#43
What was so difficult about horseback riding? It was on the flat training grounds of the academy, of all places.
Next to each professor and student was their own horse handler. That’s why, despite knowing Noah was a beginner learning to ride, they weren’t particularly worried.
Entering the academy had been quite an impulsive decision. Derik had planned to hand his position over to Raymond and simply watch Noah grow up peacefully by his side. But this wasn’t right.
Whether he wanted it or not, Noah had no one by his side. Though Matthew and James frequently showed up, peers kept their distance from Noah. Noah didn’t seem deeply hurt by this, but it still wasn’t right.
People, as Derik had observed, enjoyed socializing.
Unlike children gathering in groups of three or five to play with their peers, seeing Noah sitting alone on a bench, absorbed in a book, made him feel uneasy.
Above all, what made him decide on this course of action was a conversation between Noah and James.
‘Alone again? Where are your friends?’
‘I like it this way.’
‘What’s fun about reading books alone? Want to play ball with me?’
‘No.’
‘You don’t like friends?’
‘Friends? Might be nice to have them, but I don’t need them. Besides, I have Aeongi.’
‘Aeongi is an animal.’
It was fine to watch over Noah as an animal, but he couldn’t follow him into regular classes. Of course, he could see and hear whatever he wanted if he wished, but the fact remained that as Noah grew older, the time they could spend together decreased.
So he hurried a bit. Ignoring everyone’s opposition, he passed his position to Raymond and had to spend some time formally enrolling in the academy.
At first, Noah seemed annoyed and grumbled, but now it was amusing to see him grow accustomed to sitting side by side in class and eating lunch together. During the day, he was with Noah as Derik, and at night, he transformed into Aeongi and slipped into Noah’s dormitory.
‘Aeongi, did you get a girlfriend?’
One late night, when he visited Noah, the boy immediately grabbed his cheeks and asked this ridiculous question. Seeing how Aeongi would slip out in the morning and return at night, Noah thought he must have found a girlfriend.
Noah told him that even if he got a girlfriend, he should always come back at bedtime, and then he hugged Aeongi close. Their life together was extremely peaceful and relaxed.
While Noah would be prickly and barely respond to Derik, he would tell Aeongi all about his day in great detail. Derik is good for this reason and bad for that reason, and then Ray did this and that—he would chatter on and then suddenly fall silent. Looking at him, Derik would see that Noah had already fallen fast asleep.
Thinking about Ray, the destroyer of his and Noah’s happy life, made his chest tighten. Couldn’t he just leave them alone?
Apparently, Ray came because he found that grumpy character interesting. He’d had countless amusements before, but the academy was a first? He had always refused academy life because he disliked having to follow someone else’s orders and rules, but now he found it enjoyable.
The one fortunate thing was that their schedules didn’t overlap much with Ray’s. Despite registering for the liberal arts department, Ray had filled his schedule entirely with subjects related to magic and knighthood departments, saying something about magic swordsmen being cool.
But that relief was short-lived. As the school year progressed, Matthew and James became increasingly busy, and Ray began to frequently insert himself into their lives. Above all, it bothered Derik to see Noah, who was usually snippy with him, smile brightly and treat Ray well.
In any case, as Derik was watching Noah’s class while lost in these thoughts, he witnessed something unbelievable right before his eyes. In an instant, Noah, who had been smiling while riding his horse, was suddenly flying through the air—something even Derik hadn’t anticipated.
If he had known this would happen, he would have made their class schedules identical. Worried that Noah might feel uncomfortable, he had chosen a few different classes, which led to this problem.
It all started with a dog barking at a low-flying bird it had spotted somewhere. It would have been fine if it had just barked at the bird, but the dog started running, trying to catch it.
Unfortunately, the dog ran quickly in front of the horse ahead of Noah, startling it into jumping up, which in turn frightened Noah’s horse, causing it to rear.
Noah, who had been holding the reins loosely, flew through the air before he could even defend himself.
In his shock, Derik couldn’t even think of teleporting or stopping time. The moment he saw it happen, he leaped straight out of the second-floor window. Moving at a speed that no witness would believe, Derik ran to the training ground to find Noah clutching his right arm and shedding tears.
Noah was immediately moved to the infirmary inside the academy, where his arm was wrapped in a white bandage. When Noah noticed Derik following him to the emergency room, he waved his left hand with tears welling in his eyes.
