Episode 25
Ah, what was this? Somehow one side of my cheek felt warm. Should I call it warm yet solid?
It was strange. Why only one side…
Wait, how long had I been closing my eyes?
“Gasp.”
When I opened my eyes, the very first thing that came into view was equations written all over the blackboard. Don’t tell me… did I really fall asleep? As I hastily tried to straighten my head, I felt the soft touch of fabric brushing against my cheek.
It was a touch so soft, like the highest quality fabric that could never be felt in my own clothes.
“…?”
Don’t tell me… no, surely not.
“Are you awake?”
However, proving that trouble strikes when least expected, looking at me with a chilly expression was none other than Aidan.
“Y-Young Lord. When did you come?”
I didn’t drool, did I??
“I-I’m sorry! I was only going to close my eyes for a moment, but without realizing it…”
Ah, he’s going to nag immensely again, isn’t he? No, if it ended with nagging, that would be a relief. Perhaps using his authority as a superior, he might even dock my salary.
To think that I didn’t just fall asleep by myself, but fell asleep leaning on my superior’s shoulder!
Huh? But it was strange?
“Why was I… that is to say, why was I sleeping like this?”
I definitely closed my eyes when Aidan hadn’t returned yet. From when on earth did I fall asleep leaning on Aidan’s shoulder?
“Ahem-hem. Your head suddenly tilted toward this side, and you fell asleep just like that.”
“I did?”
It was strange. I definitely closed my eyes when Aidan wasn’t here. Was my memory strange because I was far too sleepy? Or a dream? From when on earth was it a dream?
“You should have woken me up, then.”
“Even when I tried to wake you, you wouldn’t get up.”
“Th-That’s strange. I’m not the type to be a heavy sleeper…”
Was I that tired?
Mm, come to think of it, I was tired. I thought that could naturally be the case.
“I’m sorry. Was I heavy?”
“…Yes, you were heavy.”
Whether his joints felt stiff, Aidan rotated his shoulders round and round. Stealing a glance, luckily, no saliva or anything of the sort was visible on his clothes.
“By the way, why did you suddenly rush out earlier?”
“…Haa.”
Recollecting the situation from earlier, Aidan let out a sigh and opened the window.
“Because the air was stuffy.”
“Ah. Then again, we were buried far too much in the laboratory alone. Because we burned so many threads, the air was stuffy indeed.”
When I nodded my head and chimed in, he let out another sigh. Why on earth is he throwing a fit even when I agree with him?
Dad said that one must unconditionally agree with a company superior’s words, but it seemed that was wrong.
“Forget it, so is your head refreshed after sleeping a bit?”
“Yes, with my condition right now, I feel like I could do anything.”
“Then why don’t you hurry up and try resolving this problem?”
“Hehe, I should think about it slowly starting now.”
Although we had carbonized the threads here by type, every single one was a failure. What kinds of thread haven’t we used? I turned the pages of the notebook where I had written down the materials experimented with so far.
“Should we use a material other than thread? I thought that something long in length and good to carbonize was thread, though.”
“We’ve used almost every decent thread, haven’t we?”
“Yes. Even just counting the types of thread Young Lord brought, the number was immensely high, after all. It seems there’s nothing we haven’t used…”
Wind blew fiercely through the open window. Stacked paper scattered in all directions.
“Oh dear.”
“We should close the window now.”
Hastily closing the window, I began picking up the paper that fell on the floor. Aidan likewise picked up paper one by one from the opposite side.
“This. It fell over there.”
When all were picked up, Aidan held out my handkerchief.
“Ah, thank you.”
Come to think of it, earlier after wiping Aidan’s trousers, I had just left it on the desk. Just as I was about to fold it neatly and put it back in, Aidan asked.
“By the way, what on earth is that handkerchief? The fabric was unusual.”
“Ah, right? This is a fabric used among commoners, made from bamboo. Though not as tough as thread, it’s used a lot for summer clothes. Because sweat absorbs quickly and breathability is good, my dad uses it as a handkerchief…”
Wait a minute, bamboo?
