Chapter 134: 133. Great Sage Equaling Heaven
1.
99th Floor, the Flower Garden.
Even after Dolores returned to the estate, quite a few people remained behind.
Cordelia’s treatment was still ongoing.
Once she woke up, things began moving a little faster.
"Mm-hm."
The woman sitting cross-legged on the sofa swept away the screens one by one.
"The response notice is up, and the reaction was immediate too."
"..."
Snap!
The pink-haired woman snapped her fingers.
Across from her lay Cordelia, now awake.
Her body, wrapped in seaweed, was still in no condition to move easily.
The pink-haired woman spread the official statement out before Cordelia’s eyes.
After reading its contents to the end, she gave a faint upward curl of her lips.
"You didn’t think the Company would just let you go, did you? Assuming you have any sense at all."
They could not stop her from leaving the group, so they had to at least fling some mud at the person walking away.
The woman then brought up several community posts in rapid succession.
"And... the same phrases keep getting repeated in the comments. Looks like they hired some paid posters, huh?"
"..."
"You’re used to getting trashed anyway, so put up with it for a while~"
"...Okay."
The woman brushed her hair behind her shoulder and shook her head.
For all she spoke that way, she had come all the way here to help Cordelia...
Cordelia could only lower her head in gratitude.
Then—
"You worked hard, Vivian."
Camilla spoke to the pink-haired woman, sweat dripping from her brow.
The woman looked at Camilla, then gave a snort of laughter.
"You’re the one doing all the hard work, Camilla."
"..."
"Keep it up."
Pat, pat.
With those final words and a pat on her shoulder, the pink-haired woman left.
Cordelia’s contract with the Company had been surprisingly simple.
What had shackled her from the beginning was, naturally, the condition that they would maintain the freezing preservation of her younger sister, Adeline.
So long as there was no other way to save her sister, Cordelia could not leave the Company.
The Company knew that too, so there had been no need to bind her with complicated restraints in the contract.
After all, putting more pressure on her or adding further conditions would only mean trying to coerce a climber with the martial strength of the number-one ranker.
In truth, simply demanding intense climbing expeditions had been enough pressure.
They could never have imagined that a means of treating Adeline... would emerge.
Even Camilla had given up on her as a patient.
But that premise had been utterly smashed to pieces by a little blacksmith living in a duchy.
The moment Cordelia woke up...
I’ll leave the group.
She could not help thinking that she wanted out.
There was no longer any reason for her to stay.
Of course, Vivian took care of winding up the contract and all the other minor details, like the worthless reporters.
The reason the Company cared about keeping up appearances was simple: they ruled the public sphere.
Vivian, by contrast... was the queen of the other side.
If they had continued to cling on, Cordelia’s side—meaning Vivian—would have had plenty of moves to make.
They could have dragged things out and hauled the matter into the mud, waging a filthy war of public opinion.
But perhaps the Company feared that as well. They did not hold on any further, and Cordelia’s departure from the group ended more easily than expected.
"..."
Meanwhile, even after Vivian left, Cordelia remained silent for a long while.
As her mind cleared, she began to take in her surroundings.
The familiar ceiling and furniture.
And even Adeline, lying on the sofa across from her.
This was the Flower Garden.
She had returned.
She had returned to the place she thought she would never be able to return to again...
Thoughts, thoughts, and more thoughts...
After she had stabbed a dagger into her comrades’ hearts and left them behind.
And yet, you were giving her another chance.
"..."
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Before she knew it, tears were pouring down and falling onto Nereia, which covered her thighs.
Tears streamed from Cordelia’s expressionless eyes.
She looked as though she had no intention of wiping them away, as though she did not even realize she was crying.
Camilla watched her silently.
Cordelia slowly opened her mouth.
"Sorry, I..."
What could she possibly say now?
Even saying thank you felt shameless.
"Forget it."
After considering something, Camilla raised her head.
"And you’ve got the wrong person."
