1.
Whenever Isabella found herself with complicated feelings, she would play chess.
Her opponent was imaginary, and more often than not, it was Dolores.
"..."
But calling what she was doing today chess would have been questionable. There were only two pieces on the board.
A white queen and a little pawn pressed right up against it. That was all.
There was no need to explain what each of them represented.
They were Dolores and Lionel, of course.
"They're stuck together."
Tap.
Isabella gently pushed the pawn forward one square...
Scoot.
But the queen moved along with it, immediately sidling back up against the pawn.
She knew that even trying to guess what kind of relationship they had was disrespectful.
No matter how lacking Isabella was in social skills or common sense, she still possessed at least a basic grasp of normal conventions.
But because she was closest to Dolores, she was also the one most capable of noticing the changes in her.
Two weeks ago, when Dolores saw Lionel sleeping with... suspicious underwear draped over his face, the sound of her heart had definitely been—
Thump-thump-thump.
"It was beating fast."
She felt that thinking any more deeply about it would make things strange in all sorts of ways.
So Isabella stopped thinking for the moment. Then she simply waited for Dolores to call for her again.
And then...
A little time passed.
"...What?"
Dolores never contacted Isabella.
2.
About two months had passed since I made the underwear.
I, too, had been going through an extremely busy period, and next week was already... the day the Imperial Family would grant me the Velua Mountains.
And lately, I'd found a new interest as well.
Browsing the community.
The hottest topic on the Inner Tower community these days was...
[Elysia von Dolores's Tower-Climbing Return Is Imminent.]
[What Happens When Retired Dolores Returns.TXT]
News concerning Dolores resuming her climb up the Tower.
Two weeks ago, Dolores submitted her return application to the climber management agency operated by the Imperial Family.
It was really just a formality, but her name carried so much weight that the news somehow got leaked, and the community had been buzzing ever since.
It was a good thing. There was a bit of a culture that treated retired people like old-timers shoved into the back room...
Dolores had never been treated that way, though, since she received her share of respect.
The post that stood out to me the most was...
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[✪][Could the Dawn Apostles possibly reunite...?]
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The Dawn Apostles. That was the climbing party Dolores used to belong to.
I'd never asked her about it in detail, but apparently there were around six others besides Dolores.
Now, the group had naturally disbanded.
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[Mina]: This is so great... My role model....
[Anonymous]: It's just speculation, but they probably all want it.
ㄴ[Anonymous1]: Just thinking about it gets me excited, fuck lol.
ㄴ[Anonymous2]: Are the rankers about to get reshuffled?
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"Mm, mm. Good."
Show Dolores some respect.
But as was always the case with communities, there were negative reactions too.
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[Anonymous3]: Bullshit, how many floors apart are Yeomhwa and Dolores? lol
ㄴ[Anonymous3]: Why the hell do people write idiotic posts like this? You think Yeomhwa's crazy enough to come down? lol
ㄴ[Anonymous1]: Dolores is the one who'll climb up, you dumb fuck.
ㄴ[Anonymous3]: Then you go climb up too. The nostalgia bias for that old-timer party is seriously ridiculous.
[Anonymous4]: Honestly, it's nice, but can she handle the equipment inflation?
ㄴ[Anonymous5]: Probably tough lol. Looking at Dolores's last equipment set, she was decked out in four-stars, with a five-star here and there.
ㄴ[Anonymous5]: And considering it was low-floor equipment, it's a little underwhelming by today's standards, right?
[Anonymous6]: Honestly, people call her a high-ranker, but she retired. They're just giving her special treatment lol.
ㄴ[Mina]: It isn't special treatment. She's simply an amazing person, you know? And I think she'll be fine once she gets new equipment.
ㄴ[Anonymous6]: That's just what you think. Once she comes back, we have to judge her objectively. How long are people going to keep jerking off to the past?
ㄴ[Anonymous7]: Can't she just get new equipment?
ㄴ[Anonymous6]: THERE ARE NO FUCKING FIVE-STAR EQUIPMENT LISTINGS.
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"These motherfuckers...?"
They were dissing Dolores right now, weren't they?
I looked down.
There, neatly arranged, was the equipment Dolores had stripped off last night.
Naturally, it was because I was going to enchant equipment for her temporary use before she resumed climbing.
It would be difficult to make her top-of-the-line equipment right away, so we'd decided to first enchant gear that wouldn't harm her health, but...
"You're all dead. Seriously."
How dare they talk about equipment inflation?
I'd become the embodiment of inflation.
As I fumed while browsing the community, then—
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[Yeomhwa♥]: (・ω<) 👍👍👍♥♥
ㄴ[Mina]: Yeomhwa!!!
ㄴ[Anonymous2]: lol, the guys above need to shut the fuck up now.
