1.
Ruby was becoming a capable battle mage. Even I knew that much.
Yeomhwa trained her by tormenting her whenever she got bored.
There was also Dolores’s basic magic instruction.
And, most importantly, there was the Totality I’d made for her.
Still, I never expected her to summon two spirit generals and beat the living hell out of someone.
Ruby was waving from atop the podium.
...I was guessing that Mr. Erich Berg, who ought to have been standing in second place, had been carried off to the hospital by now.
And apparently it wasn’t a lie that she was popular; an enormous number of students were congratulating Ruby on taking first place.
The fact that most of those congratulating her were girls was encouraging, at least.
I’d nearly erased Berg when he started going on about dating earlier.
I waved at Ruby with the corners of my lips lifted too, but there was something on my mind...
Spirit Princess.
The more I thought about it, the less it seemed as though the spirits calling her “Princess” had just been some casually slapped-on title.
I was considering making her equipment that would push her further down the spirit path.
What kind of equipment came to mind when you thought of a princess?
A tiara? Shoes? A dress?
That sort of thing wouldn’t be bad, but...
Then—
"Next, we will present the awards to the winner!"
"The awards will be presented by Lady Seren de Lumiere, who has joined us as a representative of the Imperial Family!"
"Hm?"
A very welcome name.
Seren emerged from the doorway Ruby had come through, at the side of the dueling arena.
"Seren is here too?"
"It seems the Imperial Family sent her."
Since this was an academy sponsored by the Imperial Family...
It wasn’t strange for an Imperial knight to attend an event like this.
But...
"Wow..."
Murmur...
When Seren entered, everyone in the arena turned their attention toward her.
Her looks were one thing, but...
"Nice."
Her armor had the feel of a masterpiece.
Seren was wearing it in its First Form, Paladion.
Seren stopped before the podium, picked up a medal engraved with a golden lion, and held it out to Ruby.
"Congratulations, Lady Ruby."
It was a formal occasion, so her form of address was formal too.
Ruby set her staff upright at her side and bowed her head.
Seren placed the medal around her neck.
It really drove home that there was a cartel here.
The staff and the armor... both were products of Lionel Workshop, after all.
As I watched with a pleased smile—
[Big brother.]
Yuna called me.
[It just went up.]
"..."
An article appeared in front of my eyes, and I read the headline first.
[Breaking News] [Exclusive] [Cordelia Rosenfelt Regains Consciousness After Treatment by the White Gloves of Gorgonew... Being Transferred Outside the Company]
"..."
You did it, Camilla.
The corners of my mouth slowly rose.
[According to information obtained by our source, Cordelia Rosenfelt regained consciousness after receiving treatment from the White Gloves of Gorgonew and has been confirmed to be undergoing transfer outside the Company for follow-up treatment.]
[The Company has yet to provide a response to inquiries regarding the circumstances of her treatment and her transfer destination...]
The Company must have had a choice to make.
Whether to reveal that Cordelia had been taken out by Camilla, or to reveal that Cordelia was alive.
In the end, it seemed they’d agonized over both options, only for this newspaper to force the matter into the open because of a tip.
Someone must have leaked the information.
Then—
"...Lionel."
"Yes."
"It seems Camilla did well."
Dolores whispered softly in my ear.
I turned to look at Mama.
A faint smile touched her lips, and the hand that had been gripping mine tightly relaxed a little.
"They say Cordelia woke up."
"That’s a relief."
"They say she’s headed to the Garden."
"The Garden?"
I tilted my head at the unfamiliar place.
"It’s the Dawn Apostles’ base inside the Tower."
"Ah..."
So it was somewhere no one lived now.
"...And Adeline is with her."
"..."
Wow.
She really did everything, didn’t she?
I hadn’t thought she’d be able to bring them both out at once.
I expected her to go step by step: treat Cordelia first, then make a move for Adeline.
How had she managed to bring Adeline out too?
Even if Camilla could stop the progression of her illness with [Declaration].
Unless the Company was full of idiots, I didn’t think they would have made it easy for her to take Adeline away...
Well, she’d tell me the details later.
"So I should head to the Garden first. I’ll have the carriage wait at that place from last time."
"Oh."
Jingle.
Dolores pressed a small but damnably heavy pouch into my hand.
"Spend some quality time with Ruby today, Lionel."
"...Yes."
Kiss.
She swept my bangs aside slightly, and at the same time, her lips touched my forehead.
It had probably been so brief that no one saw it.
"I’ll be back."
Dolores patted my head once more and left.
I waved while holding the pouch...
"Ruby’s going to feast today."
I had a feeling I’d be able to provide our princess with some high-quality protein today.
After the awards ceremony ended, I went around to the back of the dueling arena and waited for Ruby.
Before long, a familiar head of hair came into view.
Sway.
Tap-tap-tap-tap!
Ruby shook out her hair once and began running toward me.
