episode_0002

What is magic? Why does it exist in this world, and where does it originate? It is not an illusion born from imagination and longing for the unknown, but a manifestation of imagination. It is the dream of an omnipotent being who wishes to exercise possible or impossible acts while omitting the process.

“I don’t understand any of it!”

Usher, who was listening to Velka’s story, shouted and grabbed his head. Velka, who was gazing at him with golden eyes, said softly.

“You’re the one who wanted to learn about magic, Usher.”

Indeed, the reason Velka was telling such a complex story about magic was none other than Usher. But he also had a point to argue. Usher pointed to the thick book she was holding.

“But the book says you just need to make a simple gesture.”

The book she was holding contained information about magic, and when opened, it contained 24 spells. Usher had found the book, covered in dust, in a corner of his old house and brought it to Velka. The book was as old as the house he lived in, with an antique cover that was completely worn out, and the contents were so old that most of it was filled with incomprehensible words. Still, it wasn’t completely unreadable, so the method of using magic was easy to understand. The method was so simple that anyone could easily follow it if they knew how.

There was no need for any special preparations. All that was required was to draw the picture drawn in the book in the air with a gesture. But he couldn’t use magic. It was really strange. The pictures that needed to be drawn weren’t that difficult, and he could easily memorize a few if he tried. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t use magic. He thought that maybe he could find the reason why he couldn’t use magic in the part he couldn’t read. So he brought the book to Velka.

He thought that she would be able to read even the parts of the book that he couldn’t, and teach him magic. The girl, who lived in a remote place where no one lived, since he didn’t know when, felt like magic itself. Velka, who had been pondering his words, got up from the hollow of the zelkova tree where she always sat and went down to the ground. He looked at her in confusion, and the girl said.

“Can you show me how you tried to use it?”

“Oh, okay.”

He followed her down to the ground and stretched out his hand first. The golden gaze of the girl staring at him was burdensome. It was clearly an action to use magic, but he felt somehow embarrassed because she was watching. As he hesitated, the girl’s gaze became questioning. He closed his eyes tightly and began to move his fingers. He was now recalling and drawing a picture with a simple straight line and a triangle attached to it, which was a spell to use something like lightning. It was a really simple shape, so he thought it would be completed quickly, but he was embarrassed that the magic wasn’t working.

“Uh, like this? Was I supposed to move it like this?”

He had already guessed that it wouldn’t succeed, but he wanted to show the girl a cool side of himself if possible. His ears turned hot with embarrassment. The few words he could read in the book said that if he succeeded in activating the magic, a light would follow his gestures and move as he wished. He wondered if he had made a mistake in the pose or the movement of his hands, and tried this and that, but the magic was never activated even once. As he struggled for a while, he heard Velka’s voice.

“The shape you’re drawing is different.”

Velka, unable to watch Usher struggling because he wanted to use magic even once, approached him from behind. Aware or unaware that he was inhaling sharply and panicking at the sweet scent and the soft touch of the girl touching his back, Velka gently grabbed his arm and moved it gently.

“It seems to be based on runes. Think of it as if there’s an invisible wall in the air, rather than drawing a picture. You have to move it as if you’re carving it there.”

His mind, which had almost become faint from the girl’s sweet scent, regained clarity with Velka’s explanation of the magic.

“The name of the rune you’re using is Thurisaz.”

He didn’t know what had prompted the girl, who had rarely talked about magic even after he brought her the book, to teach him this. But did the girl know? He was now more immersed in the soft touch of the girl touching his back than in how to use magic.

“It’s hard and distracting to make curves when carving letters on a hard wall. Just connect lines with lines.”

Even if he moved his hands, nothing appeared in the air at his fingertips, but in his head, things that could be seen as pictures or words were connected in order, and the moment he felt that it was definitely completed.

“Huh?”

Nothing happened. He had definitely moved his hands as she moved them, and he felt that he had finished it, but nothing happened. It was as if everything written in the book was a lie. He was sure he felt it this time. Was it just his delusion?

“Did it fail again?”

When he asked suspiciously, Velka shook her head. A definite denial that it wasn’t a failure.

“Then why?”

“When using this. What’s important isn’t just simple effort or knowledge.”

Saying that, the girl opened the book and scanned the place where the strange letters were written. As if she was reading the strange letters that he couldn’t read at all even if he wanted to.

“To use this, you need a medium that connects you to the sky.”

“A medium?”

“Yeah, without that, no matter how hard you try, you won’t be able to use what’s written here.”

In the end, everything Usher had done was meaningless. Knowing that, he lost his energy. He was disappointed as much as he had expected to finally be able to use magic. Velka, anxious at his gloomy appearance, opened her mouth as if to comfort him.

“Magic is a field of study that doesn’t need to be learned. You don’t have to be so disappointed.”

“Doesn’t need to be learned?”

Velka, looking down at him sitting down, as if looking into the doubts that filled his eyes.

“That’s what magic is.”

“Why doesn’t it need to be learned?”

