While smelling a sweet fragrance, I don't know how long it's been since I opened my eyes like this.
And if it's a woman's scent, even more so.
Of course, not Ruby, but Dolores.
I looked to the side, and Ruby and Dolores were already gone, and the blanket was neatly folded.
Dolores's spot was the same. Only the scent remained on the pillow.
I heard Ruby chattering outside.
I'm the only one who overslept.
I should wash up.
"Hello…."
"Wow, sleepyhead is awake."
"Yeah, hello to you too…."
Calling me a sleepyhead first thing in the morning.
Dolores smiled brightly and waved her hand.
"I'll go wash…."
Just as I was about to head to the washroom outside, of course.
Dolores grabbed my shoulder as I tried to leave and turned my body inward.
To the washroom inside the villa.
"Wash here."
"…Okay."
This time I didn't refuse.
Learned helplessness, I suppose.
I learned yesterday that trying is useless anyway.
Standing in front of the sink, the face of a brat I was growing used to reflected in the mirror.
Kid, you're pretty handsome though.
I called Yuna while washing my face.
"What is Ariel Plaza?"
I heard it's the place we're going today.
It would be convenient to know in advance, but the Tower… she said I can't because of my age.
Then naturally, the Outer Tower.
[Good morning, oppa]
[Wait a moment]
While I rinsed with water, a hologram appeared.
[Ariel Plaza. It's the largest commercial plaza outside the Tower, located right next to the Empire.]
[Climbers, merchants, nobles, mercenaries… no matter what they do, they seem to pass through here. You can think of almost everything traded in the Empire as passing through this plaza.]
"Equipment too?"
[Of course. Weapons, materials, magical tools, clothing, food, information—all of it.]
[Even mercenary contracts.]
[There are seven districts alone. Don't think of it as a rural market just because it's called a plaza.]
I nodded while brushing my teeth.
What's surprising is that this world has infrastructure for everything except the scenery.
Even brushing my teeth now is part of that.
Yeah, whatever.
I can just think of it as going to a department store or an outlet.
I can look and tell what's what, so I'll just buy something decent.
I roughly wiped my face with a towel and went outside.
In front of the door were clothes to change into, and now I put them on without resisting.
"Are you dressed?"
"Yes."
Dolores and Ruby were already ready to go out.
She was wearing a whiter dress than usual.
Ruby was also putting on her shoes beside her. Judging by her expression and how quick she was moving, she seemed very excited.
Outings are nice.
Even more so when you're young.
I headed over and pointed below Ruby.
"Your shoelace is untied."
The little shoes had cute shoelaces, and one side was untied.
Dolores smiled silently and crouched in front of Ruby to tie it for her.
Tsk, completely spoiled.
She's 13, she should do things herself.
"Hey, you do it."
"……."
"How old are you?"
Of course, I was carefully watching Dolores's reaction.
Maybe she likes this kind of thing. But she only smiled at me and didn't stop me.
Then maybe.
She didn't know when to stop babying her.
I'll help.
"……."
Ruby's face turned red and blue.
She had no real argument against it.
I carefully crouched in front of Ruby.
"You sit too."
Ruby reluctantly crouched down.
I took one end of the lace and slowly showed her, teaching her one by one.
"Cross it like this into an X, loop it once, and pull."
Ruby copied me. Her fingers were short, so the lace kept slipping.
"I can't do it…."
"Then you do it until you can."
Ruby bit her lip hard and grabbed it again.
This time she got as far as crossing, but she lost it again at the loop.
"It's okay. It's your first time."
"……."
Her eyes fixed on my fingers, as if she wouldn't miss the demonstration.
When I showed her once more, this time she followed fairly well.
Slick.
It was ugly, but the knot was tied.
Still, she did pretty well.
"It's not hard, right?"
"…Yeah."
"You can do it."
Ruby looked down at her toes and nodded.
Her voice was small, but the corner of her mouth was slightly raised.
Honestly, her words are rude, but at this level I think she's very cute and kind.
After all, she accepted even me, someone who suddenly barged in, in an instant.
She'd been living alone with Dolores, so she'd have reason to be jealous.
Tap tap.
I didn't stroke Ruby's head like Dolores did… and instead patted it.
Then.
"Eck."
"Eck?"
This brat.
I only realized after standing up that Dolores had been quietly watching from behind.
Ruby sprang up and ran to Dolores, turning around with a happy expression.
"Master, I did it!"
"Good job, you're commendable."
I also got up roughly and tried to leave.
Then Dolores quietly whispered behind me.
"Lionel, I didn't know you'd ever tied shoes with laces."
