Chapter 77: 76. Special Equipment Crafting
1.
Dolores’s tower climbing had begun.
Before I knew it, the year had turned. It was April, spring, and the season when the weather began to warm was approaching.
Whenever I watched the flowers bloom outside the window around this time of year, there was always something I thought…
When the hell will I get out of that goddamn laboratory?
Mm-mm. Well, I suppose it was a good thing that I no longer had to think that way.
The workshop was far better.
[I think this place is better than the laboratory too. It smells nice, and it’s so open.]
I had no idea how she could smell things, but Yuna agreed with that as well.
Dolores’s return match in tower climbing… had been a tremendous success.
She had cleared a floor in a flash on her very first attempt, so how could that not be good news?
The community’s reaction was much the same.
Since climbers in a floor’s residential district, rather than its climbing zone, could watch the entire process of challengers undergoing their trials, the 142nd floor—the floor she had chosen to newly challenge—had apparently been packed with quite a crowd.
The result was:
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[Who the fuck called her washed-up? LOLLLLL]
[No, what was that walking on air? She teleported, right??]
[Has it even been an hour since she started?]
[As expected of the Formula School!!!!!!!!!!!]
─────────────────
They were praising Dolores. Very nice.
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[Mina]: She’s not any different from her prime…?
ㄴ[Yeah1]: She really is incredible.
[Peekaboo]: How far is she going to climb?
ㄴ[Yeah2]: To the top.
─────────────────
Amid the flood of praise posts,
Dolores’s floor had remained stuck at the 141st floor for a long time, and she had only just reached the 142nd floor yesterday.
I heard that the rankers currently in the rankings were roughly in the high 100s and above…
Honestly, I didn’t know the details. It wasn’t my business.
[Anyway, it doesn’t seem like anyone has gone past the 200th floor.]
I heard there was a trial every ten floors, and a grand trial every fifty floors…
If so, Dolores’s next target would be the grand trial on the 150th floor.
In the past, clearing even the grand trial on the 100th floor was enough to be called a high ranker, but these days, it seemed you had to get past the 150th-floor grand trial.
Which meant whether Dolores could clear the 150th floor without trouble would be the real point of her comeback.
"You can do it."
Honestly, I didn’t think it would be difficult.
That Silver Palace woman… From what I’d seen, she was absurdly strong.
In the end, Dolores became busy, and these days she only returned home on weekends.
Whenever she came back, she would make up for it by giving Ruby and me cheek kisses.
Consequently… Ruby and I came to fill the mansion Dolores had left empty.
That was how, one weekend morning in the spring when I was fourteen, Ruby and I were just finishing breakfast together.
I had suggested that, since only the two of us lived here, we should at least eat breakfast together, and that was how the arrangement came about.
"A letter has arrived for you, Miss Ruby."
At that moment, a servant entered the dining room carrying a silver tray.
On it lay an envelope with gold-foil edging.
Mm… It wasn’t an ordinary letter.
Ruby’s name was even written along the border.
Yet Ruby only stared at it, apparently with no intention of accepting it.
"Ruby, what is this?"
"……"
Ruby snatched the letter from me.
Then suddenly tried to tear it apart…
"Hey, hey."
I immediately grabbed Ruby’s wrist to stop her, but…?
"……?"
She was fucking strong. I instantly realized this was beyond my ability to stop.
Ruby’s appearance had been changing more and more noticeably with every passing day.
The same went for her looks, which were steadily growing prettier… and her strength as well.
I had been hammering away every day lately, so it wasn’t like I was in bad shape either, right?
What was this overwhelming sense of helplessness??
"Wait, wait!!"
In the end, I practically clung to Ruby’s arm to prevent her from tearing up the letter.
More accurately… I had merely slowed down the tearing. Realizing I wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer at this rate, I shouted,
"Dolores!!"
"No!!"
Fortunately, it was the weekend, the day Dolores was home at the mansion.
"What’s going on?"
Dolores rushed into the dining room and found us.
Seeing me dangling from Ruby’s arm, Dolores’s lips curved upward.
Once things had been sorted out… Dolores took the envelope and examined its front and back.
"It’s an admission invitation from Astera Academy."
"An academy?"
"They used to teach other things, but these days it’s a place where students learn what they need before climbing the Tower. You can receive training in climbing and practical combat there."
Ohhh, so a place like that existed.
Dolores turned her gaze toward Ruby.
"…Ruby is already old enough to enter an academy…"
She looked incredibly wistful.
But Ruby herself didn’t look moved at all. Her lips were sticking out a mile, and she wore a thoroughly sulky expression.
"I’m not going."
"?"
A sudden, shocking declaration.
[I heard it’s an incredibly hard place to get into. Like, you practically need to reserve a spot years in advance?]
If it was a place like that, surely they had already discussed it with Ruby.
Dolores was absolutely not the kind of person who would force her to go.
