Chapter 1.1

“You’re next.”

The ballroom, filled with the heat of people, was suffocatingly hot, and the chandelier reflecting the warm, subtle light of a rainbow was blindingly bright.  

Why did the people on the dance floor below not feel this suffocating air and only dance so beautifully?  

Lucia Bianchi swallowed dryly.  

“What… what did you just say, Your Majesty?”  

She must have misheard.  

She had to have misheard.  

The man standing before her smiled broadly at Lucia, who was now sweating.  

With his turquoise eyes curving into crescent shapes, he spoke.  

“I’ve chosen you.”  

He pointed at Lucia with his long finger as if sealing the decision.  

“My next concubine.”  

***

Dust floated lazily in the late afternoon sunlight, shimmering like gold powder in the air, while books scattered everywhere rested quietly, waiting for someone to take them.  

In the back room of Saper Bookstore, the short, hollow sound of metal clinking against metal echoed endlessly today as well.  

Inside, a woman sat at a desk, her head bowed. Her black curly hair might have been tied back an hour ago, but now most of it had come loose, with a ribbon desperately clinging to the ends of her hair.  

On the desk were sharp black chunks of metal that, at a glance, looked like torture tools, and sheets of paper filled with precisely drawn diagrams were stacked high on one side.  

She closed one eye and held up a metal cylinder, bringing it to the light streaming through a small window. The angle of the protruding part of the cylinder was still slightly off.  

The woman picked up a small hammer and tapped the cylinder again.  

“Lucia, you have a customer.”  

The shop owner, Mr. Saper, called out.  

Lucia Bianchi hurriedly removed her leather apron and left the room. The wide windowsill at the entrance of the bookstore displayed various peculiar items neatly arranged. Since the window was left open, customers often chose items from outside and bargained over them.  

A well-dressed man was fiddling with the items, his face full of curiosity.  

“Hello, Sir. How can I help you?”  

At Lucia’s question, the man held up a small bow-shaped metal object.  

“Is this a sextant?”  

“Yes, it is.”  

“I’ve never seen one made this small before. Was it imported from Vaneruno?”  

“No, it was made right here. As you can see, it’s half the price of imported goods, and the quality is much better. Would you like to try using it?”  

The man held the sextant to one eye and looked toward the sun. It was an astonishingly precise device. He was very satisfied and asked,  

“Could I meet the inventor? I’m a trader and am thinking of purchasing these in bulk.”  

“That would be me.”  

The man stared at Lucia with a dumbfounded expression. Lucia added, emphasizing her words,  

“I’m the inventor.”  

The man glanced at Lucia, slowly nodded, and, with a faint smile, pretended to be interested in other items, fiddling with them.  

“I’ll come back another time.”  

In the end, the man left without hesitation.  

Lucia waited until he turned the corner of the alley before shouting after him,  

“If you want to buy something twice as expensive, made by men, and broken within a month, go to Erani’s shop!”  

Her timid revenge floated aimlessly down the alley, finding no recipient.  

Lucia leaned her elbows on the windowsill, resting her chin on one hand and rearranging the mechanical toys the customer had disordered with the other.  

Children didn’t care whether the person who made the toys was male, female, or even an animal, as long as the toys were fascinating. That was at least some comfort.  

Lucia picked up a toy and wound its spring. A frog figurine jumped up and down.  

Outside the window, there were only other shops lined up in the alley, no passersby, and the cobblestones, still wet from yesterday’s rain, filled the alley with a damp, rich scent.  

Mr. Saper approached Lucia, who had nothing to do, and smiled cheerfully.  

“Lucia, did you know? If you put a lemon and a lime in water, the lemon floats, but the lime sinks! I thought they were the same fruit, just different colors! Isn’t that fascinating?”  

Lucia turned away from the windowsill and smiled.  

“That’s really interesting, Mr. Saper.”  

“Right? And did you know peanuts aren’t actually nuts—”  

“Oh, someone’s here again.”  

Mr. Saper regretfully stopped showing off his trivia.  

“Then I’ll save the fun and useful tidbits for later!”  

Outside the window stood a man in a hooded cloak, grinning widely.  

“Miss Bianchi!”  

He spread his arms theatrically and greeted her.  

“What new invention do you have for me today?”  

“I finished something called a thermometer yesterday.”  

Lucia took out a long glass rod. Attached to a wooden plate marked with numbers like a ruler, the rod contained an unidentified liquid.  

