1.
Honestly, when I first started the video, I thought it was a pajama party.
Seren, with her golden hair, wore a thin white slip dress...
Cordelia wore a revealing black dress that exposed her shoulders, arms, and half her upper body.
The hem fluttering along their thighs was like a highly evolved black hole.
It sucked in my gaze.
Maybe because no one else was around, neither of them even made a pretense of covering up... It felt like one little hop would expose their asses.
‘They’re fighting dressed like that?’
Seriously?
And Lionel’s imagination became reality.
Bang!
Tap!
Every time their swords clanged together, their skirts fluttered.
Each pair of firm legs kept jumping right into view.
“Ah...”
Their movements were more dynamic than I had expected...
The body of an adolescent boy was painfully honest, so I had a hard time calming it down.
Still, those thoughts quickly subsided and didn’t last long.
The reason was...
Thud...!
“Ngh...!”
Oof.
Seren was getting beaten up one-sidedly.
Call it getting pummeled, getting battered, whatever—the beating was severe.
The shape of the fight was simple. Seren simply could not keep up with Cordelia’s speed at all.
Even I could proudly say that, after watching so many battle videos, I had developed a fairly discerning eye...
Cordelia really... seemed boneless.
What did I mean? A person has to stop before changing direction, right?
There was a reason inertia existed, and you had to shift your center of gravity too.
But... she didn’t have that limitation.
“What? That’s terrifying...”
Up, down, left, right—three hundred and sixty degrees. She would spring forward, then snap sideways without any preparatory motion.
Even while suspended in midair, she would plant her foot on empty air without any strain as she changed direction, then spin around in a flash.
To the point where I wondered whether she was even human.
Meanwhile, Seren was a heavily armored knight swinging a large, weighty greatsword.
Because of how she fought, there was no choice but for large openings to arise between her movements. The more force she put into a strike, the greater the recoil.
Cordelia smoothly deflected those attacks and struck the opening... Seren’s flank.
Then another deflection, another strike to the flank.
Seren did not just stand there and take Cordelia’s persistent attacks on her left side.
She changed direction and altered her sword’s trajectory to block that side, but...
Smack!
As if she had been waiting for it, Cordelia struck Seren’s opposite flank.
“Urgh!”
Seren’s waist bent.
“Ah...”
This was upsetting.
Seren was the one getting hit, but it made my stomach hurt.
“Why did she take off her armor?”
─────────────────
[No Recoil]
[The 7,000 pieces composing the armor share one another’s weight and impact.]
[The wearer can seamlessly continue into their next movement without delay after an action.]
[The wearer does not stagger even when struck by an opponent’s attack.]
─────────────────
It had such an incredible function too...
“Ngh...”
In the video, Seren bit down hard on her lip in frustration and raised her greatsword again.
She adjusted her stance as though she could still fight, but...
Well, her side looked like it hurt badly.
“Hmm...”
I made that for her so she would not have to go through this.
Seren, I’m the person who has watched more of your movements and battle footage than anyone.
I understood every hardship you knew and had experienced...
That was why I had tried to make sure you would never have to suffer through those hardships again.
So you could overcome your limits and fulfill the dream you had only ever pictured in your mind.
This was a new feeling.
I was upset, and I also wanted to ask why she had done it.
What was even more regrettable was...
“...”
Seren’s eyes were following Cordelia’s movements.
Even before the sword hit her, her pupils twitched, and her wrist tried to pull the greatsword back.
That meant she could see it.
She knew where Cordelia was aiming and how she needed to block it, but...
Smack!
Her body simply could not keep up because of the sheer difference in speed.
What did it feel like to know what was coming and still have to take the hit?
In the end, Cordelia won the spar.
Even after the video ended, I stared blankly at the screen for a while before speaking.
“Yuna, first, cut out the parts where Seren gets beaten up.”
[Mm.]
“Edit it around Cordelia’s movements. How long will it take?”
I was going to have to replay the video again and again from now on...
But I did not want to watch Seren getting hit every single time.
Focus on Cordelia.
[About an hour? Get some rest, Lionel.]
“Yeah, thanks.”
