One Day, My Dad Disappeared - Chapter 23

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 23
Crunch.
In the quiet laboratory, the sound of a Chocolate Chip Cookie being chewed echoed through the air. Finally, I couldn’t hold it in any longer and burst out laughing.
“Are they good?”
“……There’s no way sugar lumps like this could taste good. Eating too much sugar is bad for you, you know.”
Even as he said this, his fingers were quick to snatch up the next cookie.
“But aren’t you already on your second one?”
“Cough, ahem. Mm.”
Aidan, who seemed to have something caught in his throat, coughed for a moment before reaching for the Black Tea beside him. Only after drinking did he finally compose himself and speak.
“Now that I think about it, I’m feeling a bit hungry. Let’s eat something.”
“But a moment ago you said a full stomach makes you drowsy and that won’t do.”
“A hungry stomach also hurts efficiency.”
A moment ago it was Black Tea with sugar that would suffice. Is liking cookies really so embarrassing?
I pulled out a cat-shaped cookie from the bag. Well, it’s admittedly a bit cute for a boy to like, but that doesn’t mean he can’t enjoy something sweet.
There’s no need to hide it like this.
Snap.
The moment I bit down, rich chocolate and butter flooded my tongue. Of course, the cookie is quite sweet for my taste. If only these chocolate chips weren’t there, it might’ve been better.
……Wait.
I stared at the chocolate chips in the cookie.
“Black, carb…….”
“What. Black means it’s burnt, doesn’t it? This bakery uses chocolate made from premium cacao.”
“That’s not it—it’s carbon!”
“Carbon?”
Aidan answered with one eyebrow raised at my words.
“Carbon already failed. It only produces a strong light for a short time and wears out too quickly to be useful.”
“But that was a Carbon Rod!”
At my words, Aidan seemed to contemplate something, then his eyes widened. He began writing calculations on the blackboard with chalk.
“Carbon does have the greatest potential compared to ordinary metals.”
“Right? What if we make carbon into thread? Like, create Carbon Fiber the way we would metal wire!”
The speed at which Aidan wrote out the equations accelerated.
“Carbon has a high melting point. In a vacuum state, oxidation would be suppressed. The thinner we make it, the less current we’d need.”
“Exactly!”
I picked up another piece of chalk and joined in the calculation beside him.
“So we use thread. We Carbonize the thread. And then when we run current through it?”
The moment the equation was finished, the chalk in my hand scraped against the blackboard and fell to the floor.
The chalk rolled across the floor with a sound that seemed strangely loud in the silence that had fallen over the room. Aidan, staring for a moment at the white equations filling the blackboard, turned his gaze toward me.
“……Cynthia Violetta.”
Then a low, hushed voice spoke my name.
“What are you doing standing there.”
“……Yes?”
“We need to run the experiment right now.”
“You mean right this instant?”
“You know as well as I do that we don’t have much time.”
That was true, but……weren’t we supposed to eat just now?
“Go immediately to every textile factory in the Capital and procure thread sorted by type. We’ll begin the Carbonization trials as soon as you bring them back.”
“……Yes.”
His tone was blunt as always, but honestly, I didn’t dislike it. If this hypothesis succeeded, I was certain this year’s Academic Paper Award was practically ours—my heart began racing at the thought.

