[You have upheld your own chivalry.]
[A reward for the [Oath of Chivalry] is granted.]
[You have completed the challenge: [Attaining Nirvana].]
[You have leveled up.]
[You have leveled up.]
[You have leveled up.]
[Congratulations! You have reached Level 50.]
[You are now qualified to challenge the special dungeon, [Dreamland: Mirror].]
[Warning: You cannot gain additional experience until you clear [Dreamland: Mirror].]
The tin can had passed on.
Only a single shoe remained where he had vanished.
An old iron boot.
Even as all the armor’s ornaments crumbled into white dust and scattered through the air, the boot that had supported his feet alone remained in its place, unable to turn into white particles.
And that item was the hidden piece I had come here for.
So you could obtain it through this route too…
When I reached out and touched the boot, it felt like a cold, heavy lump of metal—so much so that it was hard to believe it had been part of armor that had moved freely and spoken until just moments ago.
The instant that cold sensation traveled through my fingertips, a clear chime rang through my head.
Ding!
With the clear notification sound brushing past my ears, my field of vision began to fill with a faintly bluish UI window.
Beyond the transparent glow, information about the old iron boot appeared, etched into view one letter at a time.
[Boots of One Who Reached Home]
A journey does not end merely because one reaches one’s destination.
It is called a journey because there is somewhere to return to.
At last, after a long journey, the traveler succeeded in returning home—and set off on another long journey.
◈ Rank: Unique
◈ Defense: 70
◈ Can use [Blink] three times per hour.
◈ Movement speed increased by 50%.
◈ Can use [Ghost Step] at the cost of mana.
This was different?
It looked exactly the same, but it bore a different name from the shoes I had acquired in the game.
The shoes I had obtained back then had definitely been called the Boots of One Who Could Not Reach Home.
Yet the name identified by Insight Eye was the Boots of One Who Reached Home.
What was more, both its abilities and rank were entirely different from the game.
Still, a Unique item here, huh.
In the game, they had definitely been Rare rank, but the boots that appeared here were of all things, Unique rank.
At Dawnstar Academia, item ranks were divided into five categories: Common, Advanced, Rare, Heroic, and Legendary. Unique, however, was a separate rank that belonged nowhere among them.
Its appearance rate was even lower than Legendary, the highest rank, so it might seem like a superior version at a glance. Yet it occupied the strange position where one could not definitively say it was always better than Legendary.
That was because the performance of Unique-ranked items varied wildly from one item to another.
Some Unique-ranked items surpassed Legendaries from the same stage, while others were complete landmines, performing worse than Common-ranked items that appeared early on.
In other words, it was merely a label denoting rarity. As far as performance went, it did not mean a damn thing.
Fortunately, these Unique-ranked boots fell into the former category.
Even when they had been Rare rank, I could use the short-range teleportation spell [Blink], but its restriction of only once per hour had now increased to an incredible three times.
On top of that, the movement speed increase had been inflated far beyond what it was at Rare rank, giving it a higher value than the Bayard I was currently wearing, while its defense had risen as well.
Lastly, I could now use [Ghost Step], a skill it had not possessed at Rare rank, which increased evasion by a whopping 33% while active.
It did not pale in comparison to the Bayard I currently wore, and depending on the situation, it could even outperform it.
Of course, it was not enough to replace Bayard, so I had no intention of switching them out.
In the first place, I had intended to use this hidden piece as a body for the spirit of the Tin Knight to inhabit.
But why had the boots changed to Unique rank?
Was it the tin can’s way of repaying me for resolving his regrets?
Or was this telling me that, rather than simply killing him off, listening to his story and resolving his regrets had been the original intended route?
Given that there was a challenge for it, perhaps it was the latter.
Like Kafka, there had been no information whatsoever about this tin can in either the official art book or the main game, so I could not feel entirely at ease.
Just as the wolf before it became Kafka had appeared in the game, it was true that this tin can had existed in-game as well.
Perhaps the tin can beyond the monitor had also been endlessly muttering about its regrets. But since that voice could not reach the player, it had died every time and dropped the hidden piece.
Of course, it was ultimately no more than a scrap of data made up of zeroes and ones, so I had no intention of arguing now over the setting of a game long past…
Still, instead of alcohol, I took out one of the remaining bottles of holy water and opened it.
Pop! With the sound, holy energy gently filled the dark storage room from within the bottle.
Despite being a storeroom crammed full of cursed dolls, merely opening the holy water’s cap instantly overturned its sinister atmosphere.
I carefully poured it over the remains where the tin can had vanished.
"This is precious stuff, you know."
Of course, it would not hurt like it did before.
