In a certain dimension close to Askalifa, in the lands of a certain kingdom was a small village near the lake.
Walking up the slope, instead of the pathway, of a mountain full of precarious-looking cliffs was a half-destroyed four-legged machine. Its spinning cogs clickered with the sound of rubbing metal.
That was a cleaning machine, which would have been cleaning the streets of a city until recently.
Now, it was just a stupid machine swinging a piece of wood in the air. The dustpan had been scorched and its body was half-destroyed by the explosion.
The device that changed sunlight to electricity was still working and that was how the machine was able to crawl into the mountain away from the city.
That should be the case.
Staring at the machine from a distance, a young boy thought to himself.
A few months ago, there had been a war against a nearby village.
Cannonballs were flying everywhere and the burnt smell of gunpowder was persistent.
He had to watch his house burn down to the ground with his own eyes, and walking outside he had found the clock tower, the pride of their village, broken down to the ground.
Guns were noisy; and bullets took the lives of his family. A lot of his friends had disappeared and were unable to be spotted again.
At the end of the war, the 12-year old young boy had to become an adult. It was because he had a younger brother who was 3 years younger than himself.
Gigik, gigigik–
That was why finding that piece of scrap metal was a very big fortune for him.
If he took off the power system on the head of that scrap metal and handed it over to the junk shop, he would be able to get about 50 roots. With 50 roots… he would be able to get medicine for his brother who was suffering from a stomach-ache and fill their bellies for the next 2 weeks.
Buzz—
It was then. The boy widened his eyes.
He didn’t know when he was looking at it from a distance, but now that he was close enough to see it properly, he could see it sparking near the power system.
No wonder.
There was no way he would be this lucky.
It was impossible that no-one had discovered it till now…
Stories about people that were greatly injured by getting electrified by a machine flashed past the boy’s head. One of them was the grandpa next door who couldn’t move his legs and limped all the time.
Even so, the boy couldn’t go back.
He remembered his brother who was suffering in the back alleyway using a sack as a blanket.
During the war, the nearby village had used sorcery on them.
It was his fault for feeding him a fish that was lying dead in a polluted lake just because he was pestering that he was hungry.
He heard a long time ago how cooking for a long time could get rid of poison but it was stupid of him to do such a thing. His sense of guilt became bigger. The boy looked at the machine – it was a chance which would never come again and he couldn’t run away from it.
50 roots.
In front of his eyes were 50 roots…
Picking up a piece of stick, the boy lifted his body and vigorously rushed into the machine.
Buzz—!
He felt a bomb exploding in his body, and the boy fell unconscious.
*
When he came to himself, he was in a certain building. Opening his eyes, the boy glanced around and saw two tables and four chairs. Overall, it was a small and quiet building.
“This is…?”
That was when he felt a scorching burn in his hand. Suddenly remembering the thing that just happened, the boy looked down at his hand in surprise but…
…Surprisingly, it was very normal unlike what he thought.
It seemed that the burning heat had just been an illusion.
Tap, tap, tap–
That was when he heard a tapping noise from nearby as a salty, savoury and oily smell scraped past his nose.
Gulp.
The boy couldn’t help but salivate because he hadn’t eaten anything all day.
What was this smell?
Carefully, the boy raised his body and looked at where the smell was coming from.
“…”
There was a woman. Mysteriously, her hair had the same colour as the ocean. She looked around 15 or 20.
The woman was cutting something on the chopping board with a knife.
Seeing her, the boy flinched.
She was the infamous ‘blue witch’.
The lady who one day built a small restaurant at the end of the village and sold food…
Even though she was exceptionally beautiful, she almost never talked and had a somewhat scary atmosphere that deterred people away. It seemed that he was at the restaurant of that blue witch.
Was I abducted? By the witch?
Remembering the rumours about the witch, the boy was rolling his eyes when she turned around and looked at him.
The moment he saw her expressionless face, he felt breathless from her dazzling beauty.
“Did you wake up?”
A voice clearer than his expectation left her mouth. It was a pure voice that was mind-numbingly nice to listen to.
“S, sorry? Ah…”
The boy was flustered.
Wasn’t ‘witch’ a bad word? Should I call her ‘noona’? More importantly, why am I here?
It was when he was thinking to himself.
“Come here.”
“…”
“Come.”
Her voice had a mysterious power inside. The boy carefully stood up, approached the table and unknowingly sat on the chair.
All of his previous thoughts became meaningless because of the astonishing smell coming out of the dish in her hands.
The blue witch handed that over to the boy alongside a spoon.
“Here you go.”
Even if it had poison, this smell was just unbearable – raising the spoon, the boy began eating. The soup was dense and rich with flavour. There was a bunch of something underneath all the rice, and surprisingly, it was all meat.
Meat…
A salty taste and an oily fragrance. All of those merged in harmony to give off a flavour which was so fantastic that it almost made him faint.
The boy absentmindedly emptied the bowl, without even realising that the roof of his mouth was all grazed.
“…”
Quietly, the blue witch remained sitting on the chair looking at him.
Could she even be called a witch at this point?
“Thank you…”
He carefully conveyed his gratitude as she returned a simple nod and took the bowl away from him.
“You finished it.”
“Ah, umm, it was very delicious so…”
“…”
“But I d, don’t have money… sorry.”
