1.
What do you mean, my desires are transparent?
Who are you calling a lecherous little brat?
"..."
For now, I’d succeeded in raising the compatibility to 45.
It felt good. It did, but...
"Ah..."
I roughly understood how I needed to make it.
But now that I’d reached 45, I was starting to get greedy.
"Should I just not use the knitting machine...?"
Like Frostless Spring.
I could weave even the fabric itself entirely by hand, from beginning to end.
The knitting machine was fast and convenient, but it was too uniform. It lacked a certain flavor, so to speak.
Anyway, it was disappointing that it couldn’t fully reflect all of my intentions.
Still, the thread I’d drawn out then had been cloth extracted directly from minerals.
I called it thread, but it had been made by twisting fabric into thread, so it was fairly thick and springy, held its shape well, and was manageable to weave.
But this spirit thread was as thin as thread... so that would probably be difficult.
I wouldn’t call it impossible.
All I had to do was keep at it until I succeeded.
It would just take an incredibly long time.
"Yuna, how long do you think it’ll take?"
If I were to weave every strand into fabric myself.
In truth, Yuna’s answer didn’t matter.
The instant I decided to do it that way, I had no choice but to see it through.
"Needle."
I picked up a needle lying on the workbench.
I looped the spirit thread over its tip...
Rustle...
Then formed loops and wove the thread.
I could do it.
Until it worked. Until I was satisfied.
And so... about two weeks passed.
Each day, I repeated roughly sixteen hours of work.
As for the compromise I’d reached with myself regarding rest, I decided that when I worked, I would burn everything I had into it.
Then, once it was over, I would rest thoroughly.
It was more efficient that way, too.
"..."
Thump.
I put the black bra that had been resting on my face into a paper bag.
Dolores’s special sleep mask.
Everything about it was great, but as time passed, her scent was gradually fading from it.
Now I had to practically bury my nose in it to smell anything.
Should I ask her for a refill soon?
Please fill it up with that scent...
"...What was I just thinking?"
The fact that such an insane thought had entered my mind unconsciously...
Was I going crazy, maybe?
I rose from my seat and looked to the side.
There lay the white fabric I’d painstakingly woven stitch by stitch over the past two weeks, working my ass off.
Customized spirit-thread fabric... with its density adjusted differently according to the direction and area in which it would be pulled.
Today, barring any major variables...
"The final day."
It would be the final day of making Dolores’s underwear.
Rustle...
Actually, the truly amazing thing was...
When I used the knitting machine to produce fabric, I hadn’t automatically been able to picture exactly where it would be used or where each piece belonged.
But the fabric I’d woven by hand, strand by strand... even though it hadn’t been assembled yet, let me picture the shape of the finished underwear right before my eyes.
So this was the difference that care made.
After obsessing over it for two weeks, I could see the blueprint without even asking Yuna for one.
"The blueprint... is done."
First, I spread the sturdy fabric that would support the underside of the breasts across the workbench.
Then I layered softly woven fabric over it.
I threaded both spirit threads through the needle at once and joined the ends together.
Rustle...
I had trimmed the edges of the fabric so the seams would interlock as though they had always been one piece.
That was the advantage of handmade work.
"Phew..."
Once I connected the shoulder straps and the fabric that would wrap around the back, the bra’s shape was already clearly visible.
The tightly woven sections were firm, and the loosely made sections were soft.
That finished the top.
I had Yuna inspect it midway.
"Is it very sexy?"
[Yeah.]
Then it passed.
That was fucking the most important thing.
I knew it too. But there was no helping it.
They said the performance was far better this way—no, not performance. Compatibility.
I needed to call things by their proper names.
Dolores would wear clothes over it anyway.
She wasn’t going to go outside in nothing but underwear, was she?
Come to think of it, what did the degree of exposure matter when there were outer clothes to cover it all?
As long as it was comfortable, that was enough.
I joined the front and back pieces of the bottoms, then attached the straps that would wrap around the hips.
One piece of fabric in the front and one in the back, with straps connecting them in between.
The classic structure of a string thong.
Then I layered the garter belt over it... and attached it to the thigh bands one by one.
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
All four garter straps were connected.
"Phewww..."
I lifted Dolores’s completed underwear with both hands.
A pure-white bra and bottoms.
And a garter belt and thigh bands that connected them beautifully.
It was immaculate, without even the slightest discrepancy from the blueprint in my head.
It was daytime now.
Without hesitation, I carried the finished underwear outside.
The rear yard of the workshop, where no one ever came.
"Come on."
I lay down right on the ground.
Then I placed the underwear over my body and face so it could soak up as much sunlight as possible.
Someone might point at me and call me a lunatic wearing women’s underwear over his head in broad daylight.
I didn’t give a damn. I’d rather die than put this on the ground.
Sunlight poured down over the underwear, and after some time...
Sizzle...
I heard something being engraved on the lower left side of the bra.
