"Ahaha!"
Helena burst into laughter.
"What, Dane? Have you been thinking of Rose as a squirrel this whole time?"
"……."
Rather than make excuses, I chose to simply keep my mouth shut. Helena grinned at me.
"That's right, she is a squirrel. Cute and fluffy, just like Rose!"
"Squirrel……."
Rose began touching her hair upon hearing those words. Her already voluminous hair, like a squirrel's tail, grew even more puffed up.
"Then Dane, what about me?"
I answered Helena's question without hesitation.
"A wildcat."
"What?"
Helena immediately narrowed her eyes.
"Not a sly cat?"
"A wildcat."
"No! Why am I the only one who's fierce—"
Snap.
I quickly shut the window to the driver's seat. I'd had enough of animal comparisons.
"Your Excellency."
Rose tilted her head, looking at me like that.
"I... look like a squirrel?"
It was a truly troublesome question.
Instead of answering, I looked out the window.
"The weather is nice."
I feigned disinterest and turned away from Rose, who was smiling brightly.
It was a pleasant ride home.
**
The time after that flew by busily.
Dane would ride out in the carriage with Rose, then switch to a different carriage midway and disappear.
On some days, they would ride together the whole way and visit shopping districts or villages.
'It's to confuse the route.'
He answered that way to Rose's question.
When he moved irregularly, an unfamiliar smell lingered. At first she hadn't noticed, but as it repeated, she realized it was the scent of blood.
'Your Excellency, are you perhaps doing something dangerous?'
Rose asked him from the bed, but he didn't answer.
Squeeze.
He merely held Rose quietly from behind. It was a reaction that was essentially an agreement.
Rose was also busy in her own way.
She diligently attended tea parties to show her face, and distinguished between families that sided with Schmaichel and those that didn't.
She also applied subtle pressure to families that were withholding their decisions.
And today, she called Andersen to the research lab. As Dane had instructed, she didn't go to Andersen's lab but had him come to the castle himself.
"Hello, madam."
"You've been well, I hope?"
"Of course. Your complexion looks bright as well."
As it happened, Andersen arrived when Dane was away.
"Ahem."
Andersen realized this and smacked his lips. Dane had warned him, but when an opening appeared, he grew greedy.
"It seems you're using the lab well."
"Thank you once again. I can sense your wisdom embedded everywhere here, Andersen-nim."
Rose smiled faintly and pointed around the lab.
"Like separating flammable materials, or the workbench orientation. Oh, and this shelf for failed experiments too."
"Isn't that obvious? That much is basic."
Andersen waved his hand dismissively and gave Rose a suggestive look.
"Now that it's come up, I've also improved the lab environment a bit."
"Oh, how so?"
"My students seemed to be struggling, so I added some welfare elements, you could say."
Andersen counted on his fingers and listed them off one by one.
The 'welfare' of his own lab.
"First, I decided to provide three meals a day. There's also a late-night snack prepared."
Having already heard Professor Albert's sweet talk at the academy, Rose easily saw through the hidden meaning in Andersen's words.
'It means they frequently pull all-nighters.'
This way, they had one less reason to go home. They'd be tied to the lab.
"I see."
But she didn't show it and only nodded silently.
"Ah, and I placed a plush sofa and a simple bed in the corner. So they can rest whenever they're tired."
It meant: don't go home, sleep in the lab.
"And I've made the working hours flexible. Some bastar... I mean, some kids sleep in late."
It meant the work never ended. It also meant Andersen would contact them at any time.
"……."
Rather than offering her thoughts, Rose simply smiled.
The so-called social smile, conveying the message that she had listened but didn't really care.
"...Well, anyway. Ahem."
Andersen only smacked his lips at Rose's reaction. He seemed unsure whether his pitch had worked or not.
"You said you've been busy lately?"
Rose naturally changed the subject around that point.
"Ah, His Excellency commissioned me for something again, you see."
Andersen carelessly scratched his disheveled hair.
"Usually he lets me research freely, but lately he's had an unusually high number of requests. He's finally playing the role of an investor properly for once."
"What did he have you make?"
"Similar things. Mostly installing defensive Magical Devices. Last time he suddenly told me to install one in a bed, so I had to pull an all-nighter. This time he had me install it in a carriage. Wrapping that huge thing nearly killed me. Still, there was plenty of time this time, so it was doable."
Andersen looked at Rose as if seeking agreement.
"As you know, Magical Devices vary in size depending on their purpose, don't they? Fitting the circuit to that is the work."
