What Are You Doing, Sis? (8)
What Are You Doing, Sis? (8)
Even a body of steel had to sleep.
It was the same principle as a computer left on for too long eventually showing a blue screen. Naturally, my required sleep time was longer than a human's, but that didn't mean I could last days and nights without it.
The recommended daily sleep time was three hours. Anything less, and I would have to push through the next day feeling stiff and sluggish.
And the same would hold true for Rosemary.
"Hoo-yawn."
"You look tired today."
"I tossed and turned all night...."
Yawns spilled out of Rosemary's mouth one after another as she rubbed her eyes as though washing her face without water.
It wouldn't have been ghosts or magic beasts keeping her up. That monster was her, after all.
It seemed she had spent the whole night working on something. I racked my brain desperately to figure out what that "something" was. And just before lunchtime arrived, I reached one conclusion.
Vermel was in danger.
"I'm just going to run to the restroom for a second."
With so many eyes around right now, Rosemary wouldn't dare activate a scope spell carelessly. I excused myself from my friends and slipped out of the cafeteria.
I had to check on my colleague's condition. That single thought drove me as I ran toward the Liberal Arts Building.
- Click.
When I unlocked the door to the hideout and stepped inside, six iron cameras greeted me.
I figured as much.
The steel-plate walls bore clear traces of scratches from a blade. It seemed she thought she had restored everything to its original state before leaving, but tiny flaws remained all over. Apparently, Rosemary had suspected there might be a hidden space somewhere in the wall.
Vermel had promised he would not go anywhere from here. There was no way he would have broken that promise in less than a day. Thinking that, I pulled the calipers from subspace and extended them as far as they would go.
- Ching! Ching! Chaeeng!
A clear sound, like a fork tapping a crystal glass, pierced through the camera lenses. The moment I smashed every surveillance camera, Vermel burst out of the cabinet like a baby bird cracking out of its egg.
Vermel was gasping for breath. His face was as pale as a white magnolia blossom. Blood had caked and settled on his left arm and right temple.
You're filming your own personal horror movie... I couldn't bring myself to make the joke.
"...How did you know to come here?"
"Rosemary was dozing off throughout class today."
"Thanks. I honestly almost died without you."
"Save the thanks. I'm short on time as it is."
If it were up to me, I would have wanted to leave him at the infirmary, but leaving here would be even more dangerous right now. It didn't look like a severe injury, so as long as he had bandages or something, he'd probably heal up fine on his own.
After a quick glance at Vermel by way of a greeting, I returned to the cafeteria.
The tray was already wiped clean. Rosemary turned her head, dabbing at the corner of her mouth with a napkin.
"Sis, what took you so long?"
Considering her actions so far, Rosemary's cunning was at a considerable level. I was afraid she might have realized I had slipped away to meet Vermel.
"Ahem, a lady of your status shouldn't be asking such things."
"Pfft."
She would probably check the basement again today. She was clearly waiting for Vermel to come out so she could assassinate him somewhere out of my sight.
I placed my tray on the return conveyor and left the cafeteria with Rosemary. We each pulled a canned coffee from the vending machine and chatted quietly.
"So, Sis, what do you plan to do after school today?"
"Why, what are you so curious about?"
"It's nothing serious. I just wanted to invite you to my home. You did help me adjust to school life when I first arrived, after all."
I wondered what she was plotting this time.
"I'm sorry, but could we postpone the visit to your house for another time?"
"Do you have some sort of appointment?"
"I've set up a meeting with Professor Kai Ruisak this afternoon."
Thud.
Rosemary dropped the coffee she was holding. The spilled coffee clattered against the floor like a drumbeat on a tin can, soaking the ground. Rosemary let out a short groan— "Ah...!"
"Are you okay?"
"Yes, luckily it didn't splash on my clothes. What a mess I am.... I'd better go back early and sleep today."
Rosemary ducked down to pick up the can, giggling like a cat drunk on silver vine.
But unlike the upturned corners of her mouth, her eyes were fierce.
**
Even when I tried to miniaturize the Flare, I had no idea where to begin.
The immediate problem was simply making the scroll smaller. Microfabrication wasn't my field of expertise.
"Ugh."
Still, I had bragged to the Chairman that I would make it within three months, so I had to do it.
[Good heavens. You boasted you'd meet the deadline when you haven't even figured out how to approach it?]
"What's the problem with that?"
[Then I'll just meet it.]
The Hardcover Book clamped its mouth shut as if dumbfounded. Whether it did or not, I marched off toward the Earth Magic Research Building.
It was to meet the otherworld's authority on nanotechnology, Professor Kai Ruisak.
Why? If I didn't know something, I just learned it from someone else. How could I possibly do everything all by myself?
- Knock, knock.
"Professor, it's Aether. I scheduled a consultation for this morning. May I come in?"
"Come in, come in, student!"
The door swung open as if he had been waiting. Professor Kai Ruisak greeted me with a face full of delight.
There was a reason the professor welcomed me like this.
