Conquering His Cold Heart

"Oh, I almost forgot I was going to hand over your rewards tonight." Leo suddenly remembered his earlier promise. He turned to look at the nearby clock and found that it was almost midnight. The meal was long over, and everyone was in the midst of leaving but it shouldn't take long to hand over a few items.

"Hoh" Frost's attention was grabbed by the mention of rewards. Surely working his ass of for several days with his life on the line at every moment was worth a great deal.

Everyone who was about to get ready for bed decided to sit back down, eager to see the items being granted to Frost, a B-rank fighter who came to their aid in their time of need. Of course, Douglas and Cassandra were privy to the details, but they still looked forward to seeing Frost's reaction.

Leo smiled widely seeing the interest in Frost's and the other's eyes. He whispered to a nearby servant who went to fetch something on his behalf. "In addition to the gold from the adventurer's guild there's the gold from our house, the payment for the much-needed supplies as well as a few choice items that have been specifically retrieved from our vaults.

All the B-rank adventurers who came to our aid and survived the war are entitled to a single item from our vaults given their prowess however given our friendship and your remarkable efforts during the late stages we've added a few extras…just don't tell the others." Leo winked and placed a finger on his lips in a silent gesture.

A smile grew on Frost's lips upon hearing Leo's words and his interest heightened.

'Now I'm really looking forward to these rewards. I wonder what they could be? I have no need for weapons, Armour perhaps. Skills? Potions?' His mind filtered through multiple possibilities as he waited.

A few minutes later the servant returned with a storage ring of supreme quality on top of a velvet pillow. It's quality was such that even after several centuries the space inside wouldn't degrade, all without any maintenance. This ring was one of the Furano's prized possessions, their impregnable vault that held their most hallowed artifacts and resources.

Leo lifted the storage ring carefully from the velvet pillow and placed it on his index finger. The many intricate runes lit up once it was slotted but he had yet to gain access. This storage ring was of the highest quality and required the highest protection, only members of the Furano house could access the space inside.

The password if you will, was a drop of their blood therefore Leo cut a small gash on his finger with a ceremonial knife the servant brought. Once the ruby red blood made contact with the ring the runic markings absorbed it, their glow turning from blue to red before eventually becoming gold, a sign that the blood had been accepted.

At that moment a wide space filled with many high-class items and artifacts connected to Leo's mind. His family had gathered these items over the many centuries since their house's conception. Only the ruler of the Furano family and the declared heir could access this ring even Leo's uncle Alex didn't have access.

Leo felt honoured and incredibly respectful as he perused the items earned by his ancestors, this was their house's glory, proof of their valiant nature and their duty as the northernmost bastion.

He could see several 4 star weapons and even a couple 5 star ones perfectly preserved in one area whereas others had equally rare armours, magic devices, skill books, magic tomes and even deeds to territories. The vaults of an old noble family were nothing to sneeze at.

Leo's awe however was brief, he had a clear purpose for accessing the family's vault, he could admire it another time. He focused his mind on the few items he, his father and mother had chosen to reward Frost with.

A moment later three items were retrieved from the ring before he removed it and placed it back on the velvet pillow. The servant bowed his head before promptly leaving the dining room to place the family's storage vault back in the physical vault. Luna who was by Leo's side cast a healing spell, sealing up the tiny cut made by the ceremonial knife which earned her a look filled with affection.

Jaina rolled her eyes at such a scene, clearly finding it rather cringeworthy. Bastion, Cassandra and Douglas however smiled happily at the young love. Ryuu on the other hand was twitching at the lip, his fists opening and closing as he tried his best to endure the sight.

Frost didn't even notice the scene his eyes entirely glued to three items brought out and placed on the table. Just from their appearance and the strict protocols needed to access the storage ring he knew they were of high quality.

One of the items appeared to be a piece of armour that covered the torso. The metal shimmered like starlight and looked to be as light as simple robes, more of a vest than armour.

The second and third items were book sets, one focusing on magic whereas the other was for pole weapons such as glaives, spears and halberds.

Leo after looking lovingly towards Luna introduced the three items starting with the shimmering vest.

"This is a tunic made from starlight mithril, an upper 4-star armour that weighs less than 500 grams yet outshines even thick plated steel. It can be worn under regular clothes, hidden from view and is so light that it won't interfere with even the most flexible of movements." Leo chose this tunic for multiple reasons. First, he wanted something the help ensure his friend's life.

