kscans

Chapter 615 - A Token of a Promise

—At lunchtime, I immediately noticed an abnormality that was too significant to be called a mere sense of unease.

The young man I had feelings for, and the girl who was my rival in love. It had been some time since we had started living in the same place, and they were both precious people who I felt I had grown closer to.

With a lull in the many tasks related to the Four Pillars, this was a rare opportunity for the three of us to share a table after a long time of missed connections. I had gone to the private restaurant looking forward to it, but one look was all it took for me to grasp their condition.

“ “…………” ”

“…Are you two alright?”

“Yeah… ‘Just a little sleep-deprived’…”

Their voices and text responses were in perfect sync, though likely unintentionally. And they were both stifling yawns and had sleepy eyes.

Sleep-deprived, at the same time, perfectly in sync.

I didn’t have a bad feeling… not really. But… I knew it was my fault for being so busy lately, but I couldn’t help but feel displeased.

Besides, it wasn’t my fault either.

I was busy because I was working hard to fulfill my duties as a faction leader. It’s not like I chose to be left out.

And so, in less than a second, I came to a conclusion.

“Haru, Nia, wake up. And pay attention to me.”

“ ‘We’re sorry…’ ”

“And tell me the details of your all-nighter. Don’t hide anything, be honest, tell me everything.”

“ ‘Yes…’ ”

To these two, and one other. Lately, I had been treating them as naturally as if they were my family, so I spoke without pretense or reservation.

The princess decided to voice her discontent and pout.

◇◆◇◆◇

It had been a little over half a day since last night’s adventure, and a few hours since I had been scolded by a jealous Alicia. After taking a nap with Nia, who had also pulled an all-nighter after getting too absorbed in her ‘work,’ I woke up in the evening.

I was alone, waiting for my partner in our Azure Sky clan home.

My preparations were perfect, no complaints there, but my mental fortitude was only so-so. Nia, and then Alicia at lunch, had both fired me up to the point where I wondered, “Are you guys really okay with this?” But since I had decided to do this myself, I had no intention of backing down.

I had called Sora-san out on short notice, just a day after yesterday’s events. I wondered how she would react… or rather, to what extent she would react.

Honestly, it was terrifying in many ways, but at the same time…

It wasn’t quite right to say I was looking forward to it, but the fact that I was trying to carry it out on the same day, driven by my own eagerness, probably meant that I truly, from the bottom of my heart, wanted to do this.

On the expensive sofa in the familiar common space, I sat deeply, my legs dangling and swinging. I held my hands up to the ceiling light—two pairs, four pieces of new equipment, black with silver patterns.

This was the masterpiece that Kagura-san had just made for me, a custom-made unique gear that I was very fond of… and the reason I had rushed to get new equipment.

And just then.

“Haru?”

“Yes, this is Haru.”

The sound of teleportation was followed by the familiar voice of my partner. I peeked over the back of the sofa, and the girl’s face came into view. A golden thread of hair brushed against my cheek.

It was soft and very ticklish.

For a moment, we looked at each other, upside down, without a word, without a thought.

“Fufu… Good evening.”

“Yeah, good evening. Sorry for calling you out so suddenly.”

We both started laughing, and as always, we exchanged greetings a moment too late.

“No, not at all. I heard you were tired yesterday, so I thought you might be taking the day off… I’m happy to see you.”

“Saying cute things so naturally is forbidden.”

“It’s not natural. I’m aiming for it.”

“Seriously, everyone’s been going all out trying to kill me lately.”

“Hmph… We just met, and you’re already talking about other women.”

“Alicia said she should have some free time soon, so she wanted to see you. Nia chimed in too, asking about another girls’ night out sometime soon.”

“Oh, really? I’m very much looking forward to that.”

“You guys have gotten really close.”

“Of course. We’re comrades-in-arms, chasing after a certain self-proclaimed difficult person.”

“There are so many reasons I can’t say anything to that…”

The voice that had been coming from above my head was now beside me.

My body, which had tilted to one side from the slight weight of the girl, I straightened, careful not to fall towards the warmth beside me.

As we exchanged playful banter, Sora didn’t act spoiled, even though we were alone. I looked beside me, and her amber eyes were waiting for me to speak.

It seemed she had perfectly read the slightly serious, or whatever you want to call it, atmosphere—excellent. Please, by all means, keep my escape route blocked.

“About yesterday’s thing, I ended up getting it from Lux. It was a bigger find than I expected, so I wasn’t sure what to do, but… she said not to worry about it since she came to help me find materials in the first place.”

“Ahaha… that sounds just like her. Lux-san loves adventures, but when it comes to treasure, the important part for her is ‘finding’ it. She’s not attached to the items themselves at all.”

