The wireless crackled again, spitting out static. Along with the hiss of white noise, a report from a distant village came through. Senkū listened while checking the measurement marks on the distiller. Or rather, he was trying to. "…What did you say?" His hands stopped without thinking. "A woman doctor calling herself a Byōrishi has been making rounds through the western settlements, sir. She examines patients' bodies, hands out medicine, then moves to the next village." The communications officer from Takao Outpost continued in a leisurely tone from the other end of the wireless. "And apparently, her notes in the patient record book are pretty messy. The content is detailed, but her handwriting and the way she uses margins are really sloppy. The villagers were laughing about it." Click. Senkū's thoughts stopped for a moment. Messy experimental notes. The content is incredible, but the appearance is catastrophic. Not to mention the way she arranges her instruments is careless, and it's a pain to clean up afterward—— (…No, wait. This is information cross-referencing. Scientific judgment.) Senkū told himself that. At the same time, he turned the heating dial on the distiller twenty degrees in the wrong direction. Whoooosh!! White liquid shot straight up toward the ceiling. The upper half of the laboratory was engulfed in white mist. Nital solution——the raw liquid for reviving petrified humans——dripped down onto Senkū's greenish-silver hair. "Ugh." Chrome, who had been organizing mineral samples by the wall, slowly turned around. A tall boy with wild reddish-brown hair. His eyes looked at the ceiling, then at Senkū, then back at the ceiling. "…You've been pretty spaced out lately." "[angry]I'm 100 billion percent focused, I'm telling you!" "Then what's that liquid?" "[serious]…A byproduct of the experiment." Chrome shrugged with an "I see" expression. Senkū brushed his wet bangs aside while checking the distiller, then sighed. Red mesh clung to his forehead. That's when the door opened. "Senkū—I finished checking the revival spring and—whoa, what happened here?" Kohaku came in. A girl with bright blonde hair tied up, solidly built. Her eyes were large and round, and her expressions changed constantly. Right now her mouth hung open as she stared up at the ceiling. A moment later, Ruri entered as well. Kohaku's older sister, a girl with a calm demeanor. Her black hair was neatly arranged, and she always wore a quiet smile. She took in the situation at a glance and silently pulled a towel from the shelf. "Thanks." "You're welcome." A brief exchange. Ruri handed the towel to Senkū. Kohaku, meanwhile, was already wiping up the liquid that had fallen on the floor with a cloth, grinning. "Hey, Senkū. I heard that wireless transmission earlier." "[cold]What about it?" "[laughing]That rumored female doctor—isn't that Yomi?" Senkū didn't stop his hands. He wiped his hair with the towel while looking straight at Kohaku. "[serious]Investigating the technical standards of Byōrishi practitioners is necessary. Don't mix emotion into this." "Yeah, about that…" Kohaku stopped wiping the floor and looked over. "[sarcastic]The person who looks most emotional right now when saying 'don't mix emotion into this' is you, Senkū." Her voice was quiet. But it was so accurate that Senkū couldn't say anything for a while. "…………" "Going to argue?" "[serious]…There's no ground to argue from." Kohaku burst out laughing. Ruri smiled faintly. Senkū turned away and began adjusting the distiller settings. The sound of the steam engine test run drifted in from outside. Thump, thump—heavy vibrations. The Kingdom of Science Ishinomiya——the "civilization" that Senkū had built, probably the only one in this world——was running today as well. "You modified the steam engine again, didn't you?" "[serious]Increased the output by 1.3 times. Fuel efficiency is up too." "How's the Nital solution inventory?" "With the saltpeter we collected last month from the Fujiyama bat cave, we can make enough for about thirty more people." Kohaku nodded. She was really listening and understanding what Senkū was saying. Nital solution was a liquid for reviving petrified humans. It was made by mixing nitric acid and alcohol. About three liters were needed to revive one person. The nitric acid required saltpeter made from bat guano that accumulated in the Fujiyama caves, and they could only gather enough with monthly mining expeditions. Three thousand seven hundred years ago, all of humanity turned to stone. Many people were still stone, scattered somewhere in the world. Reviving them one by one. That was the Kingdom of Science's job. "How far is the wireless communication range reaching now?" "Fifty kilometers radius. It easily reaches Takao Outpost. If we boost the output a bit more, we might reach the Enshu area." "That's far." "[serious]Beyond that, we have to go on foot." As he said it, his eyes drifted back to the wireless again. (On foot, huh.) Senkū