1.
I stopped Dolores as she rose from her seat and headed for the Dwarf Company.
"Wait, wait, wait!!"
Dolores was normally a calm and levelheaded person.
Yet they had managed to make even someone like her rush out without a second thought.
Of course, I completely understood how she felt. Probability manipulation was unforgivable.
"N-no, you can’t!"
Grab!
I hurriedly wrapped my arms around Dolores’s waist.
That instant—
"All right, I will."
Dolores stopped. And remarkably obediently, at that.
What?
She certainly was calm by nature, but—
Didn’t people normally need some time to settle down?
Before I could even dwell on that question—
Rustle.
Dolores smiled faintly and returned to the bed.
Then she sat me on her lap and tightly hugged my waist from behind.
Hadn’t she been angry?
And so, under the pretense of calming Dolores down, I found myself nestled in her arms.
"Since Lionel is stopping me, I should restrain myself. It can’t be helped."
The arms holding me tightened.
Her voice was calm, and she somehow seemed to be in a slightly better mood than usual.
As though she knew nothing at all, Dolores lightly rested her chin on my head.
It was a relief that she didn’t seem angry, but…
Then a question suddenly came to mind.
"…Excuse me, Mama, but how much did you spend on enchanting…?"
How much money had she sunk into it?
It was a somewhat sensitive question, but I asked anyway.
"…Mm, that’s a little…"
She avoided answering at first, but…
"………I think I spent about a gold’s worth."
"……."
Dolores was a whale of unprecedented proportions.
Those fucking bastards at the Company.
It was enough money to make me want to bombard their building immediately.
Dolores was holding me, so I couldn’t, but I nearly sprang to my feet without thinking.
I’d merely been angry when it was someone else’s problem, but now that I knew Dolores had been victimized too, rage welled up inside me.
To climbers, equipment was as vital as life itself.
Of course, whether they were wearing equipment suited to them was another matter.
Enhancing it was an act of protecting one’s life and reaching higher places.
A system that lived by selling climbers their dreams.
That was the true face of that fucking Company.
Squeeze.
She stared intently at me.
I knew for certain now—she wasn’t angry at all.
If anything, I seemed angrier after hearing the amount she’d spent.
"Lionel."
"Yes."
"What would you like to do about this?"
Dolores asked as she gently stroked my waist.
"Since Lionel noticed it, what Lionel wants to do is what matters."
What did I want to do…?
Honestly?
I wanted to report them to the consumer protection agency right away.
But there was no such thing as a consumer protection agency here, so resolving it would likely mean a show of force.
However—
"I don’t think we should go there right away."
"Mm, why do you think that?"
"Because we have no evidence."
I could see it, of course. Whatever rigging they had pulled.
But only I could see it.
And in the end, the result was…
a three-star piece of equipment successfully enhanced to +19 in a single try.
‘It hit +19 in one go, but I think it was rigged.’
If someone said that to me,
I’d assume they were just bragging and block them.
To anyone else, it might sound incredibly obnoxious.
"No one else can see what I saw."
"Of course, that’s true, but…"
Brush.
Dolores gently brushed back my bangs.
"If I suddenly start protesting to the Company, they’ll look for a reason. How I possibly uncovered their fraud."
"……."
"The only difference between the me of the past and the me of today is Lionel."
She gazed silently into my eyes.
"Before long, they would identify Lionel and start guessing who you are. It would be one thing if the ones who noticed were the Emperor or people from outside the Tower… but if it’s the Company…"
Then—
Kiss.
She kissed my forehead.
"That must never happen."
R-right. She had a point.
But hadn’t she just been saying she was going to go wreck the place?
"So we won’t do anything for now."
Dolores smiled faintly.
"Don’t worry. The Company isn’t doing so well right now."
"……."
"The Kargon mine collapsed a few days ago, and once the Velua Mountains come under our control by the end of the year, they’ll be in even worse shape. Then, once the Company is cornered…"
They would become more disgusting.
More petty.
They would commit far more fraud than they did now.
"So when that time comes—"
Dolores’s hand slowly stroked my hair.
"We’ll catch them all at once."
She added in a gentle voice.
"Fraud is always hardest the first time, after all."
"What do we do in the meantime?"
"Gather evidence, of course."
The corners of Dolores’s eyes curved.
"Enough that they can’t simply return the money to one or two people and be done with it."
"……."
"The longer a tail grows, the more certain it is to be stepped on."
In other words—
It would be a waste to end things by merely destroying one building.
The price of climbers’ dreams was worth more than that.
We would wait until the Dwarf Company, its magic stones completely depleted, was driven into a corner—
until it kept committing fraud over and over without realizing its tail was about to be stepped on.
"So they can’t cut off that tail and offer it up."
Dolores pulled me deep into her embrace.
"We’ll make not just the Dwarf Company, but the Company above it take responsibility too."
The Company—the Dwarf Company’s headquarters.
I had heard that the Dwarf Company was merely one branch, responsible for the dwarven race’s technology and business.
Which meant that if trouble arose, headquarters could cut this place loose and evade responsibility.
"…So, Lionel."
Dolores suddenly cupped both my cheeks tenderly.
"Make sure you eat well and grow up big and strong."
"Pardon?"
Why had my growth suddenly come into this?
"While Lionel grows bigger and stronger, their fruit will also… ripen nicely."
The corners of Dolores’s eyes gently curved.
