1.
I went looking for a bed.
One that was soft, and decent enough.
At the end of the hallway was Dolores's office.
Next to it was her bedroom, next to that was Ruby's room, and next to that had been my room.
No, there was something that used to be my room.
The bed had vanished from my room.
And so, late that evening, I ended up sleeping together with Ruby and Dolores.
My plan to subtly start sleeping alone from today onward had been ruined.
So, with no other choice, the three of us would have to sleep cozily together...
This must be how a beaver feels when its home gets smashed to bits.
I lay down on the bed.
Ruby slept in the middle.
As always, the order was Dolores, Ruby, then me.
How long had passed while I lay there wide awake?
"Shh..."
Dolores rose from her spot, a finger raised to her lips.
Then she slowly circled the bed and came around to the other side—to me.
"Once Ruby falls asleep, she doesn't wake up easily."
"That does seem to be the case. She sleeps an awful lot, doesn't she?"
"...Actually, Ruby is a little frail."
Dolores wore a bitter expression.
Was she seeing herself in Ruby?
"Is she sick somewhere?"
"No, there isn't anything in particular that's wrong with her. Calling her frail is also a little... inaccurate."
Ruby was frail... but nothing was actually wrong with her?
I wondered whether there was anything I could do for her.
That was when it happened.
"Lionel."
Gently stroking my forehead as I lay there, Dolores whispered.
"Yes."
"Earlier, you said you wanted me to take off my shoes, didn't you?"
"...I-I did."
Dolores always wore shoes, so I couldn't tell for sure.
If the shoes themselves had been equipment, they would have caught my eye, but they looked like ordinary dress shoes, so no information had appeared.
Then she slowly lowered the blanket.
Rustle...
"This is what I usually wear."
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Dolores removed her slippers.
"..."
And what entered my sight was—
─────────────────
[Tmir's Ice Footpads]
[Unique Equipment] [★★★★★]
[Compatibility] [2/100] - [Extreme Poison]
─────────────────
[Cold seeps into the bones and intensifies. It has a yin-energy amplification synergy with the White Gloves of Gorgonew. Current manifestation rate: half.]
[The cause of sealing two of the nine meridians of the Nine Yin Severed Meridians.]
─────────────────
『A frozen heart walks upon frozen feet.』
- Tmir, Queen of the Frostblade Tribe -
─────────────────
They were translucent stockings made from thin, sky-blue cloth.
Snowflake patterns were inscribed across their surface, as though a film had been draped over them.
And what caught my attention, naturally, were the compatibility rating, the [Extreme Poison] judgment... and the fact that they were responsible for sealing two meridians.
They even had synergy with the White Gloves of Gorgonew. I couldn't begin to imagine how severe the yin energy had been before she took off those gloves.
"Dolores."
"Yes."
"Is all your equipment ice-element equipment like this?"
A fundamental question came to mind.
Had this person assembled her entire loadout out of chilly equipment like this?
Dolores looked at me for a moment, then gave a small smile.
"Only the gloves and footwear that cover the extremities of my body."
"I see."
"The rest aren't this bad."
I nodded. Come to think of it, I had heard somewhere that keeping just your hands and feet covered kept the rest of your body warm.
But wrapping them in something this cold didn't seem like it would do much good.
So the reason I hadn't realized it from her shoes was because the actual equipment was the stockings.
Wiggle.
Perhaps embarrassed to have her bare feet exposed before me, Dolores's toes moved slightly.
Her feet were white and soft-looking.
They might awaken a preference I never knew I had.
I was glad I was the only one seeing them.
"...These..."
Back then, I had wanted to rip off her gloves immediately, but I hadn't had enough of her trust.
Now, though, wasn't it different? I felt like I could say at least this much.
"Dolores."
"Yes."
"Could you perhaps go without wearing these?"
"...Pardon?"
I suggested that Dolores take off her stockings.
2.
"Mmm... Lionel, my feet feel a little strange."
"I'll make you something soon."
She shuffled around on her feet as she got ready to go out.
She was wearing no stockings inside her shoes.
I had told her to take those stockings off, not to wear no stockings at all.
Yet there she was at the front gate, wearing dress shoes completely barefoot.
Well, whatever.
Considering her eye for things, perhaps going without was better than wearing something else halfway decent.
