The Boy's Story Part 2
For a while, it felt as if I had lost myself.
Yet there was no room for hesitation.
I had to work to earn money, and to earn money I had to leave this place.
Leaving here, studying, and living well—that was the only way to honor the dead old man and repay my debt.
With an even stronger reason to earn money, Ryly worked even harder.
He asked the team leader to give him more work and exhausted his body until late at night.
When he returned exhausted, there were fights with his wife and his father’s violence.
It’s okay.
I can still endure it.
Without realizing that my body and mind were being worn down, I kept grinding myself away.
One day, the mother said, “Son, you haven’t tried this expensive liquor, have you?”
“… Hmph. I used to drink stuff like this when I was young too.”
The father who had lived enjoying life until his teenage years. His father. That is, Ryly’s grandfather’s generation, who lost his family name as punishment and ended up like this.
Lost family, lost money, lost honor. The only thing gained was alcoholism.
“Yeah, yeah. Then let’s drink it after a long time.”
That day the mother accepted it kindly. Even though it was night, she didn’t go out to work but took care of the father’s drinking. Today was a day off, right? The father also seemed not in a bad mood and drank with him. Looking at his eyes that already looked loosened, he was probably drinking quite strong liquor.
Ryly hid in the corner, watching the scene.
The mother smiled and beckoned, “Come here too.”
There were side dishes besides the liquor, so she was calling to eat them. But Ryly shook his head to refuse.
“It’s okay…”
The strange atmosphere between adults who drink. He didn’t want to join in. He found the somewhat heavy atmosphere suffocating.
“Yeah? The side dishes are delicious.”
“I’m sleepy.”
“Yeah… I’ll sleep first.”
Seeing the father’s eyes subtly urging him to come in, Ryly went to the inner room and closed his eyes. After all, he had to go out to work tomorrow, so sleeping early was good.
The mother stared at Ryly like that and then turned her head.
Wrapped in a thin blanket, he lay down. The blanket was old and had a musty smell, but he had to sleep with it.
As he was dozing off, a rustling sound made him wake up groggily.
Is it raining…
But listening carefully, the sound was coming from inside the room, not outside. When he slightly lifted his head, he saw a silhouette near the drawer.
“Who… Mom?”
The silhouette immediately turned and made a shushing sound.
Mom. The mother who was beautiful with blonde hair and blue eyes, exactly like Ryly.
“What are you doing?”
“Yeah. Just a little. Looking for something.”
When he lowered his voice, she answered in the same lowered tone.
In the middle of the night? Strange. If I watch, she’ll say “Ah, found it” and put some bundle into the bag.
Where is she going…? But today she said she wouldn’t go to work… Did something new come up?
Many questions arose, but he didn’t think much of it. Probably just her usual mood swings.
The mother picked up the bag without making noise and quietly walked out to the inner room door.
“… Well, have a good time.”
“… Yeah.”
After stepping out the door, she hesitated and turned back.
“Take care, Ryly.”
Uncharacteristically friendly. Because finally the mother remembered his name. Feeling pleased, he lay back down.
But somewhere, an ominous thought entered.
Normally, “take care” is how you say hello…
This is the greeting when you can’t see each other for a while. It’s not the greeting between people who see each other’s faces every day.
… It’s because things are tough lately.
He shook off the ominous thought.
No matter how, they were always together. Everyone in the family was probably thinking about escaping this place and enduring.
We are always together.
If I work hard, I can laugh together.
Closing his eyes while imagining a happy future.
The next time he opened his eyes was because of his father’s shouting.
“Nothing! Nothing! There’s nothing anywhere!”
“… Dad?”
“There’s no money! The money I saved! The tiny amount of money my father left me! All of it! Everything, money and no money, he took it all and ran! That bitch-!!”
It felt like his breath was cut off.
“Where did you hide it under the floor? How did you find that, damn it!”
The father who worked hard, the mother who worked at the tavern. The couple managed their own money separately.
So, what happened to Ryly’s money? Just, except for the money to buy food outside, he gave everything to them.
