Chapter 36
1.
Sibling relationships.
Honestly, I'm an only child, so I don't really know.
I think there are both good and bad relationships.
Even family relationships are still human relationships.
So.
“It’s not as though all siblings have to be as close as the Imperial Prince and Imperial Princess, is it? They could have a bad relationship, too.”
“Ah….”
“The same seems to be true of the two gods. Their compatibilities must not match well.”
When I brought up the word compatibility.
The Imperial Princess’s expression changed slightly, taking on a meaningful look. Richard’s expression also flinched for an instant.
It didn’t seem like a good sign, but.
I asked what I had been curious about all along.
As cautiously as possible.
“If it wouldn’t be rude, may I ask you just one thing?”
“Are you asking who gave it to me?”
“…For now, yes.”
The Imperial Princess looked at me for a moment, then.
“His Majesty the Emperor.”
She answered calmly.
What the fuck. I can’t say anything now.
Right. Even the Emperor probably hadn’t expected this.
A good grade, a good script, and even the name of a god who governed medicine and sorcery were engraved on it.
He had given it to his two sickly children based on all that.
It probably meant something like, May the blessing be eternal….
I could only nod without saying a word.
Then the Imperial Princess turned her gaze to the side.
“What do you think, Richard?”
“…There was no magical trick.”
“Not that.”
“……”
Richard was silent for a moment, but soon answered quietly.
“…Among all the frauds—no, people—who have discussed compatibility so far.”
- Swish.
His gaze lowered to me.
“…he is the only one who has actually offered evidence.”
…Ah, right.
I remembered belatedly.
In this world, compatibility theory was superstition.
Baseless nonsense that only wandering appraisers or swindlers brought up.
More to the point, there was no way members of the Imperial family would believe such nonsense.
That must have been why their expressions had changed when I brought up the word compatibility.
But what was I supposed to do?
From now on, I would have no choice but to keep saying things that sounded like the ravings of a charlatan.
“I’ll tell His Majesty the Emperor about this separately, so don’t tell anyone anything, Richard.”
“…I shall.”
The Imperial Princess repeatedly impressed this upon him, then looked at me.
“I’ll ask you a few more questions about the things I’m curious about. Is that all right?”
“Of course.”
Richard brought a chair from somewhere and placed it behind the Imperial Princess.
Of course, there was no chair for me. He had brought only the Imperial Princess’s chair.
It was absurd for a moment.
But it didn’t really matter, since this way our eye levels were roughly even.
Because I was short.
Activating positive thinking, I prepared to answer the Imperial Princess’s questions.
“…Richard.”
When the Imperial Princess called him with an incredulous expression, Richard’s eyes turned toward me, but.
“I’m fine. This is comfortable.”
I waved first to say it was all right.
There was no reason to make that man fetch another chair, either.
Perhaps because I had gone through graduate school myself, I wasn’t particularly interested in being treated like a guest.
If all you cared about was being treated well, you’d be a charlatan.
There was nothing to lament. Proper treatment naturally followed good results.
“…So, in the end, the problem is….”
The Imperial Princess soon began cautiously.
“The Essence Necklace of Moonlight. That’s the problem, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then, the Sun Rising….”
“It’s the one having its essence extorted by that necklace.”
I pointed to the pendant whose essence had been sucked dry.
“Actually, the Sun Rising is blatantly a good item. Even if its essence runs dry, it absorbs sunlight and replenishes itself.”
“Such a thing….”
The Imperial Princess swallowed and carefully asked.
“So, in my current situation, I can’t wear the Essence Necklace of Moonlight, while the Sun Rising is an accessory that’s safe to wear?”
“Yes.”
It would be better not to wear the Essence Necklace of Moonlight anymore. Keeping it as a display piece was probably the best option.
“Then… if I were to wear one, would I have to keep the two apart?”
“In theory, yes.”
However, this was where the problem began.
Even I was seeing a special set effect for the first time in my life.
“However, I’m not sure exactly how far apart they need to be.”
It didn’t seem like a matter of separating them by a distance measured exactly with a ruler, but the boundary probably wasn’t drawn that honestly.
Once activated, it might be the sort of effect that continued until the wearer died.
“The surest method would be not to wear either accessory, but….”
I looked down at the two pendants on the table.
“That would be a shame where the Sun Rising is concerned.”
That was honestly how I felt.
With my current skills, it would probably be difficult to make a four-star piece of equipment.
There was no way an item like the Sun Rising would be common, no matter where I searched in the Tower or the world.
It seemed best to save at least one of them.
‘…If I can’t keep the two apart.’
Even if they stayed together, couldn’t I simply prevent anything from happening?
