How to Use the Lord’s Future Diary-Chapter 64

Chapter 64
A few seconds that felt like eternity passed.
It was a hellish time, my head filled with countless thoughts—had the inevitable finally happened, had everything truly been ruined?
The flames that had been burning away even my spirit began to subside.
It didn’t feel like we had put them out somehow, but rather that they had simply burned all they could and naturally died down.
“…Huh?”
But to my surprise, revealed through the fading flames was Irene’s full-body armor, ‘Phoenix’, not a speck of soot on it, spotless as ever.
“What? Just a moment ago, it clearly—”
“Ah, the Captain’s ‘Phoenix’ is immune to all fire-attribute attacks.”
“Then you’re saying even those flames just now?”
“The Captain must not have suffered any damage. She’s completely immune.”
“No, wait—shouldn’t you have said that first?”
“I was so flustered that I…”
She had been so shaken up that she forgot to mention the most important fact.
Even I knew that Irene’s armor was an Artifact that absorbed heat.
And Irene was a knight who wielded fire-attribute Aura.
That meant her resistance to fire was extraordinary.
In that heat from the Variant Crocodile, which even I couldn’t withstand, Irene alone could move freely without restriction.
‘I’m about to lose my mind.’
—You just brushed past death, Master.
I couldn’t help but let out a small laugh.
What were we even doing, grappling with someone who was immune to flames?
‘But then, why isn’t she moving?’
Still, Irene’s state was strange.
She wasn’t making the slightest movement, as if she were dead.
‘If she were fine, she’d have gotten up already and extinguished the fire.’
A wave of tension came crashing down again.
“Don’t tell me she got cooked inside the armor?”
“That’s impossible. Could it be she just fainted from exhaustion?”
“Let’s take off that armor first. Can it be removed externally?”
“If Aura is injected into the belt, it can be detached from outside as well.”
“Good.”
Irene’s armor might have been immune to fire-attribute attacks, but who could say about the person inside?
Of course, it wasn’t hard to imagine Irene, a wielder of fire-attribute Aura, escaping burns from flames.
But since she had collapsed and wasn’t moving, worry naturally overcame me.
There could also be problems we hadn’t anticipated.
“Like this, right?”
As I followed Celine’s instructions and infused Aura into the belt, the silver plate armor wound itself neatly back into the belt with a chachachak sound.
“Ugh, that burnt smell…”
The first thing that hit me was the sharp stench of something charred.
Then, her pale, unadorned skin slowly revealed itself.
‘Wait, why is she naked?’
—Oho, is she not magnificent? Truly an impressive female.
She couldn’t possibly have some perverted habit of wearing the armor without even underwear, so clearly, her underclothes had all been incinerated by the flames earlier.
The burnt smell came from her garments, which hadn’t withstood the heat.
And yet, even though her underwear had been completely burned away, not the slightest trace of a burn scar could be found on her body.
Truly astonishing resistance.
It was a great relief.
“Her body looks perfectly fine. So why isn’t she moving?”
Though it was visually awkward to see her completely bare under the armor, I forced myself to examine her with seriousness.
Smooth thighs and waistline, full breasts—
Distractions pulling my gaze from every direction.
But I wasn’t so undisciplined that I’d let my focus stray in a situation like this.
On the surface, no external injuries could be found.
There was only one issue.
“She’s hot. Her body temperature’s too high. What’s going on here?”
“Ah, perhaps…”
“What is it, Sir Celine?”
“Phoenix absorbs surrounding heat and transfers the mana to its wearer.”
“Then, don’t tell me all those flames earlier were transferred into Dame Irene?”
“Yes, without doubt. And if such a sudden flood of mana entered her body—”
“Mana Shock. Dame Irene fainted from Mana Shock.”
It was a plausible conclusion.
Her body was still burning with heat.
If this really was Mana Shock, she had to wake quickly, control the mana, and refine it into Aura.
The human body was too fragile to hold massive amounts of mana for long.
“We must wake Dame Irene somehow.”
