Chapter. 12. Lettuce to Windmage (19)
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“Hey Astrad!”
found.
When I wondered where our little promising youngster had gone, I noticed that he was stuck in a corner far away from the bonfire, out of fear that someone might think he was living in a closet.
Jeez. Jeez. Jeez.
As I approached with a bright face, I refined the words I had prepared in my mind a few more times. She said, ‘There is a wind blowing that will change the world. Today, the same thing is happening in almost every region…’ No. It’s too long. Keeping it short and impactful is –
Jeez. Jeez.
What do kids that age like? The child is getting old, so I don’t think heroic poetry will work for him. Would it be okay if it was a title? Anyway, all of Roderick’s territories have been pushed back, so there are a lot of titles and territories left. If Wuthering Heights wants to open a chain store…
Jeez.
“…He was alive. customer.”
“uh….”
And, the moment I arrived at the rock ledge where he was sitting, with my eyes accustomed to the darkness.
I realized how stupid I had been.
Temporary hospital beds and patients similar to the one I was lying in.
The difference from the campfire is that their cold bodies were covered up to their heads with robes.
A place where the bodies of wizards who died in this battle are kept. Astrad’s eyes, sitting blankly in the darkness next to me, were full of emotions that were familiar to me.
Low-pitched anger and revenge. Feeling of shame. It is a feeling that fills the inside with things like loneliness and longing, so much so that one’s mind has no place to go and floats upward.
dump!
The professor, who was thinking about what to say, saw Astrad wearing only a thin shirt and pants and no robe in the cool late fall, and immediately sat down next to him.
“I’m catching a cold.”
“….”
“Well… his face also looks really bad. Then I fell down, dude. “Please stay by the fire over there.”
“….”
Ssyuk-
“Ugh, I get it, I get it. I won’t say anything. Just sit here quietly. huh?”
“….”
Leaving behind the guy who didn’t respond, I quickly returned carrying an armful of firewood piled up in the patient area.
Chagak, chagak, hwareuk!
“Well, it’s much better.”
“…What did you come for?”
“You wouldn’t know it if you looked at it. It’s cold so I came here to make a fire, dude. “I’m not going to say anything anymore, so just pretend I’m not around.”
That’s not an empty remark, I really wasn’t planning on saying anything. If you have any sense, you can tell that this guy is mourning dead wizards. It’s just that looking at this guy with dead black eyes… I just remembered myself living because I couldn’t die a few years ago. If Corduro wasn’t by my side, I would have died a long time ago. I was so crazy that I set aside a day to play Russian roulette once a month.
Crack. Crash…
The fire quickly caught fire on the well-dried firewood, and we watched the burning firewood in silence.
“Master… liked taking walks.”
Under the flickering lights. It was after about 30 minutes of silence that the young wizard opened his mouth. Rather than saying he wanted to say something, it would be more accurate to say that he let it out like a sigh.
“….okay.”
‘At this timing, Master. That’s also past tense. In the end, did that guy go too? He seemed like a nice guy.’
Sigh-
Astrad saw the man sitting next to him lie down with his hands clasped behind his head. An indifferent attitude, as if to say, ‘I’ll listen.’ A meticulous consideration that is unusual.
‘If you had said this to comfort me in vain, I was planning to kick you out and ask you what you know about Master and me.’
I just spoke out the memories that seemed to explode as time went by. Because I had no desire to be comforted, and it was not a feeling that would go away just because I was comforted.
The words that came out of Astrad’s mouth were closer to what he himself was meant to hear.
“To be exact, you started liking me after my memories started to fade. Originally, Master was not a very active person. On the contrary, when I was tired of working at the tower for the first time and asked to go to the village for a while, he grumbled and said something like, ‘I’ve been wandering around for 50 years, so just lying in bed isn’t enough…’”
It was probably because of my memories of my teacher that I often said that I would go for a walk since the day he got dementia.
“memory?”