"Lionel, Lionel, I don’t want to go…"
Ruby started tearfully making her way toward me.
Sorry, but there was nothing I could do for her.
"I don’t wanna gooo…"
Then she threw herself onto the mansion floor and began rolling around.
"Oh, honestly… When was it that she kept saying she wanted to go…?"
Dolores looked troubled.
Apparently, Ruby had wanted to go in the first place.
"Or Lionel can come with meeeeeee…"
Ah, sorry, but that was seriously too much.
How old was I that I’d go to an academy now… Damn it.
"I can’t."
"Then I’m not going either…"
"Ruby…"
And so, persuasion and compromise continued for quite a while.
"…All right. Lionel will be lonely too."
In the end, Dolores decided to speak with the academy separately.
A few days later,
a special curriculum for Ruby was officially approved.
Wow. Was this what it meant to be a duke?
They settled on having her attend only Monday through Wednesday, return on Wednesday evening, and receive the rest of her education through special private tutoring.
I wondered if that was really allowed, but she was a duke to begin with, so… It didn’t seem like missing some classes would be a problem.
It wasn’t as though they were simply excusing her from class, either.
Ruby would have to take the same written and practical exams as the other students every semester, and she needed to achieve grades above a certain standard in order to maintain the special curriculum.
In the end, the goal was how well she could climb the Tower and grow stronger…
"Hehehe. This worked out well, Lionel, right?"
"That’s a relief."
Ruby’s face bloomed with a smile.
Good was good, I supposed.
I smiled brightly as well… then headed straight into the bathroom.
…A question occurred to me there.
"……"
Ruby was getting taller by the day.
Did girls normally grow faster? In just one year, she had shot up so much.
"What about me…"
Why the fuck did it feel like I wasn’t growing…?
I had made a small mark with a pen beside the bathroom, at the height of my head.
Compared to then, I really had grown only a little.
Ruby already seemed to be over 155 centimeters…
"Hah…"
It must be because I hadn’t hit puberty yet.
There had to be a chance left for me too.
For now… congratulations to Ruby.
As an admission gift, it seemed fitting to make some equipment for her.
"I’ve practiced quite a lot."
I had spent a really long time in seclusion training my metallurgy.
I had been wanting to hammer some iron anyway. What could I forge for Ruby?
"What do you think she’d like?"
I couldn’t hold back my curiosity, so I immediately asked Dolores.
"Hmm… I think Ruby would like anything Lionel made for her."
"Still, isn’t there something she especially likes?"
"Hmm…"
I thought it over too.
Then a question suddenly came to mind.
"…But Ruby really is a mage, right?"
"……"
She exercised so much that, honestly, I wasn’t even sure whether she was a mage anymore.
Exercise when she got up, exercise before she went to sleep.
But interestingly, rather than getting all bulging and muscular… her body was developing in a very sleek, toned way.
You know, in a way people would like for entirely different reasons.
Was that a blessed physique too?
"Hmm… Come to think of it, Lionel, what made Ruby start exercising in the first place?"
"…Haha."
Actually, that was because of me.
Dolores lightly placed a hand against her forehead and spoke.
"…It’s been quite a concern for me too. Ruby has high affinity with spirits, talent for magic… an innately strong body… and she even enjoys exercise."
"So she’s an all-rounder?"
"That’s one way to put it. Which is why a battle ma… Mm, no, that’s not it…"
What role would suit someone that versatile?
I immediately asked Yuna, who possessed big data.
Over the past year, Yuna had accumulated an enormous amount of data on this world, to the point that she could practically be considered an encyclopedia now.
[Hmm… It would be a little wasteful to make her a conventional mage, so a battle mage? I think that might be good… But what bothers me is whether Dolores would like it, considering she’s from the Formula School…]
The Formula School?
Judging by that community post from before, it seemed to be a school of magic Dolores belonged to.
I carefully opened my mouth.
"…How about making her a battle mage?"
That seemed to be what Dolores had been about to say just now.
Twitch.
Dolores’s eyebrow twitched.
"…Hmm, Lionel? Where did you hear that such a thing existed?"
"Is it not good?"
"No, no, why would it be bad? Magic has limitless potential, so there’s no issue with it. I was actually thinking of trying an aptitude test…"
"Really? Then I’ll try making a weapon exclusively for a battle mage. How about testing her with that?"
"……"
Honestly, when someone had so many talents, I thought they needed to choose something.
You couldn’t be good at everything.
And according to Yuna, a battle mage would be great because it could encompass all of Ruby’s talents.
It didn’t seem like Dolores had mentioned it for no reason, either.
Right?
[Right. They say a battle mage’s level differs depending on the power they imbue at the tip of their weapon.]
[Ruby can handle the power of spirits, and she’s good at magic too…]
Sure, I didn’t know the complicated details, but anyway, it sounded good.
The fact that Dolores wasn’t flatly saying no meant there was enough of a possibility, right?