"Yes, that's right. If it's too small, you have to condense the circuit; too big and you have to pack it densely, so it becomes more complex."
"As if His Excellency would care about such things? He probably thinks if he just gives an order, a Magical Device will pop out like magic."
Andersen's lips protruded in dissatisfaction.
"Even if he's my investor, I'm not some machine that installs Magical Devices at the push of a button... Ahem, never mind. Please pretend you didn't hear what I just said."
Andersen, suddenly remembering Rose's position, held his tongue.
That despite being an outstanding researcher and a leader in academia, he would occasionally show such petty behavior was one of his endearing traits.
"You've worked hard."
Knowing Dane's intention and Andersen's struggles, Rose calmly comforted him.
Then she took a Magical Device out of her pocket.
"I happen to have something to show you, Andersen-nim."
"A new research project? Let's see."
Andersen took the Magical Device Rose had offered with apparent interest. The back panel had been intentionally left unfinished, making the circuitry clearly visible.
"...Ah. It uses the principle of mutual resonance through the wavelengths of specific components."
"You caught on right away. The goal is for the two Magical Devices to detect each other's positions."
"Using magic stone wavelengths—fascinating. To think it can be utilized this way."
Andersen stared so intently at the circuitry that he nearly buried his nose in it.
"In your estimation, Andersen-nim, what would the detection range be at this level?"
"At this level... I'd say about 100 cubits."
"Is there any way to extend it a bit further?"
"Hmm, to do that... you'd probably need to either increase the resonance coefficient or raise the wavelength generation frequency. Let me have a pencil."
Andersen didn't just offer ideas—he went as far as drawing improvement plans directly on the blueprint.
Working with him was overwhelmingly more efficient than researching alone.
Rose felt she understood why Dane put Andersen to work.
Given that he would throw himself headfirst into anything the moment his curiosity as a Magical Scholar was piqued... Andersen was quite convenient to exploit.
"Interesting. You're certainly—no, your research is fresh."
Andersen murmured with a slightly flushed face.
"You come up with unique ideas others rarely think of. I can see why that bastard Albert coveted you."
"Thank you, Andersen-nim."
Andersen chuckled at Rose's flat reaction. He had realized that she wouldn't be won over by ordinary compliments.
"Then is that all for your business?"
"Actually, the real topic starts now."
Rose, somewhat tense, handed Andersen a piece of paper. It was a copy of Dane's internal mana quantity graph.
"First of all, what kind of mana graph does this look like to you?"
"Hmm……."
She hadn't revealed that this graph was Dane's. She wanted to hear Andersen's analysis from an objective perspective without any clues.
"Rose, by any chance."
Andersen, who had been examining the paper closely, asked back with a serious face.
"Did you create a mana-reversal Magical Device?"
"What?"
"Look at this curvature. This is a singularity that appears before mana reverses flow."
"Mana... reversal."
Rose blankly repeated Andersen's words.
Thud.
Her heart sank heavily.
The vague hypothesis she had pondered became a conviction with Andersen's just-spoken words.
"After a rapid decline, the mana quantity temporarily reaches negative values. From the moment it crosses this threshold, the mana flows backwards."
"...How do you cross that threshold?"
"By explosively injecting mana above a certain threshold."
Snap.
Andersen folded the paper and looked Rose straight in the eye.
"In that moment, all the mana flows backwards simultaneously. That's when mana reversal begins."
"……."
It felt like wandering in the fog for a very long time and finally finding light.
'...This was it.'
On his birthday, Dane had collapsed as if struck by lightning and couldn't move.
The method that had overpowered such a strong man in an instant. The secret was hidden within mana, of all things.
What had always been his ally and weapon had become a sword held in reverse grip.
"Rose. Are you listening?"
"...Yes, Andersen-nim."
He was watching her with suspicious eyes.
Rose gathered her chaotic thoughts. Once she had a lead, her heart naturally grew anxious.
But she tried hard to speak calmly.
"First of all, that's not what's happening. His Excellency gave me your blueprint, but I discarded it."
"Hmm, really?"
"Having experienced something similar myself, how could I do such a thing?"
"Then what is this?"
Rose hesitated for a moment.
'How much should I say?'
Could she fully trust Andersen? Just how tight-lipped would he be?
After some thought, she first led Andersen toward the Magical Device chair.
"This is... surely not."
Seeing the complex machines connected to the chair, Andersen made a bizarre expression.
"Have you conducted experiments on living subjects?"