Chapter 25 5.2 Kirschtaria's Past

A story about my 15th spring.

At that time, my "future" seemed like a bright thing.

Being blessed with better circumstances and a greater talent that others led to the self-awareness that I was destined to fulfill a mission.

"To create something beautiful."

"To create something magnificent."

Those thoughts, those passions, impelled me to diligently study day and night.

And the result was...

This unsanitary, unseemly, dump where no ideal or conviction was ever birthed.

Kirschtaria: "tts --"

Chest pain results in a leaked groan.

My limbs couldn't move, but luckily, I was able to treat the chest wound the assassin dealt. My father having been skipped as successor meant I was furnished with a magic crest that had been tempered for more than eleven generations. The magic crest forcibly heals the magus when he is injured.

However –

For now, that magic crest wasn't working.

Must be mana stagnation I heard about in the
Jig
Curses Department class
...

An anti-magus poison which targets and attacks the magus' nerves and blood.

As time passes, the poison pervades.

The magic crest and circuits completely die. When this occurs, you're unable to detoxify yourself.

A third party has to administer the antidote.

Kirschtaria: --tt, aa--

Worst situation possible.

My debilitated body in the middle of enemy territory.

Rescue would require my unusually insightful grandfather arranging people to find me.

The problem was if I could keep up my physical strength until then.

Boy: Hiiii, hiiiiiihiiii. Wake, Up. Wake up... Wake Up.

I was wondering why my father's assassins hadn't already found me.

Boy: Hii.... hii... hiiiiiiii...

This basement that usually stank at the best of times smelled even fouler.

A coat fished from the trash.

Hair that hadn't been washed for how many years?

This basement was the boy's residence.

Seeing my appearance and thinking it would earn him money, he carried me here from the back of an alley after the assassins attacked.

Boy: Hii...Hiiiiiiiiiiii. Still alive... alive...

Kirschtaria: ....

The sound of him fishing through a wooden box filled with trash.

I couldn't hide my disgust.

The fact this creature rescued me made me feel ashamed.

Boy: Hiii...precious.... precious.... eat.... eat this....

The boy pressed a hard object against my mouth.

Dry, moldy bread.

While wiping it with a dirty sleeve, he forced me to eat it.

Clearly counterproductive.

Although, the wound was closed, my internal organs were impaired. Most importantly, eating this made my stomach feel terrible,

Instead of nourishing me it would sap my physical strength.

Boy: It's yummy.... eat....



Boy: Hiii. Hiiiiii.Hiihiiiiiiihihihihihihihiiiii....!

After I finished eating what was forced onto me, the boy, satisfied, left the bed.

The boy left for the corner of the room, crossed his legs and sat. An eerie laugh came from him.

Kirschtaria: Goho... Gohooo, Goho --

Feeling sick to my chest, I couldn't stop feeling sorry for my situation, but there was nothing I could do so I closed my eyes.

...It didn't matter, in a few hours everything would end.

If the assassin was a magus, tracking me would be easy.

This place would be discovered, and I, unable to move, would be quickly killed.

Help would not come in time.

Even God couldn't save me from the situation I found myself in.

But,

Many days passed and the assassins had not shown up.

I had lain on this hard bed and survived for possibly ten days. My body was paralyzed but I had grown accustomed to my surroundings.

Little by little, I developed an understanding on this place.

Boy: Hiihii, Hihi..... Eat... eat this too....

Kirschtaria: No. More water, please.

Boy: ....

This was a storage room built underneath the bridge....

That was a stroke of good luck in a sea of unfortunate. The water had impurities mixed in it, but wasn't undrinkable.

Kirschtaria:... Hmm. Hey. Have you always been here?"

Boy: ????? Hiiihihihihi. Never...mind that... Eat. eat.

Kirschtaria: ....

Just my speculation, but it seemed this boy lost his foster parents a few years ago and had taken to living here.

This storeroom... dwelling, seemed to have been used by the boy's foster parents.

Did his parents abandon him?

Was he born an orphan?

The boy lacked language faculty. Probably because from when he was born until now, he had never held a proper conversation with an adult.

Kirschtaria: Your name is... Do you understand what that means?

Boy: ???

Kirschtaria: ------

I was lost for words. How was there a child in a modern city that didn't know what a name was?

No. So then how have you been able to live alone?

Boy: Hiii,Hiii. Scary...Scary... Everyone... scary... Hidden... hidden. This place safe... Always relieved.

The boy uttered those words while stroking a pendent that hung around his neck.

Kirschtaria: That is…

I might not have been able to use magecraft, but I knew what it was.

The boy possessed a "concealment" mystic code. A tremendous antique to boot. A talisman of an ancient branch of the Clock Tower, witches who hid themselves in England's deep forests.

Kirschtaria: I see, so that --

The assassins shouldn't be able to track me. This room was currently completely concealed.

Kirschtaria: I see. That is certainly a precious treasure.

Boy: ?

I wasn't able to learn whether it was an inheritance or a windfall, but the boy's circumstances became clear.

Carrying me here after finding me in a back alley had been due to that pendant.

The food stored in this room had been "borrowed" from a store while his figure was hidden.

Lucky or unlucky?

Thanks the pendant, the boy was able to survive on his own; however, because of the pendent he did not need to interact with others. He became truly invisible to society.

Kirschtaria: You, ummm

Not knowing what to say, I muttered some words.