In truth, she had discussed Lionel long ago with Dolores.
Now that Cordelia had decided to leave the Company, she was no longer part of a hostile faction.
"...There’s someone else you should be thanking."
Camilla began slowly explaining everything that had happened.
She set aside, for the moment, the matter of him creating the equipment.
Instead, she explained how she had been able to begin treating her again.
Who had pulled her back to her feet after she had given up...
It seemed important to make sure Cordelia understood exactly whom she ought to be grateful to.
"He went that far for someone he doesn’t even know. So just be grateful."
"..."
"...Rest."
After hearing the story, Cordelia stared blankly at the ceiling for a long while...
Camilla watched her for a moment before heading upstairs to the second-floor quarters.
She could not... understand it.
He had never even met her face-to-face, and she was a Dawn Apostle who had stabbed her former comrades in the back before leaving them. Yet he had given her another chance.
No matter how she thought about it, there was no reason.
There was absolutely no reason for him to make such an effort for her.
"..."
Cordelia Rosenfeld.
Though it had now been destroyed, the House of Rosenfeld had served lords generation after generation.
It was a family taught, before how to take up a sword and kill someone...
how to wield that sword for someone else.
Once you have chosen a lord to serve, never abandon them according to your circumstances.
It was something she had heard so often as a child that it had been drilled into her ears.
After her family vanished... she had thought it no longer had anything to do with her.
There was no one for her to serve, and the only person she had to protect was her younger sister, Adeline.
But then...
Cordelia turned her head toward the sofa opposite her.
Adeline... was right before her eyes, alive thanks to Camilla’s medical arts.
She had lived prepared to give up anything for her younger sister...
And yet he had returned both of them to her without demanding anything...?
Rustle.
Cordelia unwound the bandage around her left forearm.
A small black mark was engraved on the exposed skin.
A mark that appeared only on the descendant who had inherited the Rosenfeld bloodline most strongly.
Whenever she asked why they had to serve someone, her father always gave the same answer.
One day, you will naturally come to understand.
Words she had not understood at the time.
For without a lord, Rosenfeld’s sword is only half complete.
"..."
Prickle.
"...Ngh."
The mark she had lived her entire life forgetting... kept prickling as if it were demanding something of her.
As if telling her to do her duty at once.
2.
Some time had passed since Cordelia’s departure from the group was confirmed.
Those Company bastards had been running around busily all that time.
At first, they expressed regret, then went on to announce their future plans as though there had never been any problem.
[Formation of an Expedition for a Second Attempt at the 200th Floor]
Apparently, the Company had other climbers in the upper ranks besides her.
In the end, they had declared that they would try again.
They really did have plenty of energy...
Though perhaps the problem was that the organization had the bladder of someone with incontinence.
They just kept pissing out announcements.
Disgusting.
Well, that was their business.
"Hmm..."
I had my own work to do too.
Fuck, there should be someone...
"When the hell am I going to use you?"
I stared at the Blue Cloud Stone sitting in one corner of the workshop.
I had decided to make a sword three weeks ago already.
Yet I still had not found anyone to place it in the hands of.
In the end, that precious five-star ore had become a workshop ornament.
Clouds drifted inside it, and it was rather pretty too, but...
"Sigh."
Of course, that did not mean I could grab just anyone and make them a sword.
There was no rush, so I decided to give it some more thought.
Then—
Tap.
A white dove left a letter on my workshop window and flew away.
"Another one."
Camilla had not returned to the estate since then.
It seemed she was staying at the Flower Garden and devoting herself to treatment...
Instead, letters occasionally arrived.
Most of them primarily said not to put up with being sick just because she was not around, but...
Still, it was a relief to hear that Cordelia’s condition was steadily improving.
As for Adeline, she said she was still working on her a little longer.
The fascinating thing about this stationery was that if you wrote on this side, the words would appear on the other side too.
It was like a magical letter that let you converse in real time.
Scribble, scribble.