"I'll be back. Ruby, get plenty of rest today... and Lionel, you get plenty of rest too. Your right hand is off limits through today."
"Okaaay."
"Yes."
Dolores bent down, kissed sleepy Ruby and me on the forehead, and headed out.
She had gone to buy the minerals and lubricant I had requested.
She could have sent a servant, but she seemed to think she absolutely had to inspect them herself.
But honestly, leaving it to a servant would have been...
Anyway, worried about her eye for quality, I offered to come along.
"Lionel's face can't be known yet."
With those words, she issued an order forbidding me from leaving.
Well... I understood what she meant.
I watched her back disappear beyond the estate.
"Yaaawn..."
Grab.
I caught Ruby as she yawned and tried to head back to her room.
"Eek."
"Didn't you say today was your day off?"
"It is, but..."
"Let's play together today."
From what I had seen of Ruby's habits so far, she hardly ever engaged in outside activities.
Kids needed to run around, to throw themselves into things and move their bodies.
When I was in elementary school, there had been a frail kid just like Ruby. They got healthier after being sent to a taekwondo academy.
They even entered some competition and brought home an award.
It wasn't so much a hasty generalization as Ruby's situation seeming similar.
Hadn't she supposedly not even gone to school until she was thirteen?
Besides, Dolores had said there was nothing particularly wrong with her.
"Play...?"
"Yeah, I'll play with you."
"You're not my big brother."
Why did she suddenly get so serious...?
[Sigh]
"Fine. Just come with me first, then."
I took Ruby's hand and led her away.
There was somewhere I had noticed before.
We crossed the hallway and arrived in front of a large door.
"Here it is."
"This place is..."
This was where I had been dragged in Dolores's arms because of the +20 ranch gloves incident last time.
The room where I had been forced to sit on her lap and listen to her talk.
I remembered giving the room a quick once-over then. It had all kinds of things in it.
There was exercise equipment.
And a chessboard.
It looked perfect for playing.
I grasped the doorknob and opened the door.
Creeeak...
Beyond it were a soft sofa and a bed.
A chessboard, a bookcase packed full of books, and exercise equipment.
There were also countless unidentified objects arranged in a chaotic mess.
"How about this place?"
"Here..."
Ruby stretched hard, then added,
"It's my teacher's sworn sisters' room."
"...?"
I knew them as Dolores's sworn sisters, the people who had climbed the Tower with her.
Ah, so it was something like a reception room...
Flinch.
My body stiffened.
I had thought we could use it freely.
But did this mean we should retreat? Using it without permission felt a little risky.
That was when it happened.
"It's fine to do anything except play chess. My teacher said so."
"Oh, really?"
"I like this place too..."
Whew, what a relief. Ruby liked it too.
Reassured, I entered the room and naturally headed toward the exercise corner.
There was a brutally heavy-looking barbell, a jump rope beside it, and several other things that looked useful.
"Ruby, over here..."
But Ruby had already gone over to the bookcase, buried herself in the beanbag beside the desk, and opened a book.
"...Good grief."
Good grief indeed.
Well, whatever.
She would come over later if she got curious.
I decided to start exercising.
Actually, Ruby wasn't the only problem.
I was a problem too.
After pumping those pedals yesterday and swinging a hammer a few days ago, I had keenly realized something.
I needed to build strength.
People said lifting weights as a child stunted your growth.
That was just a myth.
Apparently, as long as the weight wasn't enough to compress your growth plates, it was actually helpful.
Right, Yuna?
[Yeah, that's the conclusion.]
"All right, then."
I rolled up my sleeves.
I picked up the jump rope nearest to me.
Let's start with cardio.
Thirty minutes passed like that.
"..."
I was sprawled on the floor with my face planted against it.
Why was this so exhausting?
Jump rope, lifting dumbbells that looked to weigh one kilogram, and push-ups.
It was circuit training, rotating through those three exercises.
My body had given out exactly on the fourth round.
I had even done the push-ups with my knees on the floor, and lifted the dumbbells with both hands.
Sweat poured off me like rain.
Yeah, because I was a baby...
Baby heart rate, baby lung capacity, baby stamina...
I just had to build it all up from now on...
I barely lifted my head and looked toward Ruby.
