Chapter 32 – No Eternal Friends, No Eternal Enemies (7)

Thomas Wayne, who came from a common, nameless Ember.

For him, who was chosen along with his younger brother as the magic engineer to take responsibility for its future, there was only one person he could call a friend.

Ailen Vail.

He was indeed the son of Demian Vail, who received the favor of the Grand Magic Engineer.

In stark contrast to Thomas, who had a father who was a mere laborer, was it because of his affluent family environment?

“So you are Thomas Wayne. I heard your dream is also to become a magic engineer? Let’s get along well!”

From an early age, Ailen approached Thomas first with an optimistic personality.

To the point where even Thomas, who had become as sensitive as could be from locking himself in a small backroom twenty-four hours a day with his younger brother Willas to cram magic engineering into their heads, eventually opened his heart to him.

“Thomas! Today I went to a tavern for the first time with my father, you know? It was so noisy and hectic… but I want to go again!”

“Today I went out to the snowfields outside the Ember with the hunters, and it was so incredibly vast… I finally understood why they call it the boundless snow!”

“Today they said a market opened in our Ember, so I went to check it out, and you wouldn’t believe what was there…”

On days when Thomas’s parents did not return home due to working late, Ailen would visit the brothers as he always did.

Ailen Vail was a bluebird that brought news of the outside world to them trapped in their small room, and their window to communicate with the world.

And.

“Ailen, you have to know this basic stuff.”

“I know, I know. I’m memorizing it.”

“I told you, you have to understand the principles, including the First Principle, not just memorize them! Otherwise, the rest of the content will become even harder.”

“Alright, Thomas. Stop yelling at me.”

The Wayne brothers became teachers who taught magic engineering to Ailen.

In that way, the Wayne brothers shared magic engineering knowledge with Ailen, and Ailen shared the world they yearned for with the Wayne brothers… they were gradually becoming indispensable existences to each other.

However, around the time Ailen Vail turned nine and began to receive full-fledged lessons from his father, Demian Vail.

“I really must have no talent.”

“What’s wrong, Ailen?”

“My father got angry because I couldn’t solve the advanced introductory problems. If only I had properly understood the things you taught me, this wouldn’t have happened…”

“It’s okay. You can just learn it again. I’ll teach you.”

Ailen began to ramble only about magic engineering, rather than stories of the outside world.

There was nothing to not understand. The Wayne brothers could also sympathize deeply since they had been abused by their parents over their magic engineering achievements.

Above all, although they had initially become close by filling each other’s deficiencies, before long, their relationship transcended necessity… they had become true friends.

“This is a notebook that Willas and I made. It’s like a summarized version of the introductory book, so if you just understand this, you’ll be able to finish the introductory book in no time.”

It was like that for the first month.

The Wayne brothers reduced their sleep time for their only friend to make the summary, and even when their mother did not feed them because they failed to meet their study quota as a result, they did not stop scribbling with their pens.

However.

“You lazy bastards! How are you still unable to enter the beginner level when you do nothing but stay home all day!”

“W-We’re sorry, Father!”

“Starting today, don’t even go to the bathroom. Until you enter the beginner level, this single room is all that is permitted to you!”

“A-Father! Father!!”

Click!

In the end, trouble broke out.

As the Wayne brothers’ achievements stagnated, their father, Merel Wayne, ended up putting a padlock on their room.

Although it was a next-best alternative for Merel, who could not lay a hand on the children since they had to study every single day without exception.

“Brother, it’s suffocating. I feel like I’m really going to die. *Ugh*, *sob*…”

“Willas, it’s okay. Let’s endure a bit, just a bit…”

“For how long? How much longer do we have to endure? Ten years? Twenty years? Or does it only end when we die?”

“…”

To the Wayne brothers, confinement was no different from a capital punishment.

Disconnection from the outside was a hanging that choked their breath.

But since they had their best friend Ailen Vail.

“Thomas, Willas. I’ll bring even more interesting news in the future.”

“Thank you, Ailen. You are the only one.”

They became each other’s support, separated by a single thin wooden door.

In that way, a few days passed, and on an exceptionally bright day when light leaked in through the gaps in the wooden walls of the backroom.

That was the day when the voice of Ailen Vail, who had always been positive and bright, lost its vitality.

Also, on that day, he was unusually cold.

“Today is the last time I am coming here.”

“What… does that mean?”

“Can’t you understand words? I said I won’t come to meet you again.”

Unable to accept the sudden change, the Wayne brothers asked for the reason.

The answer that returned in that manner delivered a massive sense of betrayal.

“This is all because of you.”

“What…?”

“Do you know how much my father compares me to you? As your skills advance further and further, on the contrary, do you know how miserable I become!”

