The person biting their nails and muttering was none other than Travis. He glared at the blue bird gliding across the sky beyond the window with dark, sunken eyes.

It was only for a moment that he thought he had surpassed Arasila. She was once again trying to overtake him by bringing such a novel invention.

As he paced around the laboratory anxiously, someone burst through the door without knocking.

“Travis!”

“Ah, Sir Fernando. This is…”

“Did you see it floating outside? That damned magical airship Arasila made, I’m asking if you saw it!”

Travis hunched his shoulders and nodded at Fernando’s words, which he spat out with bulging veins.

Fernando spoke roughly while fanning himself with an angry expression.

“That looks far more successful than your mess of a food storage box!”

“…”

“What on earth are you going to do about this!”

The food storage box Travis made with temperature control magic tools had recently caused various problems and faced objections.

The main complaint was that when the surrounding temperature was too high or low, the magic tool would suddenly malfunction and break down.

He was already at his wits’ end trying to solve this issue, and now his competitor Arasila had come barging in, causing him no small amount of stress.

And this was true not only for Travis himself, but also for his mentor Fernando who was supporting and sponsoring him.

“If you don’t become the next Archmage, my reputation will be completely ruined! You haven’t forgotten who discovered and nurtured your talent when you were just an illegitimate child from a minor noble family, have you?”

“…No, I remember.”

Fernando grabbed the back of Travis’s neck as he bowed his head submissively, and growled in a low voice.

“Then work harder! Work harder and repay my kindness by giving me the position of mentor to the Archmage!”

“Yes, Master.”

Fernando continued to vent his anger for a while longer before leaving. The juniors working in Travis’s laboratory held their breath, watching his mood.

Even normally, Fernando tended to get angry at Travis directly regardless of who was present, so the embarrassment after such an outburst was entirely Travis’s burden.

Travis quietly sent the juniors out of the laboratory and sank into thought alone.

‘I have to make that thing fail somehow.’

He glared at the blue bird floating leisurely in the air with bloodshot eyes.

No matter what, he had to make that bird crash.

Grinding his teeth, he began to spread strange rumors with his juniors from the next day.

“Tsk, about the Magic Tower airship. Actually, there’s a lot of concern about safety within the Magic Tower. They say it hasn’t undergone proper internal testing.”

“The research that forms the basis of the airship invention hasn’t been confirmed for stability. It means there’s a very high probability of crashing. If an accident were to happen, falling from that high in the sky to the ground would surely mean death.”

“Why do you think they’re involving commoners in a noble business? If they only carried nobles and a major accident happened, it would be a serious problem, so aren’t they planning to carry commoners? It’s a truly cunning and chilling scheme.”

The words he spread around quickly passed from mouth to mouth.

People who initially didn’t think much of it gradually began to waver. Since a magical airship was a mode of transportation that had never existed before, there was an underlying distrust that made it even more so.

Decisively, when a newspaper published these circulating rumors in an article, the ‘Blue Bird’ officially became controversial.

“Have you seen the newspaper, my friend? About that airship thing. It’s a terribly dangerous object! Cancel your application right away!”

“I heard even the Magic Tower couldn’t be 100% certain it was safe? How could they put such a thing out in public!”

“I wondered why they were recruiting people regardless of social status! It was all to use commoners like us as test subjects for the noble lords!”

Public opinion became tumultuous among both commoners and nobles. People flocked to the office to cancel their applications.

The office became chaotic in a different way from before, teeming with people.

Since they couldn’t force unwilling people to board, they canceled the applications for everyone who came, resulting in a mass cancellation event.

And this, of course, had a serious negative impact on the magical airship business.

“Count Chepa has withdrawn his cooperation.”

Demian said quietly as he pulled out the count’s letter from his chest.

“He said he couldn’t believe the bad rumors about the Blue Bird and pulled out.”

“Ha, which bastard spread such nonsense.”

Arasila gritted her teeth as she crumpled the newspaper miserably. The magical airship business, which had been progressing smoothly, faced a sudden crisis three days ago.

It was on the verge of failing before even starting due to unfounded rumors.

Despite having already undergone and confirmed safety tests, people believed and feared that the airship had a high probability of crashing.

Arasila urgently tried to inform the newspapers of this fact, but it was useless in a situation where distrust was already rampant.

Rather―.

“Are you lying on purpose? Trying to make money by selling that Blue Bird or whatever?”

“Maybe it’s safe for them since they’re magicians, but who knows about regular people.”

“I didn’t think the Vandermirs were like that, this is really too much. Have they gone mad for money and don’t care about other people’s lives?”

