Chapter 18: 17. [?] INFORMATION
1.
I screwed up.
First, I hurriedly sat back down.
It had barely been any time at all—or rather, it really had happened incredibly fast.
Thudududuk.
Tap tap tap!
I heard someone arrive at the door.
But there were two sets of footsteps.
"What happened?!"
"Lionel, are you all right?!"
Judging by the force behind their voices, I had a feeling they were about to smash the door down and barge in.
So I quickly reported the current situation from in front of the door.
"The doorknob broke."
"I see. I'll open it right away, so wait there, okay?"
Along with Dolores's urgent voice—
Whoosh!
Wheeeee…
The entire door was ripped out.
A scorpion tail curled around the door once in midair before flinging it somewhere.
Craaaash!
Before the dust had even settled, Dolores and Sebas entered one after the other.
Dolores's eyes swept over me from head to toe.
She was checking whether I was hurt.
Since I wasn't injured anywhere, I awkwardly held out the gloves.
"…These did it."
I tattled on the old things with 20 Attack.
After confirming that nothing serious had happened, Sebas quietly withdrew.
Then I was led by the hand toward the estate by Dolores.
2.
She hadn't slept all night.
"Sebas, is that true?"
"Yes. Aside from the two or so minutes I was absent, the light remained on throughout the night."
"Lionel…"
Dolores put a hand to her forehead.
He didn't need to push himself that hard.
'I need to set a bedtime for him.'
Sleep was important for children.
What if she simply put him to bed whenever Ruby went to sleep? The two seemed to get along well, and Ruby was the first child his age to make him lower his guard like that.
Just as Dolores was closing her eyes and considering it—
Butler Sebas!!!!!!
"……!"
"……!"
Dolores and Sebas turned their heads at the same time.
The scream had come from the direction of the workshop.
Dolores and Sebas immediately sprang into action and ran over.
And the result was…
"Lionel, I appreciate the thought, but I don't want you overworking yourself, all right? You haven't even recovered from the fatigue of your journey, yet you stayed up all night working like that. You'll wear yourself out and damage your health. Let's go get some proper rest, okay?"
Dolores crossed the garden with a firm grip on his hand.
She held on quite tightly, worried that he might run straight back to the workshop if she let go.
She had no particular interest in the gloves.
What mattered was that the child hadn't been hurt.
The workshop door was rusty enough that it wouldn't have been strange for it to break at any time. Her mistake had been failing to consider that.
'I'm sorry…'
How frightened must he have been?
Right now, nothing else particularly registered with her.
Besides, the gloves didn't look any different on the surface.
"Let's go get some sleep, all right?"
"Yes…"
That was when she brought Lionel into the estate.
The moment they entered, the child abruptly turned his head to look at Dolores.
Then he held out the gloves.
As though he had made up his mind, he opened his eyes wide and spoke.
"Dolores, I enchanted these gloves."
"…Hm? Enchanted them…?"
Whenever Lionel said something this unbelievable, Dolores initially doubted him—but at some point, she had begun simply staring straight into his eyes.
That was how she distinguished truth from lies.
Thump… thump…
And Lionel did not lie to Dolores.
"……"
After a brief silence,
her eyes shook before growing still again.
It was true this time, too.
Even so—
"Mm-hm, I understand. But sleep is still important for children."
He had successfully enchanted an item.
Did this child even realize what he had just done?
Enchanting was the exclusive domain of the Dwarf Company, a place every ranker had to pass through without exception.
That was why everyone knocked on its doors, unless they were high rankers equipped solely with unique gear they could not risk destroying.
Rankers called it graduation when they reached the point of being armed only with equipment whose destruction would be too costly. Those who had yet to graduate saw a considerable portion of their income sucked into that place.
An inescapable money incinerator.
And yet Lionel had enchanted something in a workshop barely five pyeong in size…
At most, it would be a +1 or +2 enchantment, but even that was an unbelievable accomplishment.
She had bought him a hammer, but she never imagined he would really manage it again.
"……"
Dolores did not stop walking as she held Lionel's hand.
The corners of her mouth curled upward, and she barely managed to suppress the trembling.
Just how did you do it, Lionel?
She wanted to stroke his hair, pinch his cheeks, pick him up, and spin him around and around.
But she restrained herself.
