1.
Dolores had utterly crushed the 146th floor.
I was lying on a beanbag in the reception room, browsing the community’s reactions.
Naturally, the place with the most discussion was the Climber Gallery.
Countless topics were being discussed, but the central subject was, of course, Mama.
────────────────
- Fuck, it was over by the time the ad ended.
- Where the hell did the arrow go?
- Exactly, can someone explain what the other side even did wrong?
- If you think it’s about time the high rankers started preparing to have their heads chopped off, upvote lolololol
────────────────
Mm-hm, that’s right. Praise her more.
Not me. Dolores.
Maybe because this was a community whose users climbed the Tower themselves, their analytical skills seemed quite impressive too.
Sometimes, communities have tons of people who don’t even play the game but stir up trouble anyway… but that probably wouldn’t happen here.
I clicked on one highly recommended post that had made it to the featured board.
─────────────────
[Title: Compiling the Weird Things About Dolores Today]
[Author: Anonymous]
─────────────────
First off, Duke Dolores belongs to the Formula School, and most of what she’s shown us until now has been earth-element magic, but what the fuck, she suddenly used fire today?
Magic nerds will know this, but suddenly changing elements is practically impossible, so like the blink incident last time, this has to be equipment.
It’s also weird to call blocking the arrow magic; if it had been one of Dolores’s defensive spells, sand should have blocked it.
Looks like she’s got some insanely broken defensive equipment too?
The most likely answer is that she keeps getting strange equipment from somewhere.
─────────────────
To summarize, Dolores had only used earth-element magic up until now, so the fire magic she suddenly used was likely equipment.
For reference, magic nerds was what they called climbers well versed in magic.
"Oho."
They had gotten fairly close to the right answer.
I smiled and scrolled down to the comments.
─────────────────
Anonymous: Where the fuck does she keep getting this kind of goddamn equipment?
└ Anonymous1: For real.
└ Anonymous3: Am I the only one using a different auction house? Fuck.
Terrace: People kept talking about keeping up with equipment inflation, then something comes out that’s impossible to even analyze.
Anonymous2: No item info? Like an auction house listing?
Anonymous4: At what second in the replay does she block the arrow?
└ Anonymous5: Just watch it from the beginning. The whole thing isn’t even ten seconds.
─────────────────
There was a lot of extravagant praise for the equipment.
I felt proud.
Of course, whenever equipment like this appeared, people would naturally start speculating about who the blacksmith was.
Though the speculation never went very far, since there was no kindling to keep the fire going.
Still, seeing this made me realize that even ordinary community users had pretty sharp analytical skills.
…Then what would Yeomhwa’s detailed analysis be like, as a high ranker?
She was called the best mage currently active, after all.
I was starting to look forward to her explanation.
I figured she would point out the details I had missed.
According to the community, Dolores had headed straight to the next floor.
Well, she would probably clear everything directly until the 150th floor.
As I thought about that… a problem arose.
The beanbag here was a little too soft.
As I sank into it and waited, I started getting sleepy.
I didn’t bother resisting and simply gave in. After dozing off for a little while…
Creeeak…
I woke at the sound of the door opening.
"Baby… oh, you were sleeping. Sorry."
Yeomhwa lowered her voice as she came in.
I blinked a few times and pushed myself upright.
"Ah… no, I was just about to get up."
"Really?"
Sway.
Grinning brightly, Yeomhwa waved a round orb in front of my eyes.
It looked like the footage had arrived.
Yeomhwa skipped toward me with light, swaying steps.
Her skirt fluttered every time she hopped.
Hmm… her outfit was especially pretty today.
I couldn’t stop looking.
"Sit here."
I lifted myself off the beanbag and made room for her.
Yeomhwa looked at the spot I had vacated, snickered, and plopped down…
"Heave-ho."
Whoosh.
"Huh?"
She set me down right on her lap and wrapped both arms around me.
"There we go."
When she opened her hand, the orb floated gently upward.
Hummm…
Light burst from within the orb, and a screen unfolded in midair.
It was the arena I had seen that morning.
"Can you see it okay?"
"Yes, yes."
Yeomhwa leaned back against the beanbag, reclining my body along with hers.
"Uh…"
…This might be softer than the beanbag…
The footage began playing…
What would Yeomhwa’s commentary be like?
"I’ll explain every little detail. If there’s anything you still don’t understand, just tell me, baby."
"Yes. Please do."
"Mm."
The doors on either side opened, and people walked out.
