When Padrid was young, he was particularly prone to mistakes and lacked strength.
Unlike Darka, who was praised as a genius, he was slow to learn and awkward.
While Darka had mastered letters in just a day after learning them, Padrid stuttered so much that his parents would get frustrated and angry.
The age gap between them already meant there would naturally be differences in development, but the family hoped for another genius to emerge, which only piled expectations and pressure on Padrid.
“Darka! Your brother has finally become able to use magic!”
“Is that really true?”
“I knew my eyes weren’t wrong. You should teach your brother well, right?”
When they said that magical power had manifested late, Darka truly believed it.
But he realized too late that it wasn’t the case.
“It’s an excuse, but I didn’t know.”
Their parents had been forcibly injecting magical power into Padrid.
This was something strictly forbidden among magicians of the Magic Tower.
Except for therapeutic magical infusion, it was impossible to forcibly inject magical power to create a strong magician.
From the beginning, people born as magicians and those who weren’t had different physical constitutions.
“….”
“I…”
Darka paused for a moment, his voice choking.
“I just thought my brother and I had the same power. So I tried to teach him a lot of… magic.”
“…Yes.”
“That was pain and hell for the child. Because it wasn’t a magical power that naturally existed in his body. Every time I poured magical power into him, the child nearly died multiple times.”
“….”
“One day, he said to me.”
“Brother, please save me. It hurts so much… I feel like I’m going to die.”
“Please, brother. Please get me out of here.”
It was too cruel to be the words of a child, not even eight years old.
That’s when he understood.
While Darka spent most of his time at the Magic Tower and couldn’t look after his brother, something had been happening to Padrid.
“He endured all of that.”
Darka, who had received no other education because he was praised as a genius magician, was quite insensitive.
He was a thoughtless older brother.
Even though it was none other than himself who had put his brother through such pain.
Eventually, when the Magic Tower found out about it, the situation escalated.
It was a major incident that could have resulted in forced execution, as they had taken an oath upon entering the Magic Tower.
Fortunately, it was resolved with Darka taking full responsibility and becoming completely affiliated with the Magic Tower, but after that day, Darka and Padrid grew completely apart.
They made sure Darka could no longer torment Padrid, but Padrid had already closed his heart, exhausted from the pain.
After that, even before becoming an adult, Padrid began to live his own life alone.
And Darka came to spend all his time at the Magic Tower.
“So… Huh? Huh? Why, why, why are you c-crying?”
Darka’s eyes, which had been slowly turning, grew as large as lanterns.
Plip, plop.
Transparent pearl-like droplets were falling from Rodi’s large eyes.
Tears rolled down her chubby cheeks and dripped from her chin, drop by drop.
“Huuung, Padrid, why did you, why did you make him suffer… huuung!”
Even in the midst of this, she lowered her voice so others wouldn’t hear, making more choking sounds.
Darka, half-risen, didn’t know what to do.
“Ah, child.”
“Why, why did you hurt Padrid! Padrid is such a good person!”
“Ah…”
He lightly tapped Rodi’s shoulder with his fingertips, then sat down again, then stood up again.
Unable to touch Rodi’s face, he repeatedly brought his hand close and then pulled it away.
“Don’t, don’t cry. Hmm? Ah! Handkerchief. Here, here, wipe with this. Hmm? Will you wipe with this?”
“Why are you making the rookie cry?”
“Hic, huh?”
Darka whirled around at the low voice scraping the ground.
Rodi, who had been pressing her cheeks with the handkerchief, also looked up with a face like a startled rabbit.
Where their surprised gazes landed, Padrid was looking at them with an expressionless face.
‘We’ve been caught.’
Rodi and Darka thought the same thing.
Hiccup!

