Chapter 31
1.
I think Isabella is somewhat oblivious, doesn't listen, and can be frustrating.
But I don't think she's a bad person.
I don't want to use the word loser, but… if I had to put it one way, uh.
She seems to be that type.
And as if to prove it….
Beside the door Doloris had opened, a heap of mysterious boxes was stacked up.
It was nighttime outside, so I couldn't see clearly, but they seemed to be wrapped like presents.
Did she bring all of that? Good grief, even bringing gifts and getting cursed at for it must be difficult.
Just as I was shaking my head at her unfathomable behavior.
“……Doloris?”
Isabella loosened the arms that had been hugging me.
Her voice trembled too.
She looked out the window, then, seeing that it was already dark outside, made a face as though she had just realized something.
As if sensing that something was wrong, she flinched and began taking off her gloves.
“Y-You’re here?”
I quietly looked at Doloris's face.
‘Wow….’
This is seriously terrifying.
What happened just now with the Abyss and everything seemed completely meaningless.
Taking advantage of the momentary slack in her arms, I quickly slipped out of her embrace and moved toward the furnace.
There definitely seemed to be something the two of them needed to discuss. It would only be proper for me to give them some space.
Given the flow of things, they were probably going to tell me to return to the estate because this was an adult conversation.
Adults usually didn't want children to hear them arguing.
Just as I was about to slip away.
“…Lionel? Come here.”
- Flinch.
Doloris called my name and turned her head.
She beckoned to me with the freshest, most benevolent smile in the world.
“…Yes.”
Using a herbivore's instincts, I scurried over to her,
and was about to obediently take the hand she held out in silence….
“My hands are cold, so hold my leg.”
“……?”
Her ungloved hand was frozen.
No, but how was I supposed to hold her leg?
I mean, I'd like to, but this was a little much.
In the end, I awkwardly grabbed onto her clothes.
Only then did Doloris slowly turn her head toward Isabella.
Apparently, she wasn't planning to send me out.
Isabella avoided her gaze and huddled as though waiting meekly for Doloris's sentence.
Why had she acted so brazenly in the first place?
Maybe she had tried to run away before coming here, then lost track of time.
“……Isabella.”
“Uh, yeah.”
“This is the second time you've come looking for Lionel without contacting me first, breaking through my warding magic.”
Her voice was quite low.
“I told you, didn't I? Don't approach Lionel.”
“……S-Sorry.”
“…No.”
Doloris smiled faintly.
“I know you're not sorry, so making us both go through the motions of an apology would be ridiculous.”
“……!”
Isabella's mouth began opening and closing soundlessly.
“El, Elysia….”
Whether Doloris had hit the mark, or whether this was simply the first time she had spoken so sharply.
Isabella's eyes clouded as she reached out.
The problem was that this was only the beginning.
“Isabella, when we were young, it was fun for us to treat each other without formality. I have no intention of denying that.”
Doloris's gaze wandered somewhere.
“But… a lot of time has passed since then. It's time for us to respect each other's position and station.”
“……”
“The reason I repeatedly overlooked your rudeness, even when you acted familiar and discourteous, wasn't because there was nothing wrong with what you did….”
“……”
“It was simply because I was tired of letting it wash over me when you wouldn't listen no matter how many times I told you.”
Oof.
Without realizing it, I tightened my grip on her clothes.
I couldn't interfere since it was someone else's business, but it felt like Doloris had been holding a lot in too.
“I do like you, too, as a friend.”
“Doloris….”
“But when the person you're treating that way isn't me, but my child, and you grab and hug a child who says he doesn't like it…! When you cling to him and put only your own desires first….”
Doloris paused for a moment, then finally spoke in a quiet voice.
I could feel her emotions surging.
“Isabella, please grow up already… I'm begging you.”
Silence descended over the workshop.
Isabella couldn't say a word.
She looked as though she had been struck by something, utterly shocked.
“I'm truly sorry….”
“……”
Doloris shook her head.
Isabella suddenly turned her head toward me as well.
“Lionel, I-I'm sorry too. I really didn't mean it that way.”