I nodded and closed the video.
It was then, as I hurried along my material sorting a little more.
“A body with no recoil and that springy feel...”
Cordelia’s combat style?
I got a very good look at it.
She needed mobility that could sharply turn freely in all sorts of directions, and her sword would have to keep changing direction along with her body...
It should not be mindlessly light, though... It also needed to deliver real power.
And then.
Ding!
“...?”
I stopped thinking and looked up.
The sender’s name that appeared in front of me was...
[Seren de Lumiere]
She really could not be called patient, could she?
I set down the material in my hand and opened the DM window.
[Seren de Lumiere]: Hello, Master Cristiano... Have you been well?
[Seren de Lumiere]: I thought it might disturb your work, so I tried to refrain from contacting you until now. But today, I suddenly found myself wondering how you were... I would be grateful if you could reply whenever it is convenient.
“...”
In truth, there was nothing unusual about the messages themselves...
But I had watched a video of her getting pummeled by Cordelia just five minutes ago.
“She sounds so damp.”
I could not shake the sense that she sounded extremely damp.
Still, there was no way she could know I had seen the video.
And it was not as though I could press her about why she had not worn the equipment.
So, as gently as possible...
Let’s be sweet to her.
Just for today, not Cristiano—Lionel style.
[Cristiano]: I’ve been doing well. Have you been well too? Nothing wrong, I hope?
Something I would normally never say.
I cringed a little even after typing it.
“...”
And her response... took longer than I expected.
Only after a good while did a message appear.
[Seren de Lumiere]: Master, I hope this is not presumptuous, but may I ask you one thing?
[Cristiano]: Of course. Please, ask freely.
Seren’s question was more direct.
[Seren de Lumiere]: I want to ask you plainly...
[Seren de Lumiere]: Did I... deserve to receive this perfect equipment?
“...Wow. Legendary.”
I was about to say something, then stopped.
She was even damper than I thought?
At this point, airing her out in the sun until she was nice and dry would not be enough.
“Hmm...”
Judging from the way I usually spoke, people might think I was a graduate student with utterly broken social skills...
But surprisingly, I had also been the lab’s designated guardian of graduate and undergraduate students’ mental health, as personally declared by my professor.
For no pay, of course.
The worst job market in history, and master’s and doctoral programs that grew increasingly harsher, harder, and more drawn out.
The students caught in that transitional period were deeply confused.
It was not easy for them to stay sane.
‘Yujin, should I just quit?’
‘Senior, I don’t think I have any talent. I think I’m just going to kill myself.’
‘What’s the point of living? We’re going to die anyway.’
Fuck, that brings it all back.
I was not in my right mind either, and I could barely take care of myself, but I still had to comfort them.
If they did not eat, I took them out to feed them. I knocked on their doors.
Seren felt exactly like that right now.
Still, I knew all too well how to comfort her.
[Cristiano]: The Imperial Family’s finest knight, former Dawn Apostle, the Imperial Family’s First Sword.
[Cristiano]: If not Seren, whom I have watched for so long, then who on earth deserves this equipment? I’m the one who wants to know.
Unconditional, one-sided, biased praise.
I would shower her with it until her self-esteem recovered.
I never thought I would end up providing after-sales service for someone’s mental state rather than their equipment.
And my own thoughts were not very different.
This was an RPG.
You could tell just by looking at the flow and structure of it.
In an RPG, equipment was skill. If better equipment could make up for a weakness, then it absolutely had to be used to make up for it.
Recognizing your shortcomings and compensating for them was also skill.
That was what I was here for, wasn’t it?
[Cristiano]: Equipment is made to compensate for what someone lacks. If only people with no shortcomings whatsoever could wear it, I would have nothing to do, would I?
Hmm...
I read the message over a couple of times, then added one last thing.
[Cristiano]: That question has no meaning. This equipment was made for Seren alone.
2.
Seren lay on her bed with a cold compress against her side.
Cordelia’s sword was always fierce.
After sparring with her, heat always flared up throughout Seren’s body, and she had to tend to it afterward.
Her side throbbed at even the slightest twitch, so Seren pressed the cold, damp towel against it again.