"Haha… I'm good with my hands…."
I brushed it off vaguely.
When we left the villa, a carriage was waiting outside.
I wondered how we'd get there, so it was a carriage.
Calling it an ordinary carriage, how should I put it, something was different.
Something blue was engraved on the wheel axle.
It was a carriage, but instead of a horse, a blue glowing stone was embedded inside. Behind it was a driver like a normal carriage.
Is it like an engine?
A carriage without a horse…
[It's a carriage containing magical engineering. It's driven by a Mana Stone. They say it's about three times faster than a normal carriage.]
Even horses lost their jobs.
Dolores opened the door casually.
"Get in."
It was wider inside than I thought.
Four seats and a small table. Thin curtains covered the windows, and a basket of fruit was on the table.
Ruby jumped up first and took the window seat.
I sat on the opposite side, and Dolores got in last and closed the door.
Vroom.
The Mana Stone hummed, and the carriage began moving silently.
Until we left the orphanage, the scenery was the same.
Barn, field, dirt road, another barn.
But before even ten minutes passed after the carriage started moving, the view outside changed.
The dirt road turned into stone slabs.
"How long will it take?"
It's not that I'm carsick or anything.
"It won't take long."
"I see."
Before I knew it, houses made of various trees passed by beyond the window.
I leaned against the window and was about to close my eyes when.
"Lionel."
Dolores called me.
"Ruby."
She called Ruby too.
Ruby stopped chewing grapes and looked up at Dolores.
"When we return from the plaza, we'll go to the territory."
"……."
"……."
The territory, the Dolores Duchy.
I heard that last night.
"From now on, the three of us will live together."
The three of us.
Ruby's eyes went round.
She looked at me, at Dolores, then back at me.
"…Together?"
"Yeah."
"Lionel too?"
"Lionel too."
Ruby hesitated for a moment, then.
"……Yum."
Without a word, she picked up another grape and put it in her mouth.
Except for chewing faster than before, there was no particular reaction.
It doesn't seem like a rejection.
I didn't have anything to say either.
I already have two family members.
Then, since we're family now, harmony is important.
I held my hand out to Ruby.
"Nice to meet you. Ruby."
Ruby stared at me like that, then.
She reached over the table and took my hand.
"……."
"……Eat."
A grape was pressed into my hand.
What is this.
I accepted it and chewed.
"It's delicious."
"I didn't ask that."
This brat?
Dolores laughed quietly.
The carriage kept running.
***
Floor 88.
The first floor of the Sun Dwarves, the residential area.
The first floor of the Dwarf Company.
The Enchant Hall.
A huge white hall, with no clock.
Along the walls of the hall stretching in a giant circle, dozens of rooms were lined up all around.
Each room had an open door, and light spilled out from inside.
Drrrrr, clang!
A familiar sound echoed through the entire hall.
The sound of machines striking equipment in the enchant rooms.
In the Tower, the sound of the largest amount of money evaporating.
And.
Clang!
"Fuck!"
A scream burst from Room 7.
Then something hit the wall.
Whether it was the man who just cursed or the wreckage of equipment, I couldn't tell.
Drrrrr… clang!
Clang!
"Ah… I'm going crazy…."
A groan from Room 12 too.
Just from the sounds echoing in the hall, I could tell success from failure.
Drrrrr… clang!
Bbam-ppara-bbam~♬
"Nice!! Ha… should I try +16 too…?"
"It's not bad, customer. It's worth doing."
Even the dwarf in Room 3 subtly recommending +16.
By the way, from +16 onward, the destruction rate of equipment rises sharply.
That dwarf knows it. The customer knows it.
And yet they ask, and yet they nod.
[All responsibility for enhancement attempts lies with you.]
With this one line, the Dwarf Company is invincible.
Climbers ascending the Tower enter each room one by one, each sitting across from a dwarf.
Equipment placed on the enchant machine in front of the dwarf.
Praying it won't be smashed.
Holding their breath.
Praying.
Cursing.
A scene that looks like a gambling den no matter who sees it.
The reason there are no clocks is the same.
What should tell you when to leave shouldn't be equipment, but an empty wallet.
However.
Originally, enchantment wasn't like that.
Sprinkle enchant powder over equipment.
The blacksmith strikes it directly with a hammer.
Until the powder seeps into the equipment.
Once, once, with care.
Success and failure definitely had elements of luck, but most of it was governed by the blacksmith's focus and skill.
The Dwarf Company moved all those processes to machines.
The amount of powder sprinkled, the number of strikes, pressure, temperature—the machine handles it all.
The dwarf simply presses a button.