“Yes, I remember. “When I first came home, I was a bit depressed.”
“…I didn’t think the wizards here would be territorial.”
“Home has always been the best. The problem is, I did it because I couldn’t bear the fact that I was an orphan.”
My mother passed away from a chronic illness when I was 4 years old. She left behind a poor home with no mementos and worked as a servant in the village chief’s house for six months. She spent two years as a slave on the outskirts of the empire, where she was forcibly sold. I ran away and became a petty thief for two years.
Days filled with pain. Young Astrad needed someone to blame, as could anyone, and the target was always his father, whose face he never knew, who abandoned his mother and child and disappeared.
father. A piece of trash who left behind his weak mother and made a woman raise her child alone in this harsh world.
The name that my mother, who was groaning while fighting illness, called in her sleep.
‘…iced coffee. Dylan. Dylan, my dear Dylan….’
Dylan. my father Dylan.
A person who thought they would never be involved again until they learned about letter magic.
When my mother was alive, I was too young to understand it, and after her death, I was always alone, so I didn’t even know about the existence of letter magic, which everyone else knew about.
Until one day, I asked what magic was behind the piece of paper that was flying out of my teacher’s hand.
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‘Can you send me too?’
‘then.’
‘Can I get it?’
‘This is a bit ambiguous. Felix Drixiel thought that [letters arrive at home], so letters only arrive if you have a place to stay for at least a few days.’
‘Well, then we can’t receive letters?’
‘No way. Felix Home and Letter Magic were created because there was nothing to call home in the first place! ‘Hey, do you remember what I told you about Home?’
‘Oh, there are a lot of white curves, it’s round, and letters are flying around…’
‘okay. And there is a huge bookshelf for countless letters that will stay for a while. Among them, there are some for us. When a new wind wizard arrives at the home, his or her name is magically engraved into an empty drawer. Then, the letter sent to that wizard will go into that storage box. Cool, right? ‘Do you feel like becoming a wizard?’
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‘Woah, old man. Teach me how to write.’
‘Hmm? The old man has poor hearing, so he can’t hear well. What did you say before, he wants you to use magic when he’s learning how to write?
‘Ahh! That’s, uh… Anyway! I changed my mind, so please teach me! Inspiration… No, Master!’
‘Hmm. Just think about it if you catch quail for lunch today. These days, the quails are very plump and delicious…’
‘You’re so mean! ‘He said he was a teacher!’
———=
“You were an interesting teacher.”
“then. Incomparable to anyone in this world. You were the best teacher. That’s how I learned writing from my teacher before magic.”
From village to village.
From city to city.
Even though I had to sleep on the street, climb steep cliffs on secluded mountain paths to avoid people who would criticize wizards, suffer from fever after getting caught in the rain, and encounter scary monsters, the trip with my teacher was truly enjoyable.
That was when we were halfway across the empire. When Astrad’s feet became calloused, he became a slingshot master who could catch a quail with his eyes closed, and his black fingertips became so black from catching pieces of charcoal every day that they could not be erased even with washing.
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mom. Let’s take a look.
Astraga. To Mom Cordette
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At that time, I hated it.
At that time, Astraga was his son. Dear Dylan.
=========
It was a letter completed with the help of a teacher, three months after learning to write.
How anxious were you?
Sending my mother’s motionless letter by burning it.
How many resentments and curses were poured towards my father’s letter, which was flying powerfully through the smoke.
In front of my embarrassed teacher, I cried until my voice became hoarse.
I wouldn’t have been so upset if both sheets hadn’t moved. This means that his father is also dead, or left the empire due to circumstances.
However, since the letter arrived, it meant that he was still alive and in the empire.
My father, alive and still in the Empire. Dylan abandoned me and his mother.
From that day on, I sent letters whenever I had time. The difficult times I had with my mother. How much your mother missed you. Her mother passed away and the hardships I had to go through. Resentment for things you wouldn’t have had to go through if you had stayed. He met his teacher and became a wizard. Injuring my knee while catching a quail, bringing good south winds but getting kicked out for being a wizard, all kinds of trivial things, even minor incidents that I don’t even know why I sent them.
