Chapter 45
Chapter 45
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: Academy Visit (5)
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I wash alone.
Even in modern society, there are people who don't know how to wash properly, so every time there's a big event, famous galleries get flooded with serious posts like "Lecture: How to Wash Yourself."
Objectively speaking, unless someone has a physical disability, it's not that difficult.
But for women, there's one part where things get a little different.
"What about my hair?"
Even in modern times, women with long hair sometimes get help from family when washing it.
Unlike men, who can just lather up shampoo and scrub to get clean, women's long hair takes forever just to shampoo from root to tip and rinse it out.
"Ah, I helped with just the hair."
"Then the rest."
"Yes! She basically kicked me and Croa out entirely."
Isabelle giggles as she looks at me.
"You know, right? It's all thanks to you, sir."
I don't know how to answer that.
And I didn't have to. Tiona's voice called me from the bathroom.
"Arthuuuur...!!"
Is she asking for help, or begging for praise?
"Coming."
Leaving Isabelle still grinning behind me, I headed to the bathroom.
She called my name, not "maid," so she's probably dressed, but just in case, I knocked on the door and checked.
"May I come in?"
"Come in!"
Opening the door, Tiona stood alone in a room thick with steamy mist.
Her hair, roughly towel-dried, was still damp and clinging to her body.
But she'd washed alone, toweled her hair, and gotten fully dressed.
"I did it all by myself!"
What she wanted to hear was obvious from those blue eyes staring straight at me.
"Well done."
"Ehe! Of course! So obvious...!!"
"Your tone sounds all weird now..."
I grab a fresh towel and wrap it around Tiona's hair.
For men, you just rub the scalp vigorously, but with long women's hair, that won't dry it.
Like rolling kimbap, you wrap the hair in the towel and press firmly to squeeze out the moisture.
"We'll dry the rest outside."
"Got it!"
Once outside, the two maids had left a note saying "Off to the market!" and vanished. What market's open this late at night?
"Arthur."
Tiona sat in a chair.
"Dry my hair... please."
"...Understood."
No matter that this is a romance-fantasy world, there's no hot-air hair dryer.
Instead, there's the curling iron—what noble ladies use to roll their hair into curls, with the inner surfaces heating up. They call it a hair iron.
Tiona's daily vertical rolls are made with one of these.
But if you just grip and brush through without twisting, it works fine for drying hair too.
I hold the handle of the hair iron and grab a section of Tiona's hair.
A handful of a woman's long hair has real weight to it. Even more when it's wet and damp.
It felt like Tiona's hair was sticking to my fingers.
I clamp the iron on the hair and channel mana into it.
Output at... this level should do.
Primitive hair irons were heated directly over fire.
Then mana-powered ones were invented, and noble families who could afford mages switched to those.
That's why Tiona's vertical rolls get called an old-fashioned style among her friends.
Vertical rolls take even more time and effort than regular waves.
Before mana irons, it was impossible.
Early on, only nobles who hired mages could use them.
Being able to roll your hair became a status symbol, so people overdid it to show off.
Especially the ultra-labor-intensive vertical rolls hanging down both sides like bread buns—that was the peak. At one point, it was the default in high society.
You'd think such a weird style couldn't last, but human aesthetics can be shockingly irrational.
For example, those medieval pointy hats famous for their absurdity.
They started small and cute, but the height became a sign of wealth, so they kept growing. Eventually, they were a meter tall, looking downright monstrous.
Noble ladies' roll-bun heads were the same.
But like the hats, the trend faded—with the previous generation.
You could tell because none of the other noble ladies at tea parties or balls had Tiona's roll-bun style.
To compare... Tiona's hairstyle is like vintage or retro... or bluntly put, auntie—
"Arthur? You're thinking something rude, aren't you?"
"Just your imagination."
Lately, she seems to be getting sharper. Is her intuition developing?
Drying hair is repetitive work.
Doing the same motion at a steady pace, Tiona started nodding off.
"Yaaawn..."
It's 9 p.m. now.
Earlier than her usual drowsiness kicks in.
I figured she'd stay up later after sleeping in late yesterday, but touring the academy all day wore her out instead.
Normally I'd carry her to bed, but her hair wasn't dry yet, so no dice. She'd catch a cold.
So I kept at it silently.
Grab a section, slide the iron through, release, grab the next—repeat.
A distinctive scent rises from the heated hair, like freshly ironed cloth or a sun-dried blanket. Nutty and warm.
"...Arthur."
Tiona mumbled in a sleepy voice.
"Did I... do good...?"
I hesitated briefly.
Knowing she has feelings for me, was I getting too close to her heart?
But right now, I decided to give my lady the honest answer she wanted.
"Yes. You did wonderfully."
Because that's what I wanted to say.
Because I really thought she did.
Tiona took a step forward today.
Not because I dragged her, but because she decided to step ahead herself.
For such praiseworthy actions, I wanted to praise her.
"Heehee..."
I could only see the back of her head, but I knew exactly how Tiona was grinning.
Her feet, dangling from the chair, swung forward a bit.
If they weren't touching the ground, they'd be swinging back and forth like a kid on a swing.
"I won't... let Cynthia get too far ahead...!"
So that's what it was.
A few weeks is enough time to get a read on someone.
If some total stranger became a saintess, Tiona might not have felt much.
But when someone she'd been with suddenly surges ahead, how could she not be spurred on?
News of some random kid acing a practice test means nothing to me.
But seeing your classmate jump from 20th to 10th? That's real motivation.
"Zzz..."
Tiona's head fully tilted as she fell asleep.
I finished drying her hair, then carried her to her room like always.
I tucked her in and added one more word.
"You really did well, Tiona."
A soft "hee..." sound seemed to slip from her sleeping lips.
Or maybe just her breath.
I couldn't tell for sure.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Back at the workshop, Diana collapsed onto the bed and passed out.
A subtly eventful day had left her exhausted. Being cooped up in the workshop all the time didn't help her stamina either.
"Yaaawn..."
After a deep sleep, she woke up, brewed some strong coffee, and sipped it on her way to the workshop table.
"...Huh?"
Then she noticed the anomaly.
The table was covered in her research notes on the new silicon-based divine material.
But the key binder summarizing the core findings was gone.
"...Huh!?"
Her heart raced, cold sweat broke out. She slammed down the now-unneeded coffee.
She frantically searched everywhere she might have left it, but no.
Gone.
Stolen...!
A thief!?
Yes.
The worst kind for a researcher.
Stealing my... my research results...!!
Her chest tightened. She could barely breathe.
She had a pretty good idea who the culprit was.
"Shakla...!!"
Diana spat the name in fury.
The former workshop master—the woman who'd tried to steal her research results another way before.