No sooner said than done. Ignoring Manhattan Cafe's attempts to stop her, Agnes Tachyon darted right over to Nearl, who was wiping droplets of water from her hands.
"Margaret Nearl, how about you hear me out on a proposal? It would be of great benefit to you."
"What are you trying to say, Miss Agnes?"
"I'll cut straight to the chase, Nearl—come be my assistant!"
With a dramatic sweep of her sleeves, she struck a grand, cross-shaped pose, as if to flaunt her own boldness. Was Agnes Tachyon really this confident?!
Of course not. It was all an act. In truth, she was propelled by a burst of impulse into taking such a rash action.
'What am I doing? This is incredibly unwise. I haven't prepared any solid evidence to back up my persuasion, and my understanding of Nearl's personality is still superficial at best.'
'Won't my words just sound empty like this?'
What followed seemed to confirm Tachyon's own misgivings. Nearl turned to look at her, blinked, and said nothing.
One second, two seconds—a mere three seconds in total, but to Agnes Tachyon, the subjective experience stretched out as if time had slowed tenfold.
'I'm done for. Did I really just startle the Uma Musume and ruin my chance? If the first invitation fails, it'll take twice the effort to move her next time.'
Letting out a sigh, Tachyon resigned herself to returning empty-handed this time—but she wouldn't give up. Even if it took two or three more attempts, she'd keep trying to recruit her.
However, Nearl wasn't the type to refuse a reasonable request from someone.
"Just to be safe, could I ask what the duties of being your assistant would involve?"
Wiping her damp hands on the edge of her apron, Nearl studied Tachyon's eyes—those brown irises that held an eerie beauty and an unsettling sense of dread.
Unlike Nearl's own resolute, brilliantly shining pale-gold eyes, Tachyon's gaze struck fear into people at first encounter.
Because within that hazy, distant look, there was no trace of you—only her own madness and a chilling judgment, as if assessing your worth.
This was the essence of Agnes Tachyon, the mad scientist Uma Musume.
So now, faced with Nearl's question, what kind of answer could she give?
"Being my assistant isn't too demanding, really. Just prepare all the experimental materials in advance according to my habits."
"My time is precious, so you'd need to help with daily chores too. If possible, it'd be great if you could keep up with my pace during experiments and lend a hand."
"And of course, it'd be even better if you were willing to be my test subject…"
Waving her long sleeves about, Agnes Tachyon tried to downplay the requirements, though they still sounded pretty excessive.
"Tachyon, you're asking for too much."
Manhattan Cafe offered a quiet complaint from the sidelines.
"This is the sacred duty of an assistant! Do you even understand how vital this role is, Cafe? Without it, every great scientist is like a phone with no signal, a GameBoy with no backlight, a swimming pool with no water."
"Just like how Holmes has their assistant-kun—this is the very pride of a scientist!"
"Senpai Hououin Kyouma has already proven through the theory of the Steins Gate that without Christina, he's just an ordinary, boring Okabe Rintarou."
"So without assistant-kun, Agnes Tachyon could never complete her destined ultimate research!"
"What about the fourth wall? The Three Goddesses really need to step in here!"
Cafe launched a continuous roasting assault.
"So!"
Agnes Tachyon spun around, grabbed Nearl's hands, and pulled them toward her chest, her eyebrows raised. It was clear that her earlier speech had left her spirits soaring.
"Come be my assistant! Chase that invisible finish line with me! If we combine your talents and mine, it's bound to succeed!"
"But I refuse."
"NO!!!"
Nearl's firm refusal made Agnes Tachyon's expression morph into something straight out of [The Scream].
"I wouldn't mind cooking for you or helping with your daily needs, but I have plenty of my own responsibilities too. I can't become the kind of assistant you're imagining."
"Your own life, huh? That is a bit troublesome. My assistant would at least need to prioritize me above all else…"
"But if you can agree to two conditions, Tachyon, I wouldn't mind being your test subject."
"Huh?"
Shocking! Absolutely staggering!
Though Agnes Tachyon was a mad scientist, she still understood the common sense most ordinary people in the world possessed.
To them, the instinct was to steer clear of anything with unknown risks—a basic survival instinct.
Tachyon sneered at that.
'A bunch of cowards. How can you make progress without exploring the unknown? The life you have now was built step by step by those who came before you.'
'If the world were full of such ordinary people, soon enough everyone would just be killing each other within limited circles for resources.'
Even as she thought this with dissatisfaction, Tachyon still understood the behavior of ordinary folk.
'But this is biological instinct, which is why they're ordinary. And it's precisely because they exist that pioneers like me stand out as extraordinary.'
So Tachyon didn't dislike ordinary people—she accepted them as a necessary part of the world.
This perspective highlighted her own peculiar nature. Her overly transcendent thinking made her an outsider.
That's why she felt a certain closeness to Cafe, another anomaly—proof that Agnes Tachyon hadn't completely transcended human bounds.
But in this moment, Nearl's words shattered the boundaries of the ordinary. There wasn't a trace of concern for the consequences of unknown drugs in her eyes.
"You're really willing to be my test subject?"
"Yes, as long as you agree to two conditions."
Though a surge of joy flooded Tachyon's mind, she stayed rational enough to hear the conditions out first.
"Let's hear them. I might not agree, you know."
"First, you can't make others try your drugs unless they sincerely agree to it. No tricking or deceiving them."
"Hmm~ That's fine. I only resorted to that because I couldn't find any guinea pigs. If you agree to be my test subject, Nearl, I won't need to rush to find others."
Tachyon found this condition acceptable. For control experiments, she could always use Cafe if absolutely necessary.
(Cafe: ?)
"Second, I hope you'll uphold the ethics of a scientist, Tachyon. No matter the circumstances, never develop anything that could harm others."
Nearl held Tachyon's gaze.
"When you're walking that boundary line of the unknown, I hope you can hold onto your own line. The unknown is always tempting, but it's easy to slip into the abyss."
"..."
"I see… You really are a meddlesome one, aren't you? But surprisingly, I don't find it annoying."
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.