“...”
And Seren had taken off her armor.
For all practical purposes, she was naked.
It was equipment that had never left her body for twenty-four hours a day... Yet even with it sitting right beside her, she could not bring herself to put it on.
Cordelia was no longer the Cordelia she remembered.
And Seren was still Seren.
Slow, hopelessly slow Seren.
“...”
Thinking that things would have been different if she had worn the armor felt like an excuse.
She could not bring herself to wear it again, and that was why she contacted him.
She began by asking how he was without even knowing what she wanted to hear, but...
“...Nnh.”
[Cristiano]: That question has no meaning. This equipment was made for Seren alone.
She had been...
Truly, thoroughly...
“Comforted...”
Wiggle.
Seren’s bare toes wiggled.
Leaving behind the surging regret and disappointment, a strange feeling swelled up inside her.
[Cristiano]: On the 78th floor, there was a moment when you tried to counterattack immediately after blocking an attack. You lost the opportunity while you were correcting your posture because of the impact. That was when I saw the potential for [No Recoil].
[Cristiano]: On the 55th floor, you had to alter your sword’s trajectory midway through a swing, didn’t you? It frustrated me that your eyes followed everything, yet your body could not keep up. So I wanted to streamline your follow-up movements.
He went through her abilities and the reasons one by one, trying to convince Seren.
Why she needed it.
Even the specific moments of Seren’s that he had thought about while making it.
For some reason, the towel felt even colder. She was a little hot.
She was embarrassed.
Without understanding the care and intention of the person who had made her equipment, she had thought she was being provoked in the heat of the moment and taken it off.
It was just... Cordelia’s personality. She had not needed to think so deeply about it.
That was simply the kind of person Cordelia was.
I need to reply with something.
He had said all this to her; she should at least thank him...
Just as she was trying to think of, think of something to say—
[Cristiano]: I wanted to make the movements you wanted to perform but could not possible for you.
[Cristiano]: So please do not say things like that. Just wear it and use it as much as you like.
Nod, nod.
Seren nodded over and over.
“Yes...”
Her heart raced.
It was true that she had lost, and that would not change.
But she had no intention whatsoever of continuing to lose to Cordelia.
After all, they had not even fought ‘properly’ yet.
She had cast aside everything that had changed and tried to fight exactly as she had in the past.
Seren had equipment crafted while looking only at her.
How much had she changed now that she possessed it too?
She remembered the words Cordelia had left before going home.
‘Call me again... anytime. He said the more videos, the better.’
She did not know who Cordelia was so diligently filming them for...
Her first real battle.
Her first real battle after receiving the armor.
“...Tomorrow.”
She wanted to do it tomorrow, right away.
She wanted to show off Master Cristiano’s equipment.
The problem was the state of her body, but...
The line written in the instruction manual.
─────────────────
[Form 3 has a function that aids the wearer’s recovery.]
─────────────────
“...”
Had he even thought ahead to a moment like this?
He would not even let her suffer and ache as she pleased.
A pleasant life that felt as though every part of her was being controlled and raised...
Seren immediately put on the armor over her naked body, and it instantly transformed into its Form 3 bikini.
And then.
[Tomorrow.]
Cordelia.
I’ll be different tomorrow.
And the next day.
“...Your outfit changed a little.”
Cordelia, who had arrived at the sparring ground first, tilted her head.
Seren walked into the sparring ground while maintaining Form 3.
Cordelia, who had arrived first, tilted her head... her expression puzzled.
“I’ll be different. Probably.”
And just as Seren said, that day’s spar was different.
Boom!
“...Cough.”
After their swords met, Cordelia’s body was pushed backward.
Seren’s bare flesh, bare skin, breasts, thighs.
It was truly bewildering...
‘...’
Seren’s exposed skin was on the same level as her underwear.
In other words... she was dressed like a pervert.
Yet until the spar ended, Cordelia’s sword did not touch Seren even once.
Cordelia felt a wall.
And then.
The Duke’s manor.
Seren.
Can you feel the philosophy?
“SIUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!”
Someone in the workshop watching that video shouted thunderously.
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