The Magician’s Memorial - Chapter 35



Only Krnovel

Episode 35

“Don’t look at it like that. It’s good for you too.”

Good job.

Quillbian looked up at the rain hitting his head. The sky that had been pouring down heavy rain began spitting out blue lightning.

Flashing lights and deafening thunder.

As I stood there, flinching, my father grabbed my hand roughly and pulled it.

“If you go, listen carefully. Okay? From now on, that house is your house. Do you understand?”

“What about Mom?”

“Forget it. Forget me. Forget your siblings. A man has to start his own family.”

At the time, I couldn’t understand what my father was saying. Now that I think about it, I guess he was just talking nonsense at length.

Was the barking a result of his sadness at having to sell his son, or was he just talking nonsense to hide his embarrassment?

What’s the use of that now?

At some point I realized it was a dream.

I noticed it, but nothing changed.

The little Quilbian just waited, getting drenched in the rain.

“It’s this guy.”

this guy.

My father bowed his head to the owner who came out of the house. The owner approached me with an umbrella open and squatted down.

“Open your mouth.”

“yes?”

The owner didn’t say anything twice. Instead, he used his hand. He lifted his upper lip with his thumb.

“Your teeth look strong. Those with messed up teeth die quickly.”

“He’s healthy. He doesn’t eat much. He’s also quite articulate. He’ll do any work you ask him to do, so let’s go in.”

“If something happens, it will work out on its own.”

The owner looked around the small Quilbian with blurry eyes.

“The balance will be paid in three months. If you die before then, I’ll lose out.”

“Please don’t do that. Give it to us all at once. We have to leave here too.”

My father explained the situation.

“Then I should deduct some from the original price. I’m taking on the risk.”

“She’s a smart girl. As you can see, she’s healthy. Please, explain my situation to me… .”

The owner clicked his tongue and went into the house. When he returned a while later, he was holding a silver stick the size of a finger.

“It’s a credit card. Exchange it at the bank.”

“Oh my, thank you.”

“I give it to you because I like it when you don’t cry.”

The owner came over and roughly patted my head.

“I am the master now.”

At the same time, blue lightning struck. Little Quilbian looked up at his father, but his father’s gaze was fixed on the credit card.

“Okay, okay, from now on, this person is your master. Don’t be a troublemaker, okay? Listen to me.”

“dad.”

“Don’t even think about coming. Now, let’s each live our own lives.”

My father is moving away.

Little Quilbian tried to run towards his father’s back, but the owner’s hand grabbed his shoulder.

“Where are you going?”

“Dad, dad.”

“He’s not Dad anymore. So forget about it.”

“but…….”

My head snapped up with a bang. I couldn’t figure out what was happening.

I realized I had been hit only after I felt my cheeks tingle.

“Don’t make me say it twice. Just do as you’re told.”

I don’t know why, but the moment I got hit in the face, everything made sense. I didn’t cry, my disappointment disappeared, and I just nodded.

“You listen well.”

I followed the owner into the warehouse next to the house.

“This is your home from today. They are your family.”

He pointed to the three children sleeping curled up together. Quilbian squeezed between the children and closed his eyes.

“Right, good job.”

The owner was smiling, looking quite satisfied.

The world became blurry and I was in front of a pigsty. Little Quilbian was silently moving the feed.

“Hey.”

A girl I had never seen before was calling me. I knew the moment I saw her that she was different from me.

“Are you the one who came a month ago?”

“uh.”

“What are you doing?”

“Day.”

“Is it fun?”

“no.”

“But why do you do that?”

“Because I have to.”

The girl tilted her head and turned around. She saw the owner in the distance.

The girl who ran towards the owner was held in his arms.

Quilbian stared at the sight from afar. The hand that had been slapping her cheek was now holding the girl affectionately, as if it was handling something precious and one of a kind in the world.

“What are you doing?”

Another boy who had been carrying the feed began to complain. Quilbian went back to his work.

How much time has passed like that?

The girl came back.

“Do you want to eat this?”

The food I was holding in my hand was something I had never seen before. Since I had to put anything edible into my mouth, I took it and put it in my mouth.

“delicious?”

“uh.”

“Want more?”

“really?”

It’s been a really long time since I’ve thought of the word ‘thank you’.

After that, the girl would often appear and give me food. The food she gave me was so delicious that I would get worried when she stopped coming.

“I’m here.”

The girl I hadn’t seen for a while came back. As soon as I saw her, I felt relief and a smile.

“That’s right.”

“huh?”

“Do what I tell you.”

After hearing that, he made a blank expression for a few seconds, then smiled and nodded.

It was a smile full of understanding.

It was also a laughter that caught the topic.

What the girl asked was simple: to pull another girl who had come to see the pigsty into the pigsty.

Quilbian did as he was told.

Because that’s how we live here.

The girl who fell among the pigs and got her pretty clothes dirty cried as if the world was going to leave her.

An unknown man came running in hastily and kicked Quilbian, who slammed into the wall and grinned.

Oh, am I going to die like this?

The owner was efficient, hitting his back and thighs relentlessly with a thin stick.

The owner always stopped beating me when I thought, “If I beat him a little more, he won’t be able to do his job.”