"Normally, you have to win twice to advance, but Elysia only needs to win once. She has a high seed because she performed well on the previous floors, so even if she loses, she has one coin. That’s how you can think of it."
"Oh, really?"
I hadn’t known that.
I had wondered why she advanced right after a single win. It was because she had a high seed.
Her explanation was certainly detailed.
But the fact that she was setting this up from the start made it seem like she wanted a particular reaction from me…
I was quick on the uptake.
"…Could Dolores possibly lose…?"
This was it, right?
"Mmm~~ Who knows~~ Did Elysia lose, or did she win~?"
"Ah…"
I was putting on a very worried expression outwardly.
But inwardly, I thought Yeomhwa was incredibly cute.
It seemed like she was laying the groundwork to make my eventual joy even greater.
If you felt anxious and then she won, the dopamine would hit twice as hard.
Meanwhile, the battle began in the footage.
Dolores stood still while the opposing archer drew her bowstring.
And then.
"Now, the arrow goes swoooooosh!"
"?"
That startled me.
Yeomhwa pointed at the arrow with her finger.
"Then the mage next to her goes fwabababababap, and then—shwoosh!"
"……?"
The enlarged arrow flew toward Dolores.
"But Dolores goes bang-bang with this!"
"…Bang-bang."
"So they’re shocked too, right? Like, ‘What was that just now?’ And they’re about to go swoooosh, fwababababap again!"
The opponents scrambled about.
But Dolores was quicker to extend her hand, and the result was exactly as expected…
"Shkwooooom!"
Yeomhwa clenched her fist and threw a few rapid punches through the air.
"And that’s the end! I heard the other side got treated well!"
"……."
Yeomhwa looked down at me with a proud face.
"Amazing, right?"
"…It’s amazing."
In more ways than one.
I suddenly recalled the public’s assessment of Yeomhwa.
‘The Intuition School.’
For Yeomhwa, magic seemed to be something felt with a burning heart.
Expecting an explanation had been my mistake.
"And Dolores deliberately took the first attack too."
"Ah…"
"I guess she wanted to show you just how good the equipment you made her was, baby."
So that was it.
"Lionel… you made Elysia something incredibly good, didn’t you?"
Smiling sweetly, Yeomhwa tightened her arms slightly…
She lowered her head behind me and lightly kissed the nape of my neck.
Smack.
I felt the touch of her hot lips.
It gave me a strangely refreshing feeling.
"……."
"Hehe."
Her praise made me feel good too.
Warm and melting from Yeomhwa’s little hum and her actions, I was just relaxing like that when…
Bang.
The reception room door flew open.
"…Eek."
A short, birdlike sound came from behind me.
When I turned my head…
Dolores, who should have been in the Tower, was standing there.
With a beaming smile on her face.
2.
Isabella had recently stopped climbing and devoted herself to research.
It wasn’t because she lacked ability… It was simply that there were many things in the world more interesting than climbing.
She had also said she wanted to rest a little.
Then one day.
"Hm?"
Ding.
A message sounded in the group chat of the sworn sisters who had once climbed the Tower together.
It was a place that almost, almost never got any messages…
Yeomhwa had uploaded a video there.
─────────────────
Yeomhwa♥: (Dolores_HeadOverHeelsForBaby.avi)
Yeomhwa♥: Elysia’s climbing steadily~
─────────────────
"She’s doing well."
Without thinking much of it, Isabella played the video.
…But what was with that video title?
Five people stood on one side, with Dolores on the other.
She had heard that Dolores had returned.
Since Isabella was such a homebody, it took some time for news to reach her…
But since she had heard Dolores was much healthier now, it would not take long for her to regain her form.
"…But when is she going to call me…?"
More than eight months had already passed…
Isabella wondered whether Lionel might forget what she looked like at this rate.
She had been thinking that as she watched the video when…
Boom!
"……?"
At a gesture from Dolores, the ground beneath the five people exploded and flames surged up.
The video ended right there.
"…Huh?"
Just as Isabella stared blankly at the screen…
─────────────────
1819 Days Wishing for Retirement: what the fuck was that??
─────────────────
Along with the reaction from Seren, a former colleague who by now seemed to have no intention of retiring at all.
"…Wow."
Isabella replayed the video.
Scrub, tap.
Scrub, tap.
Even after watching it again, it was the same…
There was no separately deployed fire formula.
Isabella instantly analyzed that not even the slightest magical element had been involved in the flames Dolores had manifested.
