Chapter 2 – Secret Friends.

What is Magic? Why do they exist in this world and where did they come from? It is an illusion, not an illusion created by longing for the unknown, driven by imagination. The dream of the Almighty to perform possible or impossible actions by omitting the process.

“I can’t understand a thing!”

Usher, who was listening to Belka’s story, screamed and held his head. Belka, who was staring at him with a golden light, spoke softly.

“You must have said you wanted to learn about magic.”

Yes, Usher was the reason Belka had such complicated talk about magic. However, he was not without objections even to him. Usher pointed to the thick book she was holding.

“But in the book, it’s written that you just need to make a simple gesture.”

The book she was holding was a book about magic, and when she opened it, there were 24 spells written on it. The book was something Usher had brought to Belka after finding it tucked away dusty in a corner of his old house. The book must have been as old as the house he lived in. The old-fashioned cover was all worn and flat, and the contents inside the book were also worn out, so it was full of words that most people couldn’t understand. Still, it wasn’t that there weren’t too many readable parts, so it was easy to see how to use magic. The method was so simple that anyone could easily follow it if they knew how to do it.

No special preparations were required. It was all about drawing the picture drawn in the book in the air with hand gestures. But he couldn’t use magic. That was really weird. The pictures I had to draw weren’t too difficult, so I could easily memorize a few if I tried to memorize them. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t use magic. 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 Belka.

Because if it were her, she would read even the unreadable parts of this book and teach him magic. A girl whose existence is unknown since when she lived in a remote place where no one lived was magical in itself. Pondering his words, Belka got up from the groove of the zelkova tree where she always sat and went down to the ground. She said as the man next to her looked at him curiously.

“Can you show me how you intend to use this?”
“Uh, yes.”

Following her down to her land, he first stretched out her hand in front of her. Then, the golden light of the girl staring at her was burdensome. It was obviously an act to use magic, but since she was looking at it, it was somehow embarrassing. As he hesitates, the girl’s gaze turns to her questioning. He closed his eyes and started moving his fingers. What he now thinks of and draws is a simple straight line with a triangular shape attached to it. It was magic using something like lightning. It was a really simple shape, so he was embarrassed by the magic that was not used even though it was completed quickly according to his thoughts.

“Uh, like this? Was it moving like this?”

He already knew he wasn’t going to succeed, but he wanted to show the girl a good side. Her ears burned at her embarrassment. In the few texts I was able to read in the book, it was written that if you succeed in casting magic, you can move as you wish with the light following your hand gestures. She wondered if she had misplaced her posture or moved her hand, and tried various poses, but the magic didn’t activate even once. After wrestling for a while, he heard Belka’s voice.

“The shape you draw is different.”

Belka came up behind him as if he couldn’t see Usher moaning because he wanted to use magic even once. Belka grabbed his arm as if to wrap it around him and gently moved him, as if he was aware that he was gasping for breath at the sweet scent approaching him and the soft touch of the girl on his back.

“Anyway, it’s based on runes. Rather than feeling like drawing, I think there’s an invisible wall in the air. I have to move as if I’m carving it.”

The girl’s sweet scent almost distracted her mind, but Belka’s explanation of magic regained clarity.

“The name of the rune used is Turisaj.”

Even after he brought her the book, she had no idea what the wind was blowing from a girl who rarely talked about magic. But does the girl know? That he was more into the soft touch of the girl touching his back than the method of using magic right now.

“I carve letters on a solid wall, but curves are difficult and only get in the way. It’s simply connecting lines with lines.”

No matter how he moved his hands, nothing appeared in the air at his fingertips, but in his head, the pictures or writings continued one after another, and he felt that it was completed.

“Uh?”

Nothing happened. I definitely felt that I had completed it by moving her hand as she moved it. As if everything written in the book was a lie, nothing happened. I definitely felt it this time. Was it just his delusion?

“Did you fail again?”

When he asked in doubt, Belka shook her head excitedly. A definite denial that it was not a failure.

“Then why?”
“When using this. The important thing is not simple effort or knowledge.”

While talking like that, the girl opened the book and looked over where the strange writings had been written. As if he were reading that strange text that he wanted to read but couldn’t at all.

“To use this, you need a medium to connect you and the sky.”
“Medium?”
“Yes, without it, no matter how hard you try, you won’t be able to use the things written here.”

In the end, it was a story that Usher’s actions were meaningless. When he found out, he lost his energy. As much as he expected that he would finally be able to use magic, he was disappointed too. Seeing his morose figure, Belka was restless and opened her mouth as if to comfort him.

