Concept Grasping Magic Genius Episode 1
An old woman with a bent back holding a child’s hand arrived in the remote town of Dengton.
“You have no place to go?”
The old woman nodded at the director of the Dunton Relief Center’s question.
The old woman’s behavior was atrocious.
His clothes were tattered and his face was stained with blood. His complexion was also not good.
The director sighed in an exaggerated voice.
“Huh… It looks like another village has been hit by a disaster. This world is a dangerous place.”
Tears welled up in the old woman’s wrinkled eyes.
“What about the child?”
“He’s my grandson.”
“How old are you?”
“I’m three years old now.”
The director took off the robe that half-covered the child’s face.
The child did not cry and just stared at the director.
Silver hair, a rare sight in the South, and extremely pale white skin. Her round eyes were shining a mysterious peacock color.
“What about grandchildren? They look alike.”
The director spat and continued speaking.
“Go. There is no room to accommodate you two.”
“I, I have nowhere to go, so I’m asking you to explain…”
The old woman reached out and grabbed the director’s arm as he tried to turn away.
A jeweled brooch with an elaborate design rested on the dirty palm.
The director put the brooch into his bag very naturally.
“Follow me.”
The old woman followed the director, holding the child’s hand.
After opening the long iron gate and going through a small plaza-like space, and then passing another luxurious building, a large, neat building appeared.
The old woman and the child were guided to an empty room on the second floor.
It was quite shabby and dirty, with the feel of an old inn.
“What is your name?”
“This is Helen. This child is… Rowan.”
“It’s late at night, so I’ll explain the rules and responsibilities here tomorrow.”
I barely managed to survive and come this far. This was also a blessing.
“Thank you thank you.”
Helen entered the room and locked the door. Only then did she let out a long sigh and let go of Rowan’s hand.
Rowan asked as if he had been waiting.
“Mom? Dad?”
“Just take a nap and he’ll be back soon.”
Looking at the child’s face, the old woman was finally able to smile in relief.
That was her last smile.
Helen didn’t make it through that night.
“I guess I’m out of luck.”
The director, who had been unable to sleep because of Roan crying since dawn, opened the door and came in to check the situation.
The director’s wife asked him, who was spitting and throwing a tantrum.
“Why did you die?”
“I don’t know. His face is so red, maybe he drank some poison or something.”
“Is this suicide?”
“No. Your face looked unpleasant from the moment I first saw you.”
“What about this girl? She’s so pretty.”
Although she tried to comfort and soothe him, Rowan, knowing his situation, would not stop crying.
The director asked back.
“How many of us have silver hair?”
“There is no color this beautiful. Maybe Pauline is the closest to it?”
“Ha, judging by the eye color, this is definitely a half-blood. What do you think, would it look good with Pauline?”
“Let’s do that. I guess it’ll be more profitable than doing it alone, I guess.”
After a while.
Rowan was led to a skinny woman.
“Pauline, bring her to work starting today.”
The woman named Pauline nodded with an expressionless face.
Her hair was dull and lifeless, closer to ash than silver.
Although she has yet to lose her girlish side, Pauline became Rowan’s fake mother simply because they have similar hair colors.
* * *
Rowan wandered around the city in Pauline’s arms.
Those who pitied the two of them donated a penny or two, and Pauline’s grades were better than when she was working alone.
“It’s true that people look at you more pitifully if you have a pretty face.”
The director was very satisfied.
The Dunton Home was a royal charity that received subsidies for feeding and housing homeless vagrants and refugees, but its main source of income came from the daily begging of dozens of its members.
So there weren’t many adults over twenty in the shelter.
Most of them left before they reached that age, and no one knew where they went.
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Pauline, who was right on the borderline, was left behind in the shelter because she was paired with Rowan.
One winter day, after five years of being together as a fake hat and a hawk.
The director called Rowan into his office.
“Did you call, Director?”
“Yeah. Are you ready for work?”
“Yes, I was just about to go out with Pauline’s mother.”
Now eight years old, Rowan was very thin, which made him look even more pitiful and pitiful.
It was thanks to her exceptionally white skin and pretty appearance.
The director looked at Rowan and spoke softly.
“Now, Roan has to take action himself. He can’t stay in Pauline’s arms forever, right?”
“Ah… yes, I understand.”
Rowan could only nod.
In fact, he was the only one at that age who never went out hunting alone.
I guess it was because I liked drawing with Pauline, but now both Rowan and Pauline are too old for that.
“Then what about Pauline’s mother, Director?”
“What, Mom? And when you get to that age, you have to be independent. There are no exceptions.”
The day Pauline and Rowan finished their last angling together as mother and son.
The two sat side by side in a secluded corner of Dunton Park. It was their own space where they could rest away from prying eyes.
The sun was already setting in the west. The surrounding area was dyed in red.
Rowan asked.
“Where is Pauline’s mother going?”
“You’re a maid in a nobleman’s mansion. You’re lucky.”
Rowan smiled brightly at Pauline.
“why?”
“No… Thank goodness.”
“Don’t worry about me, worry about yourself.”
Pauline pouts and ruffles Rowan’s hair.
From the first time I met him until now, he has always been a polite and kind child.
He was very quiet, had many timid corners, and was quite observant, but he didn’t have any special tendencies at the shelter.
However, Rowan’s appearance stood out too much.
