Chapter 104: 103. Believe Me? Or Not?
1.
"… In the end, I think you can see it as an effect that looks really good for finishing something off."
After I finished explaining, Yeomhwa wore a dazed expression…
Slide…
She seemed to extend her right hand toward me, then suddenly grabbed that right hand with her left.
"… Lionel, then I’ll go to the Tower and test it out right away."
"Ah, I’d be happy if you did."
Judging by the potential ability’s description, she would probably need an enemy to use it in practice.
If she was willing to test it herself, that was great for me.
"Um… I’ll tell you after I get back."
"All right."
"We absolutely have to do it when I get back, baby."
I had no idea what exactly she meant by that, but Yeomhwa hurried off with the recording orb in hand.
How much time had passed like that? I had finished cleaning up and was taking a brief break when…
Yeomhwa returned, her face flushed with excitement.
She looked like she wanted to say something, then closed her mouth… looked at me, then smiled to herself again.
"…?"
The moment she entered the workshop, she shut the workshop’s main window, which opened toward the manor.
Rattle, clack.
"Why are you closing the window?"
"Ah, um… Ah! To watch the video, there can’t be any sunlight."
Swoosh.
Only then did she draw the curtains as well.
"I see."
"Mm-hm."
Yeomhwa sat pressed close beside me and floated the crystal orb in the air.
Hummm…
A screen soon unfolded…
It showed a desert, red rocks jutting out all over the place.
Yeomhwa stood to one side of the screen, waving at the camera…
Boom…
"?!"
I thought one of the rocks behind her had moved, but…
"That’s not a rock…?"
A massive pillar—an enormous lump I had thought was a rock—rose into the air.
Crumble…
A fist… fingers…
Fuck, that was an arm?
The camera naturally pulled back, and the owner of the arm came into view.
No, I knew.
I knew this was a fantasy world, a world where people climbed Towers and all that…
But it was the first time I had ever seen an actual ‘monster’ with my own eyes.
"Wow…"
A rock monster with four arms and red eyes, so huge it could crush Yeomhwa with its pinky finger, was looking down at her.
She was alive, right?
Without even realizing it, I…
Pat, pat.
grabbed Yeomhwa’s arm to make sure she was really there, and thankfully, she was.
Dozens of hideous red eyes turned toward Yeomhwa.
She fought things like that?
"Oh dear, that startled you. It’s okay, baby."
Pat, pat.
Thinking I had been frightened, Yeomhwa gently stroked my head.
The rest of the video was simple.
Yeomhwa fired her gun at the ground… She deliberately missed. I was sure of it.
Yeomhwa unleashed a full barrage into the ground. Crimson artillery fire poured down onto the desert floor.
Unable to come any closer in the face of that hopeless attack, the monster could only flinch and watch.
After thoroughly riling the monster up…
"Watch closely, Lionel."
Yeomhwa, sitting beside me, nudged my arm.
On the screen, the bombardment stopped.
Just as the monster, thinking the attack was over, let out a roar and began charging at Yeomhwa…
Kuoohhh…!
Yeomhwa grinned.
Finale.
She murmured in a low voice.
Bang!
"…"
I had no idea what had happened.
The ground simply turned pink for an instant… and a flash filled my vision.
Then…
…
Thud.
The monster’s upper body was simply gone.
Only its lower half fell to the ground.
Bzzzt.
The video ended.
Clap, clap, clap…
Without realizing it, I applauded.
"Isn’t that a good thing?"
"Of course it is!"
Yeomhwa abruptly turned her body toward me.
"I can’t stop smiling…"
"That’s good, then."
Yeomhwa stared at me… then suddenly pressed her lips tightly together.
Her eyes looked a little troubled…
"… So."
"Yes?"
"What should I do for you, Lionel?"
"Pardon?"
"You know, I don’t know what I should do for you."
Yeomhwa fidgeted with her fingers.
"I kept thinking about it on the way back. What would baby like? What would make him happy if I gave it to him…"
"…"
"I don’t know…"
"You don’t have to do anything. In a way, you were the one who stepped up and gave permission."
She had told me to try enchanting her own equipment first before I enchanted her new gear.
She had trusted me all the way through.
I thought trusting me and giving me permission was enough to qualify.
"Yes, that’s exactly it. You’re the first person to say something like that. If you gave me something because you wanted to ask something of me, that would be easy for me—I could just do that. Even if it was difficult, I could at least try…"
Yeomhwa took my hand and stared intently at me.
"You keep saying this is enough. Why?"
"Because it really is."
"Right, that’s… I know you aren’t just saying it."
The atmosphere changed completely.
Yeomhwa stopped fiddling with my hand.
"Do you happen to know this? Each of us sisters has a special ability. Usually… abilities that stem from relationships between people…"
"Ah… I think I know what you mean."
Dolores… could tell whether someone’s words were true.
That was why I couldn’t lie in front of Mama, either.
"I have one too. Mine is… I can tell whether the other person is satisfied."
"… Really?"
That was an incredibly fascinating ability.
But then I thought about it again…
[That sounds exhausting…]
Yeah, that sounded incredibly exhausting.
Even if someone said thank you on the surface… she would know that they didn’t feel that way at all inside.
"Usually, there’s always a little left over, no matter what you do for someone. Like, this was nice, but that was disappointing… or, since they received one thing, maybe they can get the next thing too."
"…"
"Human greed has no end. You understand that, right?"
Yeomhwa slipped her fingers between mine, one by one.
"But you’re strange, Lionel. You were always genuinely satisfied… and even now, when you say you used it well… that you liked it, you really are satisfied."
"…"
I was satisfied, but…
I didn’t know if I could say I lacked greed.
I was greedy, which was why I threw myself at every moment like a madman.
