It was a sleepless dawn. Esperanza tossed and turned several times before getting up from bed. She could hear the sound of the massive machine beyond the wall breathing.
Sitting on the stool Cider used for work and quietly gazing at that machine, the completed form seemed to be drawn before her eyes. The progress speed was considerably fast.
'Since I've made it once before. The second time has to be fast.'
If improvements like strengthening stability hadn't been added, and if there hadn't been parts that needed modification due to discontinued production, completion would have been even faster.
'Still, this fast......'
Did she really want to go back? Such a thought occurred to her momentarily. Since it was the path she had been running so far, wasn't she running due to inertia?
No. Wanting to go back wasn't a lie. Even without parents, she had an older sister, a nephew, friends, and a job. She wouldn't say she had been flawlessly happy there. But even if she wasn't happy, that was Esperanza's foundation.
If she could never go back, here would be fine too. It wouldn't be painful enough to die. Sometimes she'd miss it, and occasionally she'd feel restless as if it wasn't her place. But even if she went back, she'd miss here just the same.
But with such feelings, thinking she wanted to stay as long as possible was selfish.
She thought Cider would be okay. It would be difficult, but he'd be okay. That Esperanza's longing for Cider after going back and Cider remaining alone here would be of equal weight.
She seemed to have arbitrarily thought that way. Because it was more comfortable for her heart.
Ah, how unsightly.
Esperanza hugged her knees while looking at the screen that turned regularly. The sound of the fireplace, the sound of the clock's second hand, the sound of gears turning. Even breathing.
She imagined this room with only the breathing sound gone. The large bed cold without warmth, the study quiet with books packed so densely they seemed about to spill out. Even if she made tea, there would be only one teacup, and even if she lifted her head, there would be no eyes to meet.
It felt suffocating.
Yet thinking of someone else filling that place made her insides feel cold. Esperanza fell into self-torturing thoughts without noticing her arm stinging from digging in her nails.
"Do you have the right to lecture me while sitting in a place like this?"
When she quickly lifted her head, a gentle smile greeted Esperanza.
"......I was dozing."
Actually, she hadn't slept for even a moment.
"Why are you up? Did I wake you by any chance?"
Then he would have seen all of this pathetic state too.
Cider tilted his head and replied.
"I don't sleep much at night anyway."
"That's because you treat your body that way. I worked hard to establish healthy living habits for you."
Esperanza, who had flared up, shut her mouth tight. She didn't want to say she was going back. She had brought up unnecessary words.
"Lady, since it's obvious what you're worrying about, please return to bed."
Cider, who had covered her slowly blinking eyes with his large palm, spoke firmly.
"Worries without answers are just a waste of time."
The body temperature touching her eyelids was hot. Esperanza placed her hand on top of it.
"Want to sleep in?"
It was a sudden remark. Even Esperanza herself didn't know what thought prompted those words.
However, Cider seemed to roughly understand the omitted logic in between and smiled broadly while lifting Esperanza, who was sitting on the stool, as she was.
"That's not bad either. As long as a certain lady doesn't run away from morning."
"Mrs. Lux will really scold us."
"Mrs. Lux won't come in to see, so don't worry."
"If she doesn't come in, how would she know......"
The bedding that had cooled in the meantime wrapped around her back. Cider, who lay down beside her, looked silently at Esperanza's eyes and then said in passing.
"We decided not to pity."
"It's worry. Why do you keep saying pity?"
"It's my choice."
So the responsibility was his too. Esperanza looked up at eyes that had closed as if she wouldn't say anything more.
He didn't say it would be okay. Not a single word until the end.
❀⋆｡°✿☆❀✿°｡⋆❀
As promised, the two slept in. However, the problem was that it was a promise made only between the two of them, so it wasn't conveyed to the employees. Only Millen, who had come up to wake them as usual, ended up doing twice the work.
Esperanza's breakfast went to the employees' portion, and Annie got a brief break until noon and went out.
Esperanza, who had woken up late and was leaning against the sofa in Cider's research lab, took out her gun and began cleaning it. Cider, who had been assembling new parts, suddenly looked up.
"I've been thinking about something."
"What are we talking about?"
"Ah, starting from there?"
Cider pondered for a moment and then changed his words.
"What you saw yesterday. You said that if it's a beginner dungeon, it's at a level where ordinary people can manage to come and go."
"If they're armed, yes. Of course, they'd die if they met a boss-level monster. But other than that, it's not very dangerous. There, um, the monsters are generally quite cute too."
That was purely from a player's perspective. Ordinary people, who would be nothing more than prey, would say differently.
And the place where beginner players, who would have been at ordinary people's level, trained until they became accustomed to dungeons was precisely these beginner dungeons. Since those with magic power grew quickly, they rarely stayed there long.
