An Unexpected Visitor
The four consecutive days off—Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday—gave me plenty of free time. Yet I was still busier than ever, with no room to breathe.
The penthouse remodeling needed a few more touches, Fix's CPU research demanded steady attention, and while upgrading my current suit, I also had to continue the research and development for the next version—the one specifically designed to slaughter demons. The Doom Suit.
Because of all that, I simply didn't have time to build an air conditioner from scratch.
Rumors about the air conditioner had already spread like wildfire. Orders were flooding in like a tidal wave, but I couldn't spare a single moment to handle them separately.
“Father.”
“KWAHAHAHAHA! My proud son!”
So I handed the entire air conditioner business over to James.
I taught him all the principles and technical know-how, then gave him detailed instructions on how to mass-produce them.
“Don’t you worry! We’ll become rich, father and son! KWAHAHAHA!”
James burst into laughter with one of his classic dad jokes. I couldn’t be more grateful for his ever-cheerful and upbeat personality.
Having a completely trustworthy and reliable blacksmith made it easy to entrust him with such a lucrative venture without a shred of doubt.
“Then this dad will head over to the blacksmith district! Don’t worry about the contracts!”
With that, James set off for the blacksmith district. He needed to outsource the parts required for mass production.
Given his excellent sociability and friendly nature, I was confident he would smoothly build a mass-production network. Still, knowing his personality, he might end up giving away too much money to his partners, so I had firmly drawn the line on that.
Only pay them what their simple labor was worth.
“Hmm. With the air conditioner issue taken care of—”
It was finally time to focus on research and development. The money would take care of itself.
I immediately turned around and headed toward the laboratory.
“E-Enya?”
It was nine o’clock on Saturday night.
When I returned to the lab, Enya was waiting for me with a pitiful, tearful expression.
She pointed at her completely soaked clothes and said,
“Save me…”
Save me? What on earth had happened?
After asking for the full story, I learned that the water supply in the female dormitory had broken down. She hadn’t been able to shower all day and was on the verge of melting from the heat.
Since Enya was particularly sensitive to heat, it must have been absolute hell for her.
“I heard about it… That thing you made, Graham’s Northern Wind… They say it’s incredibly cool…”
Enya mentioned the air conditioner with half-lidded, dazed eyes.
I nodded and placed my palm on the lab’s user recognition device. The engraved spell activated and the door opened. It had recognized me as the owner.
Sometimes I forget this isn’t the modern world.
A research lab door with a security system in a medieval setting. It really highlighted how unbalanced the technology level was in this world.
A world where outdated medieval techniques coexisted with modern security technology. Was it all thanks to the setting of spells and mana?
Whenever I saw nobles riding cutting-edge magic carriages instead of cars, it always left me with complicated thoughts.
“Come in. It’s really cool inside the lab.”
Shaking off my stray thoughts, I led Enya into the laboratory.
The interior had been kept cool all day with the air conditioner running. Enya’s expression changed dramatically. She looked as moved as if she were greeting a messiah.
“E-Ed…! Th-this place… is seriously… heaven.”
Enya spread both arms wide, basking in the air conditioner’s breeze like a prisoner who had just escaped after twenty-seven years. I wondered how badly she must have suffered today to react so strongly.
Then again, even I praised the greatness of Willis Haviland Carrier every summer. For Enya, who suffered through an especially long summer and hated the heat, such a reaction was completely understandable.
From her perspective, I was probably on the same level as Carrier himself.
“Um, Enya… Your clothes…”
Unfortunately, her clothes were so thoroughly soaked that I didn’t know where to look. They clung to her body like she’d been doused with water, revealing the curves underneath.
“Ah. I-I sweat a lot… Haha…”
Only then did Enya realize her state. She hurriedly covered her chest with an awkward smile.
I cleared my throat awkwardly and handed her a blanket from the table.
“Let’s get you cleaned up first. You’ll catch a cold if you stay in wet clothes under cold air.”
“Huh? Oh… okay.”
Enya carefully took the blanket and draped it over her shoulders to cover her chest. I immediately led her out of the lab and toward the backyard of the male dormitory.