“Is that so?”
“I’m sorry. But I won’t go like this. Is there anything you want me to do…? I can clean, and I can gather firewood…”
“You don’t need to.”
The woman gazed down at the boy.
Once, there was a heavily drunk man who came in and asked for food. She remembered how she was met with the muzzle of a gun instead of money after making food for him.
Because that was just how things were in this era, she just punched him a few times and chased him out.
“More importantly, why were you hurt?”
“Sorry? Ah, umm… I was trying to do something but I made a mistake…”
She was silent.
The boy thought that she must be a quiet type just like the rumours. It was a bit scary when she was silent but she didn’t seem like a bad person so he tried speaking a little more.
“Umm… I think I heard some wrong rumours. Noona, you are not a witch right?”
“I’m not.”
“Ah… Then do you know me by any chance?”
“Yes.”
“Really?”
“I go to the village sometimes. Didn’t you have a brother?”
“Yes. My brother…”
Brother?
He felt the distant sense of reality creeping down on his skin as the boy suddenly felt goosebumps.
How long has it been? What happened to his brother?
“I, I’ll be on my way then!”
The boy ran out of the restaurant as if he was being chased by something.
Soon, the woman walked out of the store. Pulling the small chair that was nearby, she sat down, twisted her legs and gazed at the back of the running boy.
There existed an era, which fatigued and injured a lot more people than usual. Innocent people tended to be hurt even more during those times.
Just like that boy.
“…”
The woman – Gyeoul blankly sat there in place.
Since she was a blue dragon living an Amusement to follow the revelation given to her, her second Amusement without any revelation was an extremely boring one.
The first Amusement tended to be focused on enjoyable memories, whereas the second Amusement was focused on having various experiences.
She already had plenty of enjoyable experiences. The most joyous and happy ‘first experiences’ were already filling her brain, and was more than enough to last her entire lifetime.
In this Amusement which she had been forced out to, Gyeoul thought that she should spend time by herself instead of adding any meaningless experiences to the mix.
That was why she had created a random restaurant at a place people wouldn’t visit, and was living a half-hearted life while giving average food. So her role was over when she gave food to the boy who was lying unconscious in the mountain.
People like him were fairly common in this world after all.
“…He’ll be alright by himself.”
Muttering that to herself, Gyeoul stood up and returned to the restaurant.
It was indeed a heartbreaking thing. Murder and robbery was very common near here, and there were also those that deliberately chose kids for human trafficking. Thinking about that did put her in a bad mood.
But whatever it was, it had nothing to do with her. There was no reason for her to needlessly be sympathetic to them.
Thinking that, Gyeoul laid down on the bed.
It had been a while since the last time she worked, so it was now time to take a little rest.
Slowly, her eyes came to a close.
However, she couldn’t sleep for long.
– Later if you see a child that needs your help…
It was because someone’s voice suddenly rang in her ears.
***
“Uhk, uhk…”
His breath was turning more and more rapid, and his dark sunken eyes looked even darker today.
The boy shook the body of his younger brother and called him by his name. There was a bottle of water that he had scooped up from a fresh puddle of water on the way here.
Lifting the bottle, he poured the water into the mouth of his younger brother, who spilled half of that precious water. Normally he would have told him off but today, he was grateful that he was even having half of it.
“…Hyung.”
That was when his younger brother opened his mouth.
“Huh? Yeah. I’m here.”
“I, want candies…”
In spite of the situation, he was saying he wanted to eat something, even though he was like this because of food.
But who was it that fed him? The boy suppressed his tears and opened his mouth.
“Do you know how expensive candies are, you idiot.”
“Candies… I want candies…”
“Pestering won’t get you anywhere alright? That’s super expensive, and they only sell it at the village chief’s store. You know that too.”
“Hkk, candies…”
Candies.
His brother sang candies.
That stupid candy…
Candies were ridiculously expensive. Each of them cost 5 roots. With 5 roots, they could buy plenty of corn batter or potatoes for them to enjoy for at least 2 days.
There was no way he would have that much money.
“Candies… Hukk…”
But seeing his brother who cried without any tears due to dehydration, the boy remembered something.
That cleaning machine.
Even though he failed last time, wouldn’t it work if he was a little further this time when taking out that power system?
His knees wobbled even now when thinking about how it felt to be electrocuted. It felt like his entire body had been struck with a large club but there was no way he could buy candies without that.
His hesitation didn’t last very long, because his brother’s voice that was singing candies was becoming fainter over time.
The boy opened his mouth in fright.
“Oi. Oi.”
“Nn…”
“I’m gonna head outside again, okay? I’ll go buy some candies.”
“Do you have money…?”
“Don’t worry. I buried some under a tree in the mountain, alright? It shouldn’t take that long.”
“…”
“So you. You stay here without moving a single inch until I buy some candies from the chief’s house. Okay?”
“Yes sir.”
His brother suddenly stopped crying. He then replied clearly as if he had never been sick the whole time.
He was showing off that he managed to obtain what he wanted.
In times like this, the boy used to flick his brother’s forehead but today, he couldn’t do so.
“Seriously. Acting smart and stuff…”
His younger brother powerlessly smiled, thinking that his act must have been a success.
Not knowing that his chin was shivering from lack of nutrition…