Chapter 139 – The Tower That Extends Underground (2)
“Can I tell you something? Why did I fall in love with this guy?”
Why did Dana fall for me?
That was something I hadn’t heard yet.
If it was the process of realizing my heart toward myself, I heard it yesterday too. Still, I’ve never heard of why that feeling came about. Fran nodded happily at Dana’s words.
“Yeah. Please hear me.”
“Ahaha. It’s not even that funny. First of all, I will tell you why I became a scholar. This is going to be a long story, is that okay?”
“Then I’ll get you something to drink.”
“Oh, wait!”
As Fran was about to leave, Dana took an object from her bag. It was a jar of tea leaves.
“This is a small but gift. These are the tea leaves that I enjoyed drinking in college. I also drank Nord often.”
“Thank you. … Did you?”
Fran politely accepted the gift and asked me. She didn’t drink tea in front of the Franc, so it seemed strange.
I lifted a teacup and pretended to drink it while laughing.
“All university researchers loved tea time. To be honest, I wanted to use tea time as an excuse to rest. It’s a bit expensive, so I didn’t drink it when I came here to save money.”
Even in this world, a luxury car is a luxury item. It’s the middle ages, so there’s nothing to say.
It’s not that there aren’t cheap cars, but there’s no reason to spend money to drink a cheap car that handles brown rice green tea in another world. Expensive car? Where the fuck is the money to buy something like that.
Anyway, if the car I know is right, I know how to ride it too. That’s all I know how to ride, though.
“Give me this. I’ll get on.”
“Go slowly. I’ll tell you where you know.”
“Uh. Yes.”
After saying that to Dana, I received a tea pot from Fran.
I went to the kitchen on the first floor, apologized to Dorca, and adjusted the blending ratio of the tea leaves, as I had learned all three years in college.
I was nervous because the tea spoon was different from what I used to use, but I matched it with an eyeball and it wasn’t wrong. Is it because of her mana? Or is it because of her time? Both seem to fit.
“A nice car. Would you like some refreshments?”
Dorca, who was watching from the side while wiping the dishes with a cloth, asked. I put the kettle and teacup I brought from my room on a tray and answered.
“If I took it, I wouldn’t be able to eat it. I’m talking serious.”
“I see you. Please pray for it to work out.”
“It’s frighteningly thank you berry much. You don’t have to worry, though.”
I took the car and went up to the second floor. When the door was opened, the two were bursting into laughter as if the atmosphere had eased up a bit.
“What. How long have you been laughing?”
“Oh, are you here? I told you where I came from and where I met you.”
Speaking of the place where Dana and I met, it was the college laundry. I put down my teacup and sat down in a chair.
Dana cleared her throat and said.
“So. Do you know what this guy said in a week after entering the lab room– the research team? No, well, I’m asking me what a master’s life is like!
The guy who was washing other people’s underwear until last week asks if I’m worth living where I’ve been coming up to for 10 years, how can a person not care? Even if it was absurd, I was concerned.”
No fuck, did you remember that?
I was taken aback by Dana’s words. I didn’t know that I would still remember the raw food I threw in between all kinds of small talk.
Damn you, you answered so damn calmly back then! Dana smiled wryly, not knowing if she was aware of my gaze.
“But what was even more absurd was that he actually did a better job than me. If only he had the ability, he would have looked at him badly, saying he was unlucky, but what is this guy’s only specialty?”
“He speaks well, understands other people’s feelings, and is smart. Are there any more?”
“Yeah. That’s it. How did you know I was picky about ink, on my birthday, a guy who barely earned a salary gave me an expensive ink that professors use as a gift. The professors boasted that they had been slaves to translations, and how cute it was.”
I remember that too.
Was it a month before his birthday when he first found out about Dana’s birthday? I couldn’t afford the slave’s salary—nearly basic living expenses—because I didn’t have time.
So, I gave the professor, who used me as a translation slave, a shitshow to appeal to my passion for learning so much that I shared the ink and gave it to him as a gift.
It was obvious that Dana didn’t like to use the inkwell neatly or to see ink poop on the paper.
For reference, the portable pen I carry as a set with a notebook is almost at the level of a shitty pen. The thickness keeps changing and it smudges so damn well that I need a knack for writing.
Frank thought of Dana’s ‘I’m proud of my ink’ and made her laugh.
“Whoops. I can imagine. It’s a pity I couldn’t see it in person.”
“Oh, sorry. Sounded like a little bragging, right?”
“Yes. That’s what it sounded like.”
Dana opened her eyes wide in surprise at Fran’s words. Then she rejoiced, like a thief who had succeeded in ambush her, or rather like a child who had succeeded in a prank.
