Meow~
"I never imagined something like that could have happened in the tower…."
Soli blinked blankly, her face frozen in shock.
She was probably doubting her own ears.
Fair enough — the words I gave birth to a child had just tumbled straight out of my mouth without warning.
And the fact that the person saying it isn't exactly ordinary probably isn't helping.
Even if a normal woman of childbearing age suddenly announced she'd given birth, it would be jarring enough. But for me to be the one delivering that news?
A little kid who barely looked like she cleared a hundred and forty centimeters?
She must have been dying to know the identity of whoever had gotten me pregnant.
After a moment of visible struggle, Soli finally opened her mouth.
"Seha, that must have been so hard on you. I can take on the dad role for the kid no problem, so don't you worry about a thing!"
She gave my shoulder a gentle pat, her tone thick with genuine concern.
She'd even take on the role of the child's father!
She really, truly believed I had given birth to a baby.
What am I supposed to do about this!
All that had come out of me was a seed — and I hadn't even delivered it myself.
The statue inside my mental image had handled the whole mother role in my place.
In the end, I had no choice but to tell her the truth.
"So the 'birth' you were talking about… was this seed?"
"Yes… I wasn't trying to trick you on purpose. It just kind of… happened…."
Soli looked at the seed in my hand and let out a hollow little laugh, as if she couldn't believe it.
I couldn't bring myself to meet her eyes. My gaze drifted naturally toward the floor.
I'm not trying to make excuses, but inside my mental image, I really did give birth.
I'd taken the expression in my heart and put it straight into words — and that was how this whole disaster had started.
"Whew. I came running over here thinking something terrible had happened to you…. I'm just really glad you're okay."
With Soli's sigh of relief, the tension in the room slowly eased.
I'd been half-worried I was about to see her get angry for the first time, but thankfully it didn't seem to go that far.
She let the strength drain from her body with a look of pure anticlimax, stared at my seed for a moment, then gradually shifted her gaze.
Why is Soli looking at my left hand?
The seed was clearly in my right hand.
As if answering that question, she spoke up — setting the mood like she was about to say something important.
"Seha, have you finished sorting out your feelings?"
"Huh? Sorting out what feelings?"
"Well… you took off the ring you were wearing."
A ring, out of nowhere, with no context at all.
The one Soli meant was almost certainly the ring that had been on the ring finger of my left hand.
I'd worn it constantly ever since Eveline had given it to me, right up until just a little while ago.
Just putting the ring on copies the luck bonus over, after all.
Unlike mana, the luck stat could kick in anytime, anywhere — you never knew when.
And wearing a ring every day wasn't particularly inconvenient.
So why wasn't I wearing it now?
The reason was simple.
Well, I can just dump the ring on my statue too.
The same way I'd had the statue hold my staff, I could apply the ring the same way.
The ring's material was a branch of the World Tree to begin with, so sending it into my mental image was perfectly doable.
And of course, the luck stat still applied just the same.
Obviously Soli has no way of knowing any of that backstory.
What on earth about this ring made her ask in such a serious tone?
I answered her with that question still sitting in my head.
"It's hard to explain in detail, but I can wear it remotely now. Are you just sad the pretty ring disappeared?"
"No, that's not it…."
Soli's eyes wavered.
Then, as if she'd made up her mind, she spoke.
"I was wondering what happened to the lover you met on the second floor…."
"Huh? Me?"
"Hm?"
A lover, all of a sudden?
I couldn't follow the conversation at all.
Setting aside whatever connection a ring was supposed to have with a lover — there was no way someone whose mind and body were this out of sync could even have a romantic partner.
We were both tilting our heads, completely missing each other's wavelength, when the World Tree's voice — which I'd completely forgotten about — reached me once more.
"O thou — dost thou truly not know the meaning of a ring worn upon the fourth finger of the left hand? It would seem the custom holds not only among elves, but in the world of humans as well."
Come to think of it, I feel like I've heard that somewhere before.
With Soli right next to me, I kept the conversation with the World Tree entirely internal.
Looking like some weirdo muttering to herself was not on my agenda.
So what exactly did the ring mean that everyone was making such a fuss about it?
"Seha, did you not know that the left ring finger is where couple rings and wedding rings go? Of course, you can't say every ring there means that, but…."
"Wait, seriously? I just put it on without thinking about any of that."