The owner said every time he hit me.

“I know, you were just doing your daughter a favor. She’s really jealous. She’d do something like that just because her friend thinks she’s a little ugly.”

He took a deep breath and spoke again.

“A slave must do as he is told. Yes, that is right. But what can I do? I will save face if you are beaten.”

A daughter who is jealous of her friend, a friend who rolls around the pigsty, and the owner’s reputation.

I couldn’t figure out what the correlation was.

Actually, I didn’t even want to know.

Anyway, there’s no change to the fact that it’s true.

It was three days after the medium had started.

One of the kids who shared the warehouse with me died. He was working while suffering from severe pain, but he vomited yellow water in the early morning and just passed away.

“Clean up and go to work.”

That day, the beating stopped.

When I finished work and returned to the warehouse, the owner was waiting for me.

“Take it.”

It was money. It was a silver coin that I had never touched before.

“It’s the price of a mat.”

“……thank you.”

Strangely enough, I was truly grateful.

Even though it was money I received after getting hit.

The next day, the owner’s daughter came to visit, wearing her usual neat clothes and bright smile.

“Hey, do you want to eat this?”

There was still food in his hands.

Little Quillian smiled and held out his hand.

“thank you.”

This is how the world turns.

Little Quilbian whispered softly as he watched the owner’s daughter walk away after finishing her food.

“This sucks.”

That was the phrase the dead kid in the warehouse always had on his lips.

*

“This sucks, really.”

Quillvian opened his eyes and muttered.

I looked around, hazily at the boundary between reality and dreams. I moved my eyes and wiggled my arms.

It was tied tightly.

Inside the room. I quickly realized where it was.

“You’re awake.”

Lil came into the room holding a glass. Quilbian looked up.

“Drih?”

“You’re looking for the one who ran away and abandoned you.”

“It doesn’t matter because I would have been like that too. People are all like that.”

“You’re so young, but you know everything about the world?”

Reel sat on the floor.

I tried to attack, but it was useless. It wasn’t just my arms that were tied up. My legs were wrapped tightly around the pillar.

There was nothing I could do but wriggle like an earthworm.

“Because of you, those kids left earlier than scheduled.”

Hearing those words, Quilbian looked across the room.

The children were nowhere to be seen. There was no Geron.

“You killed it? You ate it?”

“The expression ‘ate’ is a bit strange.”

“All goblins are like that. In the end, they just end up eating everything.”

“… … Yes, I ate it. But it probably wasn’t painful. It ended while I was asleep.”

I twisted my body with force. The rough rope dug into my flesh.

“Be quiet. I don’t intend to hurt you.”

“If our owner was in front of me, I would have slapped my sister in the ear.”

“Owner?”

“That guy always emphasized that you have to speak precisely. If you speak vaguely, he’ll slap you in the face.”

Quilbian opened his eyes and looked up at Reel.

“I have no intention of harming you for the time being, that’s what I should say. You’re going to eat me someday, right?”

“… … .”

Lil remained silent, his lips pressed together.

“If you survive by offering food to goblins, I’ll understand.”

“That’s not it. We don’t just eat to live. We can get out of here. It won’t be long.”

“what?”

Lil lowered his body. A kind smile appeared on his face.

“Geron’s magical powers are increasing. He will soon become a different being. Like a butterfly, he will become a completely different being.”

Her eyes were filled with hope.

“Geron is a being that dreams of the outside. He is not a monster that kills people indiscriminately like other goblins.”

“You killed him in the end.”

“I told you! It was necessary. I couldn’t help it!”

Lil’s two hands covered Quilbian’s face.

“Geron is special. Because he is special, it was necessary to refine Nak. It was an inevitable sacrifice for that.”

“You’ve been eating children like that for four years? Just trying to survive together?”

“Don’t be narrow-minded. If we achieve our goal, all the children locked in the dormitory will be released. Yes, we will make it happen. It won’t be long before Geron and I become the saviors of those children and end this nightmare.”

There was a sound of the door opening. Geron entered the room. There was blood all over his body.

“Geron, what do you think?”

Geron’s tail wrapped around Quilbian’s body. The thorns that sprouted out quietly pricked his entire body. It was as if he was looking at his liver.

“As expected, it’s an unusual material.”

“I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”

Ssurukruk, Geron put his tail back.

“Drih?”

Quilbian looked at Geron and asked.

Geron left the room without saying a word and brought in Drich, who was unconscious. He was wrapped tightly in ropes.

Drich, thrown to the floor, groaned and tossed around.

“……what.”

Drich’s eyes met with his, who was turning his head around as if he was out of his mind. As Quilbian stared blankly, Drich cursed softly.

“What? We can’t die together.”

“know.”

Seeing Drich speak so casually made me feel better. Quilbian asked as he remembered.

“Your father tried to kill you, is that a joke?”

Drich didn’t answer. Instead, he just looked at Quilbian with a fierce gaze.

“Isn’t that the opposite? You stabbed your father, right?”

“You’re smart, kid. But does that really matter in this situation? You or me?”

Drich continued, looking up at the reel.

“It looks like it’s going to end up like this anyway.”

(Continued in next episode)