“It’s amazing. It’s much larger than I thought, and there’s so much… stuff.”

“Yeah. As you can see, there’s not much here, but it’s better than a small lab.”

Edward shrugged at his wife’s words.

He ended up showing her this place after all.

Though he felt bitter that nothing was going according to his plans, seeing his wife’s brightened expression made him think it was good to have done this for her.

Louisa looked around with sparkling eyes, like a child visiting an amusement park for the first time.

“I have so many questions. May I ask them? No, first I want to see your desk. Where is it? I’m curious about that too.”

She asked, brimming with excitement.

Edward couldn’t help but smile at her childlike chattiness.

“I won’t kick you out now that you’re here, so take your time looking around.”

He said leisurely, putting his hands behind his back.

“I want to see your desk. Let’s go there.”

“You’ll see when we get there. It’s over there.”

He pointed to the largest desk, originally white but now grayish in places from wear.

Louisa trotted towards where her husband was pointing.

A chair that looked somewhat worn from use, with slightly sunken cushions, came into view.

On the desk were scattered memos and notebooks, some blueprints with drawings, and several fountain pens.

“There’s at least one pen wherever your hand might reach.”

She said, looking around the desk.

“Come to think of it, your desk was like this in the old days too, remember? That oak desk?”

Louisa brought up the story of his old desk in Greensburg’s small laboratory.

“I know. The one that wasn’t even level, so we had to prop it up with paper.”

Edward said with a chuckle.

Those were really tough times. He looked at the fruits of his success with fresh eyes.

That small lab had become this large research institute. A place he wasn’t ashamed to show his wife. The result of pouring all his efforts into something he could call his everything.

Louisa gazed at her husband’s desk, filled with nostalgia.

“At home in your study, you just use one pencil holder. I had forgotten…”

She traced her husband’s traces with her fingertips along the edge of the desk.

But then. Something particularly shiny caught her eye in one corner.

A small metallic box. It looked like a woman’s lipstick case.

As if enchanted, she reached out and picked up the case.

Her expression hardened as she opened the lid to check the contents.

‘A woman’s lipstick. One I’ve never used, belonging to another woman I don’t know—’

A deep pink lipstick.

“Ed.”

She called her husband’s name.

“Yes.”

“Did you say there were no female employees here?”

“Ah… That’s right. The few we had left with Gilford. Why?”

At his question, Louisa stared blankly at it.

“Just curious. I was trying to imagine what this place might look like on weekdays with employees around.”

She said, putting it back in its place.

“It’s nothing special. Like I said, it’s just a bunch of messy men gathered together.”

“I see. You did say that last time too.”

Louisa said with a hollow laugh.

So many thoughts were rushing through her mind that she couldn’t grasp any one clearly.

If they had been alone, she might have blurted out this impulse even at the risk of rambling. But now Jeffrey Curtis was here.

“By the way, Ed, what’s that big thing in the center over there?”

She raised her voice brightly, forcing herself to point at the device in the center.

It was an object that had caught her eye since entering, occupying the center with its particularly large bulk.

“It’s nothing much. Just one of the things we’ve been preparing, but it’s a bit big.”

Edward dismissed his wife’s question once again as nothing special.

He hoped she wouldn’t ask about the magic stone engine, but it seemed that wouldn’t be easy.

He figured if he explained properly that this was such an important object, his wife would only show more interest. So he planned to respond to this part by saying it was nothing special no matter what.

“Ah… I see.”

But Louisa was deeply disappointed by his response, making her attempt to look away futile.

Her husband didn’t much like her intruding into his domain. Though she knew this fact, it wasn’t easy to keep smiling when faced with such situations repeatedly.

His veiled life, which felt more significant than usual, pulled her into a quagmire.

[Don’t pry too much into men’s affairs. They all have a woman or two on the side. Especially since marriage is closer to a union of families than love.]

She suddenly recalled something Aunt Esteban had said once.

‘A woman…’

She thought that given the environment, it was entirely possible.

That for him, this marriage might have been just an extension of a proposal he couldn’t refuse out of guilt, not love.

‘…I wonder if he did the same to the owner of that lipstick. Not telling or showing anything, leaving no room for her to intervene.’

Despite her efforts to change the subject, she hit another dead end. Louisa’s mood began to plummet rapidly.

But then, Jeffrey suddenly stood up from afar and shouted.

