Chapter – 48…
Aisily, who was completely unaware that her marriage to Ludwig had been decided as abruptly as roasting beans in a lightning strike, arrived at the street with the burned-down warehouse alongside the twins.
Getting off the carriage, Aisily steadied her body, which threatened to stagger as she held onto the carriage door.
Her already scant stamina seemed completely drained after pushing herself since morning and then having a good cry on top of that.
But she couldn’t just collapse and sleep here, so she had to endure somehow.
Having been somewhat hardened by navigating a social life as ruthless as a jungle, she could manage to bear this level of fatigue.
“Whew.”
Aisily took a deep breath in and out, putting effort into her eyelids that kept trying to droop.
The twins, who had approached her side, spoke up, as if competing to be first.
“Are you okay?”
“You should rest, even if just until tomorrow…”
Aisily waved her hand at them.
“No. It’s just my nature; I can’t rest easy with work pending.”
“Even so…”
“Your face is so pale.”
Her complexion was pale, to put it bluntly, it looked ashen, almost corpse-like.
Under the twins’ pleading gazes begging her to just go back, Aisily rubbed her cheek awkwardly.
This is troublesome.
She had things to do, but if her most needed assistants were only concerned about her condition and didn’t focus on the actual ‘work,’ even possible things would become impossible.
But the experience she’d gained rolling in society hadn’t disappeared just because of an unexpected dimension hop. Aisily smiled faintly and spoke in a soft, measured tone.
“Then, would you help me a little?”
“Yes!”
“Yes, of course!”
Once again answering simultaneously, as if competing to be first, Aisily held out both hands towards the twins.
The twins, taken aback, grabbed her hands, and Aisily, shaking their joined hands, said,
“Let’s walk holding hands.”
The twins, who had thus ended up walking side-by-side holding Aisily’s hands in a daze, blinked very rapidly.
Just what in the world was happening?
Why were they suddenly holding hands?
But that question and bewilderment soon melted away, dissolved by the warmth from a completely different person—not their other half—felt through their hands.
As if by promise, the twins both fidgeted with the held hands, then soon gripped Aisily’s hands firmly, enough not to hurt her.
Once Aisily felt that the twins, who had been anxious for a while, had stabilized somewhat, she immediately moved her steps towards the burned area.
“I’ve read all about the general story through the documents, but could you tell me once more?”
There was a difference in weight between reading words on cool paper and hearing facts relayed by someone who experienced it directly.
“It started…”
Angie began the story, and Kelly added supplementary explanations here and there.
As they moved from warehouse to warehouse, the story gradually came to an end when they reached the site of today’s explosion.
Although the fire had been quickly put out, the traces remained vivid, with soot still uncleared on the walls everywhere and emitting a pungent smell.
Staring intently at the soot, Aisily asked again,
“So the fire only caught in warehouses storing flour, sugar, and potato starch?”
At Aisily’s confirmation, the twins nodded.
“Yes.”
“As expected, they are all in powdered form.”
Aisily nodded, mentally reviewing the conditions that had flashed through her mind while observing the previous explosion.
Dust, temperature, humidity, and an ignition source.
Listing the keywords, she tilted her head and quickly looked around.
Workers were sweating, each doing their tasks all over the spacious warehouse.
“It’s a bit hot here, isn’t it?”
“Yes. It’s a spot that gets a lot of sun, so it tends to be.”
If even her current body, which was in an indescribably terrible state, could feel the heat, it must be true.
She didn’t know if the oxygen concentration was high, but at least it probably wasn’t low.
Today was also a dry day where laundry would dry quickly.
Combining the three clues, Aisily tilted her head, leaving the last one aside.
Even if all the conditions for a fire were met, without a starting point, the fire wouldn’t begin.
“There must be an ignition source.”
“Ignition source?”
“Ignition source, you say?”
“Ah, sorry. I was just thinking to myself.”
Aisily carefully organized her thoughts and explained them directly to the twins.
“…So, it seems we just need to find the ignition source. The ignition point is the biggest problem compared to the other factors.”
After the long explanation, Aisily cleared her throat as if tired, and the twins looked at her with dazed eyes.
From the first explosion to today.
The cause of the explosions, which all the members of the Lemer family had rushed to solve but could never unravel—no, couldn’t even find a clue—had just flowed so easily from the mouth of one person.
Of course, they would need thorough verification to confirm if Aisily’s words were true, but…
“You’re the first to explain the cause and effect so clearly, Miss.”
