Chapter 392 - 392: Matches, Magic Beans, and Memories

It was bitterly cold. Snow was falling, and darkness was closing in. It was the last day of the year, New Year's Eve.

On that cold, dark evening, a sweet little girl walked barefoot through the streets. She had been wearing a pair of slippers when she left home, but what good were they? They were enormous slippers, so large because they had always belonged to her mother.

As she crossed the road, two carriages came racing toward her. Frightened, she ran so quickly that she lost both slippers. One vanished completely, while a boy picked up the other and ran away with it. He said that one day, when he had children of his own, he could use it as a cradle.

So the little girl had no choice but to walk barefoot, her tiny feet turning red and blue from the cold. Her old apron was filled with matches, and she carried another bundle in her hand. All day long, no one had bought so much as a single match from her, and no one had given her even one coin.

Poor little girl! Cold and hungry, she trudged onward, trembling. Snowflakes settled on her long golden hair, which curled beautifully over her shoulders, but she paid no attention to that.

Light shone from every window, and the aroma of roast goose drifted through the streets, for it was New Year's Eve. She could hardly forget that.

She sat down in the corner beside a house, drawing her legs up tightly against herself. She felt even colder now. She did not dare return home, because she had not sold a single match or earned a single coin. Her father would surely beat her.

Besides, home was just as cold as the street. They had little more than a roof over their heads. Though the largest cracks had been stuffed with straw and rags, the wind still blew straight through.

Her little hands were almost frozen stiff. Ah, even one tiny match would have helped! Trembling, she drew one from the bundle...

Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Match Girl

...

The following morning, two unicorns carried the Magic Bean Expedition past a peculiar village.

A wooden wall divided two completely different climates. Outside the village, everything was lush and green. Inside, snow and ice covered the land.

The village itself was deserted, yet the girl's strange sales pitch drifted through the wind.

"Matches! Please... would anyone like to buy some matches? Anybody want matches?"

Victor's heart skipped a beat.

He had to go over there.

He had to buy every single match she had...

This had to be the set for The Little Flint Girl. The hope represented by a burning spark and the cruelty of despair when it went out, anyone with a shred of humanity could hardly allow such a tragedy to happen.

In a way, Victor absolutely hated that story.

Even reading those passages was enough to make his eyes sting.

After calling out to the princess, the witcher pulled on the reins and followed the voice. Before long, he spotted a small, slender figure standing in the center of the snow-covered square.

Victor jumped from his unicorn more than a dozen yards away and hurried toward her.

As the distance between them shrank, the little girl's appearance gradually became clearer.

Her golden curls and body were wrapped in a thick, blended-fabric winter cloak. A heavy scarf encircled her neck, woolen gloves covered her hands, and tall boots protected her feet.

Victor's pace slowed.

Finally, he stopped in front of her.

"Uh... excuse me. Which fairy tale are you supposed to be from?"

The blonde little girl cheerfully patted her basket.

"Well, well! Where'd a fine customer like you come from? One look at you and I can tell you're swimming in coin. I'm the Little Flint Girl!

"Fancy a cigar? Maybe a hand-rolled cigarette? Some fisstech? I've got everything you could possibly want!"

Victor stared at her in disbelief.

Uh...

What exactly was this shady little hustler trying to sell him?

Snapping out of his sentimental mood, Victor examined her carefully and finally understood what had happened.

Simply put, compared with the countless fairy tales that had deteriorated into horrifying disasters, the Little Flint Girl had somehow clawed her way up from rock bottom.

What had originally been an inescapable tragedy had undergone a complete change of genre and turned into a farce.

"When I was little, I sold matches, but nobody bought any. So I bravely expanded my product range. Anything you can smoke, snort, or otherwise enjoy, I sell it. Right now I'm saving up the down payment for my second house. So, darling, what'll it be?"

"Nothing! We don't want anything. We just want to get out of here, preferably as quickly as possible."

Having understood the situation, Syanna wore a complicated expression.

Clearly, even she had no idea what to say about this development.

"Aw, sweetheart, don't be in such a hurry! I've got some premium stuff right here. Take a couple hits and I guarantee you'll be flying high enough to shake hands with the sun..."

As she spoke, the girl started lifting the cloth covering her basket, eager to show her two customers the merchandise.

Syanna shook her head and was about to leave when something inside the basket caught her eye.

"Hey! Where did you get that ribbon? That's mine!"

The little girl immediately dropped the cloth back over the basket and regarded her warily.

"Nonsense! I found it in the forest. You can't prove it's yours, can you, darling? Finders keepers."

Syanna's glare sharpened.

The little girl stared fearlessly back at her.

Victor had initially thought it was nothing important, but after seeing their reactions, he interrupted.

"Mind explaining what's so important about that ribbon?"

"There's not much to explain. Artorius Vigo gave it to me when I was a child. It was supposed to protect me from evil, though judging by what happened to me, it obviously wasn't particularly effective."

Syanna turned her head toward him as she explained.

"Sounds like it means a lot to you."

"How should I put it... I don't have much left from my childhood. That ribbon reminds me of the good times. It reminds me of who I used to be."

Syanna's words stirred something in Victor's memory.

He had the vague feeling that the ribbon served some other purpose.

Unfortunately, before he could remember what it was, the little girl gave a soft cough and interrupted his thoughts.

"Excuse me, honored customers... could you take the touching drama somewhere else? You're going to scare away all my business! Are you buying something or not?"

Victor crouched down in front of the little girl.

"Listen, sweetheart, let's make a deal. I'm sure you still remember Syanna. That ribbon is important to her. How about giving it back?"

"Sorry, darling, but the only thing I give away for free is a customer's first packet of fisstech, because they'll be back soon enough to buy the second one. Everything else costs money."

"What if I ask very sincerely?"

"Hmm... ask me sincerely, huh? Maybe we could gamble for it. How about a game of Gwent? It's been ages since I've met an opponent worth playing."

So she was a gambler too.

Victor was speechless.

He was just about to accept the challenge when Syanna suddenly spoke in a cold voice.

"No! Forget it. I don't want it anymore. My childhood isn't coming back anyway!"

With that, the princess turned away, mounted her unicorn, squeezed its flanks, and rode off without looking back.

Victor watched her receding figure.

Then he turned back toward the Little Flint Girl and rubbed his nose...

...

Some time later, the Magic Bean Expedition finally reached the last stop of their journey, the Abandoned Pumpkin Patch.

The soil here was fertile, and the surrounding land was broad and open.

Syanna patted the unicorns and let them wander away freely. Then she crouched down and dug a small hole in the ground before carefully warning Victor, who had been given responsibility for planting the beans.

"The moment you put them in the hole, don't stand around. Run immediately. The beanstalk will burst out of the ground and grow very, very quickly."

After saying that, she hurried behind a distant stone wall like a soldier who had just thrown a grenade.

Only her forehead and eyes peeked over the top as she cautiously watched what happened next.

Amused by her behavior, Victor dropped the red, yellow, and blue beans into the hole, slapped a layer of soil over them, then quickly retreated to the safe zone as well.

Sparrows chirped.

Around the pumpkin field, butterflies fluttered among flowering hawthorn trees.

The next instant, the earth seemed to explode.

A colossal beanstalk, so thick that several people together would have struggled to wrap their arms around it, erupted from the ground with enough force to pierce the heavens.

With a deep, rumbling roar, it shot skyward and plunged straight into the white clouds.

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