[600] A Rootless Tree (2)
* * *
Shirone woke and couldn't get out of bed until well past noon.
"Gefin…."
Those words he'd been left with orbited his mind like a riddle.
"I should go."
He sat up, washed his face, and headed for the Supernatural Psychical Science Lab.
He drew a deep breath and cast Sibulsangpokmae; temporal energy swirled and shattered the time barrier.
The noisy commotion from the upper levels was gone.
'It closed.'
Now that Miro had come out into the world, Hexa could no longer be used as material for the barrier, and the upper levels had no reason to remain.
'He left.'
When Shirone imagined Gefin gone for good, a hollow emptiness washed over him and he slumped onto the couch.
'I have no root.'
He felt as if he were alone in the universe.
"Shirone, what happened?"
Amy and Iruki came in.
"Oh? Is the evaluation already over?"
"The schedule's a mess. Because of the Scramble Royal."
Unless Nade returned, the allied team would have had no choice but to forfeit.
"He's not in the dorm, so I came here. What happened? I asked Anchal and he said to hear it directly."
"Right—what about Anchal?"
"He left. He quit."
"I see."
It was what Shirone had expected.
"Tell us now. You promised."
"Well…."
Shirone told them everything that had happened in the upper levels, leaving nothing out.
There had been no secrets between them before, so they understood quickly. The mood turned solemn and Amy's face went sad.
'Poor Shirone.'
He had been willing to give up even the mage's dream to find his root and had chosen the path to heaven—and now it had ended like this.
"I don't have a root. I don't really know what that means, and I don't even want to. It feels terrible."
"There is no effect without a cause. Even if it's a perfect coincidence, that doesn't erase your meaning."
Amy supported Iruki's words.
"Right, Shirone. There must be a reason. Gefin himself used the word 'once.' Don't give up already."
Feeling they'd gotten too dark, Shirone shifted the subject.
"By the way, what about Nade? He still hasn't come back, has he?"
"He probably feels responsible for leaving the Scramble Royal. He needs a little more time."
"But you won. Nade should know that. I'll go find him—I'll check the West household."
"He probably didn't go home. He's likely sleeping rough somewhere."
It didn't make sense that someone with a house and money would sleep outside, but Iruki was sure.
"Tell me, Iruki. Why is Nade like that? I need to know what happened to persuade him."
If Nade wasn't leaving forever, the truth would come out sooner or later.
"Shirone, you may not have a root, but…"
Iruki chose her words carefully.
"Nade's root is sick."
* * *
The early-autumn mountain air grew colder at night.
"Brr, it's cold."
Nade curled up by a small fire and tried to sleep.
"Please, let tonight pass without incident…."
Nineteen years ago a genius of unprecedented caliber had been born into the West household, yet no one in the family knew of it.
"This is annoying!"
Teria, Nade's mother, had been sitting at her dressing table reapplying makeup for an hour.
'If you use such cheap cosmetics….'
If this had been a normally wealthy family, she wouldn't be called wasteful and extravagant.
Who would have thought the Wests—real-estate magnates for generations—would end up drowning in debt?
'I ruined my life with one bad marriage.'
Nade's father, West Vollum, had first met Teria at a social party.
When she saw the expensive watch, the designer clothes, and the craftsman-made seven-pyeong carriage, she assumed a rosy future awaited.
She got drunk, became pregnant with Nade, and thus became part of the West household—but it was like boarding a sinking ship.
"What a pathetic man."
Even as the family fortune collapsed, patriarch Vollum remained drunk and debauched, rarely coming home.
No matter how much Teria barked at him to salvage the family business, she only sighed at the nuisance of the man she'd embraced that one night.
"The young master is crying again."
At the maid's words, Teria flung the comb she'd been using to the floor.
"Then quiet him! That's what you're there for!"
"But once he starts crying—"
"Annoying!"
Teria shoved the maid and stormed into Nade's room.
"Mom! Mom!"
Seeing her son bawling with his mouth wide open made her blood boil; she thought of her useless husband and felt her hair stand on end.
"Why—!"
Teria screamed at the top of her lungs.
"Why are you crying! Why on earth are you crying! I stretch the little money we have to give you everything! What are you unhappy about!"
"Strange sounds… sounds…."
"Are you an idiot? Why are you making me miserable too?"
Contrary to Teria's misunderstanding, Nade had reached an overflow—he'd suddenly grasped some terrible truth about the world and was suffering a mental overload.
He was only three years old.
"Mommy. Mommy."
Teria's face twisted with rage and she slapped Nade hard across the cheek.
The physical shock made the child pause his crying; until Nade's mind was completely destroyed, this was Teria's only method.
"Ugh!"
Nade sprang up, glanced around desperately, and let out a relieved breath.
"Phew, thank goodness."
That no discharge had erupted meant he was regaining control, but he still felt miserable.
'I should head back soon.'
Having left the Scramble Royal, he couldn't face his friends.
"First I'll wash up."
By the time he descended the mountain and reached the town, dawn had broken. Nade went into a public bathhouse to wash away the fatigue of camping.
There weren't many people, but every one of them glanced at his body.
The burn scars covering him were the marks of torture by the notoriously cruel Chickenhead bandits.
