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That man was writing something in a cluttered room tucked away in a corner of the Mining Operations Headquarters.

What he was working at was not a fine desk, but a simple table—just a board with four legs, though it was very large. All over it were stones that looked utterly ordinary at first glance, placed about here and there: some were being finely crushed with a hammer and soaked in some kind of chemical, others were being heated with a soft bubbling sound in beakers held over a lamp, and others still were set upon magic circles, blinking faintly.

At the back of the room stood rows of cupboards, every one of them filled with various ores carefully stored in cases, labeled with name tags, and kept with great care.

Mm, this reminds me of my university laboratory. Makes me want to wash test tubes.

“Is that you, Aaron?”

A gentle voice spoke.

“I’m writing a letter right now, so could you send it for me later? To the observatory at the foot of ‘the Summit of the Gods.’”

Although Aaron was now the head of this Mining Operations Headquarters, he still seemed to be regarded as an assistant, just as in the old days. And Aaron, as usual, nodded naturally.

“Yes, understood. Before that, though, Professor, you have a visitor.”
“A visitor?”

Looking puzzled, the mineralogist Isaac Jurnova turned around.
When he saw Ekaterina, his eyes widened.

Smiling at her great-uncle, Ekaterina herself was inwardly surprised.

He looks like Grandfather Sergei!

The grandfather she knew only from portraits, though she knew he had been kind-hearted, had possessed a stern appearance like dignity personified—perfectly suited to someone who had served in the highest offices of state, such as chancellor and foreign minister. And he had been a charming man, the very picture of a dandy.

Great-uncle Isaac, Grandfather’s half-brother, clearly shared the same well-formed features. But his impression was much gentler, and he did not seem as tall as her grandfather had been.
His hair was a bluish white—perhaps because his originally blue hair had almost entirely turned white. His eyes, which her grandfather’s had been a vivid blue, were a pale forget-me-not blue. One could call them light blue, but they were different from Aleksei’s neon blue and from her grandmother’s icy color—soft, gentle in impression.

“…Anastasia?”

When he called her mother’s name in confusion, Ekaterina shook her head and made a lady’s bow.

“It is a pleasure to finally meet you. I am Ekaterina. Great-uncle Isaac, I am very happy to see you.”
“Ekaterina!”

Springing to his feet as if struck, Isaac walked toward her with a broad smile. He extended both hands and gently wrapped them around her small hands. They were large, warm hands.

“My goodness, I’m so happy to see you! Somehow, I still thought of you as a little girl. To think you’ve grown into such a beautiful young lady… but yes, Aaron told me you were a very clever young lady.”

Then Isaac suddenly cut himself off, growing flustered.

“Ah… I’m sorry. I was supposed to greet you and Aleksei at the castle. I completely forgot. You’ve already arrived here from the imperial capital, haven’t you? Oh—no, wait, was I told to go to the castle because there was to be a banquet? Either way, I’m sorry. I’m so scatterbrained…”

Seeing Isaac droop, Ekaterina smiled.

Just as she had heard from Aaron and from Raisa, the housekeeper at Jurnova Castle, he seemed to be the type who could not deal well with practical matters. Since he was a genius scholar, perhaps it was better this way—his biography would be more interesting.

“Please do not worry about it at all. I have come to visit the mountain temple as my brother’s representative. It was fortunate that I could meet you here.”
“I see… Still, for a girl to travel like this, you did very well. Ekaterina is a reliable child.”

…Sorry, I’m actually almost thirty inside. Being praised with such a pure smile really makes me feel nothing but sorry.

“I was not alone. Sir Forli accompanied me. He is currently meeting with the priests of the mountain temple to discuss tomorrow’s visit.”
“Ah, if you were with Brother Balthazar, that must have been reassuring. I used to travel with him often, long ago.”

Since Forli had been Sergei’s close friend, Isaac also seemed to have known him well.

“Professor, Lady Ekaterina has brought you a gift. She said she wished to give it to you as soon as possible, so I left the meeting arrangements to Lord Forli and brought her here.”

At Aaron’s cue, Isaac looked surprised.

“A gift? From you to me, Ekaterina?”
“It is something I very much hope will be useful for your research, Great-uncle. —Mina.”

At her call, Mina stepped forward smoothly, carrying a large bundle as if it weighed nothing. She set it on the table and quickly unwrapped it.

What appeared was a microscope.

To Ekaterina it looked somewhat old-school, but it was unmistakably a microscope in form. Isaac, however, tilted his head in puzzlement.

“What could this be? I’ve never seen anything like it. But it does feel like some kind of research instrument.”

Isaac said this because microscopes did exist in this world, but their shape was quite different from those of her previous life and they were very difficult to use. Slides did not yet exist either; objects to be magnified were placed directly on the table, making them hard to see.

