Aino

Located at the border, Nod-Krai is neither a land of abundance nor a place of joy. All year round, the cold wind howls and lashes the lands, as though attempting to wring even the last dregs of warmth from every corner.

Yet in this seemingly forgotten corner of the world, the marketplace is chock-a-block with an astonishing array of marvelous machines. From guns that shoot flowers to floor sweepers that act as affectionate as puppies... You never know how a contraption might act until the very moment it springs to life. These inventions have brought comfort and laughter to this desolate land, and their creator is none other than Aino, the owner of the Clink-Clank Krumkake Craftshop.

Aino has spent years secluded in this unique workshop with not a single plushie (something children should love) in sight. Instead, she surrounds herself with sheets upon sheets of cold metal and mechanical parts piled precariously high. But this doesn't stop Aino from seeing it as the bestest and warmest home in the world. Here, she enjoys the companionship of numerous family members — assembled by her from screws and steel.

Aino, who calls herself their "parent," takes on the responsibility of caring for her little mechanical family every day. In the morning, they need to "wake up" by powering on, they have to "charge" themselves up with lunch at noon, then "sleep" in the night by powering down, right on schedule. Whatever spare time they have, they spend on diligently "executing tasks."

Besides the creations she makes as a hobby, this genius mechanic also takes on various mechanical commissions. From the massive Boom and Blast Kuuvahki Energy Cannon that defends everyone from the Wild Hunt's invasions, to tiny precision parts in mechanical arms for aged adventurers... As long as you sincerely praise this genius mechanic's brilliant ideas and offer her delicious desserts, she'll create masterpieces beyond your wildest imagination.

However, her inventions occasionally come with bizarre features not included in the original commission's requirements. In that sense, placing an order with Aino is like buying a box of chocolates... except that the box has a chance to fire a scary doll at you when you open it — so you'd best pray it doesn't!

Whenever the Boom and Blast Kuuvahki Energy Cannon unleashes its deafening roar and its dazzling flash of light, Katya is reminded of that tiny, pink-haired girl. Back then, Aino spoke in a voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz, barely audible in any room she was in. She was so unassuming that it seemed almost impossible to reconcile that memory of her with the genius mechanic she is today.

Katya could no longer remember if she had ever asked Aino herself about the details of how she showed up at the Speranza. In this bitter frontier, there were only two reasons why a child would be alone — unavoidable separation or deliberate abandonment. Neither was particularly rare.

The rain in Nod-Krai is bone-chillingly cold, its arrival both sudden and merciless. Little Aino, who could barely reach the table's edge even on tiptoes, could only silently accept the grueling hand that fate had dealt her.

Katya remembered pulling the timid girl, who had been peering through the doorway, into the house and handing her a bowl of warm, sweet soup. But as soon as the girl's fingertips touched the rim of the bowl, she quickly recoiled — her hands were swollen and purple from the cold, with cracks in her skin more striking than the scarlet broth. However brief her contact with the bowl, it must have stung her with pain.

Katya wrapped her tiny, injured hands in clean old cloth, and only then did the girl dare to clutch the bowl. With a few quick slurps, she gulped down the soup, finishing her meal in the blink of an eye.

From that day on, little Aino stayed at the Speranza and became a member of the Conch Gang.

The members of the Conch Gang are all young children. The kind-hearted Katya provides them with shelter and jobs as shop assistants, while giving these children plenty of freedom during their breaks.

At the age when they were most energetic and adventurous, the other children roamed the tundra forests in packs like Chic Badger cubs, but little Aino was the only one who preferred to be alone.

This wasn't due to a lack of childlike curiosity. On the contrary, her curiosity was so vast that only an entire world could contain it — a world made with precise, logical lines, craftsmanship, mechanisms, and curios. Any metal component was enough to make Aino stop in her tracks, and the noise of clinking and clanking from the "Rossum Workshop" workshop was the song she came to be most familiar with.

This is how she met her lifelong best friend — Lyulka, the daughter of the owner of the "Nuts and Bolts." When Lyulka discovered that this girl, who visited their shop almost daily, had the same sparkle in her eyes as herself, she excitedly took her by the hand, suddenly eager to share her mechanical contraptions and half-finished prototypes.

One day, after they became close, Aino suddenly pointed at a machine in the store, and said, "Adjusting this part a little should increase the kuuvahki consumption efficiency by 2.8%. I've been running simulations in my head for a while, and I think it's got a good chance of working... So, wanna try?"

Lyulka was stunned. That was exactly the bottleneck she'd been struggling with for days. Although she felt slightly hesitant that an untrained child had pointed out the issue so easily, she still nodded in agreement.

When the modification was complete, the test data was precise, showing an improvement of exactly 2.8%. As she stared at the truth laid out by the data, Lyulka's skepticism dissolved into amazement.

"Aino's never studied a day of mechanical theory in her life, and yet she identified and resolved a critical issue. Now, if she DOES study, she might be able to work miracles..."

