Even a body made of machines needed to sleep.
It was the sa principle as seeing a blue screen if one left the computer on for too long. They didn’t need as much sleep as humans, of course, but it didn’t an that they could go for days without it.
The recomnded number of hours of sleep was three. If they slept less than this, then they would have to spend the next day in a groggy state.
And it would be the sa for Rosemary.
“Haaaahm.”
“You look tired today.”
“I didn’t sleep well last night....”
As Rosemary rubbed at her eyes like she was dry washing her face, yawns kept escaping from her mouth.
It couldn’t have been that she lost sleep from being scared of ghosts or Beasts when she herself was that monster.
She must have stayed up yesterday to do sothing, and I racked my brain to figure out what that ‘sothing’ was. And right before lunch, I ca to a single conclusion.
Verl’s in danger.
“Going to the restroom.”
Since there were a lot of eyes right now, Rosemary wasn’t going to be able to turn on Scope. I excused myself and stepped out of the cafeteria.
I needed to check on my companion. With that thought alone, I ran towards the Cultural Center.
Clunk.
When I broke into the hideout, six tal caras greeted .
Of course.
The steel plate walls had clearly been scratched up by a blade. She must have thought that she restored everything to their original state sohow, but there were a few defects here and there. It seed that Rosemary thought there would be a space sowhere inside the wall.
As promised, Verl had said he wouldn’t go anywhere from here. There was no way that he went back on his word not even a day later. With that thought, I took out the calipers from subspace and held it as far as possible.
Clink! Clink! Claaang!
A clear sound like a fork hitting against glass pierced the cara lenses. After smashing all the surveillance caras, Verl burst out of the cabinet like a baby bird breaking out of its shell.
He was wheezing, face pale like a white magnolia. There was blood scabbed on his left arm and right temple.
He was in his own horror movie... was sothing I couldn’t joke about.
“... How did you know to co here?”
“Rosemary was dozing off the whole class.”
“Thanks. I would’ve died if it wasn’t for you.”
“You can save it. I don’t have ti right now.”
I would’ve liked to take him to the infirmary, but right now, it was more dangerous to leave this place. His wounds didn’t seem severe so they should heal on their own just fine with bandages or sothing.
After saying goodbye with a glance, I returned to the cafeteria.
The food tray was already cleared. Dabbing at her mouth with a napkin, Rosemary turned her head.
“What took so long, sis?”
Considering her past actions, Rosemary was considerably clever. I was scared that she might have noticed that I left to go find Verl.
“Hey, you shouldn’t ask those things, young lady.”
“Hmph.”
She was probably going to look around the basent again tonight. She’d wait until Verl ca out and take him out where I couldn’t see.
I took my tray to the collection area and left the cafeteria together with Rosemary. We grabbed a canned coffee each from the vending machine and engaged in small talk.
“So what are you planning to do after school today, sis?”
“Why do you want to know?”
“Because I want to invite you to our place, since you helped adjust to the school at the beginning.”
What’s this now?
“Sorry, but can I take a rain check on that?”
“Do you have so kind of prior engagent?”
“I have a eting with Professor Cai-Lussac this afternoon.”
Clack.
Rosemary dropped the coffee that she had been holding. It made clanging noises like a tin drum as the spilled coffee seeped into the floor. Rosemary let out an aborted ‘Ahh...!’
“You okay?”
“Yes, it didn’t get on my clothes, thankfully. Goodness, look at .... I should get ho early and sleep.”
Rosemary smiled dazedly like a cat high on catnip and picked up the can.
But unlike her curled lips, her eyes were ferocious.
**Even if I wanted to miniaturize Flare, I didn’t know where to begin.
Even making a scroll smaller was a problem right now. Fine processes weren’t my field of expertise.
“Auhh.”
Still, I made a bold claim to the chairman that I’d make it within three months so I had to.
[Wow. So you said you’d make the deadline when you don’t even have a clue on what to do?]
“What’s wrong with that?”
[If you don’t make the deadline, then that Mössbayer person is probably going to subject you to public humiliation.]
“Then I just have to make it.”
The hardcover stopped talking in disbelief. Regardless, I marched towards the Earth Magic research facility.
To et with the authority on this world’s nanotechnology, Professor Cai-Lussac.
If I didn’t know, I just needed to learn from soone else. How would I possibly do it alone?
Knock knock.
“Sir, it’s Aether, I set up a eting with you this morning. May I co in?”
“Co in, Miss Aether!”
The door opened like he’d been waiting. Professor Cai-Lussac greeted with a bright face.
There was a reason why he was glad to see .
One of the Golden-Eyed who’d been widely known for their brilliance since the past.
The only perfect scorer of the written test in the history of Tilette, and the top student of the first years with Verl currently gone.
Published two papers in the Imperial Society Journal as the first author despite being an undergraduate.