He was no longer a wandering specter unable to return home. He was a traveler who had cast aside his regrets and embarked on a new adventure.
Still, a long journey would make him thirsty, would it not?
I hoped he would drink every last drop before he went.
I hoped that, in the next world, he would be sure to give that gift to his real daughter.
#
"Is it over?"
"…So that tin can had a story like that?"
At that moment, Dante and Dolnesia, who had been watching the situation from within the shadows, abruptly joined in. Angelica, who had silently observed everything, did the same.
I nodded and looked over their faces. Perhaps because they had learned the backstory behind the tin can that had so cheerfully rattled off unnecessary trivia just a little while ago,
Dante and Dolnesia did not look particularly well.
Dolnesia especially.
Having once lost her family all at once, she seemed to feel a deeper kinship than anyone with the tin can’s circumstances.
After kneeling and staring for a while at the place where the tin can had disappeared into particles of light, Kafka rose to her feet with the remaining debris still clenched in her palm.
She could have simply brushed it off.
But perhaps doing so would not have been proper respect for the man with whom she had shared warmth until moments ago.
To her, holding the ragged teddy bear the tin can had left behind as if it were precious, I handed over the hidden piece in my hand.
"Why are you giving me this?"
Kafka tilted her head as she looked at the boot in my hand.
"I think this might be a gift that tin can left for you."
I had considered it for a moment, but in the end, I did not think this was an item to use as material for housing the spirit of the Tin Knight.
She had grown so much.
I did not know whether the tin can truly thought of Kafka as his own daughter, or whether he had merely been mistaken.
But the final words he had muttered kept echoing in my ears.
Perhaps, whether she was real or not, in the instant he held her in his arms, he had sincerely thought of Kafka as his child.
Or perhaps, judging by that wistful feeling…
Whatever the reason, the tin can had finally resolved his long-held regret by giving her that tattered teddy bear.
That was why I thought these boots, his final keepsake, ought to go to Kafka as well.
But Kafka held up the doll dearly and shook her head.
"This doll is enough for me."
"He passed on because of you. Then this must surely be something he left for you too."
"That is wrong."
Kafka looked directly at me and continued.
"If you had not interpreted for us, that person’s true feelings would never have reached me. He muttered the most in front of you, and only you understood his true feelings and conveyed them to us. So this is definitely a gift he left for you."
Even so, I could not readily accept the equipment.
"It still feels wrong somehow."
At my refusal, Kafka held out the boot with a deliberately firm expression.
"Then let us do it this way. If these boots are something that man left to me, then I can do whatever I want with them now, right?"
"…?"
"So I am going to give them to you as a gift."
My eyes widened at the unexpected word from Kafka’s lips.
"A gift?"
"Yes. You would not refuse a gift, would you? A gift only retains meaning when it is willingly given to someone else."
‘A gift only gains meaning when it is given to another.’
I recalled the moment the tin can had tried to hand me the ragged teddy bear, and Kafka before my eyes strangely overlapped with his silhouette.
But those were words I had definitely never interpreted for Kafka.
For a moment, I wondered how she knew them.
No, to be precise, it was not as though I had no idea.
But the tin can had left without saying anything.
Besides, there was nothing to gain from confusing Kafka with a hasty assumption.
"…Then I suppose I have no choice."
Setting aside the flood of questions, I accepted the boots she held out to me.
#
"Upon inspection, these have been confirmed as the remains of a living armor. Good work."
After giving a light nod to the receptionist, who spoke in a stiffly businesslike tone, I put a hand on the guild door.
There were about two hours left until we had to return from our outing.
We had not fought any fierce battle. All we had done was open the final door for the tin can, so even if we were late, there was still plenty of time to eat.
I had also received five gold, and since they had effectively been dragged into this quest because of me, I decided I should buy the meal this time.
It probably did not mean much, since none of them were particularly short on money.
With that thought, I opened the guild door and stepped out, only to find Dolnesia standing before me alone.
"Dolnesia? Where are Dante and Lady Angelica?"
"The two of them suddenly had something to do and stepped away."
Those two?
What could they suddenly need to do together?
The only point of contact they had… Could they be planning to spar?
Dante was a mage, yet he possessed swordsmanship capable of overwhelming swordsmen of the same level, so it would not be strange if Angelica had taken an interest.
But I had not gotten that kind of impression from Angelica.
"They said it might take a while, and asked that I entrust my business to you, Ian."
…What?
Dolnesia smiled sweetly and took a step closer to me.
"Then, please escort me, Ian."
Staring at the white hand Dolnesia held out to me, I thought blankly,
Had I just been saddled with this?
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