Chapter 88: Central Heating
"Miguel, watch the house! I'm heading out for a bit!"
Miguel poked his head out from the living room. "It's already snowing out there. Where are you going?"
Hans pulled his collar up high, shielding half his face from the draft. "To earn coin," he said, his voice quiet but resolute. "Enough to see us through the winter."
He was about to step over the threshold when he froze.
Two figures stood at his door. They were clad in heavy, midnight-black mage robes, hoods pulled low enough to mask their features. Despite the swirling gale, not a single snowflake clung to their fabric.
Hans's hand instinctively drifted to his waist, only to find nothing there. He cursed inwardly—he'd grown soft in the safety of Iron Fortress. He hadn't even packed his usual "negotiation blade."
One of the figures, carrying a heavy metal tool kit, spoke.
"Citizen: Hans?"
The voice was a flat, clinical monotone. Only the undead spoke with that specific lack of inflection.
Hans let out a breath of relief. It was a strange reality, but aside from his family at Sunflower House, the creatures he trusted most in this world were the denizens of the Evernight Empire.
"That's me."
"By the Master's decree, we are here to install a Civilian Grade Heating Array."
A Skeleton Mage stepped forward, extending a formal notice. Hans stared at it, hesitant to take the paper. A heating array? It sounded expensive. Terrifyingly expensive.
"Is... is there some mistake? I didn't petition for this..."
"A petition is unnecessary," the other Mage said, stepping past Hans into the house. "This is a basic citizen benefit of the Evernight Empire. Installation is mandatory. Cost: Zero."
The first Skeleton Mage followed him in, closing the door behind them and sealing out the winter chill. The children in the room went silent at the sight of the two grim, robed intruders. The younger ones scrambled to hide behind Miguel.
Ignoring the residents entirely, the two Mages began pacing through the living room. One of them occasionally tapped the walls and floor with a bony finger.
"Load-bearing wall structure: Stable. Meets installation parameters."
"Spatial center point identified. Optimal energy field coverage confirmed."
The second Mage knelt in the exact center of the room and began to carve.
Hans watched his polished wooden floorboards and panicked. "Wait! Lords! You're installing it there? The floor—"
The Mage with the tool kit produced a tool that looked suspiciously like a masonry chisel. "The installation process will generate a minor amount of particulate matter and wood shavings. Please perform post-installation sanitation yourself."
The next second, a piercing screech of metal against wood filled the room. The Skeleton Mage worked with mechanical speed, its hand a blur. Wood chips flew as precise, glowing lines were etched into the timber.
Driven by curiosity, the children crept closer to watch.
"Brother," Lily whispered to Miguel. "What are they drawing? Is it a treasure map?"
The boy named Snowy, the boldest of the lot, ran up to the working Mage. He held out his prized possession—a small wooden toy hammer. "Mister, use mine. It's a good one."
The Skeleton Mage paused. It turned its skull, the Soul Fire in its sockets examining the toy, then the boy. It extended a bony hand, took the hammer, and weighed it solemnly. Then, with great care, it placed the toy hammer into its kit alongside its professional tools.
Then, it picked up its own chisel and resumed carving.
Hans covered his face. His heart bled for his high-quality pine flooring.
Half an hour later, a complex magic array, two meters in diameter, was etched into the center of the living room. The other Mage inspected the work, nodding.
"Runes verified. Commencing installation of the Control Nexus."
The kit-carrying skeleton walked to the wall where the children's hand-drawn family portrait hung. It took the picture down and handed it casually to Hans. Before Hans could react, the skeleton produced a crude iron lever and several long, heavy-duty bolts.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
It hammered the lever's base directly into the masonry. Plaster dust cascaded onto the floor. The ugly, industrial iron lever now sat exactly where the heartwarming drawing used to be. The visual dissonance made Hans want to weep.
"Control Nexus installed," the Mage said, dusting off its hands. "Pull downward to increase thermal output. Push upward to decrease. Operation is intuitive. Meets civilian safety standards."
Hans stared at the lever, which was thicker than his arm. Intuitive? He wasn't so sure.
"Process complete. Commencing initial Mana injection and system diagnostics."
The two Mages stood on opposite sides of the array, raising their staffs. "Non-essential personnel, retreat to the perimeter."
Hans quickly herded the children into the corner.
Two streams of Od surged from the staffs into the floor. The lines of the array ignited one by one, glowing with a faint orange light. And then... the light flickered and died with a soft poof.
Silence filled the room.
The two Mages looked at each other. One pointed a bony finger at a specific node. The other shook its head and pointed at a different rune. They didn't speak, but Hans could feel the air vibrating with a silent, heated debate.
After a few minutes, they reached a consensus. One Mage stepped forward and scraped a chisel across a specific rune twice.
"Calibration corrected. Commencing second test."
Again, the Mana surged.
The array on the floor exploded into a blinding glare, dyeing the entire room a fierce, fiery orange. An indescribable wave of heat erupted from the center, rushing outward.
It wasn't a "warmth." It was an inferno.
A blast of hot air slapped Hans in the face; beads of sweat broke out on his forehead instantly.
"It's... it's too hot!" Lily cried, clutching her collar, her face turning beet-red.
The temperature in the room was skyrocketing at a terrifying rate. The very air began to shimmer and distort.
"Turn it off! It's too much!" Hans screamed, lunging for the iron lever. He grabbed the cold metal and tried to shove it upward with all his might.
It didn't budge.
Creaaak—
The lever shifted a millimeter under his weight. Instantly, the array flared even brighter. Hans felt like his eyebrows were about to be singed off.
Just then, a dark blur appeared beside him. A Skeleton Mage extended a single bony finger and gave the massive iron lever a light, effortless flick.
The lever that Hans couldn't move with his entire body weight snapped to the top position with a sharp clack. The light of the array died instantly. The searing air began to cool.
The only sound in the room was the ragged breathing of Hans and the children.
The Skeleton Mage turned its skull, the Soul Fire flickering at Hans. "Control Nexus sensitivity threshold exceeded. Re-calibrating."
It pulled a small wrench from its kit and tightened a few bolts at the base of the lever. "Calibration finalized. System entering standard operational mode."
With a steady hand, it pulled the lever down to the midpoint.
This time, the array glowed with a soft, gentle amber light. A stable, comfortable warmth radiated slowly from the floor, flowing into every corner of the room. The children, who had been drenched in sweat moments ago, let out long sighs of relief.
"It's so cozy..."
"Warmer than the fireplace!"
Forgetting their fear, the children crept closer to the array, basking in the constant heat. Their small faces glowed with a happy, healthy flush.
The two Skeleton Mages packed their kits and headed for the door.
"Installation and debugging complete. Imperial benefit: No fee for labor."
"Sustenance energy will be provided via the Iron Fortress Mana Grid."
"A maintenance fee of ten coppers is due weekly to the Bureau of Logistics. We wish you a warm winter."
With that, they opened the door and stepped out into the blizzard without looking back. Their silhouettes vanished into the white in seconds.
Hans stood in his spring-warm living room, dazed. He looked at the array on the floor, then at the industrial lever on his wall. He walked to the window, watching the wind howl and the snow fall faster.
But inside, there wasn't a hint of a chill.
Miguel, Lily, and the others were already sitting in a circle around the amber glow, laughing and playing. Hans let out a sigh. At the very least, this winter, no child in this house would fall ill from the cold.
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