The Red-Hot Sword (3)

It was an honest impression.

"The Fire Spirit looks sick as hell."

Dark was nothing but gloomy black mist, but Agni blazed in spectacular, dazzling fire.

"……Stylish?"

"I mean you're cool."

"Cool? What, precisely, is cool?"

Agni's hand, which had been reaching to seize the spirit, drifted slowly down toward the ground.

"Go on, then. Explain yourself properly."

The tone was as high-handed as ever, but the surging flames settled into a calm.

Just like the setting book.

There was a piece of lore about spirits. Personality follows attribute. Dark, a spirit of Evil, was quiet and composed by nature, like the deep of night. Agni, a spirit of flame, was emotional, like a fire in full burn.

Which was to say—

"Well? I told you to speak."

—that compared to spirits of other attributes, their feelings shifted with particular ease.

I quickly scrunched up my face.

"Come on. Isn't it obvious?"

"Isn't what obvious?"

"Crimson flame. What other attribute could possibly suit a protagonist better?"

"Hoh?"

A smile touched Agni's lips.

"And yet, child. The name you bear is that of a spirit of Evil, is it not?"

"I only took it because I didn't want to die. If I could have chosen, I'd obviously have picked blazing crimson fire over gloomy evil."

"Puhah! A human who bears the name of Evil and yet covets fire! You truly are a curious one!"

A hearty, booming laugh.

Now's my chance.

I quickly ran my tongue along my lips, then plopped down in front of Agni.

"Aigoo. If I'd known it'd turn out like this, I should've listened to the Founder."

"The Founder?"

"That's right. The founder of House Vulcanus—the master smith Vulcanus. Wait. Don't tell me you didn't know I'm a Child of Fire?"

The moment the words left my mouth, Agni's expression hardened.

"……Child."

Heat of a completely different order from before rolled off him.

"Do you know that the thing humans must guard against most is that three-inch tongue of theirs?"

He was a spirit of flame, vulnerable to every shift of feeling, so I could read him at once.

He's pissed. Properly, thoroughly pissed.

And that meant—

So this really was the right answer.

—it confirmed that Agni and Founder Vulcanus had been close.

Founder Vulcanus. In the original Protect the Academy!, he appeared only in passing, like a folk tale handed down by word of mouth.

I looked at Agni and recited the passage written in Protect ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Academy!.

"Ah, talentless Vulcanus. A pitiful wanderer of the Marcia Empire, bewitched by iron and fire, and that was all he ever was."

Hundreds of years ago, the Founder Vulcanus who would be called a legendary master smith had, in truth, been a talentless drifter.

"Iron was always plentiful, and yet—O man who came to a halt for want of a proper fire."

But through a special turn of fate he awakened, and produced the first masterpiece in history.

"For what did you take up the hammer? You asked him that, didn't you?"

And that "special turn of fate," that "proper fire," was described as—

"You……?"

—the Fire Spirit King. A depiction that meant Agni.

"How do you know that……?"

I muttered as if lamenting, toward the slack-jawed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠look on Agni's face.

"I already told you. I should've listened to the Founder."

"Ha! Don't tell me you've actually met that child?"

"That's right."

"Don't make me laugh!!"

Dense flame surged and coiled.

"That child died hundreds of years ago! Because of those damned Evil God's spawn, the Children of Fire died out long ago!!"

In a way, it was only natural. The Children of Fire were descendants of Founder Vulcanus—blacksmiths who had contracted directly with Agni. The last Child of Fire had walked the path of a knight, and the title had faded away on its own.

And even that was hundreds of years ago.

My claim now was no different from a modern person insisting they were close with a figure out of the history books.

Obviously a lie.

I hadn't so much as met Founder Vulcanus. I'd only just met the Vulcanus of the present a short while ago.

But I have information.

The information from Protect the Academy!, the masterpiece of my life, which I had gone through so many times that even the extras had stuck in my memory.

And that wasn't all.

"Vulcanus, as a child…… lost her parents…… and was tormented by iron and fire, they say."

"……?"

"Hush now, hush now, little one…… How much must she have cried? Back then, the Founder said—"

I also had a tongue that could drape that information over a lie and swing it like the truth.

Agni. You said it yourself a moment ago.

That the thing humans must guard against most is that short three-inch tongue.

But you know what?

"If you gathered every tear she shed, even the volcano of Mount Ragna could be cooled. That's what she said."

"Heh……."

"Am I wrong?"

"That story is something only I and Vulcanus should know……."

That's the same for you, Agni.

"Well, I've been telling you from the start."

So if you don't want to be fooled, you'd better keep your wits about you. Of course, even if you do—

"I'm a Child of Fire too."

—you'll still fall for my three-inch tongue.

The Fire Spirit King Agni. In truth, until a few hundred years ago, he had not so much as reached mid-rank, let alone become a king.

Other spirits had sneered at him.

"Hey, Lampwick Agni. Why not just settle for being a lesser spirit?"

"……Get lost."

The same had been true of Founder Vulcanus.

"You're going to melt what?"

"They say it's a Red Dragon's Heart?"

"Ha! With a fire like that, a Red Dragon? Please!"

"Aigoo, would you shut up already, you lunatics!!"

She had been outstanding as a blacksmith, but she had not been born to the right era.

Was that why, perhaps?

"……You want to become a Spirit King?"

