1.
I think Isabella can be somewhat oblivious, stubborn, and frustrating at times.
But I don’t think she’s a bad person.
I don’t want to call her a loser, but... if I had to put her in a category, yeah.
I think that’s the category she belongs in.
And as if to prove it...
Beside the door Dolores had opened stood a huge stack of mysterious boxes.
It was already dark outside, so I couldn’t see clearly, but they looked like they were wrapped up like presents.
Did she carry all of those here? Honestly, it couldn’t be easy to get scolded even after bringing gifts.
Just as I shook my head at her impossible-to-fathom behavior—
"...D-Dolores?"
Isabella loosened her arms around me.
Even her voice shook.
She looked out the window, then stared at the sky that had already gone dark, her face suddenly turning as though she had just realized something.
Perhaps sensing that something was seriously wrong, she flinched and began taking off her gloves.
"Y-you’re here?"
I quietly looked at Dolores’s face.
Wow...
She was seriously terrifying.
All that talk about the Abyss from earlier suddenly seemed laughable.
Taking advantage of Isabella’s loosened hold, I quickly slipped out of her embrace and moved toward the furnace.
The two of them clearly had something to discuss. It was only right for me to make myself scarce.
Going by the flow of things, this seemed likely to be an adults’ conversation, so they would probably tell me to return to the manor.
Adults usually didn’t want children hearing them argue.
Just as I was about to back away—
"...Lionel? Come here."
Flinch.
Dolores called for me and turned her head.
With the freshest, kindest smile in the world, she beckoned me over.
"...Yes."
Guided by herbivore instincts, I hurried over to her side.
I was about to obediently take the hand she silently offered me, when...
"My hands are cold, so hold onto my leg instead."
"...?"
Her bare hands, without her gloves, were freezing.
No, but how was I supposed to hold her leg just because of that?
I liked the idea, but it felt a little awkward.
In the end, I awkwardly grabbed onto her clothes.
Only then did Dolores slowly turn her head toward Isabella.
It seemed she had no intention of sending me away.
Avoiding her gaze, Isabella shrank in on herself as though quietly waiting for Dolores’s ultimatum.
If she was going to act like that, why had she been so high-handed in the first place?
Maybe she had meant to run away before Dolores arrived, then lost track of time.
"...Isabella."
"Y-yeah."
"This is the second time you’ve come here without contacting me, breaking through my warding magic."
Her voice was quite low.
"I told you not to approach Lionel."
"...S-sorry."
"...No."
Dolores gave a faint smile.
"I know you aren’t sorry, so there’s no point in pretending to apologize. It only makes us both look ridiculous."
"...!"
Isabella’s mouth began opening and closing soundlessly.
"E-Elysia..."
Whether Dolores had struck a nerve, or whether it was simply the first time she had ever spoken so sharply to her, Isabella’s eyes dimmed as she stretched out a hand.
The problem was that this was only the beginning.
"Isabella, when we were young, we could act casually around each other and simply enjoy ourselves. I have no intention of denying that."
Dolores’s gaze wandered somewhere far away.
"But... much time has passed since then. It’s time for us to respect each other’s positions and places."
"..."
"Whenever you acted casually and without manners, I overlooked your rudeness time and again. Not because there was nothing wrong with what you did, but..."
"..."
"Because no matter how many times I told you, you never listened, and eventually I grew tired and let it slide."
Oof.
Without realizing it, I gripped her clothes more tightly.
I couldn’t interfere in someone else’s business, but it felt like Dolores had been holding a great deal in.
"Because I do care for you as well, as a friend."
"Dolores..."
"But when the person involved isn’t me, but my child... when you hold and embrace a child who says they don’t want it... and cling to him while putting only your own desires first..."
Dolores paused for a moment before speaking quietly one last time.
I could feel her emotions roiling.
"Isabella, please grow up already... I’m begging you."
Silence settled over the workshop.
Unable to say anything, Isabella wore an expression like she had been struck by something—like she had been shocked.
"I’m really sorry..."
"..."
