Chapter 69: 68. Taking Measurements
1.
If it had been Isabella—or some other high ranker—rather than Dolores asking me for equipment, underwear probably would never have been the top priority.
Well, I wouldn’t know, but apparently they were still climbing the Tower even now.
In that case, the equipment they would want in the middle of a battlefield where life and death hung in the balance would, most likely, be equipment that could make them stronger immediately.
They wouldn’t be asking for warm underwear when they had a battle tomorrow.
Underwear was certainly classified as equipment in this world, but unlike a hammer or other gear, it wasn’t something that made you stronger right away.
It was simply worn for the longest time in daily life, remaining against the body for long periods and gradually... gradually improving one’s constitution.
Of course, the things I made would be on an entirely different level.
Anyway.
In that sense, Dolores had stopped climbing.
Rather than becoming stronger immediately, she was in a position where she needed to heal both her constitution itself and the illness eating away at her.
Having felt the effects of equipment that stayed against her body for a long time, such as gloves and stockings...
It might have been only natural that she couldn’t forget the sensation of her body healing and eventually asked me to make her underwear as well.
"All right."
I wanted to make it too, after all.
This feeling of slowly warming her cold body.
I liked it quite a lot.
I had one conviction.
Once I decided to make a piece of equipment, I believed I had to devote myself wholly to that equipment.
The same went for rhythm games. Once I decided to conquer a song, I had to see it through to the end.
In that sense, Dolores.
I was in the process of conquering Dolores.
"Mama."
"Mm..."
She had said it in the heat of the moment, but...
Perhaps she was embarrassed about requesting it to be made, because her face was lightly flushed.
"There are two ways."
"What are they...?"
What was the most necessary thing for making underwear?
Naturally. Obviously. Of course.
"What are they...?"
"Um... taking your size and measurements, Dolores."
For custom work, measurements were naturally essential.
Just looking wasn’t enough. No way.
How could I know when I was looking over clothes, anyway?
As proof of that, Frostless Spring, created through measurements and countless observations, had a compatibility rating of 70.
But the [Apprentice Blacksmith’s Warming Gloves], which I had only roughly judged by eye, did not have such high compatibility.
"Hk."
Had she not thought that far ahead?
Or perhaps... she had been trying to deny it. Either way, she flinched.
"One way is for me to measure you directly."
The instant she heard that, Dolores’s eyes wavered.
"D-directly?"
"Yes. The other way is... for you to lend me a set of underwear you normally wear. I can use that as a sample."
Dolores fidgeted with her fingers and avoided my gaze.
Not long after that...
"Which one is more accurate...?"
As though she had made up her mind, she asked that while covering her reddened face with both hands.
Looking at her resolve, I...
"...As for which is more accurate."
I simply answered honestly, exactly as it was.
"Actually, I think we’ll have to do both."
Seriously.
I swear on Kim Yujin.
[??]
It was the honest truth.
2.
I was currently waiting in the workshop.
Dolores had ultimately allowed both methods in the face of my stubborn insistence.
"Then... let’s meet in my room... in two hours...."
With those words, she went back to finish her remaining work.
Rather than going back, she buried her flushed face in the documents. Thunk.
I had two hours left now.
Had I ever been this nervous in my life?
"God, I’m nervous."
Clang, clang.
My mouth kept chattering nonstop, but my hands were just as busy.
I needed to make the tools required to take her measurements...
According to Yuna, there were far more measurements to take than I had expected.
She said that even specialty luxury underwear stores in my previous life sometimes made fully custom pieces.
I simply referred to their techniques.
Underbust circumference, bust circumference, hip circumference, and so on.
There were seriously a lot of detailed measurements to take.
That was the only way to make clothes that fit perfectly against the body.
Anyway, all I needed was a measuring tape and a board to write the measurements down on.
Normally, I could have stretched out a brass plate to make a tape measure...
But it couldn’t be cold against bare skin, so I lined it with leather and marked the measurements on top of it.
I will protect Dolores at all costs.
But as I made the tools, I found myself thinking...
"...Ah, I should’ve just said I’d measure without any tools."
Just use my bare hands and a ruler.
Yuna could analyze it with a hologram anyway.
[Hey!!]
[No!]
[But seriously, you can’t lol. It’s not your body.]
