Chapter 107: 106. I Can Do It, If It’s Me.
1.
Honestly, there are only a few kinds of cards I know.
I imagine it is the same for most people.
There is the terrifying kind of hwatu where you could lose a hand if you get caught cheating.
Or regular playing cards...
And lastly, Duel.
"Special gemstones...?"
"Yes."
Of course, special minerals and gemstones here meant the ones that came from the Tower.
Hmm, was ten kilograms a bit much?
I had originally meant to say one kilogram, but Yeomhwa shook her head, so I tried ten instead.
Even multiplying it by ten had taken quite a bit of resolve.
"...That’s all?"
But apparently my fragile little assumption was wrong again, because Isabella tilted her head.
"Yes."
Come to think of it, that made sense.
From what I had learned... high rankers fundamentally earned money on an entirely different scale.
The rewards for climbing the Tower were one thing, but apparently the equipment and items found in dungeons hidden throughout each floor brought in a tidy profit too.
Equipment, minerals, gemstones, and all manner of other artifacts.
I heard that once people climbed beyond a certain point, some stopped progressing altogether and just ran dungeons...
Treasure hunters, apparently. Rather than work hard to climb for honor, they would rather make money.
A very easy career philosophy to understand.
I could sympathize with that.
"...You really only need that?"
In this room right now...
There were rich people next to rich people next to rich people.
Plenty of people who would never have to worry about money.
And since they were early climbers, their families were well-off too...
"Then I’ll head home for a moment."
"Please do."
Ah, wait a second.
"Um, leave the card deck before you go."
"...All right."
I needed to examine and analyze it.
I did not think she would take the goods and run, so I planned to start making it in advance.
Isabella carefully held the case out to me, then rose from her seat.
"I’ll be right back."
"Take your time."
"Dolores, Yeomhwa, I’m off."
"Yes."
Isabella waved once more from the door before leaving the sitting room.
Tap-tap. Tap-tap.
Dolores waited until Isabella had disappeared... then smiled gently.
"So you decided to tell her after all."
"Yes. She has helped me out quite a bit."
I held up the deck.
"This thing is kind of lousy, so I’m going to make her a new one."
"That’s the first time I’ve ever seen her get excited over equipment."
Yeomhwa let out a snort of laughter and added,
"Was she excited?"
She had not looked particularly thrilled to me.
"When she’s excited, her steps change. You saw her leave going tap-tap, right? She was really excited."
"...So that was her secret."
While Dolores covered her mouth and laughed, Yeomhwa rose from her seat as well.
"I’ll stop by my family home too."
"Your family home?"
"Yeah. They’ve been asking why I haven’t visited lately."
Her family home...
Ah, could Yeomhwa be from a noble family too?
Come to think of it, I did not know her real name, so it would not have been strange even if she belonged to some noble house.
As I slipped the card deck into my pocket, I asked,
"Where is your family home?"
"Um..."
Yeomhwa scratched her chin with an embarrassed smile.
"There’s a port city in the south."
"I see."
"...Yeah."
A southern port city...
[Its name is Portanya. It’s a free city, so it isn’t noble territory; it belongs directly to the Emperor.]
I did not really understand those concepts yet.
I would ask about it later.
There was more I wanted to ask about her family home...
But it did not feel like Yeomhwa wanted to tell me everything.
Normally, she would have enthusiastically explained it all...
This was a first. She even seemed a little embarrassed.
"...I’m going now!"
Yeomhwa waved, then quickly left.
Well... those who were leaving had left.
All of a sudden, only Dolores and I remained in the room.
I nodded and looked up at Dolores.
"Dolores."
"Mama."
"...Mama."
"Yes."
"We... have something to talk about, don’t we?"
I smiled, the corners of my lips lifting.
"...Of course we do."
Dolores’s eyes as she looked down at me were blazing with heat too.
I had never seen her like this before.
2.
Our place for conversation was, naturally, on the bed.
I had been dutifully toddling toward the study when...
"Oof."
I was lifted right off the ground and carried into the master bedroom.
Ruby had clearly greeted Isabella and left for the academy, and there was nobody brave enough to open the master bedroom door, yet...
Click.
The master bedroom door locked, and Dolores gently laid me down on the bed.
"Mama, our conversation..."
"Yes, we should have it."
That was what she said, but...
Kiss.
She kissed my forehead, then my left cheek.
When I turned my head, she kissed my right cheek too, as though she had been waiting for it.
"..."
