"Well. Then this matter is resolved."
Cyrus, who had misunderstood those words as a dismissal, stood up.
"Cyrus. Live here for the ti being."
Esperanza quickly spoke to stop him. Cyrus's face contorted.
Live here? Was she serious?
Of course, Avondale mansion had well-prepared rooms for guests, so it would be much better than most hotels. It might be helpful for Cider Claiborne's research too. Whatever happened, they could communicate quickly instead of going back and forth troublesoly like before.
Despite all those advantages.
He stared intently at Esperanza's hand gripping Cider's shirt sleeve and asked in a crawling voice.
"......Do we really have to do that?"
"I'm saying this because I think it would be good to do so. It's also because of this plan."
Cyrus sighed. The place where two victims caught up in his and Daria's affairs lived. How much longer would he have to squeeze into this uncomfortable position? Though he reluctantly agreed, his future already looked dark. Moreover.
"Esperanza-nim."
"What?"
"Never mind."
He thought Esperanza's way of speaking was increasingly resembling Cider Claiborne's. It beca twice as uncomfortable.
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The reason for making Cyrus stay at the mansion wasn't much.
'It also beca easier to obtain magic power needed for research.'
Cider briefly glanced at the blood sloshing in the bottle, then turned his head. Well, trivially, he could serve as a training partner for bored Esperanza. Though it wasn't very welco.
But the most important purpose was to have him guard Cider when Esperanza went out. Since Cider was always in the research lab, he could protect the spaceti machine at the sa ti.
"Are you going now?"
"I'll be back soon."
Cider took his hands off the gear he had replaced and stood up. He couldn't embrace her because of his work gloves. When he conspicuously raised his hands, Esperanza pushed back the hood she had pulled down low. Her slightly flushed cheeks smiled. Then she pulled Cider's neck and kissed both his cheeks. Cider hesitated while holding up his hands.
"Is that enough?"
"What would happen if I said it's not enough here?"
"Ah, no. I'm supposed to et Miss Runderford at 1 o'clock. Since I'm using her for free, I should be on ti."
"I prefer paying and being late."
If that had been possible, she would have done it long ago. Esperanza tapped the carpet with her toes. Cider looked discontentedly at Esperanza heading toward the railing, then,
"Esperanza."
"What?"
Esperanza, who had already pulled her hood down, stood on the balcony and turned her head.
"Everyone in this mansion knows you sneak out. Mrs. Lux too, and Howard."
"......Then why do I go out this way?"
"Well. You would know that. I never told you to go out that way."
Is this human serious? Esperanza, who had flared up, whipped her head around. However, it seed better to just sneak out rather than pass through the main gate looking like this. Could this even be called sneaking out? Esperanza, who had been pouting, sighed and climbed onto the railing.
"Fine, just leave the window open."
Cider looked at the empty railing for a mont, then turned around. Then he'd wait to see what information Esperanza would bring from the Pri Minister's informant.......
Taking off his gloves, he took out papers from the drawer that showed traces of being calculated over and over again.
Cider's solution process spanning a full thirteen pages. And the analytical engine's solution process exactly three tis longer than that. However, the last line of the solution, the value pressed down firmly as if in denial, didn't differ by even a decimal point from the value the typewriter had indifferently output.
He turned his head to look at the massive machine. It had an utterly plain form. But for a mont, it seed like he saw a monster with a huge gaping maw before his eyes. It felt like chanical arms were strangling his neck. The paper in his hand was wretchedly crumpled.
On the day he had called Cyrus to test the machine's operation, he had seen numbers reaching ten digits. One billion torts. It was the amount of magic power needed to operate the entire machine, calculate the position of the original world, and even transport there.
Fortunately, since the calculation didn't include several assumptions, he could reduce it to just over 100 million torts.
When the broken machine was operated in Avondale before, it took up to 5 million torts of magic power, so needing 100 million torts to properly transport wasn't that strange.
But even pouring out all the magic power of Esperanza and Cyrus together couldn't reach 100 million. Using up to three amplifiers at maximum, or drawing blood in advance like before, or storing magic power in magic stones or machines would barely fill that shortage.
The problem was that this was the amount needed to transport just one person.
And here the second reason why Cider Claiborne made Cyrus stay at this mansion was revealed.
He took the pile of papers and went down to the first floor. In the reception room sat Cyrus, who had been called early. He seed uncomfortable with the reception room and was just fiddling with his teacup.