Second Frost was a very active warrior, someone who twisted his body in all manner of ways and relied heavily on his speed and flexibility to take down his foes. Finally, starlight mithril was a rather good conductor for ice-based chakra and provided a slight protection against magic all things that would benefit and suited a warrior such as Frost.

The item would therefore be going to a good home, to someone deserving and who could bring out all its advantages instead of letting it gather dust on a shelf.

Frost -with Leo's permission- picked up the starlight mithril tunic and ran the metallic fibres through his fingers, feeling how light and flexible it was in comparison to the other armours he'd seen and tested. Even the armour that he currently used which was fashioned to his exact measurements by Daki was far more restricting than this tunic and only provided half the protection value.

Of course, the tunic only covered his torso but still it was quite amazing that something so light and thin could outperform plate armour. Frost squeezed the tunic with a fair amount of force and even attempted to tear it but made no headway.

This starlight mithril tunic was truly an amazing piece of armour and was surely worth tens of gold coins.  Therefore when his eyes met with Leo's they were filled with immense gratitude. Although the B-rank adventurers who fought in the war could pick a single item from the Furano family's vault such a high-level armour probably wouldn't be on the list shown to them.

This was a special privilege just for Frost.

"Thank you, Leo." Frost genuinely thanked Leo for his generosity, even bowing his head slightly.

"No need for thanks Frost senpai, this was something you earned by risking your life." Leo smiled gently before moving on to the other two items. Frost stored the vest in his own storage ring carefully as if afraid to scratch it.

"First off, this set of books contain knowledge in regards to ice-fire magic." Leo pointed to the first stack which contained 4 books wrapped up in a blue ribbon. "Whereas these ones contain a set of techniques for pole weapons such as the spear and your glaive." The next stack contained three books wrapped in a red ribbon.

None of them were skill books, Frost would have to read and understand their contents the old-fashioned way.

"One of my very distant ancestors reached the A-rank as a mage and specialised in ice-fire magic.

He left these tomes in the family vault hoping for one of his descendants to follow in his footsteps unfortunately there hasn't really been anyone particularly adept in magic born in our family for many generations and even those that weren't bad lacked the capability to use ice-fire spells." Leo shook his head, slightly ashamed that they had let such high-quality tomes go to waste for so long.

"The four tomes contain his personal insights on the ice-fire element as well as the steps needed to learn two standard 4th circle spells and one 4th circle spell of his own design. A hallmark spell that made him rather famous back in the day.

I hope his knowledge will help you break through the bottleneck and someday achieve the same level he did or perhaps even higher." Leo looked at the books with a glimmer of hope, wondering if Frost mastering his ancestor's magic would bring him joy in the afterlife.

Frost took the first book set with a heavy heart and excited grin. His magic had fallen behind his glaive mastery. He was sorely in need of books such as this.

"I'll do my best Leo."

"That's all I ask…. Finally, these books contain the insights of my great, great, great aunt who was a master of pole weapons, spears, glaives, lances, halberds she practised them all and compiled her knowledge and techniques into these tomes, passing down her legacy.

Though my father and I use the sword and shield the knowledge is still useful, though we may not wield the same weapons as her learning their styles can help us defend against them. I'm sure however that you'll be able to benefit far more than we have." Leo thus pushed the last special reward to Frost, remembering the times he read them along with his father.

"Are you sure you wish to give away such knowledge? Wouldn't this weaken the Furano house for future generations and even expose the secrets of your family's battle styles?" Frost asked nervously as he caressed the books.

"You don't need to worry about that Frost. We've already made copies of their tomes, so the knowledge won't be lost. Plus, we're only giving them out because it's you, we trust that you wouldn't abuse this knowledge." Douglas replied with a jovial and easy-going tone. Frost was their friend and ally; the family had no hesitation in exposing their battle styles to him.

Frost felt touched by their trust once again, he bowed his head even lower this time as his heart flooded with gratitude.

"Those are the special rewards from our family vault, hopefully they're to your liking?" Leo asked confidently, a knowing smile on his lips.

"More than to my liking, they're absolutely perfect, exactly what I need right now." Frost jokingly shoved the last set of books into his storage ring as if fearing Leo would take back his rewards. This made those present lightly laugh. No one however seemed shocked by the lavishness of Leo and Douglas, finding that such rewards were more than justified.

"What's left is the transfer of gold."