It was an inferiority complex that one might harbor at a young age.

However, it could not be expressed so simply. Because Ailen was still a young child for whom his father was the entire world.

Being compared to his peers and unrecognized by such a father must have been a great torment.

“…”

Thomas could not comfort him.

He knew that Ailen’s talent was utterly disastrous, and it was only natural that it was impossible for someone like him to meet Demian’s expectations.

No matter what words he used to comfort him here, it would only be the deception of a talented person.

However, the reason he really could not say anything was because he did not know how to comfort. Since all he had ever received after being born into this world was harsh rebukes.

“…”

Quietly, he merely sat quietly with his back pressed against the thin door, comforting him with silence.

However, Ailen’s words that broke the silence birthed an indelible wound in the Wayne brothers.

“You guys don’t understand my feelings.”

“What do you…”

“Isn’t it true? If you do it, results come out, so what would you worry about? Oh, come to think of it, why are you guys still trapped in there despite having that much talent? I guess you got drunk on your talent and neglected your studies?”

“Watch your mouth…!”

“Well, I suppose that’s why your father locks even the door and treats you harshly. If I were you, things would never have reached this point.”

Even considering he was a young child, these were words that should not have been said.

Above all, while knowing the circumstances full well, turning all the blame onto the Wayne brothers was something that should not have been done.

Above all, Thomas and Willas were also vulnerable young children, just like Ailen.

“You idiotic bastard, steeped in an inferiority complex. No, our brothers are the idiots for pouring time and devotion into a fool like you. There is absolutely no room for improvement in a blockhead like you, no matter how much we teach you.”

“You are finally showing your true colors. So that is how you have been looking at me all this time. Right?”

“Did you only notice that now? Because magic engineering is so easy and so boring, I only treated you well to hear some interesting stories. You were merely a clown to us, a clown.”

“Aren’t you the clowns? You are desperately struggling, locked in a cramped backroom just to meet your father’s expectations.”

“You son of a bitch!!!”

Knowing each other so well, Ailen and the Wayne brothers left indelible wounds in each other’s chests.

And after that day, Ailen Vail never visited the Wayne brothers again.

“Damn bastard… I will definitely kill him when I get out.”

As the days he did not show his face grew longer in that manner, the Wayne brothers’ resentment toward him only grew larger.

Before they knew it, time flowed rapidly, and the day the Wayne brothers turned nineteen and came out into the world for the first time to go take the qualification exam.

“Shit, what is there to life? Drink, drink!”

They found Ailen Vail in a tavern, drinking alcohol as if he had given up on life.

“You dog-like bastard. I wondered what you had been doing for ten years, and you were indeed living a life like a maggot. A piece of human trash like you deserves to die!”

The Wayne brothers began to pour out the hatred they had accumulated over ten years toward Ailen.

Should they call it fortunate?

Whether it was because the guy had really lived like a scoundrel for ten years, there was no one who stopped them.

Rather, they only threw praises at the Wayne brothers’ indiscriminate assault and incited the violence.

However, the Wayne brothers’ revenge did not fill the ten years’ worth.

On a day when the qualification exam was not far away, such a rumor was heard in the streets.

“I heard Ailen went missing? Do you know anything about it?”

“What do you mean missing? No doubt he fled because he didn’t want to work.”

“So, you’re saying he ran away to the snowfields outside the Ember?”

“Rather than running away… it should be viewed as suicide, suicide.”

As Ailen Vail disappeared, their anger lost its path.

While the Wayne brothers’ anger was growing in size without any chance to subside, at that moment.

“Thomas, Willas, I have something to say to you.”

Someone came to find them.

It was the Head of the Magic Engineering Department, Ailen Vail’s father, Demian Vail.

“It seems Ailen left the Ember to take the qualification exam. Judging by his unusual behavior over the past few days, there is a high probability of that.”

There was no emotion.

Whatever the reason that bastard Ailen had escaped the Ember, what did that matter?

Their only regret was that they could not kill him with their own hands.

If he asked them to find and bring him back safely, they intended to refuse coldly.

However, at Demian’s subsequent words, the Wayne brothers had no choice but to flinch.

“Ailen must be dead. No, he is dead. Since the distance to the Immortal Ember is not one that can be navigated alone, that must surely be the case. So… if by any chance your paths overlap and you find Ailen, please retrieve his body.”

“…!”

“Just, just so that the wild beasts outside cannot tear Ailen apart… bury him like that. I beg of you. Thomas, Willas.”

A father’s request to retrieve his son’s body.

This transcended the size of the resentment harbored by the Wayne brothers.

Because Demian’s mournful voice and eyes, and his appearance of sincerely grieving his son’s death as a father, were what the Wayne brothers, who had grown up without receiving love even once, had so desperately yearned for.

