Chapter 28: 27. The Fire Is Kindled
1.
If someone asks me who I am.
I intend to confidently hold up these stockings and show them.
An Heir of Fire, a Formal Blacksmith, a two-star equipment maker, and someone with a knack for enchantment.
And, most importantly.
"The owner of Frostless Spring."
Of course, ownership was scheduled to be transferred to Dolores soon.
My hands were still trembling.
They had shaken all through the cleanup after finishing the work.
Partly because of the dopamine rush, but I had also pushed my body to its limit.
I had one goal: deliver this to Dolores as quickly as possible.
Normally, the proper order would have been to swap it into her equipment window in advance and check its performance first.
To see what her stats were like when she wore it, and whether the compatibility was truly good.
It would not be too late to give it to her after checking those things.
But.
"Forget it."
This time, I was just going.
It did not feel like I needed those procedures.
I did not need to check in advance. This would work.
For some strange reason, I was certain of it.
I wanted to put them in something like a gift box before giving them to her.
But I did not have anything like that.
So I tightly gripped Frostless Spring—the stockings—in my hand and left the workshop.
Dolores was on the second floor, in her bedroom.
Her voice drifted through the crack in the door.
"...So you see, spirits need to be treated with care and warmth..."
She had Ruby sitting on her lap as she read from a book.
Ruby's eyes sparkled, utterly absorbed in the story.
"..."
I stopped the hand that had been reaching for the doorknob.
I had wondered whether Ruby might feel as though Dolores's affection was being taken away from her lately.
I did not want to needlessly interrupt such a pleasant moment.
I sat down beside the door, still holding the stockings.
Squeeze...
For a moment, I closed my eyes.
Thump...
Calming my racing heart.
How long had I been sitting there like that?
Thud.
I heard the book close.
"Shall we go eat now?"
"Yes."
Now was the time.
Bang!
I flung the door open.
"I'm here."
"Lionel...?"
Dolores's eyes widened into circles.
Ruby spotted me from atop her lap and gently waved her little hand.
She must have been glad to see me.
I really had not seen Ruby much lately.
I let out a small laugh and walked over.
"You finished early today..."
Dolores's gaze, as she was about to say something, fell to my fingertips.
There, I held a pair of foot coverings with a faint red glow.
And naturally, my gaze also went to her feet.
The crude, stiff warming shoes—shoes I wanted to throw away.
She had continued wearing the shoes I considered a failure.
"...Ah, I'm a little embarrassed about those. They were a failure."
"They are not. They are plenty warm."
I shook my head... and slowly dropped to one knee.
I raised the stockings in my hands before her with both hands.
"...Please take them off."
"...!"
Dolores's face reddened.
"And."
I raised them a little higher.
"Please put these on."
"..."
For a while, Dolores did not say anything.
She bit her lip, and before long, moisture welled up in her eyes.
"...Of course."
Her voice trembled.
Ruby curled up the corners of her lips slightly, then hopped out of Dolores's embrace and stood beside me.
As I always thought, she was a perceptive child.
Dolores accepted the stockings from me.
Shff...
She took off the leather shoes she had been wearing.
Then carefully unfolded the stockings.
"...Oh my."
Dolores's gaze lingered briefly at the upper edge of the thigh-high stockings.
A small fastening ring was attached there.
"...This will need one of those, then."
It seemed she had noticed.
Yes, stockings this long needed a garter belt to keep them from slipping down.
That was intentional on my part.
To pull them up above her knees, she would ultimately need something to secure them.
Dolores thought of something for a moment, then rose from her seat.
From a bedroom drawer, she took out a thin strap.
Then she sat back down and slowly began putting on the stockings.
Shff...
The silk caught on her toes, passed over the top of her foot, and wrapped around her ankle.
The folded fabric unfolded and was smoothly drawn up along her calves.
I watched the entire process without missing a single instant.
Not because of any ulterior motive; I was only making sure she wore them properly.
"...Just a moment."
The moment Dolores blushed and lifted the abdominal portion of her top.
Her white skin entered my sight...
Shff.
"No."
A tiny palm covered my eyes.
Ruby. I cannot see. I really cannot see.
Shff.
Click.
Click.
Amid sounds that stirred the imagination in the darkness.
