1.
Third-Form Bikini Armor.
"..."
I turned the design over in my head for a moment.
"That’s a bit much."
All of a sudden, the reason of Kim Yujin—a powerless thirty-year-old man—returned to me.
Dolores, Yeomhwa, Isabella.
Or at the very least, Camilla, whom I had never made equipment for but was acquainted with.
I couldn’t just put a woman I didn’t even know, Seren, in sexy bikini armor out of nowhere.
In a sense... it would be planting a backdoor.
And a backdoor was absolutely out of the question. Mm.
Of course, I’d intended from the beginning to verify the identities of anyone I made equipment for.
I had no intention of handing equipment over to hostile people or villains.
But that meant I would screen my clients, not that I would somehow control them through their equipment.
Besides, wouldn’t it be the same no matter how difficult I made the release phrase?
For example, say I set the words "Kim Yuna is an idiot" as the form-change command.
But they genuinely wouldn’t know it, right? It could slip out by chance someday.
And if it suddenly went pop and released at an official event...
"Mm."
No one would ever again say Seren looked like a man on the community forums.
But that wasn’t what I wanted, either.
And... to be honest.
It would be a lie to say I didn’t have perverted inclinations like this...
"Yuna, give me an objective assessment. Have I been especially full of youthful vigor lately?"
It did feel like I’d been a little excessive lately.
After remaining silent for a moment, Yuna replied.
[...Don’t you have a rather young physical age, big brother?]
"Yeah."
A teenage boy’s body had boundless energy, after all.
[Maybe you’re gradually being affected by the hormones of that vigorous body? That’s why you’ve been a little more... bouncy?]
It made sense. Humans were slaves to hormones.
As expected, it was all the hormones’ fault.
It absolutely wasn’t my fault.
Just kidding. Since Kim Yujin was thirty years old, I should exercise some restraint...
Then I would put the Third Form on hold for now and add it later, after reaching an agreement.
Though... could we even reach an agreement?
My energy suddenly drained away.
"Sigh."
First, let’s choose the materials.
The core of this armor would be biomimicry of the Diabolicus horn beetle.
I heard that even in the world where I used to live, they had tried to utilize this creature’s structure in aerospace engineering.
The material they used was some sort of carbon-fiber composite...
But the exact name wasn’t any of my business, since there was no carbon whatever here.
So I would have to approach this using entirely new materials.
Still, there was one point worth paying attention to... I needed to take inspiration from the thread-thin portions of carbon fiber.
In the end, the structure involved interlocking countless plates made by extending threads.
Then when it came to thread, there was one staple material of the Lionel household that came to mind.
"Spirit Thread."
It was an excellent material, but...
It was Spirit Thread again.
If I kept using nothing but the same thing, I wouldn’t make any progress no matter how many different pieces of equipment I crafted.
Changing the water over and over wouldn’t matter if I was still inside the same fishbowl.
Bang.
I opened the storeroom door and went inside to rummage through the materials.
By now, thanks to the materials Isabella and Yeomhwa had brought, quite a lot had piled up...
"Tch."
I had a feeling this would take a while.
How much time passed like that?
Sorting, testing, evaluating. Sorting, testing, evaluating.
After tediously repeating that process, I finally managed to select precisely two suitable materials.
What were the points I focused on?
First, strength and flexibility.
Second, appearance.
Third, weight.
Unfortunately, there was no single material that satisfied all three conditions at once.
So it seemed right to use two materials that could compensate for each other’s weaknesses.
The first was Vein Iron.
I had used it once before... but there was no helping it. There was absolutely no substitute for this stuff.
It was a mineral in which numerous thin metallic layers had been stacked together under underground pressure over a long period of time.
There was simply no better material for constructing the framework of armor.
This time, though, it would be ordinary Vein Iron rather than Fire Vein Iron.
I decided to introduce variation through the other material I would mix with it.
The second material was Elastic Stone.
It was flexible and light, but...