I was simply truly satisfied in this situation.
"You really don’t need to give me anything. I’m more than satisfied."
At some point, our fingers had become fully interlaced.
Yeomhwa stared at me, then curled up the corners of her lips.
"… But I’m sorry."
Her chair scraped closer.
"I’m not satisfied."
Then…
I had thought we were already sitting as close together as possible, so how much closer could she get…?
Slide.
She got closer. Fucking hell.
"Lionel."
"Yes."
Her face slowly started to approach mine.
Then, right in front of my lips…
"You’re still a baby, so…"
She smiled faintly.
Kiss.
Her lips touched my cheek.
More precisely, right beside my lips, at the corner of my mouth.
It was a sudden kiss, but Mama kissed me so often that I had gotten used to it.
This much didn’t really surprise me.
The only difference was that it had been closer to my lips.
"…"
I opened my eyes belatedly… and met Yeomhwa’s gaze right in front of me.
"… Huh."
Yeomhwa tilted her head.
Ah, wait.
Please.
What did Yeomhwa say her ability was again?
She paused just as she was about to pull away… staring straight at me as her eyes widened round.
This was fucking insane.
"Ohhh…?"
Yeomhwa snickered.
"Baby, you’re not satisfied?"
I got caught, fuck.
"That’s a first."
"…"
Grin.
"Then… that changes things."
What followed was far too straightforward.
Kiss.
This time, her lips definitely met mine.
I couldn’t brush it off as though it were nothing, the way I had when she kissed my cheek.
Even after she pulled away, I forgot to close my mouth for a moment.
Yeomhwa ended up taking my first kiss on the lips.
… It was just the kind of kiss an aunt gives her nephew. It wasn’t a big deal. Yeah.
And right then…
Sunlight fell across Yeomhwa’s face.
Even though the curtains were shut, so there was no way sunlight could come in…
"Huh."
We turned our heads.
"…"
"…"
Isabella and Dolores stood before the open window.
Dolores had one hand gripping the curtain she had pulled aside.
And Yeomhwa…
"Ah."
had just pulled her face away from mine.
I hadn’t seen Isabella in a while. She scratched her head and…
"Um… hi, Lionel. You didn’t answer when we knocked, so we came around to the window for a moment."
"… Yes, hello."
I see.
Um…
Her face red, Isabella looked at Yeomhwa once… then carefully watched Dolores, who stood beside her.
"Dolores, do I have to get lost again?"
"…"
She even said something spectacularly tactless.
Yeomhwa sprang to her feet… but unlike usual, she didn’t seem about to run away.
She walked toward the window and waved a hand.
"It’s been a while, Isabella."
"Yeah… my comrade whom I haven’t seen in so long, goodbye…"
Isabella shook her head with a pitiful look on her face.
Unfazed, Yeomhwa looked at Dolores.
"I was so grateful, so I greeted baby."
She caught the rose floating beside her shoulder in her hand.
"I got it to +20… You should let him handle yours too, Dolores."
"…"
Still smiling, Yeomhwa added,
"Baby likes it when you trust him."
"… I see."
Lightly.
Dolores lightly stepped over the windowsill and approached me.
Tap, tap.
Beyond the window, Isabella shuffled her feet, looking utterly at a loss.
With an unbothered expression, Mama came over, wrapped an arm around my waist, supported my butt, and lifted me up.
If I rested my hands on Dolores’s shoulders here… our eyes met at exactly the same height.
"Lionel, you worked very hard."
"Not at all."
"It ended faster than I expected today."
"… It just happened that way…"
It wasn’t exactly that Yeomhwa had trusted me more, so it went faster… I was just a little lucky today.
There had also been a moment when I nearly had a heart attack.
I felt like I ought to correct something.
I didn’t think Dolores had refused to entrust me with enchanting because she didn’t trust me.
She cherished it, treasured it, kissed it over and over, and even slept with it… In fact, Dolores slept with the veil tucked into her arms.
Of course she would hesitate when there was a chance it might break.
"Um… I never thought that you didn’t trust me, Dolores…"
"Lionel, we talked about it before, didn’t we? That it seemed possible to… enchant beyond +20."
Flinch.
I hadn’t expected this.
That was right.
After finishing an enchantment to +20 last year, I had confirmed that there was something beyond it.
To begin with, some rankers used three-star equipment enhanced past +20.
So I had wanted to at least get a taste of it, but…
[Starting at enhancement level 20, no ‘base success rate’ is provided.]
[Upon enhancement ‘failure,’ there is a chance the equipment will be destroyed.]
Because of those notifications… I had gotten scared too, so after discussing it with Dolores, we decided to make +20 the endpoint for now.
I mean, fuck, it said there was a chance it could be destroyed even if I failed.
I had considered testing it with cheap equipment, but every time I got something to +20—like the Silver Palace Ether Circle—its abilities became so good that I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
I would have to uncover the detailed probability table to know for sure, but…
Still…
Why bring that up all of a sudden?
"Yes."
"Will you try it?"
Smile.
Dolores smiled sweetly and whispered to me.
"Beyond +20?"
"Yes."
Squeeze…
Dolores hugged me a little tighter.
She whispered softly, so only I could hear.
"I want to prove that I trust Lionel too…"
"You don’t have to…"
"Will you give me the chance… Lionel?"
"…"
There are all kinds of challenges in the world…
According to one study, dopamine neurons become more active in situations where you cannot be sure whether you will receive a reward.
In other words…
Dolores was asking me right now,
‘Want to play a round of a rhythm game where failing completely fucks you over? But if you succeed, it’ll be legendary.’
And my answer was, fucking obviously…
"Let’s do it."
Thump… thump…
She was allowing this…?
I felt my heart race.
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