Cider Rus Claiborne was staring blankly at the cabin that had turned to ash. The forest had burned for two full days, they said. Before the fierce flas that stung the lungs with smoke and clouded vision, even the advanced technology that had conquered sea and sky beca aningless.
"The laboratory seems to have been preserved to so extent. Though the internal machinery must be considerably damaged."
While Cider simply stood at the spot where his father's cabin had been, Millen, who had checked the interior of the laboratory, watched his expression carefully.
"I never thought there would be a fire."
"It's not a place where fires are frequent. In fact, there hasn't been one in decades."
But probability is just a numbers ga. No matter how low the odds, when disaster strikes, that's all there is to it. Cider smiled bitterly. There was nothing to say since it was due to carelessness.
"Where's Esperanza?"
Millen silently pointed to the opposite side. Esperanza was standing on the ruins of the completely burned building that had been reduced to ash without a trace.
Fragnts of the building's fra and doors that had burned black and lted, broken pieces of parts. And at the very top, a long shadow cast like a sacred object over a collapsed church.
"Why are you there?"
"Sothing seems strange."
"What kind of thing?"
Esperanza turned her eyes. Her long hood hem and lustrous hair fluttered in the sharp wind.
"I don't know exactly, but it doesn't seem like this kind of thing would have originally happened."
If it had, Cyrus would have ntioned it. If only to prevent the two of them from getting caught up in a fire.
It bothered her that in a region where fires don't occur frequently, such a trendous fire that burned for two days had broken out in the forest where Cider's laboratory was located.
However, everything was sothing that 'could happen.' Esperanza's suspicion was rely an irrational intuition.
"Do you think soone deliberately set the fire?"
"......The possibility isn't completely absent, is it?"
The fire was fierce, and the forest was wide. An arsonist could have escaped anywhere in the confusion. They might have fled to the edge of the continent by now.
"The possibility isn't absent. But basically, this is private property. Outsider access is restricted."
"But you ca in with guns."
That was true. Cider closed his mouth and then changed his words.
"Outsider access is 'sowhat' restricted. Even if that's sohow possible. If soone did it, it would be one of two things. Either they're crazy, or they really hate my guts."
Setting aside the possibility of it being a madman's doing for now. Cider said while still looking up at Esperanza standing on the ruins. The sunlight shining brightly behind Esperanza's back was blinding, but he didn't look away.
"Everyone would have known you weren't here."
While Cider had quietly headed to Sterling as if fleeing, Esperanza's tracks going up to Nine Holder to pursue him had been quite conspicuous. Anyone who looked even a little would have known.
"They might have thought I was pretending to be absent to hide gloomily in the laboratory and do research. Or they might have tried to steal my research while I was away."
"Though this is my prejudice."
Esperanza plopped down on the ruins. When Cider frowned, she deliberately sat in an even more casual posture and leaned toward Cider.
"People serious enough to steal others' research probably wouldn't have the stamina to set fires and flee across the forest."
"They could have hired people, so let's skip that part. And yes, it is prejudice."
Cider said this with a frown and approached near the pile of ruins where Esperanza was sitting.
"Want to sit here?"
"No."
He flatly refused and slowly spoke his next words.
"The fact that there's a laboratory here is secret, but once you see it, anyone could guess, so that wouldn't be a problem."
What other madman would equip a wordless stable with air purification facilities? Esperanza nodded her head earnestly.
"But they probably couldn't get inside due to lack of ability. As you know......"
"Please skip the self-praise."
Cider pretended not to hear and continued.
"As you know, my magnificent inventions are designed to assu defensive positions when they receive external attacks above a certain level. If the defense is breached, they're designed to blow up the mansion. But the laboratory is actually fine. So what did they tamper with? It couldn't be the doing of so noble lady who admired my dead father, could it?"
Cider pointed to the cabin and shrugged. Simple process of elimination. Then only one thing remains. The building......or rather, sothing that used to be a building that Esperanza was standing on.
"If it was arson. If there was soone with intent, targeting the laboratory would be most rational. Even if they discovered so old machine in this abandoned building, it would be worthless. There are plenty of real ones over there."
But there are also people who target these old machines. The mont their eyes t, Cider bent down and unhesitatingly stuck his hand into the ruins of the abandoned building.
"Are you crazy? You'll get hurt!"
"Look here."
Esperanza, who had been pitifully looking at his hand scratched by sharp fragnts, stared at the piece of component in that hand.
"What about it? It's a piece of spaceti machine component."