"……Forge the Red Dragon's Heart?"

The two beings who had happened to run into each other were far too much alike.

"Pfft! Don't make me laugh!"

"Kuk. Don't make me laugh!"

"Stop hanging off me and get lost."

"Are you insane!? The Red Dragon's nest has been my home for hundreds of years!"

She had come to refine the Red Dragon's Heart. He had taken the Red Dragon's nest as his home. Like it or not, the two of them could not help but run into each other every single day.

"So what, so what, so what, so what, so what, so what, so what."

"Gyaaaaah!!! This insane human, I swear!!"

And so they could not help but grow close.

"It's Vulcanus."

"What?"

"Not 'crazy human.' Vulcanus."

"Hah……. It's Agni."

Of course, growing close was one thing. Each of them still held their own purpose above all else, so the two of them tacitly ignored one another and pressed on toward their separate goals.

"……The firepower's still lacking, after all."

"……Damn it. Why won't it burn?"

Someone once said that effort never betrays you.

"…So that's how spirits handle fire, huh?"

"…For a human, that's a decent forging method. Now… was it done like this…."

Watching each other's strengths, striving in their own ways, the two of them could not help but grow.

"I-I broke it off……!!"

Founder Vulcanus at last succeeded in tearing free the Red Dragon's Heart.

"I should be able to reach mid-rank at this rate……!!"

And Agni, too, succeeded in rising from a lesser spirit to a mid-rank one.

"It's working, it's w-working!!"

"Just a little stronger……!!"

Once they had broken through the wall that had held them, it was triumph after triumph, and in the end the two of them arrived at the very threshold of the dreams they had been chasing.

"It's done……."

"I-I'm an upper-rank spirit……."

"Now I just have to infuse it with aura and it's finished!!"

"I'll take the Spirit King seat while I'm at it!!"

The instant they recognized each other's success, the Founder was the first to approach Agni.

"Hey, Lampwick!"

"Take this or don't."

"Burning garbage again?"

"What do you take me for!"

"If it isn't garbage, then what is it?"

What the Founder held out to Agni was—

"You called it a token of friendship, didn't you?"

"……Yes. That's right."

"A necklace made from the Red Dragon's Heart, leftover after the essence had been extracted."

Clink.

The crimson necklace at Agni's throat glittered, as if it had recognized itself in the tale.

"Spirits are always leaking power as they go, she said. So if you could gather that leaking power and keep it, you would reach your dream that much faster. That's what I heard."

"……That, too, is correct."

And that was all.

"Live well, Lampwick!"

"…It's Agni."

"When you become Spirit King, don't forget me!"

"……Yeah."

Having gifted Agni the necklace, the Founder left that place at once and returned to the Empire.

That was the life of a spirit. Save for other spirits, everyone else was no more than a lingering note—something that stayed a while and faded.

Agni knew that well. He had contracted with a few, and he had even seen off elves, a long-lived race. The death of lives that were not spirits was a light thing, merely passing by.

And yet, for some reason—

"Hey……. Vulcanus!"

—strangely, that child he had not even contracted with—

"Hey, you weirdo!!"

"Aang?"

"L-Let's make a contract!"

—he did not want to let her go.

"And so the two of you made a contract. The Founder won the Emperor's recognition and became the Empire's master smith, and you, Lord Agni, became the Fire Spirit King."

"Puhah! The Emperor's recognition! Did that child Vulcanus tell it that way?"

Agni burst out laughing before he could stop himself.

"She received the Emperor's recognition, true enough—but in fact it was closer to extorting it through threats."

"Threats? Extorting it?"

"Yes. Now, where to begin……."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

The moment Eugene's story paused, what followed was Agni's solo performance.

"One time she hauled in a brown bear, said it shared her name, and made it a pet!"

"I'm sorry?"

"See? Even you look appalled, and you're only hearing it. Anyway. That's when she hit it off with some count's son who'd been out hunting that bear, you see? And next thing, a child……."

Agni began excitedly laying out every last thing that had happened with the Founder.

"That's when those cultists."

"Wait, wait. I've been wondering this whole time—cultists?"

"Ah. You lot wouldn't know. The truth about those cultists, you see, is……"

Eugene collected information that had never been in the original work, chiming in as naturally as breathing.

And so the time went by.

"I asked her to make me a weapon too, and would you believe it, she told me to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠pay for the necklace first."

"So did you pay?"

"Psh. Between friends?"

The story of the Founder, which Agni alone had been carrying, was set in motion once more by Eugene.

Someone once said that every story has an ending.

Agni lowered his head and murmured.

"This is…… the final chapter, then."

To get to the point, the Founder died.

"Hurry!! Send the weapons to the front line!!"

"Yes, my lady!!"

As ever, the demonkin had struck the Empire, and she had forged weapons to aid her own side.

"And in the midst of that, she was killed by an assassination squad dispatched by the demonkin, and the last keepsake she forged before she died was the Red-Hot Sword, wasn't it?"

The moment I mixed together sentences from the setting book and spoke them—

"……So that's how that child told it."

"That's right. In my dreams, that's how it was. Clearly."

"Really."

For an instant, Agni's eyes flickered crimson.

"That's really all they told you?"

"…That's right."

"……Child."

"Yes, Lord Agni."

The moment I nodded without the slightest hesitation—

"Child who serves the warped god."