I quietly looked at Dolores.
She tidied my disheveled bangs... though Dolores herself was the reason they were a mess in the first place.
Anyway, when our eyes met, she smiled sweetly.
"What is it? I’m listening."
Dolores was displaying the most proactive listening posture in history.
Only after planting one last kiss on the bridge of my nose did she settle down beside me.
There had been no kiss on the lips.
...What a shame.
[Looks like her possessiveness exploded.]
[You have been passed around way too much lately, big brother.]
Yuna’s calm assessment.
Could she have been feeling a little lonely?
How much time passed like that? By the time I had spent what felt like several hours in Dolores’s embrace...
...It was actually night. The night sky was visible through the window.
Only now, perhaps having satisfied herself a little, Dolores wiped the sweat from her forehead. She let out a hot breath, looking much more refreshed, then beamed.
"Now then, what should we talk about first?"
"...First, what Isabella and I talked about..."
Honestly, my brain was hazy right now. I felt drunk.
I could barely speak...
I felt intoxicated, but... what was I intoxicated by, Dolores?
I touched my still-warm cheek as I told her about what had happened with Abyss.
"...Hearts?"
"Yes, as many as ten of them."
Dolores’s startled expression in that instant was a sight to behold, but after hearing the entire story, her stiff face relaxed a little.
Perhaps because it did not seem to be chasing me around to kill me.
"...I see."
Dolores let out a shallow breath and kissed my neck.
"That eases my mind somewhat... but I still don’t like that it tried to drag Lionel away."
"That bothers me too."
"The next time I enter the Tower, I’ll speak with Gaia."
"Thank you."
Dolores nodded.
Next...
There was something I was curious about before we got to the enchantment.
"There’s something else I wanted to ask..."
"Yes."
"It’s about Mama’s companions..."
"My sisters?"
"Yes. Where are the others now?"
I had been curious for a while.
There were supposedly seven of them in total... but I had only actually met four.
Even if they were all doing their own things now, some of them met and talked with each other, like Yeomhwa and Isabella.
But there were people whose faces I had never even seen, and I did not know what they did either.
I had even learned only today that Isabella was addicted to Duel.
Before that, she had been addicted to chess.
Dolores thought for a moment before slowly opening her mouth.
"One of them... works for the Imperial Family as the Imperial Sword."
"I see."
She held an important position.
Well... if someone was that capable, it made sense that the Imperial Family would want them.
"...The other two are still diligently climbing the Tower."
"I see. Do you know what floors they’re on?"
"...One of them is probably on the 200th floor."
Flinch.
[What!?]
"Pardon...?"
Had I heard that wrong...?
"The 200th floor?"
"Yes."
The highest known climbing record at present was in the late 190s.
As far as I knew, no one had ever passed the Great Trial on the 200th floor, which came every fifty floors.
"She is probably still challenging it now."
One of Mama’s sisters was currently challenging that place.
Once again...
I knew Yeomhwa and Isabella were amazing people, but...
Hearing just how incredible they were, compared to how they normally acted, gave me some serious whiplash.
In truth, those two would be extraordinary wherever they went.
"She’ll keep challenging it... until she succeeds, probably."
Dolores said that and gave a small smile.
"..."
She seemed quite stubborn.
I would find out what kind of person she was when I met her someday.
But now that I had heard about them climbing the Tower, I was suddenly extremely concerned about the person beside me too.
Dolores had started climbing the Tower again as well.
I took Dolores’s hand and spoke.
"...Dolores... no, Mama will keep climbing too."
"That’s right."
"..."
I needed to start the Royal Road.
And prepare more.
The Great Trial of the 150th floor would soon be right before us.
I finally brought up the main subject of our conversation.
"...Now, about the enchantment."
"Yes."
As if she had known this was coming, Dolores’s eyes blazed too.
"...Which piece of equipment should we try it on?"
There were several pieces of equipment I had made for Dolores.
Apprentice Blacksmith’s Warming Gloves, Frostless Spring—the stockings—Spring Breeze Carrying Fire—the underwear—Knot of Serenity—the hair tie.
And lastly, the emblem I had recently made.
If we were aiming for an enchantment above +20... which one should we start with?
Stroke.
After hearing me, Dolores slowly stroked my forearm with her index finger.
I thought the tickling would give me goosebumps... but instead, my body just grew a little hot.
"Actually... wouldn’t an item need to be at least four-star for us to properly see the effects of enchantment?"
