1.
The mysterious chess master.
No, I beat him at chess itself, so...
Lionel, the mysterious, moderately skilled chess player.
In Isabella’s mind, Lionel’s identity had been narrowed down to roughly one of three possibilities.
First, the child of some noble family.
Second, a child being raised by some knightly order.
Third, a promising young talent being fostered by a newly emerged faction—a climbing party or a fledgling guild.
She had never even considered the possibility that he was connected to Dolores.
There was no way Dolores would marry a man and have a child.
Even when Isabella had visited this estate a year ago, Ruby had been the only child here.
"He’s my child."
"Huh...?"
Isabella’s mind went blank.
What is this?
Then, at that moment.
Isabella caught an interesting change in Dolores’s expression.
It twisted ever so slightly...
And the faintest flush rose to her cheeks.
An expression of realization crossed her face.
It was the face of someone who knew she had just misspoken.
...Oh-ho.
This is new.
Isabella’s interest in Lionel swelled even further.
A clear blunder on Dolores’s part... brought on by a momentary overflow of emotion.
Lionel, just who are you to make Dolores act like this?
And at that moment.
Isabella’s trademark accelerated thinking activated.
Bzzzt...
The information in her mind rearranged itself.
[Why is she reacting so violently?]
This reaction is far too extreme over just one little boy.
[It is strange enough that he is a boy.]
You would never take in a man. Not even if he were a child.
[Where on earth did those gloves come from?]
The usual you would have tried to bleed me dry by using the gloves as bait.
[Lionel’s right hand... was swollen.]
That child said he had no interest in magic and refused.
She viewed the situation from a third-person perspective, her thoughts accelerating at the same time.
Isabella’s heart beat a little faster.
Bzzzt.
The static cleared, and the information began converging toward a single conclusion.
Lionel is connected to those +20 gloves.
Isabella’s mind cleared with the realization.
At last, she had found the weakness of that cool, sharp, occasionally seemingly kind, but mostly ill-mannered Dolores.
"...Hehe."
She nodded with a delighted smile.
"I understand now, Dolores. The root of your anger..."
But then.
"Huh?"
Bzzzz...
Without her even noticing it.
A blue magic circle had stealthily formed beneath Isabella’s feet.
Her gaze dropped downward.
A teleportation spell that forcibly sent an ally in danger outside the battlefield.
Since it held no intent to harm her, Isabella’s autonomous defense system did not activate.
Without even looking at Isabella, Dolores held a hand to her forehead.
She looked truly exhausted.
"Elysia, wait—"
Poof!
Isabella’s body vanished in an instant.
"Haa..."
Questioning her own intense emotions,
Dolores let out a sigh.
2.
I’m not joking.
After listening to someone talk for three hours straight,
I felt like I could hear her voice even while I was bathing.
It had been a long time since I’d met anyone that noisy.
Without even drying my wet hair, I headed to the study where Ruby was.
"You abandoned me."
Ruby, this just won’t do.
I knocked on the study door.
"Ruby~"
Without waiting for an answer, I opened it right up.
"Y-You’re back?"
Ruby answered without even looking at me, her face buried in a book.
"Hey."
I slowly walked over and gently lowered the book.
Ruby had her lips pressed tightly together and her cheeks puffed out, looking as though she could barely keep herself from laughing.
Look at that. Look at that.
So she knew all along.
"Did you have fun?"
Ruby asked, the corners of her lips curling upward.
At first, I’d been going to punish her by tickling her toes, but...
"Hehe. Yeah."
It was the first time I had ever seen Ruby laugh so brightly and happily.
So I simply patted her head and threw myself onto the beanbag beside her.
Honestly, Isabella didn’t seem like a bad person.
She was overflowing with enthusiasm, so she probably would have been difficult to shake off—but I hadn’t particularly wanted to do that either.
Flop.
My half-exhausted body sank into it.
I’m tired. I feel like I could fall asleep just like this.
Starting tomorrow, I needed to make Dolores some socks...
I was also curious about what she would discuss with Isabella.
It seemed Isabella had come here because she was curious about my gloves.
Just then,
I felt someone watching me from beside me.
When I turned my head slightly, Ruby was studying my upper arm intently.
"...?"
"It did get a little thicker. It looks... harder, too."
Even with an elementary school kid’s body, working myself to the bone for hours would give me a temporary pump.
Ruby apparently found that fascinating.
"So it does have a purpose."
"Would I have done it if it didn’t?"
She had a good eye. Maybe that was because she was a mage.
Ruby quietly stared at my arm for several minutes like that.
I rested, whether she watched or not.
How much time had passed like that?
Knock, knock.
Someone knocked on the door.
"Yes."
