The Tower That Stretches Underground (2)
Dana looked at me with a mischievous grin. “Can I say something? I want to tell you exactly why I fell for this guy.”
The reason Dana fell for me? That was a story I still hadn’t heard. I’d heard about the moment she realized her feelings yesterday, but never the part about why those feelings had bloomed in the first place.
Franc nodded happily at Dana’s words. “Yes, please tell me.”
“Ahaha. It’s not that interesting, but okay. I’ll start with why I became a scholar. It might be a long story—is that alright?”
“Then I’ll go get us something to drink.”
“Ah, wait!” As Franc stood up, Dana pulled something out of her bag. It was a small jar filled with tea leaves. “This is just a little gift. It’s the tea leaves I used to drink all the time at the university. Nord drank it a lot too.”
“Thank you. …You did?”
Franc accepted the gift politely and turned to me with a curious look. She’d never seen me drink tea in front of her, so it must have seemed strange. I lifted an imaginary teacup to my lips and mimed drinking with a laugh.
“All the researchers at the university loved teatime. Honestly, it was just an excuse to slack off. The stuff is pretty expensive, so I didn’t drink it after coming here to save money.”
In this world, high-quality tea was a luxury item. In a medieval setting, it was even more so. There were cheap teas available, but the low-grade stuff was basically like cheap brown rice green tea back on Earth—there was no reason to spend money on it. As for expensive tea? Fuck, where the hell would a broke-ass grad student get money for that?
Anyway, if it was the tea I thought it was, I knew how to brew it. Not that I could make anything else, though.
“Give it here. I’ll brew it.”
“Take your time. I’ll tell the story up to the part where I met you.”
“Yeah, sure.”
I said that to Dana, took the tea jar from Franc, and headed down to the first-floor kitchen. After getting permission from Dorka, I adjusted the blending ratio of the tea leaves exactly the way I’d learned during my three years at the university. The teaspoon was different from the one I was used to, so I was a bit nervous, but my eyeball measurement was spot on. Was it thanks to mana? Or just experience? Probably both.
“That’s some good tea. Want me to bring out some snacks too?” Dorka asked, watching from the side while wiping dishes with a cloth.
I loaded the kettle and teacups I’d brought from my room onto a tray and answered, “No need. They’re in the middle of a serious talk.”
“Looks like it. I’ll pray it goes well.”
“Thanks a ton, seriously. But you don’t have to worry.”
I carried the tea upstairs. When I opened the door, the two of them seemed to have warmed up to each other—they were both laughing.
“What the hell? How far did you get that you’re already cracking up?”
“Oh, you’re back? I told her up to the part about where I’m from and how we met.”
The place where Dana and I first met was the university laundry area. I set the teacups down and sat in a chair. Dana cleared her throat and continued.
“So anyway. Do you know what this guy said just one week after joining the lab—our research team? He asked me how my master’s life was going! This kid who’d been washing other people’s underwear until the week before was asking if the position I’d spent ten years climbing to was worth it. How could I not pay attention? It was so ridiculous that it stuck in my head.”
Wait, fuck—she actually remembered that?
I was genuinely shocked. I’d thrown that question out casually among all the small talk, never expecting her to still remember it. You acted so damn casual when you answered back then!
Dana gave a bitter smile, either aware or unaware of my gaze. “But what was even more ridiculous was that he actually worked better than I did. If he’d only had talent, I could’ve just called him lucky and hated him for it. But that wasn’t his only specialty, was it?”
“He’s good with words, reads people’s moods well, and he’s smart. Anything else?”
“Exactly. That’s it. I don’t know how he figured it out, but on my birthday he gave me expensive ink that only professors use as a gift—even though he barely got paid. He bragged that he got it while working as the professors’ translation slave. It was so cute I could’ve died.”
I remembered that too. I’d only learned Dana’s birthday a month before the actual day. I didn’t have time to scrape together any of my slave wages—which were basically just living expenses—so I’d done some serious ass-kissing to the professor who used me as a translation slave, appealing to his academic passion until he gave me some of the ink. I’d noticed right away that Dana hated when ink got on her papers or when she had to measure it out sloppily.
By the way, the portable pen I carried around with my notebook was basically a piece of shit. The thickness kept changing and it bled like crazy, so you needed real skill just to write with it.
Franc imagined the scene of me proudly showing off my “ink haul” and burst out laughing. “Hehe. I can totally picture it. It’s a shame I didn’t get to see it myself.”
“Ah, sorry. Did that sound like I was bragging?”
“It did. It definitely sounded like bragging.”
Dana’s eyes widened in surprise at Franc’s words. Franc, looking like a thief who’d successfully pulled off a heist—or more like a kid who’d won a prank—grinned with delight.
