“Wow!”
Along with the children’s exclamations, the shoe fell rapidly downward.
“Elijah really is the smartest!”
“……We learned it all in class though.”
“I know. But we can’t do it well.”
Dahlia, who had been barely balancing on one foot, answered while putting on the fallen shoe. Elijah found these children really annoying. If they had concentrated in class, they could do it easily, but he didn’t know why they always asked him to do it every time something like this happened.
“From next time, you guys do it yourselves.”
“Okay!”
The answer came out readily, but Elijah knew well that next time they would look for him again. He sighed and turned his body toward Rose.
“……Rose?”
But Rose was nowhere to be seen. Elijah grabbed one of the children nearby and asked.
“Did you see Rose?”
“Huh? What?”
“He was right there. Did you see where he went?”
“We don’t know……. We were just looking at the shoes the whole time.”
Idiots. Elijah ran urgently to find Rose.
“Rose, Rose! Where are you?”
He had definitely said he would be here, but in that short time, he didn’t know where he had disappeared to. Anyway, no matter where he went it would be around the same area, but just the fact that Rose wasn’t in his sight made Elijah rapidly anxious.
Kyaaaah! A shrill scream rang out long from somewhere. Elijah immediately knew whose scream it was.
“Rose!”
He ran frantically in the direction the scream came from.
“Get away, get away! Elijah, save me!”
Elijah, who had stopped on the steep slope, froze solid in that spot for a moment. A large wolf was tangled around Rose’s leg, who had rolled down the slope. The wolf bit his trouser leg and shook its head savagely.
“Kyaah!”
The small body was dragged along once more. The hem of Rose’s pants was soaked in bright red blood. Even the other children who had gathered after hearing the sound stamped their feet, not knowing what to do.
“Wh-what do we do……. Should we throw rocks?”
“No! What if it goes even more wild!”
“Elijah, you do something!”
The children grabbed his arm and shook it. However, Elijah couldn’t move a single finger at that moment.
I have to save him, I have to save Rose……. His head, which had been so good at thinking up complex magic formulas, turned blank white like a sheet of paper.
“Elijah, Elijah!”
What have I learned all this time? What should I do in situations like this? The formulas he had been reciting like breathing became tangled in his head, which had darkened with confusion, and then disappeared.
In the meantime, Rose’s body was pulled further and further down. The more he struggled, the fiercer the wolf’s bite became.
“Everyone stand back!”
Perhaps Rose’s scream had spread quite far, as Jade appeared not too late, pushing the children aside and going down the slope.
When a person approached, the wolf that had let go of Rose it was biting began to bark fiercely. It had definitely looked very huge just a moment ago, but now that an adult man was standing in front, it was a pathetic size.
Jade snatched the pole from Iris and swung it wildly toward the wolf. The wolf, which had been hit on the crown of its head several times by the pole swung by the large man, was dispirited unlike when it had attacked the tiny Rose.
The wolf that had been barking with its ears pressed flat eventually ran away. The children who had been stamping their feet watching the scene let out exclamations of relief.
Until then, Elijah had been frozen, unable to move at all.
* * *
“What do we do, now we’re in big trouble…….”
The children gathered in the dark corridor whispered quietly.
“He seems very angry, right?”
“Of course. He always told us not to go too deep because there are wolf footprints.”
“But we didn’t know there would really be wolves……. It was our first time seeing one. We thought Master was lying to scare us.”
“Why don’t you try saying that in front of Master?”
Elijah, who was sitting crouched alone, separated from them, couldn’t say anything. Despite having handled magic so skillfully as usual, he still hadn’t escaped from the self-loathing and shock of not being able to do anything at the most necessary moment.
Then what was the point of studying? This wasn’t magic I learned just to melt frozen streams or bring down shoes caught in trees…….
His head, frozen with confusion, wouldn’t work no matter how much his anxious heart urged it. Thinking about it now, there were plenty of things he could have done, but he didn’t know why he had been frozen like an idiot at that time.
“I think Rose summoned the wolf.”
At that moment, Igrit said. Elijah’s gaze, which had been quietly looking only at the floor while hugging his knees, turned quietly to him.
“We’ve been playing in that forest every day until now. Has anyone among us ever seen a wolf even once?”
“We’ve seen a lot of footprints.”
“Not that, I mean a real wolf, Iris. There wasn’t any, right? It appeared for the first time after Rose came. Why would that be? It’s all because of Rose. Rose deliberately summoned the wolf.”