And on the lower left side of the underwear bottoms...
At last.
─────────────────
[Spring Breeze Carrying Fire][★★★★☆]
[Unique Equipment] [Compatibility] [ - /100]
─────────────────
[An underwear set made from the spirit thread of a high-ranking wind spirit.]
[The mark of the Heir of Fire absorbs sunlight and continuously supplies the wearer with pure yang energy.]
[It contains a will so great that even gods would covet it.]
[The wearer gains a certain amount of divinity.]
─────────────────
【The craftsman poured everything he possessed into it for a single wearer.】
【In the moment when materials and skill... will and obsession interlocked perfectly, the creator transcended his limits for this one time only.】
─────────────────
『Wind... goes well with fire. Your will is so divine that I cannot believe it belongs to such a lesser creature.』
『So if you offer those clothes to me even now... I’ll forgive everything. If you wish, I might even take you into my arms.』
- Ignia, Goddess of Fire -
『How laughable. It is not something you should covet. It belongs to my daughter.』
- Gaia, Goddess of Earth -
『Ah... its rank has... risen too high...』
- Queen of the Distant Wind Spirits -
─────────────────
Thump.
I covered my face with the completed underwear again.
Tremble, tremble...
My entire body shook.
"I did it..."
I had succeeded in making my first four-star piece of equipment.
The best equipment I had made until now had been three-star.
If I tried making another piece of equipment right now, it would probably come out three-star again.
I could feel it.
I knew.
I wasn’t yet at a level where I could freely create four-star equipment.
But just this once—just this once was enough—I had truly put my life on the line.
【In the moment when materials and skill... will and obsession interlocked perfectly, the creator transcended his limits for this one time only.】
According to the system’s message,
that result had let me temporarily surpass the limit of what I could do.
And most importantly...
"It’s so fucking pretty..."
It could not possibly suit my tastes more.
I didn’t think I’d be sleeping at all tonight.
Just covering myself with it made me feel as though my reason was being paralyzed.
I wonder if I’ll embarrass myself in my sleep again tonight. Hehe.
"Hup..."
I tensed my arms to push myself up, but...
Tremble, tremble...
"Damn."
I couldn’t put any strength into my arms.
I had been constantly straining my fingers for sixteen hours a day over the past two weeks... so perhaps it was only natural.
"I’ll just lie here."
Dolores was out today anyway.
The servants rarely came near the workshop, either.
No one was likely to come, so I figured I could simply wait until my strength returned and then go back inside.
And so, covered in white underwear, I enjoyed my rest while feeling the cool breeze.
It’d be perfect if it had that scent on it, though. What a shame.
"...Just wait, Dolores."
I’ll show you a world on an entirely different level.
That was what I murmured without realizing it, when...
Rustle.
Rustle.
Fuck?
Footsteps. I could hear footsteps.
No. No. Please!!!!
If it was Ruby, that would be a disaster. If it was Dolores, an even bigger disaster.
There was no explaining this away.
Please, let it be Sebas. Sebas, please!!!
I quickly shifted the underwear aside a little and looked over.
"..."
Contrary to my desperate prayers, standing there were Dolores, her face bright red...
And, even more than her—far, far, far more—Isabella, who was so red she looked ready to explode.
"...Ah."
"Um... Lionel..."
Dolores spoke in a trembling voice.
"...Isabella said she wanted to apologize to you... so I brought her here."
"Ah."
Oh dear.
What exactly had I been wearing over myself again?
And what was this elastic strap hanging over my lips, half inside my mouth...?
Hmm... a garter belt, was it?
Dolores’s trembling gaze darted back and forth between my face and the underwear covering me.
Then her eyes locked onto the underwear.
Her pupils dilated, and the corners of her lips rose, utterly unable to hide it.
She was satisfied.
Good. Then that was all that mattered...
As long as she was satisfied, it was fine.
I smiled.
If I had already become a crazy lecherous little brat...
If my reputation was already unquestionably ruined...
Then fuck it. I might as well own it.
"Hello, Isabella."
"Huh? Huh?"
Of course, Isabella didn’t look as though she was particularly pleased to be greeted.
"I’m sorry, but could you come back tomorrow?"
"...Uh, uh, well. Um... I suppose..."
"Today’s the day I change Dolores’s underwear."
"..."
I said with a smile.
"I think I’ll be busy until late."
"Uh, um, yeah... I think that’d be better for me too..."
Isabella slowly took a few backward steps.
Then she disappeared just like that.
Hehe. What was I going to do about my reputation?
After Isabella disappeared, only Dolores and I remained in the workshop’s rear yard.
I didn’t want to drag this out.
"...Are you thinking of going to put it on right away?"
I asked first, confidently.
"...Yes."
Dolores answered calmly as well.
"Then please carry me. My legs won’t move."
Swoosh...
And so I...
Was carried in Dolores’s arms toward the dressing room.
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