“So brag away. Tell me everything.”
“Huh?”
“Well, isn’t it obvious? Nord is ‘our’ husband.”
“──Yes. That’s true.”
Dana nodded, looking much more relaxed now. She brought the tea I’d brewed to her lips.
──Slurp.
After drinking the hot tea, Dana’s face softened a little. It must have tasted familiar. It wasn’t anything special in terms of blending ratio, though.
“……The field of archaeology has a very bright future. It’s at the cutting edge of modern technology.”
The sudden shift to talking about archaeology made me think the story had changed direction, but Franc listened without interrupting.
“The technology developed from ancient ruins, the money invested to obtain it, the interest from nations and nobles. A scholar who makes a name for themselves in archaeology is treated well no matter where they go. But because of that, very few people are actually interested in archaeology itself.”
What Dana said was true. It had been the same for me and for her. Starting with us, many archaeologists were far removed from researchers who were genuinely fascinated by history. They just did it because it made money and helped their careers.
“I think that’s why my papers kept getting rejected for lacking a core before I met Nord.”
──Clink.
Dana set her teacup down.
“I left my hometown when I was ten. I had talent from the start, and luckily I got the connections to enter university at fifteen. People back home said you shouldn’t write down their stories, but I called it a bad custom and ignored them, using what I learned there as my thesis. After entering Carmine University, I did whatever they told me and quickly earned my master’s gold badge.”
Dana said it like that, but something felt slightly off to me. Chronologically it made sense. Starting from the master’s course, even the fastest path to a doctorate took six years. The standard was eight or more. So Dana entered at fifteen, spent ten years to graduate and earn her master’s gold badge. During her university days she’d said it took ten years to get the gold badge, so the math was probably accurate. Four years to graduate, six more for the gold badge. Then three and a half years working with me, earning her doctorate in the autumn at age twenty-eight. Nine and a half years from the master’s course. It wasn’t slow. Not particularly fast either.
That’s when I realized what felt wrong.
She was rising like a rocket before she met me, then got completely stuck and couldn’t get her doctorate.
Six years to the master’s gold badge. Two years each for bronze, silver, and gold. But at the doctorate level, she kept failing to advance. Her pace had been normal, but the frustration must have been huge after rising so quickly.
The bastards evaluating the papers were complete assholes with zero empathy.
I just had to think about all the times I’d been cursing in the tavern. Looking back now, the reason Dana had hung out with me back then was probably because she understood how I felt. After all, she’d also drown her broken mentality in alcohol when it got bad.
……But she never showed any weakness when drinking with me.
If she had, I would’ve remembered. But the Dana I remembered from those drinking sessions was always the one who drank that awful booze like it was the best thing in the world.
──The missing piece of the puzzle was Dana’s shout from last night.
Even after spending three years with you, I—I didn’t even realize I liked you this much until yesterday!! I didn’t even know that drinking without you made the alcohol taste so fucking awful!!
……The past is always like this. You often realize things much later than when they actually happened. Sometimes I think it’d be better if I really was just a clueless idiot who knew nothing.
“It was good when I was young. Being shocked that there was nothing at the end of the rainbow was still cute.”
Dana drew an arch in the air with her index finger. She was probably drawing a rainbow.
“I came out into the world because I wanted to know what I didn’t know, but every day was filled with people who didn’t have the answers. I even started wondering if what I was curious about was even the right question. The reason little me was curious about everything was because of the curiosity that supported it all──but curiosity that never gets satisfied is just stress, right?”
Her words carried the weight of real experience. There were surprisingly many master’s students who advanced smoothly, then hit a wall at the doctorate and ended up with a “master’s-only ending.” The skills required starting from the doctorate were completely different. Dana had run into her own limits there.
“The paper review was accurate. How could it not be, when I didn’t even know my own heart? I’d never had any real backbone. I’d somehow made it this far on nothing but curiosity, so I thought it was time to look for the next job as a master’s graduate.”
“And that’s when you met Nord?”
“Hehe. You noticed? Is the reason you fell for him similar?”
Dana tried to play it off awkwardly. Franc nodded vigorously like a salaryman bonding over old memories at a reunion.
“I think so. That feeling hit me too.”
“If it’s the exact same reason, I’d be embarrassed. Anyway, it’s hard to work hard at something you don’t want to do, right? Even people who’ll starve if they don’t go to work tomorrow complain about not wanting to get up.”
Dana pointed at me with her finger.
“But this guy was different. From the moment he caught my interest, it was obvious. Even while complaining that he hated it, he did everything so fucking…… sorry. He worked ridiculously hard. His perspective was just different. Who makes plans for several years ahead like it’s next week’s schedule and actually follows through?”