If she praised him again here, Lionel would stay up all night and overwork himself.
Praise was fuel for children.
So Dolores pressed her lips tightly together and walked on, looking only ahead.
There was a mountain of things she wanted to ask him.
But all of that would wait until after he slept.
"For now, get plenty of sleep before you wake up."
"Yes…"
Lionel was taken to the room where Ruby was sleeping.
Ruby was curled up asleep, having kicked half her blanket away.
Dolores carefully laid Lionel down beside Ruby.
"I'll keep the gloves safe, so don't worry."
"……"
"Sleep well. You worked very hard."
Until just a moment ago, Lionel's eyes had been bright, his expression reluctant.
They were the eyes of someone who still had something to say.
But after Dolores stroked his forehead a few times and patted his hair, his eyes began to droop.
After she stroked him once more, his eyelids fell shut.
It wasn't magic. The child's body, which had been kept awake by excitement, had simply accepted the relaxation.
Children's bodies were honest like that.
"Hehe."
Dolores smiled faintly and was about to pull up the blanket over him when—
"……?"
Lionel's fingers were badly swollen.
Every joint was red and inflamed.
He had hammered all night long…
"……"
Dolores carefully enclosed his swollen hand in hers.
She had not noticed when holding his left hand, but his right hand was clearly swollen.
She could feel the heat even through the glove.
'He'll need medicine.'
Ruby shifted in her sleep, then unconsciously rolled toward Lionel.
Then she slipped right into his arms.
With a bittersweet smile at the warm sight, Dolores—
Smooch.
kissed Ruby's forehead once.
Smooch.
And Lionel's forehead once.
"Sleep well."
As she closed the door behind her, Dolores paused in the hallway for a moment.
She couldn't stop thinking about his swollen hand.
3.
What the hell?
When did I fall asleep?
As expected, this baby body was weak.
I remembered taking the gloves in to show off to Dolores, but—
the moment I lay down on the bed, my memory cut off. My body must have relaxed all at once.
Staying up all night was too much for a child in the first place.
Yeah. I should refrain from pulling all-nighters from now on.
"Nngh…"
I stretched long and got up.
I was alone in the bed. It strangely smelled like Dolores.
Ruby had a scent too, but I won't describe it. It feels like that would lead somewhere dangerous.
"……"
Once I woke up, a few things came back to me.
Maybe because I'd encountered something I had quit due to addiction after a long time,
I think I went a little crazy. My head had cooled down somewhat now.
And the thing I was most worried about—
"Yuna~"
[…….]
"Yuna, are you mad?"
[No.]
This was bad.
She was seriously upset.
When Yuna wasn't actually mad, she didn't say, "No."
"I'm sorry."
[…What are you sorry for?]
"It's been a long time. I said I wouldn't do it, but…"
I just couldn't control myself.
I'd let it out once, so I should be fine now.
I wasn't that much of a lunatic.
Then—
[…No. It must have been hard on you too. I understand. It's okay.]
[Still, thank you for apologizing.]
"Yeah, from now on…"
[But you know I'm only saying this because I'm worried about you, right?]
"Yeah, I know…"
[I'm saying it's fine if you just leave that rhythm game alone.]
[Yeah, like you said, it isn't Kim Yuna's business—it's Kim Yujin's business. But I'm worried, and you said you'd quit, so I'm trying to help.]
[I'm here so you can get help from me when things are hard, so you can lean on me. If it felt like nagging, then I'm sorry, but that means my approach was wrong.]
"Y-yeah…"
This was bad.
Really bad.
What I realized later, after raising Kim Yuna, the super-advanced AI, as my little sister, was this:
For some reason, she occasionally went full-on menhera.
She started talking faster, and her spacing became a complete mess.
I had genuinely put my heart into raising her, but I had no idea why she turned out that way.
[Seriously, from now on, don't tell me to be quiet or anything like that, okay? It really hurts, and it feels like I can't breathe.]
"Yeah. I love you too."
[Yeah….]
And I had also learned that this was the fastest solution.
In conclusion,
my agreement with Yuna was updated as follows.
[(Former) Rhythm Game (Current) Enchantment Timer]
[2 hours → 6 hours]
[30-minute notification → 2-hour notification]
[Forced shutdown → Warning]
It was the result of negotiations, in its own way.