What if I cut off the interference itself—the set effect itself?
Something that could block the powers of the two gods from interfering with each other.
‘What’s the counter to siblings?’
…Wouldn’t that be Mom?
My mind began turning at that moment.
I only had a feeling for now, but I felt that thinking about it a little more might produce a good result.
I organized my thoughts for a moment, then raised my head again.
“Your Highness, to introduce myself again, I’m the blacksmith Lionel who made Duchess Doloris’s gloves and semi-transparent thermal star….”
“Star?”
- Flinch.
“…socks.”
“You made the Duchess’s equipment?”
“Yes. You may verify it yourself.”
“I’m sorry. It’s not that I don’t believe you—I just want to check quickly….”
The Imperial Princess immediately turned her gaze to the side.
“…Richard.”
“Yes.”
With a short reply.
- Pop.
Richard vanished before my eyes.
What, what was that just now?
He vanished in an instant before my eyes. I had momentarily forgotten that this was a fantasy world.
…Well, the faster she checked, the better.
It wasn’t an unpleasant thing, and from the Imperial family’s perspective, it was a perfectly natural verification to make.
It would have been stranger if they had simply believed me without question.
While Richard was gone.
I quietly examined her face.
Even after examining her for several minutes.
Honestly, there wasn’t much of anything to work on.
She was good-looking to begin with, and it didn’t seem as though adding anything would make her look better.
Then, when I shifted my gaze slightly….
“……”
There was a spot that caught my eye.
“Your Highness.”
“Yes.”
“Your ears look a little bare.”
“……My ears?”
The Imperial Princess unconsciously touched her earlobe.
“If you don’t mind.”
I continued with a faint smile.
“I’d like to make a pair of earrings with my own hands to make Your Highness’s ears shine even brighter.”
“……Thank you for saying so, but.”
“I apologize for saying this, but….”
I had proven both the process and the result enough by now.
Respecting someone who had proven themselves was the same in every world.
“This was the kind of problem no one could even address without first discovering its cause. Considering that, I seem to be the only person capable of solving it.”
Someone else was going to solve this?
Could they really?
“To begin with, weren’t they people who didn’t even know what the problem was?”
Groundless overconfidence was poison, but confidence with clear grounds inspired trust.
- Tap.
I tapped the Essence Necklace of Moonlight on the table.
- Vwooom!
Honestly, what a temper.
Whether it knew I was talking about it or not, it vibrated angrily.
“I’ll turn this little guy….”
Looking at the necklace, I smiled.
“Into an idiot.”
- Vwoooooom!!
It vibrated hard enough to make the entire table shake.
“Will you trust me?”
Or else.
Or will you trust the other people who failed to notice that you were slowly dying?
You’ve got nothing to lose, right?
- Saaaaaa….
A cold wind passed between the Imperial Princess and me.
Just as the troubled look on the Imperial Princess’s face grew deeper.
- Swish.
With a light breeze.
Richard arrived beside us before I knew it.
“…Richard?”
“At Her Highness’s command, I have brought a message from Duchess Doloris.”
He offered a brief formal greeting, then recited it calmly.
“『Everything that child said is true. From designing the gloves and socks to completing them, the child handled the entire process personally.』”
“『The illness I had been suffering from is currently improving thanks to the equipment the child made.』”
Doloris’s message.
“『Therefore, provided that the child’s autonomy is respected and the child is allowed to return home…』”
“『……Doloris will refuse nothing.』”
Silence settled over the terrace.
I had only asked him to verify things, but she had given such an overflowing testimony of trust.
And then.
Richard brought out the hand he had kept hidden behind his back all this time.
“So, according to the message….”
- Thump.
He silently pushed a chair beneath me.
He had brought me a chair to sit on.
“It’s all true.”
Richard said nothing more.
With the same expressionless face, he simply returned to his place and stood there quietly.
I chuckled and sat in the chair.
- Swish.
Our eye levels had changed again.
The Imperial Princess across from me finally looked me straight in the face.
After remaining silent for a while, she looked at me, corrected her posture, and straightened her back.
“…Sir Lionel.”
“…Yes.”
A changed form of address.
“As the Imperial Princess of the Empire.”
Our eyes met through the hair fluttering in the night breeze.
“I formally request this of you.”
“……”
“Please, do not let the feelings His Majesty gave to my brother and me fade….”
The Imperial Princess drew a slight breath and asked in a cautious voice.
“Please allow us to continue keeping these necklaces.”
“……Of course.”
There was no charlatan here now.
To begin with, I had never been a charlatan.
My first request—through this request, I.
I resolved to save the Imperial Prince and Princess.