"Yes, ma’am."
So I was making a measuring tape now.
What I had just said was a joke, really, and my desire to save Dolores was far stronger than any suspicious impulse.
It wasn’t as though I would be measuring her naked, either.
At the very least, she would be wearing extremely thin underwear.
More than naked measurements, what mattered was the shape of her body when the underwear supported and held it in place.
So.
"I’m confident I won’t entertain any improper thoughts."
[......]
Why wasn’t she answering?
Tap, tap. Click.
Once I attached the ring as well, the measuring tape was complete.
I had a board for recording measurements, and I could swipe a pen from Dolores’s office.
Just as I thought all that was left was waiting...
Knock, knock.
Someone knocked on the workshop door.
"Who is it?"
"It is Sebas. The Duke is looking for you."
"Ah..."
I felt that the moment had come.
Grab, grab, clatter...!
"Oh—wait, just a moment."
As I tried to grab the measuring tape, I dropped the board for recording the measurements.
My hands seemed to be trembling. Had I ever trembled like this before in my life?
The instant I left the workshop, I clutched the tools to my chest and...
Tap tap tap tap.
Ran.
"I’ll carry those for—!"
Sebas reached out from behind to help me, but...
"I’m fine!"
My body moved before I could think.
Without hesitation, I headed for Dolores’s room.
Dolores had several rooms, but if I had to name the three main ones...
There was her office, her bedroom, and finally, the dressing room where she bathed and dressed.
Today’s meeting place was the last one.
Before going there, I first stopped by her office and grabbed a pen.
Knock, knock.
I knocked on the dressing room door and waited a moment.
Yuna, what do I do?
I’m so nervous.
"Come in."
Dolores’s soft, gentle voice came through the single door between us.
By reflex, I opened the door.
Bang!
"......"
Closing the door behind me, I cautiously raised my head and looked ahead.
"...Gasp."
An utterly unexpected sight lay before me.
"L-long-haired Dolores!?"
I examined her face and every part of her body every day, but she had always kept her hair neatly braided and pinned up.
I thought that style was the tidiest, and the one that suited her best.
Even when she slept, it was the same.
But the Dolores before my eyes had wet hair.
Even the hair she normally braided at the back had been loosened, flowing down to her waist.
Her hair was that long...
"I-it’s beautiful."
Oh no.
I had spoken my thoughts aloud without realizing it.
Dolores’s eyes opened wide...
"...Thank you."
Then she shyly lifted the corners of her lips and nodded.
Once I regained a little of my senses, I noticed what she was wearing.
Perhaps she had just finished bathing. Her hair was wet, and she wore a robe that covered her whole body.
That meant...
She was wearing only underwear beneath it.
"I put on the kind that fits closest to the body...."
Scrape.
Perhaps to make it easier for me to take her measurements, she pulled a small stool nearby in front of her.
Since it would be difficult for me to measure her directly at my height, she meant for me to stand on it.
After placing the stool before her, Dolores grasped the belt at the front of her robe.
Dolores looked at me with a flushed face.
What did that blush mean?
She was simply embarrassed, surely.
"Y-you’ll do it right away, won’t you, Lionel?"
"Yes."
"Mm..."
At my answer, Dolores’s hand slowly moved toward her waist.
Tap, tap.
Rustle....
The belt came undone... and then the white robe parted.
Rustle.
The robe slipped off completely and fell to the floor.
Dolores had perfectly complied with my request... my demand.
To properly check the shape of her body, she had to wear the thinnest underwear she owned.
And since I wasn’t making only the top, naturally, she wore the bottoms as well.
So before my eyes was...
Holy shit.
Ah.
Wow...
Um, ah...
Not that I meant she was insane, I mean.
Just...
I had known, of course, even through her clothes.
Anyone with eyes could tell that Dolores had a great body.
But with every distracting element gone, the distinctive features of Dolores’s body all came into view...
"Aah!"
"Mmh!?"
Dolores flinched at my outburst.
No!!!!
That’s not it.
I wasn’t looking at Dolores with that kind of gaze, no, I wasn’t.
Without realizing it, I had been staring with my mouth open.
"I-I’ll measure you quickly!"
"Y-your face is so red, dear. You can take your time, you know?"