***

Click.
Padrid picked up a teacup and slowly savored the aroma as he drank.
Across from him sat Darka, unable to sit still.
“….”
“….”
“…I’m sorry.”
Pause.
Padrid froze momentarily as he was putting down his teacup.
“I’m sorry. Really.”
“….”
“I’m truly, sincerely sorry for giving you an indelible wound.”
He couldn’t know all the years Padrid had endured.
“Brother, please save me.”
But with just that one sentence, Darka had become a lifelong sinner.
A sinner who couldn’t protect Padrid when excessive education and harsh punishments continued for the stuttering Padrid.
“There were particularly many incidents on days when you weren’t around.”
A sinner who created shameful memories and experiences that Padrid never wanted to uncover for the rest of his life.
Frightened Padrid had reached the stage where he lost even the words he had learned, and vomiting what he ate was nearly a daily occurrence.
One who failed to protect him from that.
“It’s in the past.”
Padrid’s dry voice pierced Darka painfully.
No, you’re still in pain even now.
No matter how inadequate a brother he was, he couldn’t fail to see that.
All Darka could do was set Padrid free.
“I thought God had abandoned me, but at least I could feel freedom after leaving that place.”
“….”
“I’m grateful for that.”
“Padrid, I…”
“I know it wasn’t your fault.”
Padrid simply didn’t want to bring up the pain.
For fear that everything he had painstakingly built up until now would collapse again.
“Why, why did you hurt Padrid! Padrid is such a good person!”
Contrary to his fearful feelings, when forced to face his wounds again, he didn’t collapse.
Was it the single sentence from that child?
“Tell me about it later when you have time. We’re always on your side.”
Was it that touch that patted his shoulder?
He didn’t collapse at all.
Rather, he could finally feel how strong he had become.
Of course, he couldn’t say all that pain was fine.
But still, Padrid realized that he would never collapse.
“May I ask you one thing?”
“Huh? Yes. Anything.”
“That day, what did you swear to the Magic Tower?”

***

A few days later.
Suddenly, rain poured from the morning sky.
“Huh?”
“Hmm?”
Rodi, who had met Ekision in the hallway, stopped as they entered the general affairs office together.
“Good morning.”
Padrid, looking in the mirror, was definitely different somehow.
“What’s this? Why do you look so handsome? What’s going on?”
Ekision approached Padrid along with Rodi.
“Padrid, are you going somewhere?”
Padrid, dressed in a pitch-black suit, finished neatly tying his black cravat and turned around.
“Yes. I have somewhere to go briefly.”
Then he quickly signed the half-day leave document on his desk.
After completing the approval signature, Padrid straightened his back.
“I expect to return around lunchtime, so please take care until then.”
Not a single unnecessary word or movement.
Rodi’s head followed Padrid as he headed toward the door.
Padrid stopped with the door right in front of him.
“Rookie.”
“Yes?”
Rodi, who had been exchanging glances with Ekision, jumped in surprise and hurried over to Padrid.
What’s really going on?
For the past few days, Padrid had been so quiet that everyone in the general affairs office had been as quiet as mice, but he didn’t seem to have returned to normal.
Padrid looked down at Rodi for a moment and then very lightly stroked her head.
“I’ll be back.”
Then he crossed the threshold and left.
“….”
“What, what was that?”
From behind, Ekision approached and placed his hands on Rodi’s shoulders.
Rodi leaned back against Ekision and looked up at him.
“Ekision.”
“Hmm? What? Rookie, did something happen between you and Padrid?”
Ekision knew a little about Padrid having problems, but he had just been watching because Padrid seemed so troubled lately.
After all, Horas had also said not to give Padrid a hard time for a while.
But seeing how Padrid only responded to Rodi, there must have been something between them.
Rodi looked at the very curious Ekision and smiled brightly.
“Ekision.”
“Yes?”
Click.
Rodi, with a lighter expression than before, held out her hand to Ekision.
“If you’re curious, that’ll be 5 dena.”
Rodi realized from Padrid’s no-longer-shrinking back that he had decided to confront his past.