“I can see that. Her management of the things she picks up is… something else.”

“Fufu, it is.”

I pictured the large leather bag Lux had pulled out of her inventory once. Inside that clanking, clattering bag were likely the treasures for which the ‘finding’ was the most important part.

“I’m glad for you. It didn’t seem like a material that could be described as just ‘very good,’ so it should be more than enough for a ranker’s equipment, don’t you think?”

“Yeah. A certain renowned jeweler gave it her seal of approval as a top-tier unique item.”

And with that, I let it slip… well, not really, but Sora reacted to my words with a twitch.

“……Does that mean, yesterday, after that, just the two of you?”

She must have realized that our parting words of “Alright, that’s a wrap, good work” were a lie. My partner, who had been deceived, shot me a half-lidded glare…

“Yup. And we spent the whole night arguing back and forth while we made the equipment together.”

I deliberately ignored her, looking away and speaking without a hint of remorse.

Naturally, a dissatisfied voice came from beside me, but a moment later…

“……You made it together? Not, you requested it from Nia-san?”

The intelligent girl, who boasts a first-class ability to read me, didn’t miss the subtle nuance in my words.

As expected. But, even for the amazing Sora-san…

“Well, it’s like this. I’m a fledgling magic craftsman myself now, you see.”

I don’t think she could have read this.

“If I can do it myself, then I kind of want to make this sort of thing myself.”

Still looking away, I held out the hand I had been clenching.

I opened it in front of my dumbfounded partner, and revealed…

“—Eh…”

Two shining pieces of jewelry.

“You see, I got new armor for my hands and feet, right—the ones that used to match yours.”

“…”

“And so, Sora, you didn’t say anything, and I thought maybe you didn’t mind, but…”

“…”

“It kind of bothered me, you see. Getting new equipment was necessary, but something felt off.”

“…”

“This is embarrassing to say, but I liked having matching gear with my partner. It felt special… And it was the first selfish request you ever made to me, back when we had just met.”

Her wide eyes and open mouth, and her silence, spoke volumes about the depth of her reaction… but since I had started, I couldn’t stop now.

“Even if our relationship has changed, as your partner, I’ve sworn to stay by your side… So, yeah. It might be a bit much for me to push this, but I wanted to see it through…”

“…………Haru.”

“Ah, yeah.”

“Haru, did you… make this for me?”

The quivering amber eyes were fixed on the pair of jewels—slender rings with a row of small, beautifully square-cut diamonds circling the band.

A pair of partner rings.

“……Honestly, I wondered if rings were a good idea, in many ways. I worried about it until the very end… but Nia was surprisingly insistent.”

“Nia-san…”

“Yeah, um…—She said I should spoil my precious partner, Sora, as much as I want. And that Alicia would definitely say the same thing.”

“…”

And she was right. I got the confirmation at lunch today.

But even without that, in my heart…

“I wanted to do that too, if they would let me, so I made this ring—ah, no! I mean, I say I made it, but I’m just a magic craft rookie. I couldn’t just mess around with a unique material like that. All I did was come up with the design ideas, the non-performance-related details, and the final assembly. The fundamental parts were left to the pro, Nia, so it’s not even on a level where I can call it a ‘collaboration’—”

“But.”

My rambling, driven by embarrassment, was silenced by a single small whisper. I turned my averted face back to her, steeling my resolve.

“Haru, you did this for me, because you wanted to, right?”

“……………………Yes.”

I thought she might, but there were no tears in the girl’s eyes.

My partner was simply giving me a soft smile.

“…Since this is a special occasion, would you put it on for me?”

“…Are you serious?”

“I’m serious. Since this is a special occasion.”

There was no option for me not to accept the proffered left hand.

One of the two. I picked up one of the separated pair and took Sora’s hand.

Since I was giving her a ring, I had naturally anticipated this development. So, I had already decided which finger to choose when asked.

“—…Fufu.”

“Haha…”

The middle finger of her left hand. It was a good fit, a pair to the [Cradle of Sword-Craft] on her right middle finger.

To be honest, I completely ignored the ‘meaning of wearing a ring on a certain finger’ that I had looked up beforehand. In other words, the left middle finger was—from my perspective, the opposite side of where her other half was.

It was the place where I swore to be her other half, alongside the vessel in which she had divided her soul.

That was my reasoning, as crazy as it might sound, and I would never tell her.

“…The size is perfect.”

“It’s a magic ring, after all.”

“I was wondering what I would do if it was the ring finger.”

“That would have been a real problem…”

Sora, who had just shown me a genuinely blooming smile—

was probably at her limit then, because when I realized it,

I had been tackled by her and was pinned to the sofa.