It's fast. The efficiency of time became overwhelmingly better.
Since all the work humans did was omitted, that's only natural.
And.
One more thing became possible.
The amount of enchant powder sprinkled on equipment…
Could now be adjusted.
And above that Enchant Hall.
A place absolutely invisible from below.
The noise of the hall rumbled faintly up through the floor, but the room was quiet.
Beyond the window, Floor 88 could be seen below.
A landscape of rivers of lava flowing, conveyors turning, and mass production lines spewing fire.
A beautiful sight, and this room was above it.
"…So?"
The one seated in the chair spoke.
"Puram didn't seem inclined to open his mouth."
The dwarf in a suit reported with his head bowed.
It was the very dwarf who had visited Puram's verification office.
"Preserving his position isn't likely only because of affection."
The chair creaked.
The seated one leaned forward and picked up the documents on the desk.
"…So we need to make him come to his senses."
The dwarf in the suit couldn't answer.
The one he had bowed his head to.
The legs of the one seated in the chair stretched long under the desk.
They were too long to be a dwarf's legs. They were human.
On the screen in front of him, through the window of Puram's verification office, the verification device was glowing brightly.
"A Descendant of Fire. I never thought something like that could really exist in this era."
The hand flipping through documents. Long joints, smooth, without a single callus.
A hand that had never once held a hammer was holding the dwarf's business.
"We'll have to find him."
The man put down the documents.
After the dwarven technology was put on the mass production line, there were many words and many troubles.
The traditionalists gnashed their teeth, the craftsmen left, and those who remained were shoved into corners like Puram.
But sales couldn't even be compared.
The days of making one sword a day with a single hammer, and the days of stamping out a hundred swords a day with one machine.
There's no need to ask which is business.
But a Descendant of Fire…
The man's fingers tapped slowly on the desk.
The equipment of elite blacksmiths is on a different level from mass-produced goods. That I know.
The problem was that no one knew where that difference came from.
They couldn't analyze the process, and they couldn't obtain the equipment, so they couldn't replicate it.
Exactly until now.
"If we capture a Descendant of Fire, extract the technique, and put it on the mass production line."
The man muttered while looking at the light of the verification device on the screen.
"We might be able to mass-produce elite-grade equipment."
The dwarf in the suit raised his head.
Something briefly crossed his eyes.
"…The techniques of a Descendant of Fire are not suited to mass production…."
"Are you a dwarf, or a businessman?"
"……."
The man stood up.
"That's not for you to decide."
Lava flowed beyond the window.
All minerals will pass through this floor. All materials will pass through this floor.
If there was just one annoying thing.
The one who brought the equipment was Dolores, the Ruler of the 5th Floor.
It cannot be denied that she is a burdensome opponent.
"…There's no need to rush."
The man turned off the screen.
"A blacksmith will eventually find his way back here."
Whether materials.
Or minerals.
Whatever it becomes, he will come looking.
That was when.
Slam.
"Lord Elliot! High Ranker Icy Wind is attempting to enhance the Mana-Infused Bracer to +20!"
"…+20."
The man called Elliot turned his chair.
"How many times is this?"
"So far, four attempts, four destructions."
The Mana-Infused Bracer.
One of the high-grade equipment for archers; when worn, it amplifies the force used to draw a bowstring.
It's certainly the most suitable equipment for aiming for high enhancement.
Unique equipment is hopeless once destroyed. The Mana-Infused Bracer is high-grade equipment that can be obtained reasonably.
And the fact that he's obtained it four times means.
"His persistence is impressive."
From what I hear, every slot except the bracer is +20 or higher.
The last slot. He won't be able to back down.
-----------------------------
[19 -> +20]
[Success Rate 16%]
[Destruction Rate 15%]
[Failure Rate 69%]
-----------------------------
The real-time probability table floating in front of him.
People attempt enchantment believing only in these probabilities.
"You've done a lot."
'Icy Wind.'
Maybe this time it'll work. Are you thinking that?
But unfortunately, probabilities are independent trials.
"Lower it."
At Elliot's command.
Room 19, where Icy Wind was waiting, reduced the amount of powder the machine would sprinkle on the equipment to one-tenth.
And.
-----------------------------
[19 → +20]
[Success Rate 2%]
[Destruction Rate 29%]
[Failure Rate 69%]
-----------------------------
Five consecutive destructions are a common occurrence.
"Will you try to break through 2 percent?"
Try it.
If it succeeds, you take it.
…If it's destroyed, you can just buy another.
Where?
"Increase production of the Mana-Infused Bracer."
Naturally. At the Dwarf Company's shop.