BOOM!
The dazzling pillar of fire was so massive it could be seen even from outside the palace walls.
The reinforced dome of the training grounds was violently pierced by the flames, and the heavy roof began to crack and melt rapidly.
Stella was in no mood to pay attention to the collapsing ceiling overhead.
She swung the roaring cannon of light in her hands with all her might, sweeping it directly toward Noah.
"A finishing move is called a 'finishing move' because it has the decisive, overwhelming power to end a battle in a single strike! However... people are most prone to carelessness when they are absolutely certain of their victory! And that is exactly when they reveal a fatal opening!"
Faced with the blinding beam of light swung by the girl, Noah surprisingly didn't dodge or flee.
He knew trying to outrun it would be pointless.
Against the massive attack power and wide area-of-effect of the Katharterio Salamandra, a much better method than defending or dodging was simply to not let the attack fire at all.
"Wha—?!"
Seeing Noah suddenly appear directly in front of her face, Stella's sword-swinging motion paused for a split second.
'Huh? Why do I suddenly feel so dizzy?'
Noah, his hand clad in the heavy Raven Feather gauntlet, firmly grabbed Stella's wrist.
Then, using his Weaver ability to directly manipulate the surrounding elements, he aggressively severed Stella's oxygen and mana flow.
The heaven-scorching flames instantly vanished into thin air.
"Katharterio Salamandra... a truly terrifying technique," Noah said calmly. "But a fire that massive excessively consumed all the oxygen in the air around you. So you see, I just interfered a little with the air currents, and your brain instantly fell into hypoxia."
"The... air?" Stella slumped weakly to the ground, her head feeling incredibly groggy.
She felt an overwhelming, heavy urge to sleep.
Her oxygen and mana had been forcefully cut off.
Naturally, her Empress Dress mana shield had also disappeared.
Noah gently tapped her on the forehead with his index finger and smiled.
"It seems I have won."
CRACK.
He glanced up at the precarious, melting dome and saw that the King and the royal guards had already evacuated the spectator stands.
He hoisted the unconscious girl onto his back and quickly sprinted out of the arena before they could be buried under thousands of tons of rubble.
The repair costs for this single sparring match would probably be no less than one or two billion Yen.
Carrying Stella on his back through the safe hallways, Noah faintly heard the girl muttering something in her sleep.
If he listened closely, he could hear her whispering, "Next time... I won't lose again. I will definitely beat you... just once..."
Noah blinked, offering no reply and showing little expression.
Beat me, huh.
What a strangely unpleasant feeling.
This was just a sparring match between student knights, not a real life-or-death battle in the Dungeon.
He had only won because Stella severely lacked combat experience and had never faced an unconventional, rule-breaking opponent like him.
Stella was just getting started. She could still become much, much stronger.
But then again... so could he.
"Stella!" The Queen rushed over, her royal guards chasing after her, terrified that the princess might be horribly injured.
The King followed closely behind, a wry, exhausted smile of worry on his face.
"Mother."
Seeing her worried mother, Stella, who had just regained consciousness, flashed a brilliant smile, trying to show that she was perfectly fine.
Noah crouched down slightly to let her off his back, and the Queen immediately threw her arms around her daughter in a tight hug.
He took a few steps back, standing aside in the hallway to quietly observe this pure, heartwarming form of familial love.
"Noah, thank you for your trouble, and for going along with Stella's foolishness," King Sirius Vermillion smiled, taking the initiative to express his gratitude and apology to the young man.
Noah nodded silently, then turned and headed back to the guest wing.
...
After returning to his room, Noah drew all the curtains and set up invisible, soundproofing formulas on all the entrances and exits.
Then he turned on his desk lamp and took a glowing, blood-red gemstone out of a drawer.
Inspired by what he had learned from crafting Haruhime's spell bullets, he had tried to create a magical gemstone using his own blood, inscribing a formula inside it to act as a substitute for a mechanical mana furnace.
He found that its operational efficiency seemed to be no worse than a high-grade magical core.
As long as this item was worn in direct contact with the skin, it could be used to slowly, automatically absorb ambient mana from the atmosphere.
Due to the lack of Orario monster drops in this world, he couldn't create a truly overpowered armament, but making an accessory to passively speed up a Blazer's mana recovery was no problem at all.
Considering it needed to be in constant contact with the skin, good ideas for the base item would be things like earrings, rings, bracelets, or necklaces.
More intimate items of clothing would obviously be inappropriate to give to a girl.
Tomorrow was Stella's 13th birthday.
To repay her for all her care and protection over the past month, Noah planned to fall back on his old trade and forge something meaningful for her.
A magical item that could speed up mana recovery seemed like a pretty great idea for an A-Rank Blazer who used so much energy.
The question was what specific form the jewelry should take.
Stella was a princess, underage, and had no official political betrothal.
Giving her a ring was definitely inappropriate and would cause a massive scandal!
Earrings? Would dangling jewelry be too flashy and annoying for a highly active, combat-focused 13-year-old girl?
After thinking for a while, Noah felt he was getting nowhere.
"Should I just go ask her directly?"
It was just a birthday gift.
It should be perfectly normal to consult the person herself, right?
It wasn't like they had a special, romantic relationship... there was no need to make it a total surprise.
With that highly logical thought, Noah got up and walked straight down the hall to Stella's bedroom.
