The research lab separated from the study by just one wall had changed quite a bit over the three years. Several research assistant automatons had been added, one wall had precise model weapons, and the other wall had organized teeth and hide from unknown creatures.
'I didn't really change fields in three years, did I?'
Cider rummaged through the research lab a bit more. Anyway, since his self from yesterday seed to be the sa person, Cider could roughly guess the use of machines and how things were organized. What he thought would be in a certain place was there, and what he thought would be used a certain way was used that way.
Of course, there were also things he couldn't predict at all.
'This is the sa as the bottle that 'Countess' brought earlier.'
He took out the bottle he had seen earlier from among bottles containing suspicious-colored drugs. Purple liquid sloshed around. He soon found a magical pharmacologist's report from a bookshelf within reach.
Except for a few suspicious expressions, he could generally tell this thing was close to dicine. Setting aside the possibility that this report was fabricated and that the 'Countess' had tampered with the bottle.
He didn't think he would have beco stupid in just three years, but anyway, now was a situation where he had to be wary of everything.
In the compartnt next to it was a bottle containing sloshing red liquid. He could tell without asking what the liquid in that specially carefully stored bottle was.
'Human blood?'
He really hoped he hadn't properly gone insane for three years and done disgusting biological experints or sothing. He couldn't follow such things and had no interest in them.
Fortunately, he could find records about this blood too. It was a handwritten record by Cider himself. The unfortunate part was that the blood really was human blood. Cider turned the page with a sigh.
The record followed the format Cider generally used. Magic power amounts and perability rates were recorded as if calculating the magic perability of leather.
The figures were trendous enough to make him rub his eyes twice. If that much magic power ca from just one bottle of blood, the maximum magic power that could be extracted from one person's blood would be about 30 million torts. An absurd amount.
With just one bottle, so many possibilities seed to appear before his eyes of how much research could be done. Things he wanted to make but couldn't, and things he had to make unnecessarily complicated. His future self must have seized trendous fortune. It would have been nice if this fortune had appeared about two years earlier.
That was the end of the records about blood. The next page had drawings of blood collection tis and syringes to reduce pain.
'Why would I do such things? Whether it hurts or not.'
Naturally, sticking a needle in flesh is supposed to hurt. It's not like it was forced in, so what's the problem? Well, if it's soone with blood so full of magic power, there's nothing wrong with showing consideration.
Cider put down the record and headed for the door leading to the next room. This door hadn't existed before. It seed like an empty room had been opened up to create another research lab. He opened the door without much expectation.
Through the door crack, a very familiar machine appeared. Vacuum tubes and gears tangled throughout the room. It was an invention he had once discarded long ago.
"Spaceti machine..."
The question he had entertained as a joke pressed heavily on his shoulders. What on earth had happened in the past three years? Cider slowly approached the machine.
A machine that could move freely without being constrained by the limitations of spaceti. He had completed this at a very young age. It couldn't be said it wasn't a stroke of luck. He abandoned it after realizing he couldn't handle it himself.
After calming his surprised emotions, he saw that the machine before his eyes wasn't the sa machine using the sa parts as back then. So he had recreated this machine with new parts.
Why had he done that?
It reeked of thorough research from the beginning again. Several auxiliary machines attached for magic power stabilization. Complex analytical chanisms for coordinate asurent.
And a glass tube that would be packed full with one or two people inside. The strange thing was that the control panel faced away from the machine. There must be a reason for such an inconvenient design, but he couldn't guess for now. Since he didn't want to spend more ti in that room, he soon closed the door and ca out.
Reaching the study space, Cider suddenly thought.
Spaceti machine. Blood. Desk.
He seed to know what had happened. A faint smile crossed his lips. 'Countess.' So far, that was the only variable.
He headed to the research lab to verify his hypothesis. He took out the model gun he had glimpsed earlier and placed it on the desk. Just from the overall shape, it was definitely not a mass-produced item. It was an object tailored to soone with specific habits or customs. If he estimated that the size was also made considering physique, results that matched his hypothesis would erge.
Cider sat on the sofa holding the model gun. The seat facing the newly acquired desk. Realizing that the seat he sat in by habit wasn't where he had sat until yesterday, he burst into laughter.
He didn't know what had happened over three years, but it seed clear that he had ford a trusting relationship with the 'Countess' to the extent of sharing space. That trust was probably also related to the blood and spaceti machine he had seen earlier.
He still couldn't guess why the spaceti machine had to be rebuilt again. He wanted to take it and throw it away again now that he had lost his mory... but he couldn't act rashly in the current situation. Since it was sothing he himself had done, he could only assu there was so thought behind it.
Co to think of it, he still didn't even know the 'Countess's' na. Cider headed for her desk.
Before he could even think about where to look for what he was seeking, his hand reached out by habit. Several torn letter envelopes ca out of a box inside the closest first drawer. The mont he read the first line, he could almost see the face of the person who wrote it.
"Esperanza."
Wasn't she from this country? He rolled that na around in his mouth once more. It felt strangely familiar. It seed like he had called this na very often over three years.
??????°??☆????°??????
Until nightfall, Cider remained holed up in the study without coming out. Mrs. Lux stomped her feet while bringing food and ca out.
"My lady, shouldn't you go in and see him?"
"He doesn't rember . Right now it's better for Mrs. Lux to go."
"But..."
Esperanza smiled bitterly. It wasn't that she wasn't worried. Even if he was fine without injuries, such a trendous thing as losing mory had happened, so shouldn't he be resting?
"He's probably not coming out because I make him uncomfortable."
"If it's the Count, he would have just forgotten, oh. I'm sorry!"
"No, Annie. I think you might be right."
Uncomfortable or not, she didn't have enough presence to be conscious of. By now, a genius with the sa brain as hers would be busy admiring the achievents made over three years.
To Cider until just yesterday, Esperanza was more important than research. She could be confident of that. But today wasn't the case. It was infuriating, but that's how it was. If his heart had cooled, she could at least curse him, but for his mory to fly away.
'No. Just because his mory flew away doesn't an I can't curse him.'
What an annoying person. Who did she stay in this world for, when he erased his mory completely after three years? Everything else is fine but only his mory?
...How long would it take for his mory to return?
"Mrs. Lux, you saw him take the dicine, right?"
"Of course. Don't worry too much. The doctor said it would probably be a temporary phenonon. Surely when he sleeps and wakes up, his mory will return."
"But that person doesn't sleep."
"Ah..."
"At least tell him to do it moderately and sleep. Though he won't listen."
"You should sleep early too, my lady. Kate, let's go."
Annie nodded.
"Don't worry too much and sleep soon, miss, no, my lady."
"You really have no intention of fixing that title mistake."
"It's stuck to my tongue."
Esperanza listened to the two people's voices growing distant and closed her eyes. She thought she absolutely wouldn't be able to sleep, but was she tired? It didn't take long to fall asleep.
She felt the bed being pressed down. Esperanza turned her body with her eyes closed. Groping through the air, she caught the hem of a shirt.
Esperanza, pulling the familiar body temperature into her arms, burrowed into his embrace. It had really been a tiring day. Even solving two dungeons in succession wouldn't have exhausted her as much as today. Amnesia...
At that mont, her mind returned as if cold water had been poured over her.
Esperanza, struggling to open her eyes, looked up at Cider. It was a face recognizable even by its outline in the darkness. It was the sa as usual, except that the cheeks that always held a smile had hardened.
Large hands slowly, gently pushed Esperanza away. Though he used no strength at all, Esperanza was easily pushed away.
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