1.
For the next spar, Seren showed up in a bikini.
It suits her well.
Hehe.
Sway, sway...
I did not know whether she was taking steps like that because nobody else was around, or whether her body had become so light that she naturally moved that way...
When Seren reached Cordelia, she spread her arms wide.
"So, what do you think of my outfit?"
"...It is pretty."
Twirl...
At the compliment, Seren spun around on the spot.
The Seren Turn...
Following the Mommy Turn, the Seren Turn... Should I call it the Imperial Knight Turn?
I was starting to wonder if this was also a requirement for joining the Dawn Apostles.
Anyway, the atmosphere was not bad. Just getting her into armor had been a success.
It seemed Seren's mental-health issues had been cured.
There was just one thing I was curious about...
"Are you fighting like that?"
'She is not using Form One?'
I tilted my head slightly.
Form One was the form that could perfectly make use of the concept and technique of recoil-free movement.
Form Two was a form where she spread her wings and flew, using the wings' thrust to assist with changes in direction, so it was not particularly necessary.
And Form Three had not even been categorized for combat in the first place.
Still...
"It is much better, though."
Changing form did not erase the equipment's fundamental performance.
It was not on the same level as Form One's recoil-free performance, but it still assisted her to an incomparably greater degree.
That alone was an enormous advantage for Seren.
I pulled up a chair and watched the fight...
And at the end of the spar...
Wham!
"...Cough!"
Cordelia took Seren's kick to the stomach and braced herself against the wall.
It was Seren's overwhelming victory.
"Siuuuuuuuuuuuuu!"
Seren finally understands my philosophy.
Good. Keep it up!
But then...
"...?"
It definitely seemed that Seren and Cordelia accepted defeat differently.
Rather than getting angry or frustrated, Cordelia... stared intently at Seren.
Even while pressing a hand to her stomach, her eyes remained fixed on Seren's body.
And her expression... did not look bad, either.
"She is a pervert."
This woman was a pervert.
She reminded me of a developer who gets excited when the code throws an error.
The video did not end until after several more spars.
Seren won every one of them.
"This is good."
Seren had done a fine job.
It would have been a bit troublesome if all I had were videos of Cordelia winning effortlessly.
What expression she made when her attacks were blocked... No, that was not the point. What kind of style she used to respond.
Things like her habits when she was truly at rock bottom and her mental composure had collapsed were important too.
Thanks to that, I got a very good look.
I replayed the final scene before getting to my feet.
"Now, then..."
Now that I had secured the audiovisual material, should I get started?
Scrape!
As I pushed back my chair and turned around, I saw the things I had set up in the middle of the workshop.
It was not as though I had just sat around waiting with my hands idle.
The workbench held metals I had already sorted by weight.
Beside them lay the broken sword Cordelia had sent me.
The hilt, along with what remained of the blade.
I looked at them... then approached the furnace.
Click.
I opened the lid I had kept locked.
Inside the furnace was a newly prepared crucible.
Grooves narrowing toward the interior had been carved along its walls... and at the center was the firestone Ignia had given me.
I had thought about how I could put it to better use...
"This was the only answer."
I took inspiration from the way modern steelmaking recovers heat and feeds it back into the process.
Capturing the heat that should have escaped outside and circulating it back in, then continuously adding more flames on top of it.
The goal was to frugally accumulate every bit of heat without letting any leak away... and ultimately drive the temperature higher.
Whoooom...!
"Damn, that is bright."
I seemed to have succeeded.
It was too hot.
Just as I was looking at the furnace with a satisfied smile...
Ding!
"Hm?"
I turned my head, and a familiar name appeared before me.
Hm, Seren again.
[Seren de Lumiere]: Knu!
[Seren de Lumiere]: The weather is really nice today. Have you eaten? Hehehe.
Knu.
She had shortened Cristiano however she pleased. I had never given her permission, and she had never even asked me for it in the first place.
"...Ah."
But I knew this move.
It was a very familiar move, but what kind of move was it?
In my previous life, I was the person people came to for advice.