"That’s equipment?"
Tilting her head, she stared intently enough to bore through the screen.
She had once been curious about a pair of work gloves enhanced to +20… but that had merely been an intellectual interest in how they had made the impossible possible.
She had only wanted them for research, not to wear them herself.
Most climbers wanted good equipment… but people were naturally diverse.
Not everyone was crazy about equipment.
There were climbers who normally had little interest in equipment and, even when others caused a fuss and they tried something on or touched it once… felt none of its effectiveness.
‘What’s supposed to be so great about it?’
A ranker who coolly took off even equipment rumored to be excellent.
Isabella was one such climber, an equipment-indifferent type.
"It’s cool."
The fingers supporting her chin trembled softly.
For the first time in her life, she had become interested in equipment.
It was the first piece of equipment that made her want to try using it.
Of course, Isabella now knew that if she whined and threw a tantrum at Dolores to give it to her just because she found it interesting, she would be in for a severe scolding.
With her lips slightly pursed, she tapped an empty space in her notebook with her pen…
"…Ask how she’s doing, compliment her on being so impressive lately… Then get to the point simply: ask whether she can introduce the creator or tell me where she farmed it."
That seemed pretty decent.
Isabella scribbled in her notebook and ran a simulation of speaking with Dolores.
"…Mm, good."
She had managed to do quite well—only three shouts, two sighs, and one spanking.
Back in the day, when Isabella did something wrong, Dolores would sometimes spank her.
Her hand was rather heavy.
…This meant it was safe to contact her.
Isabella placed a call to Dolores.
3.
"Don’t you need to go back up right away?"
"No. The 150th floor is the most important one anyway… There’s no need to rush before then."
The community had lied when it said Dolores went straight to the next floor.
Damn it.
As soon as the trial ended and everything was settled, she hurried right back.
"Lionel… did you watch the video?"
"Yes."
"………"
Dolores was lying on the beanbag in precisely the same pose Yeomhwa had used earlier, holding me in her arms.
For the record, Yeomhwa had run away, claiming she had a stomachache.
"…The more I use it, the more I can only shake my head in disbelief at this equipment."
"That’s a relief."
"First, its greatest advantage is that there are no signs beforehand, so the opponent cannot notice it… Second, that it consumes no cost at all… And then…"
I knew it was good, but hearing the actual user explain it made it feel different.
"…Above all, it respects the original magic…"
Dolores was slowly explaining the equipment’s effects to me when… her words abruptly cut off.
"…I’m just so grateful, Lionel…!"
"Gasp!"
Squeeze…
Perhaps overcome with emotion, she suddenly pulled me into a tight hug.
That startled me.
I lightly patted the back of her hand.
Well… when she liked it this much, it made the person who made it feel rewarded too.
But… as I listened to her, one thing kept bothering me.
Ha…
It was this good…
Such good equipment…
I waited until Mama calmed down, then opened my mouth.
"But, Dolores."
"Mama."
"But, Mama."
"Yes…"
Dolores’s hand softly stroked my back.
"Is there any rule saying that you can’t enchant a Divine Artifact?"
Flinch.
Honestly, I had been thinking about this the whole time.
It was already this powerful… so what would happen if it were enchanted?
"To +20 or higher, at that."
Just as there was no rule saying you couldn’t put fish cakes into food, there was no rule saying you couldn’t enchant a Divine Artifact, right?
I didn’t even know whether it could actually be enchanted… And of course, if it broke, both Gaia’s and Dolores’s mental states would be shattered to pieces…
Dolores’s hand stopped at my words.
"……."
Slide…
Squeeze…
She began clutching the mantle tightly.
Tremble.
She seemed to be shaking a little.
"R-right… an enchantment… +20… That sounds like it would be so wonderful…"
"Right?"
"Ah… ah… yes… Then, I trust Lionel…"
Dolores’s eyes turned toward the mantle.
"But if it gets destroyed…"
"…Well, that would be unfortunate."
"Ah…………."
"You trust me, don’t you?"
Keeping the mantle tightly wrapped in one hand, Dolores continued stroking my back with the other.
Her posture had gotten a little strange somehow.
"I trust… I trust…"
"Hmm…"
"Wouldn’t we need some preliminary work first…?"
"Preliminary work?"
Mama smiled sweetly and pointed outside the door.
"How about… trying it on Yeomhwa’s first?"
"Aha."
She made me a new proposal.
The traditional method of enhancing.
Offering a sacrifice.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register