Cael, a farmer's son, loses his father when a beast stampede masks an attack on his village. His father's last words: find the ones behind this crest. The brassão he presses into Cael's hand marks one of the highest ranks of the Order of the Eternal Flame — but Cael cannot read it.
Left with only his broken uncle Aldren — a man whose fragmented mind drifts between true and false memory — Cael pushes the wheelchair onto the open road.
Along the way, he meets Lys, a young mage bound for a great
Crest in Ashes - The Awakened Fire — The Night the Illiterate Boy First Reads Words
The smell of smoke still lingered deep in his nose.
Burnt wood, soot, and blood. The stench of all three mixed together clung to the cold night air of the forest and wouldn't let go. Kale Elden felt the weight of Lys on his back as he pressed forward, one step at a time, through the dark trees. The wound in his side throbbed in time with his heartbeat. The heated flesh pulsed beneath his torn clothes.
"...Kale-san."
A hoarse voice came from behind him.
"Please, put me down. I can walk on my own."
"Don't push yourself. You still have a fever."
"But your wound is deeper. If you collapse because of me..."
"I won't collapse. This is nothing. Farm work was harder."
It was bravado. His legs were heavy as lead, and the edges of his vision flickered white now and then. Even so, he couldn't afford to stop. Their pursuers were still close. As long as that man Olbus was controlling the beast pack with his silver flute, there was no safe place in this forest.
Noel Grenfield, who was walking ahead, suddenly stopped.
"...There."
Kale strained his eyes to look where she pointed. Beyond the trees lit by moonlight, the outline of a small building emerged. An old hunting cabin. Part of the roof had collapsed, and vines crept up the walls, but it looked sufficient to shelter them from the rain and wind.
"It's half-ruined, but it's good for hiding. The surroundings have poor visibility, and there's only one entrance."
"...That helps."
The three of them slipped inside the cabin.
It was dusty inside, smelling of old animal pelts and wood. Thin moonlight seeped through gaps in the walls, casting a pale glow on the dead leaves scattered across the floor. Noel deftly struck a flint with her remaining right hand. Small sparks scattered, and seconds later, fire caught on the dry branches placed on the floor.
The warm light brought the three exhausted faces into relief.
Kale gently lowered Lys against the wall. Lys's short black hair was plastered to her forehead with sweat, and her silver eyes were moist with fever. Even so, her gaze was fixed firmly on Kale.
"...I'm sorry. If only I could have used my magic better."
Lys's voice trembled.
"Back then, if I hadn't used up all my mana. If I could have defeated those mercenaries sooner. Then, Aldren-san wouldn't have been... taken away."
"Stop."
Kale said in a low voice.
"It's not your fault. Against that many, you did well. Without your magic, we would have died right there."
"But the result is the same. Aldren-san is gone."
Lys clenched her ink-stained fingertips tightly. Her fingers turned white.
"...Me too."
Noel said, feeding branches into the fire. Her reddish-brown hair swayed in the firelight. The bandage on her left shoulder was stained black with seeping blood.
"If I had noticed something wrong with that church sooner. I wouldn't have been shot in the shoulder, and I could have protected you two. I couldn't protect the village children either. And now, even that old man."
Her voice had lost its usual lightness. The eighteen-year-old scout stared intently at the burning branches. In her profile, Kale saw a deep exhaustion he had never seen before.
"...No. It's all my fault."
Kale gripped the copper badge hanging from his neck.
The cold feel of metal. The pattern of a ring and flame bit into the pads of his fingers.
"Because I couldn't read. I couldn't understand my father's last words, or the meaning of this crest. If I had understood, maybe I could have acted sooner. Maybe I wouldn't have had to hand my uncle over to those people."
His voice trembled.
"I don't know anything. Not knowing anything, I ran, I hid, and only my wounds kept increasing. I can't protect what I want to protect. Everything slips through my fingers."
Kale gripped a small branch that had fallen on the floor. The old wooden branch snapped with a dry sound.
"...It's frustrating."
Those words were squeezed from the depths of his gut.
"So frustrating I can't stand it."
Silence fell between the three of them.
The fire crackled. Outside, the wind shook the trees. In the distance, an owl hooted.
"...We're all frustrated."
Lys said quietly.
"I'm frustrated too. My own helplessness makes me so angry I can't stand it. I aimed for the Magic Academy, studied magic, and even so, I didn't have the power to protect the people I care about."
"...Me too."
Noel raised her head.
"I'm frustrated. I'm a scout. My job is to read ahead, and I couldn't read anything. I missed my comrades' danger, the church's trap, all of it. This shoulder wound is like punishment."
The three of them looked at each other's faces.
In Kale's eyes, Noel's amber eyes were reflected. Lys's silver eyes swayed in the firelight.
"...Hey."
Kale spoke up.
"We're all powerless. We all failed to protect something. But it's not over yet."
"...What do you mean?"
"My uncle is alive."
Kale pulled out a scorched letter from inside his clothes. Holding it up to the firelight, faint characters showed through from the blackened edges of the paper.
"They took my uncle without killing him. That means they need something from him. If they meant to kill him, they would have done it on the spot."
"...That's right."
A faint light returned to Lys's eyes.
"And this letter. My uncle had it. I can't read it, but it must be an important clue. Lys, can you read it?"
Lys took the letter from Kale. She carefully unfolded the scorched paper. Her silver eyes ran slowly over the characters.
"...I can't. The burns are too severe, I can only read fragments. But I can make out some words."
"What does it say?"
"'Olbus Rain'... this is a person's name. Then 'Twelve Apostles.' Also, I can see the words 'Song's Secret Rite.' And then..."
