Chapter 56
“Your wrist has more or less healed, so you can be discharged. Be careful when using scissors or anything like them, all right?”
As soon as my attending physician gave me permission early Sunday morning, I went to the billing counter to settle the bill.
As luck would have it, I saw some familiar, welcome faces there.
“Hello.”
““Name!””
Yuna’s two older brothers, Seo Maru and Seo Noeul, waved their hands in greeting.
“Are you being discharged?”
“Yeah. I was moved to a two-person room yesterday, but it still came to 900,000 won in just two days. Mom was adamantly refusing to stay in the hospital. Mom, this is Yuna’s friend. He’s the person who treated you.”
“Hello.”
Yuna’s mother looked much healthier than before.
She operated the wheelchair with her fingers, bringing it right up to me.
For a while, Mother merely stared at me without saying a word.
The finger that had been pressing the button rose.
Then her hand, her wrist, and eventually her entire arm trembled as they reached out and touched my hand.
“Thank you... student...”
Joints that should never have moved were moving again.
A distance that had once been impossible to cross was becoming reachable.
“Thank you... thank you so much...”
Then I caught the hand that was losing its strength and about to fall limply.
“You’ll have to work hard at rehabilitation if you want to hold Yuna’s hand, too.”
She still wasn’t completely cured, after all.
Since they were muscles she hadn’t used in a long time, it might take quite a while for her to adjust.
I had already given Seo Maru all the precautions, but just in case, I should remind Mother as well.
“Would it be all right if I took a walk in the garden out front with your mother while you settle the bill? It seems to be taking forever, maybe because it’s the weekend.”
“Oh, yes. Mother will like that, too.”
Although the hospital had been built in the middle of the city, the cherry blossoms blooming profusely in its garden created an unusual scene.
I walked along the garden path with her, breathing in the scent of spring flowers.
“Can you see a little in front of you? If you suddenly try to look at too many things, you might get a headache, so don’t push yourself.”
“Before, I could only see light and darkness, but now I can make out vague shapes...”
“The tattoo-like thing on your left arm is a semi-permanent alchemy circle. Don’t forget to have Maru or Noeul replenish its mana every day. Don’t overcharge it or undercharge it, either. The proper amount is enough mana to make every circuit in the alchemy circle light up.”
What was I going to say next?
“In about a month, you might be able to sit up by yourself. Even so, don’t worry too much about saving money. It would be better to buy a medical capsule and start treatment as soon as possible. Think of it as something you’re doing for Yuna.”
“Yuna really has made an amazing friend...”
“Ahaha... Yes.”
“For our Maru and Noeul, and for Yuna, too. Since their mother is in this condition, I’ve always felt nothing but sorry for them.”
“No one will think that way.”
“I thought it would be better to die than to go on living. Whenever I saw my children suffering...”
“It’s rude to say that in front of someone who went to all that trouble to save you.”
“Haha, you sound exactly like my children’s father.”
“Pardon?”
A cherry blossom petal fell onto the wheelchair and stuck there.
Mother picked up the paper-thin petal with her fingers and held it up to the sunlight.
“I’m truly blessed.”
All her senses must still have felt unfamiliar, but even the clumsiest movement was deeply moving to her.
“Don’t you think there are so many mysterious things in this world?”
I tilted my head for a moment at her unexpected remark.
Mother smiled and rolled up the sleeve on her other arm.
“I’ve been saved by the same magic twice now. The Akashic Records.”
On her other arm, a smaller alchemy circle similar in form to the one I had engraved was operating.
She already knew about this magic.
“It’s a secret from the children.”
As the infused mana dispersed, the alchemy circle vanished once more.
“How...? Besides, the alchemy circle just now was more than twenty years old.”
“Because Yuna’s father engraved it for me long ago. I never deactivated it; I’ve kept it all this time as a memento.”
“Fentanyl...”
“What? You figured that out already from just a brief glimpse...? Yuna’s friend really is incredible!”
There was still a small amount of fentanyl remaining in her body.
The Akashic Records on her right arm contained a formula for breaking down fentanyl.
At last, all the clues fell into place.
“I was an academy student once, too. Nahit Academy—it’s gone now—but I was quite bright when I was a student, just like Yuna is now.”
“How did you end up addicted to drugs?”
“Well... at first, it was entirely accidental. When I was young and knew nothing, I drank a beverage someone mistakenly gave me at a club I went to with an older friend.”
She explained that the academy back then had been just as fiercely competitive about education as it was now.
After ten years of charging ahead without looking back, she suffered severe burnout at the age of eighteen and planned her first act of rebellion.
The club she entered by lying about her age was a whole new world, and she said that just watching people dance made her happy.
Never imagining that it would send her life plunging into the abyss.
“I thought the world wasn’t all about the academy... But after I took fentanyl, my life slowly fell apart.”
One day, during a magic practical assessment, she couldn’t infuse mana.
She couldn’t concentrate as usual while studying, and said her grades fell so far that she was on the verge of receiving an academic warning after only one semester.
When she drank the same beverage at the club she revisited, she finally realized that it had been a drug.