When I served as the emotional garbage bin for mentally unstable graduate and undergraduate students, if I blindly took their side and patted them on the head, they all eventually got better somehow...
After that, every single one of them started messaging me frequently like this.
'Have you eaten, senior?'
'Yujin, are you coming to the lab today?'
'This made me think of you, lol.'
People who had never intended to have private conversations with me would keep sending messages... even sending photos of cats they had taken while walking down the street.
Seren had been sending messages like that continuously for about three days.
Since I had experienced this move before, I knew how to respond to it.
[Cristiano]: Yep
You simply gave them no excuse to reply and cut it off quickly.
We were not close enough to have private conversations.
She won, so that should be enough.
Right?
Hoping she would continue wearing her armor properly from now on...
I smiled and closed the message window.
Now then... shall I begin in earnest?
"..."
I looked around once or twice, then shut every window, especially those that offered a clear view toward Dolores's window, and made sure to lock the doors as well.
Click.
Once everything was closed, I carefully threw myself onto the bed I had made in one corner by laying down a thick layer of straw and covering it with a blanket.
I had made this bed in the workshop because I was too lazy to return to my room every time... and it was quite soft.
Flop.
"Put up just four screens."
[Okay.]
Four screens unfurled before my eyes.
Within them, Cordelia, dressed in a lovely black dress, began moving from different angles.
"..."
I adjusted my pillow a little higher beneath my head.
Good. I can see clearly.
Rustle, flutter...
Her skirt swayed every time she changed direction.
Her neatly tied ponytail also swayed as it bounced...
Flap!
Her skirt flew up high.
Fortunately, beneath it she was wearing pan... No, not panties—she wore black undershorts that clung tightly to her body.
They fit snugly without an ounce of excess... Mere scraps of cloth could not conceal Cordelia's superior body lines.
She truly had lower-body strength worthy of the Dawn Apostles' strongest.
Lionel Equipment Workshop's first principle: understand the user.
Since this was equipment for battle... Dolores, Yeomhwa, Isabella, and Seren had all undergone this process.
No one could escape this dismantling analysis, so Cordelia would be no exception.
Ruby, you are still a baby, so stay out of this.
And since this time she would be gripping and wielding the weapon directly...
I would have to look even more closely.
Ziiip...
I pulled my fingers apart to enlarge the screen and began my analysis in earnest.
Then two weeks passed.
"Whew..."
I sank into the straw bed with hollow eyes.
It had taken far longer than the average time required to dismantle and analyze the women who had used our workshop.
Partly because swords were new to me, but mostly because Cordelia's movements were so damn absurd.
Ah, I mean that in a good way.
'You are really fucking good at this game.'
That was what I meant.
In the end, I focused on Cordelia whenever I was not eating, and on Cordelia before I slept... You could say I concentrated on her every moment...
I had not even checked my DMs, let alone done my usual community surveillance on Mommy Dolores.
And after all that hardship, I...
"Cordelia, dismantling analysis complete."
Understood her perfectly.
Then, shall we go over the design philosophy behind the equipment I had made for the Dawn Apostles so far?
Excluding Dolores. I had paid attention to every part of her to the point that it was hard to single out any one thing.
First, Yeomhwa.
As her injuries accumulated and battles dragged on, Yeomhwa had a problem with overusing mana.
To correct that issue, I made her a magazine capable of creating a new cost separate from her own mana.
In other words, the goal had been to compensate for the weakness in her traits.
Isabella was similar... I embodied the structure of initiative and response in her equipment, removing the restriction that forced her to always watch the opponent's movement and respond after them.
Ultimately, that compensated for the weakness of always reacting second.
Seren's armor was the same.
Her eyes and will could see through and counter the opponent's attacks, but...
I truly felt bad for Seren, but her body's innate traits—namely, the low center of gravity that came with her naturally large breasts and wide hips...
Combined with her huge greatsword and heavy armor, they made her body sluggish.
Seren's armor had been designed to make up for that sluggishness.