"Actually, I had forgotten such things existed. They're in such remote places, and I've never been to the Nine Holder ones. Besides, the last time I went to a beginner dungeon was 7 years ago.... But if you're making a game, it would be right to start with this first. Probably."
This had been her first virtual reality game after doing puzzle games where three identical fruits exploded when gathered. She couldn't have known how games usually worked.
But thinking common-sensically, everyone is a beginner when they first start. Space for beginners to adapt would be needed first. Incidentally, now it was also being used to distribute monster byproducts.
"For such purposes, there's no possibility of causing other troubles with it."
"I don't think so? I don't know for sure, but it seems right that there were four beginner dungeons in Nine Holder....... I should check this with Cyrus too."
Assuming it's correct for now.
"Since the system has been established once, I don't think it will appear in that direction anymore. To find Daria, raiding Dr. Sullivan's laboratory seems to be the right method after all......."
"It's dangerous."
Cider firmly rejected that plan.
"Let's postpone it for now."
Esperanza wiped the gun barrel vigorously with a sullen face. Then wasn't it back to square one? Though she had complaints, knowing what Cider was worried about, she couldn't be stubborn.
"Then do you have other ideas?"
"We'll need...... collaborators."
His words were cut off briefly. Cider, who had been repeatedly writing formulas on paper and covering them with his pen as if something wasn't working out well, began writing something on new paper with an exclamation.
Esperanza repeatedly loaded and unloaded magic power into the magazine part while waiting for the next words.
'Has the loading speed dropped a bit?'
Around the time she was thinking she needed to check once, Cider stood up from his seat.
"Are you done?"
"For now."
Cider pulled over the typewriter at the edge of the desk. After inputting something, the typewriter output a card full of holes. When he put that card into another machine, a metal arm with a tool at the end moved toward the spacetime machine.
"If it becomes an information war, we'll inevitably be at a disadvantage."
"That would be the case. Since we don't know new information. The information broker we newly opened before going to Sterling wasn't bad, but it wouldn't match Havenly."
"By now, that information broker might have been bought off too."
The information from the previous world they possessed would be distorted due to the Sterling Harbor incident. A few of those might be usable, but that also needed confirmation. Wrong information was worse than none.
"So I think we need a well-designed trap. When the environment is created, you'll do well."
"Probably. I can't be certain I'll definitely win. But to trap Daria in a snare......."
"The bait would have to be quite big?"
"I feel like you're thinking something dangerous."
Suspicious. It seemed like he was thinking something very dangerous for himself. Esperanza quickly put her foot down.
"I won't do it."
"Even if it might be a good method?"
"I don't want to. I won't do it."
"Can't be helped. Then shall we go meet His Excellency the Prime Minister?"
Suddenly? Now? Why?
"Of course not now. We have to make contact and wait for an invitation to come. It'll take some time."
"Why the Prime Minister? Don't tell me the collaborator you mentioned earlier is the Prime Minister?"
"There's no one better as a collaborator. Someone to provide information, someone to help set up an appropriate stage. Though we'd have to hide the fact that we're receiving help."
Raymond Tempton was a capable individual personally, and his influence was at a level that couldn't be ignored. If they could gain cooperation, they'd be able to do more things than what they could do now. They could interfere with or utilize the various things the other side was doing backed by the royal family.
Politically, Tempton and Daria were also enemies. The Sterling incident was ultimately something done with the purpose of breaking Tempton's power, and he had also helped the Queen who opposed the Prime Minister. Thinking that way, there was possibility.
Above all, if it was Prime Minister Tempton that Esperanza remembered, he wouldn't want his country to become a monster field. It might be different after Daria's complete victory, but now there was no reason for the Prime Minister to compromise.
Of course, that was idealistic talk at best....... What kind of moves the Prime Minister would show was something unknown until they confronted him. But she couldn't guess at all why Cider had specifically chosen such a difficult opponent. Did he have a plan in mind?
"Is there something you want the Prime Minister to do?"
"Specifically?"
"Specifically."
"Well......."
Cider trailed off. He definitely seemed to have something in mind, but he smiled broadly and glossed over his words.
"As you know, I'm not skilled at covert struggles. I'd like to seek advice from an expert in that field."
"Ah, yes."
Whether sincere or joking, it was a consistent claim. There was nothing to say.
"First, we'd have to succeed in persuading His Excellency. You'll do that."
"What are you trying to make me do?"
Cider answered while looking down at the paper with complex circuit structures drawn on it.
"Something you're good at. Though it's a bit childish."
"Show of strength?"
"Similar."
Several methods came to mind. Appropriately flashy but not to the degree that the opponent would be wary. Since she didn't want submission. While rubbing the gun barrel with cloth, she tried to recall the structure of the Prime Minister's residence.
"Say, what would be the most precious thing in the Prime Minister's study?"
Cider, who had been about to find and fit a new part, turned his head. When their eyes met, Esperanza grinned.