## Chapter 206 – Cradle of Talent (5)
Carla burst out of the third-floor chapel, hurrying down the stairs, finally stopping at the bottom to catch her breath.
‘What… was that…?’
Eriel clearly hadn’t done anything.
Was it just that she was feeling a little unwell today?
‘I should apologize when I see her next…
I ran out too quickly…’
Forcing a wry smile, Carla descended the last step, just as she began to hear someone calling her name.
She opened the main door of the small lobby near the stairs and came face to face with someone, her expression filled with unexpected surprise.
“Oh, Carla…?
You were coming down?
Congratulations on the personal workshop!!”
A fluttering sensation in her chest.
The guy she’d been awkwardly separated from during the social gathering had appeared before her.
“Lucas…? Ah…!! H-How have you been…?
You came to congratulate me…? Welcome!!”
“Of course? I rushed over as soon as I heard!”
At the appearance of Lucas, the handsome alchemist and her crush, Carla’s face flushed.
But soon, worry washed over her, and her mind raced.
She’d completely forgotten about the boastful letter she’d sent to Lucas, and had completely forgotten that he might visit.
‘Ah…!! I forgot I sent that letter!!
W-What do I do…!! My hair is a mess……!!
I should have put on some makeup if I knew this would happen……’
“Actually, I wanted to tell the others and come together, but…
Everyone else is strangely busy today…
I guess I have to come alone today… Haha…
The others really wanted to come too, you know?
This is a congratulatory gift…!! A set of frequently used reagents!!”
As expected of someone from the Alchemy Department.
Lucas handed over a set of experimental reagents, consumables often used in experiments, as a gift.
Carla flusteredly accepted it, accidentally grabbing his hand in the process, her face turning as red as a ripe persimmon.
Lucas was no different.
Anyway, flustered, she quickly took the gift and turned to lead the way.
“E-Er… Th-Thank you…!!
C-Come on in…!!
I’ll… show you around…!!”
“Oh…!! I will then!
It’s my first time seeing someone’s personal workshop…!!”
Seeing Lucas’s face full of anticipation, as if he were entering a girl’s room for the first time, Carla was relieved that she hadn’t started any experiments yet.
‘Thank goodness it’s not messy…
If he had come while I was in the middle of research… Ugh……’
She almost showed him her disheveled appearance, with unkempt hair and no makeup, lost in her research.
But at that moment, something suddenly flashed through Carla’s mind.
‘Carla will see someone precious to you before the day is over.’
Eriel’s prediction-like words, delivered with a strange atmosphere, replayed in her mind.
Her head swam with the excitement brought on by the keyword ‘precious person,’ but a corner of her heart grew inexplicably complicated.
As Carla’s steps slowed while climbing the stairs to show him the workshop, Lucas, who was following her, seemed to notice something was wrong and asked her.
“Carla…? Are you okay?”
“Ah… Y-Yeah…!!
I just remembered something…!!
Here it is…!! My new workshop…!!”
“Oh… Wow……”
But what happened earlier was earlier, and what’s happening now is now.
Lucas, whom she had parted ways with before, was standing right in front of her, so who cared about predictions?
Perhaps Eriel’s words meant this.
Carla proudly showed Lucas around the workshop, introducing him to everything, and even conducted a commemorative first experiment in her new workshop.
“This? 0.85 milligrams?”
“Yeah…!! Ah… 0.84!!
I’ll hold it, so just add a little more…?”
“Ah…… O-Okay…”
A man and woman who have feelings for each other conducting an experiment together – an event that couldn’t be more romantic for engineering students.
Moreover, when collaborating on an experiment, there were bound to be small moments of physical contact, like fingers brushing or the back of hands touching.
Carla and Lucas couldn’t help but notice that they were getting closer to each other.
“Aha-ha!! You got pigment on your face!!”
“You’re the one who put it there…!!
Ah…!! Hey!! Stop splattering it……!!”
“Take that!! Take that!!”
She didn’t remember the details well, but perhaps because of the happy dream she’d had, and because she had somewhat overcome the grief over the death of the spider, Carla’s heart, having regained its composure, was now being filled with a new connection.
The girl, who was able to smile brightly again, had her heart swelling with pink dreams once more.
.
.
.
But of course, I couldn’t welcome that sight.
Four pairs of eyes glaring at the handsome boy with silver-white hair shone with unparalleled ferocity.
‘Where did that mutt crawl out from……’
After finishing my conversation with Yui, I was watching the unpleasant scene through the spider’s eyes hidden in a corner of the workshop, and my mood was steadily deteriorating.
Although there was some separation of space, Carla’s workshop and Yui’s medical room were essentially connected as one room, as per Carla’s request.
As someone who could peek into Carla’s workshop at any time, I couldn’t help but be bothered by Lucas’s sudden appearance.
‘I don’t have any personal feelings…
But outsiders are dangerous……’
It wasn’t like I wanted to interfere with Carla’s love life.
I knew from Yui how sad she was when the spider she cherished and lived with like family died.
If Lucas could fill a corner of Carla’s heart, I would welcome it, as I wanted her to be happy.
But the problem was this.
‘I’ll try to make space in a corner of the medical room…
At first, I’ll make it look like a decoration…
And later, I’ll disguise it as a research item…’
Yui had heard that the nascent Enic was growing beneath this workshop building.
Since Enic was a ‘tree,’ it naturally needed space to grow upwards as well as roots spreading underground.
Upon hearing that, Yui’s face quickly turned pale, but she came up with her own solution and offered her opinion to help me.
