Chapter 27
1.
If you ask who I am.
I intend to confidently hold up these stockings and show them to that person.
A descendant of fire, a full-fledged blacksmith, a two-star equipment maker, and someone with a knack for enchanting as well.
And, most importantly.
“Owner of Spring Without Frost.”
Of course, ownership is scheduled to be transferred to Doloris soon.
My hands are still trembling.
They shook violently the entire time I was cleaning up after the work.
Partly because the dopamine was still flowing, but also because I had pushed my body to its limit.
I had only one goal: to deliver these to Doloris as quickly as possible.
Strictly speaking, I should first replace her equipment through her equipment window and check its performance.
What her stats would be while wearing it, and whether the compatibility was actually satisfactory.
There was no harm in delivering it after checking.
However.
“Forget it.”
This time, I’m just going.
I didn’t think those procedures were necessary.
Even without checking beforehand. This will work.
I had an oddly strong conviction.
I wanted to put it in something like a gift box and give it to her.
But I didn’t have anything like that.
I left the workshop, clutching Spring Without Frost—the stockings—tightly in my hand.
Doloris was on the second floor, in her bedroom.
Her voice seeped through the crack in the door.
“…So, spirits need to be treated with care and warmth….”
She had Ruby sitting on her lap while reading her a book.
Ruby’s eyes sparkled as she was completely absorbed in the story.
……
I stopped the hand that was reaching for the doorknob.
Lately, I had wondered whether Ruby might feel as though Doloris’s affection was being stolen from her.
I didn’t want to interrupt such an enjoyable time.
I sank down beside the door, still holding the stockings.
- Squeeze….
I closed my eyes for a moment.
- Thump….
Calming my pounding heart.
How long had I been sitting there?
- Thud.
I heard the sound of the book closing.
“Shall we go eat now?”
“Yes.”
Now.
- Swing!
I flung open the door.
“I’m back.”
“Lionel…?”
Doloris’s eyes widened.
Ruby spotted me from her lap and waved her little hand gently.
She must have been saying hello.
I really hadn’t seen Ruby’s face at all lately.
I gave a small chuckle and walked over to them.
“You finished early today….”
Doloris’s gaze shifted to my fingertips as she was about to say something.
A sock liner with a soft reddish glow was hanging there.
And so did I.
My gaze naturally shifted to her feet.
Those clumsy, stiff warming shoes—in short, the ones I wanted to throw away.
She had continued wearing the shoes I considered a failure.
“……Ah, those are a little embarrassing. They’re a failure.”
“No, they aren’t. They’re warm enough.”
I shook my head… and slowly dropped to one knee.
I held the stockings in my hands.
I raised them before her with both hands.
“…Please take them off.”
“……”
Doloris’s face flushed.
“And.”
I lifted them a little higher.
“Please put these on.”
“……”
Doloris said nothing for a while.
Then she bit down on her lip.
Her eyes had grown moist before she knew it.
“……Of course.”
Her voice trembled.
Ruby tugged up the corners of her lips, then sprang out of Doloris’s arms and stood beside me.
As I always said, she was a perceptive child.
Doloris took the stockings from me.
- Rustle….
She removed the leather shoes she had been wearing.
Then, carefully, she unfolded the stockings.
“……Oh my.”
Doloris’s gaze lingered for a moment on the edge of the stockings’ thigh-high section.
A small fastening loop was attached there.
“…I suppose I’ll need that.”
She seemed to have noticed.
Right, stockings this long needed a garter belt to keep them from sliding down.
That was the part I had intended.
To pull them up above the knees, there had to be something to hold them in place.
Doloris seemed to think of something for a moment, then rose from her seat.
She went to the bedroom drawer and brought out a thin strap.
Then she sat down again and slowly.
Began putting on the stockings.
- Slide….
The silk caught on her toes, passed over the tops of her feet, and wrapped around her ankles.
The folded portion unfolded and was smoothly drawn up along her calves.
I watched the process without missing a single moment.
It wasn’t out of ulterior motives; I only wanted to see whether she was putting them on correctly.
“……Wait a moment.”
The moment Doloris blushed and lifted the part of her top covering her abdomen.
Her white skin entered my field of vision….
- Rustle.
“No.”
A small palm covered my eyes.
Ruby, I can’t see. I really can’t see.
- Rustle.
- Click.
- Click.
