Chapter 135: 134. I’ll Definitely Let You Ride a Cloud!!!
1.
"Want to ride a cloud?"
When Ruby heard me say that...
"..."
She froze on the spot.
"Ruby?"
"P-pervert..."
My little sister’s face turned red in an instant.
She even muttered my words to herself several times, mulling them over...
Fwoosh!
Then suddenly covered her chest with both hands.
...?
Her fingers twitching, Ruby rolled her eyes without even being able to look at me...
Scamper, scamper, scamper!
Then she fled the workshop.
...What?
Could someone tell me why I had suddenly become a pervert?
Not that I wasn’t one.
Of course, I would have nothing to say if anyone caught me working while wearing Dolores’s headset, but no one had caught me even once yet.
So did she hate the idea, or like it?
"...What the."
I sat at the desk, tilting my head in confusion.
2.
Scamper, scamper, scamper, scamper!
An adolescent girl, an innocent girl, a girl who liked Lionel.
Ruby ran all the way to the library with her face blazing red.
She even unconsciously borrowed the power of the wind spirit general sleeping in the house, moving with incredible speed.
She checked the corridor a couple of times to make sure no one was following her.
Then she shut the door and even threw the latch.
Click, click.
"..."
After catching her breath, Ruby headed deeper into the library.
There was a small box hidden beneath the desk in the farthest corner.
Outwardly, it was a box for magical research, but...
When she opened the lid, moved aside the stack of papers, and opened another secret lock within it... a single book wrapped in red silk revealed itself.
Despite the remarkably luxurious wrapping, there was one strange thing about it: it had no title.
Several months ago...
It had been around the time she was becoming close with a new friend.
"Would you like to read it?"
The book Lady Rosalyn had casually handed her.
She had said that once Ruby finished it... she absolutely had to tell her what she thought.
At first, Ruby had been a little frightened, thinking it was a forbidden book, but...
"...Eep."
More precisely, it was a forbidden book only for minors.
Ruby had lost sleep for about three days straight after that.
Flip, flip, flip...
"Where was it...?"
The story itself was simple.
It was about a noble young lady protagonist who fell in love with an apprentice butler newly hired by her estate.
At first, Ruby had thought, What could possibly be so interesting about someone else’s romance...?
But this novel was obscene.
It was the kind of writing that was practically a bestseller among noble young ladies.
The forbidden relationship between a noble lady and her butler, something they could never ordinarily imagine...
Apparently, the premise of a dignified young lady secretly entwining her body with her butler had thoroughly stirred the imaginations of countless ladies.
Ruby opened the story to its highlight once more.
That particular section was worn ragged, since both Rosalyn and Ruby had reread it so many times.
『Dmitri’s fingertips slowly traced the back of Lady Piela’s hand.』
『His touch traveled up her arm and slipped inside her loosened collar. Piela arched her waist gently, letting out an excited breath.』
Ruby’s fingers twitched.
『Hot lips pressed against her neck, and the hem of her dress was pushed upward. Held by the waist in Dmitri’s grip, Piela swallowed a ragged breath.』
And then...
『Piela felt as though she were riding a cloud...』
Snap!
"Ughhh...!"
Ruby hurriedly shut the book.
Her face was burning.
The problem was that the expression ‘riding a cloud’ did not appear merely once; it appeared an awful lot.
After they kissed, she rode a cloud once. After they washed each other and he laid her on the bed, she rode a cloud once.
Whenever the butler’s hips began to move, Piela would soar atop an incredibly high cloud...
"Ngh."
Ruby shut the book again.
Eventually, following the work’s popularity, the phrase ‘riding a cloud’ had become slang among young ladies.
Which meant that when Lionel had grasped her shoulders, his eyes shining as he asked...
"Want to ride a cloud?"
Where on earth had he heard something like that...?
From Ruby’s perspective, there was no way it would not take her by surprise.
Meanwhile.
A man who had unknowingly set a woman’s heart ablaze.
The arsonist, Lionel, was...
"Dolores, I’m sorry, but... where did you hang them to dry?"
He was asking about the whereabouts of his missing underwear.
"I definitely hung them out properly..."
Smile.
Dolores tilted her head slightly, smiling as though troubled.
"It seems the wind carried them away, Lionel."
"..."
Could underwear really blow away that easily?
"Don’t worry too much. We’ll find them soon enough."
"Ah..."
From Lionel’s point of view, he had no choice but to trust her for now.
What use could Dolores possibly have for them? It was not as if she had any reason to use them.
Squeeze.
"Urk."
As if to cut off any further questions, Dolores pulled him into her arms.
Lionel squirmed and wriggled in her embrace, but...
"Mm-hm."
Once she began patting his back, he soon quietly buried himself in her arms.
Well, it was cool and soft, so it was not bad.
Thus began, at some point, the WWE between Lionel and Dolores.
Whenever Lionel entered a long stretch of work, Dolores sent him something once a week.
Neither of them said a single word about that matter.
In that sense, something like this...
"..."
Honestly.
Neither of them intended to seek out the truth, so there was no major problem.
3.
How much time had passed like that?
Creak...
The workshop door opened.
Ah, she finally came.