It came down to three things. The Gold-Eye Tribe, widely known for their brilliance since ancient times.
The only person in Tillet's history to score perfectly on the written exam, and now that Vermel had vanished, the top-ranked first-year.
An undergraduate who had published two papers as lead author in the Imperial Academic Society's journal.
When those three things combined, I had unknowingly become a student that professors practically salivated over. Professor Kai Ruisak was no exception, it seemed, as he cheerfully welcomed my visit and served me tea and snacks. It was hard to tell who the professor was at this point.
"I'm rather more curious about what a student like you would want to ask. What question do you have for me?"
"I want to learn how to achieve nano-level control using Spirit Magic."
"Hmm."
Kai Ruisak stroked his white beard as if troubled.
"Is it only possible if I contract with a spirit?"
During class, Kai Ruisak had taught us that nano-level precision control was only possible by using spirits. So did that mean that in this world, semiconductor processes were impossible without spirits? It was puzzling.
"No, it is not strictly impossible, but... it is difficult with our current level of technology. That is why we have no choice but to borrow the hands of spirits."
"Would I be able to contract with a spirit? Or at least hold a conversation with one."
At my words, the professor's expression grew even more complicated. Kai Ruisak swallowed a deep sigh, looking like someone who had just heard the Riemann Hypothesis.
"I have a friend who majored in history. After seeing your eyes, I asked that friend the day before yesterday. Whether the Gold-Eye Tribe could also possess spirits."
"...And what was the answer?"
"He said that as far as he knew, no such case existed in a thousand years of historical records. It is not a mainstream academic hypothesis, but some scholars even say that long ago, the Gold-Eye Tribe earned the Goddess's disfavor."
So in the end, without contracting a spirit, miniaturizing the Flare was nothing more than a pipe dream.
[But Master, you have me.]
The Hardcover Book was certainly useful. But in the end, it was nothing more than an encyclopedia providing a comprehensive list of magic. All it had on top of that was a slight added coding function. Honestly, it was no more than a notebook full of analog sentiment.
[Now that's just mean.]
The fluttering Hardcover Book immediately slipped itself into my pocket. This kid had been pouting a lot lately.
"...Ahem, even without a spirit, I can at least show you the equipment necessary for the research."
"Oh, really?"
"Come this way."
My heart pounded as a thread of hope appeared. I followed Kai Ruisak with quick, pattering steps.
"This is it."
The equipment was the size of a computer monitor. Its structure consisted of a black rectangular box on one side, surrounded by long cylinders, a few sharply cut prisms, and a tangled winding of conducting wires.
"Um, what is this? It looks like a microscope...."
"You already knew? It is a microscope."
If my memory was correct, this structure was similar to an AFM. That was because of the cylinder that looked like a piezoelectric element, resting in the center.
I had handled an Atomic Force Microscope a few times back in my undergraduate days at the shared equipment facility. After that, my field had changed, so I'd had almost no reason to touch one. But I was immensely grateful it wasn't completely unfamiliar.
"To achieve nano-level control, you must first be able to see on the nanometer scale, must you not? First, you read the surface of the desired sample with this, and then it is possible to borrow a spirit's hand to move the mana particles."
"Could you show me how to operate it?"
"Hoho, of course."
I followed every single one of the professor's movements with my eyes.
First, he tore a piece of Magic Paper into fragments and placed them onto the sample stage. Next, he lowered the probe and shone a weak light onto the cantilever. In contact mode, he used a spirit to scrape and move individual mana particles one by one. Finally, he printed out the results using a crude photographic technique.
A single square had been neatly assembled on the previously blank Magic Paper. It was a circuit that performed no function whatsoever, but it was undeniably worthy of being called a scroll. The smallest scroll in the world.
"Oh... would it be possible to borrow a device like this?"
Since there was no rule saying an undergraduate couldn't use it, I let myself harbor some vain hope.
"I understand there is one sitting unused in the Fire Magic Research Lab. If you ask the department head there, you might even be given it outright."
"Given it outright...."
I didn't need to go that far.
"I believe they will not spare any support for a student like Aether. You are planning to create something again, aren't you?"
I scratched my cheek and let out a meaningless laugh.
**
"Yes. I'm planning to make the Flare as small as possible, if I can."
Rosemary remembered the plan labeled 'Flare Miniaturization' on Aether's career survey form.
She hadn't forgotten that phrase. Rather, she had been watching with interest.
That was why, when her elder sister said she had an appointment to consult with a human professor, she dropped her coffee can. Even still, this was too much. She hadn't expected her to begin the work this early.
'What do I do about this....'
But that worry lasted only a moment.
A good idea struck her, and she pulled her ear away from the door. Rosemary lifted the hem of her skirt and dashed off with hurried steps.
The sun was already setting. She climbed into the carriage stamped with Duke Blanton's seal and headed for the palace. Given how tired she was, she didn't have the energy to worry about the elf matter today.
'What on earth is wrong with that sister of mine...!'
More than anything, right now, the first person she had to stop wasn't the elf. It was her sister.