"Hmm... I think it should be fine as long as it’s unique equipment."
It was not as though greater potential abilities emerged simply because an item had more stars.
What mattered was whether it was unique equipment.
"...Mmm, even so."
"?"
"Something... similar to Yeomhwa’s..."
Dolores was oddly acting cute.
My brain felt like it was melting from this new side of her she was showing me today. Hehe.
"How about... trying something good?"
"...I mean, I’d certainly like that."
I would like it, sure.
But with the little bit of reason that had returned to me, I considered the candidates one by one.
The divine artifact I made a few days ago was... out.
Maybe at +20, but attempting anything higher was something I could not do even if I was crazy for dopamine.
If one of them blew up, Gaia’s emblem in the Divine Realm would be wrecked too.
Crunch.
Huh...?
An emblem she had bragged about before the other gods getting wrecked...?
I could not even begin to imagine how far her divinity would fall.
Our relationship would be wrecked too. Yeah, yeah.
No matter how addicted I was to rhythm games... I would not risk my life when failure meant my house burning down.
But anything below Frostless Spring did not meet the grade Dolores wanted.
Yeomhwa’s was four-star, after all.
Then the tier right below that... Knot of Serenity and...
Spring Breeze Carrying Fire, the underwear... those two were about the only candidates.
─────────────────
[Knot of Serenity] [★★★☆☆]
[Unique Equipment] [Compatibility] [80 / 80]
[Enchantment Level] [+20]
─────────────────
【Potential Abilities】
[+5 ─ Neatness]
[Hair does not become disheveled, even during vigorous movement.]
[+10 ─ Gloss]
[Keeps the wearer’s hair and scalp healthy.]
[If the creator personally ties the wearer’s hair, it remembers his touch and body heat.]
[+15 ─ Clarity] [Cooldown: 5 minutes]
[When the hair tie is removed, dispels harmful mental effects.]
[+20 ─ Release] [Cooldown: 1 hour]
[Activates when the creator personally unties the hair tie.]
[The wearer’s hair falls into the form preferred by the creator, and their natural scent deepens.]
[Most fatigue disappears.]
─────────────────
For one thing, it was equipment suited more for everyday life than combat.
Clarity at +15 was good... but the rest were mostly things like hair care and fatigue recovery.
Especially the part where Dolores’s fatigue was relieved if I untied it myself...
After returning from climbing the Tower, Dolores would urge me to untie her hair with a tired expression late at night... and once I did, her hair would cascade down in a smooth wave...
Dolores turning her head with a much more relaxed expression...
Stop.
I remembered imagining its uses like that and being unable to sleep that night.
The paradoxical phenomenon of the creator losing sleep.
Anyway, I shook my head to clear away my stray thoughts and spoke.
"Should we go with the hair tie?"
It was already at +20, so we could immediately see what came next...
And even if it got wrecked, the risk was not too great.
The problem was...
"..."
Dolores seemed to have a rather different idea.
Slide...
Dolores’s hand moved to the front of her blouse.
At first, I thought she was fixing her clothes.
To remove the hair tie.
But then one button came undone.
Click.
"Huh...?"
Another one came undone.
I stared blankly at her.
Dolores met my eyes for a moment, then lowered the front of her blouse, slipping it a little farther down her shoulders.
What was beneath it was... well, naturally, familiar equipment... hehe.
Spring Breeze Carrying Fire... hehe.
The underwear I had made. There was no way I would not recognize it.
"Um, I..."
My face heated up.
The tips of Dolores’s ears were red too, but she did not pull her clothing back up.
Instead, she looked at me and asked hesitantly,
"Should we... do this one...?"
Something within me asked questions.
‘No, Dolores, that is at +0, so even getting it to +20 carries a risk, doesn’t it?’
‘No, Dolores, what about your Nine Yin Severed Meridians if it breaks?’
‘No, Dolores... you only have one set of underwear. If it breaks, what will you wear from now on?’
‘No, Dolores... you said you would watch beside me while I enchant it, so what will you wear during that time...?’
Rational questions clamoring in my head.
They were very reasonable questions.
But no matter what I asked, in the end...
I had a strange certainty that Dolores would be able to answer perfectly.
Hehe.
"Wow..."
I nodded.
"Y-yes... l-let’s go..."
"Hehe."
I just let it pass.
Let’s go.
I can do it, if it’s me.
The date reserved for crafting the enchantment...
Became immediately after making Isabella’s equipment.
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