Chapter 105: 104. Hardcore Fan
1.
I could feel Dolores’s overwhelming trust.
It was like Lionel’s promise and faith.
Of course, I don’t have anything like enhancement protection. If it breaks... well, I’ll have to bawl my eyes out and make it again, right?
Yeomhwa, Dolores, Isabella, and I headed back to the manor together.
Ruby flinched when she spotted Isabella, but...
"Hello, Ruby."
"Hewwo."
With a proud, cool demeanor, Isabella merely greeted her without clinging to her. She really had changed a lot.
After leaving Yeomhwa and Isabella in the center of the manor for a moment, Dolores and I entered the study to talk.
We put off discussing attempts at enhancement level +20 and beyond, since it wasn’t something we could decide right away.
It would take some time to coordinate what to start with, how to do it, and how far to enhance everything.
"... Lionel, Isabella came to apologize."
"Mm..."
Honestly, she didn’t need to apologize.
I had never been angry, and I’d even made good use of the loom she gave me.
"... And she was curious about the blacksmith who made the insignia."
"Oh, did you tell her? That I made it?"
"No, of course not. I should ask you first, shouldn’t I?"
Just like a mother.
Dolores smiled gently.
"Isabella is one of my sisters as well, but it is for you to decide whom you tell... Talk with her, and if you feel it is all right, tell her yourself."
"Ah, yes."
Isabella had taken an interest in equipment?
That was rather interesting.
And so, we naturally split into teams.
Yeomhwa and Dolores went to the study, while Isabella and I headed for the drawing room.
The instant I saw the chessboard, I remembered that nerve-racking match from the past and my head started to ache... Still, I figured this would be better than merely exchanging apologies.
Another hospitality chess match today, huh?
"Shall we talk over a game of chess?"
"... Yes!"
Isabella beamed as well.
Tap.
Tap.
The match did not last very long.
My one-line assessment was this.
The opening Isabella had created, the [Isabella System], had become quite solid.
What school of magic did this person belong to again...?
[Resonance School?]
Right, I understood it was a school that attuned itself to nature and harmonized with it...
She had incorporated that brilliantly. Her play had become sturdier.
Of course...
"Hic..."
"..."
Isabella was in tears again today...
I didn’t know whether she had truly thought she could win this time when she challenged me, but even her hands were trembling.
That pawn she was holding up in the air and shaking right now? The moment she touched it, no matter where she put it, it would be checkmate within four moves.
"... Sniff..."
Tap.
In the end, Isabella accepted death.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
And then victory.
Even if I wanted to go easy on her... she was skilled enough to notice when I did now, so I had to bury her first.
Stab.
"... You’ve gotten better."
I wasn’t joking.
My chess teacher really had improved since last time.
But instead of answering, Isabella bit her lip tight and let large tears roll down her cheeks.
"I... apologize..."
"Pardon?"
"I came to apologize... hic..."
Ah, right.
"I’m sorry, Lionel. Last time, I interrupted you... and only said what I wanted to say... Even though you said you didn’t want to..."
Sniff.
At this point, I felt like I ought to be the one apologizing.
It felt like I had forced her to cry before making her apologize.
She had come to apologize and gotten beaten senseless instead.
I got up and moved to sit beside Isabella.
Pat, pat.
When I patted her shoulder, she turned to look at me.
"You don’t need to apologize. I was never angry."
"But..."
"I’ve been using the loom you sent me well, too. I never properly thanked you for it back then, did I?"
Sniff.
Bela sniffled.
"... You’re using it well?"
"Of course."
"... That’s a relief..."
Sniff...
Isabella unfolded a handkerchief and held it to her nose.
This person couldn’t even blow her nose properly.
Without thinking, I placed my hand over the handkerchief and muttered.
"Blow."
"... Blow."
I slowly pushed the chessboard away.
Let’s put it somewhere she couldn’t see for now.
"And we need to talk about the Abyss, don’t we?"
Flinch.
The hand that had been fidgeting with her nose stopped.
"The Abyss...?"
"Yes."
This had also been the main subject I wanted to bring up.
The incident when the Abyss tried to seize me as I was leaving the Tower.
Unless something unexpected happened, I only had four years left before I would enter the Tower.
I needed to prepare in advance.
2.
Was she angry?
Her anger itself was an indisputable fact.
It simply had never been directed at Yeomhwa.
That was foolish of me.
Trust that existed only in words must surely have caused the child anxiety.
She had only said, “I’ll trust you,” and “I believe in you,” without entrusting her entire self to him.
"... Thank you, Yeomhwa."
"Huh? Yeah, um... You don’t need to thank me..."
In the study, Dolores thanked Yeomhwa.