Since the parents didn’t even give him a name, they wouldn’t respect his personal property. And Ryly thought of it as money to leave this place, so it didn’t matter.
Everyone wasn’t wasteful with money, so they probably saved it well.
The result was like this.
“Damn… Damn!!”
Looking at the angry father, his chest tightened.
Me, because I couldn’t catch Mom at night…
Even if I caught her, could I stop an adult?
If I woke Dad up…
I made Dad drink strong liquor. I did it with firm resolve.
Moreover, it was already over. Regretting it wouldn’t change anything.
Take care, Ryly.
Just, the dull voice kept echoing in his ears.
From that day on, Ryly lived as if dead and died as if alive.
Work, eat, sleep. Work, eat, sleep.
He emptied his mind and moved like a machine.
According to rumors, the mother left because she had an affair with a rich man she mentioned before. The man side had been persistently chasing her, and the mother didn’t seem to dislike it.
The father repeated spending his daily money on drinking.
From some day, he didn’t work and drank only with the money that appeared from somewhere.
From some day, he didn’t hit Ryly because he was focused on drinking.
From some day, he cried, laughed, got angry, danced alone.
From some day, he lay still without moving.
And then the father’s friends came.
“Heh! He really drowned in alcohol!”
“You asked to borrow money. I knew this would happen.”
These men approached the hollow-eyed Ryly in the corner.
“Hey, kid. You should repay the money too. Understand? Your dad borrowed money from us and died. So you should repay it instead.”
“But you’re skinny, where would you use it?”
“Don’t know. Looks like you ran away from home. Who would want to buy you?”
As he reached out his hand, various thoughts lit up in Ryly’s mind.
If I get caught again…
If caught, probably sold as a slave through dark paths.
His life would be ruined by people he doesn’t know.
He couldn’t even fulfill his dream of escaping the bottom since birth. Without doing anything according to his own will.
Just living to breathe.
Even if body and mind are ruined, the world doesn’t care.
It’s too much to hate.
So, what needs to be done is clear.
“Hey. Where are you running?”
“Leave… let go!”
He immediately ran to the entrance but was caught. Even struggling, he couldn’t overcome the adult’s grip. His body was small anyway.
Still, not stopping resistance, soon a dull pain spread to his face, making his head spin.
“Hey. Let’s go nicely?”
The inside of his cheek burst and tasted like iron.
“Ehehe. Don’t hit the face.”
Another one approached gently from the side.
What to do? How to escape here?
In this crisis that hadn’t existed before, his head worked faster than ever. He was tired and powerless, but something flowed abundantly in his body.
“Haa… Haa…”
His senses sharpened and he felt like his body was floating.
This had never happened before. The sharpened senses weren’t limited to his body; it seemed like he could grab everything around him with his hands.
As if it would move as imagined.
What caught the eyes of this smart boy.
“Now, stay still for a bit. Before I get really angry— Ah!”
The thing that helped in the crisis was the liquor bottle that his father loved dearly.
He threw it, and it hit the man’s eye nicely.
He didn’t use his hand. He just imagined it.
“What, what… Magic?”
He threw another liquor bottle at the following man. This time, he imagined breaking it with more emotion.
The result was the liquor bottle exploding in the air, fragments flying everywhere.
Several pieces embedded in the man’s face.
“Aaah! Damn!”
Ryly took the chance of confusion and ran out of the house and ran away.
He ran and ran and ran again.
So tired and miserable that tears burst out, but he ran without stopping.
Whenever this happens, there’s a thought.
When it feels like the chest will crush from hardship, the words repeated like a mantra.
Everyone lives like this-
“No!”
Everyone doesn’t live like this!
Only the powerless live like this!
Only the weak humans who aren’t recognized live like this!
The heart that had melted like smoke at some point shouted.
Ryly understood.
Outside the slums, the children of the clean city live a normal life.
I know that living like this is only for the powerless poor in the slums, and for others, there is warm food, warm house, warm parents.
If I had power…!
I could have stopped Dad’s violence.
I could have stopped Mom’s escape.