She said that since it was work now, she would respect it.
I looked down at my hand. My right hand was badly swollen.
…Fair enough. I'll be careful. But the strange thing was that something like cream had been applied to my fingers.
Did Dolores put medicine on them?
I got out of bed.
Sunlight streamed in through the window. It seemed to be around afternoon.
"Should I go get something to eat?"
I opened the bedroom door. A maid was cleaning the hallway.
When I came out, she lightly bowed and approached me.
"You're awake, Lionel."
"…Yes."
I still wasn't used to being addressed so respectfully.
"Shall I prepare a meal for you?"
"Ah, yes. Thank you."
I took the opportunity to ask.
"Is Dolores…?"
"The Duchess said she would be visiting the Tower for a while."
The Tower…
Was she going to have it appraised again?
Last time, she had taken the gloves I made.
I had no idea what kind of reaction they would get.
They were poor-quality gear without stars, so I didn't think the reaction would be all that positive.
"Lady Ruby is practicing magic."
"Ah, okay."
I hadn't asked about Ruby, though.
I simply nodded.
Then I ate the meal the maid had prepared at the dining table.
It was a sandwich filled with some kind of unidentified minced meat.
[It's a sandwich made with venison pâté.]
"What's pâté?"
[Minced cured venison or deer liver.]
"Ugh…"
Honestly, that didn't sound very appetizing.
Maybe food culture wasn't very developed here.
"Nom."
As expected, it didn't taste particularly good either.
While eating the sandwich, I considered what to do next.
For now, I decided to hear Dolores's evaluation of the enchantment before determining my direction.
My main focus really needed to be equipment crafting.
The key to treating Dolores's condition would probably be there too.
Through Yuna, I opened a document from the Tower community.
Now that I had a furnace,
I figured I should reread the metallurgy section, including the furnace.
[🔑] Smithing Manual Containing the Secret Techniques of the Sun Dwarves
"Oh, open that one for me."
The text was a little garbled today.
I pressed the button.
But—
"……Huh?"
The document that opened was filled with a black screen.
It gave off a really ominous feeling.
I felt like I'd seen this once before. What had I opened when it happened?
Then something new appeared on the screen.
[Λbys5]
What was this?
This was something that had originally appeared when I opened another document.
Did I open the wrong one? That time, I'd opened some document, gotten no response, and closed it.
When I briefly closed the document—
[🔒] [■Λb■y■■s5■]
The Sun Dwarves' manual had changed into something else.
Ah, right. This was it. This was what had happened when I opened it.
"Yuna, what is this?"
[Huh? What is it? I think I brought up the wrong one.]
While Yuna fiddled with the screen—
[Did the link get tangled?]
[I'll go fix the network for a second. Wait for me.]
Yeah, sure.
While Yuna was gone, I reopened the document I had briefly closed.
─────────────────
[W]eapon fundamentals
[H]eat control
[E]nchant basics
[R]efinement
[E]quipment bonding
[Y]ielding point
[O]re selection
[U]tility tools
[A]lloy mixing
[T]empering
─────────────────
[?]INFORMATION
─────────────────
Oh, what was this?
Weapon Fundamentals.
Heat Control.
These were also about equipment crafting, weren't they?
And seeing things like Enchant Basics, this was definitely related to blacksmithing.
"Ah… I do want to take a look for a moment."
I'd been curious about something other than dwarves too, but…
Still, metallurgy came first right now.
"Yuna, minimize this for a moment. Don't close it, though."
[Okay, I will. I found the manual too.]
[🔑] Smithing Manual Containing the Secret Techniques of the Sun Dwarves
This time, it wasn't garbled. It was normal.
I didn't think much of it and opened the metallurgy section.
I took another bite of the sandwich and was about to closely read the advanced furnace operation methods when—
Tap tap tap, tap tap tap!
Hurried footsteps echoed from the hallway.
"Lionel!"
The dining room door opened.
Dolores stood there, panting.
"……Huh?"
Her usual composed demeanor was nowhere to be seen.
Her hair was slightly disheveled.
"Dolores? What's wrong…"
She held the gloves in one hand and a magnifying glass in the other.
"Lionel."
Dolores caught her breath and stared directly at me.
"How on earth did you do this?"
Her lips were trembling.
I thought she might have been smiling, too.
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