Usher found it strange that she said it was okay not to learn, since she had said that there was no harm in knowing.

“Magic is something that exists but doesn’t exist.”

“Ugh, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Another headache-inducing story came out. Was magic something that could only be explained in a complicated way after all?

“Was that a little difficult?”

Velka, muttering with a faint smile at him, seemed to be thinking about something, and then stretched out her hand into the air. The appearance was similar to when he was trying to use magic, but at her actions, a large bird flew in from somewhere. The bird, which approached in the blink of an eye, was a bird of prey with a large body, sharp claws and beak, and it looked like the large claws would dig into the girl’s arm, but the bird seemed to be careful not to hurt the girl’s slender arm. Then, Velka stroked the head of the bird of prey sitting on her arm with her other hand and said.

“I want to borrow a feather. Is that okay?”

-Peeeeeep!

As if answering the girl’s question, the bird of prey made a cry and poked its wing feathers with its beak a few times, then quickly handed her one of its feathers.

“Thank you.”

The bird that heard her words soon flew away somewhere, and Velka drew a small horizontal line in the blank space of the book with the feather she had received from the bird of prey. Did that have any meaning as well? Usher looked around, but it was just a line with nothing special about it. He wondered if there was something he didn’t know about, and as he was looking at it for a while, Velka asked him a question.

“Usher, what is a number smaller than 0?”

“You taught me. If a minus sign is attached to the front of a number, even if it is a large number, it becomes a number smaller than 0.”

There were such things among the things Velka taught him. However, because it became more and more difficult as he delved deeper, there were only a few things he could learn to the end, but Usher was able to answer confidently because he hadn’t forgotten the simple things.

“Correct.”

Velka affirmed and drew the number 1 behind the line drawn on the paper, and he was able to recognize that the small line that had been drawn earlier was the sign used for subtraction. But what does this have to do with magic? The girl’s voice was heard again in Usher’s ears, who was wondering.

“But Usher, in reality, can you eat 6 apples when there are only 5 apples left and make a number of apples that is less than nothing?”

He felt speechless. That was impossible. Why hadn’t he realized it until now, even though it was a simple story?

“Magic is like that ‘number of apples that is less than nothing’. If you look at it in more detail, it feels different, but it’s enough to understand it that way for now.”

Usher, who had been pondering Velka’s words, which had an unknown meaning, soon sighed.

“In the end, it means I can’t use magic.”

“You won’t be able to get that even if you study and work hard.”

The girl said firmly, as if to confirm the kill. The fact that he couldn’t use the special magic, which was enough to make his heart flutter just by hearing about it, was very disappointing. Then, he remembered the medium that the girl had mentioned.

“Come to think of it, you said I could use magic if I had that medium, right?”

Velka closed her mouth at his words and stared at him silently, then nodded as if she couldn’t help it at his earnest gaze.

“Yeah.”

“Then how do I get that medium!”

“I’m sorry.”

The girl’s apology blocked his voice, which had been briefly excited by the hope that he could use magic.

“I can’t teach you what that medium is. I only know that it will continue to wander this world.”

“You don’t have to apologize that much…”

He scratched his head, feeling embarrassed for no reason.

“Even if you find that medium, I won’t be able to teach you.”

Velka, who said that, looked desperate somehow. The girl’s golden eyes were trembling pitifully. What was she so anxious about? When he thought that he should comfort her, he could already find himself holding the girl in his arms. His body moved before he thought.

“Ah.”

He hugged the girl, who made a surprised sound, and said.

“You don’t have to force yourself to say it. There’s a reason why you can’t say it, right?”

“…Yeah.”

The girl, who buried her face in his chest, affirmed in a small voice. Usher, who had been spending time with Velka like that, soon realized that it was time to return to the village. He didn’t realize how time was passing while studying magic, but if it was too late, the adults or children in the village might worry or suspect something. The sound of the wind swirling around the trees and the sound of leaves brushing against each other were heard mixed with the sound of cicadas chirping, and she asked.

“Are you leaving?”

Velka’s lonely voice and golden eyes seemed to hold him back. It would be nice if she could hold him back directly, but the girl didn’t reach out her hand to hold him back until the end. Usher also felt regret and said.

“I’ll come again tomorrow.”

Only then did the girl nod as if relieved. Usher began to walk back the way he had come to this place. Still, he was worried about leaving Velka alone here, so he turned around, but there he could see the girl waving goodbye against the backdrop of the huge zelkova tree, as if she couldn’t come back again. Usher reluctantly waved back and continued his steps back to the village. He turned around one last time just before leaving the field, but the red figure of the girl was no longer visible there.

Leaving the small field with the zelkova tree, steep and rough roads and large and tall trees appeared abruptly. He moved his steps slowly because he could fall and roll down if he made a mistake. He didn’t know if it was really because of the rough road, though. Passing through the piles of grass that appeared next, a hole that drew a perfect circle, just like the one in the back of the house, appeared. He hesitated because he wanted to go back to see the girl again, but he put his legs and body into the hole first. And his body was sliding. Usher wasn’t flustered because he had intended it.

