Episode 77
Translator: RaidenTL
Episode 77
By the time I had meticulously inspected the factory’s interior and stepped outside, dusk was already falling, the sun hanging low in the sky.
The soldiers said they planned to stand guard to prevent any outsiders from entering. As Elysia climbed into the carriage sent by the Linton family, she abruptly stuck her head out and spoke to the coachman.
“Take us to the main school building, not the dormitory.”
“What? Right now?”
“There’s something I need to test.”
After closing the window, Elysia practically threw herself back against the seat in exhaustion. She rested her head against the window for a moment, then shifted uncomfortably. As she squirmed to find the perfect spot, she let out a frustrated noise without realizing it.
There has to be a more comfortable way to sit, right? Seeing her struggle, Evan wrapped an arm around her, guiding her to lean against his shoulder.
“How’s this?” he asked.
“Oh, that’s comfortable.”
Leaning against him naturally, Elysia took a notebook out of her inventory. She fanned the pages of the empty notebook, then pointed to a specific spot.
“Can you see this?”
“See what?”
“Here.”
She lifted the notebook higher so he could see it more easily. At the tip of her finger was an indentation in the paper—a trace left from the pressure of writing on the previous page.
Evan tilted his head, trying to read the faint marks, but they weren't clear enough to be deciphered by the naked eye. Just then, Elysia noticed a warning window pop up before her slowly drooping eyelids.
`SYSTEM: You are in a ‘Sleep Deprivation’ state. (Reason: Excessive stamina consumption while suffering from insomnia) The ‘Drowsiness’ debuff will now activate.`
“Ah, no…”
I have to take care of this before I sleep. I can’t fall asleep, I can’t… Elysia’s eyes slowly closed and opened again. She read the message floating before her and let out a yawn.
“Haaah… There is a way. A method to enhance the traces so we can read them… but the machine for it isn’t here, so I can’t be sure. It’s a shot in the dark. Still, I thought I’d at least give it a try.”
“You’re saying there’s a way to restore the text that was written on the previous page?”
“There is, but honestly, I don’t know if it’ll work… Um, Senior, you must be tired, right?”
He was a little dumbfounded. How could she say that when she looked far more exhausted than he did?
He looked down, about to nag her to please stop overworking herself, but he flinched. Elysia’s eyes were already closed. For him, this was a stroke of luck, as it meant he could stare at her face without her noticing.
Swallowing the smile that threatened to escape, he asked, “What if I am tired?”
“Then I’d… have to tell you… to go to the dorm first…”
Her voice, heavy with sleep, trailed off intermittently. Patting her back lightly, he said playfully, “I’m hurt. To think you’d leave me behind.”
“No… it’s not leaving you behind… it’s being… considerate…”
Elysia’s mumbling faded as she drifted off to sleep. The man’s eyes curved into crescents as he smiled, watching the woman breathing softly with her head resting on his shoulder.
He gently shifted her, laying her down so her head rested on his lap. Propping his chin on one hand, he gazed out the carriage window.
“Hm… Come to think of it, I never got to tell her.”
The moment Elysia had found the notebook amidst the mountain of items, something else had caught his eye.
Evan opened his bag, intending to peek at the contents of the paper bag inside, but he froze when Elysia groaned and shifted at his movement.
“Nngh…”
With a defenseless expression, Elysia reached out and hugged his leg before falling back into a deep sleep. His body went rigid, leaving him unable to do anything.
It took a few more minutes for his mind, stuck in that awkward position, to start working properly again. When he finally came to his senses, he sighed and ran a hand over his face.
She didn’t wake up, did she? He anxiously studied the expression of the woman sleeping on his lap and noticed her brow was furrowed. Displeased, he gently pressed his finger against it and murmured, “You’re frowning in your sleep.”
“…”
“Are you angry even in your dreams?”
There was no reply to his chuckling question.
It seemed they had arrived at the academy, as the carriage began to slow down. He leaned down slowly to look at Elysia, his body casting a shadow over her face.
Do you have any idea how intoxicating it is, to be able to get this close to you? With a soft smile, he quietly called her name.
“El.”
Perhaps because it was only a light doze, she hadn’t fallen into a deep sleep. As soon as she heard her name, Elysia’s eyes fluttered open. He tried to calm his pounding heart, but it was of little use.
He secretly loved this moment. There was no greater feeling of trust than when Elysia, upon hearing his voice, would open her eyes without a hint of caution, as if she were hearing something she was always meant to hear, and gaze up at him.
Suddenly, Elysia’s eyes went wide. It seemed she had just realized she’d been sleeping on his thigh. She scrambled to sit up, using only her core strength without any help, and stretched as she asked, “A-Are we here?”
“Almost.”
“Ah, I feel much better after that nap. Did you get some sleep, Senior?”
He let out a light laugh at how she deftly changed the subject. She seemed to have no memory of mumbling and talking to him in her sleep.
