The Magician’s Memorial - Chapter 43



Only Krnovel

Episode 43

I came to my senses, exhaling a breath that was stinking sweet.

It was a sleep that had come after a long time. It was not that my body, which had reached its limit, had suddenly lost consciousness and passed out, but rather that I had fallen into a sleep with a sense of fullness.

Bam.

Again an apple fell from above my head.

Quilbian found the apple with a familiar movement of his hands and placed it beside him.

At first, I ate without thinking. I didn’t have time to think about the future.

Only after eating three or four did I start worrying about ‘tomorrow’. Fortunately, the apples kept falling steadily.

At regular intervals, thud, thud, towards the head.

The one who brought the apples was an unidentified bird.

Beep, the sound of salvation was heard again.

“Thank you! I really appreciate it!”

Why do birds drop apples, why do they keep coming back, why do they just throw apples at you and disappear?

I had a lot of questions, but I quickly erased them from my mind.

Of course, what do you think?

The important thing is to give them something to eat.

Quillvin groped his hands and stroked the apples he had gathered together.

This was my lifeline. I could never lose it.

“Please take care of me in the future!”

The kindness shown by beasts is saving humans. Thinking about it made me laugh out loud.

*

Bam.

I opened my eyes to an apple falling on my face.

I crawled after the sound of the rolling apple. I felt around while holding the apple.

A sharp rock caught my fingertips. It was a rock that had been placed there on purpose to help me find my bearings.

Is it because I have been blind for over two weeks?

I was able to visualize my living space in my head.

There will be a storage room around here.

As expected, the apples were touched. The storage room was just a small cave built of mud and stones.

Even though it is a cave, it is a cave that is so deep that you can reach out and touch the wall, and it is lower than the length of your forearm.

It would be a perfect fit if the rabbit were to make a move.

I reached out and took out the apples I had put inside. Then I organized the apples I received today in order.

You should eat them in order because they may get spoiled.

I chewed the apple thoroughly and crawled to the stream to drink some water. I went to the stream to relieve myself.

Eat the apple thrown by the bird, sleep, wake up and poop.

I felt like a plant. There was nothing else I could do.

One day, the owner said something.

People are so cunning.

Now I know what that means.

After overcoming the brink of death, I started to want to live, and now that life is worth living, I started to look forward to what comes next.

Quilbian looked up. I can’t see it, but there must be a bird up there?

“I’m really sorry, but do you have anything else to say besides an apology?”

After speaking, he scratched his head.

Crazy guy.

Asking a bird.

“Wake up, you crazy bastard.”

I slapped her cheek until it made a slap sound and crawled to my ‘own nest’, a makeshift bed made from damp fallen leaves.

I reached out based on the surroundings I had pictured in my head. The stick caught my hand.

Long tree branches.

These were Quilbian’s eyes.

“today…….”

I planted a stone in the ground to serve as a landmark and then walked around with my feet.

There’s no danger.

He advanced forward with a stick in front.

Knock knock, knock knock. He tapped the floor, lowering his posture and extending his hand when he found something to touch.

It was mostly bushes.

I took each step carefully, trying my best to remember the terrain as I moved.

If you keep doing it, you’ll get used to it, and once you get used to it, you’ll be able to get around the neighborhood easily.

How long did it take?

I was drenched in sweat. I felt like I had only walked for an hour, but I was exhausted.

It must be so hard to move while your senses are sharp, Quilbian leaned his tired body against the tree.

There was a rustling sound of leaves rustling.

Is it because other senses have taken over the work that the eyes should be doing? The ears in particular have become more sensitive.

Has the world ever been this noisy?

Beep.

A bird’s cry was heard from high above.

Did you follow me?

Something fell on my head with a thud. I felt around, thinking it might be an apple, and grabbed the fallen object.

It looked different. I put it up to my nose and sniffed it. There was a faint scent of earth and a faint fragrance.

potato?

I bit the end of it lightly. I could taste the bitter taste of potatoes through the crunchy dirt.

Why potatoes all of a sudden?

Then suddenly the words I shouted to the sky came to mind.

“Are you sure you understand what I’m saying?”

I spoke into the air. The bird was around. I could still hear it folding its wings and kicking the ground with its talons.

“Are you here? Can you hear me?”

As I was speaking, carefully extending my hand, a gentle breeze blew along with the sound of flapping wings.

The bird has flown away.

“Don’t go! Listen to me!”

I shouted to the sky, but the bird did not return.

You didn’t leave at all, did you?

If the bird that is like a savior disappears, we will starve to death in no time.

I dropped the potato I was holding in my hand because I was anxious.

and.

“Yeah, you should have been careful. Animals need to be treated with affection.”

The auditory hallucinations that I hadn’t heard for a while started coming back again.

Twella’s voice grew closer.

“Why are you still alive?”

“Shut up.”

“Don’t say such harsh words. This is what you wanted. It’s an illusion created by your loneliness. You know that, don’t you?”

“So I told you to get out!”

I swung my hand hard. The hallucinations were momentarily muffled, but quickly came back to life.

“It’s sad. I came because it seemed like you needed someone to talk to.”

“When was the time to kill and now?”

“Let’s forget the past. And we’re still alive. Isn’t that enough?”

“Crazy bitch.”