[But, um... the others have breasts and hips too...]
"..."
That was true.
Every single one of them was no joke.
...You might ask why only Seren was so slow when the other Dawn Apostles had similar breasts and hips, but...
Unfortunately, the other three were mages.
Unlike Seren, they did not have to roll around the field fighting in close combat with their bodies.
Whether their center of gravity was low or not did not matter much when they fired magic from a distance.
That was where the difference came from.
So if I were to sum up the direction of the equipment I had provided to the Dawn Apostles thus far...
It had strongly focused on eliminating the wearer's weaknesses.
Was that a bad thing?
Not at all. On the contrary, there was tremendous value in using a single piece of equipment to blast open a blockage in an area they could not structurally resolve themselves.
Once weaknesses disappeared, strengths naturally shone brighter.
But...
"...So this is possible."
Cordelia had no weaknesses.
She was fast.
Was she light because she was fast?
That did not seem to be the case either.
...Then did she lack physical qualities compared to the other Dawn Apostles?
Of course not.
Rather, her body was exceptionally complete from every angle.
"..."
The concept of recoil-free movement I had provided Seren through her equipment.
Cordelia seemed to have possessed it since birth.
And this...
─────────────────
[Heavenly Martial Body]
─────────────────
...was a trait called the Heavenly Martial Body, an innate physical characteristic like Ruby's sturdy body or Yeomhwa's reverence for the strong.
A body born to wield weapons...
In other words, Cordelia was already physically complete.
"...This will be fun."
I could infinitely add to the strengths the wearer already possessed?
Make the fast even faster.
Make the free even freer...
"Blooming."
The next stage that even Cordelia herself had yet to see.
To make her realize that the body she believed complete still had room to grow...
That there was still room for her to advance further.
"..."
Just thinking about it was exciting.
Whoosh.
I raised a hand into the air and summoned Dunbringer.
Clack.
A hammer settled into one hand.
"Now!"
Thud!
I lightly struck the workbench in the workshop.
"The target rank for the sword I will make this time is five stars."
Why five stars, specifically?
"Yuna, put that up."
[Okay.]
Ding.
The interface of a piece of equipment appeared before my eyes.
It was the finest equipment I had ever seen.
The most beautiful...
A masterpiece I had always thought I would absolutely surpass someday.
Namely...
─────────────────
[Genesis Sword][★★★★★]
[Unique Equipment]
─────────────────
『"I want to cut a star," she said.
It was a fanciful request, but I spent my entire life answering it with this sword.
Now, the only thing this sword cannot cut is the death that took her from me.』
- Wise Craftsman Ogeron -
─────────────────
【The sword that lost its owner made its way to an auction house. No one will buy it with the intention of cutting a star.】
─────────────────
Wise Craftsman Ogeron.
Equipment completed by a romantic and craftsman who chased an impossible dream.
Good.
There could be no better opponent than this.
Squeeze...
I gripped Dunbringer's handle tightly...
"Come at me."
Face me one-on-one.
I wanted to surpass the Genesis Sword.
2.
Meanwhile, in a reception room of the Imperial Palace.
"...Vivian."
"Yes, yes."
Vivian had visited the Imperial Palace for the first time in a while to negotiate a new contract with the Imperial Family.
After finishing all that complicated business... she was having tea with her old friend Seren when...
Seren, seated across from her with dark circles beneath her eyes, opened her mouth.
"About DMs... if the other person is really busy, so, so busy that they cannot reply... how long could they go without replying?"
"...About three days?"
"..."
"Even if it is a long time, would they not check within four days?"
"..."
In the end... Seren had gone two weeks without receiving a reply from Knu, wasting away all the while.
Over those two weeks, Seren realized one thing.
'A one-sided communication structure.'
Knu knew who she was.
But Seren did not know who he was at all...
So, if Knu were to cut off contact unilaterally...
'There is nothing I can do...?'
Seren realized there was nothing she could do.
That fact frightened and shook Seren so badly that...
Tremble, tremble.
She simply shook all over.
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