Riddle₊ ⊹₍ᐢᐢ₎ | Orter Mádl

𝟎𝟎𝟓

𝐘𝐎𝐔 load your luggage onto the train. The exchange program ceremony is over and now, you need to return to Easton. Three months later, you will graduate and start working wherever a healer magician is needed. You've thought about being unemployed but Orter keeps smacking your head whenever you mention it.

"Alright. I'll see you again if ¹fate brings us together." you waved before entering the train carriage. Orter just nodded and stared. You sighed, sulking. Can't this man at least pretend to be sad?

Without much thought, Orter turned around to go back to his school and left the train station. The audacity of this man.

"Orter!" you yelled before running and hugging him from behind causing him to nearly fall to the floor. "Promise me you'll always send letters, okay?" you said before hugging him tighter. Orter just hums your words. Right after that, you let go of the hug and ran into the train to join your schoolmates.

Then, the train moves and you wave at the window facing Orter. Meanwhile, the man just hugged himself and raised his left hand for two seconds before dropping it back to his side. Today, he should be happy because he won't be bothered by you anymore. However, his heart aches to see you leave him too. As he hugged himself, he could still feel the warmth of your body as you hugged him from behind earlier.

During the last month you two have been together, Orter has learned a lot about you. To be honest, he was quite surprised by what he learned. Who would have thought that your questionable personality was caused by 'mana' that you absorbed from other people? When he thinks about it, your personal magic is quite difficult to understand too.

₊ ⊹₍ᐢᐢ₎ ᰔᩚ

"You wished to understand my personal magic?" you asked while munching on a cookie. Orter stares at the crumbs you've left on his bed. It's going to attract ants but he'll let this matter slide for now. "I can tell you but can you promise not to tell anyone?" you continue. He nods.

Holding your pinky out, you two intertwined them together.

"You make a pinkie promise, you keep it all your life. You break a pinkie promise, I throw you on the ice. The cold will kill the pinkie that once betrayed your friend, the frost will freeze your tongue off so you never lie again!" You chanted before a surge of magic came from your pinkies and sealed the promise. This is a magic world, of course, it's not going to just be a kiddy rhyme song.

Orter sighed. He hopes his tongue will be with him until he reaches the status of an elderly. "Now, explain everything."

"Basically..."

₊ ⊹₍ᐢᐢ₎ ᰔᩚ

You were born blind and mute. Your world has been dark since you arrived on Earth. However, you could still hear your mother lulling you to sleep and your father's enthusiastic greeting as your ears were perfectly fine. Even if you can't see their faces, you are happy.

Every day, your parents will feed you magic. Which they called Magic Meds. They are not physical medicine or potions but rather mana energy. Mana is the energy within one's body that could be used to cast magic and spells.

They believe that you can become normal if they give you a lot of Mana Energy. It was the same thing every day. Every morning and night. In the morning, it was your father's turn to feed you while at night, it was your mother's. Until one day, you got pricked by a needle while crawling to where your mother used to knit. And because of the pain, you cry. Your cries startle your parents.

They didn't think you could talk! Is this due to them feeding you magic? With enthusiasm, they bring one by one 'volunteers' who are willing to give you all their magic. You grow up so fast. Not only that, the lines on your face have lengthened after consuming a huge amount of magic.