He might have been better off dead, but Nade kept his body alive by numbing his mind.
"Still scars…."
In the mirror, the scratch marks he'd made with his own nails were still visible.
The scabs had peeled, but it would take more time for the wounds to fully heal.
'Anyway, I can keep it under control, so from today I'll sleep at inns.'
He had no intention of returning to school yet.
* * *
"He's not here. Where on earth did he go?"
Shirone had spent the whole day searching Creas and sighed as he sat on someone's roof.
There were crowds in the street, but those worn down by life had no leisure to look up.
He couldn't search the entire city in one day, but if he expanded his Spirit Zone while in the Geumgang armor state, it might be possible.
"Did he really head up into the mountains?"
If so, there would be no way to find him—so it'd be better to search the city some more.
Shirone spread his wings and took to the air, using Armand's nerve enhancement to watch the ground with a hawk's eye.
"Oh?"
A few blocks away he spotted Nade coming out of a bathhouse.
"Not an old man…."
Licking his lips, Shirone flew straight over the blocks and dropped onto a shop rooftop.
When his tendrils tapped the roof, his body spun; by the time he dropped to the street, Armand had already been released.
He landed nimbly and people jumped back in surprise.
"What is this? A circus?"
Nade froze when he heard the commotion and turned.
"Ha ha! Found you!"
"Shirone?"
Nade's face twisted. Before Shirone could speak, he turned and bolted.
"Hey! Why are you running?"
Baffled, Shirone lunged after him.
"Shirone! Don't follow me!"
"Then why are you running?"
"I don't know! Just leave me alone!"
They pushed through the crowd and knocked over stalls, neither stopping.
'Persistent as ever.'
Knowing Shirone's stubbornness, Nade teleported and shot up into the sky.
"Eek!"
Passersby gasped; some shopkeepers pointed at the sky and shouted.
"A mage! That's definitely magic!"
For students of the Alpheas School of Magic it was ordinary, but most of these people had never seen magic in their lives.
"That's—!"
Shirone ground his teeth.
Nade had assumed Shirone wouldn't cast magic in front of people, but Shirone—having already heard from Iruki—wasn't going to give up this time.
"Stop right there! Just try and get caught!"
A flash burst forth; the district's commerce seemed to freeze and everyone looked up as if time itself had stopped.
Nade shouted at Shirone, who was closing in fast.
"Are you crazy? If someone reports this to the school, what do you think will happen?!"
"Then why are you running? I just want to talk for a minute!"
'This is bad. He's serious.'
Knowing Shirone's movement skills, Nade swallowed, imagining the inevitable of being caught.
"Don't be ridiculous! I'll show you my real skill!"
One minute later—
"Aaah!"
Caught by Shirone, Nade fell in the middle of the market and rolled on the ground.
"Come here!"
"Help!"
Having just bathed, his body was now covered in dust; Nade crawled on hands and knees.
But as soon as he tried to stand, Shirone had him pinned and shoved him against a wall.
"It's over now! Give up!"
Shirone's face loomed close and Nade turned his head in a panic.
He couldn't show his face.
"Look at me! Don't look away!"
"No."
"This is real!"
Shirone shifted position and thrust his face forward; Nade's neck jerked and his gaze snapped the other way.
Their repeated dance—one avoiding eye contact, the other forcing it—drew murmurs from the crowd.
"What are you two doing so early? How theatrical."
"Wait—are they both boys?"
Nade flushed red and shook off the arm Shirone had put on his shoulder.
"Ugh! Let go! You're making this weird!"
"Then why were you running? Did you do something wrong?"
Nade had been huffing for a long while, then his expression went suddenly sad and he hung his head.
"Sorry, Shirone. I ruined everything. I dragged you all into it."
"That's not true. You fought your best. Iruki told me. And you even won the Scramble Royal."
That news brought Shirone some relief, but Nade's guilt only deepened.
"Sigh, I should have been there."
"Everyone's worried. Come on, let's go back to school."
Meanwhile, a man and woman who had just arrived in the city stood dumbfounded at the daytime spectacle.
The blond man was strikingly handsome and the woman beside him carried the polished air of the capital, Bashka.
"They said a mage caused a scene over that block. I heard it was a kid."
"Then a student? From the Alpheas School of Magic?"
At the man's words the woman smiled.
"Maybe."
"Well. Looks like student management's a mess in the provinces. That wouldn't happen in the capital."
She rolled her eyes.
"You're trash-talking my alma mater?"
"Ha! Is that so?"
"Anyway, let's go see—I'm curious. Maybe we'll meet someone I know."
"I'm busy, but fine…."
She grabbed his arm and pulled him along; he followed with a resigned smirk.
"Heh, I wonder what kind of kids they are…."
Pushing through the crowd, the woman widened her eyes when she saw the two boys squabbling.
"Oh?"
"What? Do you know them?"
The man asked with a yawn, but she ignored him and walked straight up to them.
"Nade! You're Nade, right?"
Nade turned at the voice and froze as if his soul had slipped out of his body.
"Lise…senior?"
"Aah! You really are Nade! How long has it been?"
"How did you get here, senior?"
Aple Lise.
She had been the former president of the Supernatural Psychical Science Research Society and the first love who had pulled Nade out of hell.