1.
All right, next.
As with anything, it was important to control the pace.
I had pulled the thread as tight as possible, so I needed to handle the pearl gently.
Rare materials formed over such long years usually held different energies in each layer.
I placed the pearl on a cloth and set out some polishing powder.
Then...
"Yuna, magnify it for me..."
[Mm-hm.]
After photographing the pearl, Yuna projected an enlarged image into the air.
It looked smooth on the surface, but... there were more gaps and grooves than one might think.
Using a finishing cloth coated in polishing powder, I carefully smoothed down the raised portions around the grooves.
Scrape... scrape...
Rub, polish, rub again, then polish some more.
"...My eyes are going to pop out."
Yuna’s magnification made it easier to see, but the actual rubbing was the same either way.
How long had I been at this, holding onto this tiny thing?
The surface was now smooth no matter where I looked—up, down, left, or right.
"Done."
Only then could I put down the finishing cloth.
Like I always said, these were gloves—and her primary weapon.
The function I had planned was simple, but...
I had felt it with Seren’s armor and its form change last time too... The moment you put multiple functions into a single piece of equipment, its upper limit rose to a completely different level.
Of course, that also raised the quality demanded of me, but that just meant I had to work myself harder.
So what was it I wanted?
To create the tools Camilla needed right in the palm of her hand.
A scalpel, forceps, a needle—whatever equipment she envisioned, mana would solidify and take that form.
So she would not have to stop in the middle of surgery to look for a tool.
"Formless sword."
Exactly like that.
Though in this case, it would be a formless scalpel.
But to make that happen, the process of receiving mana and channeling it outward had to be perfect.
That made the material receiving the output incredibly important.
So...
"You’d better do your job well.
You’ll be at the center of it, Pearl."
Crack!
I split the thing cleanly in half.
Why?
Because gloves come in a pair...
2.
A week and a half passed.
There was more time than I had expected.
The Company was too busy handling its own mess to summon anyone right away.
It was the officially reported failure of the first expeditionary force, after all. It made sense.
Accordingly, Camilla was taking time to catch her breath here with the other mothers.
There was no problem as long as I was the only one working my ass off.
Still, Ruby’s observation visit was scheduled for about three days from now, so I had to finish before then. With that in mind, I was devoting over ninety percent of every twenty-four hours to labor.
I was barely sleeping at all, running myself ragged. Passing out now and then was the entirety of my sleep.
I did not even know how I was staying awake... but if I collapsed, Camilla would fix me up.
That was the mindset I was working with, at least.
Except...
"You crazy bastard."
This thing in front of me.
I had raised it all the way to five stars with Dawn Bringer. You would think it would obediently cooperate after I had nurtured it that much...
Instead, it had become far tougher and more springy than I expected.
Threading a needle through it was a problem to begin with...
Still, it did have the property of becoming a little softer when infused with mana, so...
"There, there. Time for food."
...For now, I was coaxing it into submission as I stitched it with a mana stone that held magical power.
I could not think of these as ordinary gloves.
Why were disposable gloves so thin? Because they had to feel as though there was nothing at your fingertips.
In other words, there could be no seams or joints.
That was why I knitted it all in one piece, from the wrist to the fingertips, using a single strand of thread.
Starting at the wrist, shaping the palm... then adjusting the thickness and length all the way through the fingers.
Slide, sliiide...
Then... I set the split pearl halves into the wrist sections, one for each glove.
"Yuna, give me a hologram of Camilla’s hand size."
[Okay.]
To fit Camilla perfectly.
I positioned them so that even when she bent her hand, her wrist would not catch against the broad portion of the pearl.
Slide... slide...
Gradually, I wrapped the edges.
That was how the pair of gloves slowly took shape.
They looked like ordinary white gloves from the outside...
But when picked up and touched, they barely had any noticeable thickness.
Rustle...
When I brushed them with my fingertips, they felt exquisitely fine.
They were like cotton gloves woven from precious thread—or perhaps simply soft latex gloves.
A gleaming pearl sat at each wrist.
I had secured them by covering their edges with thread, so there was no chance they would fall off.
"...Good."
I set the two gloves down side by side.
For now, the appearance had come out just as I envisioned.
But was it finished?
"No way."
Now for the inside.
There was no point in a smooth exterior if the part touching her skin was rough.
And since this was for someone whose profession required delicate use of her hands, the inside of the gloves was even more important.
I carefully turned them inside out.
Slip...
I really had become skilled at sewing by now, but...
Honestly, whenever you sew something, the outside and inside are different.
The lining naturally had ridges where the threads crossed, along with knots.
Of course, that was because this was handmade, and even those knots were extremely small...
But being small did not make them acceptable.
"Kill them all."
I meant it literally.
After softening the material with a mana stone...
Poke.
I inserted a needle into the knots and bumpy parts, undoing them.
Naturally, I had to undo them while keeping the binding intact, so I had to approach it with the mindset of defusing a bomb.
I needed to know which of the red and blue wires to cut to disarm it, at the very least.
And this crafting method was essentially the same as the Children of the Forest’s perverse gem-cutting technique.
Whether it was a gemstone or gloves...
They were both perverts who obsessed over parts no one could see.
"..."
Slide... slide...
And that process was the most hardcore part of this entire creation.
After spending roughly two more days on it, I succeeded in tidying up the entire lining.
"...Hah."
Smooth.
A perfect seamless glove, without a single spot that could catch.
"Done."
This time, it was truly finished.
And then...
Sizzle...
As always, once the equipment was completed, I heard the sound of engravings being etched.
A pattern was drawn as if burning into the threads on the inside of the wrists.
