Free Web NovelChapter 29: Leona’s Awakening
D’Arc County.
Gold Town, Northern Region.
Inside the black and red bricked administrative building, it was surprisingly plain.
Rows of desks occupied the main hall, each buried beneath ledgers and reports.
Clerks moved briskly between offices while telegraph machines clicked endlessly in the background.
On the third floor, Vincent stood before a dusty door with Leona and Anastasia by his side.
The Knight Order was scattered around and did not hinder Vincent’s movements.
A clerk holding a key bunch appeared before Vincent and first greeted him with a deep bow, then opened the dusty door.
Given the door’s condition, Vincent thought the inside would be filled with more dust and cobwebs, but it was rather clean and in proper condition.
Sunlight was seeping into the room through the windows and illuminating it.
Vincent’s gaze fell on the glass encasing in the middle of the room. Inside it was a silver colored rock with smooth and shiny threads of black.
Leona’s eyes widened as she saw it and immediately moved closer.
Anastasia stopped behind Vincent and stared at the rock.
"My Lord..." Leona turned to Vincent. "Can I touch it?"
Vincent waved his hand dismissively and said, "You don’t need permission for anything. We are engaged, remember?"
Leona nodded her head and removed the glass casing.
As the ore fell in her hands, she touched it as if she was reading a braille script.
A few moments later, Leona closed her eyes and continued to feel it.
Anastasia saw how focused she was and was calmly spectating.
Vincent on the other hand had a completely different reaction. He covered his mouth and read through the lines of text stacking before his eyes.
[Your Fiancée Leona Voss is perceiving traces of the Great Forge Dao.]
"Three impurities..." Leona suddenly spoke, breaking Vincent and Anastasia out of their stupors.
Leona grabbed the ore with both her hands.
"Silver ash."
She began bending it.
Anastasia let out an alarmed expression. Was Leona about to break the only Spirit Iron Ore known to humankind?
"Trace copper."
Leona continued and put more force.
"A crack near the center."
The moment she said this, a crisp crack resounded in Vincent and Anastasia’s ears.
Crack! Crack!
Leona broke the ore into two unequal halves.
She dropped one on the ground and stared at the other.
As it fell with a thud, Vincent and Anastasia both looked at it.
It contained not a single thread of black.
They turned to the ore in Leona’s hands.
There weren’t faint threads on the ore but the entire bottom surface was smooth and shiny!
Leona’s fingers glided against it. freeweɓnovel.cøm
[Ding!]
[Your Fiancée Leona Voss’s path has awakened.]
[Your Fiancée Leona Voss’s Heart has strengthened.]
"I can refine this..." Leona said as she stared at the Spirit Iron with calm eyes filled with absolute determination.
What Leona saw was no longer a piece of ore.
In her eyes, it had become countless possibilities.
A sword.
A spear.
Armor.
A clockwork mechanism.
A railgun barrel.
The images flashed through her mind one after another before collapsing back into a single piece of Spirit Iron.
It was no longer raw material.
It was potential.
Vincent heard her faint whisper but felt nothing.
Anastasia on the other hand had her hands tremble as a glimmer of shock ran through her eyes.
’So this is where it began...’
Anastasia glanced at the focused Leona.
In every iteration, she had heard her name.
The woman who forged weapons that changed wars.
The woman sought by kings, saints, and monsters alike.
’Everyone spoke of her creations but never her.’
The Saintslayer Rifle.
The Iron Cathedral.
The Black Sun Cannon.
The weapons that changed the world.
Every child knew their names.
Yet when people spoke of the woman who forged them, it was always the same.
The Royal Smith Saint.
The Empire’s Blacksmith.
Duke Brunelle’s greatest weapon.
Never Leona Voss.
Never simply Leona.
As though the woman herself had long ceased to exist.
...
Anastasia suddenly remembered the last time she saw her.
The war had already been lost.
The sky was burning.
Cities were collapsing.
Countless powers had gathered to demand one final weapon.
One final miracle.
Leona had refused.
For the first time in her life, she had refused.
Not because she could not forge it.
But because she wished to create something for herself.
Just once.
Just one thing.
Anastasia never learned what it was.
The unfinished piece remained hidden beneath a cloth beside her forge.
No one was allowed to see it.
No one was allowed to touch it.
And for that alone, they branded her a traitor.
The woman who had spent her entire life forging weapons for others was condemned the moment she tried to create something for herself.
Anastasia lowered her gaze.
In that final moment, nobody remembered the countless weapons Leona had forged.
Nobody remembered the kingdoms she had saved.
Nobody remembered the wars she had ended.
The world only remembered that she had disobeyed.
And so, the world discarded her.
Just as it discarded every tool once it had outlived its usefulness.
Anastasia felt her heart being pricked with thorns as she remembered the final image.
A lonely forge.
A cloth-covered creation.
Chains.
Accusations.
Then darkness.
"My Lord..."
Anastasia’s visions broke as she saw Leona turn in her direction. She wasn’t looking at her, but the young master standing before.
"I..." Leona stared at Vincent but swallowed her words as she turned to look back at the ore.
She turned to him again, then looked back at the ore.
It was for the first time Vincent saw her appear so conflicted.
"Is something troubling you?" Vincent asked.
Leona turned to him, then took a deep breath and exhaled.
"Nothing. The County is in crisis, let’s focus on solving it."
There wasn’t a system notification or anything in the live feed, but Vincent could see how conflicted and dejected Leona seemed. Quite unlike her, in his opinion.
He saw that she was still clutching the ore and remembered the faint whisper she let out.
’I can refine this... is what she said, right?’
Vincent took a step toward her, but realized he would have to look up if he got too close to speak to her.
He retracted his step and cleared his throat.
"No blacksmith in the County knew of that ore and they can’t even extract the pure metal from it. If you can do it and turn it into something good, it’ll be amazing because we have a lot of reserves."
Leona stared at Vincent with raised eyebrows. There was no change of expression on her face.
Anastasia shook her head as she watched a man dig his own grave in front of her. She could almost hear the terrible lie collapsing under its own weight.
Leona broke eye contact, then stared at the ore.
Then back at Vincent.
The silence stretched.
Vincent who was all smiles while saying the previous statement now felt awkward. His lips were quivering as he saw Leona’s reaction.
"My Lord."
"Y-yes?" Vincent was startled and almost bit his tongue.
Leona looked at him and said, "There are no records of additional Spirit Iron reserves."
Vincent coughed.
"Well..."
"And no blacksmith has ever examined this ore." Leona continued while walking toward Vincent.
"That too." Vincent felt a drop of sweat trickle down his back.
"And yet you somehow know I can refine it."
’Didn’t you yourself state that you could refine it!?’
Vincent opened his mouth.
Closed it.
Opened it again.
"...I had a feeling?"
Leona stopped a step shy of him, making him tilt his head up.
Her crimson eyes met his.
"My Lord."
"Yes?"
"You are a terrible liar."
Vincent’s face stiffened.
Leona lowered her gaze toward the ore in her hands.
For a brief moment, her grip tightened.
"Thank you."
The words were soft and Vincent almost thought he imagined them.
She looked at him and continued, "Next time, please do not lie to me again."
She walked past him and paused.
She turned her head to the side.
"I really hate liars."
[Ding!]
[Entanglement upgraded!]
[Subject: Leona Voss]
[(Active Link(stable) → Resonant Link(stable)]
Vincent: "..."
He turned around to stare at his fiancée’s back and all he could see was coldness.
’Did the system make a mistake?’