‘For now, the break room on the first floor can be passed off as decorating a small garden…
And if it gets bigger later, we can drill a hole in the spot where it comes up to the lab…
And make it look like a research specimen in the medical room…’
But that was just a deceptive tactic.
The more people came and went from this place, which was Carla’s workshop and Yui’s lab, the greater the risk of Enic’s identity being exposed.
I wanted Lucas to take Carla outside and enjoy a healthy romantic life in the good weather and fresh air, rather than an unhealthy relationship in a damp workshop……
‘Looking at that, I have an uneasy feeling……’
Was he going to settle down in this workshop soon?
And after making various excuses to stay in the workshop, would he suddenly pounce on Carla in this enclosed space while she was off guard……
‘Well, he’s not Enic…
I don’t think he would do that……
He stopped that Autodrone thing at the social gathering, too…’
He was the one who forcibly shoved a sword into the Autodrone that Carla had damaged, completely destroying it and ultimately saving Carla.
He was such a kind person that he even got hurt while saving Carla, so there’s no way he would do something like that.
But the fact remained that he shouldn’t be coming in and out of this workshop, even for my sake.
I started monitoring them to find a way to get rid of him.
Fortunately, the workshop was filled with all sorts of experimental tools and piles of books, so there were plenty of places for the spider to hide.
Passing behind flasks with unknown colorful liquids boiling, hiding behind showcases displaying various experimental tools.
As I observed the two of them, ideas filled my head about how to lead the two young people down the path of healthy and beautiful romance.
But was that a mistake?
‘Being an alchemist…
Is a surprisingly busy job…
They’re running around everywhere… Ouch…!!’
As I followed the young couple who were moving from table to table, concentrating on their experiment, I inadvertently made the mistake of bringing my body into contact with the heated wire mesh supporting the flask of boiling liquid.
The result was a natural reaction as a living creature touching something hot: a reflexive convulsion.
As a result, the spider’s body, unable to maintain its balance, convulsed and knocked over the flask placed on the wire mesh.
– Clang
“Ah……!!”
“Carla!! Watch out!!”
At the sudden sound of the flask breaking and the boiling reagent spilling, Carla and Lucas simultaneously looked in that direction with surprised expressions.
In the meantime, Lucas shielding Carla with his body, worried that she might get hurt, was quite manly.
“……”
“Carla…?”
But Lucas called out to her again, as Carla, with a look as if she had discovered something, wore a dazed expression for a moment.
Only then did Carla come to her senses, smiling and scanning Lucas’s body.
“Ah… Ah!!
Thank you, Lucas.
I’m okay……!!
Are you hurt!?”
“I’m okay too……
But the flask suddenly overturned…
Could it have exploded because the reagent reacted with a foreign substance…?”
“Maybe… That’s possible…
But… Are you going to keep holding me like this……?”
“Ah…!! Sorry!! It’s a halium reaction solution, right?
I’m glad it wasn’t something too dangerous that spilled.
Let’s clean it up!!”
Fortunately, realizing that the reagent in the spilled flask wasn’t dangerous, the two of them began to clean up the situation again, with Carla cleaning up the spilled reagent and Lucas cleaning up the sharp pieces of broken flask.
‘Ugh… That was close…’
I, who was hiding behind the display case next to them, could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
‘I said I would monitor them to make sure they didn’t cause an accident, but I ended up causing one myself.’
In the end, all I could confirm was my own powerlessness, that I didn’t have the ability to solve the problem myself.
‘I need another way……’
I needed someone to correct this situation in my place.
In the first place, Yui was weak to Carla, so it would be difficult for her to scold Carla.
Hyeryeong, who was constantly picking fights everywhere, seemed like a decent option, but I had no connection with her in the first place.
Of course, Vivian and Raniero were impossible from the point of view of revealing their appearance outright.
Then……
‘To guide juvenile delinquents…
Wouldn’t you need a teacher first……?’
My eyes lit up at the sudden idea.
“What… are you going to use this for……?
That… Personnel change……?”
Aurora’s expression, as she wrote a letter in her elegant handwriting as I dictated, was filled with questions.
.
.
.
“Today was eventful, wasn’t it?
It was nice seeing you, Carla.
I’ll visit again next time.”
“Yeah…!! See you next time!!
Then……”
Perhaps it was an occupational hazard for alchemists that they didn’t realize how time was passing when they were doing research.
It was already late at night, and Lucas was waving goodbye with a regretful expression.
Carla, watching his retreating figure from the lobby, was reminded of the events of today, her heart filled with regret.
Clutching her fluttering heart with her dainty hands, Carla hurried back to the workshop.
As she opened the door, she was greeted by the familiar smell of medicines.
Feeling at ease, Carla’s eyes fell on the spot where she had knocked over the flask earlier, and the display case next to it.
“But earlier… Here……
There was definitely something here……
Did I… See it wrong……?”
She had missed it because Lucas had been calling her with concern, but she was sure she had seen something.
Kneeling down and gently sliding her upper body under the table, Carla’s eyes caught sight of a slightly sticky substance on the back wall of the display case.
“Is it the reagent that splashed earlier?
I… Guess so……?
I… Guess it is……”
– Ding… Dong… Ding…
Behind her, with only her bottom sticking out and her upper body under the table, the clock on the wall chimed, signaling the hour.
“I should go in soon too…!!
Yui will be waiting, right?
Quickly tidy up!! Tidy up!!”
As ‘today’ passed, the day Carla met someone precious to her was coming to an end.
