"You look tired sohow."
"......At least I slept."
Unlike soone else. Esperanza felt like her inner thoughts had been exposed and unconsciously answered curtly. Cider, who had run his fingertips over his slightly haggard face, smiled bitterly.
It was the night they returned to Nine Holder. Both had many thoughts. It's just that Esperanza had tried to sleep, while Cider simply didn't feel the need to do so.
"If I can't sleep, there's no need to waste ti lying down, right?"
"That's why you should sleep at night and work during the day."
"If only it worked that way."
So he had hidden away in the research lab and stayed up all night. What an ungrateful passion.
Esperanza put down the hand that had been flipping through the newspaper and sighed. Then she roughly stuffed her ungrateful mouth with a fork full of fruit. When Cider glared at her, she smiled defiantly.
"It seems like soone from the navy took responsibility for the Sterling incident and resigned, budget allocation for reconstruction projects has been decided, and relief organizations have started their activities. It looks like things are being sorted out to so extent."
"Too late."
Cider said, putting down his fork. His gaze was fixed on the large screen on the research lab wall.
"That ans the Tempton cabinet's control has weakened. That's what the Queen wanted, right? Is Daria still working with the Queen?"
"Probably."
Cider didn't forget to answer, but his response was rather brief due to his concentration. Esperanza nodded and pondered on her own.
'Even if I were the Queen, I couldn't let go of that side.'
It was an understandable conclusion, separate from being annoying. And even if Esperanza were in Daria's position, there would be no reason to let go of the royal connection. It was better to tie them down, even sowhat forcibly.
If the situation was roughly like this, Daria would currently be exercising indirect influence through the royal family while simultaneously creating things like those walking sticks they saw yesterday. Or supplying materials to those who make them.
If the goal was the sa as with the hat shop, Daria still hadn't stopped her moves to create a 'world within the ga.'
The dungeons and monsters had already beco known to the world earlier than originally planned due to one intense failure. But it was only a matter of a few months difference. She must have had prepared plans. She would have been flustered, but it wasn't sothing she couldn't handle.
Daria probably used this incident as an opportunity to encourage the upper class to use monster byproducts in magic tools. Developing related industries and bringing them into the open. That way, hunters visiting this world in a few years could enjoy this world by hunting monsters and selling their byproducts.
Indeed, it would be good to visit a magic item shop.
"I should go quickly."
"Wait a mont."
"Are you coming too?"
At those words, Cider turned his gaze away from the screen. In the anti, the positions of several components had changed.
"Were you planning to abandon
and go?"
"What are you saying? When did I abandon anything?"
Where did you learn such bad words? When she grumbled quietly, Cider smiled mischievously.
"It's better to be together as long as possible."
"......Right. It would be dangerous to leave you alone too."
Removing all emotions and describing only the facts as dryly as possible, this side would be finished if Cider died. Creating the spaceti machine itself would beco impossible.
Unlike Daria, who was probably grinding through multiple talents, this side was relying solely on Cider Claiborne's genius. And Daria probably knew that fact well too.
There was no need to touch Esperanza. Without just Cider, the balance could be shattered in one blow. And touching Cider would be much easier than touching Esperanza.
When shadows fell across Esperanza's face, Cider clicked his tongue.
"That's unnecessary worry."
"......The fact that you almost died is real."
Even though Daria hadn't tried to kill him, he had already almost died once. Esperanza rembered vividly, as if it had just happened, the feeling of her heart plumting to her toes.
"Well. If I were those people, I think I'd let
complete the machine instead of killing ."
Cider said soothingly. Esperanza frowned. That seed to make sense too. Though it didn't make her anxiety disappear.
"Wait, then you don't need to co with ?"
"Wanting to go together wasn't because of my safety."
Cider replied nonchalantly and fixed his eyes on the screen again while adjusting several circuits.
When he pulled the lever, machine parts began moving on their own. The entire wall seed to vibrate. Brass pipelines connected in a different structure than before.
Cider stared at this for a mont, quickly wrote sothing down, then stood up and took off his gloves. After wiping his hands with a towel, he lightly touched Esperanza's wrinkled nose tip.
"Besides, if you go alone, they won't answer anything you ask at that shop. Those kinds of shops usually choose their custors."
There's always information given only to long-ti custors or more trustworthy clients. Of course, they'd probably talk if tied up and beaten, but she didn't want to do such terrible things to an innocent shop owner.
