He never expected they would move straight to the royal treasury right then and there.

Pleasantly intoxicated and in high spirits, the King had readily stood up, saying, “Now that you mention it, I would like to look around my treasures for the first time in a while.” His close aides and the Prince followed behind him. And at the very back, Isaac.

Isaac had heard the treasury was located deep within the palace. Piles of gold and silver like mountains, and all sorts of wondrous and rare items from across the world were said to be gathered there, right next to the King’s bedchamber in the main palace. Isaac had only ever heard the rumors and had never even been near it.

It was a place only the King, a select few direct royals, one or two highly trusted officials, and those temporarily granted special permission by the King could enter. For Isaac, it was a place he only knew from hearsay, a place he never could have dreamed of stepping into—

“Come, come, step inside.”

Right next to the King’s bedchamber.

There stood a massive iron door. The crude, pitch-black iron door was so colossal and thick it seemed nothing could pierce it. Affixed with three complex locks as large as a person’s head, it looked overwhelmingly formidable, as if it would never open.

Guarded by four sentries with physiques sturdier than your average strongman, the King arrived at the door. He pulled out a ring of keys he always carried on his person. Taking out the dullest and most unassuming key, he opened the first lock. Then, the oldest and most imposing captain among the guards respectfully stepped forward and opened the second lock. Only then did the King select the thinnest and most elegant key from his ring to open the final lock.

After that, the four exceptionally burly guards rushed the door all at once and began to pull. Only after they poured in a tremendous amount of strength, the veins bulging on their foreheads and forearms, did the heavy iron door barely begin to move, little by little.

Once the iron door, which seemed like it would remain shut for eternity, was finally opened, an old wooden door engraved with exquisite, beautiful carvings was revealed behind it. The wooden door, looking like an ancient work of art in itself, opened easily.

The King, standing at the very front, pushed the wooden door open and stepped inside, letting out a deep breath of genuine satisfaction. Then he turned and nodded for them to enter.

Following behind the others, who had likely been inside several times before, Isaac stepped through the doorway. After taking a slow, deep breath, Isaac raised his head—and in the next second, he stopped breathing entirely.

It was a vast hall.

Without a single window, the only entrance being the door they had just passed through, the space was illuminated by a massive sphere suspended in the air, emitting a light as bright as the sun. No, it wasn’t a lamp. Looking closely, the round sphere was shimmering and moving as if it were alive. The white and yellow mottled patterns engraved on the surface of the slowly rotating sphere were undulating very slowly. Like a self-luminous star…… No, it truly was a star. Surrounding it, tiny stars the size of apples or walnuts were orbiting in orbit.

Staring blankly up at the dazzling star illuminating the treasury in place of lamps, Isaac stood rooted to the spot, looking around the vault.

A flying carpet embroidered with intricate and beautiful patterns was gliding through the air. So that’s the fabled flying carpet. A goose was sitting on top of it, but perhaps startled by the people suddenly entering, it hopped down onto the table below. Among the golden eggs already piled on the table, it laid another golden egg, then waddled over toward the wall and hid behind a twelve-panel folding screen.

Each panel of the twelve-panel screen depicted dazzling beauties. As if they were alive, the beauties in the painting looked at the visitors, smiled vividly, and bowed in greeting. Some of them leaned their upper bodies halfway out of the painting to bow, looking as if they could be pulled right out of the canvas if one only wished.

In the display cabinet next to the screen, vials of potions gleamed in various brilliant colors—a potion that could turn the drinker into a mermaid, a potion that, when sprinkled on a corpse, would mend bones and regenerate flesh. Below the cabinet sat leather boots capable of traveling a thousand li in a single bound, glass slippers that could transform the wearer into a noble, and more.

Aside from those, marvelous items like a giant’s golden hair, a talking mirror, and a wooden doll whose nose grew when it lied filled the expansive room. And nestled among them, gold and silver coins were piled up like heaps of dust.

For a long time, Isaac couldn’t close his mouth at the staggering, dazzling sight. His heart pounded fiercely as he looked around the vault in a daze. Isaac inherently loved shiny, glamorous things. His mind grew dizzy, and the thought even crossed his mind that he wanted to live in this room forever. He could distantly hear the voice of the King, who wore a ceaseless, proud smile as he explained each item: “This was a gift from the neighboring kingdom of Grenheim thirty years ago, and this is a treasure passed down since the time of my twentieth ancestor…”

Finally,

“Now then, guardsman, which among these do you desire?” the King spoke.

Isaac, who had been standing blankly in place taking in the vault, finally snapped back to his senses. He couldn’t afford to be so captivated by the shiny things. He needed to get a grip. And he had to get his hands on the thing he needed.

Isaac calmly surveyed the vault once more. Even while doing so, he felt his consciousness almost snatched away by the dazzling objects several times, but each time, he steeled his resolve and slowly paced the room.

People were watching Isaac’s steps. The King, who wouldn’t look favorably upon him if he chose something excessively grand, along with the accompanying officials, and the Prince.

The Prince watched Isaac in silence. Ever since entering this room, he didn’t even glance at the countless treasures; he only had eyes for Isaac. At the end  of that gaze, Isaac felt with piercing clarity that the Prince was closely observing what he would choose.

Isaac had known for a while that the Prince was suspicious. Suspicious as to why Isaac had been so greedy for the royal treasury. Because the Prince knew just as well as Isaac did that Isaac was not naturally materialistic, nor was he driven by a desire for worldly success.

Therefore, when Isaac finally spotted it—he forced his eyes away as if it were nothing. Then, he fixed his gaze on a large golden statue right next to it and stopped walking.

Found it.

