Cinder reached for the necklace, shocked about Bruno's reaction.
"The deer! It was on its antler." But he still answered.
Bruno easily avoided Cinder's hand as he stepped back and turned around to inspect the necklace with a deep frown.
"What's it to you anyway?" Cinder questioned as he stood up and tried to reach around Bruno but to no avail. Bruno wasn't just too big, but he was also too fast. Cinder saw no hope in retrieving his necklace.
"...It's mine," Bruno eventually said, realizing he needed to give Cinder some kind of explanation, despite being as distraught as he was. Unfortunately, it wasn't a great explanation.
"Hey! I found it. If you want it, buy it. At a good price!" Cinder said, giving Bruno an angry glare. This was no way to treat someone who brought him a precious deer.
"No—"
"No?!" cinder exclaimed and started reaching for the necklace again.
Bruno sighed and grabbed Cinder by the face, pushing him back onto the stool.
"Let me talk."
"...Okay." Overwhelmed by the butcher's strength, Cinder could only agree.
"It's not mine because I'm taking it from you. It's mine because it was made for me."
"It was made for you?" Cinder asked doubtfully. It was hanging on a deer. How could it be made for him?
Bruno nodded.
"I…left it behind when I gave up climbing," he said, his voice heavy with melancholy.
"The Mountain?"
"I certainly wasn't climbing trees," Bruno's tone was sharp.
"..."
Cinder suddenly had a lot of questions, none of which he dared to ask due to Bruno's voice and expression. He just sat in silence while Bruno caressed the locket.
After a while, Bruno continued his explanation, more for his own sake than for Cinder's.
"My lover at the time made it for me as a prank."
Cinder frowned. How was a golden necklace a prank? Was it because he was a man and thus shouldn't wear jewelry? He didn't comment on it.
"This is why you could kill the deer, kid."
"..."
"It's made with an inversed weight reduction enchantment. Wearing it makes it feel like someone's given you a blanket of lead," Bruno explained.
"She said…wearing it would show me how it always felt for her when she had to help me up the Mountain. She was joking, of course. But only when she said it." Bruno's nostalgic smile faded as his voice grew deeper and he leaned against the counter.
"She…I'm not sure if she felt it or not, but it was true. I was holding her back. She had no trouble climbing the Mountain. Every step she took, she took with ease. But I…I struggled." Bruno's eyes were cloudy with emotion as he thought of the past.
"In the end, I quit. I decided she would do better on her own. I ran." Bruno shrugged and bundled up the chain.
"I don't know how or why this made its way here, but I won't let you sell it to anyone else." Setting aside the fact that it was a cursed item that probably wouldn't sell very well, the necklace was a gift that represented his lover's feelings for him.
Regardless of what had happened, Bruno wouldn't let anyone else have it. If she didn't want to keep it after he left, he would at least keep it out of anyone else's hands, even if he didn't want it either.
Cinder nodded slowly and let Bruno breathe the gloomy air for a minute or two while reminiscing. But Bruno had pocketed the necklace without saying anything else, so Cinder had to speak up.
"So, a magic necklace, huh? I bet it's worth a pretty penny," he said as if speaking to no one specific.
Bruno looked up and at Cinder.
"It increases the weight of your body. It's a cursed item. You would have to pay someone to take it off your hands," Bruno said. He would still give Cinder a handful for it, but not without making him aware of the value of his items.
"What do you mean cursed? If it just increases your weight, isn't that not a big deal?"
Bruno sighed and took out the necklace again. If it was just to demonstrate, he didn't mind letting Cinder try out its effects. He handed it to Cinder.
Understanding what Bruno wanted, Cinder put it on.
If he hadn't been sitting on the stool, he would have dropped to his knees. As soon as it rested against his skin, it felt like his body suddenly doubled or tripled in weight. He breathed heavily as he strenuously raised his hands and somehow managed to take off the bracelet again.
"Mm." Was all he had to say while capturing his breath.
"See what I mean?" Bruno asked even if it was blatantly obvious that Cinder saw what he meant.
Cinder nodded.
But then his eyes lit up as he felt the fatigue in his muscles. It was made even clearer due to the exhaustion of carrying the deer.
"...Hey, isn't that the perfect training equipment?!" He asked excitedly.
Bruno furrowed his brows for a moment before relaxing and staring at the necklace in disbelief. He looked at Cinder for a moment.
"No?" Cinder asked half-dispiritedly. Was he wrong?
Bruno didn't answer. Instead, he looked at the locket. He opened it.
'Your Stone.'
A simple engraving was all that was inside the locket. It was nothing special. It was the same as when he first got it.
When he got it, Bruno had thought it was just a phrase or a different way to call herself his rock, his source of comfort and stability in turbulent times, and that he should think of her when wearing the necklace.
That wasn't it at all.
It was a reference to a conversation they once had about the myth of Sisyphus.
Bruno had said, 'If it stone rolls down every time it gets close to the top, why not carry it instead of rolling it?'
It had been a joke. It worked since she laughed. But it wasn't practical. If the stone was that light, it wouldn't be much of a punishment.
That was what she had said between laughs.
He had countered,
'Maybe Sisyphus should just have been stronger.'