In that sense, she was grateful for Yeomhwa’s actions, which had made Dolores come to her senses again.
She had been deceived by familiarity and forgotten what was precious.
Still, her child’s first kiss...
It felt as though a piece of her heart had been ripped out... But Yeomhwa would never have acted against Lionel’s wishes...
And that fact made her heart ache all the more.
Lionel had wanted it too...
But there was no need to say this aloud. The instant they voiced it, these would become thoughts that could find support nowhere in the world.
Neither Yeomhwa nor Dolores needed to say them.
It felt as though they were looking into a transparent mirror.
Dolores understood perfectly what Yeomhwa felt...
And Yeomhwa, looking at Dolores, was likely thinking the same thing.
"..."
"..."
"Still... only that far..."
"Yeah... I know what you mean..."
The two women looked into each other’s faces.
In the end, neither could bring herself to tell the other to stop.
For now—just for now, let’s keep things this way...!
Quietly, discreetly.
An irrational agreement to respect one another had been reached...
Of course...
You crazy Xs... Stop fetishizing XX already!!!!
If Camilla had been here, both of them might have been handed over to the Imperial Guard.
3.
Once Isabella began explaining, she quickly regained her energy.
I had felt this last time too, but Isabella was the type who brimmed with energy when explaining fields she liked and found interesting.
In a way, she was similar to me...
It was just, how should I put it... Um...
[The concentration is different.]
Uh... that might be right.
Isabella’s concentration was a little intense.
"The Tower we climb continues upward, right? The Abyss is a world believed to exist beneath it. A place with properties opposite to this side."
"I see."
This much was something I had heard in fragments before.
"But no one has ever directly set foot there yet. Me included."
At that moment, Isabella opened her hand.
"...?!"
There had clearly been nothing there just moments ago...
Yet before I knew it, a single card was caught between Isabella’s fingers.
Was it magic?
Then...
Frrrsh!
When Isabella gently pushed with her thumb, the stacked cards spread out in a flutter.
The cards themselves... were similar to the ones I knew.
Playing cards.
"Instead, I barely manage to try communicating through indirect means."
"Can you communicate with that?"
"It works because it’s me... I’m probably the only one among the Abyss Scholars who can do it."
Isabella’s nose seemed to lift ever so slightly in pride.
From what I had heard, Abyss Scholars were people who studied the Abyss.
"But aren’t you afraid?"
"Everyone gets scared the moment they hear ‘Abyss,’ but... it’s kinder than you’d think."
"Is it?"
"Yeah. Even to an Abyss Scholar like me... it answers me quite kindly."
Hm... Then what was I?
I had nearly been dragged away just like that.
"Of course, it doesn’t answer every one of my questions... Considering how much I pester it..."
"..."
"That makes it pretty kind."
The Abyss suddenly seemed kind.
It answered Isabella’s endless doorbell ringing without even getting angry...?
Were they saints or something?
Listening only to Isabella’s explanation... it sounded like something suspicious but not malicious...
The sort of thing you would not want as a neighbor.
"Now then, why do you think Lionel is curious about the Abyss?"
When I thought of the Abyss, my strongest impression was that it was some bastard constantly trying strange tricks on me.
Dolores had told me to ask Gaia for advice once I climbed the Tower in the future... But what if I got sucked into the Abyss the moment I entered the Tower?
That was why I had been looking for a chance to talk with Isabella.
Now I should tell her this too.
Among the threats that were actually being directed at me, there was one especially representative example...
"I went to the Tower last year, using an invitation ticket."
"Those are expensive."
"Dolores gave it to me..."
Anyway.
"When I was trying to leave the Tower... something suddenly tried to drag me off somewhere."
"... Huh?"
"It kept pulling me downward, downward... I almost got dragged away just like that..."
"..."
Isabella’s expression turned somewhat serious.
She rested a finger on her chin and asked again, while leaning her upper body much closer to me.
"I-If it happened as you described, then I can only say it was the Abyss... D-Did it speak to you too...?"
"Yes."
"Y-You were seized... and your body was actually dragged away...?"
"Yes, it almost happened."
Her eyes went blank as she stared, looking as if her common sense had collapsed.
Blink. Blink.
"I haven’t even been able to speak with it yet..."
I waited for Isabella as she briefly fell into shock.
"There’s something you need to know first. The Abyss... has no history of approaching humans first."
"... Then why me?"
"I think there are two possibilities. Either Lionel isn’t human, or..."
"What’s the other possibility?"
Frrrsh...
Isabella fanned the deck of cards through the air.
"There’s a great blank in our conversation... and Lionel is an extraordinary person who is hiding something from me."
"..."