What I needed was not a chunk of rock, but thread.
"This is where elven techniques come in."
I planned to use the elves’ thermal-shock delamination technique to peel Elastic Stone into films, then twist those films into thread.
If I mixed the two materials appropriately...
There would be subtly golden Vein Iron, formed under pressure, linked together by silver-gray Elastic Stone.
The armor’s defining feature would be its coexistence of gold and silver.
Honestly, every stage of equipment crafting was fun, but...
"Ah."
Preparing materials was one of the less enjoyable stages.
It was pure, backbreaking grunt work.
For the first time in a while, I opened the crucible furnace and tossed in the Elastic Stone.
I had no intention of melting it, so I waited only until it heated sufficiently, took it out, and threw it directly into the water in the cooling tank.
Ssssss...
Hot steam rose along with bubbles from the water.
And at the very moment its surface could no longer withstand the drastic temperature difference...
Thump... thump...
I struck the cooling tank with Dawn Bringer, sending vibrations through it to make the films rise to the surface.
It had been a while since I’d done this, too.
I scooped out the films with a net and dried them as they were.
"This alone will take a week."
Still, it was a process I was experienced with, so I figured it would take less time than expected.
Ssssss...
Thump, thump...
Rustle... rustle...
After repeating the same process thousands of times, the three chunks of Elastic Stone had been transformed into piled skeins of silver-gray thread.
"Done."
Successfully turned them into thread.
It really took a whole week. This is driving me insane.
Next was Vein Iron.
I absolutely could not melt this one.
Fire Vein Iron was fine because it had endured fire for a long time, but while Vein Iron was a mineral compressed by heat, the instant it melted, all its accumulated layers would collapse.
Instead...
Fwoosh.
I heated it just a little, drove wedges into the ingot...
Clang clang clang clang!
Then split it like mad along the layers.
I hammered each fragment into plates, then cut them into tiny hexagonal puzzle pieces, roughly the size of a fingernail.
Then I carved grooves into their backs for Elastic Thread—the thread made from Elastic Stone—to pass through.
Using tweezers, I painstakingly interwove each one with thread and set them into place.
Countless small hexagonal pieces would come together to form a single suit of armor...
Vein Iron was a mineral with the property of wanting to return to being one piece of earth, so the instant separate pieces touched, their layers and grain would connect.
The seams would adhere to one another, flattening the surface and eliminating gaps and unevenness.
It would look like a single plate... so it wouldn’t be disgusting in a vaguely trypophobic way.
I had chosen Vein Iron with that in mind from the start.
Horn beetle armor was creepy, so I had to modify it in my own way.
Then, when mana was infused again or the release phrase was spoken, the Elastic Thread would snap tight and contract, spreading the pieces apart.
They would return to their places and interlock again. That was the basic principle behind the form change.
I would probably need to obtain and add Resonance Stone as well.
"...Vein Iron, Elastic Stone, Resonance Stone."
For now, I wrote down the materials I would bill Seren for.
And just like that, I had a roughly perfect plan laid out, but...
"...Is this insane?"
It truly was.
The highest difficulty level ever.
I was trying to replicate the horn beetle’s innate, god-given structure with a simple click, so this disaster required me to surpass the limits of humanity.
One month...
I had said one month for now, but was I being greedy? It felt like I might go over by quite a bit.
And there was something that had been bothering me for a while.
"..."
There were materials left over.
Even after setting aside enough Vein Iron and Elastic Thread to make Forms One and Two...
There was exactly enough material remaining to make a swimsuit top and bottom.
Could this be a coincidence?
[It’s a coincidence.]
I believe there are no coincidences in this world.
Of course, the reckless Lionel would secretly force-install Bikini Backdoor Armor.EXE.
But with the mindset of Kim Yujin, a thoroughly rational man...
I would make it as the Third Form, but only after asking what she wanted.
Based on the fact that the schedule would run a little late and that I needed to bill her for the materials, it seemed best to casually ask her about it.