Apparently, my ridiculous performance had been more interesting than her book.
Startle!
When our eyes met, she startled, turned her head away, and hurriedly shifted her gaze to the book.
I should keep it a secret that she was holding the book upside down.
I barely pushed myself up.
I felt like I was going to die from exhaustion, but Ruby kept watching me pant, and it oddly wounded my pride.
"...Oh, what's this?"
Pretending to be interested in the chessboard, I took a break while studying it.
I had actually played quite a lot of chess too.
It had been part of the sedentary games Yuna recommended to help me quit rhythm games.
But then I suddenly started playing chess seventeen hours a day.
After watching me for two weeks, Yuna banned chess too.
The online chess matchmaking environment back then had been... absolute hell.
Even AIs that had figured out how to tell when someone was using AI moves had begun playing around the monitoring.
In other words, uncatchable cheaters were running rampant, and playing in that environment had trained me to the limit.
Of course, as an AI hater, I didn't use it.
At the time, I had developed a Luddite mindset that wanted to wipe out every machine.
My online chess rapid rating was around 2500.
I knew it was actually insanely good. The point was not to make a fuss about it.
As if it were nothing. Not for me.
So, just from a quick look at the board, I could tell who was winning...
"...Black is getting wrecked, isn't it?"
This wasn't merely losing. Black was getting torn to shreds.
The number of pieces was roughly similar, but in just two or three more moves, Black would be utterly finished.
"Ruby, whose game is this?"
"...White is my teacher."
Oh, Dolores.
She was absolutely demolishing Black.
"They come by sometimes and take turns making moves. My teacher makes a move, then they come by some other time and make a move... But they haven't come for about a year. They should be due to visit soon."
"...I don't think they're ever coming back."
I wouldn't come back either.
Rather than play any further from this position, I would probably hole up forever.
Shaking my head at Black's pathetic skill, I said,
"I'm going to get some water."
"I want lemonade."
"Can I pour it on your legs?"
"Let me think about that. Hmm, no."
Trading pointless jokes with Ruby, I headed for the kitchen.
It felt like we had gotten fairly close. Was it because we slept together?
Even that must have been part of Dolores's arrangement... right?
The kitchen was at the innermost end of the first floor of the estate.
A few servants were quietly preparing for the afternoon.
"Could I please have a glass of water and a lemonade?"
"Of course, young master. I'll prepare them right away."
Click, click.
One servant filled a glass with water.
Another poured some pre-prepared lemonade.
As I waited for them, I casually glanced into the mirror beside the kitchen.
"What the hell?"
My appearance was reflected there in full.
My hair was soaked with sweat, my face was flushed red, and my shirt was drenched all the way to the collar.
I looked like a complete beggar.
Holding a glass of water in one hand and lemonade in the other, I left the kitchen.
I was walking down the corridor toward the reception room when—
Click.
At the far end of the hallway, a woman dressed entirely in black was striding inward.
Her colors were the exact opposite of Dolores's.
A black velvet dress, black gloves, even black boots.
Even her hair was black with a violet tint, absorbing the light around it.
And, decisively, she was tall.
'Okay.'
I knew at once.
She was someone important.
I dipped my head slightly.
"Hello."
The woman stopped for a moment and slowly looked me over from head to toe.
"Espresso."
"...Pardon?"
"Grind the beans only twice, not finely. The water must be eighty-five degrees. No hotter."
What the hell was she talking about?
Leaving those words behind, she opened the reception room door and walked right in.
Eek...!
I thought I heard Ruby cry out in alarm from inside.
Then the door closed.
Was she telling me to make her coffee?
"Good grief."
Fine, if she wanted coffee, I would make her coffee. She looked like someone important.
I did look like a beggar.
She had probably mistaken me for a servant, or maybe she simply didn't care.
I set the lemonade and water aside and headed back to the kitchen.
Once there, I spoke to a maid.
"Um... someone has arrived. She wants an espresso—beans ground only twice, not finely, and eighty-five-degree water. No hotter."
"...!"
I recited the request Yuna had written down. Without Yuna, I wouldn't have remembered any of it.
Then an older servant who had been farther inside the kitchen came walking out.
"Lady Isabella has arrived."
"Yes, she was dressed in a lot of black."