“Because magic is a study that does not need to be learned. You do not have to be so disappointed.”
“Don’t you need to learn?”

Belka looked down at him as if looking into the questions that filled his eyes.

“That’s what magic is.”
“Why don’t you need to learn?”

It was strange to Usher to say that it was okay not to learn because she said that there is nothing bad by knowing.

“Because magic exists but does not exist.”
“Grunt, I don’t know what you mean.”

Another head-wrenching story came out. Does magic have to be explained in a complicated way after all?

“It must have been a little difficult.”

Seeing him like that, Belka, who smiled faintly and muttered something, wondered if she was thinking about something, then she reached out her hand in the air. It was similar to the way he looked when he tried to use magic, but a large bird flew in from somewhere in her action. The bird that approached him in the blink of an eye was large and had sharp claws and beaks. Then Belka said while stroking the head of the bird of prey sitting on her arm with her other hand.

“I’d like to borrow a feather. Is that okay?”
– Beep!

As if answering her girl’s question, the bird of prey made her cry and seemed to poke her own wing feathers with its beak a few times, then quickly handed her one of her own feathers that had escaped from her.

“Thank you.”

The bird that heard her words immediately flew away, and Belka drew a small horizontal line in the empty space of the book with the feather she received from her bird of prey. Does it have any other meaning? Usher looked around, but it was just a line, nothing special. Belka questioned him after examining it for a while in case there was something he didn’t know.

“Usher, what number is less than zero?”
“You taught me. When a number is prefixed with a minus sign, no matter how large the number is, it becomes less than zero.”

That was one of the things Belka taught me. However, the more he digs, the more difficult it becomes, so he could learn a few things until the end, but he didn’t forget the simple things, so Usher was able to answer confidently.

“That’s correct.”

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

“But Usher, in real life, can you eat 6 of the 5 remaining apples and make fewer apples than there are none?”

He sighed and felt his words choke. Because that was impossible. It’s a simple story, but why haven’t I noticed it until now?

“Magic is something like ‘a smaller number of apples than nothing’. If you look at it in more detail, it’s a different feeling, but that’s enough for now.”

Usher sighed as he pondered Belka’s meaningless words.

“After all, that means I can’t use magic.”
“No matter how much you study and try, you won’t be able to get it.”

A girl who speaks resolutely as if to confirm death. It was disappointing to hear that special magic made the heart flutter, so the fact that it could not be used. Then I remembered the medium the girl had spoken of.

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

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

“Huh.”
“Then how is that medium!”
“Sorry.”

The girl’s apple interrupted his voice, briefly excited by her hopes of being able to use magic.

“I can’t tell you what that medium is. Only that it will continue to wander the world.”
“Until I had to apologize…”

Embarrassed, he scratched his head.

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

Belka, who said that, looked somewhat desperate. The girl’s golden light trembled pitifully. What is it that worries you so much? When he felt the need to comfort him, he found himself already holding the girl in his arms. My body moved before I thought.

“Ah.”

He said holding the girl in his arms, who was making noises as if he was surprised.

“You don’t have to force yourself to say it. Is there a reason you shouldn’t?”
“…Huh.”

The girl, who buried her face in his chest, affirmed in a low voice. After spending time with Belka, Usher realized it was time to return to the village. He didn’t notice the time passing while studying magic, but if it’s later, the adults and children in the village might be worried or suspicious. She asked, hearing the sound of the wind blowing through the trees and the rustling of leaves mixed with the cicadas’ cries.

“Let’s go?”

Belka’s forlorn voice and golden light seemed to have a hold on him. It would have been nice if he could have grabbed him directly, but the girl didn’t reach out her hand to grab him. To that, Usher also said while feeling regretful.

“I’ll come again tomorrow.”

Only then did the girl nod her head as if reassured. When Usher came here, he started walking, retracing the way he had walked. Still, it bothered her to leave Belka here alone, and she turned around to see the girl there, against the backdrop of a huge zelkova tree, waving her goodbye so that she wouldn’t come back. Usher couldn’t help but wave her hand at her and continue her steps back to her village. Just before she left the field, he looked back once more, but the red girl was nowhere to be seen.

After leaving the small field with zelkova trees, a steeply sloped steep road and tall tall trees appeared. She moved slowly because she could slip and fall if she slipped. I couldn’t tell if it was because of the really rough road. Destroying the next pile of grass revealed a hole in a perfect circle, just like the one at the back of the house. He hesitated to go back to see the girl, but he put her legs first into the hole. And sliding body. Usher wasn’t taken aback, because that was what he intended.