A couple ring or a wedding ring — that's, you know. That.
The absolute most shameless ring in existence, basically advertising to the whole world that you were no longer a virgin!
And I'd been wearing that this whole time?
Embarrassment flooded through me, and my face started turning as red as an apple.
"Honestly, the first time I saw it I just figured it was decorative. But you treated that ring so carefully that I naturally assumed it was a couple ring."
"Ah! That was just because the ring's stats are really good…."
"And here I thought our Seha had some heartbreaking romance with an elf and then got separated, so I deliberately never brought it up. Then you suddenly said you'd given birth, and I nearly had a heart attack thinking a half-elf niece or nephew had been born!"
Come to think of it, even the last time I'd seen Soli after a long while, she'd asked what the ring meant.
I remembered carefully stroking it while saying it was a really precious ring.
The misunderstandings had been stacking up layer by layer ever since then.
"I'm sorry. That wasn't what I meant at all…."
"No, it's fine. I was racking my brains trying to cheer you up, you know. I'm just glad I don't have to do that anymore."
"So that's why you kept asking me to go to the pool."
Right after the second floor ended, she'd suggested the pool.
Even over chat she'd kept pushing for a pool trip, and I'd wondered if there was some reason behind it.
So all of that had been invisible consideration.
I still had a long way to go before I could call myself a social butterfly.
"No? That was just because I wanted to go to the pool."
"…."
"I already bought the swimsuit and everything~"
The answer that came back was nothing like what I'd expected.
Would it have killed her to at least say she'd been planning to take me to the pool to cheer me up?
But that didn't mean it was a bad thing, either. Not at all.
I wonder what kind of swimsuit Soli is going to wear?
The thought of going to the pool with her made it impossible not to picture a swimsuit.
A safe rash guard was probably the smart money….
Or maybe she'd show up in a breezy bikini.
Ordinarily the pool would have drained me just thinking about it, but approaching it with the goal of getting a look at Soli's swimsuit made the whole idea seem not so bad after all.
Besides, we'd already promised to go together, so I'd have a chance to see it before heading up to the third floor.
I was right in the middle of imagining Soli in a swimsuit when a question came at me out of nowhere.
"So what are you planning to do with that seed in your hand?"
"Ah — right!"
I'd somehow managed a safe delivery of the seed, but I had absolutely no idea how to raise it.
This had been my first birth — of course I wouldn't know what I was doing.
Time to call in an expert.
Help me, World Tree-emon!
"What is that utterly pathetic name."
Ugh, stop grumbling and just explain already.
"The principle is so self-evident I scarcely know what to tell thee. Beyond planting a seed in soil so that it may grow — what other method dost thou imagine exists?"
Ah!
I took the World Tree's precious teaching to heart and relayed it straight to Soli.
"Well, I just need to bury it properly in some decent ground."
"That's the obvious part. I meant whether you can water it and fertilize it regularly. And where you plant it matters too, of course."
"Um…."
So burying a seed in the ground was common sense to everyone except me.
I'd been wondering if I was supposed to inject mana into it or something to make it hatch.
A strange, baseless sense of isolation settled over me, and my shoulders drooped.
Soli must have read that look differently, because she spoke up as if to cheer me on.
"Seha, don't worry too much. I've got a way to handle the water."
"Really?"
"But first — do you remember I said I'd show you a cat?"
"Ah! I saw the chat you sent earlier."
I'd completely forgotten about it after reading the message — too busy cultivating the forest in my mental image and giving birth to a seed.
But why bring up the cat all of a sudden?
"If I'm going to show you a cat, there's something I need to get ready. I'll run to my room real quick — just wait a second."
Leaving those few words behind, Soli vanished.
My heart started hammering so hard it felt like it might burst from sheer anticipation.
She needs to prepare something in her room just to show me a cat? Don't tell me she's actually going to walk out in a full cat cosplay outfit?
Or maybe she'd switch concepts entirely and show up in cat-shaped pajamas.
Knock, knock—
After about five minutes of waiting, a knock finally sounded at the door.
I couldn't bring myself to look at her, so I quietly closed my eyes.
Relying only on the feel of the doorknob under my fingertips, I carefully opened the door —
"Meow~"
— and at that exact moment, a cat's cry brushed past my ear.
I slowly began to open the eyes I'd squeezed shut.
"Whoa… that's so cute!"