Along with sounds that stirred the imagination in the darkness.
When Ruby removed her hand, before my eyes….
Doloris sat there shyly, fully dressed in the stockings.
─────────────────
[Spring Without Frost][★★☆☆☆]
[Unique Equipment] [Compatibility][60/60]
─────────────────
Folded, it becomes the warmth of midwinter.
Pulled up, it becomes the heat haze of midsummer.
Two seasons contained in a single pair.
─────────────────
[The warming effect of the Sun Inscription and the heating effect of Flame Ore offset the wearer’s amplified yin energy]
[When worn for an extended period, it may alleviate the Severed Meridians symptoms and permanently open two of the nine meridians.]
[Along with alleviating the Nine Yin Severed Meridians, the possibility of a cure is unlocked.]
─────────────────
Compatibility: perfect.
When worn for an extended period, two meridians could be permanently opened.
Most importantly… along with easing the Nine Yin Severed Meridians, it had even opened the possibility of a cure.
I knew it would function well. But I hadn’t expected it to be this effective.
I had made it while thinking only of her, and made it for her.
I hadn’t expected the compatibility to be this high, either.
Then.
“……?!”
Doloris’s expression began to change slowly.
First came surprise.
Second was a dazed expression, utterly unable to understand.
And the third was….
“Hic…?”
Tears.
She covered her mouth with a trembling hand.
Swallowing something back, she stared at her own feet.
Then.
- Ssssss….
From the tips of Doloris’s feet wrapped in the sock liners.
A bluish aura began to rise like heat haze.
The blue energy crept up over the tops of her feet.
- Sizzle….
It touched the bright-red silk and evaporated.
The blue energy rose, and the red silk swallowed it, turning it into steam that vanished into the air.
Spring Without Frost.
The frost that had encased Doloris melted away in the spring sunshine.
- Suddenly!
Doloris pulled me tightly into her arms.
“Lionel… Lionel, how on earth….”
Her trembling voice seeped into my ear.
“The Severed Meridians… how on earth…?”
Rather than me reading a hundred lines of text.
Doloris had probably already felt it throughout her entire body.
She must have felt the word “alleviation” written in the status window through her skin.
The pain and despair she had endured in the past….
I couldn’t even dare imagine them.
“This is only the beginning.”
I embraced her in return.
“Everything will be all right.”
At the very least, making sure she never felt such emotions again.
That much….
I might be able to do.
In this life, it was you, Doloris—no one else.
Probably.
- Sniff.
Moisture welled up in the corners of Ruby’s eyes over Doloris’s shoulder.
As I always said, she was a perceptive child.
I crooked my fingers and called Ruby over.
“Hiiing… Master….”
“Yes, Ruby….”
Her small body burrowed snugly between us.
And so the three of us held each other for a long while.
“Lionel… thank you so much….”
“Thaaank youuu….”
Doloris’s gratitude and Ruby’s mumbling.
In the air that slowly settled.
…I.
Suddenly opened my eyes.
[★★☆☆☆] [Two-star equipment has reached the limit of compatibility.]
[Target: Doloris]
[Title Acquired ─ ‘The One Who Announced the End of Winter’]
And then.
[Elysia von Doloris]
[Remaining Lifespan][3Y : 11M : 9D : 4H : 13M]
A rather shocking number appeared before my eyes.
The moment I understood what those numbers meant, my heart lurched and nausea rose to my throat.
- Crackle….
The numbers suddenly shook.
[Remaining Lifespan][3Y : 11M : 9D…]
[Recalculating…….]
[Factor ─ Potential opening of two meridians. Possibility of treating the Nine Yin Severed Meridians unlocked.]
- Bang!
[Remaining Lifespan][8Y : 2M : 14D : 1H : 13M]
[▲ +4Y : 3M]
If what had appeared before my eyes was real.
Because she was wearing this equipment now.
Doloris’s remaining lifespan had increased by four years.
“……”
I couldn’t get any words out.
Without saying a word, I hugged Doloris even tighter.
Her lifespan had increased.
Eight years was still woefully insufficient.
I couldn’t let her live for only that long before leaving this world.
‘……Four years from two-star equipment.’
My thoughts began racing.
What I was seeing was the reward for the title awarded for reaching the limit of two-star compatibility.
The maximum compatibility for two-star equipment was 60.
Then.
What if it were three-star? Four-star?