Even when he was worn out, he looked handsome, and even when he was dressed in shabby clothes, he looked cute. Even when he was equally thin, he had an unusually protective instinct.
Because of this, Rowan was bullied by the children at the shelter. Even though he had done nothing wrong, he was warned not to show off.
‘There’s nothing you can do about it inside the dorm, but try to stick with it whenever possible.’
Rowan did as Pauline said.
Although Pauline was frail and skinny, she was the oldest child in the shelter, so the children could not easily ignore her.
Pauline made every excuse possible to take Rowan with her.
Fake mother Pauline was a protector in the true sense of the word.
Rowan was well aware of that fact.
“Thank you for everything, Pauline’s mother.”
“Here we go again. What are you thankful for? I’m the one who’s thankful.”
Pauline, who had been answering in a calm voice, glanced at Rowan and was startled.
Tears were streaming down from the child’s eyes.
Pauline had never seen Rowan cry, except when she had to force herself to cry.
A flustered Pauline patted Rowan on the shoulder.
“What, you’re all grown up, so why are you crying?”
“……Mom, Dad, Helen, and Pauline’s mother are all leaving like that. Now I’m truly alone.”
Rowan remembered everything.
The bloody hallway scenery that I passed by while screaming.
The sound of Helen’s gasping breathing as she desperately crossed the strange-tasting river, holding herself in her arms.
The moment Helen died, telling him to grow up to be kind, strong, and polite.
Pauline’s screams as she hugs little Rowan and is kicked by a vagrant.
It was only after I got older that I gradually came to understand the meaning of memories.
People who protected and cherished me.
Now that even Pauline is leaving, all the emotions I’ve been holding back are bursting out in sadness.
“…….”
Pauline hugged Rowan’s skinny body tightly.
The child’s body was filled with hot moisture.
Pauline remembered that she cared very much for Rowan.
As Rowan’s sobbing body shook, Pauline’s body also shook. She also cried a lot.
“look at me.”
After a while, Pauline released Rowan from her arms and looked warmly at the child’s face.
Then, he gently placed both of Rowan’s hands on the child’s chest and covered it with his own hands.
The child’s heartbeat flowed through Pauline’s thin hand and stayed in it.
Just like that for a little while.
As the child’s whimpers subsided a little.
“Roan. I’m truly alone when this place is empty.”
“……What do you mean?”
“It means that if you keep the people who have left in your heart, you are not alone. If you look closely, you will be able to see how much ‘we’ cherish you… and love you.”
Rowan looked down at my chest and asked back.
“How do you look into the heart?”
“Close your eyes and feel it.”
“closing eyes…….”
I just wanted to tell you that you are not alone. I meant it as a comforting remark.
But Rowan truly believed those words.
“closing eyes…….”
Rowan, who had been mumbling repeatedly, quietly closed his eyes.
Occasionally, sadness would rise again, but Rowan would not open his tightly shut eyes.
Pauline, sitting quietly next to me, stayed like that the whole time, watching the sun set.
Do you really want to feel your parents’ love like that? Or is it because you’re so sad about breaking up with me?
Her eyes grew hot again, and Pauline sat up slightly and paced around Rowan.
After a while, Rowan didn’t open his eyes until the foreman in charge took Pauline and Rowan away.
The night Pauline left the shelter.
After everyone was asleep, Rowan quietly opened the door and went out into the garden of the shelter.
‘If you look into your heart… … .’
Rowan closed his eyes, repeating those words again.
As always, the world with my eyes closed was still dark.
There was no faint moonlight there either.
It was no different than usual.
‘Mom, Dad, Helen, Pauline… … .’
In the ‘space with closed eyes’, which had not been given any special meaning until a moment ago, Rowan tried to find people who were watching him.
I searched and searched, going deeper and deeper into the abyss of darkness.
I spent a long time thinking, not knowing what to find in the middle of nowhere.
‘You have to open your heart’s eye to see the heart.’
There was a moment when I thought and became conscious of that.
A change finally occurred within Rowan.
In a world that was once dark, a faint glow of light began to appear and gradually become clearer.
‘uh?’
The wall of perception that had been blocked, the other eyelid that had been covering my eyes, collapsed in an instant.
The halo formed shapes, and dark and light densities and rough and soft textures were applied over the shapes.
In the constructed world, paths of wind and air were drawn, and the energy of life blossomed everywhere.
The trees, the birds, and the bugs flying around on the ground all gave off their own unique light.
‘The world doesn’t disappear when you close your eyes.’
Not everything that was invisible was ‘dark’, and darkness was not necessarily ‘nothingness’.
It was just a moment.
After that, Rowan’s way of understanding the world changed completely.
A moment of intense experience, commonly called epiphany or awakening.
“and…….”
When I open my eyes, the world that was confined to my field of vision is-
When I closed my eyes, it became vast and even deeper.
All kinds of information poured in like that in an instant.
A phenomenon that a normal child, or rather a human, would probably not be able to handle and would drive them crazy-
‘beautiful.’
Rowan smiled and accepted it happily.
You can see the world even with your eyes closed.
I also thought that I could see it more brightly, warmly, and brilliantly, without the scary expression or sharp gaze.
‘I feel it all. Mom and Dad. Helen and Pauline… … .’
That day, Roan saw the love of those who cared for him in the world of halo.
However, no one knew the process of that enlightenment.
fantasy,
