One Day, My Dad Disappeared - Chapter 25

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

Chapter 25
What was that? One side of my cheek felt warm. Warm, yes, but also stiff somehow?
Strange. Why only one side……?
Wait, how long had my eyes been closed?
“Huh?”
The moment I opened them, the first thing I saw was the blackboard covered in equations. Surely I hadn’t actually fallen asleep? I jerked my head upright, and felt the soft brush of fine fabric against my cheek.
It was the kind of luxurious texture I could never feel from my own clothes—smooth as silk.
“……?”
It couldn’t be. Please don’t let it be.
“You’re awake.”
But as the saying goes, surely leads to ruin—and sure enough, Aidan was watching me with an expression of cold amusement.
“S-sir. When did you arrive?”
Please tell me I didn’t drool on him.
“I’m so sorry! I only meant to close my eyes for a moment, but I didn’t realize—”
Oh, he was definitely going to lecture me now. And if I was lucky, that’s all he’d do. At worst, he might dock my pay using his authority as my supervisor.
Not only had I fallen asleep on my own, but I’d done it leaning against my superior’s shoulder!
But wait, something doesn’t add up.
“How did I end up sleeping like that, exactly?”
I was certain my eyes were closed before Aidan had even arrived. When did I start leaning on his shoulder?
“Your head tilted this way all of a sudden, and then you were out cold.”
“It did?”
This doesn’t make sense. My eyes were definitely closed before he got here. Maybe I’m just too tired to remember properly? Or was it a dream? When did it become a dream?
“You should have woken me up.”
“I tried. You wouldn’t wake.”
“That’s strange. I’m not usually such a heavy sleeper.”
Had I really been that exhausted?
Now that I thought about it, I had been tired. It made sense.
“My apologies. That must have been uncomfortable.”
“……Yes, it was.”
Aidan rolled his shoulder, as if working out a stiffness. I glanced at his clothes, relieved to spot no trace of drool.
“By the way, why did you storm off so suddenly earlier?”
“……Sigh.”
He must have been recalling that moment—Aidan let out a breath and opened the window.
“The air felt stale.”
“Ah, of course. We have been buried in the Laboratory for too long. With all that thread we’ve been burning, the air has definitely gotten stuffy.”
I nodded in agreement, but he only sighed again. Why was he sighing even when I was agreeing with him?
My father had told me to always agree with what your boss says, but apparently that wasn’t the right approach.
“Anyway, after a bit of rest, do you feel clearer?”
“Yes, I feel like I could do anything in this condition.”
“Then why don’t we try solving this problem?”
“Hehe, I suppose I should think through it carefully from here.”
We’d tested the thread here in every variety by applying Carbonization, and they’d all failed. What types of thread hadn’t we tried yet? I handed over the notebook where I’d written down all the materials we’d tested so far.
“Should we use something other than thread? I’ve always thought that thread is best because it’s long and Carbonizes well.”
“Haven’t you already used most types of thread?”
“Yes. You brought so many different kinds of thread that I think we’ve tried everything.”
A strong wind blew through the open window. Scattered papers went flying in every direction.
“Oh no.”
“I should close the window.”
I hurried to shut it and started picking up the papers from the floor. Aidan gathered them from the other side as well.
“Here. This one had blown over there.”
Once we’d collected everything, Aidan held out my handkerchief.
“Ah, thank you.”
Now that I thought about it, I’d wiped his pants with it earlier and just left it on the desk. As I folded it up to put away, Aidan asked.
“But what exactly is that handkerchief? The fabric seemed unusual.”
“Oh, yes? It’s a material used among commoners. It’s made from bamboo. It’s not as durable as thread, but it’s used a lot for summer clothes because it absorbs sweat quickly and has good breathability. My father uses it for handkerchiefs because—”
Wait. Bamboo?
I glanced at the equation written on the blackboard. All we needed to do was apply Carbonization. We could Carbonize anything as long as the fibers were long and uniform.
“Sir.”
“Cynthia.”
We called each other’s names at nearly the same moment.
“I think you had the same idea as me.”
“What if we carbonize the bamboo?”
After all, what we really needed wasn’t thread—it was long, uniform carbon fiber.
Getting our hands on bamboo right away proved difficult. Bamboo grew in the warm Southern Region, which meant it was impossible to find in the Capital City, relatively speaking.
And besides, there was no regular demand for bamboo among the nobility.
So while someone from the Winslow Family arranged to bring the bamboo we needed for the experiment, we both headed home.
“Sigh, I’m exhausted.”
Today I couldn’t be bothered with food or anything else—I just wanted to sleep. I burrowed into my soft blankets and closed my eyes.
I’d drifted off briefly in the laboratory earlier, but I’d spent so much mental energy today that sleep came rushing back within moments.
I was turning onto my side to settle in when that soft sensation from earlier—the one that had brushed my cheek—suddenly flooded back into my mind.
……
Oh, why had I fallen asleep resting my head on Aidan’s shoulder? Even thinking about it now made me so embarrassed that I kicked at the blankets.
“Father said I snore when I’m tired.”
Had I been snoring next to Aidan?
“No way—knowing him, if I’d snored, he definitely would’ve teased me about lacking dignity in my sleep.”
So just calm down and get some rest.
I straightened up and closed my eyes again, but almost immediately I sat back up. The more I tried not to think about it, the more vividly it came back—that feeling of his broad shoulders supporting my head so firmly. Aidan’s shoulders.
“Fine, then I’ll think about it instead—maybe if I think about it, I’ll stop thinking about it!”
Fine, honestly, it was comfortable.
The man spent his Academy years studying, and yet his shoulders are that good? Anyone seeing him would take him for a knight, truly. He even smelled good. We’d stayed up all night in the laboratory together, and yet he didn’t even look tired—did he eat something nice when he stepped out?
Maybe he grabbed something good to eat earlier?
“Does he eat well enough that he doesn’t know what fatigue even is?”
Come to think of it, Aidan was like that back at the Academy too. Because I wanted to secure a scholarship and ease my father’s burden, I spent most of my time buried in the library.
Aidan always arrived a bit later than me and sat behind my usual spot. I couldn’t understand why he studied harder than I did, when he wasn’t desperate for money like I was.
I made relentless efforts to surpass him. I wanted to be the last student to leave the library, but even pinching my thighs to fight off sleep, I couldn’t beat him. Throughout my time at the Academy, I never managed to stay in the library longer than Aidan.
“Yes, that’s definitely when he started eating well to keep his strength up.”
That must be why, even though he got only two or three hours of sleep a day, he studied without drowsiness.
“It’s infuriating, honestly.”
Indignation was enough to put me to sleep.
I pulled the blanket up over my head and closed my eyes again. But I tossed and turned for a long time after that, and only managed to finally fall asleep very late into the night.

* * *

The next day, the bamboo we’d been waiting for arrived.
We split it into small pieces, extracted the fibers, and burned them—only to fail once more.
We tried changing the length, we tried changing the thickness, but successive failures were making us increasingly anxious.
We had barely two weeks left.
“……Ready?”
Even Aidan was looking quite worn down by now. Still, we had to make this experiment work, so I nodded.
We both held our breath.
“……I-it came on! The light is on!”
“We did it! We actually did it!”
A faint orange glow bloomed at the end of the filament. Without thinking, I rushed at Aidan. He laughed and pulled me into his arms.
“We made it!”
“We succeeded!”
We held each other tight and celebrated for a long time.
“……Wait.”
The faintly flickering light went out again.

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