I had thought that since Doloris had scolded her, she would only apologize to Doloris.
But she was apologizing to me too.
Technically speaking, this was the right thing to do.
“Yes, it's all right.”
Hearing her subdued voice, after she had always done nothing but smile foolishly, didn't make me feel particularly good.
When I nodded,
Doloris's expression beside me visibly relaxed.
Isabella carefully folded Doloris's gloves and held them out to her, then.
“…I sincerely apologize.”
“…Yeah.”
When Doloris quietly accepted her apology.
- Step, step.
Isabella turned away with a gloomy expression.
Just as she was heading toward the door.
“I'll put the gift to good use.”
I didn't know what it was, but since I had received it, I offered my thanks.
It felt a little wrong to send her away looking so dejected.
- Halt.
Isabella's footsteps paused for a moment, then.
“Yeah….”
With a faint, bitter smile, she disappeared into the darkness with quick little steps.
…And a few minutes later.
“…Phew.”
Doloris let out a long sigh.
The tension that had held her body taut until then finally left her.
I looked up at her and asked.
It was always like this wherever I went, but personally, I found the person saying harsh things more exhausted than the person hearing them.
The military was the same, and that was how I saw it.
So I thought Doloris might feel the same way.
“Are you all right, Lady Doloris?”
At my question, Doloris lowered her head and met my eyes, then.
- Whoosh.
“……Huh.”
Without a word, she suddenly lifted me up and wrapped me in her arms.
“Lionel, I'm the one who's curious about that.”
“Yes?”
“Were you all right?”
“Yes, I'm fine.”
“……”
Doloris ruffled my hair vigorously, then.
- Snuggle.
She pulled me tightly into her embrace.
“Oh, and.”
There was something I wanted to tell her.
The gloves… the gloves had gained a latent ability.
“Would you try on these gloves right away?”
As I squirmed in her arms, Doloris chuckled and set me down.
She slowly put the gloves she had received onto her hands.
- Slip.
At that moment.
“……Huh.”
Doloris's eyes widened slightly.
“I can feel a mysterious… energy….”
Tilting her head, she stared down at the hand wearing the glove.
Then.
The engraved gray inscription turned red.
“……”
And then.
- Vwoom.
The energy that bloomed from the gloves warmly enveloped both Doloris and me.
“Wow.”
So that was how they were used.
Someone at Doloris's level seemed to understand how to use them at a glance.
“How is it?”
I was sure she was going to praise me to the skies again.
I looked up at her face excitedly.
However.
“…………What is this?”
She looked dumbfounded, astonished, and yet somehow delighted,
wearing a complex expression in which those three emotions were tangled together.
She opened her mouth.
2.
Deep in the night.
Only a single lamp lit Doloris's study.
- Rustle.
She read every book she had taken from the bookshelf, one by one,
while turning over and over in her mind what had happened that night.
Lionel's gloves lay neatly arranged before her eyes.
And these gloves.
Had manifested ‘magic’ a few hours earlier.
There were times when equipment aided the manifestation of magic or accelerated a circuit.
However.
It was exceedingly rare for magic itself to be embedded in the equipment.
Absolutely, utterly rare.
Even among five-star items, and among the unique equipment in particular.
Even in those pinnacle items known as ‘artifacts.’
Such a thing hardly ever occurred.
Of course, compared to such items, the level and power of this magic were still insignificant.
“How could this be possible….”
Lionel had simply said that it happened while he was enchanting.
When she first heard that he had enchanted these one-of-a-kind unique equipment gloves, she had nearly fainted.
“Honestly, that child….”
What would he have done if they had been destroyed?
Thankfully, they had not been destroyed,
and she had learned that this was the result of enchanting unique equipment.
- Rustle.
Doloris ran her fingertips over the gloves.
At first, she had merely thought that.
She had finally received good fortune, however belatedly, despite possessing this cursed body.
A body that was improving, a chill that was gradually lifting.
Perhaps, thanks to this child, she might be able to cast off the tiresome curse of her family.
Perhaps beyond that, she might dream of the ordinary life she had longed for—the life others enjoyed so normally.
However, as time passed.