"I made this machine 10 years ago. Esperanza, magical engineering is a young field, and it's developing faster than any other field. Naturally, component specifications have changed considerably from those of 10 years ago."
"It's not in a state where you can check component specifications."
Cider, who was holding up the component piece that had lted and stuck together and been flattened under walls, smiled broadly.
"It's not a big difference, but the quality of alloys has also developed in ways that increase magic perability. So it's a simple problem. Were there components using the sa alloy as this 10 years ago, or not?"
You're going to figure that out?
"......That's a problem for the police to handle. But there are questions, and we need to assu the worst-case scenario. You're right."
"But if they set the fire while deliberately scattering fake component pieces, then the real ones......"
Soone must have taken them. And right there, the culprit is revealed. Cider threw and caught the clumped tal piece with one hand.
"The effort of setting the fire was wasted, pitifully. If there is a culprit, that's our enemy, and the enemy has secured a prototype of the spaceti machine. We're entering a developnt competition."
Esperanza shrugged. She had no worry whatsoever about that part.
The smiles they exchanged contained the sa aning.
??????°??☆????°??????
The charred door opened with a screeching cry. Soon, the interior of the laboratory with its complex tangle of brass pipes was revealed. So parts had collapsed and others were tattered due to the aftermath of the fire. Cider clicked his tongue thinking about repairing all of this.
"Should I just tear it all down?"
That might actually be easier. Building from scratch. However, looking at Esperanza's back as she strode ahead, he soon shook his head. That would only be possible if he had ti.
Maybe it would be possible after Esperanza leaves. It would be fine if such leisure never ca. Anyway, for now, even if it gave him a headache, it was better to repair it moderately and use it.
[Hello, madam? I am Lawyer Bronze. Have you successfully resolved your husband's murder case? Leave the estate inheritance to , Bronze, an expert in inheritance law!]
Esperanza silently turned off Lawyer Bronze.
"Why has this one been picking on
since last ti?"
"Well. The Bronze series are things I made when I was young, so they're rather free-spirited. It must like you."
"Where would an automaton have feelings?"
Esperanza clicked her tongue and passed by the identical-looking brass rabbit automatons. A janitor automaton hanging from rails passed overhead. Though she grumbled, the familiar noise from the machinery-filled laboratory was welco.
When Esperanza lay down on the well-maintained laboratory sofa, Cider clicked his tongue quietly and approached the large mahogany desk placed in the center of the room. Red lights blinked on the holographic interior structural diagram of the laboratory floating above the desk. The sepia-colored screen attached to the desk was densely packed with incomprehensible text. Esperanza, hugging a cushion, only lifted her head to ask.
"How is it?"
"There are several places where security was breached due to the fire. I'll need to do overall maintenance. And to start research in Nine Holder, I need to move several large pieces of equipnt from here."
"I can do that."
"Of course I need you too, but there are several preliminary tasks needed. It'll take at least 2 weeks to handle everything. By then, the construction on the Nine Holder mansion should be finished too."
Two weeks wasn't a short period.
"Isn't there more I can help with?"
"I'll tell you when I need it. Anyway, I won't be able to touch the research I was doing for 2 weeks......"
"Good."
"My. And who am I doing this for?"
Esperanza, stretched out long on the sofa, looked up at Cider and tried to smile.
"That's right. You're doing it for ."
"I'm no longer a patient either."
Cider, who had approached her bedside, bent down. Esperanza pulled his neck and kissed his cheek. Even so, her sunken eyes couldn't shake off her worries.
Now that there are no more excuses, what na should she give to this conflict?
??????°??☆????°??????
Two weeks was too short a ti to co up with an answer.
January passed like a bitter winter wind. Both the anticipation for the new year and the fear brought by the terrible disaster that occurred at year's end gradually disappeared like lting snow.
Esperanza closed the last page of the newspaper.
"Are you done?"
"Finished."
The security system was re-examined, and the large-scale machinery that needed to be taken was separated and put into inventory. Five large suitcases were loaded onto Cider's steam carriage parked in front of the mansion. That was the number excluding equipnt and books.
Leather gloves fitted for large hands gripped the lever. When the heavy lever was pulled, the sound of chanical parts turning began to spread centered on the room where they stood.
As they left through the door, iron gates ca down with clanking sounds behind them. The warehouse filled with inventions was completely closed, and the lights of the laboratory went out.
A train with uniford guards standing in each car raced toward Nine Holder. Past towering cliffs, past plains dotted sparsely with houses, along a river as wide as the sea. To the city of clock towers filled with gold and soot.
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