And beyond that, what if it were five-star equipment?
No, it didn’t end there.
If I could make the highest-grade equipment I could reach.
If I could bring its compatibility to the limit and place it in her hands.
Just how far could I restore her lifespan?
- Thump.
My heart was pounding.
Mine. Ruby’s in my arms. And Doloris’s as well.
Heartbeats pounding together in the same warmth.
‘Then.’
I would hold on to this warmth, this heartbeat.
For as long as possible.
2.
The sky stretched endlessly overhead.
The 89th floor, famous for its ceiling so high that even the clouds lay beneath one’s feet.
It was also called the roof of the world.
In the middle of the vast open sky.
A gigantic volcano stood alone, rising high.
Yet what looked like a volcano was actually a colossal furnace.
The holy ground where the descendants of fire had handled fire for generations.
The sacred peak, Kargon.
And at its summit… upon a throne carved directly from the crater.
A dwarf sat there without moving an inch.
Ricardo.
The master of this mountain.
And the leader of the Sun Dwarves.
His eyes glowed red-hot as they looked down upon the ground of the 89th floor below.
In the direction of his gaze, upon the land of the 89th floor.
A gigantic grid had been engraved all the way to the horizon.
Hundreds, thousands of empty spaces; each one of the huge grid’s cells bore its own emblem.
Each one.
A place of glory that only those chosen by fire could engrave.
And only those who had crossed beyond the wall of apprenticeship… dared to inscribe their names there.
Yet.
For an uncountable span of time.
No new light had been engraved anywhere on that grid.
The time of the race known as the Sun Dwarves had stopped.
Even so.
Ricardo continued to stare endlessly at the unfilled spaces.
As though he believed something would be engraved there even today.
“…Lord Ricardo.”
The chieftain standing beside him cautiously began to speak.
“Even if a new descendant of fire truly has appeared, it will take at least ten years to rise from apprentice to full-fledged status.”
“Then.”
Yet Ricardo did not even withdraw his gaze.
“We can wait those ten years here.”
“……”
The secretary fell silent.
He knew all too well that this stubborn leader would really remain in this place for years, no matter how many.
“…Please, now.”
The chieftain was just about to speak one last time.
It was precisely then.
- Vrrr….
The sky began to clear.
“……?”
Ricardo’s lips curled upward.
The chieftain looked around, puzzled by the sky that had suddenly cleared.
The Grand Chieftain looked at him and gave a small laugh.
“……Have you never seen it, Chieftain?”
“…What do you mean?”
“I suppose it has been so long.”
Then he raised a hand and pointed toward the sky.
“The sky.”
The sun slowly grew brighter.
The moment the chieftain looked up at the sky with a dazed expression.
- Bang!
A single ray of sunlight.
Plunged down like a spear toward the empty grid.
“…What is that?!”
In the cell touched by the light.
- Crackle.
An emblem began drawing itself.
First, a round sun, then eight flames radiating around it.
“The apprentice’s emblem…!”
“No.”
Ricardo stroked his chin and shook his head.
- Crackle….
Beneath the sun emblem… a single bent golden stroke, as though someone’s fingertip had passed over it.
It supported the apprentice’s emblem from beneath.
“……The full-fledged… emblem.”
The chieftain’s mouth slowly fell open.
Someone.
As a descendant of fire, had become a full-fledged blacksmith.
And engraved an emblem in the history of the Sun Dwarves.
Ricardo slowly rose from his throne.
“…He’s come.”
His red eyes blazed.
Hotter than ever before.
“The descendant of fire has finally come.”
And then.
Ricardo raised his arm.
- Swish.
Beneath the wrist of his right arm, hidden deep within his sleeve….
There was nothing.
Only the mark left behind by something that had been severed long ago remained.
Ricardo’s gaze turned toward the grid where the new emblem had just been engraved.
More precisely, to the space immediately to its left.
Already faded, yet engraved there… two strokes of the adept emblem.
They were the emblems engraved long ago, when both of Ricardo’s hands had still been whole.
Ricardo, descendant of fire.
The man who had once carried the fire of his race alone.
“The old man’s furnace went out long ago, and has been cold for ages.”
His shoulders trembled faintly.
“…At last, the fire has found its next master.”
The future of the race, which they had thought was burned away until only ashes remained.
Hotter than ever before.
Had begun to burn again.