“……Don’t say such nonsense.”
Elijah opened his mouth for the first time. Igrit, who was standing crookedly with his arms crossed, snorted as if incredulous.
“Why do you think it’s nonsense? Isn’t it strange that the wolf appeared when he happened to be alone?”
“Then are you saying Rose deliberately got bitten by the wolf?”
Elijah, who had gotten up, faced Igrit.
“Hey, why are you guys like this……. Don’t fight.”
Clover, who had gotten between them, clumsily stopped them.
“Why are you asking me that? You’re the one who brought Rose to the forest! You would know better!”
What had started as suspicion had now turned into certainty. Igrit spoke confidently as if he had witnessed Rose summoning the wolf.
“That kid deliberately summoned the wolf to make trouble for us!”
“No!”
“What do you mean no? Did you even see what Rose was doing alone?”
“…….”
“You’re always like that, Elijah. When you don’t know jack shit…….”
At that moment, Elijah pushed Igrit’s shoulders hard with both hands. Igrit, who had suddenly tumbled backward, got up breathing heavily. His lips, frozen with shock, trembled.
“You……, did you just hit me?”
Elijah pushed his shoulder hard again.
“I hit you, so what!”
“Hey, don’t fight! We’ll get in more trouble because of you guys!”
The narrow corridor instantly became noisy. The children who had been tangled together, grabbing each other’s collars and pushing and pulling here and there, suddenly screamed and backed away in a circle.
In the center, only Elijah stood breathing heavily with his small fist clenched.
Ribbit, ribbit.
Igrit’s clothes, with the owner gone and only the shell remaining, dropped to the floor with a thud. From inside, a palm-sized frog croaked with its throat puffed up.
“If you slander Rose one more time, I’ll bury you in the ground!”
Hik……. That’s so cruel……. One of the children who had backed away in a circle muttered like that.
I should have done this to that wolf earlier……. Elijah resented his head for not being able to do anything like an idiot when it was actually needed, but working perfectly well only for belated venting.
Jade, who had finally come out of the room unable to bear the commotion any longer, stared at Elijah with eyes full of wrinkles. Not many seconds later, Igrit’s body, whose magic’s effect had worn off, returned to normal again.
“Hk…….”
Igrit hurriedly gathered his clothes and curled up his body. The children surrounded him as if blocking him and bowed their heads.
Jade looked over the children with stern eyes and shouted.
“Not only did you break the rules, but now you’re even fighting!”
As the children had expected, he was very angry. It was the scariest face they had ever seen.
“Everyone confine yourselves to your rooms. I’ll treat Rose first, and then I’ll give out punishments.”
“…….”
“What are you all doing! Get to your rooms right now!”
Startled by the shout that rang through the stone walls, the children ran up the stairs in a rush. In the place where the children had receded like low tide, only Elijah remained alone.
“……You’re no exception either, Elijah. You’re the biggest problem! Who told you to use magic on your friend carelessly?”
“Rose……. Is Rose okay, Master?”
The face that had been fiercely contorted flinched and sank.
“I’ll accept all the punishment for my wrongdoing……. But, ……but.”
Elijah, whose corners of his mouth wiggled downward, said while sobbing.
“Please let me see Rose, even for just a moment…….”
Jade let out a long sigh and touched his forehead. Soon he stepped aside next to the door and gestured as if to tell him to go inside and look. Elijah entered the room, fumbling with trembling steps.
“…….”
Rose had really lost a lot of blood. Although he couldn’t tell exactly where he had been bitten, the table was full of clothes and towels soaked in blood.
Elijah, who had carefully approached the bed, looked down at Rose’s pale face. He looked like he might be sleeping, or might have fainted, ……or even looked like he wasn’t breathing.
Elijah, who had quietly placed his finger under his nose, felt a faint breath and finally felt a little relieved. Even while unconscious, five or six small wildflowers were clutched in his tightly clenched fist.
Red, yellow, blue……. Looking at the wildflowers with no overlapping colors, Elijah naturally realized why Rose had gone alone to the area near that slope. The image of him wandering around alone trying to find even prettier colors flickered in his mind.
‘If I had stayed by his side, this wouldn’t have happened.’
Elijah took the flowers from Rose’s hand. The bouquet, with stems woven together and carefully tied, was as small as Elijah’s fist. The heat that surged sharply to the bridge of his nose instantly spread to his eyes.