Another feeling began to cast a shadow over one corner of that overwhelming joy.
“…I….”
Doloris's blue eyes wavered in the darkness.
‘What can I do for Lionel?’
Was this child someone she could simply keep in her arms?
He was not someone who could be hidden merely by concealing and shielding him.
A gold nugget buried in a sandy field would eventually catch the eye.
Just as Isabella had recognized Lionel's true worth at a glance.
Lionel would inevitably draw the world's attention someday.
‘When something shines, countless hands reach out for it….’
Because that was only natural.
But then.
Doloris asked herself.
“…What am I doing now?”
Using the plausible name of protection as an excuse.
Was she imprisoning, restraining, and holding this child in her arms?
Was she shackling his potential by preventing him from taking even one step outside her embrace?
- Rustle.
At that moment, her gaze fell upon.
A note lying on one side of the desk.
Sebas had written it after organizing the items inside the boxes Isabella had brought.
Inside were.
A magical apparatus ideal for knitting thread.
A spinning wheel, a spinning machine, and various fabrics.
In the end, these too were gifts for Lionel; Isabella had accurately identified what he needed in her own way.
Even things Doloris herself had never thought of.
Thus.
There would surely be people in the world who could give Lionel things she could never even imagine.
“……”
- Clench….
Her hands clenched tightly.
The aftertaste was bitter.
Yet.
This too was the duty of a guardian.
- Rustle.
Doloris shifted her gaze to the documents in her hand.
In a few days, the Imperial family would hold a birthday banquet for the twin Imperial Prince and Princess.
It was the invitation to that banquet.
As a duke in name, she could hardly skip such an occasion.
Originally, she had intended to go with only Ruby, the heir….
Her gaze fell upon the gloves.
Yes.
If she couldn't keep this child in her arms forever.
‘Then perhaps….’
At least, for the moment he took his first step into the world.
“From my arms.”
By my side, bearing the name Doloris.
Wouldn't it be better to let him take that step where she could watch over him?
That way, the world would be more firmly aware of whose child he was.
Once she had made up her mind, a smile spread across her lips.
“…Lionel.”
You should come too.
Outside the window, the deep darkness of dawn
was already beginning to turn a pale blue.
“He must be awake by now.”
Doloris rose from her seat and walked toward Lionel's bedroom.
- Creak.
When she carefully opened the door.
“……Mmm?”
Doloris paused for a moment.
Lionel was sleeping adorably with his mouth open,
while Ruby was staring intently at his face.
Still propping up her chin, she stared.
“……Ruby?”
“……!”
Ruby, apparently completely caught off guard, wore a thoroughly flustered expression,
and hurriedly twisted her body around.
- Thump.
“Oof!”
Ruby's foot kicked Lionel.
- Crash.
Lionel, who had been sleeping soundly, rolled off the bed.
“……No, what, what is this?”
Lionel sprawled on the floor and opened his eyes.
Doloris carefully approached Lionel and crouched down on her knees.
And then.
“Lionel?”
“Yes, ah, yes… Good morning….”
- Bow.
Lionel lowered his head.
But even while greeting her, Lionel's gaze
kept straying toward her legs, darting quick glances.
It wasn't that he was openly staring; it was more like his gaze simply moved and brushed past them.
This child seemed to have been especially fond of these socks for some time.
‘Well, he made them himself.’
Was he that proud of them?
Doloris unconsciously smiled faintly,
then crouched a little lower so Lionel could see them more easily.
“…Ruby, Lionel?”
Doloris called the two children side by side.
“Yes, Master.”
“Yep.”
“The day after tomorrow, we'll be leaving for the Imperial Palace.”
“The Imperial Palace… Huh? Me too?”
Lionel's eyes grew round.
“…Yes, you should come too, Lionel.”
Now that she had made up her mind, she wasn't afraid to reveal him to the world.
Hiding him wasn't the only answer.
Doloris reached out and pulled Lionel tightly against her chest.
“Whoa….”
At the bewildering embrace, Lionel blinked in confusion.
Regardless.
‘Because you're my child.’
She hugged Lionel even more tightly.