Lys paused.
"...'Flame Keeper.'"
"Flame Keeper?"
"It's the highest title in the Order. I don't know the details either. I only saw the name once in the Magic Academy's archives. But the proof of a Flame Keeper is a copper badge."
Lys's gaze fell to Kale's neck.
"...The one you're wearing."
Kale looked down at the badge hanging from his neck.
A ring and flame.
"My father gave it to me at the very end. He said, 'Find the one with this crest.' But I can't read it. I don't even know what it says."
"...Let me see it."
Kale removed the badge and handed it to Lys. Lys held it up to the firelight and stared intently.
"...This is in Ancient Eterno. An old script used only within the Order. I can't read it completely either. But this part... 'The Fire That Awakens.'"
"The Fire That Awakens?"
"Yes. The combination of the ring and flame represents those words. It's an internal term of the Order, a crest with special meaning, apparently. ...Kale-san, your father gave you this?"
"Yeah. In a sea of blood, he made me grip it. He said to take this and find the one with this crest."
Lys returned the badge to Kale.
"...Did your father have some connection to the Order?"
"I don't know. My father was just a farmer. He plowed fields, tended cows, nothing else. ...But on that last night, my father fought in a way that was not like any ordinary farmer."
The scene from that night surfaced in Kale's mind. His father, cutting off two beast heads with a rusted sword. His father, fighting to the very end even as a masked man ran him through the stomach.
"...There's something. Between my father, this badge, and the Order. And my uncle knows that something too."
"That's why Aldren-san was taken."
Noel said in a low voice.
"Because that old man knows something. They took him without killing him."
"...Yeah. That's why my uncle is still alive. I will absolutely go and save him."
There was no hesitation in Kale's voice.
"...But how? The enemy is a mercenary band. And it's led by an enforcer of the Order. They're not an opponent we can beat in a straight fight."
"That's why we use our heads. Your magic, Noel's scouting skills, and my... whatever. We use everything we've got."
"...You've changed."
Noel gave a small smile.
"When you first left the village, you seemed like just a naive kid. Now you've got a proper fighter's face."
"...You think so?"
"Yeah. It's a good face. Reliable."
At Noel's words, Kale rubbed his nose embarrassedly.
"...But first, let's rest. Everyone is at their limit. We'll think again tomorrow."
The three nodded at Lys's suggestion.
Noel took the first watch by the fire, and Kale and Lys lay down against the wall. The cold floor felt pleasant against his feverish body. Kale closed his eyes, still gripping the badge.
(Father. I will absolutely learn to read.)
(The meaning of this crest, your last words, all of it. I'll understand it all.)
(And I'll get my uncle back.)
His resolve burned in the depths of his chest like a flame.
――
The next morning, Kale sat beside Lys, who was writing characters on the ground with a branch.
"All right, Kale-san. This is the character for 'fire.' It was made from the shape of flames, representing the way fire blazes up like this."
Lys wrote the character on the damp ground with a thin branch. The lines stood out clearly on the soil moistened by morning dew.
"...Fire."
Kale stared intently at the character.
"It looks like a field furrow."
"A furrow?"
"Yeah. You mound up the soil to plant seeds, right? It looks like that shape to me."
Lys blinked for a moment. Then she gave a small laugh.
"...That's an interesting way to think about it. But for memorization, connecting things to something else isn't a bad method. Then, this is 'water.' It was made from the shape of flowing water."
"Water..."
Kale traced the character on the ground with his finger, a serious expression on his face.
"It looks like a river's flow."
"Yes. You're observing well."
A hint of admiration mixed into Lys's voice.
"Then, this is 'tree.' It's made from the shape of a tree's trunk and branches."
"Tree... This one I get right away. It really looks like a tree."
"Yes. Like this, many characters are made from the shapes of things. So if you remember the shape, you can remember the meaning."
Lys wrote character after character. Fire, water, tree, earth, wind, sky, sun, moon. Kale desperately tried to memorize each one, connecting them to field furrows, river flows, tree branches, clouds in the sky.
But memorizing was not easy.
"...Um, this is fire, right?"
"No. That's 'water.' You said yourself earlier that it looks like a river's flow."
"...Right. Damn, I thought I had it."
Kale scratched his head.
"Don't rush. Learning characters can't be done in a day. It took me years before I entered the Magic Academy."
"Years..."
"But you're not a slow learner. If anything, you absorb things quickly. It's just that cramming too much at once only causes confusion. Let's learn steadily, a little at a time."
Lys's words were far kinder than they had been yesterday.
"...Thanks, Lys."
"Not at all. It's my first time teaching someone, but it's actually quite fun."
Lys said that and smiled, looking a little embarrassed.
――
After that, for five days, Kale continued to learn reading and writing from Lys.
In the morning, when the sun rose, he wrote characters on the ground. During the day, while tending the fire, he traced characters in the air with his finger. At night, before sleeping, he reviewed in his head.
Even so, by the next day he had forgotten half the characters he'd learned. Even when he remembered them, they got mixed up with other characters. Field furrows, river flows, and tree branches became a jumble in his head.
"...I'm done for. My head might be made of stone."
On the morning of the fifth day, Kale collapsed face-first onto the ground.
"What are you saying? You're making proper progress. On the first day, you couldn't even tell 'fire' from 'water,' and now you can read simple words."
"...Really?"
"Really. Here, what's this?"
Lys wrote "fire" on the ground.
"...Fire."
"Correct. What about this?"
"Water."
"Correct. And this?"
This time, Lys wrote a slightly more complex character.
"...Um, this is
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