What kind of person was Sidney?
The lights in the room were off, and the Difference Engine had stopped as well. Elliot sat in the darkness, silently thinking back.
The first word that came to mind was reckless.
Many of Sidney's actions sounded reckless even in the telling.
For instance, personally beating someone up at a salon, denouncing the "Poor Law" before all the nobles at court, or questioning the meaning of the Theresia Festival before His Majesty.
Seen that way, he ought to have been straightforward and reckless by nature.
Yet the next word that surfaced was shrewd.
Shrewd.
Sidney was shrewd.
On closer consideration, every unexpected move he made had a deeper purpose.
Going to the Air Harbor to welcome Elliot in person had seemed improper, yet it had forced an opportunity for conversation and drawn the Sterling Family to his side.
After all, Elliot's original plan had been to develop his position in secret after arriving in the Imperial Capital, doing nothing for at least several months and simply staying home to operate the Difference Engine.
The salon and the interpellation concerning the Hearthfire District had also seemed like ostentatious displays of support for Elliot, but in the end, the problems had turned out to be minor.
He shrewdly exaggerated difficulties to highlight his own role. Without looking back afterward, it really was hard to spot his little schemes.
At that thought, Elliot could not help frowning.
How had these two utterly opposing personalities squeezed themselves into the same body?
"No wonder he's called 'Eccentric Sidney.' He really is an odd one, wild and unconventional, yet clever and worldly."
Elliot thought for a long time, but still found it incredible.
Sidney was like a strange painting: the more closely one looked, the more contradictions one found.
Suddenly,