When Ruby removed her hand, before my eyes...
Dolores sat there, fully dressed in the stockings, her face bashful.
─────────────────
[Frostless Spring] [★★☆☆☆]
[Unique Equipment] [Compatibility] [60/60]
─────────────────
Folded, it becomes the warmth of midwinter.
Drawn up, it becomes the haze of midsummer.
Two seasons contained in one set.
─────────────────
[The warming effect of the Sun Engraving and the heating effect of Flame Ore counteract the wearer's amplification of yin energy.]
[When worn long-term, severed meridian symptoms are alleviated, and two of the nine meridians may be permanently opened.]
[Alleviates Nine Yin Severed Meridians and opens a path to treatment.]
─────────────────
Perfect compatibility.
When worn long-term, two meridians would be permanently opened.
And most importantly... along with easing the Nine Yin Severed Meridians, it had even opened a path toward treatment.
I knew its functions would be good. But I had not expected this much.
I had made it thinking only of her, made it for her.
I had not expected the compatibility to be this high, either.
Then.
"...?!"
Dolores's expression slowly began to change.
First came surprise.
Then a bewildered look, as if she could not understand it at all.
And the third...
"Hic...?"
Was tears.
Covering her mouth with trembling hands, she stared at her own feet as she swallowed something down.
Then.
Hissss...
From Dolores's toes, covered by the foot coverings.
A bluish energy began to rise like a heat haze.
It crept up over the tops of her feet.
Sizzle...
Then it touched the vivid red silk and evaporated away.
Blue energy rose, the red silk swallowed it, and it vanished into the air as steam.
Frostless Spring.
The frost that had frozen Dolores was melting beneath spring sunlight.
Whoosh!
Dolores pulled me tightly into her arms.
"Lionel... Lionel, how on earth...?"
Her trembling voice seeped into my ear.
"The severed meridians... how on earth...?"
Rather than reading a hundred lines of text like I had, Dolores was probably already feeling it with her entire body.
She must have felt the word alleviation written in her status window on her own skin.
The pain and despair she had endured in the past...
I could not dare imagine them.
"This is only the beginning."
I embraced her back.
"Everything... will be all right."
Making sure she would never feel emotions like those again.
...Could I not do at least that much?
Because in this life, it was you, Dolores, and no one else.
Probably.
Sniff.
Over Dolores's shoulder, Ruby's eyes had filled with tears as well.
As I always said, she was a perceptive child.
I crooked a finger at Ruby to call her over.
"Waaah... Master..."
"Yes, Ruby..."
Her small body burrowed right between us.
And so the three of us held each other for a long while.
"Lionel... thank you so much..."
"Thaaank yooou..."
Dolores's gratitude and Ruby's mumbled words.
In the atmosphere that was slowly settling down.
...I.
Suddenly opened my eyes.
[★★☆☆☆] [You have reached the pinnacle of compatibility for two-star equipment.]
[Target: Dolores]
[Title acquired ─ [The One Who Declared Winter's End]]
And then.
[Elysia von Dolores]
[Remaining Lifespan] [3Y : 11M : 9D : 4H : 13M]
A rather shocking number floated before my eyes.
The instant I understood what those numbers meant, my heart lurched and nausea rose to my throat.
Bzzzt...
The numbers suddenly wavered.
[Remaining Lifespan] [3Y : 11M : 9D...]
[Recalculating......]
[Factor ─ Potential opening of two meridians. A path to treatment for Nine Yin Severed Meridians has been opened.]
Pop!
[Remaining Lifespan] [8Y : 2M : 14D : 1H : 13M]
[▲ +4Y : 3M]
If what floated before me was true.
Because she was wearing this equipment now.
Dolores's remaining lifespan had increased by four years.
"..."
No words came out.
I silently held Dolores tighter in my arms.
Her lifespan had increased.
Eight years was still an absurdly insufficient amount of time.
I could not let her live only that long and then leave.
'...Four years from two-star equipment.'
My mind began racing.
What I had before me was the reward for reaching the end of two-star compatibility.
The maximum compatibility for two-star equipment was sixty.
Then.
What if it were three-star equipment? Four-star?
And beyond that, five-star equipment?