Whose body do you think is the reason for—no. This was entirely my fault.
Tremble, tremble, tremble...
[Your effort is admirable, but... your heart rate is 160....]
That wasn’t information I wanted to know, Yuna.
I carefully climbed onto the stool she had brought.
Dolores stepped closer, her expression worried.
Tremble, tremble...
Have you ever climbed onto a stool when your legs had gone weak?
Seriously, this wasn’t easy.
"Lionel..."
"I-I’m fine."
My voice suddenly came out raspy.
Holding the leather measuring tape, I faced her and cautiously asked...
"First... could you raise both arms a little?"
"...Like this?"
Dolores raised both arms.
Following the movement of her arms...
"......"
Fuck Pygmalion.
If he had used Dolores’s body as a reference when sculpting a statue to be his ideal wife, he could have simply copied her exactly.
What a shame.
Why did merely raising her arms make her figure even better...?
Was this ergonomics too? Seriously?
Once she raised her arms, the underside of Dolores’s breasts was finally roughly level with my hands.
The first thing I had to measure was her underbust circumference.
I had to wrap the measuring tape once around the point directly beneath where her breasts ended.
Tremble, tremble...
I could do this.
It wasn’t difficult. This was so easy.
I just had to pass the tape around the front of her body... and receive it on the other side.
"Excuse me. Please turn around..."
"Mm..."
I extended both arms around the sides of her waist.
Rustle.
The measuring tape pressed against her back and wrapped around to the front.
For both ends of the tape to meet at the front, I naturally had to press close to her body.
The crisp, refreshing scent of soap from her recent bath tickled my nose.
But as always, it was entirely swallowed up by Dolores’s natural scent, and the usual routine ended with me internally screaming.
Tap.
At last, the ends of the measuring tape met at the front of her body.
I pinched the point where they met between my fingers, then quickly freed myself from the close contact.
My heart pounded. Just what was her underbust measurement...?
"...66.4."
I had talked with Yuna before coming here.
She had promised to interpret the measurements when I couldn’t get a sense of them just by looking at the numbers.
Yuna? Interpretation, please.
[Considering that she’s 170 centimeters tall... she’s skin-and-bones skinny. At this point, she looks completely frail, the kind of figure men wouldn’t even like....]
Considering Yuna was a woman and might have been speaking in woman-language, the truth was probably only up to skin-and-bones skinny. I could discard the unnecessary comment afterward.
All right, okay. I needed to write it down.
"Oh."
Ah, wait. I hadn’t brought the board up with me.
"Dolores, I’m sorry, but could you hand me that board...?"
"Mm, all right."
She bent down to pick up the board on the floor...
I absolutely did not look.
"Thank you."
Taking the board, I wrote down the number.
Now.
It was time to measure her actual bust circumference.
Unfortunately, this was impossible to measure with my own hands.
Why?????
Think about the two important points the measuring tape absolutely had to pass over.
I really wasn’t that shameless.
I held the measuring tape out to her.
"This... um."
"Mm."
"Please place the center of the tape at the highest... no, the point that projects furthest on your chest."
"Ah... I understand."
"Then pass both ends behind your body. I’ll... make sure it’s level from behind."
Taking the tape, Dolores turned around, grasped its center with both hands, and placed it against the front of her body.
Swish.
The tape stretched to either side... passed beneath her arms and came around behind her back.
I caught the ends of the tape, but then...
Her long hair was slightly getting in the way of the measurement.
"Dolores, um, your hair, just for a moment..."
"Ah, I’m sorry."
Swish.
Since I was holding the measuring tape, she used her free hands to gather up her hair.
Making it level wasn’t difficult.
I held it from behind, checked it slightly from the front, then checked once more from behind.
"Breathe normally..."
"Mm..."
I lightly pulled both ends and pinched the point where they overlapped with my fingers.
The marked length was...
"104.1...?"
[W-what are you talking about? Isn’t that a mistake???]
I measured it properly, though??
[Underbust 66.4... bust 104.1......]
[The difference is 37.7... then... then... converted to modern sizing....]
[65L....]
So they actually used letters up to L for breast size.
This was driving me crazy.
Yuna, perhaps having lost her will to fight, suddenly went quiet.