Let’s just ask.
[Cristiano]: Seren.
[Seren de Lumiere]: Yes? What is it?
[Cristiano]: I’m afraid the production schedule may run a little over.
[Seren de Lumiere]: That’s fine. I didn’t expect it to be completed within a month in the first place.
[Seren de Lumiere]: If you kept insisting it would only take a month, I might have thought you were a scammer.
Right. Everyone wins when things are good.
[Cristiano]: Also, I’ll send you a list of the materials used in production.
I attached the list I had prepared in advance.
Vein Iron, Elastic Stone, Resonance Stone, and so on.
[Seren de Lumiere]: Wow... those are precious materials, aren’t they?
She had a decent eye for such things, at least.
[Seren de Lumiere]: Would it be all right if I sent gold instead? I’ll pay you one and a half times the value.
For payment, the client could either send the materials themselves again or attach gold based on the auction house’s recent transaction prices.
It seemed to work the same way everywhere.
She could have simply paid the market price in gold, but offering one and a half times that was considerate, so I was thankful.
And Yeomhwa had brought these materials, so it was free money for me.
I hadn’t spent a single coin on materials. This was creative economics at its finest.
Good.
No problems so far.
But this was where the problem began...
"Yuna, filter this one for me."
[Mm-hm.]
I composed myself for a moment, then spoke in a calm voice.
"Seren, by any chance, do you need a bikini?"
[Oh, come on.]
The filtering was just an excuse.
I believed in Yuna’s creativity.
Tap tap...
[Cristiano]: Seren, with summer approaching, there is something I would like to cautiously ask you.
Hey, that was a good opening.
[Cristiano]: Since you are handling both duties at the Imperial Palace and climbing the Tower, I imagine you have little time to rest properly.
It was a little too much information, but this was fine...
[Cristiano]: I would like to express my gratitude to Seren de Lumiere, who always devotes herself to the Imperial Family and the citizens of the Empire.
[Cristiano]: Therefore, I would like to make you a swimsuit free of charge...
[Cristiano]: This summer, how about spending even a little time by the water or enjoying a swim to rest and recharge?
Wow, like this?
"Hey, that’s good, Yuna."
[Cristiano]: I would like to hear your thoughts.
At this point, the meaning was clear.
Along with thanking her for her service, I had asked whether she wanted a swimsuit.
The coin had been cast.
"Pleeeeease!"
I clasped my hands together and prayed desperately.
2.
"...Huh?"
This was far too sudden.
Until just moments ago, they had only been discussing armor.
And suddenly, a summer vacation?
A swimsuit?
"...So he’s a citizen of the Empire."
...Actually, even simple respect made Seren feel rather good.
Most citizens of the Empire saw Seren as a climber, not as a knight of the Imperial Palace.
Of course, the swimsuit had sent that feeling of gratitude in a somewhat strange direction...
And the truly surprising part was this.
Seren liked swimming.
As a knight belonging to the Imperial Family, and even a bodyguard knight, she was given exactly seven days of vacation a year.
The moment she went on leave, Seren departed the capital and traveled far away without telling anyone.
Her destination... was an uninhabited beach that nobody knew about.
There, she enjoyed a full week of solitary island life by herself.
For that one week, she took off her armor and became a woman, returning to a more primal state.
She tanned, swam, and did everything she could do...
"How did he know?"
This was a secret known neither by His Imperial Majesty nor the imperial princes—nor even by her sisters.
So naturally, it should have remained a secret even from a blacksmith, and she should refuse...
Thump, thump.
But that damnably accurate intuition of hers, right now.
Just as when she had first seen the name Cristiano Equipment Workshop... no, even more strongly than then.
Thumpthumpthump.
It screamed at her to accept immediately.
It told her never to miss this chance.
As though, somehow...
If she accepted this strange proposal now...
"...Is it real?"
She would receive the finest swimsuit of her life.
She would never regret it.
And she would experience the greatest joy of her life.
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