The door opened as soon as I answered.
Dolores stood there.
And she looked rather downcast.
3.
Lionel? I prepared the ore, and I applied the lubricant too.
It seemed she had spent additional time outside preparing presents for Ruby and me.
There was nothing else scheduled for today.
Time passed, and the three of us prepared to go to sleep.
Snore...
Ruby fell asleep.
Moonlight streamed through the window onto the bed.
My body was exhausted from the hard training and Isabella’s ant-lion pit of conversation, but...
My mind was still awake.
"..."
I turned my head and looked at Dolores.
She seemed to have her eyes closed, ready to drift peacefully to sleep.
Honestly, I hadn’t known her long enough to judge clearly, but...
She looks listless.
That was what I thought.
Ever since Isabella arrived, she felt a little different.
But I wasn’t the type to hold back questions.
And I wasn’t thoughtful enough to carefully read every nuance of someone’s heart.
"Dolores."
I called to her quietly.
"..."
At my call, she slowly opened her eyes, turned to me with a faint smile,
and I asked her directly.
"Did something happen today?"
"...Sometimes, Lionel."
"Yes?"
"You don’t seem like a child."
"..."
That hit a little too close to home out of nowhere.
Instead of answering, Dolores gave me a warm smile and rose from her place.
Then, just as she had yesterday, she went around the bed and climbed in on my side.
Rustle.
The blanket lifted slightly, and she lay down beside me.
"I just feel a little sorry toward you, Lionel."
"Me?"
What could she possibly have to feel sorry to me about?
"Today was a little noisy, wasn’t it?"
"It wasn’t bad."
She seemed to be talking about Isabella.
It wasn’t as though I’d felt particularly bad about it.
"..."
But was that not the answer she wanted?
Dolores squeezed her eyes shut... and barely managed to speak.
"If you want to attend Isabella’s magic lessons... just tell me anytime."
"What?"
"I could send you to Isabella in a carriage, too."
What was she talking about?
I absolutely, absolutely did not want that.
I could admit that Isabella wasn’t actually a bad person.
But I didn’t want to sit face-to-face with her like that.
I couldn’t do it twice. No way.
"..."
I carefully studied the expression on Dolores’s face after that shocking statement.
It wasn’t that she wanted me to leave.
Wait.
Her eyes were closed, and she wore the expression of someone bracing herself for something.
Only after seeing that expression did I understand the situation.
...No way.
This woman.
Did she think I liked Isabella right now?
From Dolores’s perspective,
it might have looked like I had spent quite an enjoyable time with Isabella.
So, worried that I might want Isabella’s magic lessons,
if she had made up her mind to allow it despite not wanting to...
"Um, Dolores."
"Yes."
"I like you, Dolores."
Dolores’s eyes slowly opened.
Why did she think I was working so hard?
"I don’t like magic, and I don’t like anything else either."
Meeting her gaze, I continued.
"I have no intention of going anywhere, either."
I said it as though it were a joke, but...
"I like you, Dolores."
In this life, it’s you, Dolores.
If a thirty-year-old said something like that, people would point fingers and call him pathetic or insane.
But I was Lionel, thirteen years old.
I could put up with this much cringiness.
"I see... Lionel..."
Dolores closed her eyes and nodded.
Then,
her feet came into my view.
She was barefoot.
I had told her to go without them, and she really had taken them off.
And her feet, now that she had removed the equipment that suppressed the curse...
They’re frozen.
They were bluish and frozen, visibly so even at a glance.
She must have spent the entire morning wearing only shoes over bare feet.
Was this woman planning to stay like this until the shoes I made for her were finished?
And she was telling me to go somewhere else?
That was ridiculous.
I felt terribly uneasy.
When I fixated on one thing, I tended to lose sight of everything else around me.
Grab.
"Eek?!"
I grabbed Dolores’s foot.
"Lionel, let go! It’s cold..."
Cold. It really was far too cold.
Living like this was just too heartbreaking.
I don’t know. Whatever.
"I’ll be back."
I sprang to my feet.
My right to sleep had already been revoked anyway, and perhaps because the medicine had begun working, my hand had almost completely healed by the afternoon.
I grabbed her socks from atop the nightstand.
Tmir’s ice platforms, and shook them tightly in my hand.
Swish, swish.
When I waved her socks around in every direction,
Dolores’s cheeks turned red.
"I’m taking these with me."
Late at night.
When you worked, you were supposed to do it when your mind was sharp and alert.
Studying and gaming were the same way.
"Go to sleep first."
Dolores started to say something, but ultimately closed her mouth.
[No one can stop him, mm-hmm.]
She already wore the expression of someone who knew there was no point trying to stop me.
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