It only had the opposite effect of worsening public opinion.

Money, time, sincerity, effort. As the business she had poured everything into was about to fail without a chance, Arasila clutched her head.

Demian, sitting across from her, also had a deep shadow cast over his face.

Currently, the two were meeting in Arasila’s laboratory to discuss how to resolve the current situation.

His impression of entering the Magic Tower for the first time as a knight was pushed aside by the crisis at hand, not even coming to mind.

“What should we do, Demian? Even when we explain, people won’t listen.”

“Right now, whatever we say will be considered a lie. It will take some time for everyone to regain their senses and listen.”

“How much time will that take? If it takes too long, it’s no different from failing. Even if they listen to us later, I wonder if people will want to ride the magical airship.”

There was nothing wrong with Arasila’s words, so Demian kept his mouth shut.

As their first joint business was about to fail miserably, Arasila sighed deeply and said.

“I guess I shouldn’t have dragged you into this.”

She couldn’t help but think that way, having proposed the partnership with confidence in success, only for things to turn out like this.

“That’s not true. It’s not like you threatened me with your staff, I made the decision to partner with you.”

He meant it sincerely. Even if the business failed like this, Demian had no intention of blaming Arasila at all.

He had jumped in seeing a strong possibility of success from the start, and it wasn’t Arasila’s fault that it failed, so it would be strange to blame her.

“It means you don’t need to take full responsibility for this alone.”

“…”

“I should share the responsibility too.”

Arasila was touched by Demian’s loyalty in standing by her in this moment of crisis rather than pulling out alone.

But feeling embarrassed and shy to show such emotions, she just brushed her hair unnecessarily.

“Anyway, let’s keep putting explanations on the Blue Bird and advertise…”

“Senior, big trouble!”

Rudi suddenly burst through the door. The fact that he didn’t knock despite knowing Demian was inside meant something really serious had happened.

“What? What’s going on?”

“People are throwing stones and objects at the Blue Bird saying it’s ominous, so the Imperial Office has ordered us to stop operating the Blue Bird from now on.

Faced with misfortune upon misfortune, Arasila held her forehead. Demian also closed his eyes tightly.

“…What about the Blue Bird? Did it get hit by many of the things people threw?”

“No, it’s floating high in the sky so it wasn’t hit at all.”

“And yet the office ordered us to stop operations?”

“Yes… They said since people keep throwing things, it’s unknown when it might crash into a civilian area, and it’s causing anxiety, so they told us to stop.”

The Imperial Office had made an extremely rational and natural judgment.

So Arasila and Demian couldn’t find words to protest and only moved their lips silently.

“Where is the Blue Bird now?”

Arasila asked after a long pause choosing her words. Rudi answered immediately.

“Sally took it to the warehouse.”

“Well done. Let’s leave it there for now… We’ll talk again later. Go home with Sally, Rudi.”

She sent her juniors home first. She couldn’t let them suffer in this complicated situation too.

Rudi tried to refuse saying he couldn’t do that, but being conscious of Demian’s presence, he just withdrew.

After he left, a heavy silence fell over the laboratory where only Arasila and Demian remained. Demian, who had been sighing occasionally, opened his mouth.

“I think it would be good to step back for now and look for a way to overcome the situation.”

Arasila nodded meekly. For now, she had no way to handle it either.

To overturn the negative public opinion, they needed to show with their own eyes that the Blue Bird was safe, but now no one wanted to see it.

In the end, the two decided to completely suspend the business and wait for public opinion to calm down. In a situation where even simple operation was forcibly halted, that was all they could do.

And so, a frustrating time passed idly.

“Aren’t you going to your room, my lady?”

It was Audrey who stopped Arasila as she naturally tried to go to Demian’s office after work.

She had earlier received orders to clean up the desk neatly as there would no longer be any need to use the office, and had carried them out.

So when Arasila returned home and walked that way, she stopped her with a puzzled expression.

“Are you going to the master’s office? I put away all the pens and paper, so I’ll bring them back…”

“No, Audrey. Let’s go to the room.”

Arasila waved her hand and turned her body around.

She just now remembered that she had given such an order as the need to share an office had disappeared with the complete suspension of the business.

‘People really do form habits easily.’

After sharing an office for just a few weeks, she had already gotten used to going there after work.

This must be why they say habits are scary.

While she returned to the bedroom, changed into an indoor dress, and sat on the sofa receiving Audrey’s brushing, Demian also returned home.

No one stopped him as he headed straight for his office. He politely knocked three times and opened the door.

It was an action done unconsciously, assuming Arasila would be there.