“Your Excellency, Young Lady, I apologize for my lack of ability….”

Alexei and Ekaterina looked crestfallen as Aaron suddenly bowed.

“What’s wrong, Aaron?”

Alexei asked, and Aaron turned his head away.

“Professor Isaac… your great-uncle, he won’t be able to see you.”

“…”

You still admire Great-Uncle Isaac a little too much, don’t you, Aaron-san?

He was recruited by Grandfather Sergei as an assistant to Great-Uncle Isaac, a mineralogist whom he had met as a student, even though he was just a beginner. After some time passed, he became a mineral enthusiast.

“The Professor is a person who never takes offense. He also cares about His Excellency and was really looking forward to meeting the Young Lady. He simply cannot think of anything else to do when there is something of academic interest to him. It’s never–“

“Aaron, don’t worry about it. I know what kind of man Great-Uncle is.”

Alexei smiled as Aaron struggled to follow through, and Ekaterina did her best to suppress a giggle.

Aaron’s impatience was understandable because Great-Uncle Isaac was supposed to be waiting at Yurinova Castle for Alexei and Ekaterina to return to the Duke’s estate. However, when they entered the castle, they found that Great-Uncle Isaac was not only absent but also missing.

In a fit of desperation, Aaron looked around for him and found that he was holed up in a mine in the territory, and he sent a messenger to ask him to go home. But he was apparently ignored.

“Great-Uncle Isaac is a true scholar, isn’t he? He discovers the world’s mysteries, so it’s no surprise that he’s uninterested in something as small as the banquet schedule. Indeed, it would be a great pleasure for humanity if Great-Uncle’s research was further expanded.”

I heard from Laiza-san that he was not the type to worry about everyday things. It was a pity, though, because I was looking forward to meeting my Great-Uncle.

Come to think of it, in my previous life, I wanted to go to a lecture by a professor who won the Nobel Prize for iPS cell research. Well, I wasn’t so much interested in the lecture’s content as I was in seeing and hearing the words of a remarkable individual who had created an amazing invention that had the potential to change the world. But I was still working that day, so I couldn’t go…

In this life, I had relatives who were wonderful enough to change the world. It was very extravagant that I could meet him as many times as I wanted.

“Thank you, Young Lady, you really know your stuff.”

Relieved, Aaron smiled.

“Professor’s habit is saying [I don’t know anything]. He has the best brain, but he’s really humble and innocent like a child.”

“Well…”

A bit like a quote from Newton, a great man in my previous life. “I was like a child playing on the beach picking up pebbles, untouched by the truth that stretches out like the ocean”…. I believe he said something nuanced like that. Come to think of it, both of them had the same name, Isaac.

But I heard that Newton had a rather nasty personality.

“Young Lady and Professor will surely get along well with each other. I hope you will meet him soon.”

“I would like to meet him too. If Great Uncle is not back yet, I would like to visit him myself.”

“Oh! If you do that, I will accompany you to the mine.”

Aaron looked happy, but when his eyes met Alexei’s, he became frightened and his presence became small.

***

Alexei and Ekaterina were the highest ranking people in their domain, but the order in which they greeted their guests at the official banquet to celebrate their succession to the title had to follow a certain hierarchical order, such as close associates and the most important people in the domain.

The people around the couple waiting to be greeted knew who was next in line and would quickly make way for them. Some of them were probably standing here to get a sense of the power structure in Alexei’s reign.