1.
It begins grandly and ends with a whimper.
Like I said before, it was the phrase I hated most.
"So, the equipment you normally use during surgery is..."
Scribble, scribble.
I wrote down each item Camilla listed.
[Knife, needle, thread, bandages.]
"...Is that all?"
"Forceps, maybe."
Wait, that was it?
Wasn't there something like a scalpel? Though, calling it a knife did sound a little strange.
"I use magic for the finer details."
Perhaps because she was a magical physician, she did seem to work somewhat differently.
Then something suddenly occurred to me.
"But you've both been treated now. What if the Company says otherwise?"
"...Then we tear them apart and kill them, right?"
Ah, yes....
Her words were rather bloody, but it didn't seem like they had signed any sort of contract in the first place.
They had merely agreed to do what the Company asked while it maintained the cryogenic treatment.
What had held Camilla there was likely her determination to save Cordelia... and the guilt of not being able to cure her herself.
It wasn't that she had sworn loyalty to the Company or entered into some slave contract.
"Cordelia... must be the same."
Everyone had tried to find a solution together, but Cordelia had thrown herself into the Company's service.
At the time, Dolores had been ill too, and her sister's remaining time had been dwindling away.
Maybe she hadn't wanted to burden her companions—the Dawn Apostles—with it.
If so, all I had to do now was give them another option.
"..."
I stared intently at Camilla.
"...What, what is it?"
She did seem a little more alive than before, at least.
First, this woman....
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[White Robe of Dawn][★★★★☆]
[Unique Equipment] [Compatibility][63/80]
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『There was always someone beside the patient who made it through the night.』
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『Only the one who stayed by their side knows how many critical moments they endured before morning came.』
- Selaea, Goddess of the Moon -
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The white robe she was wearing.
This one passed.
A score of sixty-three meant it suited her rather well.
In other words, there was no reason to make her take off what she was already wearing without cause.
But her other equipment was rather lacking....
I just needed to fill out everything besides the white robe.
So what would be good?
"..."
Click.
Yuna was probably taking pictures of Camilla right now.
"...For now, it's getting late today."
"It's eight in the morning..."
"You haven't slept."
For heaven's sake, I'm fine. You, though. You need sleep.
"Dolores~"
"...? Did you just call her?"
I murmured quietly.
Knock, knock.
Was that Lionel?
"...Wow."
Camilla looked toward the door and laughed in disbelief.
The door soon opened.
"Dolores, please put Camilla to bed."
"All right."
Without asking anything further, Dolores grabbed Camilla by the shoulder and dragged her outside.
Camilla... meekly let herself be dragged away, then looked back at me just before leaving.
"...Lionel."
"Yes."
"..."
Her lips moved as though she wanted to say something.
"Trust me."
When I spoke first, she nodded.
Click.
I sent the two of them off and shut the door.
"...Whew."
Now then, shall I give this some thought?
What does a doctor need, exactly?
There was a time when I had considered going to medical school.
When every exam was over and I got my report card back in my school days... there hadn't been a university in Korea I couldn't get into.
Back then, I even asked Yuna—who was a much less capable little cutie at the time—what abilities a doctor needed.
She had said there were four main things: knowledge, observation, judgment, and communication skills.
"..."
I was confident in my ability to focus, but engineering had simply appealed to me more at the time.
And since I had the insane ambition of rebuilding this country with my own hands, my dream of becoming a doctor fell through.
And above all....
"Failure..."
It was a position where failure carried far too much weight.
There would be people you couldn't save no matter how hard you tried....
I didn't think I could accept that.
And... in my opinion,
Camilla might be thinking similarly.
"Put them up."
[Okay.]
Pictures of Camilla appeared.
An extraordinary beauty with water-colored hair and a striking beauty mark beneath her eye.
Whether at official events or caught by paparazzi, she was notable for always wearing a white robe wherever she went....
[Lavido Slums]
[Bernan Borderlands]
Someone who personally traveled even to places with poor medical facilities....
She deserved to be called a divine physician.
Yet she herself was in that state.
This was image training. Who, exactly, was Camilla?
To make equipment with exceptional compatibility, I needed to understand that.
"..."
I remained seated, studying the pictures... and thought for several more hours.
Rustle.
Then....
"I've decided."
One thing all the photos had in common was that she always wore disposable gloves.
Of course, they needed to be thin to preserve the feeling in her fingers, and they couldn't get in her way, either.
Then I just had to make something good while meeting all those conditions.
"Gloves."
And though I was calling them gloves....
