Inside the royal capital, the setting sun burned like fire.
Serena was just pushing open the door to the blacksmith’s shop.
Irene had left.
Without a hint of hesitation, she’d left the royal capital, left Serena’s side, and left Rainbow Covenant behind.
The wind lifted the crimson twin tails of the girl.
Her eyes stared off toward the distant border, and her mind couldn’t help but wander back to a memory from long ago—
“Irene, please… help me make my dream come true!”
Back then, you held my hand—didn’t you?
You said you would.
You promised we’d be in the same adventuring party forever!
“Oh hey, isn’t this Captain Serena? What’s up—here to reinforce something, or is it just equipment maintenance today?”
Dwarf blacksmith Wagner stood by the roaring forge, sweat rolling down his rugged face.
His booming voice yanked Serena back to reality.
No more thinking about Irene.
If she wanted to leave, fine! Let her go. She’s no longer a comrade!
I’ve got my own path to walk—my dreams to chase. No time to dwell in the past.
Tomorrow, we’ve got another mission lined up.
Having given herself this internal pep talk, Serena stepped forward and pulled a shimmering gauntlet out from her inventory bag.
“Master Wagner, please help me enhance this piece of gear. Tomorrow, Rainbow Covenant will be heading north to subjugate the ‘Witch of the Black Forest’ and the ‘Three-Eyed Fiend.’ I also need a full inspection and maintenance on all our gear…”
Her bag held the rest of the party’s equipment too.
Optimizing their gear pre-battle was essential for victory.
“Just leave it there. I can finish the repairs in a few hours. That’ll be 120 gold coins,” Wagner said casually.
Serena’s eyes narrowed.
“120 gold? That much?”
The blacksmith paused in his hammering, shot her a glance, and replied, “This your first time handling the maintenance yourself, Captain? The upkeep cost scales with the item’s grade. And you guys are decked out in Mythical-tier gear. You think I’m gonna use cheap scrap materials to fix that? Just the mithril and stardust alone cost a fortune.”
Serena was taken aback.
Usually, it was Irene who handled all the maintenance and logistics.
Sometimes, after particularly intense battles, their gear would be nearly wrecked.
But if basic upkeep on undamaged gear cost this much, how expensive would full-on repairs be?
Serena voiced her question.
Wagner stroked his beard thoughtfully and replied, “Let me think… Last time, after you guys fought that Lion Warlock, that girl—Miss Irene—brought in a pile of busted gear. Cost about 4,300 gold coins to get it all fixed.”
“Four thousand three hundred?!”
Serena was stunned.
“How is that even possible?!”
The bounty for defeating that monster had been less than 1,000 gold coins—and that was for an S-rank Overlimit-class creature!
The usual rewards for A or B-rank missions were even lower.
In other words, the team’s income couldn’t possibly cover the costs of maintaining such luxurious equipment!
Unless… all that money had been paid by Irene?
A sudden realization hit Serena like a bolt of lightning.
She remembered how, during every post-quest celebration, Irene would vanish halfway through the party.
She’d throw on a pitch-black hood, slip out the tavern’s back door like some shady witch.
Every time, Rejilif would roll her eyes and say, “There goes Irene again—off to drown herself in booze and questionable decisions.”
Then, without fail, the next day there’d be news: another famous casino had mysteriously gone bankrupt overnight.
It didn’t take much brainwork to connect the dots now.
“The maintenance cost is 120 gold, and the enhancement fee for this gauntlet is 356 gold, making the total 476,” said the old dwarf blacksmith, stretching out his hand.
“Materials included.”
When Irene had left, she didn’t leave behind any of the party’s funds.
At the time, Serena had assumed she’d selfishly taken it all with her.
But now?
That assumption felt completely, utterly wrong.
If she tallied everything up, just the expenses Irene had covered over the past two and a half years…
Even if they sold themselves off, they probably wouldn’t be able to repay it!