This time, she had commissioned the lens craftsman Yegor Toma, whom she had hired at the Murano workshop in the imperial capital, to make this microscope, and also to produce slide glass for it and send them. By placing the specimen on it and reflecting light upward with the mirror below to brighten the field of view, it became far easier to see than the microscopes that already existed in this world.
Toma had also made various improvements, increasing the magnification beyond that of the microscope kept at the ducal residence in the capital. His claim that he was “a perfectionist” seemed to be true.

“This is a microscope. It is an improved model made at the glass workshop of the Jurnova family in the imperial capital. You use it like this.”

She took some of the finely crushed rock powder from the table and placed it on a slide.
In her previous life, a slide usually meant placing a drop of water and covering it with a cover glass, but it was still impossible to make ultra-thin cover glasses here. Even so, it was impressive that they had managed to make slide glass of such clear transparency and uniform thickness.
She set it on the stage and peered through the lens. Adjusting the lower mirror to brighten the view with reflected light, and turning the focusing screw, the powder came into view in a completely different form. Mixed among dark, rugged shapes were many clear, beautifully colored crystal-like forms. Some were as beautifully shaped as snowflakes. Judging from their shapes, they did not seem to be quartz.

“Please, Great-uncle, take a look.”
“Thank you.”

Isaac, who had been watching her with wide eyes, hurriedly peered into the lens.

“Oh!”

He exclaimed the moment he saw it.

“Amazing! It’s so bright… I’ve never been able to magnify something this much before. How clearly I can see it. Ah, it’s as if it’s speaking to me…”

His voice of excitement softened into an enraptured murmur, and Isaac began staring silently into the microscope, holding his breath.
Then he pulled his eyes away and looked around as if searching for something.
Seeing this, Aaron knowingly handed him a notebook, a quill pen, and an inkwell. Apparently he had fetched them from another spot on the table without anyone noticing.

“Ah, thank you, Aaron.”

Happily accepting them, Isaac began sketching and writing notes in the notebook.
Aaron watched him, utterly absorbed and forgetting everything else, with a satisfied look. His assistant skills seemed flawless.

By the way, the fact that Aaron held the position of chief of mines at such a young age was neither for show nor due to connections.

He had memorized vast amounts of data about all of Jurnova’s mines: each mine’s output, estimated reserves, surrounding terrain and transport routes, approximate costs, profits, number of workers, major stakeholders and their relationships, and countless other details. Based on this wealth of knowledge, he gave precise instructions to each mine. And when the hardened veterans who infested the mines inflated their expenses or failed to deliver the results he had ordered, he would smile sweetly and convey something to somewhere outside the normal chain of command—and somehow, the problem would be resolved. He could even cause that rather frightening phenomenon.
In the office, he behaved modestly because he was the youngest, but he was one of the men Grandfather Sergei, who had made cultivating talent his hobby, had personally selected—and thus he was terrifyingly capable. And in truth, somewhat dark.

Perhaps even these exceptional abilities as chief of mines were, in fact, just part of his “assistant skills,” all to create an environment in which Isaac could devote himself fully to his research. The blissful expression Aaron wore whenever he assisted Isaac made one think so.

—Aaron’s love for Great-uncle Isaac is too deep, my love for my brother might be losing in comparison. This is a crisis!

Such was the foolish sense of urgency felt by Ekaterina.

Finishing his quick sketch, Isaac finally pulled away from the microscope, gazed at the instrument itself with renewed admiration, and gently stroked it.
Then he came back to himself at last and looked at Ekaterina in a fluster.

“Ah, sorry. I got carried away again.”

Ekaterina smiled.

“It is important research, after all. Concentrating is a good thing. Will this microscope be of use to you?”
“Of course. It’s wonderful. To attach a stage like this, place the specimen on glass, and shine light from below with a mirror—it’s an amazing idea. It’s completely different from other microscopes.”

Isaac stroked the microscope happily.

“Is it really all right for me to receive something this incredible?”
“Of course. Please use it, and if you have any requests—things you would like changed or improved—do tell me.”
“Professor, Lady Ekaterina herself devised the improvements to this microscope.”

At Aaron’s words, Isaac blinked in surprise.
Yes, that reaction is correct. It would be strange for me to think of something like this! Because I didn’t!
In truth, this was a form that had come about after one or two hundred years of many people accumulating countless improvements after the invention of the microscope.
But that was something I could never say.

“It was merely an amateur’s idea. As a woman, before attending a banquet, one uses reflected light from a mirror to check one’s hair and makeup. It may be a way of using mirrors unfamiliar to gentlemen.”

I’m impressed with myself for coming up with excuses so smoothly…

“I see. But it’s still amazing and wonderful. Just as Aaron said, you really are one clever girl, Ekaterina.”

Isaac praised her with a smile like that of a child.
That pure smile stabbed mercilessly at Ekaterina’s conscience.

“U-um… Great-uncle, what kind of mineral is the one you were just looking at?”

At her desperate attempt to change the subject, Isaac smiled warmly.

“This? This is a prismite.”