1.
Even if the whole world does not believe in you... a person who believes in themself can rise again.
Because faith in oneself is practically the last line of defense.
It is what keeps a person going until the very end.
And Camilla was exactly the opposite.
The world still believed in her, but she did not believe in herself.
The first was Dolores.
Camilla had been born with an eye for medicine.
When she looked, she could see it—the source of the problem and what she needed to touch to fix it.
Illness, too, was ultimately a kind of formula...
What she called the formularization of disease.
There was nowhere she could not unravel. All she had to do was untangle the complicated knots and correct what had been connected wrong.
Thanks to that, Camilla had already made a name for herself as a renowned physician even before she began climbing the Tower.
So she had confidently declared it.
‘A family curse? I’ll cure it.’
A hereditary disease?
That did not matter. There was always a cause behind what damaged the body.
‘I definitely will.’
Dolores had smiled when she heard those words.
‘Mm. I’ll leave it to you.’
Camilla still remembered that expression.
And on the day she examined Dolores’s body...
“...”
Camilla was met with despair.
She understood that her mana pathways were blocked and mana was flowing backward through her body.
But she could see nothing.
Where she needed to intervene... what she needed to fix...
There was nothing Camilla could do.
‘Dolores... I’m sorry...’
From that day onward, she never made confident promises to anyone again.
The second was Cordelia.
Adeline was a child who had occasionally come along with her older sister and shyly greeted Camilla.
‘Please, Camilla.’
This time, she could not readily answer.
The words that she would cure her would not come out.
‘...Let me take a look first.’
Still, surely she could do something.
Dolores had a family curse, a hereditary disease, an exceptional case. That was why it had been impossible.
And that hope...
“...Ah.”
Shattered the moment she looked into Adeline’s body.
The formularization of disease, which Camilla had been so proud of, lost its light.
She could not even see what was wrong, let alone a path toward what she was supposed to do.
There was nowhere at all for her to lay a hand.
That day, Camilla cried out the name of the god she served.
‘What am I supposed to do?’
She could not get back up until she received an answer.
And the answer that came back was...
『Can something that has already been fated to die truly be called an illness?』
A death... that had been decided?
Could it not be prevented?
A revelation of heaven’s secrets.
In an instant... she had heard of the deaths of both Dolores and Adeline.
It would have been better if she had never heard it.
Was a physician someone who only cured illnesses that could be cured?
‘I’ll trust only you, Doctor!’
What did these people see in her, entrusting their lives to someone who had only ever done what she knew how to do?
Doubt. Misgivings about herself.
Even after saving patients, that doubt in herself did not disappear. It remained in her mind.
Then one day...
‘Dolores is climbing the Tower again?’
Her first thought was joy. Her second, relief.
Her third was doubt, but...
What was the point of questioning why someone who was supposed to die was still alive?
Digging into it felt as though she would be trying to confirm the death of a companion, so she simply kept quiet and was happy.
She did not try to learn too deeply, afraid it might bring disaster again.
When Yeomhwa collapsed, she had no choice but to contact Dolores and ask about the method... but she never pried into anything Dolores had not revealed herself.
And then there was Yeomhwa.
It had not been a fatal illness, but her damaged mana circuits had certainly been serious.
Yet the bracelet had actually been the cause, and the moment she took it off, she had begun recovering in no time...
Coincidentally, around that time, there was one name that kept coming up from both of them.
Lionel.
‘He’s someone I love.’
At first, Camilla had nearly reported her to the police.
She had no idea what that love meant, but every time Dolores spoke that name, her expression changed first.
‘He’s a kid... but how should I put it? He makes me want to lean on him.’
It was the first time Yeomhwa had ever spoken of someone that way.
Just what kind of kid was he?
To Camilla, he was just a kid constantly running around and whipping things up, but children his age were all like that.
She had thought she would talk with him more the next time they met, but...
What came before that was...
The news that Cordelia was on the verge of death.
Her heart raced wildly.
Her arms and legs trembled.
Could Camilla really do it?
But once again...
“...”
She could see nothing in Cordelia’s ravaged body either.
The words ‘fated death’ kept circling in her mind.
“...”
As she repeatedly reached out and pulled her hand back, Cordelia’s breathing grew fainter.
How many minutes did she have left?
No. How many seconds?
Until her breath finally stopped.
Then, the Company whispered beside her.
“It seems you are having difficulties.”
“...”
“Will you require a freezing technique?”
And what would the price be?
“...Yes.”
“Then...”
What came afterward held no meaning, and she could not hear it anyway.
“...a climber of...”
Because she would have to do whatever they demanded.
If she refused, Cordelia would die.
There was nothing strange about it. It was simply Camilla’s turn at last.
“Naturally, if you find a cure, please come to us again at any time.”
“...”
“That is what we want as well.”
With that verbal contract, Camilla became a temporary climber for the Company.
That made three times in the end.
Camilla lost herself.
She could no longer believe in herself.
2.
The rain showed no sign of stopping.
Camilla was drying herself in the heat pouring from the open furnace.
I filled a cup with water and brought it to her.
“...”
Camilla took it without a word.