.
.
.
.
.
“…love/hate?”
“Because I was young. Although he was a father I hated so much that I wanted to kill him. I didn’t imagine for a day or two that my father’s head would be stoned while he was crying and apologizing, but… I cursed every day, so I ran out of things to curse at. Still, he doesn’t like it when he doesn’t feel guilty even for a day. So he wrote something down and sent it to me.”
“I felt guilty… Didn’t I just want to say ‘I’m here’ to my father? “Do you want me to find out?”
“….maybe. At the time, I thought I was just sending it with resentment, but after I sent it, I looked forward to the day it would arrive home. “I thought there would be a reply.”
After a six-month journey and nearly two months of sleeping at the entrance of the home and learning magic.
Astrad, the first-rank wind wizard, became a member of Home and had a mailbox with his name engraved on it.
Every morning from that day on. Every day until the group of letters ends. Astrade walked around the mailbox with other students with excitement.
A stern letter was sent to Devian, the second son of a noble family, telling him not to forget that he is always a member of the family. once a month.
Haley, the daughter of a famous merchant in the first-tier empire, receives letters every day asking about trends in elf trade goods and her daughter’s well-being.
Perth, who came from a second-class, poor farming family, received longing letters once a week from 12 brothers, saying they hoped he would live better than at home.
To Doris, a fellow orphan from the 3rd tier, a 12-page tearful apology letter from her mother. It contains the circumstances that forced him to abandon him and blessings for his future.
Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch!
Ssuk-sud! Rattling!
As the enchanted mailbox opened its door and spit out letters one by one, Astrad waited for her turn with hopeful eyes.
The mailbox with his name on it always betrayed his expectations. Every day.
Young Astrad’s morning began with the realization of being abandoned, and the rough-mouthed and lively boy was withering away day by day.
‘walk! Ah, you suddenly really want to go for a walk, Astrad.’
‘Go, then.’
‘What fun would there be in going alone to Cheongseungmaji? Instead of sitting there in the corner eating stale air, let’s go out together!’
‘….I’m tired. Let’s go together next time!’
‘Ride well in the wind! If you fall, your head will crack like a watermelon!’
‘Put me down! ‘Get down!’
The teacher always found his disciple crying in a corner of his home, and every time he looked into his gloomy eyes, he captured the vast land, the sea of clouds, the endless sunset, and flocks of migratory birds.
At some point, Astrad stopped going to check his mailbox in the morning. Instead, at that time he started having tea with his teacher. Like dust settling on a mailbox that is never opened. The time I spent with my teacher piled up above my father, who was stained in my heart.
Gauman Delhurst. my benefactor. my teacher my father
Memories of the past eight years flowed endlessly from Astrad’s mouth. I just wanted someone to listen. About what a foolish, crazy, and warm person the wizard named Gauman Delhurst was.
As the memories go back in time, the boy’s voice gradually becomes lower and quieter. Finally today. As the story unfolds in his final moments, the young wizard held his wand until his knuckles turned white.
Last Spell. A once-in-a-lifetime miracle for a wizard who succeeded in drawing his world to such an extent that even his death could not be overshadowed.
The meaning of the spell that Gauman Dellhurst realized throughout his life as a human and a wizard was very clear.
An earnest wish. A request to the wind from a wizard who has been with the wind his whole life. ‘Please keep an eye on this child.’
All the winds that his shout reached held Astrad’s hands, and Astrad simply weaved the spell as guided by her teacher’s winds.
“Master just gave it to me until the moment he passed away. If someone asks me if I have ever truly received love from my parents… I would probably say yes. “Instead of the father who abandoned me, I received a teacher who is more worthy of the title of father than anyone else in the world.”
“….”
Crack. Cracking.
Embers from the bonfire flew in the wind.