“So please brag a lot.”
“Yeah?”
“Isn’t it? Because Norr is ‘our’ husband.”
“——Yes. Yes.”
Dana, who nodded her head like that, said as if she felt much more at ease.
Dana brings the tea I’ve been in to her mouth. ─Hururup. After drinking the hot tea, Dana’s face softened a little.
Probably because it tastes familiar. The blending ratio isn’t as great as it should be, though.
“… Archeology has a very bright future. It is the cutting edge of modern technology.”
When the topic of archeology suddenly came up, I thought the story line had changed.
Fran listened without interrupting Dana with her question.
“The technology developed based on the remains of ancient civilization, the money invested to obtain it, and the interest of the nation and nobles. Scholars who have made a name for themselves in the archaeological world are treated with respect wherever they go. But that is why very few people are interested in the science of archeology itself.”
Said Dana. That was right.
So did I and Dana. Many archaeologists, including us, are far from being interested in the history of the past.
I just do it because it makes money and helps me in the future.
“I think it might be because of that. Until I met Nord, my thesis was rejected for lack of will.”
– Moongrak. Dana put the teacup down.
“I left my hometown at the age of 10. From then on, I had my skills, and luckily I got in touch with him, so I went to college at the age of 15.
In my hometown, people told me not to write stories, but I said it was a bad habit, so I ignored it and wrote what I learned in my hometown as a thesis.
After entering Carmine University, I worked as instructed and soon received a gold medal for my master’s degree.”
Dana said that, but I was a little odd.
In terms of time series, that’s right. It takes six years at the earliest if you start at the master’s school until you get a doctorate. The default is 8 years or more.
Putting it that way, Dana entered school at the age of 15, and it took 10 years for her to earn her master’s gold medal after graduation. Even when she was in college, she had a master’s gold medal, but she said 10 years, so maybe this calculation is correct.
She has 4 years to graduate and 6 years to graduate with a gold medal.
She worked with me for an additional 3 1/2 years before she turned 28 and got her PhD in the fall.
She has been 9 and a half years since her master’s degree. It’s not that slow. It’s not even fast, though.
Thinking that far, I realized what the problem was.
‘Before you met me, you were promoted like crazy and stopped without being able to get a doctorate.’
6 years until master’s gold medal.
Bronze, silver, and gold took two years each.
However, at the doctoral level, successive promotions were frustrated. The speed of promotion was average, but the frustration must have been as great as it went well.
‘Because bastards who evaluate papers are so fucking childless.’
Think back to when I was fucking in a bar.
Looking back now, Dana must have been hanging out with me because she understood my feelings.
Even Dana, when her mental was broken, she would unwind at a drinking party.
‘… I don’t think he sounded weak when drinking with me.’
If it had been teased, I would have remembered.
But the Dana I remember at the drinking party was always the guy who drank that tasteless drink so fucking delicious.
──It is Dana’s cry last night that enters the empty corner of the puzzle.
-Even after being with you for 3 years, I didn’t even know that I liked you this much until yesterday!! I didn’t even know that alcohol I didn’t drink with you was so tasteless!!
… This is exactly what happened in the past.
There is more to realizing that it was like that a long time later than noticing it then.
At times like this, I even think that I’d be better off being an ignorant idiot.
“It was good when I was younger. It was cute to be shocked that there was nothing at the end of the rainbow.”
On the table Dana arched with her index finger. It’s probably like drawing a rainbow.
“I came out of the world because I wanted to know something I didn’t know, but it was a day when no one knew the answer. I even wondered if this was what I was curious about.
As a child, the reason I was curious about everything was the curiosity that sustained it——Curiosity that is not resolved is just stress, right?”
It was a sentimental statement.
There are surprisingly many masters who fail to get a doctorate and end up with a master’s degree. Because the required abilities are different from the doctor.
It was there that Dana also encountered her own limits.
“The thesis review was accurate. She lived without even knowing her own heart. I hadn’t had a sense of humor from before. I managed to come all the way here with only curiosity, so I thought about finding the next job as a master’s student.”
“Did you meet Nord around that time?”
“Whoops. Do you notice too? Do you have a similar crush?”
It was Dana who was evasive as if she was shy. Fran nodded his head like an office worker who formed a consensus of memories at the reunion.
“I think so. That feeling pinged me.”
“It would be embarrassing if this was the real reason. Anyway, isn’t it hard to win hard at something you don’t want to do? Even people who starve to death if they don’t go to work tomorrow wake up every morning saying they don’t want to go to work.”
Dana said that and pointed at me with her finger.