If anyone does not already know, let them learn this now.
“Are you okay?” is a question you ask someone who looks as though they might be able to answer it.
I kept my mouth shut and sat beside her.
Cordelia had been on the verge of death, and then Camilla came here.
Anyone with functioning eyes could tell that was not the face of someone who had returned after a successful treatment.
So... I simply waited for her to speak.
Crackle, crackle...
The sound of the Flame Stone Ignia had given me burning, and the sound of rain.
Had we listened to nothing but that for a long while?
“...I froze her.”
“...”
Camilla opened her mouth.
That was one suffocating opening line.
“The sisters are frozen together, because of me.”
Camilla gave a self-mocking laugh and drank the water...
At least it was fortunate that Dolores had given me the background beforehand.
She meant she had held Cordelia in place with a freezing technique, just like her younger sister.
But what the hell... what was she talking about?
Why was that her fault?
“...What exactly has Dolores been telling a kid like you?”
Camilla put a hand to her forehead and tried to get up.
“What was the problem?”
I asked calmly from where I sat beside her.
“...The problem?”
Camilla looked like she was about to brush it off, then looked at me...
“Me.”
She pointed a finger at herself.
Drip...
Tears streamed down her cheeks.
I did not think she even realized it.
“...”
Ever since hearing the story from Dolores, I had been wrestling with the same concern.
What was I torn over?
First, I wanted to save Cordelia.
Second, I wanted to shove shit down the Company’s throat.
Those conflicting feelings had been swirling around inside me at the same time.
But until I heard the truth from Dolores, those were incompatible conditions.
Why?
If Cordelia was part of the Company’s fighting force, healing her through equipment would benefit them!
The Company would get to use the restored number-one ranker for free again.
But now I knew why Cordelia was bound to that place.
I knew what had kept her from leaving.
Then what if...
‘I cured Adeline too?’
What if both the older sister and younger sister recovered?
The very reason the Company had been holding Cordelia hostage would disappear...
The number-one-ranked Cordelia would no longer need to rely on that place either.
That would do it, wouldn’t it?
Then if I asked myself right here and now...
Lionel, you.
‘Can you make equipment that will save Cordelia and Adeline?’
...No, damn it.
I had never even seen them, so how could I determine compatibility? How could I know what was wrong with them?
I was not a doctor to begin with.
I knew how to make equipment, not how to fix a human body.
But right in front of me...
“Doctor.”
There was a doctor.
The greatest doctor, who had examined both of them and tried somehow to save them... only to conclude that she herself was the problem and spiral into a mental breakdown.
“Don’t call me that.”
“...”
“I’m a climber affiliated with the Company now.”
Was that so?
I looked at Camilla.
Only then did I think I understood what she had given the Company in exchange for freezing Cordelia.
She had given up on herself and come to them even though she knew what had happened to Cordelia after climbing.
And despite that, Camilla could only think about the life she had failed to save.
Then this worked out well.
I just had to take you with me too.
The Company would lose not only the number-one ranker, but the greatest doctor as well.
That was one more reason.
Thanks, you bastards.
Then I asked Lionel once more.
For a doctor who had offered up even herself to save a patient.
...Could I make the finest piece of equipment she had ever experienced?
Equipment that would let her see what she could not see, or reach even the places she could not touch...
Equipment that would ultimately let her surpass her limits and heal her patients.
Could I make something like that?
‘I will.’
If I said I would, I would.
Why?
Because if I had already decided to do it, if my heart had already tilted in that direction...
Then I had to believe in myself, at least in the version of me who would take on the challenge.
So the answer had already been decided...
I immediately rose to my feet.
“Allow me to introduce myself properly.”
It was the first time I had ever properly introduced myself to someone on my own.
“A Sun Dwarf, the last of the Heirs of Fire, and a Skilled Blacksmith.”
She wore an expression that said she did not understand what I was talking about, but...
It was fine. Everyone had been like that at first.
“The craftsman who stopped Duke Dolores’s winter.”
And brought spring.
“The artisan who has crafted countless unique pieces of equipment, including those of Yeomhwa and Isabella.”
I raised the corner of my mouth and looked into Camilla’s unfocused eyes.
“I’m Lionel.”
I knew what those who held my equipment had accomplished.
So this time too.
Of course... this time too.
“What was it that you lacked?”
When I reached my hand into the air...
Whooom...!
The hammer hanging on one side of the workshop flew toward me.
Thud.
It landed neatly in my hand.
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[Dawn Bringer] [★★★☆☆]
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[Enchantment List]
[Loyalty] [LV.3]
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It was a good thing I had whined to Isabella until she enchanted it for me.
Camilla’s gaze turned to the hammer.
“...Huh?”
She looked back and forth between the hammer and my face, and her mouth slowly fell open.
“...Y-you’re the one who made those insane pieces of equipment...”
“That’s right. They’re my work.”
I made them.
“So.”
Holding the hammer, I waited for her answer.
It was all right. Speak freely.
“Will you tell me?”
What it was that she needed.
Whatever she wanted.
“I will make it for you. Without fail.”
Because I believe in myself.
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