No, that would not be the end of it.
If I could reach the highest grade of equipment I was capable of making.
If I could bring those pieces of equipment to the very pinnacle of compatibility, then place them in her hands.
Just how far could I restore her lifespan?
Thump.
My heart beat.
Mine. Ruby's in my arms. And even Dolores's.
Heartbeats pulsing together in the same warmth.
'So.'
I would hold on to this warmth, these heartbeats.
For as long as I possibly could.
2.
The sky stretched out without end.
The eighty-ninth floor, famous for ceilings so high that even clouds lay beneath it, was also called the roof of the world.
At the center of that vast sky.
A single enormous volcano stood towering alone.
But what appeared to be a volcano was actually a colossal furnace.
The sacred ground where the Heirs of Fire had wielded flame for generations.
Flame Peak, Kargon.
And at its summit... upon a throne carved directly from the crater.
A dwarf sat utterly motionless.
Ricardo.
The master of this mountain.
And leader of the Sun Dwarves.
His blazing red eyes gazed down upon the land of the eighty-ninth floor below.
Across that land where his gaze rested.
An enormous grid had been carved all the way to the horizon.
Hundreds, thousands of empty cells; each one within that great grid bore its own symbol.
Every single one of them.
Was a place of honor only those chosen by fire could inscribe.
Only those who had crossed beyond the wall of apprenticeship could dare to leave their names there.
Yet.
For an uncountable span of time.
Not a single new light had been inscribed anywhere on that grid.
Time had stopped for the race known as the Sun Dwarves.
Even so.
Ricardo continued gazing endlessly at those empty spaces that had not yet been filled.
As if believing that something would be inscribed today.
"...Ricardo."
The tribal chief standing at his side spoke carefully.
"Even if a new Heir of Fire has truly appeared, it will take at least ten years to rise from apprentice to formal rank."
"Then."
Yet Ricardo did not even withdraw his gaze.
"I need only wait here for those ten years."
"..."
The aide shut his mouth.
He knew all too well that this stubborn leader would truly remain in this spot for years if necessary.
"...Please, now."
Just as the tribal chief was about to speak one last time.
That was when it happened.
Hummm...
The sky began to clear.
"...?"
Ricardo's lips curled upward.
The tribal chief looked around, puzzled by the suddenly clear sky.
The High Chieftain looked at him and gave a faint chuckle.
"...Have you never seen it, Chief?"
"...What do you mean?"
"Then again, so much time has passed."
Then he raised a hand and pointed toward the sky.
"The sky."
The sun gradually grew brighter.
And the moment the tribal chief looked up at the sky with a bewildered expression.
Boom!
A beam of sunlight plunged like a spear toward an empty cell in the grid.
"That is?!"
In the cell the light touched.
Bzzzzzt.
A symbol began drawing itself.
First a round sun, then eight tongues of flame around it.
"Th-the apprentice's symbol...!"
"No."
Ricardo stroked his chin and shook his head.
Bzzzt...
Beneath the sun symbol... a single bent golden stroke, as though someone's fingertip had passed over it, rose to support the apprentice symbol.
"...The formal... symbol."
The tribal chief's mouth slowly fell open.
Someone.
As an Heir of Fire, had become a Formal Blacksmith.
And inscribed a symbol upon the footsteps of the Sun Dwarves.
Ricardo slowly rose from his throne.
"...He has come."
His red eyes burned.
Hotter than they had ever burned before.
"An Heir of Fire has finally come."
Then.
Ricardo raised his arm.
Swish.
Below the wrist of his right arm, hidden deep within his sleeve...
There was nothing.
Only the trace of something having been severed long ago remained.
Ricardo's gaze turned to the grid where the new symbol had just been engraved.
More precisely, the cell directly to its left.
The two-stroke symbol of mastery already engraved there, faded with age.
It was the symbol Ricardo had carved long ago, when both of his hands had still been whole.
Ricardo, Heir of Fire.
The man who had once carried the fire of his race alone.
"This old man's furnace went out long ago and has been cold ever since."
His shoulders trembled faintly.
"...At last, the fire has found its next master."
The future of a race he thought had burned down until nothing but ash remained.
More fiercely than ever before.
Had begun to burn again.
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