1.
Floor 88, Climbing Zone.
After a long, grueling battle, the climbers who had set foot on the floor collapsed where they stood, struggling to catch their breath.
"You have worked hard."
An old dwarf who appeared to be the floor's administrator stood before them, clapping his hands.
"My heartfelt congratulations on reaching the eighty-eighth floor. As is customary, I shall briefly explain this floor to you."
"Hah... We did it..."
"We made it? We really made it?"
The old dwarf slowly nodded.
It was a congratulation for passing the previous floor's trial.
And a gesture of consideration, allowing them to catch their breath before taking on the next challenge on this floor.
A customary greeting extended to climbers, containing both.
"Now then, everyone, look up."
The climbers' gazes all turned upward at once.
And then...
"...What is that?"
Someone murmured blankly.
A colossal grid stretched overhead, all the way to the horizon.
Each section of the ceiling and sky bore its own engraving.
"Those are records of glory inscribed by the Heirs of Fire."
"Ah... the Heirs of Fire!"
The old dwarf nodded. The Heirs of Fire were a proud part of their race's history, one even climbers knew of.
Looking up at the grid, he lowered his voice.
"The Heirs of Fire are the exceedingly few Sun Dwarves chosen by fire itself. Yet even that great fire could not withstand the passage of time. A new Heir of Fire has not appeared for a very long time now..."
"Oh, enough with those stale old tales."
At that moment.
Someone abruptly cut off the administrator.
A dwarf in a suit, with the corners of his mouth pulled high in a grin.
He was an employee of the Dwarf Company.
"Everyone, isn't becoming stronger right this instant more important than some far-fetched legend?"
He wormed his way among the climbers, rubbing his hands together.
"How about trying our company's signature enchantment service here on the eighty-eighth floor? We guarantee the finest enchantment experience and a definite boost in power."
"Ooh..."
In truth, those who had not personally climbed to the eighty-eighth floor were not barred from receiving enchantments.
Unlike the Climbing Zone, the Residential Zone with its enchantment facilities could be entered with a companion or with certification for that floor.
But the latter was difficult in practical terms, so most people had no choice but to rely on the former.
And crucially, there was a clear difference in enchantment costs between those who had reached the eighty-eighth floor on their own and those who had not.
Those were the prices set by the Dwarf Company.
In short, for climbers who had been forced to buy expensive enchanted equipment, now that they had reached the eighty-eighth floor was the cheapest time to start enchanting.
The climbers' eyes slowly began to waver.
The Dwarf Company employee's grin widened even further.
Then, at that moment.
Rumble...
The sky above their heads trembled.
"...?"
Boom!
Crackle...
Accompanied by the sound of something resonating.
A new emblem began to be inscribed in one of the empty squares.
The Dwarf Company employee who had been going on about enchantments, along with the climbers, all stared skyward with their mouths hanging open.
"Um... Mr. Dwarf, what is that...?"
In the silence, one climber asked.
The old dwarf with the bushy beard slowly stepped forward.
A broad smile spread across his face, so wide that all his white teeth showed, replacing the bitterness he had worn just moments ago.
His wrinkled eyes had already begun to glisten with tears.
Still looking up at the sky, he spread both arms wide toward that distant, unseen place.
"...Tell them what you have seen. Tell them what you have heard."
Words he had thought he would never speak again.
They were not meant for the climbers alone.
They were for those dwarves who wore crisply pressed suits instead of grease-stained leather aprons.
For those who held a sheet of contract paper instead of a hammer.
"Tell everyone...!"
The old dwarf shouted until his throat nearly burst.
"Welcome the new Heir of Fire!"
Tears streamed down his wrinkled face.
2.
Another day at the forge.
Yesterday, I got a good rest in Dolores's arms for the first time in a while.
Well, I had not intended to rest. I had been forced to.
What was truly unexpected was that Ruby would thank me.
"Thank you."
Even after bawling her eyes out, she properly said that before scampering off.
And since yesterday, the way she looked at me had changed again.
"...Phew."
Meanwhile, Dolores seemed to have judged that she had more or less entered the early stages of recovery.
This morning, she left the estate to see her physician.
And I...
There were things I was personally very curious about right now.
About three of them.
First.
If I enchanted the equipment I had made for her and raised its enhancement level, would her recovery improve further?
So as Dolores was about to leave, I stopped her and asked her to take off at least her gloves.
">Mmm... No, I don't want to..."
Dolores clasped her gloved hands tightly to her chest, shaking her head with flushed cheeks.