ㄴ[Anonymous1]: Holy fuck, does that mean the reunion is actually real?
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Whoa.
Yeomhwa, a massively famous user, had suddenly appeared.
This person was incredible.
From what I'd heard, they seemed to be the person who bought the +16 Ether Circle I enhanced.
They'd paid a lot of money, and now they were even showing this much goodwill... I'd never even seen their face, but my favorable-impression points were rising.
"Yeomhwa, I like you."
I'll acknowledge you as the second Dolores sibling.
For the record, I'm the first.
But I wondered if they would be okay. The Ether Circle had some pretty severe side effects.
There was no way Yeomhwa alone would be immune to them.
"...Maybe I should at least provide after-sales service later."
I could raise it to +20 for them.
Since they were Dolores's former companion, it wasn't as though I couldn't do it if they asked.
Hmm, anyway, it was about time.
"When does it end?"
Most people wouldn't want their break time to end, but...
[...Ten seconds left.]
"Okay."
I was someone who even enjoyed enchanting.
Yuna had practically assigned me mandatory breaks, and I was obediently following them.
Ding.
The timer rang again.
"Let's gooooooo!!"
I picked up my hammer and resumed enchanting.
If Dawn Bringer had an advantage, it was that my hands didn't get as tired even after enchanting for quite a long time.
But every advantage came with a disadvantage.
"Ugh."
The enhancement success rate was much higher than with the Basic Enchant Hammer.
Why was that a disadvantage?
Because it made the enchanting end too fast.
Anyway, among Dolores's equipment, there was almost nothing I considered decent.
Especially this bastard.
[Ever Bloom Prime] [★★★★★]
[Unique Equipment] [Compatibility] [0 / 100]
[Stores the mana of a cast spell and adds it to the next spell cast.]
[The creator designed it based on the body of a woman under thirty. It provides no effect whatsoever to a wearer over that age.]
Hmm... Enhancing this one would be meaningless, so I set it aside. I'll give it to Ruby later.
I also removed every piece of equipment that supplied cold energy and worsened her Nine Yin Severed Meridians.
But this one, at least.
[Shoes]
[Silver Felice] [★★★★☆]
[Unique Equipment] [Compatibility] [30 / 80]
[Recovers mana with every step and returns it to circulation. Now that the wearer's Nine Yin Severed Meridians have improved, it can be worn without any particular side effects.]
Its compatibility had originally been 8.
But her Nine Yin Severed Meridians had improved considerably, so its compatibility had risen a great deal as well.
And this one was currently...
[Enchant Level] [+19]
It had been enhanced to +19.
If I had my way, I'd push Frostless Spring and Spring Breeze Carrying Fire to +20 too.
But Dolores needed to keep wearing them for now, and she washed the underwear every morning with Cleaning Magic and Drying Magic, so it was awkward to ask for them right away.
Most importantly, it wasn't as though I hadn't tried asking.
‘Lionel... you know?’
‘Yes.’
‘If these are destroyed... I might cry, you know?’
‘Gasp.’
She said she would sob her eyes out, so I held back.
I did want to see Dolores cry, but this wasn't the time for it.
I could tease her about it once later, but...
So first, I was going to show her that I could get Silver Felice to +20 without destroying it, then enchant the rest for her.
So far, Silver Felice's +19 potential abilities were as follows.
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【Potential Abilities】
[+5 ─ Choose a Path]
[Silver Strength] Remaining mana settles into the body after each spell cast, strengthening it.
[Silver Trace] Leaves traces of silver mana on the ground with every step. Adds recovered mana to the next step, increasing movement speed for an instant.
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By my standards, there was no comparison.
[Silver Trace] sounded cool from the name alone, and it even solved mobility, which was supposedly a chronic problem for mages?
‘Really?!’
Of course, that had been Dolores's opinion, as I mentioned earlier.
So I chose [Silver Trace].
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【Potential Abilities】
[+5 ─ Silver Trace]
[Leaves traces of silver mana on the ground with every step.]
[Adds recovered mana to the next step, increasing movement speed for an instant.]
[+10 ─ Corridor]
[Nearby Silver Traces connect to form a single path, called a Corridor.]
[While on a Corridor, mana consumed for movement is reduced and mana recovery is increased.]
[+15 ─ Silver Flash] [Cooldown: 5 minutes]
[Consumes one Silver Trace within the user's field of vision to instantly move to that location.]
[+20 ─ ?????]
[???????]
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I hated nonfiction so much that I asked Yuna to summarize it for me.
[At +5, it leaves traces whenever you walk, and your movement speed increases.]
[At +10, the Silver Traces connect to make Corridors, which give you several additional effects while you're on them.]
[At +15, ...you consume one Silver Trace to teleport instantly.]
After hearing that, my impression was:
"...Isn't this completely busted?"