I drove the point home to the hesitant Dolores.
"Then how about this? We’ll have her choose between the weapon you prepare and the one I prepare."
"…Let’s do that. Aptitude tests are usually conducted that way too."
"Dolores, you prepare a weapon for a conventional mage."
"And you, Lionel?"
"I’ll try making a battle mage weapon."
It would be my first attempt, but this sounded fun.
"…Could I at least ask for a Resonance School wand?"
"No, no."
I could definitely tell she had an aversion to battle mages.
"What school do battle mages belong to?"
"…That isn’t classified as a school."
"I see."
In the end, Dolores and I decided that we would each bring a weapon that suited Ruby.
But then, something in the corner of the room caught my eye.
It kept bothering me. Could it be…
"What is this, by any chance…?"
"It’s an appraisal device."
An appraisal device?
"…An appraisal device? Why is there an appraisal device…"
Suddenly, the countless Origin Scripts written on the equipment I had made flashed through my mind.
Surely it couldn’t see those too, could it?
"…Hehe."
Dolores looked at me and smiled sweetly.
Ah.
I realized there was a high chance she had found out.
"I-I-I-I’ll get going."
"Yes. Thank you, Lionel."
My face red, I returned straight to the workshop.
Along with a little reflection on my dignity.
They were somewhat private pieces of equipment, so I had thought they would never be discovered…
"Sigh… It’s already too late, isn’t it?"
In truth, I had already shown Dolores far too many embarrassing sides of myself, so I concluded it was fine.
"…Whatever. Let’s just begin."
Equipment crafting. I had been itching to do it anyway.
While Dolores climbed the Tower and Ruby grew over the past few months, it wasn’t as though I had done nothing.
I had made all sorts of things to improve my metallurgy… in other words, my work with minerals and iron.
You could say I had practiced forging and metalworking.
The biggest reason I hadn’t made gloves or swords until now was, honestly, because I hadn’t been confident about melting and working iron and other metals.
I was young and small, too, so I lacked the strength for it.
But I had exercised consistently, and I had spent a long time swinging hammers…
Now, the time had truly come.
These were the results:
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[Excellent Sickle][★★★☆☆]
[Excellent Pickaxe][★★★☆☆]
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I had made dozens of each and supplied them to the village.
Thanks to that, this year’s harvest in the Dolores Duchy was likely to be very, very, very good.
Anyway, what could I make based on my now-honed metallurgy?
"What kind of weaponry do battle mages usually use?"
[First, someone famous for being a battle mage is… Hmm, there’s Yeomhwa?]
"Yeomhwa?"
That was Dolores’s younger sibling, and one of Mama’s former companions.
Their ranking was pretty high too, wasn’t it?
[But battle mages have way too many different branches. This person’s main weapon is apparently a gun.]
"Whoa."
There were guns too?
Yuna and I looked up related information for quite some time.
Battle mages really seemed to have a huge variety of branches, without anything that could even be called a school.
There was no standard method, nor any standardized weaponry.
I thought I understood why Dolores disliked them. How should I put it? They had that scrappy, improvised feel.
Like martial arts picked up in back alleys, a rootless hodgepodge.
Some wore iron gauntlets and swung their fists, while others used staffs to smash people over the head instead of casting magic. There were all sorts.
[There are rods too. Rods.]
"A rod…"
A rod. Wasn’t that good?
Ultimately, a battle mage’s identity was fighting by imbuing their own mana into a weapon.
Ruby’s strength was that she could handle many types of power, and her physical strength was, with only a little exaggeration, on the level of Roland Gorilla.
"How about a rod? A rod."
Rods were traditionally associated with martial artists, after all.
And they looked cool.
Of course, that was just my own idea, so I wanted to ask what she thought.
Dolores and I had agreed to at least conduct a simple survey of her preferences before making our weapons.
You had to consider a teenage girl’s sense of aesthetics.
I cautiously headed to the gym.
But when I reached the door, I heard whispering from inside.
"…Ruby, how about this book? It’s an ancient tome I used myself, and it goes wonderfully with the Formula School."
"…It’s not bad."
She was already at work on her.
But I was confident I could offer Ruby a better choice than Dolores.
Knock, knock.
I opened the door and knocked against the gym wall.
"Hey, Ruby."
"!"
Ruby’s eyes widened as she looked my way.
"Come on. I’ll show you heaven."
Under the pretext of showing her something fun, I called Ruby out.
"May I borrow Ruby?"
"…Mmmngh… Rubyyy."
Dolores reached pleadingly toward Ruby.
"What are we doing today?"
"Something fun."
Ruby scampered over to me without hesitation.
"No…!"
Hey, Dolores. It was already too late.
I intended to corrupt Ruby into a battle mage.
Until she could no longer even think of the bland, boring equipment of conventional mages…
With my specially made equipment, I would thoroughly ruin her.
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