“Dust? We really never thought of that.”
“That’s understandable. Nobody plays with fire near dust, right? So now—”
Clap.
Aisily clapped her hands to refocus everyone and suggested,
“Shall we look for the ignition source?”
At that, the twins nodded their heads vigorously in unison.
The search for the ignition source began immediately, but Aisily hit a wall from the start.
“Working must be tough, so do you smoke… um…”
As Aisily, who was about to ask something, closed her mouth, the back of the worker shrinking before her bent a little more.
Aisily quickly waved her hand.
“No. Sorry to bother you. You can go.”
As the worker bowed his head and returned to his original spot, Aisily furrowed her brow.
Did cigarettes exist in this world too?
The causes of fire are incredibly diverse, but under such specific conditions, isn’t the most common reason for an ignition source a cigarette butt?
But since coming to this world, she had no memory of seeing anyone smoking…
As Aisily agonized, the outline of someone who shouldn’t be here now vaguely captured her vision.
“The Crown Prince?”
The moment she uttered it, she realized the figure was the Crown Prince.
At that moment, as if he had heard her voice, she made direct eye contact with the Crown Prince.
What… was that? Was it just her imagination?
Immediately after, Aisily frowned.
Because he disappeared from her sight in the blink of an eye.
She was well aware her current physical state wasn’t normal.
Especially since she had cried a bucketful, it was natural for her vision to be narrow and blurry.
On top of that, running around a hot warehouse, it was no wonder she might see hallucinations.
But of all things to hallucinate, why did it have to be that bastard?
“If I’m going to see something, it should be Ludwig.”
So naturally, her train of thought flowed to Ludwig and slipped out.
Thus, unaware of what meaning it held, Aisily simply wished she could wash her eyes out as soon as possible.
As she rubbed her eyes roughly, her slightly sunken eyelids and the area around her eyes, which had just calmed down, turned red and swollen again, and blue veins became visible on her temples.
“Miss?”
“Are you alright?”
The twins, who had approached without her noticing, cautiously examined Aisily’s complexion.
Aisily gestured with a faint smile as if to reassure them.
“I’m fine. More importantly, how about the ignition source?”
“Smoking is strictly prohibited, so there was nothing that could really be an ignition source.”
“We asked if they might have tried to cook something, thinking it unlikely they’d light a fire in this weather, but they said there’s a restaurant right next door, so there’s no need.”
The answers came smoothly even without her asking, and Aisily nodded, then suddenly paused.
Then where on earth did the ignition source come from?
Arson? But if you start a fire where an explosion occurs, the first to get caught in it would be the arsonist, wouldn’t they?
As if she wasn’t the only one thinking that, the twins also tilted their heads in the same direction.
“If the explosion starts from the ignition source…”
“There’s no way someone could commit arson.”
“Were there any bodies found?”
“Only those caught in the initial explosions.”
Angie and Kelly’s faces clouded with worry, regret, faint anger, and a sigh as they answered.
Aisily simultaneously tapped the backs of both their hands.
The silent consolation contained in that small gesture touched the twins’ hearts.
Yes. Lady Bolshack has been like this since their first meeting.
An unremarkable word. A commonplace gesture. Consideration so natural you might miss it, forget it after it passes.
Just as the twins were about to speak simultaneously, Aisily was faster.
“Over there, do you see that round light?”
Aisily alternated her gaze between the newly repaired warehouse walls and floor before turning her eyes towards the wall.
The twins’ gazes followed.
“Round…”
“Light?”
“Yes. That very small, intensely concentrated sunlight over there… Ah!”
Seeing the intense light, strong enough to make the rising dust appear distorted, concentrated on a single point, Aisily let out a gasp.
Wasn’t it the principle that if you concentrate sunlight onto a point using a magnifying glass, you can create an ignition source hot enough to burn paper?
“I found the ignition source.”
“Huh? Where?”
“Fire? Is there a fire?”
Startled by Aisily’s words, the twins looked around frantically.
“No, there’s no immediate fire, so don’t worry. Want to come here and see?”
Seeing once is better than a hundred words.
Moreover, her knowledge wasn’t deep enough to accurately explain the principle of light refraction.
After calling the twins to the spot where the light was concentrated, Aisily rummaged through her pockets, then opened her mouth with an embarrassed expression.
“Do you have a small piece of paper? And I need water too.”
Once everything was prepared according to Aisily’s request, she promptly demonstrated the trick of lighting the piece of paper with sunlight and added a brief explanation.
