The Magician’s Memorial - Chapter 4



Only Krnovel

Episode 4

Were Altera’s eyes this cold? Quilbian thought, looking straight into the ascetic’s eyes.

Once a lie has been told, it cannot be undone.

Not only did you break the rules, you also deceived the ascetic, so you will be severely punished.

But what if you don’t get caught?

“Special points?”

“yes.”

The gaze was so cold that it made his neck flinch, but Quill didn’t avoid it. The moment he turned his gaze away, he had a gut feeling that something worse than eating black food was waiting for him.

Look at it and smile.

As always.

It was when I counted to 4 in my head.

Altera’s eyes opened gently. Her gaze remained unchanged, but the cold wind that had been blowing had disappeared.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Did I do something wrong? Is it right to continue to leave that child alone?”

“No. Let’s take care of it. We have to do it together. It’s the right attitude.”

The ascetic’s hand touched my shoulder.

“Let’s lead Twella on the right path. There are things that only those who study together can relate to.”

“yes!”

He answered briskly and turned around. His smiling lips trembled.

“you…….”

As soon as he sat down, a girl named Twella spoke to him. Quill squeezed out his voice.

“Don’t talk to me now. I’m shaking so much I might make a mistake.”

“Oh, okay.”

I did it.

He deceived the ascetic and helped a cadet who should have been punished for breaking the rules.

This wasn’t a problem that could be solved by deducting a few points. If you were caught, you’d lose everything.

Quill has seen children who have ‘dropped out’ time and time again. Children who have been consumed by ‘negative thoughts’ wander around and then disappear one day.

Without a trace, cleanly.

I never once thought it was strange. I thought it was natural to fail if you didn’t have the will or the energy to study hard.

Why was that a given?

Where on earth have the missing children gone?

Questions began to arise.

All sorts of problems that had been previously overlooked and ignored came crashing down on me.

It was a time of floundering in chaos.

Quill looked at his fingers, flinching. Twella was carefully holding his index finger.

The words that had been piled up disappeared in that moment. The warmth transmitted through the skinny fingers put an end to the confusion.

Quill stared at his hand blankly, then pulled his finger out and asked.

“What about the other kids?”

“What do you think?”

“Are you looking here?”

“No. They’re just talking amongst themselves like they always have. Laughing so loudly it’s annoying.”

Just two days ago, I would have been in it too, Quill looked at the black food.

“How are you going to clean this up?”

“wait for a sec.”

Twella took a cloth out from under the tablecloth. After looking around, she tilted the plate and poured the food onto the cloth.

“Was it always like this?”

“uh.”

“But you never got caught? It’s so sloppy?”

“Because you guys haven’t seen me before. When I first did it, I thought my heart was going to burst out. But then I realized. Even if I get up on the table and dance, you guys don’t see me.”

Quill nodded heavily.

This is an island that exists inside a restaurant.

An isolated place where no one cares.

“But if you dance, they’ll recognize you?”

“That’s true.”

Twella pushed the empty bowl and placed it in front of Quill.

“Give me that.”

Quill pushed his bowl towards Twella. He was worried that he would get caught, but when he glanced back, a hollow laugh came out.

No one is looking here.

Even my friends who had been practicing together with me would just bury their heads in their bowls and indulge in black food.

This is the moment when the things that were taken for granted no longer become taken for granted.

Quill felt a strange emotion mixed with despair.

It was so small compared to the great despair that it was hard to notice at first. But the feeling was not gone even though it was crushed, and it clearly made its presence known.

That was a joy.

*

“Why are you like that?”

It was the question Drich asked when he entered the room. It was a cut and dry question, but it was obvious what he was asking.

“Special points.”

“Special points?”

“It’s important to study together. That’s why I thought that if I could guide someone who might have failed to get into the right path, something would happen.”

“I see. But wouldn’t it be better if it disappeared?”

His friend’s words thrown out of the blue sent shivers down his spine. Quill turned away and pretended to make the bed.

“I don’t care what happens to me. I just did it.”

“So you got special points?”

“I don’t know yet. I hope I get it.”

“If possible, should I talk to her too?”

“Hey, do it properly. I discovered this first.”

“You are very picky.”

Now Drich will never approach Twella again. The word fair and square will hold Drich back.

“But you know.”

Quill said, turning his back to Drich.

“Where do the kids who are eliminated go?”

“Where are you going?”

“I was literally curious as to where it was going.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Where are you going? You’re just disappearing.”

It was Drich’s words that seemed incomprehensible.

As expected, Drich did not question whether he would disappear if he failed. Not only Drich, but all the other students who were training would have the same thought.

Quill stopped talking.

I decided it was a dangerous topic. Even though we were best friends, I was eating black food with relish.

If you sense something suspicious, run straight to the ascetic. Ascetic, ascetic. Quill is strange!

Just thinking about it makes my stomach ache.

“The sun is coming in.”

Drich pressed his face against the window. Quill turned his head slightly to look at him.

In the distance, the ‘sun’ with its long legs was disappearing over the hill.

