Chapter 37
The bookshelf was tall, but for Celesto, whose build matched that of a Holy Knights of the Temple Knights, he could see over it with just a small tiptoe.
The visitor was a man neatly dressed in a suit—someone whose attire would suit a formal meeting or a matchmaking appointment far more than a colleague’s lab.
“I’m glad you’re here. I thought the gift might lose its charm by tomorrow.”
With that, the visitor handed something to Roarna. No matter how you looked at it… it was a potted plant.
‘Is he crazy?’
Celesto tilted his chin. The pot contained a few beautifully blooming flowers—cute enough, but entirely useless to Roarna. She probably wouldn’t even think they were pretty.
As expected, Roarna’s reaction was dry.
“This is…”
“I thought it would fit the atmosphere of your lab, so I brought it as a gift.”
“Fit… my lab?”
Roarna muttered. Compared to typical researchers’ rooms, it was tidy, but flowers didn’t suit the space at all.
A room full of obscure metalwork in the largest display cabinet, and now flowers… It was absurd.
Yet the man seemed oblivious to her reaction, talking away with a flushed, excited expression.
He continued.
That the flowers only needed watering while blooming, that he had recently seen her paper submitted to a conference… things Roarna hadn’t asked and certainly wouldn’t care about kept spilling out.
Finally, unable to hold back, Roarna interrupted him.
“Is there something you actually want to say?”
At her words, the man froze with a smile. Even Celesto, watching, swallowed hard. Everything said up to that point apparently didn’t count.
But the man soon laughed, easing the tension. He brought up topics slightly closer to Roarna and himself, softening the atmosphere further.
Once the mood had relaxed, the man finally got to the point.
“Now that I notice, you’re here alone in the lab, Roarna.”
He spoke with a gentle smile.
“I was wondering if someone else might be with you.”
At that moment, something popped into Celesto’s mind: the way all those gazes had poured onto him when he stepped out of the elevator.
The people who, upon seeing a man with a build recognizable even under a hood get off on the 9th floor, had tried to figure out whose lab he was going to, whether perhaps he was heading to Roarna’s lab.
Only then did Celesto realize why he had come looking for Roarna.
‘He came to check.’
Celesto crossed his arms and glared at the man.
Whether the man was one of those who had ridden the elevator together, or whether he had heard from them and come to Roarna’s lab, Celesto didn’t know.
But the fact that he had come all the way to the lab to confirm whether the hooded visitor was here… meant he had a personal interest in Roarna.
Excessive enough to act on it.
But Roarna was a woman seriously lacking in social skills to figure out the underlying intent.
“You said you knocked like that because you thought there might be someone else here?”
And yet she was quite sharp about it.
“Usually, if it seems like someone has a visitor, wouldn’t you come back later or just leave a message? Knocking continuously until they come out doesn’t seem normal.”
“Ah, that’s…”
The man laughed loudly again. It was an effort to break the tense atmosphere.
‘For a scholar, he seems to have good social skills, but he’s tactless.’
Celesto glanced at Roarna’s face. As expected, her expression was dry, almost expressionless.
But the man continued the conversation with the persistence characteristic of a scholar. Even skillfully guiding the answers, preventing Roarna from cutting him off.
Celesto stared blankly at the back of the man’s head.
He needed a way to stop the endless stream of words. And a way to drive this man out of the room without revealing himself.
Fortunately, the man provided the means himself.
“Do you remember the advice you gave me last time? It was extremely helpful. At the conference, they pointed out exactly that part.”
The man bowed his head deeply towards Roarna as if incredibly grateful. The distance between the two closed quite naturally.
But that effort proved futile, as an irreparable crack soon appeared.
“I feel like I’ve used up all the luck I’ll have in a lifetime. To be able to show my thesis in advance to a scholar from such a prestigious family.”
At the man’s words, Roarna let out a soft laugh. It was the biggest reaction she had shown so far.
Whether he took that as a sign of affirmation, the man began to reveal his true intentions in earnest.
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