An opportunity for Aino to study soon arrived. A Snezhnayan mechanic known as "Papa Wrench" happened to visit Nasha Town, and while dining at the Speranza, he was drawn to the group of child workers. Papa Wrench, being a man full of compassion, decided to stay for a while to regale the children with Snezhnayan fairy tales.

But he quickly and keenly noticed that one of the children was not quite like the others — while they were immersed in his stories, Aino's gaze was firmly fixed on the tools he carried.

This discovery filled Papa Wrench's heart with joy, and with Katya's approval, he set up a small class during the restaurant's downtime to teach mechanical know-how to children who were interested.

When Lyulka heard of this class, she excitedly joined the children. However, after just a few days, Lyulka realized that the things Aino asked Papa Wrench were starting to become as incomprehensible as some arcane tome.

Before, Aino had been like a tranquil stream, silently meandering forward... But now it seemed that she had finally found a vast, boundless ocean to call her own.

Utterly in her element, a mysterious change overcame Aino, as though some fae of legend had touched her with a blessed hand, bestowing upon her secret gifts. Aino's fingers danced between various parts, an intricate machine seemingly flying into being at her expert touch. It was hard to imagine her dexterous digits had ever been blistered with frostbite.

And as her hands grew more lively, so too did the conversations she made. Aino began to speak more and more, her little head seemingly filled with endless novel ideas waiting to be shared with the world. Most adults who heard her would find the child peculiar and dismiss her ideas with a gentle smile, but Papa Wrench believed that she might one day truly turn all of her imaginative concepts into reality.

And when Papa Wrench's knowledge collided with Aino's wild ideas, the result was an explosion of ingenuity that brightened the lives of those around them...

The Conch Gang's broken alarm clocks were fixed, but suddenly grew wings and would fly around their rooms in the mornings, ringing all the while. Only catching them would put an end to the cacophony, and from then on, there were no more sleepyheads among the children.

The broken trash can in the back kitchen was also patched up with tin plates. When fed with garbage, it would chew up everything contentedly, then let loose a playful burp of satisfaction. At first, everyone suspected it was a prank, but after discovering that the sounds were actually coming from the trash can itself, taking out the garbage became the children's most popular chore.

However, those happy and joyful days didn't last long, as farewell arrived at the door sooner than expected.

The mission-bound Papa Wrench received an order from his merchant convoy to depart. Reluctant to leave, he placed a screw in Aino's palm and told the girl two important things: To never underestimate her talents, nor to ever put down her tools. This wasn't Aino's first farewell. The cold wind seemed to leave her throat sandpaper-dry, and besides a cursory "thank you," "goodbye," and "take care," Aino didn't know what else she could say. In this turbulent land, every farewell could very well be their last. This unspoken rule was understood — and keenly felt — all over Nod-Krai.

After bidding farewell to her teacher, Aino sat alone behind closed doors, repeatedly running her fingertips over the grooves of the screw. After her tears had dried, she threaded the screw into her hair. From then on, this screw served both as an iron hairpin and a guiding light, keeping up the bangs that had once obscured her vision. Now, the path before her was clearer than ever.

After this farewell, the wheel of fate began to spin once more.

The members of the Conch Gang had always come and gone freely. After bidding farewell to several familiar friends in the howling cold winds, Aino bade farewell to the Gang as well. Lyulka had reached out to her, asking if she would like to move in with her, and perhaps even set up a workshop together. After much deliberation, Aino shook her head. While conducting stable research with a friend would be nice, she wanted to journey farther, see more, and create fascinating machines that none had ever made before.

Aino had heard from some adventure-loving children that if one were to leave Nasha Town and head west, there was a place piled high with abandoned metal scrap — perfect for young explorers to use as a secret base. However, the mead-drunk, grizzled adventurers of the town saw it differently. They claimed it was a mechanical boneyard that had fallen into ruin during Nod-Krai's golden years, its name long eroded by the river of time.

"Discarded metal scrap, a mechanical boneyard... Well, time for me to breathe some new life into it...!"

Though she had never been there, Aino was filled with longing for that storied location. Perhaps the answers she sought amidst an ocean of imagination might be found scrawled on cold, distant shores of iron.

At dawn, Aino clutched a small robot in her arms. Followed by an automated toolbox with wheels, and guided by members of the Conch Gang, she arrived at a massive structure on the outskirts of town. This weather-beaten mechanical beast lay sprawled along the silent ridges, waiting for its master to awaken.

"This is the place! From now on, I'm calling it the Clink-Clank Krumkake Craftshop. Here, I'll invent a machine that can make the most delicious krumkakes!" With one hand on her hip, Aino made her declaration. The giant's rusty mechanical arms swayed in the breeze, as if in greeting.

The smoke from Speranza drifted away, the laughter of the Conch Gang faded, and the large, long-silent workshop found itself a tiny, noisy new master.

And so time slipped away amidst countless clinks and clanks.

The next time Katya saw Aino, she was holding hands with a robot girl named Ineffa and had come to buy some sweets from the restaurant. Just like any good parent, Aino carefully taught her "child" how to make purchases... even though said "child" was several heads taller than her "parent."

"Be good and hold my hand, Ineffa! It would be really bad if you ran off and got lost."