By fruit, did she mean actual fruit—
or the word for their sins?
I thought about it for a moment, but…
Probably—
"Once it ripens."
Both.
Squeeze.
"We’ll pluck every last one of them."
Dolores hugged me once more, then—
Crunch.
She took a bite out of the peach beside her.
2.
The original purpose of my visit to the Inner Tower was this:
─────────────────
『To the descendant who has taken his first step.』
『You are unskilled. Yet undoubtedly burning hot.』
『Please, do not cool.』
『Should you lose your way, come to Voldr’s workshop——』
—The Appraisal Device’s creator, 7th Head Craftsman Voldr—
─────────────────
This, exactly.
Fine. All of that was fine.
"But where is Voldr’s workshop?"
Lying on the bed, I chewed on the fruit Dolores had peeled for me as I looked at the appraisal report.
Then—
"……?!"
What was this flavor?
Juice burst in my mouth. It looked like a peach, but it was unbelievably delicious.
Fruit from the Tower really was on another level.
No.
The important thing wasn’t that.
According to what I had learned before entering the Tower—more specifically, what I had Yuna investigate—
the Sun Dwarves currently seemed divided into two broad groups living on the 88th and 89th floors.
On the 88th floor were those aligned with the Dwarf Company.
On the 89th floor lived those, led by Ricardo, who remained wary of the Company.
The problem was that no such divide had existed in the era when Voldr was alive.
So there was no way to know where Voldr’s workshop would be now.
And since the Heirs of Fire—especially Head Craftsmen—were such exceptional people,
it seemed they had even been wary of outsiders learning the location of their workshops.
No matter how much I searched, I couldn’t find an exact location.
You might ask why I had come here so recklessly, with no plan at all, but—
I wasn’t an idiot.
‘Do you happen to know where Voldr’s workshop is?’
‘You will know when you get there.’
Harngar had definitely said that.
That if I simply entered the Tower, I would naturally find out.
And he had said it with such a confident expression.
If my ancestor said something like that, what more was there for me to doubt?
"…Dolores, can I sleep for just an hour?"
"Mm, go ahead."
I needed to go find him and demand an explanation.
After eating fruit one after another, I could feel a gentle sugar crash coming on.
Giving myself over to that drowsiness,
I closed my eyes.
And then—
How much time had passed?
"……."
What was this?
He had been the sort to wake me like thunder, shouting, ‘Wake up, descendant!!’
I slowly opened my eyes.
But the place spread out before me was a very modest room.
One old wooden table.
Two chairs facing each other.
A small stove quietly burning in the corner.
On top of it, a kettle full of tea water bubbled away.
For a blacksmith’s workshop—or the Formless Divine Furnace—it was…
simply a place I had never been before.
"Harngar…"
I turned my head, looking for him, but—
"If you’re looking for that child, you’ve come to the wrong place."
Before I knew it—
Clack.
An old dwarf sitting beyond the table set down his teacup.
White hair fell to his waist.
An ash-gray beard covered his chest.
The corner of his mouth, visible through it all, slowly curled upward.
One of the old man’s eyes was blue,
but the other—gleamed gold.
"Did the peach suit your taste? Have a seat."
He pointed to the empty chair across from him.
"Descendant who has lost his way."
"……!"
As though he had been waiting for me—
"This is the workshop of Voldr that you were looking for."
Then—
If this was Voldr’s workshop—
I cautiously sat in the chair the old man had indicated.
Creak.
The person before me was…
"Are you Voldr?"
"I am."
I had more questions than I could count.
Advice about my hammer.
And how he had known I had just eaten a peach.
And also—
…if he had an [Inner Eye] that could see the future,
did he know that the Sun Dwarves of the future would abandon their pride?
"How… did you know about the peach?"
Even Harngar hadn’t known much about what I did outside.
"Ah, that?"
A crooked finger tapped the golden eye.
"[Inner Eye]."
An eye that saw fragments of the future.
"My physical body died long ago, but the consciousness I left behind here has not disappeared."
"……."
"I can at least glimpse what the one who arrives at my workshop has seen."
Voldr’s golden eye turned toward me.
"A dazzling, magnificent building, and in its shadow… a village of descendants losing their light."
Exactly.
As I walked here, I had noticed that the Dwarf Company’s building was so large and splendid that it stood out even from a distance.
Yet the farther past that building I went, deeper into the village, the drearier the scenery became.
Even the 88th floor, supposedly supported by the Dwarf Company, was like this.
Then—
What could the 89th floor, which had turned its back on the Company, possibly look like?
"It is a simple matter."
Voldr slowly set down his teacup.
"You are wondering why the Sun Dwarves have fallen so far."
"…That’s right."
His golden eye glimmered faintly.
"Then I must begin from the day their decline started, but…"
Voldr smiled bitterly.
"To tell that story, I must first explain how I came to possess this eye."
Tap, tap.
His finger tapped the eye that shone gold.
"Four hundred and twenty years ago."
He began to speak.
"The inter-floor war with the elves ended."
"I’ve heard that story."
A war that had broken out because they coveted each other’s techniques.
Many craftsmen died, but neither side obtained what it wanted.
"Then did you also hear who started that war?"
"…No."
I hadn’t heard that part.
"It was I."
"……Pardon?"
Voldr spoke as he looked down at his teacup.
"The one who started the war and plunged the dwarves into crisis and poverty was…"
With a bitter expression,
"…I."
That was how he began.
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