The Marquis' Daughter, a Research Enthusiast, Fails to Notice Her Junior's Devoted Feelings After Her Engagement is Broken. - Chapter 1.10

After class, Mary called out to Nathaniel, but he ignored her and walked away. She hurried after him, clearly distressed. Their relationship seemed to have deteriorated significantly.

If I followed Nathaniel, I might be able to record another secret rendezvous between him and the baron’s daughter.

I quickly wiped the blackboard clean, intending to chase after him, but I had already lost track of which direction he had gone.

Having no other choice, I wandered around potential locations when I heard a girl singing.

It sounded like choir practice, but when I looked, I saw that it was Baron Everett’s daughter singing alone.

…Oh no.

“Ah! Professor Emil, you heard me!”

She stopped singing midway, smiling shyly as she looked up at me.

A chill ran down my spine. I instinctively tried to walk away quickly, but she called out before I could escape.

“W-Wait! What did you think of my singing?”

“Uh… I wasn’t really listening, sorry. Well then, I’ll be on my way.”

“Ah, um! My accompanist for the cultural festival hasn’t been decided yet! Professor Emil, could you please play for me?”

She suddenly clutched my sleeve in desperation. There was no escaping now.

“Why… me?”

“Because you’re the music teacher, aren’t you?”

“Huh???”

Me? A music teacher?

“No, I teach advanced mathematics. You must be mistaken.”

“What?! That can’t be right!”

“It’s true.”

An awkward silence followed, but she still hadn’t let go of my sleeve.

“Um… could you let go now?”

“But you can play the piano, right?”

“Well… I did when I was a child, but not anymore. You should ask the actual music teacher instead.”

“Eh?! Then what am I supposed to do about the festival?! Emil not being involved in music…? Where did everything go wrong?”

She suddenly clutched her head, mumbling incomprehensibly to herself.

This was bad. Creepy. I did not want to get involved.

“Well then, I’ll be off now.”

I took advantage of the moment to slip away, and as soon as I turned a corner, I sprinted at full speed.

Why did she assume I was involved in music?

I did enjoy it when I was younger—before I met Frederica, I even considered pursuing it seriously.

But having someone talk to me with such a strong conviction, as if it were an absolute truth, made my skin crawl.

How could she say, “That can’t be right!” with such certainty?

That wasn’t a normal reaction.

Could this be another one of her tricks?

I wished I could show this to Peter and get his opinion…!

I regretted not recording the conversation.

✳︎ ✳︎ ✳︎

To extend my recording time, I locked myself in the research lab and focused on making improvements.

Fortunately, it was a day off, so I had the laboratory to myself. High-purity magic stones could extend recording time, but only up to about an hour.

I wanted the device to remain on at all times rather than having to activate it after something happened.

The previous recording of Nathaniel and the baron’s daughter had captured their conversation through sound-enhancing magic, but the footage was too far away to see any details. It only barely showed them embracing.

There were too many issues to solve…

As I sat there groaning in frustration, Peter and Karl walked in with grim expressions.

“Huh? I thought it was your day off.”

“Don’t ask for details…”

…And yet, Peter immediately started explaining.

Apparently, they had gone on a double date but both ended up getting rejected.

“We just don’t know what kind of topics girls like to talk about! And Karl barely speaks at all!”

“S-Sorry… I just freeze up in front of girls… But, Peter, you also got in trouble for reading someone’s mana without permission.”

“It was going fine at first! I thought I could impress them by reading their mana wavelengths, like fortune-telling—girls love that kind of stuff, right?”

“But then you started telling them things like their health risks and how easily they gain weight… Of course, they got mad.”

“I only said it because I thought she wasn’t overweight…”

In the end, Peter had warned a girl about eating too much cake, and she stormed off, leaving their date in ruins.

Yeah… That would definitely make her angry.

“Emil, are you improving that device?”

When I explained my current issues, they decided to help me out.

As we talked, I showed them the footage of Nathaniel and the baron’s daughter.

“Whoa… She’s totally pressing her chest against his arm, isn’t she? The footage is small, but it looks like she clung to him first.”

“If someone did that to me, I think I’d react the same way as Nathaniel…”

“The footage is too small to see their facial expressions. We definitely need a zoom function.”

“And the hallway footage… You can hear them talking, but it’s a little hard to make out.”

“Exactly. I want to extend the recording time, but I also need better sound and zoom capabilities…”

“If you don’t mind sacrificing video quality, we could extend the recording time significantly. If we just focus on capturing mana wavelengths and voices, it should be enough to identify who’s speaking.”

“But then we wouldn’t be able to see their actions clearly.”

After much brainstorming, we managed to extend the recording time to seven hours—though the footage became slightly choppy and lower in resolution.

Additionally, we created a separate device specifically for zooming in and enhancing audio. This one required manual activation and mana input, but it could record for about 30 minutes to an hour. I designed a trigger system that would allow it to be discreetly activated from my pocket.

We decided it was best to focus on recording the baron’s daughter’s actions to avoid wasting resources.

Once we acquired her unique mana signature, Peter would be able to create a radar that could track her location.

With their help on the groundwork, I spent the night in the research lab, finalizing everything.

Just barely finishing in time, I prepared myself for the next school day.