This hole was as slippery on the inside as it looked on the outside, so riding down like this made it quick and easy. As Usher climbed down the hole like that, he was thinking of Belka. In fact, it wasn’t that he hadn’t talked to her girl about going to town with him. But as soon as she brought it up, the girl turned her face white as if she was frightened and quickly shook her head. She wondered why the girl couldn’t make it down to the village, but she soon realized that she had reached the end of the hole with the slight jolt she felt on the soles of her feet.

After getting out of the hole, he cautiously peeked his head out of the gap at the back of the house and looked around. The house he lives in is a particularly remote place even in a quiet rural village, so people rarely visit, but he needs to be careful because sometimes one of his friends or adults who hang out with him sometimes comes to check on him. It was because he thought he was out of the house and running into children who came in to play or adults who were doing errands would bother him. If he was wrong, he could have found out his secret place. He was terrified to think that Belka would be caught with him. It was the moment when I was about to enter the house, feeling relieved after confirming that there was no one outside the yard and the gate.

“Ugh!”

What sounded like a girl’s voice came from somewhere.

“What?”

Nervous, Usher looked around but saw no one. The sunset sky and the yard dyed the same color were quite pretty, but there was a corner where even the shadows of small objects stretched out for a long time. I got goosebumps at such a sight and even heard an unknown sound from somewhere.

“Ears, are they ghosts?”

I tried to stop my trembling body, reminding myself several times that there was no such thing as a ghost, but I couldn’t stop the cold sweat from flowing.

“Huh.”

My body froze at the sound of the girl’s voice. The sound was clearly coming from inside his house. Usher wanted to scream in surprise, but he thought he might be possessed by a ghost, so he gulped and decided to look around the house through a small hole in the door. He didn’t want to see it, but it was his home. He couldn’t live in another house, so he needed to check it out. I felt grateful for this hole, where the wind leaked in and made me cold when I slept. When I looked inside hoping it wasn’t just a ghost. He found unexpected people.

“Robert? You even have Kerner?”

What he found was my friends. It was the moment when he opened the door to ask what he was doing in his house while feeling relieved by him.

“Yes.”

The girl’s voice was heard again. This time she was clearly audible. The sound made Usher wonder what they were doing before opening the door. I forgot my tension and looked closely and realized a strange fact.

“Why is that guy taking his pants off?”

Strangely, it wasn’t just that. Beneath it was a girl.

“He’s a town idiot.”

The girl was what the village called an idiot. According to the adults, she was originally a normal child, but she doesn’t know what’s wrong with her, but she said that she became an idiot who couldn’t even tell if she was listening or not saying anything. She even blushed at the fact that the girl was her naked body. No matter how stupid she is, she was once quite a pretty girl. It was the first time she had seen a girl naked, but she didn’t have the pepper that a man has. Instead of a pepper, there was a strange hole, and Robert’s pepper was in it.

“Ughhh.”

She realized that what Usher had mistaken for her ghostly voice was the moan the girl was making. What the hell is she doing? Kerner said anxiously, thinking that the pepper between her groins was tickling for some reason, but she was concentrating on it.

“Hey, Robert, is this really good?”
“Huh! Ha, it’s okay. I’m an idiot anyway, so I can’t even tell you where to go.”
“So when Usher comes? This is his house.”
“If Usher comes, you can let him do it. Be quiet. You won’t let him if you keep doing that?”

At Robert’s nervous words, Kerner shut his mouth and watched Robert’s actions. Their conversation gave Usher a feeling that they were secretly doing something they shouldn’t be doing. To a girl who doesn’t even know what’s wrong because she’s stupid. So should he go inside the house now and dry her children? But he didn’t know how to dry it. It seemed like it would be okay to call the adults, but the problem was that those guys were friends they got along with. If an adult is brought in, she may not play with her.

As Usher pondered, Robert’s moan grew louder and he saw her sticking the pepper deeper into the girl’s. And Robert, who had been still for a while, let out a weary breath and fell away from the girl’s body. The girl’s place where the guy’s chili was in was all visible from his position. The inside of it was made of red flesh like the mouth, and inside it was a small, white liquid different from urine. Why? Usher couldn’t take his eyes off him. He lost the thought of drying up and his breathing quickened. He felt that he wanted to do it too.

“Now, you do it.”
“Huh? Huh.”

Kerner seemed taken aback by Robert’s words, but took off his pants and pulled out his own pepper. Then, through the hole in the door, she spread her legs so that the whole place was exposed, and put her pepper in the girl’s unresponsive body, which was suspiciously alive. Although it was clearly her own house, she could not open the door and enter. A crackling sound was heard.