The day after she met up with her friends, Leticiel visited the Great Library with Zeke after they’d finished lunch. Naturally, it was to fix the clock.
“Hello, Mr. David.”
“Oh! There you are. I’ve prepared the books you asked for.” David’s tiny hand pointed at a table next to the counter. It was covered in piles of the books that Leticiel had asked him to find in advance.
“I’ll start by carrying the books over to that desk,” Leticiel said, bringing the clock out of her subspace and placing it on a nearby desk before she began to carry the books. Since she’d had her subspace active, she’d taken a carriage to the academy today.
“All right. I’ll help you as soon as I finish getting my tools out,” Zeke answered. If she had to keep going back and forth between the desks to get a book, she’d never get anything done. But because Zeke helped her carry the books, they were able to haul them over faster than she’d expected. Returning to her seat, Leticiel shifted her gaze to the box on the seat across from her.
The box’s lid was cracked open. Through the gap, she could glimpse tools she wasn’t familiar with. Opening the lid fully, she picked up the tool that was on top. “You have…a variety of tools, huh?”
“Yes. I brought them from home when I moved to the capital and thought we might be able to use them when fixing the clock.” Zeke smiled gently while returning with the last few books. Come to think of it, back at the antique shop, he had said that he used to repair spinning machines and other things.
“Zeke, are you familiar with clock mechanisms?”
“No. I did some research before coming, but not much…”
“Then perhaps we should have a book on its mechanisms. I’ll look for one.” Saying this, Leticiel began to dig through the mountains of books on the desk. Though she was sifting through a huge number of books, it didn’t take her much time. “I found three books to start with. Do you think this will be enough?”
“Probably. But is this all of the parts?”
“Let’s hope we aren’t missing any.”
Placing the three books they had unearthed from the piles between them, Leticiel and Zeke sat across from each other and clumsily began to work on the clock.
“Where does this part go?”
“Shouldn’t this gear go in first?”
“Huh? But it doesn’t fit properly. Are you sure this is the right gear?”
“Hmm… Maybe it’s not.”
Leticiel continued to repair the clock. David came over to check on their progress.
“Mr. David, this part doesn’t mesh right with the others.”
“Hmm, I think the order in which they fit is a little different. This gear should go in first. You should always go in order from largest to smallest.”
“Oh, that’s true! Then where should this disk go?”
“Perhaps here? I think it belongs next to this jagged part.”
It was Leticiel and Zeke’s first time repairing a clock, so they struggled a bit, but with David checking on them from time to time and giving them advice, the repair progressed slowly but surely.
“All that’s left is to attach this and…it’s done!”
Even though they’d started after lunchtime, they didn’t near the end of their work until the sky had already turned orange. Triumphant, Zeke grinned happily as he inserted the last part. Leticiel gave a relieved sigh that they’d at least been able to put the clock back together.
“Zeke, are you sure you haven’t fixed clocks before?”
“No, this was my first time, but it’s somewhat similar to a spinning machine’s mechanisms. Difficult, but it was a good learning experience.” Picking up the clock, Zeke did a final check to see if they’d made any mistakes. “It should move now if we wind the spring. I hope it’s really fixed…”
“May I wind it?” Leticiel asked.
“Sure.” Zeke graciously handed her the clock. Firmly grasping the neatly repaired table clock, Leticiel wound the spring on its back.
The spring wound up with a unique creaking sound. After a few twists, the hands that had been stationary on the clock’s face began to twitch and tick again, as if waking up from a deep slumber.
Without any time to be impressed that it had started working properly, something suddenly flashed in Leticiel’s mind.
Through the gap in the flash of light, she saw what appeared to be a room. Faint, miasmatic clouds filled the sky, with light flashing and drawing lines between the gaps in them.
Young Drossell’s gaze landed on the back of a young boy who was struggling to fix his pocket watch. There were wooden toys, tools, and drawings scattered around him.
“Let’s see, this goes like this…and done! I think it’ll move now!” he shouted joyfully, his dark golden hair swaying as he proudly held up the pocket watch. Though she was fully conscious and her vision was clear, she was unable to talk or move. Leticiel had no choice but to watch the scene play out as a spectator in Drossell’s body.
“Really? You were able to fix it?” young Drossell asked anxiously. The words hadn’t come out of her own volition, so Leticiel realized that this must be one of Drossell’s memories.
“Yeah! I checked it a couple times. See? The hands are moving.” The boy turned around. His light blue eyes were the same color as the sky. In his gaze’s reflection, Leticiel could see that Drossell had lit up with joy.