Isabella grinned at me from beyond the cards.
Honestly, having come this far, there was no longer any reason to hide it.
It would be ridiculous to expect her cooperation and help while hiding all my cards.
"... I’ll be honest with you, Isabella."
"Okay."
"I’m an elite blacksmith among the Sun Dwarves, one of the Heirs of Fire. I’m also the one who made Dolores’s and Yeomhwa’s equipment."
"..."
Ah, it would be nice if I could gesture here and Dawn Bringer could come flying over with a whoosh.
That would prove it immediately, without needing to do anything else.
Like something I had seen in a superhero movie... I suddenly wanted to add that function.
Clack.
A card slipped from her hand and fell onto the table.
"Huh...?"
Unable even to pick up the fallen card, Isabella stared at me.
She had probably expected something to come out, no matter what it was...
But it seemed she had not expected it to be this much.
I calmly continued explaining.
My past, the equipment I had made—naturally, I omitted the underwear as much as possible and kept it brief.
"No, wait... Then that insignia Dolores has been wearing lately was made by you too, Lionel...?"
"Of course."
Isabella’s gaze went from my face... to my hands... then rose back to my face.
Then...
"... Lionel!"
Grab.
She seized my arm with both hands and clung to it.
"Yes?"
"I’m frigid...!"
"...?"
A tremendously bewildering confession.
"I-I have equipment frigidity... Help me..."
Oh, come on.
That was what she meant.
I felt like I had heard of it before...
People who could not feel any effects at all, even while wearing equipment.
Honestly... rather than true frigidity, I thought those people simply had good instincts. Even if they wore equipment with poor compatibility, they could not feel anything good from it, so that was probably why.
If it were me, I thought I could make Isabella sensitive.
I was confident I could make it so she could never live without me again.
"... If this gets resolved well?"
I raised the corner of my mouth and cast out the bait.
Honestly, if she was going to solve the Abyss issue, she should give me some kind of return.
It did not feel right to accept it for free.
"Yes! All right, I’ll do my best."
As though agreeing, Isabella nodded and sprang to her feet.
The rest of my explanation was simple.
"So... I had wondered whether it might be targeting me because I’m one of the Heirs of Fire."
"... The Abyss desires something material and is trying to seize you...?"
Frrrsh...
Isabella began shuffling the cards.
"I don’t know about that."
"Why not?"
"Because the Abyss is regarded as a world that transcends material things..."
"But even gods desire divine artifacts, don’t they?"
"Huh?"
The hands shuffling her cards paused for a moment.
"Could it be that they need equipment I made?"
Even the gods wanted such items.
So it would not be all that strange for someone living in the Abyss to covet them.
Honestly, what I wanted was to stop myself from being dragged around unilaterally.
I absolutely refused to be led about without any information.
Isabella thought for a moment... then nodded.
"Just as expected of my student... That’s a sharp question, isn’t it?"
"Um... yes, I suppose."
Then she neatly gathered the cards in her hand.
"All right. Then let’s ask directly."
"... Right now?"
"Yes."
Frrrsh!
One card after another left Isabella’s hand.
The cards that I thought would fall stopped above the table and spread apart at even intervals.
About ten cards were laid face-down over the tabletop that way.
Before I knew it... Isabella’s eyes had turned violet.
"... [Unexpected Fortune]."
Frrrsh!
All the cards flipped over at once.
"Wait here, okay? Lionel, I’ll just... go ask them something."
"Just don’t tell them too much about me..."
"Of course not. I have tact too, you know... I won’t just blurt out your name first thing. I’ll protect your identity."
Isabella pressed down the final card with her fingertip.
"Just wait a moment."
Hummm...
Violet energy gathered around Isabella.
Then she disappeared beyond it.
For now, all I could do was trust her and wait...
Isabella was an authority on the Abyss, after all.
When I had quietly sat there and finished about half my tea...
Hummm...
The violet energy vanished... and Isabella came into view.
The first thing I noticed was her expression...
"... Are you all right?"
"I asked... I naturally brought up the Sun Dwarves and asked whether they had any interest in an Heir of Fire."
"... So what happened?"
Isabella made a somewhat strange expression and looked down at the table.
Only then did I notice the ten cards spread across it.
Frrrsh!
At Isabella’s gesture, every card laid before us flipped over.
And there... the playing cards, from one through ten, were lined up in a row.
"Um..."
"Uh..."
That was incredibly obvious.
"It seems, Lionel..."
"Yes."
I had wondered how she communicated through cards...
But apparently, I had not needed to worry about that.
"I think it likes you."
"..."
[♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥]
Ten consecutive hearts, from one through ten.
I had not known it was possible to be this transparent.
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