“…I understand.”

At that, Thomas barely held back the tears welling up and replied that he would do so.

It was the force majeure of one who had parents but grew up as an orphan.

Above all, Demian had secretly visited them behind their father Merel’s back, offering lessons, giving snacks, and the like.

Because he had encouraged them more like a real father than their biological father.

However, Demian’s story, which continued in the grief of losing his son, ended up throwing the Wayne brothers into a great shock.

“I know that Ailen did not visit you starting from the year he turned ten. Take this.”

“This is…?”

“It’s a diary. It’s Ailen’s diary, which he has written in every single day without fail since that day.”

The expressions of the Wayne brothers who opened the diary on the spot could not be fully expressed in words.

The first page was written the day before he broke ties with the Wayne brothers.

[Today, Father gave up on teaching me. Along with the words that I have no talent, and that it is even disastrous.

I could not sleep. I visited the study to tell him I was sorry for disappointing him, and that night, I ended up seeing it.

The appearance of my father lamenting how nice it would have been if the Wayne brothers were his sons…

January 20, Year 596 of the Immortal Ember Era.]

[Now, he seems to have given up on treating me as a son… no, as a human. Even when he sees me, he pretends not to see me, and even when I call him, he does not even give me a glance.

How did it turn out like this? I do not want to live anymore.

March 1, Year 597 of the Immortal Ember Era]

[I became an adult. There is no one to congratulate me except my mother.

I resent everything. Demian, the Wayne brothers, and this world that gave birth to me like this…

January 1, Year 601 of the Immortal Ember Era]

[I have resented the wrong things. I committed an indelible sin against the Wayne brothers.

There is no way to excuse it as a mistake made at an immature age. Because Thomas and Willas were just like me.

Now, I cannot even resent Demian. It was all my fault.

December 31, Year 603 of the Immortal Ember Era]

Their expressions, which seemed to be crying, laughing, and suffering at the same time… yes, the statement that they were distorted with pain would be the closest.

Toward the Wayne brothers standing frozen like that, Demian spoke.

“Ailen’s ruin is entirely my fault. I realized it after looking at this diary. As a parent, I was infinitely lacking…”

“…”

“Resent me instead of Ailen. Don’t you guys also know that the sins of a child lie with the parent, not with that young one.”

At that moment, Thomas’s thoughts came to a halt.

“What is the use of all that now?”

It has already been ten years since they accumulated hatred.

Meeting Ailen after ten years, they cursed and beat him while treating him like an idiot.

Meaning they had defined him as the cause of all this and made him the target of their venting.

But to think that Ailen had also merely gone astray because of his father.

The Wayne brothers felt as if they had lost the target that this colossal hatred should be directed toward.

“Why on earth did you give this to us? Why on earth!”

“…”

“Does it make your heart comfortable to do even this? Are you telling us, who took our anger out on Ailen, to live in regret for the rest of our lives? What did we do so wrong? What did we…”

Ailen was already dead.

He would not return.

The misunderstanding could not be resolved, the hatred lost its path, and reconciliation became something that could not be accomplished.

Even if he were alive, how could they apologize?

When they had persecuted Ailen so much without even knowing the truth of the matter.

The Wayne brothers headed to the Immortal Ember with heavy hearts. On the way there, they hoped to run into Ailen, but at the same time, they hoped not to run into him.

However, fortunately, they were able to face a living Ailen Vail in the library of the Immortal Ember.

And they could see him deliver a passionate speech for them, for some reason, even though his wounds must surely have not healed yet.

Because of that, the question that ten-year-old Thomas, who had broken ties with Ailen, had harbored deep in his chest since then.

Just when he was about to convey the single question that had circled for ten years to finally reach Ailen.

“Ailen Vail, you are arrested for cheating!”

Ailen Vail ended up disappearing in front of them once again.

Slam!

The Wayne brothers threw aside the debate and everything else and followed him.

When about two hours of waiting anxiously in front of the police station had passed, Ailen came out in a perfectly fine condition.

“Why… why did you help us? What are we to you…”

Thomas waited for his answer, trembling all over in a voice complexly mixed with hatred, regret, guilt, and grief.

“Aren’t we friends? Us?”

He saw him showing the bright smile that the nine-year-old Ailen Vail of ten years ago had shown, as if nothing had happened.

“Friends… yes. We were friends, still.”

Without knowing who was first, the Wayne brothers hung their heads.

They could not stop the flowing tears.

But it would be okay to cry.

At this moment, in this place.

“I’m sorry. And thank you, Ailen…”

“What is there to be sorry and thankful for? That’s what friends are.”

There were only three young children of that pure nine-year-old time.