I.

When the director’s presentation was over, there was a literal hail of applause. Among them, only one person, Reijiro Kiso, stood there with a stunned look on his face, neither applauding nor smiling. 　Hey, Kiso-kun! 　A tap on his shoulder made him realize that the staff already gathered in the institute’s courtyard were almost gone. Of course, the old director on the stage had also disappeared before I knew it. 　What’s the matter with you, you’re looking so dopey! 　…… No! 　Haha, you’re rotten, I can tell, don’t be rotten, don’t be rotten. 　Oh, nothing. …… 　Huffing, that’s good, have hope, have hope–nothing is just for this one time, we’ll get to go too! 　Nagata tapped him on the shoulder and looked into Kiso’s face with comforting eyes. Kiso looked away from those eyes. 　That’s not what I meant. 　If you want to go that badly, just report it to the warden, I’m going to report it as soon as possible. 　Hmmm… …… 　I’ll file for you as well. 　No, thanks. 　Kiso shook his head vigorously and walked away as if remembering.

–That’s okay, I can take care of myself. 　He walked around the concrete pond in the courtyard of the institute, where the Eustoma grandiflorum was in bloom, and strode back to his room. Kiso felt sorry for Nagata, who had been so kind to him, but he was too tired to even talk to him. He wanted to be alone and close his eyes. 　The laboratory was deserted and no one had left yet. The laboratory was deserted and no one had left yet. The director’s announcement must have caused the laboratory staff to gather in clusters here and there and spread rumors. Probably no one would be able to get any work done for the rest of the day. Kiso looked sideways at the empty laboratory and walked through, his cheeks contorted. He then burst through the door to his room next door and sat down on the swivel chair in front of the desk. I rested my elbows on the desk, held my head in my hands, and closed my eyes. I could hear the muffled voices of the office staff talking in the garden outside. 　Um, what’s wrong, Kiso-san? 　Eh? 　Kiso, who had been expecting to find no one there, was startled by the sudden voice and turned around.

How are you feeling,…… 　With that, standing there with a slightly cocked head and a thin frown was Michiko Ishii, his assistant, whom he had not expected to see. 　What, there you are, Mr. Ishii,……, did you hear what the director just said? 　What? 　Oh, yes, Ishii-san was the one who was going, wasn’t she? 　I wonder if I’m the right person for the job. 　Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll do fine. ……, I’m sorry you’re going, but I can’t say that. 　…… but Kiso-san isn’t here, I wonder what’s wrong? 　Well, I’m …… an out-of-towner, so you’ll have to come and do my part. I don’t want you to go on a business trip for a bit, the director said he wanted you to go with the intention of burying your bones for the sake of your achievements. 　Kiso laughed for the first time, but in a hollow voice. 　 　 　 　 　 　 　Two. 　But, I never thought that Borneo was me–. Why would they move almost half of this laboratory to Borneo? 　Michiko Ishii put on her lab coat and sat down on a chair with her legs straightened. Michiko, who had only graduated from a girl’s school a couple of years earlier, still had a childish color around her collar, as if the title “assistant at the Kiso laboratory of the Institute of Magnetics” didn’t quite suit her. It was Michiko’s older brother, Ryoichi, who was actually her assistant, but since he had been coming and going since he started his military service two years ago, Michiko, who had just graduated from school at Kiso’s suggestion, had come to help him with various things in the laboratory, and she had somehow learned how to do all the experiments. She is now quite popular as an assistant.

As the director mentioned earlier, a magnetics laboratory such as this one should be located in a place where the influence of the earth’s magnetic force is at least a little, but there is no place on earth where the earth’s magnetic force does not act. As you know, if you have a bar magnet, both ends of the bar magnet are the most magnetic, and the center of the bar magnet has almost no magnetic force compared to the two ends of the bar magnet, both are balanced. Of course, the earth’s north and south poles, unlike the positions of the poles on a map, wobble around all year round, so - just like the end of a spinning top of a spinning top, which does not stop properly - the earth’s north pole and south pole are not in the same position as the poles on a map. So the equator is not always in the center, but it is much more balanced than this area. 　Is it so different from Tokyo? 　No, first of all, if you look at Tokyo from the side where the needle stops, the one pointing north must be down, not flat, because Tokyo is closer to the North Pole, away from the South Pole, so it is subject to the extra force of the North Pole, and this gets worse the further north you go, and the further north you go, the lower the North Pole is. The further north you go, the worse it gets, and once you get to the North Pole, the needle of the magnet needle must stick up with the north down - well, this is a violent example, but anyway, in a place where even the magnet needle clearly shows a difference in the earth’s magnetic force, that’s why our experiment is also affected by the earth’s magnetic force.

In this sense, it is quite natural that the alter ego of the Institute of Magnetism was built a little further upstream from Pontianak in equatorial Borneo, isn’t it? 　Haha, well, let those who think so think so, because in short, all you have to do is achieve enough to go south! 　Yes, but when even Kiso-san says so, I feel like I’m being burdened with something I can’t even move. Seeing Michiko Ishii’s serious face, Kiso could not help but smile back. 　Kiso had been privately consulted by the director about this Borneo research branch office for some time, and he had even drafted a plan for the selection of people to go to the branch office. Kiso was stunned by this. For a moment, he was overwhelmed by the intense disappointment, as if he was the only one who had been left out. 　Kiso had been eager to work hard at the newly established Borneo Branch Office. For this reason, he had thought he had selected the best people from the laboratory, but now he had been completely betrayed. Kiso felt as if he were dreaming as he walked back across the courtyard to his room. It was as if his work at the institute had come to an end.

However, he had managed to keep his composure enough to not show any signs of being terribly distraught in front of Michiko Ishii. In fact, it must have shown on his face. 　Michiko, who had been so excited by his sudden offer to go to Borneo, may have simply been oblivious to it. And when Kiso saw Michiko, who looked much like his best friend Ryoichi, with an unusually cheerful face, he finally regained his composure, even to the point of smiling naturally. 　Kiso-san, the warden wants to see you. 　Kenji Murao, an assistant who came in hurriedly, opened the door and said in an unusually cheerful voice. 　Ah, yes. Murao, you are also going to Borneo, aren’t you? 　Thanks to you, …… 　Murao, too, was quivering with a smile that seemed to come out of his mouth no matter how he put up with it. 　Well, do your best, Ishii-san, you’re going too, please take good care of him. 　Oh, um, …… Ha-ha! 　Kiso stood up in a panic as his cheeks twitched as he laughed.