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Due to Aste’s interruption, Maxwell managed to safely dodge the questioning. We pretended that we were going to adjust the equipment Aste brought and evacuated to Maxwell’s mansion.

Of course, that excuse wasn’t entirely wrong, so Maria and Cortina did not doubt it.

I pushed Aste’s back with Maxwell and fled from the lumberyard a step ahead, but Finia and Cloud seemed to be staying behind to train for a bit longer.

After we took our refuge in Maxwell’s mansion, we shut the windows so no one could observe us from the outside. I also fully focused on my presence perception and made sure there were no observers around.

“Okay, seems like there’s no one, huh?”
“Indeed, though there are not many that try to peek inside my mansion by default.”
“Why are you two going so far… Oh, I see. So you were keeping it a secret, huh?”
“Well, I can’t exactly come out and say that I’ve become a daughter of my comrades.”
“Not like you can keep on hiding it forever.”

Aste made a short sarcastic comment and didn’t pursue the matter any further. This man was one that put his own interests before anything. He quickly unpacked his package and took out the brand new gauntlets from inside.

“These are the gauntlets that I readjusted. I managed to strengthen the exterior with the bones of the Evil Dragon that I got from you while also successfully lowered its weight.
“Oho?”

Previously it was made of metal with black luster, but now it felt quite strange to the touch, being coarse and quite unlike metal. The color was still the same but the luster was gone, so now it just looked like a matte black material that didn’t reflect light.

On its surface, there was a geometrical pattern drawn by lines made with white… No, with melted silver.

“Previously you could hold your own weight with one finger, but that’s too burdensome for you now, right? So I covered it with armor all the way to the fingers to better endure the external load.”

Looking at it, previously the armoring only covered up to the back of the hand, after which it simply had thread pipes running up to the fingertips, but now those fingers were also fully covered in armor.

As for the palm side of it, it had turned into something like a glove made of some kind of black membrane. It also had a pattern carved with silver.

“I used the Evil Dragon’s wing membrane for the glove parts. Due to its nature, it can easily handle fire and some low-level magic, but in addition, it can even endure the friction with Mythril threads.”
“Uh-huh?”
“This material has a high coefficient of friction, so it will prove to be helpful even when wielding something like a sword.”

True, these coarse gloves would make it hard for the weapon to slip, so it would be easy to hold a sword. But on the other hand, that could also get in the way when making tricky movements like when shifting your hold on the weapon. That was something that needed some getting used to.

“I also attached hooks made of the fangs on both wrists, near the pinkie fingers. If you hook the enemy with it you can force them into a hand-to-hand fight.”
“Wow.”

I shifted my gaze towards the part he mentioned, and there was indeed a small, one-centimeter-long protuberance on the inner part of the wrists. I poked it with my finger and it felt tougher than I expected.

It felt tougher than iron, but thinking about it, that Evil Dragon could easily chew down armors. It was natural for it to be this tough.

“It can hook on the clothes as I said, but it’s also tough enough to endure your weight. In other words, if you find a flat wall that you can grab onto with these fangs, it’s possible to stay attached to them.”
“What!?”

I was very interested in the ability to cling to walls without using my threads. I immediately rushed to a nearby wall, hooked on it, and pulled myself up. It felt a bit awkward, but it could certainly hold my weight. Alternating my hands, I managed to gradually climb higher and higher.

I could even hold onto it with just one hand. This would definitely widen my range of strategies.

“Nicole, what are you doing!? My walls are all scratched up now!”
“A bit too late to be whining about that. This place is dirty as is, so why do you care?”
“I have to replace the wallpaper now!”
“So that’s what you’re worried about?”

Still, I already understood that they could support my body so this was enough. I jumped back down and approached Aste.

“Hmm. I knew that it would be alright based on my calculations, but I was a bit uneasy before seeing it in action.”
“So you haven’t even tested it!”
“My wife would be just the right size for the task, but she is absent at the moment.”
“Ah, right, she ran away from you, was it?”
“…………”

Looks like this was a taboo topic, he glared daggers at me. Still, if his wife was just the right size, doesn’t that mean her physique was similar to mine? Was this guy actually a lolicon…?

“Well, whatever. Each thread is about 100 meters long. And there are five of them in each glove. That should be enough, right?”
“Hmm, did it decrease compared to before?”
“Well, the gauntlets are a size smaller now compared to before, so it’s natural that they’d be shorter.”
“Oh, right.”
“Also, this is the biggest change to it, but that pattern on its exterior is there for activating the strengthening magic.”
“Strengthening magic?”

He was probably talking about that geometrical pattern drawn with silver. So that was a magic circle, huh? It looked different from the one I knew, however.

“You can activate the Enchant spell just by pouring magic power into it. However, since you aren’t creating the magic circle with your own power, its effects are very limited. It lasts three minutes, and it only targets you. You can’t cast it on someone else.”
“That’s still more than enough.”

If all it took was magic power, I could do it instantly. There have been many battles until now where I had no choice but to depend on the threads on strengthening myself. If it allowed me to make up for that burden, this weapon would prove to be very useful.

“Also, they can be dismantled now. And the pattern drawn on the glove armor has Apport installed in it. In other words, you can summon and put them on at will through it.”
“Wow, thanks man! Now there’s no need to sneak them out every time.”
“However, you can only summon them when they are in this box. And you can’t return them back.”
“No, no, that’s good enough. You have no idea how many times I’ve found myself with no weapons at hand when I needed them the most.”

I tapped on the wooden box Aste brought with him. There was a similar pattern drawn inside of it. It was most likely the magic circle that corresponded to the Apport spell.

It was the same with Mateus, but I had a very picky ability so I couldn’t show my best without these gauntlets on hand. So being able to have the gloves on and summon the gauntlets just by pouring my magic power into them was a godsend.

“This is some really nice job you’ve done here. You have my thanks.”
“I also had my fun with them this time, so the feeling is mutual.”

With those words, Aste gave me a firm handshake.