They would be the equipment to fill Camilla's empty main weapon slot.
"Let's go."
Rattle...
I immediately spread out my list of materials.
First, the thread that would serve as the base.
I had already prepared the mineral prep work yesterday, arranging all the materials throughout the workshop.
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[White Moon Silkworm Thread][★★★★☆]
[Thread that softens when infused with mana and grows tougher as tension is applied.]
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I needed a material that wouldn't tear even when woven thin.
When worn on the hand... it had to be so light that it felt like nothing at all.
All right, the base was decided.
Just then.
Knock, knock.
Someone knocked on the workshop door.
"Hm?"
No one usually came by while I was working.
Everyone was considerate enough to know that... so this had to mean they had something important to discuss.
I put down the materials I had spread out.
It would be stupid to answer sharply just because I had been concentrating.
Creak.
When I opened the door... Dolores stood before me.
"Mom?"
"Do you have a moment?"
"Of course. How is Camilla?"
"She's lying down. She only just managed to fall asleep."
That was a relief, at least.
Dolores looked down at me for a moment, then reached out.
Stroke, stroke....
She slowly stroked my hair.
"Thank you, Lionel."
"..."
"For not leaving Camilla alone."
How could I have left her alone when she was standing there in the rain like that?
"And...."
Dolores smiled softly and extended her other hand.
"Perhaps you might need this...?"
A small pearl rested in her open palm.
"Ah."
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[Millennium Pearl][★★★★★]
『It was nurtured for a thousand years in a sea untouched by human feet.』
『Then it was nurtured another thousand years on a shore untouched by human feet.』
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"I meant to give it to you as soon as you returned... but I was late."
It was exactly what I needed.
I accepted the pearl with both hands.
"Thank you. I'll put it to good use."
"...All right."
Dolores's hand stroked the top of my head once more....
Then, as though she did not wish to interrupt my work....
"I'm counting on you."
"Yes."
She immediately left the workshop.
"..."
I looked down at the pearl in my hand.
...A precious material.
Normally, I could only obtain five-star materials by adding my own touch, receiving them from a god, or acquiring them through some other precious means.
In that sense, the fact that she had given such a valuable material to Camilla meant that Camilla was an equally important companion to her.
"Millennium Pearl."
As I had just said, the base was already decided.
And the gloves—no... the core of Camilla's main weapon—would naturally be this little thing.
Gloves were equipment with considerable significance for me.
After all, my first piece of equipment had been Dolores's warming gloves.
With that same mindset.
"All right."
The setup was complete.
I first spread the White Moon Silkworm Thread across the workbench.
Sliiide....
I untangled the threads and wound them separately according to thickness.
Just as grains of sand are not all the same size, thread does not all have the same thickness.
The key was to pick through every strand and select only threads that were thin and uniformly sized.
It was always easy to say... but how could it be easy to pick out only the slightly thicker strands from among all that thread?
Even that process took quite a long time.
"Whew...."
Once I had gathered the selected threads, I took them outside.
Then I wrapped them around the trunk of the giant tree in the garden and secured them.
The other end of the threads, cascading down like hair, I wound around Dawn Bringer's handle and hooked in place.
After setting it down on the ground for a moment... I moved about fifty meters away.
"Come on."
Whoosh.
I held out my hand and called the hammer.
Fwoooosh... thud!
Creeeak...!
Dawn Bringer, which had shot into the air, was caught tight in midair.
Because the thread tied to the giant tree had been pulled taut.
Thread that grew tauter and stronger the more physical shock—in other words, tension—was applied to it.
There was a limit to what I could apply with arm strength... so I would use Dawn Bringer's homing instinct, born from its sworn loyalty.
Creeeak...!
The thread would withstand that force and become tougher still.
If it snapped?
"...Then that's as far as you go."
When it came to materials, you had to approach them with the mindset of separating the gems from the stones.
After an hour like that,
Dawn Bringer had gradually stretched the thread and drawn closer to me, but....
Twitch.
At a certain point, it stopped dead.
"..."
I lowered my hand, walked over to the hammer, and unwound the thread wrapped around the tree and hammer.
Sliiide....
In the end.
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[White Moon Silkworm Thread][★★★★★]
[Thread that softens when infused with mana and grows tougher as tension is applied.]
『Its latent toughness has surpassed its limit.』
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"...Nice."
I had succeeded in evolving it into a five-star material.
The more you use your arms, the stronger they get.
The same went for thread.
The pearl was five-star too, so I had to make them match.
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