[Are you doing well, Lionel? Cordelia has recovered enough that she can go outside starting today.]
"Oh."
That meant she had gotten incredibly better.
[That is a relief. You have worked very hard.]
[Yeah. I think I can finally catch my breath a little.]
A moment later, another sentence appeared.
[I miss you, Lionel.]
"Oh-ho."
I missed her too, honestly.
These days, Yeomhwa, Isabella, and Dolores were all busy climbing the Tower, so I had not seen any of them.
Especially the Dawn Apostles... I had grown attached to them personally.
It was one-sided, but I did feel fond of them.
Scribble, scribble.
[By the way... did Dolores pass on what I said?]
Ah, that?
Scribble, scribble.
[Yes, she did. You asked her to tell me thank you, didn’t you?]
A reply came right away.
Scribble, scribble.
[You said thank you?]
[Yep.]
It felt as if another reply was about to follow...
Unfortunately, the stationery had run out of capacity, so that was the end of today’s conversation.
The glow of the letters had gone out.
That was all for today’s letter.
"Nngh..."
I stretched hard and rose from my seat.
Should I go see Ruby?
Our Ruby was making the most of her vacation now that school was out.
She spent more than half of every day working out.
Thanks to that, the difference between us physically was steadily widening.
I was fighting hard as I grew taller too, but...
"Hmm..."
It was difficult, you know.
I only grew upward, while she got stronger in every direction.
Still, there was one thing that concerned me...
Every exercise Ruby did involved lifting something heavy and enduring it.
It was like lifting heavy things so she could lift even heavier things.
Anyway, since her preferences in training were so clear, her body was developing in that direction too.
Toward lifting heavier things and hitting harder.
Well, it was good... there was no downside to being strong when wielding a staff.
But Ruby was a staff fighter. Speed was also important—being able to dart in and out quickly while controlling the distance.
Explosive speed. Instinctive distance control.
Dolores said Ruby could do all that even with her current muscles.
She said it would be better to refine her delicate control over the muscles she already had, but Ruby kept trying to add more mass.
I could not exactly tell her to stop exercising, and it seemed Dolores was also making sure she did not lean too far in one direction.
"Hmm..."
I was thinking too much again, I suppose.
Then I saw someone striding confidently toward the workshop outside the window.
"..."
It was Ruby.
She had slung her staff across the backs of her shoulders, both arms hooked over it as she walked...
It was a sight I saw every day, but she truly looked exactly like the Great Sage Equaling Heaven...
The Great Sage Equaling Heaven...
The heavens.
"Wait a second."
I slowly turned my head.
My gaze landed on a blue stone sitting in one corner of the workshop, now reduced to a mere decoration.
The Blue Cloud Stone...
White clouds were still billowing inside it.
Clouds. The Great Sage Equaling Heaven.
The thing that served as the Great Sage Equaling Heaven’s taxi and his legs.
"Hey, hey...!"
Had I just found it?
An ore that grew lighter when infused with mana.
That could control the currents flowing within it...
And that, when struck, converted the force into wind and released it.
If that wind could lift and propel the body...
"A Flying Nimbus...?"
Not only could it assist Ruby’s instantaneous acceleration...
It could also solve the problem staff fighters inherently had in aerial combat, when there was nowhere to place their feet.
Why was I wasting time trying to make a sword for an owner I did not even know?
I had an idea, I was inspired, and the target was Ruby. There was no reason not to make it, was there?
Just imagining Ruby riding a Flying Nimbus was already making my heart...
Creak.
At that moment, the workshop door opened, and Great Sage Ruby entered.
"Lionel, Master said it’s time to ea—"
"Ruby."
"Huh? Yeah?"
I sprang to my feet and grabbed her shoulders.
"You..."
"Mm-hm...?"
"Want to ride a cloud sometime?"
Not just any cloud. A Flying Nimbus with a turbo engine.
Princess.
Have you ever thought about flying through the sky?
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