“It’s not me who’s crazy, it’s you.”

With a snicker and a laugh, Twella’s hallucinations disappeared.

There is nothing wrong with that. I am the crazy one.

Quillbian smiled bitterly and picked up the stick.

Let’s go back, home.

I started walking, drawing a small garden made of fallen leaves.

*

“How about lighting a fire?”

It was Twella who, without fail, spoke to me. Even though I couldn’t see in front of me, for some reason I thought I could see Twella smiling brightly.

Quillbian did not answer.

“Are you just going to leave me to keep talking?”

I put the apple in my mouth, letting the chattering voice go in one ear.

Fortunately, the bird did not leave. Instead, the food it dropped became more varied.

Potatoes, sweet potatoes, small radishes, and other unknown vegetables and fruits were thrown to me.

I classified and stored things that I could eat right away and things that needed to be cooked.

“Why don’t you use magic? You know the magic to create sparks, right? You don’t need a talisman.”

Make a lot of noise.

Quilbian said, lying down.

“Nak doesn’t move.”

“why?”

“If I knew that, would I be doing this? I would have made a bonfire and roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes.”

“The nak isn’t moving, what’s the reason?”

“I don’t know! Stop making such a fuss and just go away. You must have gotten something in return for selling me out to that woman. Live well with it! Please stop bothering me, a blind person.”

“You’re bothering me. I’m whispering this to you for your own good?”

“This is fucking crazy, really.”

As time passed, the hallucinations became clearer. It felt like my brain was split in two.

The brain that listens to me, and the brain that ignores me like a dog. These divided brains are fighting each other.

Even as I was falling asleep, I could hear whispering even in my dreams.

“But why you?”

Quilbian turned his head in the direction of the hallucination.

“That’s obvious.”

He drew Twella’s face on the black landscape at will. It had Twella’s appearance and voice and spoke with a bright smile.

“Because you really liked me. And as much as you liked me, now you want to tear me apart. That’s why I keep showing up. Because I am the biggest component that makes up the human being that is you. Even if it’s a negative element.”

bang!

Quilbian stamped out the illusion of Twella, which was shaking with a stone he could hold in his hand.

The stone that had been skimming through the air hit the ground. My hand went numb. It felt like my palm was torn and bleeding.

“Oh my, that must hurt.”

Twella said, her voice trembling like a landscape reflected in water.

*

Beep.

There was a crying sound.

It was time to wait with my palms open in anticipation of the food that would soon fall.

The food didn’t run out.

Instead, a long sob followed.

It’s different than usual.

Quillvien stood up, holding the stick in his hand.

“what’s the matter?”

I wonder if there was a problem. I know it’s not like a person who can’t see even an inch ahead of him can be of any help, but if there was a problem, I had to intervene.

If the god of food is in a difficult situation, what can’t he do?

It was a time when I was looking up at the sky and waiting for the call of birds.

The sound of wings flapping was heard right next to me, and then something grabbed my shoulder.

My shoulders felt heavy, along with a stabbing pain.

I reached out in surprise. I felt sturdy claws and feet, and a solid body.

He moved his hand up to the bird’s beak, stroking its stiff, dense feathers.

The bird accepted Quilbian’s touch without even flinching.

“It’s you.”

I was so touched. The animal that saved my life was by my side. I was so grateful that I wanted to hug it and jump for joy.

It was while I was stroking the back of the bird’s neck, assessing its shape.

There was something tangled in my fingers. Something foreign was wrapped between the feathers that lay softly.

It’s a string.

A man-made string.

I put the string between my thumb and index finger and moved it gently.

It was a necklace. I felt something like a small pendant.

It’s a bird that has an owner.

“I guess so.”

Wild animals would never throw food to you for no reason.

“Did your master tell you to do this? To bring me something to eat? Or were you just doing what you were trained to do?”

The latter was more likely than the former.

Quilbian used to go to see sheepdogs often. They would sometimes herd sheep at the owner’s call, but they would also move around to make sure the flock didn’t stray when the owner was away.

But when I think about it, it’s strange.

They train people to bring them food.

“Well, whatever. If it weren’t for you, I would have died a long time ago.”

I felt the bird flutter as I tickled its chin. It seemed to like it.

Knock, knock, the bird pecked the back of my hand, then spread its wings and flew up.

Then it circled above my head, making a long, beeping sound.

“Okay, bye!”

I thought it was a goodbye, but it wasn’t.

It kept hovering above.

That’s weird.

The bird came back and pecked the back of my hand before flying up. A beeping sound was heard from a little distance away.

no way?

Quilbian walked after finding his bearings with a stick.

After moving forward for a while, this time, a sound kept coming from the upper right.

It has become certain.

It’s crying to follow yourself.

There was no reason to hesitate. The unidentified bird was holding his lifeline.

I continued walking, my nerves tense.

It felt like I had been walking for about two hours in my body time. The sound of birds crying in the distant sky came to my eye level.

I got my bearings and started moving.

And then, something hit the end of the stick.

I lowered my upper body and carefully felt what was in front of me.

The moment I saw the sleek expression, I knew what it was.

“… … It’s a bench.”

The white benches placed throughout the dormitory, which had been wiped and cleaned countless times.

It was him.

(Continued in next episode)