No, making plans or writing down things I’d forget was just me being a dumbass who had to force myself to function somehow. I had to slave away for three years to become a free citizen, so I lived as the translation slave Nord while doing all that pathetic ass-kissing and three-point rolling shit, okay?
Before I could find the words to say it was an overestimation, Franc answered first.
──Clap!
Franc clapped her hands, eyes sparkling. “That’s right! Nord does have that side to him, doesn’t he? He does the same thing to me! He talks about things ten or twenty years in the future in the exact same tone as deciding what to eat for breakfast tomorrow!”
“Ah, so you know about that habit too? Guess he can’t stop giving it away.”
“Hehe. I hope he never gives it to anyone else until the day I die. I love holding him in my arms and listening to him talk about the future like that.”
“It’s also nice when he talks in front of the campfire. Don’t you think he looks coolest when he’s staring into the distance? Is it because he’s from a nomadic tribe?”
Fuck. I’m going to die. This feels like I’m going to die of pure embarrassment!
They wanted me to sit here while my wives traded compliments about me? Well, sure, I was happy. Insanely happy. It felt great and my shoulders were practically floating. But my back was itching like crazy too. Gwaaaaaah!! So fucking embarrassing!!
21st-century Koreans aren’t used to compliments! That’s why our fathers’ generation acted all tsundere, saying things like “I just picked it up on the way”! Both giving and receiving praise feels awkward!
Dana watched me squirm like a squid on a hot grill and laughed, then downed her tea in one bold gulp. She finally let a bit of her real personality show.
“So yeah──after working together like that for three years, just being together became fun. The lab was a truly insane, isolated space. It was a place where only unknown things and things that needed to be discovered kept piling up. In that hellish place, the things this guy talked about completely satisfied my curiosity. Pointless chatter, perfectly timed stupid jokes, and even some subtly profound sayings.”
Was it because of my smooth-talking drunk mouth?
──Smack! Smack!
When she saw me looking smug, Dana slapped her own mouth.
“After thinking about the things he said and copying them, even the way I talk started to resemble him. Francesca, you should be careful too. Once it rubs off on you, it doesn’t come out.”
“Tsk! Dana, you damn woman! When you love someone, you’re supposed to resemble them! If you don’t want Franc to end up like me, then you two should love each other too. Love grows the more you share it. Who knows, maybe even that flat pancake-batter chest of yours will grow a little.”
“Look at her! Wow, just listen to her talk! You wanna get hit?!”
“Exactly!”
“Hehe.”
Dana got angry and threw a tantrum while Franc watched us with a smile. I’d drawn all the aggro and made the two of them get along perfectly! This was the Nord Requiem!
I made those two get along! I can control my wives’ emotions!
──Smack! Smack!
“Gyaaaaah! Violence is wrong!!”
Of course, the price I paid was getting my arm grabbed and being thrown onto the bed. This pain was proof of my love…….
The villain… is used to this…….
Dana ignored me as I passed out and returned to her seat. Franc filled Dana’s cup with more tea.
“Ah, thank you. That’s the end of my story. I only started to understand it little by little recently, so it was probably pretty scattered, wasn’t it?”
“Not at all. Hehe. It felt familiar because our reasons were so similar. You explained it really well.”
Franc spoke gently. But Franc, she actually hit me pretty seriously. If I didn’t have the passive mana reinforcement, I probably would’ve been covered in bruises.
Franc set the teapot down and looked at me. “Since Dana spoke so honestly, I’ll tell my story too. Nord said he hadn’t properly explained what happened, right?”
“Ah, may I hear it?”
“Of course. I really want to tell you. ──But before that.”
Franc took a sip of tea to wet her lips and said, “The reason I got close to Nord was because we dropped the formal speech and drank together. What do you think, Dana?”
Dana’s eyes widened at those words, but they quickly turned into her signature smile. It was the sincere smile she showed to someone she was truly comfortable with.
“──Sounds good. But it’s still daytime?”
“I’m half dwarf, you know.”
The straightforward Dana and the quick-to-retort Franc. The two beauties who seemed so alike yet so different laughed as they finished the remaining tea, gathered their wallets, and stood up.
“Ah, but I heard he’s really weak to alcohol. Will you be okay? My tolerance is insanely high, you know?”
“…………Nord?”
It was Franc’s ice-cold gaze, something I hadn’t seen in a very long time. Oh shit. As expected, eloquence is silver and silence is golden. The true path of a smooth-talking playboy who charms women without saying a word is still so far and treacherous.
I covered my face and slumped down.
“Ah… aaah… Dana, you sneaky bastard……”
“Huh? W-why?”
I don’t know, you idiot. You got her excited, so you deal with it. Looks like I’ll have to keep Franc company while she’s drunk today.