"Cyrus said he would eliminate the Golden Claw. If it were about fixing it, he'd need your help, but if it's about eliminating it..."
"Generally speaking, there would be no reason to need time travel for such a task. But it seems the magical engineers of that era couldn't figure out how to eliminate a magical tool that goes berserk just from magic power touching it."
At that point, there probably wasn't a magical engineer that Cyrus and Daria couldn't employ. Even after trying every method, they must have concluded it was impossible.
"So to you?"
"So to me."
If they were attempting something this dangerous, it truly meant there were no other options.
"Well, I don't know if that's all there is to it. So how were they planning to return after eliminating all the Golden Claws?"
Esperanza thought she might know.
"There's the Return Ticket. If Cyrus had obtained Daria's Golden Claw, the quest would have succeeded too, so he could get a Return Ticket and go back immediately."
"Would that work?"
Cider remained silent. At this point where it was revealed that the Golden Claw was a magical tool, from Osdern, as the world's most renowned magical engineer, in his professional opinion, he found that 'Return Ticket' rather unreliable. If there were other methods the magician could use, that would be different, but within the scope of magical engineering...
But he didn't bother bringing up this topic either. It didn't seem like Cyrus would be unaware of what Cider had guessed.
"Whatever it is, when we meet that fellow again, we'll need to hear a proper story from beginning to end."
Esperanza nodded with some tension.
From beginning to end, if everything was discussed, wouldn't Cyrus also learn about Esperanza's secret?
If she talked about it now, Cider would learn that Esperanza had asked a cowardly question back then. He would think that day's answer had been deception.
She should have said it then. On that night when it seemed like he would listen to anything. But that night had passed, and as payment for not being sufficiently truthful that day, Esperanza was spending this afternoon in cold anxiety.
For now, she could only hope that fact wouldn't be an important issue to Cider.
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"Ah, it's cold!"
Louise Boyle, who had been running toward the entrance hiding her reddened nose under her hood, widened her eyes.
In the distance, their unfamiliar and strange guest was walking with long strides. His broad shoulders were trembling intermittently, and his gait, which had been straight like a soldier's, occasionally swayed. Most of all, his face was red as if it might burst.
Louise gathered courage and spoke aloud the name he had requested she call him.
"Cyrus, what happened? You look ill."
"I'm not ill. No, I am ill... Miss Boyle, I'm sorry, but could you tell them I'll have difficulty participating in tonight's dinner?"
"Are you really not ill? Shall I call a doctor?"
"I'm fine. Please just convey that message."
What could it be? He had come to this Riton looking for something, and had gone out for the same reason. However, the man who returned neither looked satisfied nor like someone who had failed. He just seemed very...
"What could be so embarrassing?"
He looked like someone who had experienced something very embarrassing and shameful.
While Louise tilted her head in puzzlement, Cyrus went up to his room, locked the door, and sat down heavily on the bed. Groaning sounds flowed through the fingers covering his face.
He hadn't seen anything. Count Avondale had been blocking Esperanza with his broad back, and the sofa where they were positioned had a high backrest. What Cyrus had seen was just white arms wrapped around the man's neck and undulating hair. The broad back appearing and disappearing over the backrest. And only Cider Claiborne's mockery. But that alone had completed everything.
It surely hadn't been a scene laid out for him to see. The count's eyes that had widened when they met his had truly looked surprised and flustered. He had just quickly decided to take advantage of that situation, and Cyrus had fallen for it and fled.
'I thought the engagement was fake.'
Esperanza seemed to have intentions of returning. If she didn't, there would have been no reason to listen seriously to Cyrus's story. Did Avondale know this? It didn't seem like he didn't know. He wasn't someone easygoing enough to be made an ally without sharing real objectives from the start.
Yet since they were engaged, he had naturally thought it would be a facade engagement. But it wasn't.
Cyrus sighed deeply.
If both were sincere, and yet Esperanza was trying to leave... perhaps they might have to consider the century's magical engineer as an enemy rather than an ally.
Cyrus knew he wasn't equipped for a battle of wits with Cider Claiborne. So among the remaining options, excluding the despicable ones...
'I have no choice but to tell everything from the beginning.'
And this was the path to being hated.