"Now let's learn about shopping! First, come here, say hello to Aunty Katya, then ask for two Midsommar Tortes. Remember to pay with the Mora I gave you this morning! Once you're done, say bye-bye to Aunty Katya."

"Executing Midsommar Torte purchase command... Hello, Aunty Katya. I would like to buy two Midsommar Tortes. Here is the Mora. Thank you, Aunty Katya. Bye-bye, Aunty Katya."

Listening to the robot girl fluently repeating Aino's words, Katya realized how much the little girl had changed.

Her once gaunt cheeks had filled out into a healthy roundness, and she walked with an exuberant spring in her step, fitting for a child her age. Her eyes no longer stayed glued to the ground, but instead sparkled brightly — like an ingot of gold tempered by flame, radiating a brilliance that belonged only to her.

"Hehe, you're such a good girl, Ineffa! Oh, wait, I almost forgot. Aunty Katya, could you take the change and gimme some sugar for it? I'm gonna have Ineffa make me some of the BEST krumkakes in the whole world!"

But despite all the change, Aino's sweet tooth had stayed constant. Katya couldn't help but smile as she placed several packets of sugar into the robot girl's hands — far more than what would have been commensurate with the Mora.

"Calculating price difference... The amount of Mora paid is insufficient. I must compensate..." Before the robot girl could finish, Aino interrupted her.

"That there is Aunty Katya's love! Just take it, Ineffa. She'll be sad if we try to pay for it. So thanks, Aunty Katya!"

"Love?"

"Yeah! It's something you can't measure with Mora — it's the care we have for each other, just like how I take care of you, and you take care of me!"

The fate of Nod-Krai might one day truly be changed by this little pink-haired girl... Or perhaps, that change had already begun from the very first moment she picked up a wrench.

The first time Ineffa helped Aino clean up the workshop, she scanned a special little robot placed on Aino's desk. Its weathered metal shell had long since lost its luster, and its stiff limbs were unresponsive to external stimuli. Clearly, it was not one of Aino's recent works.

After living with Aino for a long time, Ineffa discovered that, corroded by time, rust had spread like snaking vines across the joints of the little robot. The last screw on its body had come loose and fallen off, and according to her analysis, even the most meticulous polishing and maintenance could no longer restore life to its decaying body.

Aino carefully put the little robot away. She asked Ineffa to support her as she solemnly moved it to the cabinet in her bedroom. It was then that Ineffa learned the story behind the broken-down machine.

It was the first robot that Aino had ever assembled by herself.

It wasn't equipped with any intelligence modules and could only make jingling sounds when it was shaken. Its sole purpose was companionship — to accompany a little girl who had experienced all too frequent farewells in her short life, who would sometimes find her heart swelling with loneliness.

Placed beside Aino's many modern ingenuities, it looks dull and sloppy. But even caked in rust, it continues to serve its purpose... to simply be there for her.

Because it is still family, and hence, still a part of her home.

In the dead of night, as the moon hung high among the stars, even as the Sniffer Moles slumbered, the workshop continued to rattle away in its typical clink-clank fashion.

Since embarking on her mechanical journey, Aino had always been praised as a genius by others. She could complete most simple mechanical constructions with her eyes closed, and it was rare to see her this focused.

But today, her surroundings were pitch black, with only Aino's workbench blazing bright as day. Her long sleeves had been hastily rolled up, and her temples were covered in sweat, stained with oil, and brushed by dust from who-knows-where, but the only thing Aino could focus on — and frown at — was the problem she faced. On the workshop's floor, open bags of snacks lay scattered, but even the wafting, saccharine scents could not tempt Aino from her task.

On the workbench lay a robot girl. Around her lay piles of parts of various sizes, silent testaments to Aino's countless iterative loops.

"Maybe I should give her a learning module. Family members need to learn and grow together so they can stick together..."

This idea suddenly popped into Aino's head. Although applying such a theory to machinery was unprecedented for her, Aino didn't hesitate at all and immediately got to work. While reaching for a crucial component, Aino, busy as she was, didn't even look to see what she had grabbed, but she could tell by its unfamiliar texture that it wasn't what she wanted. So, without even a glance, she tossed it under her workbench and continued focusing on her creation.

With a soft click, the final piece fit precisely into the last groove. There was a clatter as Aino's tools fell to the ground, followed by a dull thud — having maintained intense focus for so long, Aino had finally reached her limit. Exhaustion consumed the little genius like the night itself, and she fell into a deep sleep. Resting her head on the robot girl's arm, she herself looked like a little robot whose battery had run flat.

"Good morning, Aino."

"Time to wake up, I have made your favorite krumkakes for breakfast."

Hearing someone calling her to wake up, Aino rubbed her aching head, blinking the sleep out of her bleary eyes... But all she saw was the robot girl next to her, eyes still peacefully closed. It seemed like it was just a dream.

"But it'll come true soon, won't it, Ineffa...?"

Though Ineffa did not answer, what responded to Aino was the faint shimmer of her Vision — the very same one that Aino had mistaken for a mechanical part earlier.