She looked around nervously, asking if this was really okay, but I told her not to worry—nobody would know.
“Mana will wrap around your body. Just accept it instead of pushing it away.”
I said that and tapped a brick three times to activate the spell. A bright light enveloped us both and lifted us up to the rooftop of the male dormitory.
Enya stared at my penthouse with wide, dazed eyes.
“Whoa… It’s incredibly stylish.”
The penthouse, reborn in a modern style with Fix’s help, had a sleek design that perfectly balanced function and aesthetics. Enya stood there for a long time, mesmerized by its exterior.
Her enchanted expression made all the hard work I’d put in over the past sixteen days feel completely worth it.
“Let’s go inside.”
“Oh? Okay.”
And so, I welcomed my first guest into my home.
The moment Enya stepped inside, her eyes widened as she looked around. I pointed toward the shower room.
“See that glass door? That’s the shower. As for clothes to change into, just wait a second.”
I quickly went to my room and brought out a white shirt and shorts. The shorts had a drawstring waist, so they could be adjusted to fit her.
“You can change into these.”
“Y-yeah. Thanks.”
Enya’s cheeks flushed slightly as she accepted the clothes.
Then silence fell.
The only sound in the room was the low hum of the air conditioner.
“Ahem. Go ahead and shower. I’ll wait in my room.”
“Okay.”
In the awkward silence, I felt my gaze constantly drifting toward her chest, so I hurried back to my room.
Soon, the sound of running water came from the shower. Just hearing it made my mind wander, replaying the sight of her wet clothes clinging transparently to her skin.
“Ugh. Why is it so hot in here?”
I felt myself growing flushed and lowered the air conditioner’s temperature even more. But the lewd thoughts kept invading my head, so I pulled out the “study journal for educational purposes” from the drawer to clear my mind.
If I stimulated my “engineering thinking” while looking at this, the image of Enya’s flushed face should disappear.
“Hmm… scheduling algorithm for task processing…”
And the method worked perfectly.
Once I started pondering the complicated CPU algorithms, there was no room left for dirty thoughts.
“Um… Ed…”
How long had I been flipping through the study journal?
Enya, now wearing the shirt and shorts I’d given her, called out to me with a faint blush on her face.
She had only used the same shampoo I normally did, yet the scent drifting from her seemed unusually sweet and fragrant.
“Th-thank you. Thanks to you, I was able to shower comfortably. The clothes are really clean too. I like them a lot.”
“Yeah… Well, we’re friends. It’s only natural.”
I sat up from where I’d been lying on the bed and answered.
But like a video stuck buffering, we both froze in suffocating silence, unable to continue the conversation.
I tried to think of a topic to break the awkward atmosphere, but my mind felt foggy and no suitable conversation starter came to mind.
Just then, Enya finally found something to say and opened her mouth.
“…Hey! Can I sleep over?”
“……?”
But what she said wasn’t an opening for conversation—it was a bomb.
Enya seemed to realize it a second too late. Her face began turning bright red, as if it might explode.
Enya was in despair.
How on earth had she blurted out something so ridiculous?
Asking if she could sleep over in a male cadet’s dormitory? That wasn’t what she had planned at all.
Originally, she had only meant to cool off for a bit in Ed’s lab using Graham’s Northern Wind.
She had also planned to subtly probe what had happened between him and Isabella during the sleep training class.
That was because their relationship bothered her immensely.
For some reason, Ed didn’t seem to be afraid of Bella like everyone else. Everyone called her a witch and avoided her, yet Ed treated her as easily as if she were a child. Why?
And why had he named that incredible invention that cooled the air “Graham’s Northern Wind”?
Had their relationship grown closer without her knowing?
Those thoughts had weighed on her so heavily that she couldn’t focus on training at all.
So Enya had used the broken water supply in the female dormitory as an excuse to visit Ed. She had even deliberately exercised hard to make herself sweat profusely, hoping it would make him let her in more easily.
But it seemed she had overdone the act. Her clothes had gotten so wet that her skin showed through, and before she knew it, she had followed him all the way to his residence.