Thankfully, the engravings had appeared on the inner side of the gloves.
But...
"...Huh?"
I recognized the mark of the Heirs of Fire, but...
Fwoooosh...
Another line appeared beside it...
"This..."
It had been a long time.
A pattern I had not seen since the Dolores crest.
The mark of the Children of the Forest was engraved as well.
A tree thick with leaves.
"...Well, that makes sense."
This work had used the techniques of the Heirs of Fire and the Children of the Forest in nearly equal measure.
...It had every right to claim voting rights. Fair enough.
And not long after my admiration...
Bang!
"...!"
Light spilling out from the two patterns swept across the whole pair of gloves.
The pearls embedded at the wrists glowed, and then a flood of text poured out before my eyes.
─────────────────
[Elpis: Savior’s Hands][★★★★✦]
[Exclusive Equipment] [Compatibility][110/110]
[Designated User: Camilla]
─────────────────
『She grasped countless hands and led them away from death. Yet she could not grasp her own hand when it lost its way. Now, someone has come to take that hand.』
『There are still people left for her to save. It is not yet time for her to fall.』
─────────────────
"...Exclusive equipment?"
It was wording I had never seen in my life.
That space had always been occupied by Unique Equipment.
What was more, it had not even been worn yet, but...
Its compatibility was naturally holding steady at 110 points.
As if it were proudly declaring that, no matter what, it would receive a perfect score.
I shook my head and read the next passage.
─────────────────
[Exclusive Binding]
[This equipment has been completed based on the senses and mana-operation system of its wearer: Camilla.]
[All functions are linked to the designated user’s unique ability.]
[No one other than the designated user may unlock this equipment’s authority.]
[Sets the goal desperately desired by the designated user.]
─────────────────
Equipment for one person alone in all the world.
"...Right."
That was what I had intended from the start.
─────────────────
[High Rendering]
[Designated User: Camilla]
[Expands the limits of perception of the unique ability [Disease Formularization].]
[Separates and visualizes every layer composing an illness.]
[Distinguishes symptoms, causes, and external interferences acting upon those causes.]
[Also manifests curses and damage to the soul, which do not appear in the physical body, as formulas.]
[Areas that could not be seen because they could not be interpreted are converted into observable areas.]
─────────────────
And then...
─────────────────
[Declaration] [Cooldown][24 Hours]
[From this moment onward, the one who determines a patient’s death is ‘Camilla.’]
[Halts all changes of condition, including disease progression, bleeding, curses, and the collapse of body and soul.]
─────────────────
It made the unseen visible and opened a path forward.
And even... the finality of death now depended on Camilla?
That was...
‘Cryostasis.’
There was no longer any need for that crude method of freezing someone solid.
Camilla now had a method of her own.
─────────────────
[Path of Life]
[Displays treatment paths in the observed formula that may lead to survival.]
[Presents subsequent changes and danger zones in real time according to the treatment chosen by the wearer.]
[Also displays paths that cannot be carried out with the wearer’s current capabilities.]
─────────────────
[Surgical Instruments of All Things]
[Manifests medical tools understood and envisioned by the wearer using mana.]
[Shape, size, strength, and thickness can be adjusted in real time.]
[Multiple tools may be manifested simultaneously and operated independently.]
[Manifested tools directly interfere with targets observed through [Disease Formularization].]
─────────────────
And lastly.
Where the explanation of the functions ended, the Origin Script read...
─────────────────
『Do not, with the hands of the living, encroach upon what belongs to death.』
- Demon Beelzebub -
『A divine physician? Or the god of medicine?』
- Ignia, Goddess of Fire -
─────────────────
And...
─────────────────
『You have to believe in yourself, don’t you?』
- Skilled Blacksmith L -
─────────────────
Even the words I had muttered to myself were all written there.
"..."
After reading the equipment’s abilities in their entirety, one thing stood out to me.
‘The goal desperately desired by the designated user.’
Nowhere did it say it would completely cure a disease or administer a panacea.
There was no such wording at all.
It made the unseen visible, found the path... gave her the time and tools to walk that path, and then...
In the end, everything was...
"Camilla’s responsibility."
What came next had to be achieved with her own hands.
All this equipment did was help Camilla.
Camilla’s goal.
What Camilla desperately wanted in the end was...
To save people with her own hands.
So that she would never again be unable to do anything while a patient lay before her.
So that she could personally save them with both hands.
And then...
Knock... knock...
Someone knocked on the door, then opened it without waiting for an answer.
"...L-Lionel."
"Yes."
Camilla stood there, her aquamarine hair disheveled as though she had rushed over in a hurry.
"Sorry, I’m sorry, but..."
"..."
"I think I had a dream..."
Camilla pressed a hand to her chest as she caught her breath.
"It was tingling here... numb, and... I just suddenly felt like I had to run here..."
If that was the case... then it must indeed be the effect of the exclusive equipment.
"Your timing is perfect."
You came at just the right time.
I stepped aside and showed her the gloves on the workbench.
"Your primary weapon."
So...
"You have to save them, Camilla."
Cordelia too.
Adeline too.
And...
You, who still believed everything was your fault.
Thud.
And the instant I finished speaking...
"...Huh?"
All the strength drained from my body.
Ah, but I held out for quite a while this time.
The backlash from all that labor had finally arrived.
As my eyelids grew heavy and my vision gradually blurred...
...I understand now why the others did it.
I heard Camilla’s voice.
Her hands carefully put on the gloves, afraid they might tear even as tears streamed down her face.
Then she approached me with a radiant smile...
That was the last thing I saw.
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