“As soon as she wakes, she’ll be able to don Phoenix again and control the mana.”
“Then there’s only one answer.”
If the solution was simply to wake the unconscious Irene, then it was easy enough.
We had a surefire medicine to instantly rouse a knight knocked out by internal injuries.
“…What would that be?”
“You don’t know? It’s the Suppository Potion, something we use only in our Territory. Nothing works better for internal injuries.”
“Sup…pository? You mean that?”
Ah. She doesn’t know?
Well, it was developed after the Crimson Comet returned to Haken.
The clinical trials had already finished before they came back, and the distribution had mainly gone to the knights of Johnson Territory, so it wasn’t strange that she hadn’t heard of it yet.
It wasn’t something used in joint training, either.
“Exactly. We just have to give this to Dame Irene…”
“I’m unfamiliar with this item, so I’m concerned it might cause problems.”
“The usage is simple.”
“I’d prefer to entrust the Captain’s wellbeing to an expert. I leave it to you, Lord. Crimson Comet, clean up the battlefield! First and second squads, get the wounded to the gate! The rest, spread out and keep watch until the Captain wakes!”
“Wait, Sir Celine!”
Her eyes trembling wildly at the terrifying sight of the Suppository Potion, Celine abandoned me alone beside Irene and bolted.
The other knights also moved quickly, carrying the wounded into the fortress and busily organizing things.
“…Wait, so I have to do this?”
Of course, it was only natural to be shocked at the sight of the Suppository Potion, but still—
shouldn’t a woman like Celine be more suited than me, a man?
But thinking that Irene’s condition might worsen the longer I hesitated, I couldn’t delay anymore. I had to administer it myself.
The Suppository Potion had already passed clinical trials and had proven its effectiveness.
What I held was an improved version—the best potion in the Territory, crafted in suppository form.
Wasn’t this a good opportunity.
‘Is that what matters right now?’
Well, whatever.
Before her condition worsened, I had to save the person first.
Before that rabbit started spouting more useless nonsense, I pressed the Suppository Potion in with a firm shove.
“U… uh……”
“Are you coming to?”
“Lord… Iron?”
“Yeah, it’s me. Are you all right, Dame Irene?”
As expected, the Suppository Potion’s effect was incredible.
The unconscious Irene began reacting immediately.
“Ugh, my body feels heavy. And my mana……”
“You saved me, and you took the flames on yourself. The armor absorbed all that fire.”
“Oh, I see. But I feel strangely empty.”
“You would. The flames burned all your clothes away.”
“Wha… all of them? So I’m—”
Half asleep, Irene jolted up at the news that all her clothes had been burned away.
She fumbled at her body with her hands in a panic, not knowing what to do.
Seeing a composed woman like her acting like that was somehow ridiculous and also cute.
I didn’t particularly mind continuing to enjoy that sight, but if she kept going on like that she might aggravate internal injuries, so I had to give her an answer.
“Don’t panic. First, put on the ‘Phoenix’. The internal mana is unstable—sort that out first.”
“Oh, right. Phoenix.”
Now fully awake, Irene hurried to don the ‘Phoenix’ and began organizing the mana inside her.
‘She’s more bashful than I thought. Getting flustered over something like this.’
—That’s true. It’s a feast for the eyes either way.
Seeing her so embarrassed after showing nothing but bare skin made me feel oddly fresh.
After all, this woman was the Haken Territory’s princess who’d been raised properly.
For the time being, I decided not to tell her about the Suppository Potion.
She’d find out soon enough anyway, but it didn’t have to be right now.
I was afraid of how she’d react if she learned it was inside her body—and that I had used it myself.
“Ha, is that enough? Nothing else will happen here, right?”
When the flames had engulfed her and she’d fainted, it had felt like everything was over, but the crisis the diary warned about seemed to have passed somehow.
It had probably been the Variant Crocodile.
Because it possessed fire-attribute, it was a situation Irene could never have handled alone.
One might think that since she shared the same attribute she was safe, but that would be a wrong assumption.