When Esperanza finally nodded, Cider smiled broadly. It was strangely annoying.
The clothes bought in Dunbarton felt a bit heavy for wearing in Nine Holder, but they suited today's weather well. Cider, who had prepared first and was waiting in the reception room, burst into laughter as soon as he saw Esperanza.
"Where did the fur hat go?"
"I'd die of heat if I wore that."
"It suited you well."
Cider subtly recomnded it several more tis, but Esperanza, despite her reddened face, wouldn't budge on her stubbornness. Instead of the fluffy fur hat, wearing a hat made of stiff, thick fabric and donning a heavy coat already felt like being buried in winter clothes.
They boarded the steam carriage while facing the cold winter wind. Snow that had fallen during the night had lted, creating pools of black water. Cider slightly lifted the tip of his walking stick from the muddy ground.
"Not good weather for going out."
"But it's been a while."
Their last outing had been in Sterling. Both Esperanza and Cider originally didn't feel the need to go out as long as their basic needs were t, and after returning to Avondale, there hadn't been ti for leisurely outings.
"That's true."
Cider said while glancing out the window at children wearing chestnut-like hats passing by and janitor automatons sweeping away accumulated snow. Ti had passed so quickly.
With little ti remaining, accumulating mories and such might not be very wise. At least from the perspective of soone who had to live in this world, the world where Esperanza had left so many traces.
With a fake body and na, Esperanza, who would have only mories left, might want to return ho carrying an armful of mories to cherish.
It wasn't that he hoped Esperanza would forget him. He knew it would be better if he could send her off with an armful of mories. But this was making him feel spiteful in its own way.
"Oh? That building over there! Did you see it?"
"......I didn't see it."
Cider, who had been lost in thought, answered a beat late. Esperanza, completely unaware of the spite that had been building up layer by layer, looked up at him worriedly.
"You've been absent-minded since earlier. Are you sick?"
"I'm fine. But what building was it?"
"I don't know what it used to be. But it seems to have changed into a magic potion shop that I know."
"A magic potion shop?"
Even the product category was unfamiliar. Magic potions? Were they selling such things as comrcial products? Cider recalled the endless potions that ca out of Cyrus's inventory. It seed they could be mass-produced.
"They haven't put up a sign yet, but you can tell roughly from how they've decorated it."
The shape of display cases and the color of exterior walls were familiar. The young owner constantly moving cargo and the cute-looking automaton too. The magic potion shop in Esperanza's mory was more worn and shabby than this, and the owner was at least ten years older than now, but it wasn't difficult to recognize.
The magic potion shop wasn't the end. Hatter's Hat Shop, Windmill Bookstore—there was no need to na them one by one. Half of Catholic Street was under construction, and the other half already looked like what Esperanza knew.
"It was like this when I ca to Nine Holder last ti too, but it's beco more similar."
Except for things that needed to be built from scratch like the Hunter Association building to be erected on the city hall site, it was almost identical to the bustling street she had walked through countless tis in the ga.
"It's faster than expected."
Everything was like that. She could feel that the enemy was picking up speed. And that there wasn't much ti left.
"But there's no other way except to do what we can do now."
"We could go a bit faster."
Cider answered. As if it weren't difficult.
"We can pick up speed too, right?"
"......I don't want to."
That's a different story. Esperanza answered discontentedly while poking the toe of her black shoes with one foot. Speed up for whose benefit? Even if we do, it'll only make the day of departure co faster.
Instead of pulling his foot back, Cider pushed it between Esperanza's two feet. Her legs spread apart. Esperanza was startled and pulled her feet back. When her heel bumped against the bottom of the chair and stopped, Cider triumphantly tapped Esperanza's toe lightly.
Was this supposed to be revenge? A hollow laugh escaped. It was childish mischief, but her sunken mood improved a little.
After turning a few more corners, the carriage stopped on a street even shabbier than before. There was a magic item shop in a place that led directly to Alter District if you entered the alley.
Cider pushed open the door of the reasonably decent-looking shop with his walking stick. The door opened with a creaking sound.
"Welco...... Oh, isn't this Count? The lady ca with you too. It's nice to see you again. When did you arrive in Nine Holder?"
The shop owner greeted even Esperanza enthusiastically. Esperanza nodded roughly, then abandoned Cider to the owner and set off to browse the shop. Though Cider sent her a displeased look from behind, she didn't care. She had done exactly the sa thing when she first ca here.
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