was aware of it. Where he was looking right now. But he still didn't understand why he was looking there. --- When evening came, the council meeting was held. The main members gathered at the long table in Ishinomiya's communal dining hall "François's Kitchen"——the kingdom's only dining facility, run by François, a former top-class chef——. The smell of game stew wafted through the air. The early summer breeze drifted in gently. Senkū stood. A rolled bundle of papers was tucked into the chest pocket of his white lab coat. "[serious]I propose the formation of a dispatch team for technical support to distant settlements and systematic investigation of post-petrification aftereffects." Everyone looked up. Senkū continued. "About fifteen percent of humans revived from petrification are showing Ishiyami symptoms. Partially stiffened joints, cracked skin. The areas around the Kingdom of Science are still manageable. But distant settlements have no medical care or technology, and many patients are left untreated." Chrome nodded. "Yeah, that's definitely necessary." "The dispatch team will travel directly to villages, simultaneously spreading steam technology and providing medical support. We'll gather information while moving. Efficiency will increase by 100 billion percent." The members received the materials. A proposal document Senkū had compiled. Packed with numbers and plans. Chrome flipped through the pages——and stopped midway. "…Senkū." "What?" "[sarcastic]It's written casually on the last page, but. 'Coordination with Byōrishi Yomi and collection of medical records.'" For a moment, the dining hall went silent. "[serious]That's part of scientific data collection! Yomi's pathological analysis is essential for Ishiyami research!!" Senkū's voice was a bit loud. His cheeks were tinged slightly red. Kohaku pressed her lips together tightly. Holding back laughter. Ruri quietly closed the documents. Chrome looked at the ceiling. All three began clapping silently. "[serious]Why are you clapping?!" "[laughing]Approved!" "I agree." "No objections from me." Their voices overlapped. Senkū's mouth formed a straight line, and he said nothing more. --- Night fell. The bustle of the dining hall quieted, and Ishinomiya became peaceful. A bonfire flickered in the distance, visible through the window. Probably the night watch. Senkū returned to the laboratory alone to prepare for departure. While packing his things, he organized the shelves. Experimental equipment, bottles of chemicals, record notebooks. He checked each one and separated what he needed. When his hand reached into the back of the shelf, his fingers touched something. He pulled it out. It was an old notebook. The cover was slightly yellowed. But that wasn't three thousand seven hundred years of deterioration. It had probably looked like this before petrification——back in that lab where Senkū and the others were researching. Senkū stared at the notebook for a while. He opened it. Meticulous handwriting filled the pages. But "meticulous" only applied to the content. The layout was chaotic, the use of margins was terrible, and there were tiny doodles in the bottom right corner. The record's precision was high, yet the page looked cluttered at first glance. It had always been written this way. Senkū turned page after page. Medical analysis records continued. Symptom observations, tissue conditions, hypotheses and conclusions. Reading through it, you could understand. How seriously this person had approached medicine. His hand stopped at the last page. The text ended midway through the page. More precisely, it "stopped." The ink trailed off in the middle of a sentence. And at the very bottom of the page, in the margins, it read: "To Senkū——" There was nothing after that. Senkū stared at those four characters for a while. (Did she try to write it right before petrification?) She was holding the pen when she turned to stone. That's what it meant. Something tightened in his chest. Senkū checked his own chest. He wasn't running. He hadn't lifted anything heavy. Yet his heart rate was elevated. Scientifically inexplicable. (Why?) He genuinely didn't understand. He gently closed the notebook. He tapped the cover once lightly with his palm. Then, hesitating slightly, he placed it in his travel bag. Outside the window, the bonfire swayed. Ishinomiya was quiet tonight too. The steam engine was silent, and the wireless emitted a low hum. In this world that had naturally reverted over three thousand seven hundred years, the small "civilization" Senkū had rebuilt was breathing. Senkū rested his elbow on the windowsill and gazed outside. Why hadn't Yomi come to the Kingdom of Science? What was supposed to be written in the rest of that notebook? There were no answers. But Senkū would depart tomorrow. He wanted to insist that the reason was "scientific data collection"——100 billion percent. Night wind entered the laboratory. The distiller swayed faintly.