Commendation
Commendation
After I finished the unfiltered tale of the grand clusterfuck where I tried to blow some people up and behead others, Esmue furrowed her brow with a grave expression and remained deep in thought for a very long time.
"Hmm... this truly is a complicated feeling to put into words. If I consider only the actions themselves, my opinion is that there is little difference between her and you, but..."
The words that finally came out after all that deliberation made me glare at her with an axe-eyed scowl, but Esmue absolutely refused to budge on her opinion.
She was shocked first that the Teneasi she knew had acted so extremely, shocked again that the cause of such extreme behavior was Magic Power, and finally shocked once more at the fact that a deluxe bomber might have detonated in the middle of the royal academy.
But the direction of her shock seemed different from mine.
"She always showed plenty of absent-minded words and deeds... but she went to that kind of extreme?"
The light atmosphere from just moments before was completely gone. Esmue, who had been pondering for a long while, suddenly came to her senses and shook her head.
"Hm! This is a matter to worry about later. There is a proper order to all things."
"...Personally, I think it's a pretty important matter. Is there something else going on?"
I asked, wondering what could possibly be more important than a bomb that might go off in the heart of the empire. Esmue looked at me through narrowed eyes, as if she were looking at some truly strange creature, and answered.
"Is it not obvious that it is the matter of properly savoring my time with you? It is a waste to try to handle something that can be done anytime during limited time."
Then, just like last time, she stealthily climbed onto my thigh and plopped herself down firmly.
"Moreover, I have a feeling it is not a light issue, so it is a situation requiring information in many respects. No matter how much of a genius I am praised as, I cannot create something from nothing. So is it not right to focus on talking with you right now?"
It was such a rational judgment that my head nodded on its own, and so the conversation we began to share at her insistence was mostly filled with content related to the events I'd experienced in the west.
Even so, since Esmue already knew my general movements, it was mostly ordinary travel stories—what was hard, what I struggled with, what was funny, what was amazing. It was truly shabby content to share while sitting with someone who could be called the next emperor of the empire, but Esmue liked it so much that it didn't matter anymore.
"I know that adventure and travel are never easy, but hearing these stories makes me want to go with you at least once."
Yet even as she said that, she showed a slightly wistful reaction on one side, so I gave a small dry cough and, following her command, put a little strength into the arm I had wrapped around her waist as I spoke.
"...We can go later."
"An imperial princess, without any escort?"
"If I become skilled enough to kill a Demon King's Army commander, wouldn't it work out somehow?"
"Pfft. That is certainly true. Even my handpicked royal guard has not achieved such a great deed."
Seeing her lean against my chest and lightly swing her legs, it seemed my answer pleased her quite a bit.
"Now that I think about it, the day before yesterday I saw knights wearing incredibly thick armor like the holy knights. Is that really armor?"
"Ah, it is armor crafted specifically for knights who fight the Demonfolk. In truth, it is closer to a magic tool than simple armor."
They wore that kind of thing and fought on the front lines? I made a surprised expression at the totally unheard-of information. Esmue gently tapped my arm wrapped around her waist as if playing a piano and continued.
"It is not an officially adopted item yet. About a hundred were secretly introduced to the front lines as a trial, and the results were not bad, so mass production began. The reason I deliberately brought them this time was to externally announce that fact."
Anti-Demonfolk armor. They called it that without any particular separate name.
It was a product that came out of continuing the project that was an extension of the gauntlet I received. When miniaturization and weight reduction proved difficult, they changed direction entirely and crafted it by scaling it up to a size that could deliver performance.
The armor's characteristics, as she described them, felt much more mechanical than its outward appearance suggested. It required magic stones as a power source, needed regular maintenance by experts, and if damaged on the battlefield, the wearer's movement would be severely restricted. In return, the basic physical abilities were enhanced by the support of the granted magic and mechanical devices, and since it was undeniably thick armor, defensive power increased.
Being able to move like wearing ordinary full-body armor while clad in a hunk of metal so massive that you'd normally break into a sweat just wearing it around was an incredible merit. In short, it was basically a genuine powered suit.
Siegfried would have absolutely lost his mind if he'd seen it. Even I was a little thrilled right then. Perhaps that reaction showed on my face, because Esmue let out a strange laugh.