The inside of this hole was as slippery as it looked on the outside, so if you rode it down like this, you could go down quickly and easily. As he was riding down the hole like that, Usher was thinking about Velka. In fact, it wasn’t that he hadn’t tried to tell the girl to go to the village with him. But as soon as he brought up the story, the girl turned her face white as if she was scared and shook her head quickly, so he couldn’t even try to bring up such a story after that. As he was thinking about why the girl couldn’t come down to the village, he realized that he had arrived at the end of the hole with a small shock felt on the soles of his feet.

Coming out of the hole, he carefully poked his head out from the gap in the back of the house and looked around. The house he lived in was in a particularly remote place even in a quiet rural village, so people rarely came to visit, but he had to be careful because sometimes friends he hung out with or one of the adults would come to check on him. It was because things would get annoying if he ran into kids who came in to play knowing he was out, or adults who were running errands. If he made a mistake, his secret place might be discovered. It was terrible to think that Velka would be discovered along with him. It was the moment he confirmed that there was no one in the yard or outside the gate and was about to go into the house with relief.

“Ugh!”

It was like a girl’s voice was heard from somewhere.

“What?”

Usher, who was nervous at that, looked around, but no one was visible. The sky with the setting sun and the appearance of the yard, dyed in the same color, were quite pretty, but even the shadows of small objects were stretched out long, giving it an eerie corner. He got goosebumps when he heard an unknown sound from somewhere in such a scene.

“A ghost, a ghost?”

He repeatedly told himself that there was no such thing as a ghost and tried to stop his trembling body, but he couldn’t stop the cold sweat from flowing.

“Heeu.”

His body froze at the girl’s voice that was heard again. The sound was clearly coming from inside his house. Usher was surprised and wanted to scream, but he decided to look inside the house through the small hole in the door, thinking that the ghost might hear him. He didn’t want to see it if possible, but this was his house. He couldn’t stay at another house, so he needed to check it out. He was even grateful for this hole, which used to make him cold because the wind was seeping in when he slept, today. Hoping that it wasn’t a ghost, he looked inside. He was able to discover unexpected people.

“Robert? Even Kerner is here?”

What he found were his friends. Relieved at that, he was about to open the door to ask what they were doing in his house.

“Eueung.”

That girl’s voice was heard again. It was definitely heard this time. Curious about what they were doing at the sound, Usher became curious about what they were doing before opening the door. Forgetting his tension, he could realize a strange fact when he looked closely.

“Why is that guy taking off his pants?”

That wasn’t the only strange thing. There was a girl below him.

“She’s the village idiot.”

That girl was the child they called an idiot in the village. According to the adults, she was originally a normal child, but they didn’t know what the problem was, but she had become a mute who didn’t say anything and they didn’t know if she was listening. Usher blushed at the fact that the girl was naked. She was quite a pretty girl, even if she was an idiot. It was the first time he had seen a girl’s naked body, and that child didn’t have a penis that men had. Instead of a penis, there was a strange hole, and Robert’s penis was inside that hole.

“Eueheu.”

Usher realized that what he had mistaken for a ghost sound was the moan that the girl was making. What in the world were they doing? Feeling somehow that the penis in his groin was itchy, he concentrated on the scene and could realize a strange fact.

“Hey, Robert, is this really okay?” Kerner said in an uneasy voice.

“Heup! Haa, it’s okay. She’s an idiot anyway, so she can’t tell anyone where she went.”

“What if Usher comes? This is his house.”

“If Usher comes, we can let him do it too. Be quiet. If you keep doing that, I won’t let you do it?”

At Robert’s irritable words, Kerner closed his mouth and watched Robert’s actions. From the conversation they were having, Usher realized that they were secretly doing something they shouldn’t be doing. And to a girl who was an idiot and didn’t even know it was wrong. Should he go inside the house now and stop the kids? But he didn’t know how to stop them. It seemed like he should call the adults, but the problem was that those guys were friends who hung out with him. If he brought an adult, they might not play with him.

As Usher was worrying, Robert’s moans grew louder and he was seen putting his penis deeper into the girl’s there. And after being still for a while, Robert let out a tired breath and fell off the girl’s body. The girl’s there, where his penis had been, was all visible from his position. The inside of that place was made of red flesh like the inside of a mouth, and a small amount of white liquid that was different from urine was pooled inside. Why was that? Usher couldn’t take his eyes off the sight. The thought that he should stop them disappeared and his breathing became rough. He had the thought that he wanted to do it too.

“Okay, now it’s your turn.”

“Huh? Uh.”

At Robert’s words, Kerner seemed flustered, but he took off his pants and took out his penis. And he was seen parting his legs so that the place was all exposed and putting his penis into the girl’s there, who was so unresponsive that he doubted she was even alive, all visible through the hole in the door. It was clearly his house, but he couldn’t confidently open the door and go inside. A sticky sound was heard.