Dolores shook her head.
Then Isabella suddenly turned to me as well.
"Lionel, I-I’m sorry. I truly didn’t mean it that way."
Since she had been scolded by Dolores, I thought she would apologize only to her.
But she was apologizing to me too.
Strictly speaking, that was the right thing to do.
"Yes, it’s okay."
It didn’t exactly make me happy to hear her sound so cowed when she was usually always smiling foolishly.
When I nodded, Dolores’s expression visibly softened beside me.
Isabella carefully folded Dolores’s gloves together and held them out to her.
"...I sincerely apologize."
"...Yes."
When Dolores quietly accepted her apology—
Step, step.
Isabella turned around with a dejected expression.
Just as she was walking toward the door—
"I’ll make good use of the gifts."
I didn’t know what they were, but I had received them, so I thanked her.
It felt a little wrong to send her off looking that downcast.
Pause.
Isabella stopped for a moment.
"Yeah..."
With a faint, bitter smile, she disappeared into the darkness with quick steps.
...And a few minutes later.
"...Phew."
Dolores let out a long sigh.
The tension finally drained from her body.
I looked up at her and asked.
It was true anywhere, but personally, I thought the person saying harsh things had it harder than the person hearing them.
It was the same in the military, at least in my opinion.
That was why I figured Dolores felt the same way.
"Are you okay, Dolores?"
At my question, Dolores lowered her head and met my eyes.
Whoosh.
"...Ah."
Without a word, she scooped me up and hugged me against her.
"Lionel, that’s what I want to ask you."
"Pardon?"
"Are you okay?"
"Yes, I’m okay."
"..."
Dolores vigorously ruffled my hair, then—
Hug.
Pulled me into her arms.
"Ah, and..."
There was something I wanted to tell her.
The gloves—the gloves had developed a latent ability.
"Would you try the gloves on now?"
As I wriggled in her arms, Dolores gave a small chuckle and set me down.
She slowly put on the gloves I handed her.
Slip.
At that moment—
"...Oh?"
Dolores’s eyes widened slightly.
"I can feel... a strange energy..."
Tilting her head, she quietly looked down at her gloved hand.
Then the gray engraving on it turned red.
"..."
And then—
Hummm.
The energy blooming from the gloves warmly enveloped Dolores and me.
"Wow."
I had wondered how it was used, but someone on Dolores’s level apparently understood it immediately.
"How is it?"
I was about to get showered with praise again.
I looked up at her face excitedly.
But—
"...What is this?"
Looking bewildered and surprised, yet pleased at the same time, she opened her mouth with a complex expression where all three emotions were intertwined.
2.
Deep in the night.
Only a single lamp was lit in Dolores’s office.
Rustle.
As she read every book she had taken from the shelves, one by one, she reflected on what had happened that night.
Before her lay the gloves Lionel had made for her, neatly arranged.
And these gloves...
A few hours ago, had manifested "magic."
There were times when equipment helped one manifest magic or accelerated one’s circuits.
However.
It was by no means common for magic itself to be embedded in a piece of equipment.
Never. Absolutely never.
Even among five-star equipment—among the unique pieces of equipment at the very pinnacle, the so-called artifacts—
Such a thing rarely happened.
Of course, compared to those items, the level and power of this magic were still insignificant.
"How could this be possible...?"
Lionel had said it just happened while he was enchanting them.
When she first heard that he had enchanted these one-of-a-kind unique gloves, she had nearly fainted.
"That child, honestly..."
What if they had been destroyed...?
Fortunately, they had not been destroyed.
And she had learned that enchanting unique equipment could produce such a result.
Rustle.
Dolores brushed her fingertips over the gloves.
At first, she had merely thought that fortune had finally come to her, even with her cursed body.
Her improving body, the cold gradually lifting.
Perhaps, thanks to this child, she might be able to cast off the tiresome curse that had plagued her family.
Perhaps she might dream of an ordinary life beyond it—a life that others enjoyed as a matter of course.
But as time passed, another feeling began to cast a shadow over one corner of that overwhelming happiness.