The lion medal around her neck jingled.
"Did you see? Did you see?"
"You were amazing."
Today’s survival tip.
Never hold back on praise when dealing with an adolescent girl.
By survival tip, I meant it was how you stayed alive.
Ruby’s lips twitched upward, apparently pleased.
"...Where’s Master?"
"Something urgent came up, so she left first. She told us to go have fun."
"Yes!"
"Yes...?"
She didn’t seem disappointed in the slightest.
"It’s vacation now, right?"
"Yeah."
The final exams were over, so the academy was on break.
Jingle.
"To celebrate vacation, your victory, and taking first place on the finals, let’s eat something delicious."
"Okay, and?"
"And let’s take a walk."
"And what else?"
And what else...?
What did she mean, what else? That was scary...
Had I forgotten something?
Ah, wait. What was it again...?
That... that...
[Cotton candy!! Ruby said she wanted cotton candy!]
"...We should have cotton candy too."
"...Hehe."
Special thanks to Yuna...
We left the academy and wandered through the streets.
The attention focused on Ruby was definitely considerable.
"Congratulations, my lady!"
"You were so cool today~"
As we walked along, people kept calling out their congratulations one by one, so...
We ate first, of course.
Even after we’d stuffed ourselves with meat at the restaurant Ruby picked, we still had a long way to go.
"Over there too."
I wanted to ask whether she realized she was already on her twelfth skewer.
But at her age, all the nutrition she ate would probably go toward her height.
Though Ruby’s might go somewhere else too, since she exercised so much.
After we kept wandering around, we eventually each ended up with a cotton candy in hand and plopped down on a grassy hill deep in the park.
There was just enough shade, and hardly anyone around.
I sat down first, took off my outer shirt, and spread it beside me.
"Please have a seat, Princess."
She must have been looking forward to today, so I needed to escort her properly...
"...Your clothes will get dirty."
She looked thoroughly pleased, but our princess was considerate enough to think of her servant.
How grateful I was.
She shook the shirt out a few times and handed it back to me...
"I’ll sit here."
"Oof."
She sat on my thigh.
"..."
For the record, Ruby was estimated to be 163 centimeters tall now.
She acted and spoke cutely, but in truth, there wasn’t much of a height difference between her and Isabella.
Meaning that, strictly speaking... I ought to have been the one sitting on Ruby.
And Ruby had the blessed constitution of a strong body, plus she exercised like crazy.
Her body fat was probably approaching ten percent, so she was far heavier than she looked...
"Hehe."
Still, she looked so satisfied with this position that I held my breath and endured it.
"By the way, Princess."
"Yeah?"
"Should I enchant your staff soon...?"
Since it was Ruby’s first weapon, Dolores and I had intended to give her a weapon that was suitably powerful without breaking the balance.
But...
Slide.
I put on Totality: Vision.
"Whoa, whoa!"
When I looked again, a blue spirit general and a red spirit general were sitting to either side of us as if they were escorting her.
They were seriously terrifying.
"W-were these gentlemen here all along?"
"Yeah, they’ve been beside me the whole time."
...Seeing how she was already in a cooperative relationship with spirit generals like this...
I thought enchanting the staff might be completely fine now.
Besides, this was the only main weapon I’d made so far that truly felt like a main weapon...
I was curious what kind of potential a main-weapon enchantment would have.
Even Ether Circle, a bracelet, was that good. Totality had to be on another level.
"What do you think?"
"I’m curious. It does sound like it’d be fun, but..."
"Yeah."
Twitch.
Ruby suddenly frowned.
"...You know that bastard from earlier."
"Him?"
"That dog."
"..."
She meant the second son of Count Berg’s family, presumably.
"Their equipment is so crappy that even now, it all breaks when I hit it."
"Ah..."
"So it’d be a problem if I got any stronger than I am now."
An entirely rational reason.
"...If you get stronger, beating them up won’t be fun anymore?"
"Yeah."
Really?
Still, I wanted to make her something.
It was vacation, after all, and...
She was so admirable. Even though she traveled back and forth three days a week by herself, she was doing well.
She was even making friends easily.
I don’t think I could have done it.
Not “I don’t think.” I definitely couldn’t have.
With Ruby in my arms, I looked her over once...
Slide.
Then I took her hand.
"...Hm?"
Ruby turned her head.
Squeeze...
When I clasped it firmly until our palms fully met—
"...Ngh."
Ruby flinched slightly, apparently startled.
Mm-hm, just as I thought.
I’d caught a glimpse of them while she was eating skewers earlier...
Her palm had quite a few calluses.
Far too many for the hand of a fourteen-year-old girl.
The barbells Ruby usually lifted were made of iron, with bumpy grips to keep them from slipping.
And because Totality was a staff, she was always gripping it, twisting it, and handling it. That was probably why.
I gently tickled the calluses with my thumb.
"Nngh...!"
"Does it hurt?"