If she gave so much—why did she leave us?
Did she think we weren’t worthy of her sacrifices?
Is that what it was?
That she was never truly happy with us because we were hopeless deadweights?
Serena clenched her fists.
Thinking back on how Irene had left without even a glance behind filled her chest with complicated emotions.
Fine then.
I’ll show you. Even without you, we’re still an S-rank party!
Just as she steeled herself with that vow, the blacksmith let out a startled cry.
“Ah crap—!”
Serena looked over, just in time to see the epic-grade gauntlet on the enhancement table explode into a shower of glittering fragments, scattering into dull, colorless dust.
The old dwarf scratched his head and gave her an apologetic smile.
“Oops. Sorry, little lady… enhancement failed. The equipment’s gone.”
“W-What…?”
“My gear… broke?”
Serena stared at him, eyes wide, pupils losing their light like some kind of deranged yandere from a tragic visual novel.
The blacksmith visibly flinched, backing away a step.
“H-Hey now, don’t look at me like that! You had it at +14, right? Trying to push to +15? The success rate’s, like, less than 1%. It’s totally normal for it to break!”
“Wait… you mean… gear can actually fail to enhance?!”
Serena mumbled to herself.
The old blacksmith hurriedly nodded.
“Of course it can fail! Wait… don’t tell me you’ve never had an enhancement fail?”
No—more accurately, Serena had never even heard of equipment enhancement failing!
As mentioned earlier, all equipment maintenance, enhancements, enchantments, gem inlays—everything—had been handled by Irene.
All Serena and the others ever did was wear their blinged-out golden gear and bash monsters.
“Impossible! There’s no way equipment can fail! If it fails, what happens to my money and materials?!”
Serena’s rage instantly flared, like a gacha game player who’d just poured their life savings into a trash pull with nothing to show for it.
The old man frowned.
What’s wrong with this girl? Everyone knows that after +7, enhancement failures come with penalties.
Past +10, a failure means the gear just straight-up explodes.
From the blacksmith’s perspective, this was common knowledge.
No way the captain of a top S-rank party like Rainbow Bonds could be unaware of this, right?
So of course, he hadn’t thought to give her a warning beforehand.
He spread his hands.
“Of course it all goes poof. C’mon, lass, you’re acting kinda weird. Gear enhancement failing is normal. If it never failed, why do you think most adventurers run around with just +7 or +8 gear and risk their necks fighting monsters? You think nobody wants to walk around like you lot, decked out in full +15 gear?”
“It’s not that they don’t want to—It’s that they can’t afford to!”
The old blacksmith’s logic was rock-solid.
Serena had nothing to say in return.
Enhancements can fail… but I’ve never heard of that happening before.
Irene never mentioned it, not even once…
With that thought, Serena asked, “Uncle Blacksmith, if we calculate the probability—how much would it take, on average, to enhance a single piece of gear to +15?”
The blacksmith did a quick mental calculation, then spoke words that made Serena’s breath hitch.
“Given the income of an S-rank party like yours? Let’s see… not eating or drinking, it’d take one person about 300 years to get a single piece to +15. Four people? That’s about 1,200 years.”
“Which is probably why folks call you all ‘The Rich Girl Adventurer Party.’ With the kind of investment you’ve poured into your gear, you could probably buy a small kingdom.”
Serena didn’t even hear the rest of what he was saying.
Her mind was stuck on that horrifying number: 1,200 years.
Just how rich is Irene?!
“Wait a minute—no! Even if you had unlimited funds and materials, if the gear breaks when it fails, how could she ever max out anything?!”
The blacksmith stroked his beard, his expression turning serious.
“That’s exactly what surprised me when you walked in today. See, the one who usually brought your gear in for enhancement was that helper girl of yours—and you know what?”
“She’s never failed an enhancement. Not once. I saw it with my own eyes, and let me tell you, it damn near blew this old man’s mind.”
“…What?!”