To demonstrate, Lucia poured room-temperature water and hot water from the boiler into two separate glasses. When she placed the glass rod into the warm water first, the liquid inside the rod began to rise slowly.  

“Oh!”  

A gasp escaped the man’s lips.  

Next, she placed the rod into the room-temperature water, and the liquid inside fell back down.  

“Ooh!”  

“As you can see, it measures temperature much faster than existing thermometers. After numerous experiments, I found that it’s also far more accurate.”  

The man, who had taken the thermometer from Lucia, alternated between the two glasses, testing it himself. He was so engrossed that exclamations kept pouring out of him. Even though his golden hair spilled under his hood, covering his eyes, he was entirely focused on the thermometer.  

“But, Miss Bianchi, if steam is rising, doesn’t that obviously mean it’s hot? Why would you need this to confirm it?”  

“You can find out exactly how hot it is. If there are two liquids of similar temperature, you can determine which is hotter and by how much.”  

“Aha! But when would you need to do that?”  

“Ah.”  

Lucia struggled to find an answer to what should have been an easy question.  

“Well… it would be… useful for scientists…”  

Improving others’ inventions without theory indeed had its limits.  

This was why she wanted to attend school longer.  

“Aha!”  

The man was satisfied with her clumsy answer and continued measuring the temperature.  

For the past year, he had visited at least once a week to purchase items.  

At first, she thought he was a wealthy merchant, but he came too often during busy weekdays for that.  

Then she wondered if he was a nouveau riche who had suddenly inherited a fortune and started spending recklessly, but his attire was always too plain for that.  

Or perhaps he was a nobleman with an interest in inventions…  

“Damn it!”  

The man shouted when hot water splashed onto his finger.  

…But his manners were far too crude for a nobleman.  

Not a merchant, not a nouveau riche, not a nobleman…  

Lucia no longer tried to figure out his identity. She didn’t care enough to bother.  

Still, he was someone who genuinely appreciated her inventions, so she was thankful for that.  

Lucia shrugged inwardly and was about to turn away when the man shouted again.  

“What’s this?”  

The man pointed at the sextant.  

“It’s a device used to measure the altitude angles of the moon or stars to determine latitude and longitude. It’s useful for sailing.”  

“Aha!”  

The man held the eyepiece to his eye and let out another exclamation.  

“I have no idea how to use it!”  

He cheerfully put the sextant back down.  

“Today seems to have an especially large number of peculiar items, Miss Bianchi! I’m always amazed by the novelty and quality!”  

Her efforts from working tirelessly all week were recognized, and a strange feeling spread through her chest.  

“I’ll take everything here!”  

The man shouted.  

“Except the toys, right?”  

“What nonsense! I only understand the toys!”  

Lucia wrapped the items one by one in paper. The man rubbed his hands together, his eyes sparkling.

Lucia Bianchi was truly an unusual person.  

***

The man who had just left the shop climbed into his carriage. Even with his hood pulled up, passersby paused to glance at the strikingly handsome man visible behind the window. His tall stature and strong physique drew attention, and though his face was partially obscured, its sharp contours were faintly discernible.  

Noticing the stares, the man closed the curtains. Removing his black cloak revealed summer ocean-colored eyes that glowed even in the dim carriage.  

He ran his long fingers through his pressed golden hair, crossed his legs, and wound the spring of the frog figurine he had just purchased. The toy escaped his hand and hopped around inside the carriage.  

The man recalled her face when she had been flustered by his question about the thermometer earlier. Her wandering gaze, reddening ears, and curly hair standing on end as if touched by electricity came to mind.  

A faint smile naturally graced his lips.  

He suddenly remembered the first time he had seen her.  

It had been during an inspection trip when he had coincidentally encountered her after noticing the young lady from a previous ball. She had been selling excellent inventions, and his initial visits to her shop had continued until now.  

It had taken ten months for her, who always maintained a poker face, to naturally reveal her emotions to him.  

To achieve this, the man had visited her invention shop every week during that time.  

After becoming a regular customer, he began to enjoy watching her exaggerated hand gestures while explaining inventions, or her ears turning pink whenever he bought items in bulk.  

Her diverse expressions, which burst forth like colorful fireworks of intense emotions, gained a new addition today: the color of ‘embarrassment.’  

“Enzo, clear my schedule for tomorrow.”  

He addressed the man sitting across from him.  

“Are you planning to visit her again?”  

The man with a smooth, stone-like face asked.  

“Yes, these days, I feel particularly inclined to do so.”