I hadn't mentioned it to Dolores yet, but...
So as she walked, silver afterimages would form, and she could teleport to those afterimages.
Like Blink, in crude terms.
This made no sense. Even with a five-minute cooldown, it meant she could teleport instantly.
It felt like more than just ordinary broken bullshit.
And if this was only +15, what the hell would +20 be like?
...It was time to unlock a +20 potential ability for the first time.
Fortunately, I'd already made a few attempts, and it turned out that the chance of the equipment being destroyed wasn't all that high.
Honestly, with high-level enhancements like this, I thought you had to accept this degree of risk.
Of course, as long as I did well.
"But Yuna, there's no way I can fail, right?"
[Yeah....]
The improved hammer had raised the chance of successful enhancement.
But now that I could challenge levels I hadn't even been able to touch before... the difficulty of the note charts had also become much greater, and the sequences longer.
It was just an insanely good deal. It was like gaining an Expert Mode.
Ting!
Hit circles appeared across Silver Felice's surface.
Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang!
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[Polishing Total]
[Marvelous] [196]
[Excellent] [3]
[Normal] [0]
[Bad] [0]
[Terrible] [0]
─────────────────
Three... [Excellent]s....
Ah, what a shame. It was such a shame, but fuck, it really was difficult.
"This still counts as doing well, right?"
Without realizing it, I was making excuses for the three [Excellent]s.
Naturally, Yuna was the only one who would listen.
[That's right, you did super well, big brother.]
"...No?"
This wasn't doing well.
I'd kept working at +19, and I hadn't gotten an all-[Marvelous] run even once.
This was something I needed to reflect on.
As a gesture of reflection, I pressed my palms together before the hammer.
Sorry. You have such an inadequate master.
I'll do better from now on.
[......]
I'd consider my potential for improvement limitless.
I'm young, after all, right?
I retained all twelve years of rhythm-game experience, but I was young, so you could call that completely busted.
As I let my mind wander, an interface appeared.
─────────────────
[Calculating destruction probability...]
─────────────────
[Base destruction probability for +19 → +20] [15%]
─────────────────
[3 Excellent] [0 Normal] [0 Bad] [0 Terrible]
[Marvelous adjustment] [15% → 9%]
─────────────────
[High-Grade Enchant Powder adjustment]
[9% → 1%]
─────────────────
The fortunate thing was that even with mistakes of this level, the destruction probability was extremely low.
On average, it converged somewhere around one to two percent.
That wasn't a probability I could ignore, so all I could do was improve and lower it further.
─────────────────
[Final success probability: 10%]
[Failure probability: 89%]
[Destruction probability: 1%]
─────────────────
This was about my ninth attempt.
I had warned Dolores that Silver Felice might break.
‘I'll make you some pretty shoes later.’
When I said that, her face brightened.
If it broke, it couldn't be helped.
【Attempting...】
─────────────────
[19→20] [Success!]
─────────────────
【Enhancement Successful】
─────────────────
[Silver Felice] [★★★★☆]
[+19 → +20]
─────────────────
"Nice!!"
In the end, with no unfortunate destruction... I succeeded in enhancing a unique piece of equipment to +20 for the first time.
The work gloves I used for miscellaneous tasks last time hadn't even been unique equipment, and their star rating was lower too.
Just as I gazed at the equipment, overcome with emotion—
Boom!
"Fuck!"
Light burst before my eyes.
From +15 onward, equipment took on a red glow.
But from +20 onward, it turned green, and as the green energy transformed, light burst from the equipment.
I'd experienced it once before...
Ugh, I'd forgotten.
Thanks to that, I got flashbanged.
Then I looked at Silver Felice, now gently suffused with green light.
There was no way for me to know what it felt like to actually wear it.
There was only one thing to check.
Its potential abilities, the most objective and straightforward metric.
─────────────────
【Potential Abilities】
[+5 ─ Silver Trace]
[Leaves traces of silver mana on the ground with every step.]
[Adds recovered mana to the next step, increasing movement speed for an instant.]
[+10 ─ Corridor]
[Nearby Silver Traces connect to form a single path, called a Corridor.]
[While on a Corridor, mana consumed for movement is reduced and mana recovery is increased.]
[+15 ─ Silver Flash] [Cooldown: 5 minutes]
[Consumes one Silver Trace within the user's field of vision to instantly move to that location.]
─────────────────
Those were the original potential abilities.
Now then, what about +20—
─────────────────
[+20 ─ Silver Felice]
[All Corridors remaining on the battlefield connect to form a Silver Palace.]
[Within the palace, [Silver Flash] can be used without consuming a Silver Trace.]
[Within the Silver Palace, [Silver Flash]'s cooldown is fixed at 10 seconds.]