* * *

I’d spent all night burning every kind of thread we could find in the Capital, but the results were all failures.
“Haaam.”
“Are you drowsy?”
“Oh, no? I’m fine.”
I was drowsy, but if I admitted it, I could already see Aidan’s disapproving face, asking how I could be tired when we hadn’t even succeeded yet.
I pressed my fingernails into the back of my hand to fight off sleep.
“When you say you’re fine, do you mean you’re not drowsy, or that you can bear being drowsy?”
Displeased with my answer, deep wrinkles carved themselves into his otherwise smooth brow.
“I’m drowsy, but I can bear it.”
Though honestly, I felt like I might die.
“Have some more tea, then.”
Truth was, when I got drowsy, a cup of Stimulant Tea would snap me right awake.
But all Aidan kept stocked here was premium Black Tea.
“No, really, I’m fine.”
“But you said you were tired. Black Tea has caffeine in it.”
I knew that much, obviously.
“It’s just not to my taste.”
“So what—didn’t you used to drink anything as long as it kept you awake?”
“I, I have taste buds too, you know?”
“During exam season you practically mainlined Stimulant Tea in the Library every single day. I thought you didn’t have a tongue.”
“Because that’s the stuff that actually works!”
Sure, the nobles had mocked my palate mercilessly, watching me choke down that cheap Stimulant Tea brewed with common spices, but it had been the most affordable option available.
Black Tea honestly didn’t sit right with me.

“Black Tea?”
“Yeah, I want to try Black Tea!”

I couldn’t quite remember how old I’d been, but I’d begged Father for his birthday gift to be a chance to taste Black Tea.
A Tea House had opened in the Village, one the nobles frequented, and among the commoners it became a craze—the idea that even if we couldn’t match the aristocrats in other things, we could at least drink what they drank. Everyone started going, and I’d pestered Father relentlessly to take me too.

“Honestly, I never understood why anyone would pay that much for it. Tastes like chewing grass and flowers.”

But hearing Father’s blunt assessment, I’d given up on Black Tea altogether. At the time, his words had felt like he was saying the money wasn’t worth spending on me.
“Ugh.”
Then, after coming to the Academy, I’d tasted the Black Tea a professor handed me—and suddenly understood Father completely. It really did taste like chewing flowers.
I couldn’t fathom why anyone would pay that price for it.

“By the way, Father. Do you remember that?”

So that day, I’d called him.

“When I was little, I asked you if I could try Black Tea.”
—”Of course I remember. You have no idea how much I was sweating through it.”
“Sweating? Why?”
—”Well, it’s a bit embarrassing, but the truth is I borrowed a cup of Black Tea from someone and threw up right there on the spot. I was terrified you’d drink it and get sick.”
“Really? I thought you just didn’t want to spend the money on a cup for me.”
—”What? Your father would never be like that! Sure, we were pretty poor back then, but—”
“Ha, when have we ever been rich?”
—”Daughter, I’m genuinely hurt now. Mark my words, this Mercenary Work I’ve taken on pays very well.”
“Ugh, forget it. Just promise you won’t get hurt.”

Right, we’d had conversations like that too. Come to think of it, Father and I couldn’t have been more different if we tried, yet our tastes were so alike. He’d said the same thing—that Stimulant Tea was easier on his palate than Black Tea.

“By the way, Young Master Aidan.”
“What?”
His eyes were heavy with exhaustion, but his posture remained impeccable as he raised the teacup. The way he drank, savoring the aroma of the Black Tea with such grace, looked like a painting come to life.
“How did you know I drink Stimulant Tea in the Library during exam season?”
“Cough! Hack, hack!”
“Are you alright?”
Aidan had spilled the scalding tea straight down his thigh and shot up from his seat.
Steam was still rising from it—surely he had to be burned? I quickly grabbed the handkerchief beside me and pressed it repeatedly against his thigh to soak up the tea.
“Won’t this leave a scar? It must have been incredibly hot.”
“It’s fine, it’s fine!”
“Fine, nothing! You’re definitely going to scar! Let me get you some cold water—”
“I, I said it’s fine!”
Aidan wrenched his hand away from mine in a panic and suddenly bolted from the room.
“Wait, why are you acting so weird about this?”
Father had even embroidered it as an entrance gift to the Academy for me.
I lowered my hand awkwardly and gazed out the window. The sun was up now. We’d pulled an all-nighter on the first day.
“Where on earth did he go?”
She’d meant to wait, but her eyelids kept drooping shut.
Just a moment. She’d close her eyes for a few seconds, just that—and then she’d get up.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————