Actually… this is better.
Yet deep down, Enya was secretly delighted.
She was the only person who had ever set foot inside his home. Moreover, the space he lived in far exceeded her imagination.
It was aesthetic, neat, stylish, and immaculate.
It perfectly matched the image of Ed she had in her mind. They said beautiful people lived in beautiful spaces, and Ed’s home proved it.
He’s so handsome…
That was why, after finishing her shower and entering his room, Enya felt that everything was in perfect harmony.
The temperature and humidity that put the mind at ease. The lighting that created just the right atmosphere. The clean, spotless bed. And the handsome black-haired young man lying on that bed, reading a book.
It looked like a painting.
Enya blinked as if clicking a camera shutter, engraving the harmonious and beautiful scene into her eyes. She was capturing Ed with her gaze and saving him in her heart.
“Um, Ed…”
That was why she felt a powerful desire to keep this man for herself alone.
There was no reason not to like someone who was talented, kind, principled, and handsome. Plus, they shared the same hobby—Baldohjae.
“Th-thank you. Thanks to you, I was able to shower comfortably. The clothes are really clean too. I like them a lot.”
So Enya expressed her gratitude to open the door for conversation and achieve the purpose of her visit.
All that remained was to exchange a few appropriate words, then bring up Bella to find out what their relationship was really like.
And if there was nothing special between them… it wouldn’t be so bad to confess her feelings right here.
“…Hey! Can I sleep over?”
But she had accidentally gone full throttle without thinking.
While struggling to find something to say in the sudden silence, she had blurted out her unfiltered desire to spend the night with Ed.
Of course, it wasn’t said with any lewd, skin-on-skin fantasies in mind. She simply loved the living space he had created so much that she wanted to stay in it, even if only for one night.
Above all, his space was comfortable and cool.
She didn’t want to fall asleep in the middle of a sweltering tropical night.
“N-no, that’s not what I meant!”
But regardless of her intentions, she had said something that could easily be misunderstood.
Ed was tilting his head and staring at her intently.
“E-Ed! I-I mean, what I was trying to s-say—?”
In her rush to explain, her voice cracked at the end.
“Khng. So what I meeeant—?”
Startled by the crack, she tried to speak again in a hurry and cracked once more. The strange nasal sound “khng” was an added bonus.
“What I meant was, that’s not what I meant…”
A thousand thoughts raced through her head.
What if Ed thinks I’m weird now?
Am I completely done for as a woman?
Why did I make that disgusting pig-like snort?!
Enya, were you always this pathetic?
And so on.
All sorts of thoughts flashed by, and she felt like she might cry at any moment.
She was known as a cool-headed, aloof noble lady and a swordsmanship genius, yet in front of the person she liked, she was nothing more than a soft-hearted girl who couldn’t even speak properly.
“I know what you mean. Your room is too hot, right?”
But at that moment,
Ed smiled gently and neatly summarized what she had been trying to say.
He added,
“I’m not misunderstanding. You just want to sleep while feeling the cool breeze of this comfortable air… conditioner—no, Graham’s Northern Wind, right?”
“……”
Ed calmly sorted out the situation. Enya nodded with teary eyes.
She was incredibly grateful that he had gracefully smoothed over the awkward atmosphere she had created with her mistake. His relaxed handling of it was a huge relief.
“You can sleep over. You seem to suffer a lot from the heat anyway.”
“Huh? I-Is that really okay?”
“Of course. By the way, do you want something to drink? You sweated a ton earlier. Aren’t you thirsty?”
“J-just a little…?”
“Then let’s have a beer.”
Ed said that and poured her a glass of beer.
Enya took a sip of the beer he handed her and realized this place truly was heaven.
The beer she drank after a cold shower while basking in the air conditioner’s breeze was so refreshing and intense that it completely washed away her earlier embarrassment and despair.
“Um, Ed.”
Now that her mind had calmed down, Enya sat in the chair by the table in front of the bed and called out to him.
She wanted to ask what she had been curious about all this time.
“During the sleep training class last time… it looked like you were hugging Isabella from behind. What was that about?”