Honestly, a completely unexpected letter had popped up, so I couldn’t even get a sense of it.
Scribble, scribble....
I immediately wrote it on the board and climbed down.
"Y-you can put something on over the top now. You’ve worked hard."
"Ah... mm, all right. But, Lionel..."
"Yes?"
Fidget.
Dolores fidgeted with her fingers.
But because even the space around those fidgeting fingers was skin-colored, I just looked at her face.
"If they’re too big... and it’ll be difficult to make them, you don’t have to."
"It’s fine."
I shook my head.
That was no problem at all.
All right, next was the lower body.
Though she could put her clothes on over the top by now.
"......"
I considered saying it, then decided against it.
Actually, underwear bottoms were much simpler than the upper half.
I only needed to find the waist circumference, hip circumference, and the actual position where the bottoms sat.
For true precision work, there were more important areas to measure.
But I absolutely couldn’t measure those myself; Dolores had to do it.
So without much difficulty, I measured around her waist once, around her hips once...
And once around the widest point. Naturally, Dolores measured the other important areas herself.
And that was how... without any particular mishap, all the measurements were finished.
It was fortunate I had come wearing thick trousers. Seriously.
As I took the measurements, I realized...
She definitely couldn’t have measured the upper half alone.
But the bottoms... um.
She probably could have measured those without me.
I should take this secret to my grave.
...Wait a second.
Come to think of it, couldn’t she have measured the upper half too...?
With telekinesis, she could probably just move the tape around.
"......"
I slowly raised my head.
I had no idea why, but Dolores was still looking at me with her robe not fully closed.
"You worked hard today..."
Clutching the top-secret document containing Dolores’s three measurements and bodily information to my chest, I bowed deeply to her.
"You worked very hard too, Lionel...."
Stroke, stroke.
She patted my head.
"You should go to sleep now, shouldn’t you, Lionel?"
"Yes, I should."
"I need to change clothes... so why don’t you lie down in bed first?"
"Okay."
I gathered all my tools and left the dressing room.
I was about to head straight back to the room when... ah, right.
There was something I needed to return.
The pen I had swiped from Dolores’s office.
I changed direction and headed for her office.
The office was dark, but I found the pen holder sitting atop the desk.
Click.
"Thanks for letting me use it~"
I put the pen back in its proper place and was about to turn around when...
"...Huh?"
A small sheet of paper beside the pen holder caught my eye.
I had missed it earlier because I had been in such a hurry to grab a pen.
On the extremely high-quality paper was a gold-foil pattern and...
[Maison Arbuella]
Words I didn’t understand were written there.
"What’s a maison...?"
[It’s like a luxury brand shop....]
Beneath the shop name were her name and some very familiar numbers.
"......"
I wondered why they seemed familiar, but...
Her underbust, bust, and hip circumference.
Even the other measurements she had just taken herself...
Every single one of them was written there.
Thinking about it, perhaps it was only natural.
Dolores’s body was not the kind of figure that mere ready-made products could dare accommodate.
If she had worn underwear in this world, naturally, she would have ordered it custom-made.
And if she had custom orders made...
She surely had not ordered only once or twice, nor could she have gone to only one clothing shop.
Of course her previous measurements would still exist.
"......"
They were there?
The measurements.
They were already there.
Then.
Pat pat pat pat...!
Along with the sound of someone running toward this place from far down the corridor, I quickly put the paper down and pretended to leave the office.
Bang!
"L-Lionel?"
Dolores hurriedly threw open the door and entered, but...
"I came to put the pen back."
"Ah... ah, I see."
I stated only the facts as much as possible...
It seemed highly likely that if she asked any further questions, her ability would reveal whether I was telling the truth.
So without looking back, I hurried straight to bed.
"......"
Then I lay in bed and stared into empty space.
Snore....
I could hear Ruby sleeping beside me, but that wasn’t important.
Something still lingered before my eyes.
Someone’s something.
Even someone’s long hair.
"...Ha."
Sleep tonight, fuck.
I had the instinctive feeling I was completely done for.
And then.
The following day, in the early dawn before anyone had awoken.
Swoooosh....
The short little kid.
No.
Lionel, a perfectly proper man,
had to crouch in the corner of the workshop before anyone else was awake and diligently wash something.
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