spaceti machine was a chanical device on the scale of occupying an entire warehouse, but what you have is just the main components."
The scale of an entire warehouse? Esperanza roughly knew the scale of Cider's laboratory. Even in that large laboratory, there was no machine of that scale. ...Ah, there. The abandoned house in the forest. The collapsed building next to the hunting cabin.
"Much could be done with just the components, but the original machine is needed to return."
So that's why it was 'Count Avondale's mansion.' He was the creator of the Golden Claw and throughout past, present, and future, the only person capable of eliminating that machine, and even if not, his machine was needed to return.
"Then how did we co to this ti?"
"In the world 13 years later, we succeeded in restoring the machine, Esperanza-nim. But in this ti period, only the original creator himself can do it."
Esperanza looked at Cider with trembling eyes. He hid his gaze with downcast eyes and said nothing. His lips drew a strange arc. It seed like he was smiling, but also seed like he wasn't.
"What if I refuse?"
What?
At first she thought she had misheard. But it was just one word—there was no way she could have misheard it. Cider smiled with an unreadable expression.
"What happens if I refuse? As you know, I have no motivation to help."
He added soothingly while making eye contact with Esperanza.
"I promised to help, but helping you return on your own and sending you back with my own hands are different matters. Can you trust the machine I made?"
"I trust it."
Esperanza answered quickly. There was neither doubt nor hesitation in it. Cider's eyes widened. He showed a faint smile and turned his head toward Cyrus.
"Thank you. But what about your colleague?"
Cyrus couldn't answer. If Esperanza trusted it, he had no choice but to trust it too. But Count Avondale could change his mind at any ti. That could be right now.
"...There isn't absolutely no other thod."
But the mont those words fell, Cyrus instinctively knew he was cornered. Cider dropped a bomb with a smiling face.
"There would be. You would have killed
and taken my research notes."
Thud. A chair fell over.
Esperanza's revolver, who had risen roughly, aid precisely at Cyrus's brow. Cyrus leaned back against the backrest and made eye contact with Esperanza.
Tension that seed about to snap at any mont pressed down on the room.
A pair of purple eyes coldly hardened with anger flashed. Cyrus, even knowing Esperanza wouldn't shoot, montarily felt cold sweat flowing down his back. Muscles responding to killing intent tightened. He felt like prey.
"...Esperanza-nim."
"Do you have any sha?"
"I had no choice. That incident, I didn't do it because I wanted to either."
But he would have done it without hesitation. While feeling guilt, he would have just done it. And now, he had returned through ti to get Cider Claiborne's help.
Murderer. Slaughterer. Words of contempt swirled in her mouth. Strength entered the hand gripping the revolver.
"You call that an excuse? If you felt even a little guilt, you couldn't do such a thing. What face do you have to appear here? How can you ask for help?"
Killing intent surged up to her throat. It seed like she might spit it out at any mont. Her trembling hand re-gripped the revolver.
Should I kill him?
Anyway, she had obtained almost all the necessary information. She could kill Cyrus, steal the Golden Claw from Daria, then have Cider make the machine and return.
She had never thought she could kill a person while completely sane. But now it seed like she could.
"If a person's value lies in their utility, you've exhausted your utility. Do you understand what I an?"
"Will you shoot?"
Even so, it didn't matter. Really.
"Esperanza."
Cider, who had been just watching, quietly called Esperanza. When she turned her head while completely pressing the revolver against Cyrus's brow, Cider smiled with his chin propped on one armrest.
"I'm fine, so sit down. It's true that having that man around would be convenient for this matter."
Esperanza's cold eyes glared at Cyrus. Whether ga friend or trustworthy colleague, it was a look that said she would no longer place him even in a corner of the ally position.
Cyrus swallowed. How on earth did Avondale learn that fact? Why was he so certain?
No.
'He wasn't certain... he just threw it out there.'
It would be good if it hit, and it wouldn't matter if it didn't. He had been completely caught.
Esperanza slowly sat down while glaring at Cyrus. Cider, who had been soothingly grasping and stroking Esperanza's hand, asked Cyrus.
"So, what kind of face was I making when I died?"
"...Why are you curious about such a thing?"
"Isn't it curious? It's a chance to know sothing ordinary people can't know."
"I'm not curious. Cyrus, if you answer, I'll kill you."
Of course Cyrus had no intention of answering. When he firmly closed his mouth, Cider chuckled as if deflated.
Even if Cyrus had killed him in the past, Cider had no regrets whatsoever.
But Esperanza would be different.
With this, it could be said that Esperanza's goodwill toward Cyrus had been completely severed.
Seven years, camaraderie. How aningless it all was.
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