“But he was different. It’s been like that ever since it caught my attention. No matter what you do to the subject you hate and complain about… Sorry. You’re working so hard. It’s a different point of view. Does it make sense to make plans for the next few years and put them into action like next week’s schedule?”
No, making plans or taking notes that seem to be forgotten is because I’m an idiot, so I’m trying to move in line somehow.
I had to be a slave for 3 years to become a free citizen, so I was living as a slave Nord while doing that shit.
Fran answered before I chose to say that it was an overestimation. – Pair! Fran clapped her hands with her eyes shining.
“Yes! Is Nord a bit like that? The same goes for me! Do you talk about what will happen in 10 or 20 years in the same tone as when talking about what to eat for breakfast tomorrow?”
“Ah, you know that too. I guess you didn’t give me that habit?”
“Lol. I don’t want to give it to anyone until I die. I like to hold Norr in my arms and watch him talk about the future.”
“I like it because it’s quite tasteful even when we talk in front of a campfire. Isn’t he the coolest when looking into the distance? Is it because they are nomads?”
Shit, I’ll follow you
It looks like it will die of shame!
To join the scene where the wives are giving and receiving my good points?
Yeah well, i’m happy Don’t be happy to fall behind. I feel so good and my shoulders shrug. But my back is itchy and itchy. Guwaaaaagh!! Embarrassed!!
Koreans in the 21st century are not used to compliments!
Why would my father’s generation do tsundere things while saying ‘I came and picked it up’! It’s because it’s awkward to give and receive compliments!
Dana, who giggled as I watched as I dried like squid on a fire, hit the car with one shot.
Then, revealing a little bit of his personality, he said.
“So what——After working together for three years like that, the time we have together has become fun.
The lab room is a really crazy and isolating space. It’s a place where only what you don’t know and what you need to find out every time.
The story he told me in such a hellish place satisfied my curiosity. There are trivial small talk, funny jokes that cling to you, and even profoundly profound quotes.”
Is it because of my drunken mouth? ─Puck puck! Seeing my smugness, Dana slapped herself on the mouth.
“I chewed over and copied what he said, and even the way he spoke came to resemble him. Francesca, be careful too. It won’t come out if it gets stained.”
“Ttaek! Dana yes bitch! Originally, if you love, you will resemble! If you don’t want Fran to end up like me, make sure you both love each other too. Love grows when you share it. If you do well, your breasts that are like leftover pancake batter might get a little bigger.”
“Look at that! Wow, look at what you’re talking about! Do you want to be beaten?!”
“Esakta (correct answer)!”
“Cook-Cook.”
Dana lost her temper in anger, and Fran watched us with a smile. He focused his aggro on me and made the two of them dead!
This is the Norse Requiem!
‘I made the two of them good friends! I can control my wife’s emotions!’
─Puck! Puck!
“Gyaaaaagh! Against violence!!”
Of course, in return, I had to grab my forearms and fall to the bed. This pain is proof of my love…
‘The villain… Because I’m familiar with it…’
Dana went back to her seat without even looking at the fainting me. Fran filled Dana’s cup with tea.
“Ah, thank you. That’s all I’m talking about. I’ve only recently started to get a feel for it, so I didn’t get along much, right?”
“Not at all. Whoops. It’s the same reason as me, so it came into my ears. You are very good at explaining.”
Fran said affectionately. But fran. He’s more sincere than I thought. I think I would have been bruised if I hadn’t strengthened Mana’s passive.
Frank, who put down the teapot, looked at me and said.
“Since Dana talked about it openly, I will also tell you my story. Didn’t Norman tell you what happened?”
“Oh, can I ask you a favor?”
“Of course. I would also like to hear from you. ──But before that.”
After saying that, Fran drank her tea and wet her lips.
“The reason I became close with Nord was because we drank over words. What do you think, Dana?”
Dana’s words made her eyes round, which quickly turned into Dana’s signature smile.
When you talk to me——the sincere smile you show to someone you’re really comfortable with.
“——Good. But is it still broad daylight?”
“Because I’m also half a dwarf.”
Unstoppable Dana, confronting Fran.
The completely different beauties, who seemed to resemble each other, laughed like that, emptied the rest of the car, and took her wallet.
“Ah, but he said you can’t drink, is that okay? Am I drinking too much?”
“… Nor?”
It was Fran’s cold eyes that he hadn’t seen in a very long time.
Hermi Sifal. After all, eloquence is silver and silence is gold.
The road to a real forager who charms women without saying anything is so long and rough. I sat down and covered my face.
“Ah.. Ah.. Dana, you old bastard…”
“Uh? Why why?”
I don’t know. Because the excitement has risen, you take responsibility.
Apparently, today I have to fit in with Fran’s drunkenness.