With these three things combined, I unknowingly beca an attractive student to the professors. It seed that Professor Cai-Lussac was no exception with how happy he was at my visit, serving tea and snacks. I couldn’t tell who was supposed to be the professor here.
“I’m rather curious about what questions you have. What did you want to ask ?”
“I’d like to learn nano-level control using Elental Magic.”
“Hmm.”
Cai-Lussac stroked his white beard, seeming troubled.
“Is it only possible through forming a contract with an Elental?”
Cai-Lussac had said in class that precise control at the nano-level was only possible through using an Elental. Then did that an semiconductor processes couldn’t be done without Elentals in this world? I was confused.
“No, it isn’t completely impossible, however.... It’s difficult with today’s technology. That is why we need the help of the Elentals.”
“Would I be able to form a contract with an Elental? Or at least converse with one?”
When I said this, the professor’s expression beca even more complicated. Cai-Lussac heaved a deep sigh like soone who’d heard the Riemann hypothesis1.
“I asked a friend who majored in history the other day after I saw your eyes, if Golden-Eyeds can also possess an Elental.”
“... And?”
“From what they know, they have never found such a case even after searching through a thousand-years worth of records. Although this isn’t a mainstream theory, so scholars say that the Golden-Eyed were spurned by the Goddess a long ti ago.”
So if I didn’t have a contracted Elental, then I couldn’t even dream about miniaturizing Flare.
[But you have , Master.]
The hardcover was useful, true, but only in the sense of being an encyclopedia that provided the complete list of magic. With a few added coding functions. That was it. To be honest, it was no more than a laptop with an analog feel.
[Geez, harsh, much?]
The flapping book slipped right into my pocket. This guy was sulking a lot these days.
“... Ahem, even if you don’t have an Elental, I can at least show you the equipnt needed for research.”
“Oh, really?”
“Co this way.”
My heart started beating faster at the sliver of hope. I scurried after Cai-Lussac.
“It’s this.”
It was an equipnt the size of a computer monitor. On one side, there was a black cuboid box which was attached to a long cylinder and sharply cut prisms, all wrapped in a conducting wire.
“Um, what is this? It looks like a microscope of sorts....”
“You already knew? It is indeed a microscope.”
If I recall correctly, this structure was similar to an AFM (atomic force microscope)2 as there was a column looking like a piezoelectric elent in the middle.
I had fiddled around with an AFM a few tis during my undergraduate years at the cooperative research center, though it beca rare because I went into a different field. Still, it wasn’t completely unfamiliar so that was fortunate.
“In order to achieve nano-level control, we would first need to see at that scale, don’t we? You first read the surface of the sample of your choice with this, then you can move the magic elents with the Elental’s help.”
“Can you show how to operate this?”
“Hoho, of course.”
I followed every single one of the professor’s movents with my eyes.
First, rip up magic paper into pieces and place them on the sample. Then lower the probe and shine a weak light on the cantilever. While in contact, move the elents one by one using the Elental. Finally, print the photographed result with poor photographic technology.
A square was neatly assembled on top of the blank magic paper. It was a non-functional circuit but it could definitely be called a scroll–the world’s smallest scroll.
“Oho... May I borrow one of these?”
I wasn’t restricted from touching anything as an undergraduate so I had hopes.
“As far as I know, there’s one that’s unused in the Fire Magic lab. If you speak to the departnt chair, then they might give it to you altogether.”
“Give it....?
I didn’t need it that much.
“If it’s you, then I don’t think they’ll hold back their support. You’re intending to make sothing else, aren’t you?”
Scratching at my cheek, I smiled politely.
**“Yes, I’m going to try and make Flare as small as possible.”
She rembered that ‘miniaturization of Flare’ had been on Aether’s career path questionnaire.
Rosemary didn’t forget that sentence. Rather, she was watching with interest.
So when big sis said she was eting with that human professor, she had dropped the coffee. She hadn’t expected her to start working on it this early.
What should I do....
She thought about it for a mont.
Then a good idea popped up so she took her ear off the door. Rosemary picked up her dress and hurried off.
The sun was already setting. She got onto the carriage marked with the Blanton family emblem and headed toward the palace. With how tired she was, she didn’t have the energy to deal with the elf today.
Why is sis acting like this, seriously...!
Most of all, she had to stop Aether instead of the elf now.
Footnotes
1. "In mathematics, the Riemann hypothesis is the conjecture that the Riemann zeta function has its zeros only at the negative even integers and complex numbers with real part 1/2" (Wikipedia)2. "Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a type of SPM (scanning probe microscopy), with demonstrated resolution on the order of fractions of a nanoter, more than 1000 tis better than the optical diffraction limit. The information is gathered by "feeling" or "touching" the surface with a chanical probe" (Wikipedia)
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