No. What made him uncomfortable was the owner of this mansion. Count Avondale. The man he had personally killed in the distant past. And the opponent from whom he was shalessly begging for help.
Cyrus's lips were slightly pale before the conversation with such an opponent. They were even more so because he knew his rhetoric was no match.
"You ca early."
"I have nothing to do anyway."
Cyrus answered in a low voice. Cider naturally took the head seat. Maids brought tea. Everything flowed naturally except for the absence of any words. Cyrus felt pressure from that series of actions.
Avondale hadn't done anything special. It was an action he'd seen hundreds of tis, and it was similar in any upper-class mansion. Then was this pressure just his guilt?
"I think there's a reason you wanted to et
when Esperanza-nim isn't here, Avondale."
"I calculated the magic power needed for transport through the last test operation. It's just an estimate since we don't have exact coordinates, but it won't change much from this figure."
He put the paper down on the table as if throwing it. When Cyrus stared blankly at the alien-like characters, he even showed the kindness of tapping the last line with his fountain pen tip.
"Did you know?"
Even scraping their magic power to the bottom, only one person could be transported.
According to the plan Cyrus had originally made, when he alone crossed to this world, the amount of magic power lacking for his return was at most 30 million torts. About the amount of magic power Esperanza had, a level he could sohow fill alone if he pushed himself. But 100 million torts was a completely different problem.
'What was he thinking when he hid this?'
Ominous thoughts seed to climb up his spine.
Cyrus raised his head and t Cider's eyes. However, he soon tilted his head slightly and looked out the window. Avoiding the piercing gaze, he spoke the answer he had thought about for a long ti.
"I'll be the one who stays."
Cider's fingertips trembled briefly. The hand gripping the fountain pen turned white.
"Isn't that right?"
"That's right."
Cider, who had reluctantly given that answer, steadied his shaking breath. Cyrus looked straight into his eyes and said.
"I'll stay and...... do what needs to be done."
Cider didn't ask anything. But he too would have to live in the world after Esperanza left. So he didn't need to hide it from him.
"Even if both Daria and Esperanza-nim are sent back to the original world, the irregularly appearing dungeons won't disappear."
Cyrus had definitely said that before. Cider rembered exactly, word for word, what Cyrus had said in Glailly House's study.
'We used the Golden Claw very extensively, and that also ans a large hole has been punched in this world. A hole we can no longer control. Magical physicists said it would self-heal over ti, but even so, dungeons would appear at unpredictable tis until then.'
At that ti, it definitely wasn't about this world. But with such a chanism, this world couldn't be an exception either.
"Is it the sa here too?"
"It won't be as frequent as there. But because I brought this Golden Claw here......"
Unlike Esperanza, who had lived relatively peacefully, Cyrus had been releasing the Golden Claw in uninhabited places and conquering dungeons about once every two days. It would be troubleso if the Golden Claw operated on its own while just left in the inventory.
But that ultimately hard this world. The two Golden Claws possessed by Daria and Cyrus each had inflicted over ten tis more wounds on this world than originally expected for this period.
"Since I caused this, I'll end it."
Cyrus finished speaking resolutely. The fact that he might never be able to return had already been accepted when he ca here.
"But if both of you could have returned, you wouldn't have had such thoughts."
Cider said coldly. Gathering the papers with calculations written on them, he buried himself in the armchair. His long fingers drumd the armrest as if counting.
Listening quietly was infuriating. No matter how plausibly you package such a shallow resolve, the essence doesn't change.
"Ridiculous. Only thinking of greater causes after being cornered."
Cyrus, whose weak point had been struck, clamped his mouth shut. That man didn't think he needed to be careful with his words to Cyrus.
Cyrus endured it all because of the past sin of killing him, but the Count wasn't wielding Cyrus's guilt.
He had no interest in things he hadn't experienced himself. He was just being sarcastic because he wanted to be sarcastic, mocking because he wanted to mock. Even though it was sothing that should be done, he couldn't help but know how much agonizing had gone into accepting that decision in his heart.
Cyrus, who had been glaring at Count Avondale's cold, aristocratic face, pressed in an even more agitated voice.
"Are you so righteous? What's the reason you showed this to
first instead of Esperanza-nim?"
When there was no answer, Cyrus shot back as if to say 'see.'
"Didn't you want it too? You said you'd send Esperanza-nim back. Do you have the right to point out my hypocrisy?"
Cider gave no answer at all. Even maintaining a smile was difficult. What does the likes of you know? When all you're doing is cleaning up the ss you've inflicted on the whole world.
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