She might have cried if I had asked for her stockings.
Anyway, her expression was rather cute, so I nearly let her go as she was...
But when I firmly insisted, she eventually handed over her gloves with a sullen look.
I was going to answer my first question with these gloves, right now.
My second question was this.
What exactly was [Unique Equipment]?
I intended to find that out through various records.
Wikis, various communities... anywhere that might have information.
And my third and final question.
"...I ignored Isabella when she spoke to me?"
Am I insane?
[Yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally.]
Yuna played the footage she had recorded that day.
Beside me, Isabella pointed a finger at me, her face flushed bright red.
"You! Become my disciple!"
But in the video, I was thinking:
'I want to die.'
'My nose won't unravel. I want to tear it all apart.'
'Ah...'
I had not even looked at her, just knitting the toe of a stocking.
"L-Lionel...? Um...?"
"...Lionel?"
Eventually, the Isabella in the footage left the room sniffling, tears in her eyes.
"...What have I done?"
The truly surprising thing was how remarkably mild and kind Isabella had been this time.
Anyone would have taken that as being ignored.
Yet rather than getting angry, she had chosen to quietly retreat, all shriveled up.
I should apologize later.
I would be grateful if she accepted it...
It seemed right to get her contact information through Dolores or something.
I had no idea when she had entered the estate, but I had been far too rude.
"Then, now..."
It was time to satisfy my curiosity.
I wanted to grab a hammer and start enchanting immediately.
But I knew what took priority. There was something I needed to check first.
[Apprentice Blacksmith's Warming Gloves].
The concept of [Unique Equipment] attached to this item.
What was unique equipment?
I began digging through communities.
Wikis, forums, strategy guides, every place that might have information... That was a lie, actually.
"Yuna."
[Yeah?]
"Give me a big-data summary."
[Sheesh.]
Yuna let out a sigh.
Then hundreds of documents rapidly flashed past before my eyes.
[Want a three-line summary?]
[One. Unique equipment is equipment that exists only once in the world.]
"Good."
[Two. But being one of a kind alone doesn't make it unique equipment. People say it only earns the label "unique" if, even at the same star rating, its performance is on an entirely different level from other equipment.]
[It can't be measured in numbers, but it's simply in a different class.]
[Three. That's why, if someone obtains unique equipment around four or five stars, it's so powerful that they will give up on enchanting altogether because of the risk of destruction and just use the original at +0.]
That was more than three lines, but I nodded because Yuna would probably get mad if I pointed it out.
So the concept of unique equipment was good enough that people would forgo enchanting?
It had only happened once, but...
I had once raised a zero-star item all the way to +20 without a single destruction.
As long as I did not fail, there was no chance of destruction in the first place.
"...Then what happens if you enchant unique equipment?"
So, honestly.
The very notion of giving up enchanting because of the destruction risk was someone else's problem to me.
You could get fun, dopamine, and enchantments all at once. Why be scared of that?
[Hmm...]
Yuna searched for a moment.
[There aren't any research results.]
[Basically, the higher the rating of a unique item, the more sharply the destruction rate rises even at low enhancement levels.]
[Even the Dwarf Company is reluctant to accept enchantment requests for unique equipment because the destruction risk is too high.]
"...I don't get it."
Were high-star unique items really that difficult to enchant?
I could not stand being curious.
Before long, I felt like I should enchant the White Gloves of Gorgonew that Dolores had thrown in the trash.
I was salivating at the thought, but whether she would actually give them to me was another question.
"Hey."
[Apprentice Blacksmith's Warming Gloves].
"I was curious, and you're just the perfect test subject."
My hands had already been itching to enchant something.
[How many hours should I set the timer for?]
[Two hours...? Three hours...?]
"T..."
[Two hours?]
"Twenty hours."
[......]
I had rested for far too long.
Now.
It was time to return to the rhythm-game grind.
3.
At the same time.
Dolores was seated in a teahouse inside the Imperial City, near the Imperial Palace.
She was on her way back from seeing her physician.
Wrapping her hands around her teacup, she reflected on what had just happened.
"...How? How could this possibly be?"
After taking her pulse, the physician had shaken his head again and again.
He was the physician who had treated her for decades. The physician who had treated her family.
He knew better than anyone that this illness could never be cured.
And yet he had said that.
"...There is simply no way to explain it. But..."
With trembling hands, he took her pulse again.
"You are definitely recovering... and at an astonishing rate."
What Dolores had been feeling was not merely an illusion born from wanting to believe.