A streak of red hair fluttered through the gap.
It was Ruby. Ruby.
"Ruby, you’re here?"
"..."
The door opened a little further, and Ruby swept her eyes around the interior before entering the workshop.
I had called for her about twenty minutes ago.
Hmm... She seemed a little calmer than before.
Then maybe I could properly explain the project now.
"This."
Slide.
I brought a piece of Cloudstone as large as my head onto the table.
"..."
"Cloudstone. When you infuse it with mana, it becomes lighter... Anyway, it’s an incredibly good ore."
I began explaining the direction I had already envisioned for Ruby’s equipment.
The ultimate goal was to see her riding around on a cloud.
"So, what do you think?"
Honestly, it was not something I could even begin if Ruby did not want it, so I was checking whether she would be interested...
"..."
At some point, Ruby had covered her face with both hands.
I could see her skin through the gaps between her fingers, and wow, she was bright red.
"Ruby, are you okay?"
"..."
I tilted my head before tapping the Cloudstone again.
"Anyway, here’s what I was thinking. If we’re making equipment that holds a Flying Nimbus, shoes are the first thing that comes to mind, right? But by my standards, that’s too obvious."
It was such good ore that using it up on shoes alone felt a little wasteful.
So...
"We could make an emblem or a sub-weapon, raising the value of the equipment itself..."
"Lionel."
"Y-yeah?"
Ruby had somehow shriveled up even more than before.
Maybe she was trying not to meet my eyes, because she desperately kept her face covered.
"W-well, Lionel will do better at it anyway... I’ll be going..."
"Huh? Yeah, okay."
Okay, I had her permission.
Ruby began backing away with her face covered.
Scamper... scamper...
Ruby barely managed to escape the workshop.
She seemed worried about something, so...
"Ruby!"
Ruby, who had been about to turn and run toward the estate, flinched.
I shouted energetically at her.
"Don’t worry! I’ll definitely let you ride a cloud!"
"Uuugh, yeeeesss!!"
Upon hearing those final words, Ruby...
Scamper, scamper, scamper, scamper, scamper!!
Vanished into the estate in an instant.
"...Yuna."
[Yeah?]
"Did I seriously do something wrong?"
[No? I really don’t think there’s anything this time.]
Concluding that Ruby was in a somewhat strange condition today...
I placed the Cloudstone on the workbench.
"Let’s do this."
I began working.
Here we go, Flying Nimbus.
4.
"Ugh..."
Cordelia pressed hard against her left forearm.
Treatment had already been completed in nearly every respect.
Restoring her diminished physical capabilities would take time, but even though the pain and everything else had clearly been treated...
Throb, throb.
Cordelia’s forearm continued to sting.
"Does it hurt again?"
Camilla, who had been tending to Adeline across from her, lifted her head.
"...A little."
"Show me."
When Cordelia rolled up her sleeve, Camilla enclosed her forearm in her gloved hand.
Fwoom!
A blue formula spread across her arm.
─────────────────
[Target: Cordelia Rosenfelt]
[Status: Inheritance Awakening]
[The innate mark [Rosenfelt Sword Mark] has been activated.]
[A bound formula inherited through the direct bloodline of the Rosenfelt family.]
[Awakening begins upon detecting a person to serve as one’s lord.]
[The mark is repeatedly sending signals as it searches for its target.]
[Pain occurs during this process.]
[This phenomenon is neither an illness nor a curse.]
[There is no treatment method.]
─────────────────
"..."
She could tell what it was from the status.
However, it was neither an illness nor a curse... but rather something closer to a blessing.
And since a blessing could not be cured, there was nothing Camilla could do.
In fact, she knew the Rosenfelt family’s bloodline formula well, as it was such a familiar teaching example.
It was also called ‘master sickness’...
But she had never imagined she would see it in Cordelia.
"Ugh..."
In the meantime, Cordelia’s pain worsened.
Camilla scratched her head with a troubled expression.
"...Don’t you have a lord?"
"..."
Throb!
Without answering, Cordelia clutched her forearm and broke out in a cold sweat.
"Ha..."
When was it that she had proudly held her head high, declaring she would never serve any master whatsoever?
Why the hell was she suddenly coming down with master sickness now?
"..."
Perhaps confused herself, Cordelia lowered her head deeply.
"Since when has it hurt?"
"...Not long."
"Again."
Explain exactly.
"...Since after you told me about him."
"Him...?"
Camilla considered what she had told Cordelia.
"...Ah?"
Her eyebrows twitched.
There was only one person she had recently spoken to Cordelia about.
"...So."
Lionel????
She was in that much pain because she wanted to serve Lionel as her lord...?
She wanted to serve that kid as her lord???
"Ah..."
Camilla trailed off, put a hand to her forehead, and sighed.
Who had the Rosenfelt family served as lords throughout history?
Emperors, heroes, great sages.
There had been countless people, but at the very least, none of them had been a child.
A sigh escaped her automatically.
Just what...
What kind of fate was this?
Why were the Dawn Apostles so thoroughly entangled with Lionel?
Camilla looked at Cordelia, groaning as she gripped her forearm...
Then, with a sigh, quietly contacted Dolores.
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