He had found it. He knew it the moment he saw it. Even if the flint he carried in his inner pocket hadn’t suddenly trembled and grown searingly hot as if breathing, he would have known.

It lay unassumingly in a secluded corner among the countless treasures. It looked so shabby that anyone would have walked right past it without interest, covered in dust like a discarded piece of trash.

A small, battered wooden box. A tinderbox smaller than a shoebox, which looked as if it would crumble at any moment, its hinges rusted completely through, sat right there.

“——.”

His heart raced. The flint above his heart was red-hot.

That’s it. That’s the one. Bring that to me. Take me over there. 

The flint was speaking to him.

The Prince’s gaze lingered on Isaac, who stood blankly staring at the golden statue—while the tinderbox remained in the corner of his peripheral vision. Beside the Prince, who had narrowed his eyes slightly, the King’s eyes also narrowed in faint unease. The human-sized golden statue was exceedingly large and beautiful.

Isaac slowly resumed his steps and completed a full lap around the vault. The dazzling treasures no longer caught his eye. The only thing engraved on his retina was that shabby box. And Isaac knew that it was the most precious thing in this room.

‘I must ask for that. I have to get it.’

After circling the vault and stopping before the door once more, Isaac raised his head. But then he faltered.

The Prince was watching him. Standing silently in one spot with his arms crossed, the Prince was scrutinizing Isaac’s every gesture, every glance, down to the smallest detail. And Isaac instinctively realized that he could not just name the object he wanted.

He could not let the Prince discover what he truly wanted.

“——Gold coins,”

When Isaac opened his mouth, everyone’s attention converged on him. The King, who watched with a tense expression to see what Isaac would choose; the people looking on with curious eyes; and the Prince, who waited for Isaac’s answer with an unreadable, expressionless face.

“I would like to take gold coins…… Enough gold coins to fill that box.”

Isaac pointed to the tinderbox sitting in the corner and looked at the King. Then, as if pointing to the box was just a casual afterthought, he nonchalantly withdrew his hand and looked greedily at the piles of gold coins scattered here and there. But not too greedily. He maintained a restrained attitude that seemed to say: ‘There are plenty of other things I covet more, but I don’t want to bring misfortune upon myself by being too greedy.’

His heart pounded.

‘Will I really be able to get what I want? I have to. Please.’

The Prince’s brow twitched briefly. His eyes, staring intently at Isaac with a faint scowl, darkened with suspicion.

Isaac did not look back at the Prince. He knew that if he looked at the Prince at this moment, the Prince would definitely catch onto something. So Isaac kept his eyes fixed only on the King ‘…… Please,’ he cried out desperately in his mind.

“……Ho ho…….”

At last, the King opened his mouth. The King, whose eyes had widened at Isaac, now smiled, the wrinkles around his eyes softening.

“Gold coins, gold coins. Yes, take as much as you desire. Ho ho, truly a youth without greed. ——Here, you there. Fill that box with gold coins and hand it to this young man. Fill it to the very brim. Ho ho ho.”

Perhaps relieved that his tension was unfounded, the King let out a hearty laugh and gestured to the vault keeper. The vault keeper bowed and quickly ran over to start scooping gold coins into the tinderbox. The small box was filled to the brim with gold coins in no time.

It was enough gold for an ordinary person to live comfortably without working for several years. Isaac received the heavy box with a look of genuine joy and satisfaction, then bowed deeply to the King. The King offered a generous smile to the humble young man who asked for something as common as dust in a vault brimming with incredible treasures.

“Ho ho, yes, truly an ungreedy youth. ——Now then, since we have rewarded this pure-hearted young man, let us return to the banquet hall. Everyone is waiting.”

The King, chuckling repeatedly as he patted Isaac’s shoulder, hurried the group out of the vault as if afraid Isaac might change his mind, and the people filed out in a line.

Isaac, hugging the box of gold coins, joined the procession, while the Prince silently watched him from behind. Isaac firmly braced himself before turning his gaze to the Prince. He bowed deeply to the Prince, whose eyes were still clouded with suspicion.

“Thank you. Thanks to you, Your Highness, I was able to see such a surprising and magnificent place. It’s a place I had always hoped to see just once in my life.”

Isaac said, breathing out an excited sigh. It wasn’t a lie. He truly had thought for a long time that it would be nice to see the royal treasury just once, and the vault he actually witnessed was indeed filled with surprising and magnificent things.

The Prince quietly looked down at Isaac’s flushed cheeks, which had not yet lost their excitement. And at the pile of gold coins Isaac was hugging.

“That is what you desired?”

The Prince asked, tilting his head faintly.

“Yes. And getting to see that place.”

“My wish has been fulfilled just by seeing His Majesty’s treasury, so this much is enough for the rest,” Isaac smiled brightly, conveying that sentiment. And really, taking only a box of gold coins when one could have chosen anything from the King’s treasury was the act of a truly ungreedy person. In that sense, it fit perfectly with Isaac’s usual nature of not desiring material wealth.

The Prince stared down at Isaac for a while, still looking utterly unconvinced. But as the King, who had been the last to exit after ensuring the vault was locked, grabbed the Prince’s arm and said, “Come, let us all go,” the Prince finally had to tear his gaze away from Isaac.

And Isaac followed behind them, tightly embracing the heavy box full of gold coins.

The flint in his breast pocket was burning fiercely. Perhaps it was just his imagination, but the wooden box he was hugging felt warm as well. ‘Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.’ He could vividly feel the energy of the flint, desperate to throw out all the gold coins inside and nestle into the tinderbox. 

Crying out that it had finally met its mate after an endless separation.

He finally had it in his hands. The thing he had wanted so desperately.

The magical tinderbox.

His heart was racing wildly.