“What do you plan to do from now on?”
“….I don’t know.”
I really don’t know. What to do. Where should I go? The place he needed to be was next to his teacher, and the work he had to do was the work assigned at home and attending to the teacher who was physically uncomfortable. Now that those two had disappeared in an instant, Astrad really didn’t know what to do.
“….”
The professor looked at Astrad, waving her wand with a blank expression on her face.
Unfocused eyes, emotionless voice. A monotonous, sad sound played faintly by the wind blowing on a cane.
I know I’m okay, but I haven’t been able to overcome the gap between reality and emotions. I couldn’t even cry, I was just devastated. It is not that difficult to motivate someone whose mind has been shaken like this.
‘plural. Just one word will be enough to attract that guy.’
A pleural effusion that cannot even be confirmed as alive or dead. If we add the story about Vazyur and the current situation in the world, it won’t be that difficult to have Astrad join us. The motive is clear. It is not easy to find such a capable companion, so if you are a player, it would be right to take this guy here.
but.
“If you don’t know. “Why not go for a walk after the sun rises?”
Instead of pushing the boy’s back, the professor chose to just watch.
‘No one had a good ending despite being a revenge demon.’
It’s obvious what people watching the broadcast will say. You’ll be in an uproar, thinking, “I’m so full,” and “Calculating the gains and losses isn’t even up to the level of basic arithmetic.” Even just me, I’m thinking to myself, ‘Aren’t I making a mistake?’ Because I am full of thoughts.
But I didn’t want to take care of my own interests by destroying people like that. It’s not for emotional reasons, it’s because I don’t have the confidence to endure it if you make it like that and take it with you.
“Get some air. There’s something you Wind Wizards always say when they get into trouble. ‘It was just that kind of wind.’. He turns the village well into a waterspout and blows it up into the sky, blows away all the wheat during the harvest season in a sudden storm, gets caught by the lord and pays several times the compensation, kidnaps a noble girl, swings her around on the clouds, and then sends her back. This can never be something you think about, right? You wind wizards are not beings that think or move. “You just move according to your own wishes.”
Although they are called crazy, they are freer than anyone else. Those who lived only as their hearts told them were the wind wizards.
So that the shaking heart of the young wind wizard can overcome it on its own, not because of someone else’s impulse.
Scratch scratch.
“…I’m not good at this kind of thing, though.”
Instead of taking revenge, the professor took out a sacred object.
Even though it was roughly placed on a piece of stone and set on the ground, the sacred light leaking out was enough to bring down the piety of the temple in the valley.
“Well, what is that? At first glance, it doesn’t look like an ordinary item…”
“Well, no. The holy relics of the Gwangmyeong Church contain the soul of a saint. “Even if you brought the entire temple of most cities, it would be less sacred than this.”
“Such an object on a dirt floor like this….”
“Even if he is only a saint in appearance, he is still a saint. “What can a priest do in front of a boy who lost his family?”
To begin with, there was no such thing as religion outside. He was a priest in name only, so he didn’t even know how to say a prayer.
At least everyone knows how to hold two hands together. As if holding on to someone’s outstretched hand, or as if reaching out to save oneself.
In front of the faint dawn, the professor clumsily knelt down and held his hands together, following the bishop in his vague memory.
“Pray. Astrad. “No matter what, just tell me what’s inside you.”
“But, Master’s wish is already….”
“That’s common sense among atheist pagans named wizards. In the Roharam Church, the dead unconditionally return to the stars. If Roharam said that, I know so. “Your master’s wind has dispersed, but his spirit is somewhere in the sky.”
“….”
Slurp.
In front of the priest, the boy who lost his family quietly knelt.
Even the bells of the temple. A prayer that touches your heart. It was a simple ceremony without any common ancestral rites.
The strong wind was blowing around the valley as if it were wrapping around the wailing that contained the teacher’s name.
The boy could cry as much as he wanted.
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fantasy,