Her body, which had been dying, was truly coming back to life.
"..."
Turning those words over in her mind, Dolores took a sip of warm tea.
On the surface, she was as elegant as ever.
The curtains hanging around the table concealed her legs below the knees.
And behind those curtains...
Tap-tap-tap-tap.
Her two feet, clad in crimson stockings...
Bounced incessantly like those of an excited child.
Where nobody could see, her entire body was rejoicing.
'Lionel, Lionel, Lionel.'
If not for her promise, she would have run to him at once and swept the boy into her arms.
Just then.
Step.
The chair across from her was quietly pulled out.
"...Have you been waiting long?"
Long golden hair flowed softly over the woman's shoulders.
Yet in stark contrast to that graceful hair, she wore white armor over her body.
Dolores's sworn sister and the sword of the Imperial Family.
Valkyrie Seren de Lumiere.
Reining in the excitement in her toes, Dolores answered elegantly.
"No, I just got here."
"Really?"
As the woman sat across from her, she let out a deep, weary sigh.
Dark circles hung heavily beneath her eyes.
She looked as though she had not slept properly in days.
"...Sigh. I'll just get straight to the point, Dolores."
She set something down on the table with a soft thunk.
A small token fashioned in gold.
"You said you didn't sell those gloves, right?"
The token bore an extraordinary crest of a roaring lion.
Decorated entirely in gold, it belonged to a prince.
"...I'll meet any terms you want. Gold coins... an expansion of your territory... or anything else."
She looked at Dolores with exhausted eyes.
Every word was steeped in fatigue.
"Can't you hand those gloves over to His Highness?"
"..."
Dolores did not answer at once.
The final bid for the gloves Lionel had made had been 170,000 gold.
She had suspected that the prince was the one who had casually thrown down that amount.
But Lionel had not sold them.
And as a result...
Seren, who had been hounded day after day by the prince with a hobby of collecting luxury equipment, had finally come in person to find Dolores.
"Could I answer you later?"
"Yes, please do."
Perhaps even that answer was a relief from Seren's perspective, because she let out a long sigh of relief.
"...Sigh. Honestly, I'm curious even as your sister. How on earth did you get them...? Though there's no point asking, since you won't answer anyway, right?"
Dolores only smiled faintly.
"I should just quit my job. Seriously."
Seren shook her head, grumbling to herself. Then...
Her eyes shifted toward the empty air to her right.
And soon.
Flash.
Her eyes suddenly flew wide open.
It was a habit she always had whenever she received a message from the Tower.
Her eyes grew wider and wider as she checked whatever was floating in the air.
"...Ah, ah. Aaaaah."
Before long, Seren was even covering her eyes with both hands and whining like a child.
"...?"
Not understanding what was happening, Dolores looked at her.
Without a word, Seren turned her interface toward Dolores.
What floated there...
Was breaking news from a press outlet that reported on the Tower.
[【Breaking News】 The lineage of the Heirs of Fire, believed to have vanished, continues.]
[【Breaking News】 The Sun Dwarves have returned. The Heirs of Fire have returned.]
The breaking report displayed a single photograph of the scene.
A blazing sun emblem had been inscribed upon the grid.
"Where am I supposed to get equipment made by an Heir of Fire now...? This is driving me insane..."
As if she had sensed the fate awaiting her, Seren slammed her forehead into the table with a thunk.
One pair of +20 gloves had already caused this much chaos.
And now equipment from the Heirs of Fire, whose lineage everyone had thought completely extinct, had come into view.
Considering what had happened with the Genesis Sword not long ago...
There was no need to imagine what lay ahead.
Then.
A commotion spread throughout the teahouse.
"This..."
"...Then perhaps..."
Seren glanced anxiously around her.
"...I-I think I need to go. Quickly."
With the face of someone half-dead, she slowly got to her feet.
"I need to go negotiate, at least..."
"All right. Take care."
Dolores had to hold it in.
Until Seren left the teahouse with her shoulders drooping.
Until the scraping of chairs erupted chaotically from all directions, and everyone else had departed as well.
She had to desperately swallow down the laughter rising to her throat.
"Seren... I'm sorry, but."
Dolores elegantly raised her teacup to her lips.
The Heir of Fire she was searching for so eagerly... and the owner of those gloves...
Were, in fact, the same person.
And right now, he was likely hammering away in her estate.
Without the slightest idea what was happening.
"Hehe."
Carefree, singing as he worked.
It had been a very long time since her days had been this delightful.
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