I could work in a better environment, settle in a good city and study.
I could help the old man who taught me letters with something.
Too powerless.
If I had power, I wouldn’t feel this misery in such a shitty place.
I hate being ignored. I want to stop being shameful now.
I hate suppressing resentment, and I hate deceiving myself with empty hopes.
Hating looking at the empty ceiling and trembling with fear of tomorrow.
Just…
I only wanted to be loved.
A harmonious family, a clean appearance, a recognized me.
The reason I endured everything so far and lived hard was all because of that.
Everything is too much…
Ryly, hiding in a corner of the moving carriage, left as it flowed.
I can’t be here anymore.
He wandered from city to city, stealing food, secretly riding the carriage. Since he learned to handle magic, it wasn’t difficult.
All day venting resentment, occasionally shedding tears, he kept wandering.
In the midst of that, one burning obsession took root in his heart.
The heart accumulated through experiencing all this was only one.
I want to stand at the top.
No family. No need.
What I want is everyone’s recognition. This wounded heart has no way to recover except being recognized by the world.
The top. The best. The first.
A place anyone looks up to. The power to make it so.
I want to be ignored by no one, envied, and loved.
After burning that courage until no more tears came.
The day without a moon in the night sky, only starlight twinkling.
On the day Ryly was sleeping in the ruins, a book was placed in his arms.
…
…
“Tomy, you brat! Don’t stand there?”
The boy who was called by name, a messy-haired boy, stopped running and stuck out his tongue. Other kids quickly ran over and hit his back.
The dirty things were playing nicely together.
Ryly stopped the scene, glanced once, and continued on his way.
It was far from the city he originally lived in. After months, he had gone from south to north.
Now, maybe it was time to settle. He went to some orphanage. Running away from the slums, in the end, he’d stay in the slums, so he laughed at himself.
When he entered and said he was abandoned by parents, he faced a middle-aged woman who looked strict.
“Name?”
“…”
Since it’s a nameless orphan, common. The orphanage director didn’t ask further and was about to give a random name.
“… Tomy. Tomy.”
Just, it came to mind suddenly and he opened his mouth.
This name he’s heard many times on the way here. If you pick kids with the same name, there are hundreds.
A common, ordinary name found everywhere.
That’s why he chose it.
Ryly is a bright future boy who receives everyone’s recognition.
Right now, I am just a pathetic slum boy Tomy.
Even if I run away, in the end, ashamed of myself in the slums. I wanted to deny that this is not my real self.
Maybe hiding myself living dirty and gloomy from the mom who ran away from home somewhere.
Covering the blonde hair same as mom with dirt. Changing name. Erasing the old traces.
The day to rewrite the real name is when leaving this dark mud.
A starting point no one dares to ignore. The day to stand tall without shrinking in front of anyone.
Only then would Ryly come back.
***
“— Why do you believe me?”
Memories of the past flashed.
The self-esteem of the boy who experienced a series of events had hit rock bottom, and now he thought he was just a shell of a person.
To break that, he chose the path of a magician who stands at the top and receives everyone’s envy.
Fortunately, he had talent and a grimoire. For some reason, he was chosen as the owner.
But the way was still long. Without a proper teacher or staff, he’d be treated like a swindler or criminal group member.
The grimoire couldn’t be shown to the public.
So, after quickly finishing the interpretation, based on accumulated knowledge and abilities, he planned to get sponsorship or become a disciple and go public.
In this process, the ‘unavoidable sacrifice’ was irrelevant, he thought. It was the selfish attitude learned from the slums: you have to endure because you’re weak.
But a girl cut it off in an instant.
That girl with spring-like sunlight always threw herself to prove her trust in the boy.
Putting her life on the line, doing dangerous things, and today even running like light to help.
Too strange.
Is there a reason for her to do this much?
No confidence in herself, no confidence in the girl who believes in her.
So, he asked.
Why do you believe my words so much, even though I’m nothing special? Why are you trying to wrap me up?
After a moment, Sugar’s lips moved.
At the time when he was just watching her silently.
“Okay. Let’s start by holding you.”