"Stella, is now a good time?" he called out, knocking on the heavy wooden door.
"Eh?!" The girl's muffled voice sounded incredibly panicked and flustered.
Noah heard the shock clearly.
'What's with the panicked 'eh'?'
"Wait a minute!" Stella shouted from inside.
Hearing Stella's reply, Noah simply crossed his arms and waited quietly in the hallway.
He waited for one minute. Two minutes. Five minutes...
???
"You are so slow!"
Knock, knock!
"Stella, I just have a quick question to ask you. What are you doing in there that is taking so long?"
"I-I... Stop rushing me, you idiot!"
(A vein popped on Noah's forehead.)
"If you are busy, I will just come back later to ask."
"I'm done! I'm done! Just wait a few more seconds!"
Looking utterly baffled, Noah waited for about another half a minute before the girl finally unlocked the mysterious door from the inside.
Then, the princess, her face flushed a bright, feverish red, cautiously poked only her head out into the hallway.
She looked at him with a highly suspicious, nervous glare. "W-What is it? Why the rush?"
"You are the one who has been slacking off. I have been standing out here waiting for over five minutes."
"G-Girls sometimes need to spend a lot of time on special, private things!" Stella stuttered.
Noah sighed and got straight to the point.
"Tomorrow is your birthday. I have prepared a gift, but I don't really understand modern girls' fashion, so I came to ask you if there is any specific type of jewelry you want."
"Eh? A gift?!"
Stella suddenly grew highly excited, and the heavy door swung open much wider.
Now Noah could clearly see that the princess was only wearing a rather thin, revealing silk nightgown.
But at this moment, she seemed to have completely forgotten to be self-conscious.
She hurriedly turned her back to him and rushed into her room to grab a glossy magazine off her bed to show him.
Noah stared at the cover of the magazine for a moment.
'A fashion magazine?'
'No, wait... this thing is...!'
'Holy crap.'
[Heavily-Colored Publication] > * Also officially known as... Porn.
183 pages in total.
Ranked in the top 5 sales of its adult category.
Current Status: Stella Vermillion's personal "spellcasting" material.
Although Noah couldn't clearly see the explicit contents of the book from his angle, as the blushing girl was clearly and deliberately blocking his view of the centerfolds, Stella frantically flipped through it for a long time before finally finding a single page that was actually "fit for others to see."
She suddenly shoved the open book toward Noah's face, nearly startling him.
However, upon getting a clear look at the page, Noah saw that the level of exposure on this specific photo was completely acceptable; it was the kind of softcore modeling that could easily pass public censorship.
It was just a photo of a model wearing a bikini with garter stockings.
Although very sexy, there was no actual nudity.
The girl excitedly pointed at the model's neck and demanded, "I want this!"
Noah focused his gaze and saw that the female model was wearing a tight, black leather collar around her neck.
He knew exactly what this was.
Its proper fashion name was a "choker," something functionally between a dog collar and a necklace.
It was essentially a highly provocative decorative item.
In the 19th century on Earth, French ballerinas would wear them, and... they were also incredibly popular among street prostitutes.
Noah wasn't surprised at all to see such a suggestive item featured in this kind of colorful adult book.
Most modern women were actually completely unaware that the historical prototypes for tight accessories like neck chokers and heavy bracelets all originated from the physical restraints worn by purchased slaves.
From a certain historical period onward, some people discovered that this visual sense of "restraint" brought a strange, taboo attraction and stimulation, so the decorative accessories began to become popular on the open market.
"Are you absolutely sure?" Noah asked, a little uncertain.
After all, a highly provocative fashion item like this probably wouldn't be approved of by the princess's strict royal parents.
To the King and Queen, this kind of edgy adult fashion was more than just a little bit ahead of its time for a 13-year-old.
"I really want it! And, I don't want Father and Mother to know about it! Please, Noah, I can only count on you to make it for me!"
Stella was entirely unaware that some of her deep, closet-pervert attributes had just been completely, flawlessly exposed to the young man standing before her.
She had thoroughly hypnotized herself into believing she was just a glamorous young girl in pursuit of overly progressive, mature fashion.
"I... understand..."
Since she herself had specifically requested it, what else could he say?
He just needed to forge the blood gemstone into a metal decoration on the front of the leather choker.
With a clear, specific goal in mind, he felt that the production process would be much simpler.
"That is great! I am counting on you, Noah!" Stella beamed, slamming her bedroom door shut.
...
Back in his room.
In less than 30 minutes, Noah had perfectly stitched the leather choker and flawlessly completed the metal gem setting.
To make the glowing red gemstone less obtrusive and clunky, he had specially cut and polished it, making the choker look much more elegant and aesthetically pleasing.
Looking at the perfectly crafted magical accessory in his hand, he followed the deeply ingrained, familiar habit of an Orario master blacksmith.
He carefully carved his own name on the inside of the choker's leather band, then blew on it to clear away the dust.
Then, the choker suddenly emitted a brilliant blinding flash of light.
'Holy shit.'
'This is the Weaver skill's passive quality enhancement effect!'
'Tch, no, wait! That is not the main problem right now!!'
'Before the light flashed... what did I just do?!'
'This is a damn dog collar!'
'And I actually just carved my own name on the inside of it?!'
'What if one day the King sees his precious daughter wearing a leather collar, angrily tells her to take it off, and then discovers my name carved on the inside like a mark of ownership...?!'