─────────────────
"Fuck."
Silver Felice's +20 potential ability was [Silver Felice].
An utterly shocking effect.
I couldn't keep this to myself.
Call Dolores over right now.
"DOLORES!!!!!!!!!"
I shouted loudly outside the workshop.
And as soon as I counted about ten seconds in my head—
"What is it?!"
Dolores, who had been giving Ruby a magic lesson, came running swiftly over from the field with Ruby in her arms.
"Here it is."
I knelt before her and held out Silver Felice.
Dolores looked back and forth between me and Silver Felice.
"It's +20."
"...You really got it to +20...."
She set Ruby down from her arms and accepted Silver Felice.
Then she immediately removed the shabby shoes she had been wearing and hurriedly slipped on Silver Felice.
"Could you... test it out?"
"Yes, I'll try."
I watched Dolores with a trembling heart.
First, Dolores gave a light jump...
Whoosh!
The instant she lightly kicked off the ground—
Dolores jumped as high as I was tall.
What, what the fuck?
"Eep!"
She herself apparently hadn't expected to fly up that high, because her skirt flipped up, revealing everything underneath.
...Let's just count it as a nice view. It really was a nice view.
"..."
After coming back down from the air, Dolores stared at her feet in surprise.
And perhaps realizing that Silver Felice was no ordinary thing... the corners of her lips slowly began to rise.
Step.
This time, she took a step.
"Oh...."
So this was [Silver Trace].
Every time she moved, silvery energy remained behind.
They increased one by one each time she took a step.
"Can you see them?"
"Yeah, I can."
Dolores smiled curiously as she looked at the silver bands spread beneath her feet.
"What mysterious energy."
"...What is?"
Ruby tilted her head beside us.
Then Ruby couldn't see them.
I supposed only Dolores and I could see them. Like her scorpion tail.
"...It's so, so wonderful, Lionel."
Dolores walked around the area for several dozen seconds before smiling brightly.
I was relieved that she liked it, but...
I hadn't even shown her the real ability yet.
"Um, Dolores."
"Yes?"
"Could you try thinking about creating a Silver Palace?"
I didn't know the activation condition either, since I hadn't worn it myself.
Without questioning my words, she closed her eyes.
Then—
Wooooom....
"Whoa."
A gigantic silver palace... formed in the yard before the workshop.
The silver paths she had walked over the last several dozen seconds became gleaming corridors.
And silver stars were embedded at intervals along those paths.
I had a feeling those were... the points where she could use [Silver Flash].
"...Oh my."
Dolores opened her eyes wide and lightly covered her mouth with one hand.
"It's truly beautiful."
She marveled at the Silver Palace unfolding before her, but Ruby...
"...?"
Could only whip her head back and forth between Dolores and me.
"Dolores."
"Yes?"
"Could you pick one of those stars..."
I pointed to the farthest star away.
"And try thinking about going th—"
Before I could even finish, Dolores's gaze turned toward the star.
Bang!
"..."
She vanished from before my eyes.
It worked. It worked.
The corners of my mouth twitched upward.
"W-whoa?!"
As Ruby gaped and exclaimed beside me—
I turned around, looked at Dolores with her eyes wide, and held both hands up with all ten fingers spread.
"Ten, nine, eight."
I folded down one finger at a time as I counted down for her.
"Five, four, three...."
Once I had folded every finger down—
"Now!"
Bang!
Dolores returned to the star beside me.
"...What do you think?"
"..."
At that moment, a great mage capable of unleashing Blink barrages on a ten-second cooldown had been completed.
Dolores turned her head and looked down at me.
"Lionel."
"Yes."
Squeeze.
She hugged me tightly and whispered into my ear.
"Did you say it was +20?"
"Yes."
"This... mm... equipment beyond +20...."
Dolores trailed off as if she had been about to say something.
Kiss.
Then she lightly kissed my cheek.
That made approximately my ninety-seventh cheek kiss.
"Could you make them only for me... please?"
"..."
I had succeeded in bringing out Dolores's possessiveness.
I thought she wasn't greedy for equipment, but apparently not.
This was the first time Dolores had ever made a request like this of me.
A swelling sense of masculine superiority rose within me.
Then, one community post suddenly came to mind.
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[Anonymous4]: Honestly, it's nice, but can she handle the equipment inflation?
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Hey, what did you guys say?
Old-timer? Dolores was washed-up?
Inflation? If she wanted it, I'd make it happen.
Until all the inflation up to now looked like nothing.
"I'll turn them into toilet paper."
Every single piece of your equipment.
As I made that vow—
"What about Ruby?"
"...Ah."
Dolores belatedly looked at Ruby.
"Ruby too... included?"
Fortunately, I succeeded in getting permission to include Ruby too.
Of course, who knew what would happen in the future.
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