I examined the equations written on the blackboard. At any rate, it was a structure that only needed to be carbonized. As long as the fibers were long and uniform, they could be carbonized.
“Young Lord.”
“Cynthia.”
We called each other almost at the same time.
“It seems you had the same thought as me.”
“Shall we try carbonizing bamboo?”
At any rate, what we needed wasn’t thread, but long and uniform carbon fiber, after all.
Procuring bamboo right away was difficult. Because bamboo was a tree that grew in the warm Southern region, it couldn’t be obtained in the capital located relatively in the North, as a result.
Not that the tree called bamboo was in demand among nobles usually, either.
So while a person from the Winslow family procured the bamboo needed for the experiment in person, we each returned to our homes.
“Haa, I’m so tired.”
Today, really, dinner or whatever was a hassle, and I just wanted to sleep. Burrowing into the cozy blanket, I closed my eyes.
Although I had slept briefly in the laboratory earlier, because I used my brain far too much today, sleepiness poured in quickly.
Trying to turn on my side to sleep, the soft touch that had brushed against my cheek earlier came back to mind.
“…”
Ah, why did I fall asleep resting my head on Aidan’s shoulder? Thinking about it again, it was so humiliating that I kicked my blanket repeatedly.
“Dad said that if I’m tired, I snore, though.”
Did I happen to snore next to Aidan?
“No, with his personality, if I had snored, he would have definitely made fun of me saying I have no dignity even while sleeping.”
So let’s just calm down and sleep.
Straightening my body once more, I closed my eyes, but immediately sat back up. The more I thought about not thinking, the more that touch kept coming back to mind. Aidan’s broad shoulder that had supported my head sturdily.
“Then let’s think about it; if I think about it, conversely, it won’t come to mind!”
Yeah, honestly, it was comfortable.
That guy, during his time at the academy he must have done nothing but study, so why are his shoulders that good? If someone saw, they’d take him for a knight. A good scent came from his body, too. Clearly we stayed up all night in the laboratory together, so why doesn’t he even look tired?
Did he go out earlier and eat something good by himself?
“Does he not know tiredness because he eats plenty of good things usually?”
Thinking about it, Aidan was like that at the academy as well. Because I wanted to win a scholarship somehow to reduce my dad’s burden, I lived buried in the library most of the time.
Aidan arrived a little later than me like that and always sat behind me. Not being desperate for money like me, I couldn’t understand why he studied harder than me.
I made tireless efforts to beat Aidan somehow. I wanted to become the student who left the library last, but even when pinching my thighs to endure sleepiness, I couldn’t beat Aidan. Throughout my time attending the academy, I failed to stay in the library longer than Aidan.
“Yeah, it’s certain he ate plenty of good things starting from back then.”
So even though his sleep time every day was two or three hours at most, he studied without dozing off, I’m sure.
“So spiteful, really.”
Even out of sheer resentment, I’m going to fall asleep.
Pulling the blanket up to the top of my head, I closed my eyes again. However, I tossed and turned for a long time after that as well, and only when it reached a very late hour was I barely able to fall asleep.
***
The next day, the bamboo we had been waiting for arrived.
We split the bamboo finely, extracted fibers, and burned them, but failed again.
We tried changing lengths and changing thicknesses, but at the continuous failures, we began to grow anxious gradually.
The time remaining to us was barely two weeks or so.
“…Are you ready?”
Aidan too now had an evident trace of exhaustion. Still, because this experiment had to succeed, I nodded my head.
Both of us held our breath.
“…I-It came on. The light came on!”
“It’s a success, a success!”
A faint orange glow bloomed at the end of the filament. Without realizing it, I lunged at Aidan. Aidan as well embraced me with a smile.
“It worked!”
“We did it!”
Embracing each other, we rejoiced for a long time.
“…Huh?”
The faintly wavering light went out again.