He had known he would be hated, and perhaps was already being hated, but the feeling of choosing that path himself was dismal. Cyrus exhaled deeply, picked up a pen, and slowly wrote a card.
A little later, a fortunate young servant who didn't even know he had narrowly avoided dismissal ran out of the mansion with a beaming face after receiving coins.
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Cider and Esperanza met Cyrus again three days after they had cleared the dungeon together. To exclude any possible magic power interference, the meeting place was set as the study of Glailly House.
Around the table were two identical armchairs and a long sofa. One was originally there, and the other one...
"Don't you think this is a bit petty?"
It was an arrangement that blatantly seemed to divide sides. Cider turned his head pretending not to know.
"It's childish. Why go to such lengths?"
"It's not that childish."
He pretended not to hear the word 'petty,' but seemed offended by the word 'childish.' That looked even more childish. Perhaps knowing this fact himself, he quickly composed a calm expression.
"Now, my lady. Please take a seat first."
She couldn't push away the hand that grasped only her fingertips like dancing and led her to the armchair, so she followed along. Without realizing it, she had sat down in the chair as instructed, and Esperanza chuckled.
Cider brewed tea with a serene face. Esperanza received the teapot and poured tea into three teacups. When the last teacup was filled with tea, Millen knocked on the door.
"A guest has arrived."
Cyrus entered. Casting long shadows in the study, he approached with measured steps. Cider silently pushed a teacup toward his seat. Cyrus also seemed to have much to say about the seating arrangement, but ultimately sat down without saying anything.
It was a very rude way of receiving a guest. However, considering the weight of what he would say today, this level of spite might be appropriate to endure.
"Not pleasant, but a necessary meeting."
Cider spoke first. Esperanza glanced at him sideways and sighed.
"I'm sorry we couldn't talk properly last time due to unavoidable circumstances. You left first?"
"...Yes."
Cyrus answered nonchalantly. He had expected the conversation to go this way. After a few days, the shame of having his emotions discovered had subsided. Esperanza didn't know about that day's events, and Count Avondale would maintain silence.
"I was thinking we should clarify forms of address first. What do you think? I'm fine with Lord Avondale."
"Let's do that. I'm just Cyrus."
A sharp retort immediately came back.
"No surname, I suppose? What relationship do we have that I should call you by your first name?"
If the two had met in the mansion study in Nine Holder at the beginning of the year, Cider's reaction would have been warmer than this. Since a magician had rolled in on his own, what would a name matter? He could have even treated him like a brother. But now his words were filled only with hostility. Cyrus understood.
"I'm also called Hunter."
Cider's face contorted with displeasure. But while he might not know about Cyrus, Esperanza's surname was something he himself had decided, so there was nowhere to complain.
"...Let's go with first names. It looks friendly and nice."
It was an unpleasant conversation, but one thing was gained. Cyrus's name had no surname. And neither did Esperanza's. 'Hunter' meant their profession or organization, not a surname. So then...
How had such people managed to hide their existence and live for all that time?
It was a question that had been in one corner of his mind all along. However, he didn't ask about it. Questions, too, have their proper order.
"Well then, Cyrus. I think you and we have been thinking the same thing. What do you think?"
Normally during an interrogation, this would be when the good cop should come in to comfort Cyrus once, but Esperanza remained silent with her teacup at her lips.
"It seems so. I'll speak from the beginning."
From the very beginning.
"It was five years ago from now when Daria obtained the 'Golden Claw.' Daria doesn't tell me much about that day's events, but I understand it wasn't an easy process. She only said that it called to her like magic, and she was lucky enough, like destiny, to obtain it."
And Daria was a magician. A magician with a character so sincere it was harsh. Daria soon became able to handle the Golden Claw.
"We used this machine for a very long time, very extensively. Now we create dungeons a few times a month, but in the world 13 years later, we created several a day. There were many Hunters, so the damage wasn't significant."
Seeing Esperanza frown, Cyrus moved on to the next story without repeating that it was for money.
"So the Golden Claw broke down and began to run wild. Even the greatest magical engineers of our world couldn't fix the Golden Claw or even find a way to destroy it. But the bigger problem is... in the nature of this magical tool. This is a spacetime machine."
Here follows a brief lecture on magical engineering, or rather, magical physics.
"Lord Avondale, Esperanza-nim. What must be done to move from one spacetime to another?"