“No, boss! How can you explain it like that! You’re not going to explain it that way at the expo, are you?”

“What?”

Edward furrowed his brow sharply at the voice breaking the mood.

“It would be troublesome if you answered like that to everyone asking about this engine at the expo, sir! You need to be as kind and detailed as possible!”

At Jeffrey’s exclamation, Louisa finally realized that this object was the engine for the expo.

“So this is the work you’re presenting at the expo.”

Louisa murmured.

Edward immediately glared at Jeffrey when he realized she now knew about the expo.

Jeffrey’s shoulders shrank at the fierce gaze.

But he couldn’t back down here.

The two seemed to be getting along quite well today, and from what he could tell, it looked like Mrs. Allen had come because she wanted to. If they kept hiding things saying this isn’t allowed, that isn’t allowed, the distance between them would grow again.

Then the boss would bury himself in work again and dump everything on him, which he was adamantly against.

“Yes. It’s a high-output engine that can pull not only trains but also ships. Until now, we couldn’t handle such large amounts of energy at once. With coal, you can just shovel in more, but magic stones don’t work that way.”

“I see.”

“You should have seen the atmosphere in the lab the day it was completed. Everyone, including myself, was just staring at this thing, and the boss kindly asked us to bring chairs while watching us all slack off for once.”

“Hehe. Is that so?”

Louisa laughed softly, covering her mouth with her hand.

Jeffrey Curtis. A man who always tried to maintain bright energy.

She still remembered. For Edward, who was depressed due to the constantly struggling research, Jeffrey pretended to be cheerful. His personality was quite comforting to her as well.

Of course, unaware that she was lost in old memories, Edward frowned, wondering what was so funny about that story.

‘I hope Louisa doesn’t ask any more than this.’

Please, just stop here.

He focused all his attention on Louisa’s words.

“If it can produce that much output, there must be plenty of applications beyond just transportation.”

Louisa offered her opinion as if talking to herself. Edward immediately cut off her words.

“That’s an area we’ll expand into gradually later.”

“I suppose it’s not good to be too hasty. Come to think of it, there was talk of considering installing an underground railway, and with a magic stone engine, they would welcome it with open arms.”

“Oh, is that so?”

Underground railway.

Before Edward could say anything to this unexpected term, Jeffrey’s eyes widened as he asked.

“Yes. It’s information I heard while talking with Lord Bradford, so the information itself should be reliable.”

This was news to Edward as well.

‘Underground railway?’

Does that mean making trains run underground?

Then originally, they must have planned to run trains with steam engines powered by coal.

He shook his head at the thought of the complexities involved.

‘It’s not impossible, but it’s no ordinary undertaking. This is certainly good news for us.’

Louisa crossed her arms, pondering deeply as she spoke.

“Actually, with underground railways… there are various constraints on construction due to steam issues. I heard they’re still in discussions because of such aspects.”

“Then there’s no reason they wouldn’t choose Allen Company’s engine, which has essentially solved that problem!”

Jeffrey clapped his hands as he spoke.

“This is really great news. We were only considering up to Winston.”

The sound of money coming in is already ringing in my ears, ma’am!

Jeffrey made a fuss.

Edward looked at Jeffrey with disapproval and said.

“It is good news, but we still have to wait and see. Don’t get too excited prematurely.”

“Well… that’s true.”

At his words, Jeffrey’s upturned corners of his mouth slowly came down.

Still unable to contain his excitement, he kept changing directions while crossing his arms, and eventually lightly tapped the engine while saying.

“But still, this is amazing, ma’am. Our boss has achieved something worthy of being written on a textbook page.”

The sight of him smiling brightly and rejoicing reminded her of when her husband first discovered something about magic stones.

Back then, in that small lab, under the yellowish light of cheap wicks, how many times did the three of them cry and laugh together?

Though she could no longer know what his love had been like, at least the love she had felt was something that filled her heart.

She learned what it meant for one’s heart to be overflowing through this man. Happiness filled with pride in herself for believing in this person, and gratitude that this man beside her had been rewarded for his efforts.

She understood for the first time then what it meant to feel full without eating.

And today, she vaguely recalled the feeling of that day.

‘That’s right. Don’t dwell too much on the past or let it hurt you.’

I loved to the best of my ability, and that’s enough.

She smiled, lifting the corners of her mouth for those who should be rejoicing.