"While the Duchess is out..."
The servant looked at me for a moment, then smiled gently.
Making the coffee seemed to take about five minutes.
She held out a tray to me.
"...Normally, I should deliver it myself, but since it was Young Master Lionel whom she asked, I cannot bring it to her. Lady Isabella is the sort of person who..."
"Of course, I'll take it to her."
She looked terribly troubled.
I didn't particularly mind.
When I answered, the servant looked a little relieved as she placed the coffee cup on the tray.
"Do you happen to know where Miss Ruby is?"
"She was in the reception room."
At my answer, the servant gave a bitter smile.
"I see. Please take care."
The servant carefully placed the tray in my hands.
I took the coffee out into the hallway.
Judging by her reaction and the rudeness she had shown from the moment we met...
'Hmm, she must be a real headache.'
She seemed like a very difficult person to deal with.
I even found myself thinking that Dolores might rank near the top among duchesses in terms of personality.
Assuming she was one of the sworn sisters, she was probably a high ranker.
Before long, I arrived in front of the reception room.
Knock, knock.
For some reason, I felt like I should knock.
When there was no answer, I opened the door and went inside.
The first thing I saw was the beanbag where Ruby should have been.
It was empty.
Where had this kid gone now?
I turned to deliver the coffee, and that was when—
"..."
Lady Isabella was sitting in front of the chessboard.
"Pfft..."
I had to hold back a laugh.
You were the chess noob?
On the outside, you look like you'd be a grandmaster.
So you were a chess noob. I see, I see.
As if deep in thought, she brought her fingers toward her lips, then subtly lowered them.
Unfortunately, this wasn't a position where thinking would produce an answer.
"Your coffee is here."
"Put it down and leave."
I set the coffee on the table beside her, then pretended to leave while hiding behind her and watching the chessboard.
Sip.
"Is the coffee in this house the problem...?"
People who were bad at things always blamed someone else like crazy.
"If it weren't for the gloves, I wouldn't have come... Ah, I hate this..."
She kept muttering to herself.
But I heard one thing I couldn't just let pass.
Gloves?
Was she talking about my +20 ranch gloves? Dolores was the only person who knew about those.
Maybe Dolores had told her.
She wouldn't have mentioned it just to get me killed, right?
I trusted Dolores. I had entrusted all authority to her anyway.
And then.
After thinking for a long time, she made a bad move.
Isabella's fingers settled on one of her knights.
Then the knight lifted slightly off the board.
Sorry, but the moment she touched that piece, her queen would be gone within three moves.
Of course, Dolores would have to make the theoretically correct moves, but even if she didn't, the kingside getting blown apart was inevitable.
She had already picked up the piece and set it back down, so there was no taking it back.
Now she had to move it. Those were the rules.
You could say it was a fairly important rule.
But then she suddenly shook her head from side to side.
And put the knight back in its original position on the chessboard...
"Wow, that's cheating."
"W-What?"
I tilted my head with the innocent expression of a child who knew nothing.
"Isn't that cheating?"
I could put up with anything, but I couldn't put up with cheating.
Fucking cheaters. The enemies of my entire life.
Isabella was dumbfounded.
She opened her mouth and stared at me.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Lionel, Ruby's friend."
"...You're not a servant?"
Isabella stared at me as if she couldn't believe it.
Then, suddenly lifting the corner of her mouth, she said,
"I've lost interest."
Clatter...
She knocked over every piece on the board.
Well, well. You found yourself a nice excuse.
Then—
Rattle, rattle...
She neatly reset the pieces on the board.
"You seem good at chess. You even know the rules."
"A little."
"Are you close with Ruby? What family are you from... Ah, never mind that."
"I do have a family, but I don't know about her."
Asking about my family—she seemed to have assumed I was a child from some noble house.
Unexpectedly, Isabella didn't seem to be in a bad mood.
She seemed happy to have found an excuse to overturn that game.
Then again, I would have been too...
With a bright smile, she asked me,
"Would you like to play a game with me?"
"..."
Chess?
...With me?
"...Yes, sure."
You?
Holding back a laugh, I sat across from her.
"I'll take White."
Whirl.
The chessboard turned around.
Seeing her take the advantageous White side even against a child...
'Wow.'
I felt that she needed an education.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register