"N-no, it doesn’t hurt..."
Ruby wriggled her fingers.
Still... staff techniques relied heavily on the sensation in the palm where it touched the staff, so gloves were somewhat unsuitable.
It would be a problem if the feel changed.
I could make them without impairing her senses, like I had for Camilla, but I wasn’t sure gloves were truly what Ruby needed.
Then I raised my head slightly and looked at the hulking general brothers on either side.
Spirits, huh...
I looked at Hwiri, trembling in my arms.
Princess.
Since she was a princess, a tiara?
No.
I stared at the top of Ruby’s head for a moment, then abandoned the idea.
She was the type who would never even wear the headbands Mama recommended.
She said they were cumbersome and irritating.
I mean, if I put a crown on a girl who ran around swinging a staff...
Since I’d made it, she would feel too awkward to take it off, and would probably just suffer with it on.
So...
A ring.
Or perhaps something in the auxiliary-weapon category.
I thought it would be good to make something that strengthened her connection with spirits...
I couldn’t decide the details right now, so I’d think it over when we got back.
Pat, pat.
All I could do for her here and now was...
"You worked hard."
Just praise her while stroking her hair.
She’d worked hard enough to grow calluses on her palms.
...Like my own hands right now, they gave me a sense of kinship.
Squeeze...
Ruby seemed to feel the calluses on my palm too and stared at me for a moment.
"...You did well too."
"..."
Nom.
Instead of answering, I held her in my arms as she nibbled away at her cotton candy.
"...Whatever."
Her response was curt, but her face was redder than before.
She might have been 163 centimeters tall, but she was still quite a cute little sister.
2.
The Tower, residential district on the ninety-ninth floor.
The Garden.
It was where the Dawn Apostles had put their heads together before the great trial that was the one-hundredth floor.
A residence where they discussed strategies until late at night, worked on the equipment and tactics they would use the next day... and chatted together.
They always returned here after finishing a climb, and that remained true even after they passed the one-hundredth floor and advanced to even higher levels.
A home that, even after they scattered, they had silently continued to maintain.
...A place filled with everyone’s memories.
It had been an incredibly long time for Dolores as well.
But Camilla had officially declared a gathering.
[Camilla]: Come back to the Garden.
To think she would tell them to return to the Garden...
"..."
Had returning here always been such a nerve-racking thing?
Creak...
Dolores passed through the garden and stood before the front door.
She grasped the handle... and slowly pushed it open.
Creak...
The first thing she saw was Cordelia lying on the living-room sofa.
Her eyes were still closed, but her chest rose and fell. She was unmistakably alive.
Camilla sat beside her, continuing the treatment with her gloved hands.
Then, the moment Dolores turned her head to the other side—
"Ah..."
Someone was lying on the sofa opposite Cordelia.
A woman wrapped in Camilla’s Nereia, with only her face exposed.
Cordelia’s younger sister... Adeline.
The one for whom no one had ever managed to find a cure.
It was something she could not bring herself to tell Lionel, but...
She was the younger sister Cordelia had wanted to save, even if it meant plunging a blade into her comrades’ hearts.
That child who used to laugh so often had returned alongside her sister.
To the arms of the Dawn Apostles.
Then Camilla raised her head...
"You’re here?"
Dolores’s lips moved soundlessly before she barely managed to nod.
"...Yeah."
I’m back.
To the place she had thought she would never be able to return to again.
Dolores looked from one sister to the other, then looked at Camilla.
"You did it, Camilla."
At those words, Camilla stopped moving.
Camilla had always said she was sorry.
When she couldn’t heal Dolores’s body.
When there had been no option but to freeze Adeline.
No one had blamed her, but she herself had been unable to forgive herself.
So the two of them understood all too well what those words just now meant.
"...Yeah."
Only then did Dolores notice the beads of sweat covering Camilla’s forehead.
Her damp hair... and her parched, cracked lips.
She didn’t need to ask how hard Camilla had pushed herself to know.
Yet her face...
She was smiling with an expression more relieved than anyone else’s.
"It’s not all over yet."
Camilla carefully tucked in the Nereia covering Cordelia.
"There are still many places I need to work on... and Adeline is only just beginning."
But now she could see it.
She knew what she had to do.
A laugh slipped into the end of Camilla’s words.
Then she pressed a hand to her face, her lips trembling, and called softly to Dolores.
"...You know, Dolores."
"Yeah..."
"Could you tell Lionel something for me?"
Camilla pressed her wrist firmly to the corners of her eyes.
"A-Auntie... l-lo..."
"..."
"Tell him Auntie loves him..."
In the end, she couldn’t stop the tears from falling.
"Make sure... you tell him..."
Camilla smiled even as she cried.
Perhaps finding it ridiculous that they kept flowing no matter how much she wiped them away, she burst out laughing...
"Because I’m not his big sister...!"
Then she went back to sniffling again and again.
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