Boy: Hiiihii. Hiihihihiii.... Okay, It's okay. Beautiful. Pretty. Precious. Precious.

Kirschtaria: ----

Not knowing what I was trying to say, the boy carefully put the pendent away while faintly smiling.

...Thinking back on that still hurts my chest.



The few days that passed came with new discoveries.

Boy: Always... See. Bridge... always. There. See....

Kirschtaria: ---

Finally, I remembered. The vagrant I saw while crossing the bridge was he.

Boy: See. Always. --Always.

What I meant to him is something I'll never understand.

To claim I understand would be utterly conceited.

However, to him "someone crossing the bridge" was sufficient.

Boy: …

The boy was ignorant but not stupid. He understood the situation in his own way.

First, he didn't leave the room.

If he left with the pendent, my attackers could find where I was. With that in mind, he didn't take leaving lightly.

The food he had given me for almost two weeks has been prepared in advance.

Boy: Food... food, food...

Kirschtaria: What's wrong? Is there a problem?

Boy:...Hiii, hihihihi.... No...no...problem, no... okay... okay....

Kirschtaria: I see. That's good.

Even if I was used to the environment; my fatigue was at its peak.

Limbs that couldn't move. Physical strength that wouldn't return. In the first place, the food the boy prepared had no nutritional value.

Being unable to be seen by the assassins also meant being unable to be seen by my allies.

Kirschtaria: --

Greatly discouraged, I closed my eyes. On the verge of dreaming, I imagined myself rotting like a dead tree, dying.

Boy: ...



Boy: Wake, wake.

Kirschtaria:....?

On that day, the boy's voice woke me up.

Boy: Hihihihihihi. Food. Food. Lots. lotslots.

Kirschtaria: This is --

Albeit wretched, my voice became lively.

The boy had a basket of bread in his hands. It was not the discarded but pristine bread baked this morning.

Kirschtaria: Amazing. No, I'm glad but... it’s all bread. If you're going outside, you might as well obtain other foodstuffs.

Boy: This... food. Eat. Eat.

...I only understood later.

Why was there only stale bread?

That had been everything in his life so far.

For him, this was the only "meal" he's eaten. I, who knew nothing but an affluent and prosperous life, did not understand that.

More than that, there was an even greater, more important thing I did not notice.

Kirschtaria: Don't be shy. Hm, easy to eat. Easy to eat things are good.

Like tripping over a stone, the boy fell onto the bed. Both arms were wrapped around by the bedside.

It was like a child who fell asleep on a writing desk.

Kirschtaria: You. why?

From the beginning, my health was so poor that I didn't notice how sunken his cheeks became or his beaten body.

Boy: ...aa

He had been alone until now.

There was no way he had amassed stores that could last two people more than two weeks. This reserve had been created because the pendant made the people on main street overlook him.

There was only enough food for one person.

Enough to allow him to survive, alone.

The boy never went out after hiding me. Leaving with the pendent would mean the room would no longer be hidden.

To protect me, that pendant was placed at my bedside.

It's clear what he has to do to prepare new food.

The moment he started hiding me he's been seen and reprimanded many times.

The physical strength of a child who hasn't had enough to eat couldn't stand such violence.

Boy: ...Preci...ous... Safe, safe.

I can't believe that he... No matter what, that's not... Because it's so foolish. So featherbrained.

An ignorant boy, but clever. There was no reason to choose what he did.

Collapsed on my bed, he laid there looking at my face and saw stars.

Boy: Pretty... hihihi.... pretty, pretty...

Kirschtaria: Wait... Wait, please wait.

Boy: ... truly, pretty.

Kirschtaria: --

At that time, what came flying to my chest was neither grief, surprise, nor anger.

Just a farewell to my own stupidity.

Things that I had treated as "not there."

Things that I classified as not affecting me.

I was nothing but a fool who looked at the future with such a worldview.

Kirschtaria: --Ha

Creating something beautiful?

A natural monarch?

A chosen prodigy?

Don't make me laugh. No, it's not even worth laughing at. I just didn't understand.

I exaggerate with things like "making something that’s beautiful."

But that's just me blindly striving for the word "beautiful." I never thought about what was truly "beautiful" to me.

Kirschtaria: --

The boy's value had not changed.

Because of his stupidity, he died for no good reason.

I am a superior human; he is a lesser human. That will be clear from what I hereforth produce. But, can I do it?

Is it possible for me to risk my life performing deeds to fill the hungry bellies of strangers I've never seen or heard?

Is it possible for me to risk this life doing what I think is beautiful without being rewarded?

Aahh, that's...

Kirschtaria: Of course you can.

After a long, long sleep the body moves.

It's not a metaphor. The ignited soul moves the body.

My talent, the magic circuit in my body, had been physically damaged.

If that's the only compensation necessary, I'll pay it right now.

Eat the bread.

That's right.

The more he did, the more I must do.

The more he showed me, the greater my response must be.

A poor person with nothing; he had the greatest goodness.

Kirschtaria: Higher, stronger.

Stuff your mouth with this wretched food to breathe life into each cell.

Feeling resignation, self-pity, regret is time wasted.

I must do what I am able to do.

This is an external motivation.

A belief not born from within me.

A purpose that did not spring forth from Kirschtaria Wodime's life.

However, I vowed to live for that.

As someone who had been given more than him.

As long as I'm alive, I will continue to show the value of humans.