"What has you so interested? That is an object to support knights who lack the ability to fight capable Demonfolk."
"Setting all that aside, it's just cool."
"Cool? Hahaha, I never imagined you would say such a childlike thing!"
Esmue's eyes were full of mischief as she said, 'If I'd known this, I should have prepared one for you.' Of course, it was a ridiculous notion, since there was no way I, not even a member of the military, could maintain an item with that many restrictions. But this time, I decided to answer her mischief with mischief of my own.
"It's fine. It only covers a limited area, but I got something much cooler on this journey."
"You speak of Kakula's axe? As it so happens, all sorts of rumors and legends have run rampant across the west because of it."
"No. I got a helmet."
"A helmet?"
Showing it was faster than explaining in words, so I focused my mind on the earring and generated the helmet. Beyond the visor of the helmet that unfailingly took form at terrifying speed, I saw Esmue's face, her already large eyes opened even wider.
"Amazing, right?"
"Thi-this is, what, absurd, good heavens?!"
It took barely more than ten seconds for her surprise to turn to admiration, and admiration to shock. So astonished that she lost her vocabulary, Esmue not only let her eyes dart all over the helmet as she examined it, but even leaned in close and touched it all over. She didn't stop there, checking over my body and asking if there were other magic tools linked to the helmet. As expected, it was the reaction of someone whose body might be frail but whose knowledge of magic was solid.
"How? How in the world is such a thing possible?! Did you meet the Dragon Race or something?!"
Ultimately, after venting her astonishment for a round, Esmue asked, unable to hide her excitement, once she learned it was truly activated by the earring alone. Her reaction was so earnest that I felt sorry for showing it off as a light joke.
"Sorry. I promised the one who gave me this, so I can't tell you the details. I don't know anything beyond it being an artifact either."
"Such a..."
She clearly showed disappointment, but it couldn't be helped. It was the only condition Luwiming had set. Not simply because of the convictions of elves who had lived over a thousand years, including her, but because the preparation process itself to make this was not easy.
What Luwiming had fiddled with and made before my eyes back then was merely the finishing process. She said the time she alone poured in to create metal of this helmet's quality easily exceeded a hundred years. She had babbled on hopefully about that too, offering optimistic observations that improvements would shorten the time, but it was absolutely not something possible right away.
If it became known that an elf made such an item, the situation could only grow complicated. So it was better for it to be perceived as just an ancient artifact.
"It's a shame, but it can't be helped. Even if you disassemble such a thing and analyze the spell formulas, the chance of properly analyzing it is less than thirty percent."
Not just her words, but her small hands kept touching the helmet. Esmue truly seemed very regretful.
"Still, it was a good opportunity to confirm that technology can reach such a realm. Complaints will decrease even if I push a bit harder for investment and collaboration with the dwarves."
Finding a positive side even in that, how impressive. As I followed her satisfied nodding and smiled, I deactivated the helmet. At the suddenly close distance anew, Esmue stopped moving. Staring straight at me with her shining golden eyes, she soon nodded once more as if having resolved something, then opened her mouth.
"Do you know by chance?"
"What?"
"It is said that occasionally there must be a day of rest, being a little faithful to one's desires, so that the body and mind sharpened by work can rest and advance toward what comes next. Even tools inevitably break down if overworked without a single day's rest, let alone the human body."
...What was this? Wasn't this the line I had spouted to turn Esmue into a cake-eating hamster? In the short moment that my hazy memory solidified into certainty, Esmue, who had been watching my change, smiled with her eyes.
"I consider it a truly persuasive and valid story."
"The reason you suddenly mention that is...?"
"Because today is that very day."
As she smiled that cute little smile, Esmue lightly kissed me.
It wasn't long like last time. But the kiss, short and quick instead, left a definite lingering sensation. Unlike the first kiss, she looked at me with an endlessly confident attitude and spoke.
"I am truly glad you returned safely."
In a way, it was a truly incongruous expression of affection and a belated greeting, but I couldn't even properly refute it.
"You're as big as a mountain, yet you're endlessly clumsy in this aspect. Should you not also kiss me once more at times like this?"
Instead of answering, I carefully lifted her and set her down in the seat beside me, then turned my head away from Esmue, who was laughing at my face that was surely already bright red, and looked out the window.
Naturally, the window draped with curtains showed nothing at all.