The great one who spreads brilliant light.

That appearance.

“… … It’s disgusting.”

Quill was unbearably disgusting.

“Huh? What did you say?”

Drich asked, twisting his body.

“The sun is always so cool. I should become cool like him.”

Quilbian laughed, spreading out the blanket.

*

Afternoon study is over.

They were given about two hours of free time before the evening cleaning time. Quilbian watched the cadets disperse in groups of three or five before turning around.

I walked along the stream that ran long between the hills. Soon I came across a warehouse.

Twella was leaning against the warehouse wall with a tired face.

“Are you here?”

There was no strength in his voice.

If you don’t eat, you can’t move. It was common sense, and Twella was struggling to overcome common sense.

“How many days have you been starving?”

“I don’t know. I put it in my mouth every now and then to survive. I washed it in water and forced myself to eat it, but now I can’t even do that.”

Twella’s condition was the future that was soon to come to me. Starving was not the solution.

What should I do?

Quilbian looked at the stream.

“Can you drink the water?”

“You can drink it, but you can’t live on water alone. I’m proof of that.”

“The food and water served at restaurants. We were taught that that was all we could eat.”

“Because that’s natural.”

It’s a given.

Quill grabbed Twella’s shoulder. He couldn’t feel any flesh, only the hard texture of bone.

“Nothing is taken for granted. We know that.”

“… …I tried it.”

Twella pointed to a rock on the ground.

“I tried eating rocks. But they wouldn’t chew. I tried eating dirt, but my stomach just churned. I tried chewing on some grass, but it just made me feel weird. My hunger wasn’t solved.”

“Have you tried everything around you?”

“I’ve tried everything smaller than my mouth.”

Is there really no way?

At that moment, something caught Quill’s eye.

In the clear stream.

A creature the size of a fingertip was swimming.

“this.”

Twella came closer.

“It’s a bug. Was its name ‘Fish’?”

“Have you tried this?”

“No bugs! If you eat them, they disappear.”

“Yes, that’s what we were taught. We thought it was normal. But will it really disappear? How can we survive eating that horrible food?”

“that…….”

A bug that lives in water.

The bug called ‘fish’ was not a common bug. It was a bug that could only be seen if one sat by the water for a long time.

Bugs are soon the object of disgust.

A stupid being who can’t think.

Things that deserve to be despised.

Quill reached out and caught a swimming fish. He stared at the fish as it swung its body around in his grasp.

It was disgusting.

The smooth texture was enough to make my hair stand on end.

Twella groaned and stepped back.

“What are you going to do with that?”

“It’s a situation where you have to doubt everything. But it’s close to the truth that you can’t survive without eating. Your body proved it to you.”

Quill looked at the skinny Twella.

If I hadn’t eaten black food in between, Twella would have disappeared.

People, humans, must eat to exist.

This learning is not a lie.

then.

I put the silvery bug that was scurrying around in my mouth. I chewed the fish that was wriggling inside my mouth with my molars.

Although he felt nauseous, Quill tried to savor the taste as much as possible without spitting it out.

I had to feel the real taste of the bug, not the fictitious taste created by my knowledge and learning.

The fish gulped as the stern moved violently.

“… … It seems bloody, but it’s not. It also seems tasteless. It tastes a little like dirt.”

Quill smiled slowly.

“But you can eat it. This is edible food.”

Found it!

How to escape from hunger!

*

After two days of sweating, vomiting, and groaning, Quilbian was finally able to get out of bed.

“are you okay?”

Twella, whom I met at the restaurant, asked me worriedly.

“… … I’ll have to find something else. Something else to eat.”

“Never eat bugs. Look, they make you sick when you eat them.”

Quilbian raised the corners of his lips with difficulty.

“I didn’t drop out. I didn’t disappear.”

“what?”

“My eyes started spinning and I felt like I was boiling hot, but it didn’t go away. The rumor that eating bugs will make it go away is a lie.”

Twella frowned as he laughed like he was crazy.

“Are you okay?”

“It’s okay, it’s okay.”

He said this while pushing the black food he was served towards Twella.

“I have to keep looking for something that’s okay to eat. I’m sure there will be one.”

After dinner, I went out.

After being in bed for two days with a stomachache, I felt physically drained. But my mind was at ease.

Because I saw a clue.

If you solve the problems in front of you one by one, you will be able to reach the end.

At that moment, Quill realized.

What is the identity of the joy I felt at the restaurant?

“The truth that is not fact.”

It was a word that came out of my lips without me knowing. A desire for knowledge. I had heard that word countless times before, but now I finally understood its true meaning.

I looked around again.

Students laughing and preparing for their next studies, and the sun shining brightly.

Buildings placed haphazardly and ascetics watching the cadets from various places.

That’s for sure.

This is probably not the true nature of the world.

The taste of the bugs and fish I had been chewing on was closest to the truth.

Altera could be seen in the distance.

Quill fixed his expression and smiled brightly.

So who are those who taught lies?

(Continued in next episode)