“Isn’t it really cool?”
Derik couldn’t understand what part of this was supposed to be cool. He could have healed that arm immediately, but there were too many eyes watching.
There were countless people who had witnessed Noah injuring his arm, and there was a doctor who had examined and treated Noah at the infirmary. If his arm suddenly healed, it would obviously cause problems.
“You know, I flew off the horse. But then I went whoosh… Ah, I could have avoided getting hurt at all. But they say I’m really lucky to have only injured myself this much.”
As Derik placed his hand on the bandage wrapped around Noah’s arm, Noah was excitedly talking. Is getting injured something to be proud of? Something good?
Instead of completely healing Noah’s arm, Derik reduced the pain.
“That was dangerous.”
“But like I said, I went whoosh, and that’s why. Isn’t that amazing?”
“…Sure.”
“So hurry up and write here.”
At Noah’s urging as he sat on the infirmary bed, swinging his legs back and forth, Derik picked up a pen and looked back and forth between Noah and his injured arm.
“Get well soon. Write that.”
Derik didn’t understand why Noah was asking for this when he could just touch the wound once and heal it completely, but he did as Noah instructed and wrote “Get well soon. Derik” on the bandage. Afterward, Ray, who had come after hearing the news, also wrote “Don’t be in pain. Ray” on it.
Matthew and James likewise wrote similar phrases, and Matthew said he would bring a healer right away to cure the wound, but Noah refused all of that.
“When you’re growing up, you need to break an arm or leg at least once.”
Noah, who occasionally said strange things, clearly had strange thoughts as well. If Derik hadn’t reduced the pain, Noah wouldn’t have been able to sit and talk so cheerfully, but he seemed to take pride in his injury.
Loren, who rushed over after hearing the news, shouted in agitation that she couldn’t leave her son in such a dangerous place, and was eventually led away from the academy by Lucas, who had come with her.
After all the commotion, Derik stayed with Noah in his dormitory.
“So you injured your right arm… and you’ll need to keep the bandage on for about two weeks, right?”
“Yes.”
Elisa, who was as worried as Loren, placed spaghetti, Noah’s favorite, on the table while looking at him with pitying eyes. This was because Noah had missed lunch after receiving treatment and then going to the dean’s office with Lucas and Loren, who had visited the academy after being shocked by the news of their son’s injury.
“But it would be better if you saw a healer…”
“Elisa, healing naturally is the best. It doesn’t even hurt much.”
A short sigh escaped Noah’s lips as he tried to twirl the spaghetti noodles with a fork in his left hand. He would have asked Elisa if she were there, but she had gone to get something, and Noah’s eyes landed on Derik.
“Oh, you can go now. Thanks for staying with me.”
“I’m done with classes today anyway. Really, don’t you want treatment…”
What was the need to call a healer when he was right there? But Derik couldn’t finish his sentence because Noah extended his fork toward him.
When their eyes met, Noah gave a small nod as if telling him to take the fork.
Bewildered, Derik took the fork from Noah and twirled some spaghetti noodles on it. Noah opened his small mouth wide. When Derik held out the fork, Noah quickly ate the spaghetti, and his chin moved again.
Following Noah’s gaze as he chewed with puffed cheeks, Derik saw a pickle. When he speared it with the fork, Noah’s small lips opened again.
“Are you helping him, Derik? Let me do it now…”
In the meantime, Elisa, who had returned with salad, tried to take the fork from Derik, but Noah firmly shook his head.
“Elisa, bring Derik some chocolate cookies he likes.”
As a reward for helping Noah with his meal, chocolate cookies and milk were placed in front of Derik.
And that night…
When Derik visited Noah’s bedroom as Aeongi, he had to listen to an incredible tale of heroism.
Noah, who was riding a horse splendidly for the first time, claimed that when the situation became dangerous with other horses suddenly running wild, he deliberately launched himself into the air to avoid injury, using his quick wits.
But due to an unstable landing, he injured his arm a little… and he said that for a real man, this was nothing.
Aeongi pulled Noah into his embrace with his thick front paws and patted his back. Go to sleep already.
He knew humans as a species were prone to exaggeration, but what Noah was saying now was a little—no, very—excessive.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