Without attributes, only physical force remained—and humans were overwhelmingly outclassed by giant monsters in size and strength.
If it came to grappling, only Irene would be hurt.
Had I not come here, Irene and Celine would have had to face the thing themselves.
I couldn’t picture those two defeating it.
The longer it dragged on, the worse it got, and neither had the firepower to end it in one blow.
“Then it would have been annihilation.”
Still, it didn’t seem the castle itself had been harmed, so Irene must have done something—what exactly, I’d never know.
“Whatever it was was probably very self-sacrificing. Not something I’m curious about.”
In any case, the problem had been solved, and what I needed most now was rest.
Although the fight hadn’t lasted long, I felt like my soul had been wrung out; all I wanted was to lie down.
Once Irene finished gathering her Aura, I planned to head straight to bed.
The Variant Crocodile’s attack had actually turned into a blessing for Irene.
By absorbing all the Flame Blood it had expelled, she’d advanced a level.
Halfway to Master level?
If she digested all that Aura, she might soon see the path to Master.
“Why do you say that, Lord Iron?”
“Just seemed like she’d changed a bit.”
“Hmm, really? I don’t notice.”
“One never notices oneself well.”
“Will that be a problem?”
“Of course not. Everyone says she’s even prettier now.”
“Haha, Crimson Comet members are hardly objective, you know.”
Her appearance had changed slightly after assimilating the large amount of fire-attribute Aura.
Her hair, which had been faintly reddish, had darkened, and now a subtle red gleam could be seen even in her pupils.
If she became a Master, who knew—maybe everything would turn red.
The squad members went wild saying Irene looked beautiful, more so than before.
Given that Crimson Comet felt boundless affection and favor toward her, their appraisal wasn’t exactly objective, but this time it felt trustworthy.
Even to me, Irene’s appearance seemed mysteriously beautiful.
‘She hasn’t fully processed the mana yet, so she mustn’t overdo it, but time will fix that.’
The sudden influx of Aura had left quite a few wounds inside her.
For now, she couldn’t draw out Aura like before, nor could she handle intense training.
“Lord Iron, you’re stuck here as well, aren’t you?”
“Yeah. But given the situation, I couldn’t leave. I couldn’t just be absent now.”
In truth, I’d planned to return to the Territory castle as soon as the diary’s warned crisis was over.
I needed to check on the state of the territory anyway.
But Irene’s condition was bad enough that I had to stay.
Monsters had been pouring in steadily even after the Variant Crocodile.
The Variant Crocodile had been a tough foe. Fortunately, there were no fatalities, but quite a few household servants had been injured.
More than half of Crimson Comet were bedridden.
And with Irene not fully well, I was the only one who could do anything.
At least once Limond and the troops returned to the territory, things would be much better, so I planned to wait here patiently until then.
“Ha ha ha! We’re here! My Lord!”
“Yeah, good work.”
A few days later.
Limond, who had been defending against raptors, arrived at the northern fortress with his forces.
Honestly, calling it a defense felt odd.
After ordering the soldiers to defend the castle, Limond had taken the Lion Tribe warriors, reserve warriors, and even the Second Knight Order and gone out to slaughter the raptors completely.
I had told him to act defensively, but what on earth was this?
The Lion Tribe were the Lion Tribe, I guess.
I thought it might be best if these guys were commanded by either Leisha or me directly.
“Lizards for me to trample. The Lord’s the big lizard. Is that right?”
The first thing Limond said when he found the corpse of the Variant Crocodile in the corner of the fortress was that lament.
He complained that I’d tasked him with raptors while I alone got to have fun with a Variant Crocodile.
Anyway, that man was hardly normal either.
For the time being, we decided to leave the Variant Crocodile’s corpse as it was.
Even after death, it kept emitting heat, so there was no way to process it immediately.
Normally we would call the Territory’s alchemists and extract important parts like blood or heart for processing, but the alchemists were currently swamped with extracting mana crystals.
We needed to produce enough mana crystals for the residents to use through the winter.
At least we’d be able to use the most important leather and bones later, so for now, that would have to suffice.