He briefly considered confessing that he hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her face for a second, but for the sake of the woman whose eyes were already spinning with panic, he decided on a white lie.
“Yeah, I slept well, too.”
Just then, the carriage came to a halt. Hearing the coachman announce their arrival, he opened the door and offered Elysia his hand. She took it without hesitation and stepped out of the carriage, lifting the notebook with a look of grim determination.
“Let’s finish this in two hours and go to bed. Overworking just kills efficiency.”
*
Stepping into the laboratory, Elysia walked to a machine as if she had planned everything in advance. Evan stared at the device, which had a long rubber tube connected to it, and looked at her quizzically.
“It’s a vacuum pump.”
“A vacuum?”
“Honestly, ah, I don’t know if this will work. Where I used to be, there was a dedicated machine for this. I’m just going to try and manually replicate what that machine did, so I have a feeling this might fail…”
She brought over a glass tube and connected the vacuum pump. Then, she began to wander around the lab, searching for something.
After opening every drawer in sight, she tilted her head and pulled something out. In her hand was a thin, transparent film. Elysia shrugged and muttered, “Even though I think that… well, what the hell, let’s just give it a shot.”
She tore out the page from the notebook, sealed it between two sheets of the thin film, and attached clips connected to a small battery to either end of the film.
After placing the specially treated paper inside the sealed glass tube, Elysia looked around and grabbed some graphite and a scalpel from a lab desk.
When she scraped the graphite with the scalpel, a huge amount of powder was produced, which she promptly put into her inventory.
`SYSTEM: An old-fashioned evidence machine has been created. Would you like to operate it? (Success Rate: 43.8%)`
`Press the pedal to select Y.`
With a firm press, the pedal made a whooshing sound as air was sucked out. After about twenty pumps, the hissing pump fell silent.
“Flip the battery switch.”
Evan, who had been waiting by the machine for her command, turned on the battery. A faint electric current began to flow over the paper. Elysia immediately opened her inventory and selected the graphite powder she had just created.
`new! <Graphite Powder>`
`Item Description: Ground so finely it can seep into the narrowest of crevices.`
`System: Add this item to the ‘old-fashioned evidence machine’? Y | N`
The moment she selected Y, graphite powder poured into the sealed glass tube. A surprised Evan raised an eyebrow and stared intently into the tube.
As the graphite powder seeped into the indentations on the film covering the slanted paper, the contents of a rather long document began to appear. Elysia clasped her hands together and prayed desperately.
Please, please. Oh, gods of probability, please. A 43.8% success rate is practically a gimme. Please, please!
`SYSTEM: You have succeeded in the indentation mark reproduction work.`
`SYSTEM: Evidence Acquired! The evidence will be collected in your inventory.`
“Gasp, it worked!”
Elysia immediately reached into her inventory and pulled out the newly created piece of evidence, the ‘restored document copy’. Her excited expression turned cold the moment she read the title. Biting her lip, she read it aloud in a trembling voice.
“Mutual Cooperation Agreement Regarding a New Drug Business…”
“Mutual cooperation?”
“That crazy bastard…!”
What kind of reckless stunt did he pull before he died? Her hands were trembling with rage. Evan took the document from Elysia’s pale hands and read the first sentence of the contract in a flat voice.
“The undersigned, ‘Alma Heron’ and ‘Caden Hertz,’ hereby enter into the following agreement.”
“…Enter into an agreement? They were in a cooperative relationship?”
Alma Heron. Even if she was a young master ignorant of the ways of the world, the image of the woman who treated high-ranking nobles like dogs naturally came to mind. Trying to calm her ragged breathing, she listened to Evan’s words.
“Article 1: ‘Alma Heron’ shall develop the drugs to be supplied to ‘Caden Hertz.’
Article 2: ‘Caden Hertz’ shall actively cooperate and participate in experiments related to the drugs.
Article 3: ‘Caden Hertz’ shall cooperate unconditionally without questioning the source of drug-related information.”
Despite the contract being filled with one insane clause after another, Evan, who had managed to read it in a dry tone, now wore a chilling expression.
Elysia blinked at the man’s unfamiliar, emotionless face and waited for him to continue. He slowly parted his lips and read the next clause in a low voice.
“Article 4: On the condition that Articles 2 and 3 have been fulfilled, ‘Caden Hertz’ shall be granted the Drug Distribution Rights from ‘Alma Heron,’ and ‘Alma Heron’ shall receive a commission thereof.”
Evan lowered the hand holding the document, and his eyes met Elysia’s. She spotted Hertz’s scrawled signature and Alma’s seal at the very bottom of the document and let out a hollow laugh. So, the two of them were…
“Business partners… is that it? Right now?”
“It seems so.”
After a moment of silence, without realizing it, they both spoke the same words at the same time.
“Are they crazy?”