“But you know what drugs are like. Even if you want to quit, you can’t. Even knowing that you’ll never be able to use magic again if you take it, you just can’t stop.”
The club was eventually shut down when the drug-distribution ring behind it was arrested, but her life had been ruined so completely that even her parents couldn’t fix it.
After spending several years in a psychiatric hospital suffering through withdrawal, she happened to meet Yuna’s father.
“That was the most miserable moment of my life. I was young and foolish then. I was so ashamed to show a classmate the state I was in, having sunk into a swamp of regret while dwelling only on the bright moments of my past. So I often said cruel things, too.”
The reunion between her—once destined for a bright future, always ranking in the top 100 nationwide on KGSAT mock exams—and her husband, who had simply been an average lower-middle-ranking academy student, happened with their positions reversed.
“So did Father design the Akashic Records himself?”
“Yuna’s father was stubborn about this, if nothing else. For two years—even after his alternative service ended, he kept coming for another six months, every single day, to finish the alchemy circle. Good grief, he must have been busy with his own university studies, so why did he go to all that trouble for me...”
How could I not fall for him?
She trailed off and murmured, lost in her memories.
“You had a good husband. How romantic.”
“Yes, he was such a good man...”
A word of Yuna’s suddenly came to mind.
[Sorry... I don’t have a dad either, so let’s call it even.]
And, as if to confirm my suspicions, Mother opened her mouth again.
“Yuna’s father died when she was very young, and it wasn’t easy for a woman without even a high school diploma to earn money while raising three children. Korea really is... if you can’t use magic and have little education, there are far too few jobs available.”
“That must have been very hard for you.”
“Thinking of it as atonement for the things I left undone makes me feel better. I thought I would go to meet my husband without ever accomplishing even that.”
“Did you have dreams? You must have had many things you wanted to do.”
“Dreams? Yes... dreams.”
A gentle breeze rose.
Now I didn’t even have to make an effort to catch cherry blossoms; several petals came fluttering down onto her lap blanket.
“A college student. I wanted to become a college student. Any university would have been fine... I wanted to attend classes with my husband and go on dates on campus. Holding hands on a cherry-tree-lined path like this.”
Stroking the mound of pink petals, she smiled faintly.
“That’s why. At first, I didn’t want Yuna to go to the academy. I didn’t want her to walk the same path I did. But that girl inherited her parents’ brains, and she’s exceptionally bright. Yuna’s having a hard time at the academy, isn’t she?”
“Does she complain often?”
Yuna’s mother shook her head.
“Not once. But I can tell even if she doesn’t say anything. Name, I’d like you to take good care of our daughter. I know it’s shameless, but I’m asking you.”
“Yes, of course.”
“I want you to tell Yuna that the world isn’t everything it appears to be. I hope Yuna doesn’t become so absorbed in her grades that she misses out on enjoying school life with her friends.”
“A fun school life... Yes, I’ll make sure she has one.”
“And as for the Akashic Records, once I’m feeling better and have saved up some money—”
“Shh. You don’t need to.”
After our lap around the garden, Seo Maru and Seo Noeul were waiting for us at the hospital entrance.
Each of them was holding a cake they had bought from a bakery.
“Here.”
“What’s this?”
“What else? A birthday cake. Yuna’s birthday cake. Here, Name, take one home and eat it with your family.”
“Mom, let’s hurry home and have a party to celebrate your discharge and make up for the birthday party we couldn’t have for Yuna yesterday.”
“That’s expensive. Why did you buy all this?”
“Shh, no saying things like that today. I bought the strawberry whipped-cream cake Mom and Yuna like best, so look forward to it!”
“How are you getting home, Name?”
“Professor Cheon... I mean, my father is coming to pick me up.”
“Then we’ll get going first. Thank you so much. We’re deeply in your debt.”
Seo Maru put Mother in the taxi first, then folded up the wheelchair so it would fit in the trunk.
“Noeul, don’t you need some help? The eldest brother is doing everything himself.”
“That’s why I’m holding the cake. And I bet Maru’s stronger than me now. He may look slender, but he’s seriously muscular.”
“Ah, yes, if you say so.”
“Anyway, thank you, really. I can tell that no matter what you do, you’ll grow into a wonderful person. Just don’t forget us later.”
“Maybe for Yuna, but not for you, Noeul. I’ll consider it if you become a basketball player.”
“Hahaha, you don’t hold back, do you?”
He thumped my back.
Even though he barely touched me, his hand was so big and the smack so stinging that my skin tingled.
Truly tall people have enormous hands, too.
* * *
“Hmm, what’s that?”
“I got it as a gift. They gave it to me to thank me.”
“Ah, I see. Is your wrist all right now?”
“Of course. This is hardly even an injury.”
“...”
“Ah, I’ll be careful from now on! No, I’ll make sure nothing like this happens again.”
“Haha, let’s hurry home, Name. You must be hungry. I’ve already prepared the meat.”
“Chateaubriand?”
“Of course! The kind you’ve been wanting so badly.”
“Professor Cheon.”
“Why?”
“Could we possibly have some red wine, too...?”
“...?”
“No, it’s nothing... Let’s go, I’m hungry!”