"...What..."
Dolores’s blue eyes wavered in the darkness.
What can I do for Lionel?
Was this truly a child she could simply hold in her arms?
He was not a child who could be hidden just by concealing and sheltering him.
A lump of gold buried in sand would eventually catch someone’s eye.
Just as Isabella had recognized Lionel’s true worth at once.
One day, Lionel would surely draw the eyes of the world.
Countless hands flocking toward what shines...
Was only natural.
But then.
Dolores asked herself.
"...Am I, right now..."
Using the plausible excuse of protection—
Was she imprisoning this child, binding him, and keeping him in her arms?
Was she restraining his potential so he could not take even a single step beyond her embrace?
Rustle.
Then her gaze fell on a note placed at one side of the desk.
Sebas had written it after organizing the items contained in the boxes Isabella had brought.
Inside were magical devices said to make spinning thread exceptionally easy.
A spinning wheel, a spinning machine, and various kinds of cloth.
In the end, these too were gifts for Lionel. In her own way, Isabella had accurately identified what Lionel needed.
Things Dolores herself had never even thought of.
Like this.
There would surely be people in the world who could give Lionel things she had never imagined.
"..."
Clench...
Her hand curled into a fist.
The aftertaste was bitter.
But.
This too was the duty of a guardian.
Rustle.
Dolores shifted her gaze to the document in her hand.
In a few days, the imperial palace would hold a birthday banquet for the imperial prince and princess, twin siblings.
It was the invitation to that banquet.
As a duke, she could hardly skip an occasion like this.
Originally, she had planned to attend only with Ruby, her heir, but...
Her gaze fell on the gloves.
Yes.
If she could not keep this child in her arms forever.
Then perhaps...
At least for the moment he took his first step into the world—
"In my arms."
Wouldn’t it be better for him to take that step at her side, bearing the name of Dolores, where she could watch over him?
That way, she could make it all the more certain whose child he was in the eyes of the world.
Once her thoughts settled, a smile spread across her lips.
"...Lionel."
You’ll come with us too.
Outside the window, the darkness of dawn lying thick over the world—
Had begun to take on a pale blue hue.
"He should be awake soon."
Dolores rose from her seat and headed for Lionel’s bedroom.
Creak.
When she carefully opened the door—
"...Hm?"
Dolores paused for a moment.
Lionel was sleeping adorably with his mouth open.
And Ruby was staring intently at Lionel’s face.
Her chin propped in her hand, staring at him.
"...Ruby?"
"...!"
Apparently not expecting this at all, Ruby wore a thoroughly flustered expression.
As she fumbled and shifted her body—
Thud.
"Urgh!"
Ruby’s foot kicked Lionel.
Crash.
Lionel, who had been sleeping soundly, rolled off the bed.
"...What? What was that?"
Sprawled on the floor, Lionel opened his eyes.
Dolores carefully approached him and crouched down.
Then—
"Lionel?"
"Yes, ah. Yes... good morning..."
Bow.
Lionel lowered his head.
Yet even while greeting her, his gaze kept drifting toward her legs in furtive glances.
Not that he was openly staring. It was more as though his eyes simply brushed past them whenever they moved.
This child seemed particularly fond of these oversocks from the start.
Well, he did make them with his own hands.
Was he that proud of them?
Dolores smiled faintly without realizing it and crouched down lower, so Lionel could see them more easily.
"...Ruby, Lionel?"
Dolores called the two children’s names together.
"Yes, Master."
"Yup."
"The day after tomorrow, we will be leaving for the imperial palace."
"The imperial palace... Huh? Me too?"
Lionel’s eyes went round.
"...Yes, you will come with us too, Lionel."
Now that she had sorted out her feelings, she was no longer afraid of revealing him to the world.
Hiding him was not always the answer.
Dolores reached out and pulled Lionel snugly against her chest.
"Ah..."
Confused by the inexplicable embrace, Lionel blinked.
Regardless.
Because he is my child.
She held Lionel even tighter.
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