Chapter 23

NEW ROOM

It was still before the existing senior students graduated.

Since there was no vacant rooms, the room that was urgently assigned, was one floor above the previous room.

“Is this really the only place?”

Felix frowned.

The staff shrugged her shoulders lightly.

“We had this room since a student took a leave of absence in the middle. It’s spring vacation in two months, so hang in there.”

“But…”

I shook my head at Felix, who was looking at me discontentedly and smiled at the staff.

“We can’t help it Thank you.”

“It’s clean, so there won’t be any inconvenience using it. Even if you have any inconvenience, please feel free to tell me.”

The staff left the room after entering my information on the door knob with a magic stone for faculty members.

I opened the doorknob and went inside.

It was exactly the same as the room I previously used

As the staff said, the room was neatly organized.

There seemed to be nothing lacking.

All that was left was to move the luggage.

“I’m all right now Felix, you can go.”

“You have to go get your luggage.”

“Yeah I can do it alone. You can go now.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“ No. I can go alone.”

Felix snapped.

“How can you move everything by yourself? Think before you say it.”

After saying that Felix left the room before I could reply anything.

I stared blankly at his back and hurried along.

The whole room was the same as I last saw it.

I looked around wondering if the little boy had returned, but there was no signs of him.

I held back the tears and packed my luggage.

I took out a large suitcase that I use when I go home and put things in one by one.

Felix arranged the heavy baggage like a book next to him.

There was an awkward silence among us.

We weren’t close, but we still had spent a lot of time together, so it wasn’t awkward when we were together.

I opened my mouth to break the awkwardness.

“The little boy…….”

I could have said anything, but I don’t know why the little boy’s story came out of my mouth.

Felix, who was stacking books and tying them with strings, looked up at me.

“Are you all right?”

“Yeah…I’m fine.”

He tied a knot with a string and left the book on the desk.

There was a dull sound.

“I was too busy to think about it before, but now I’m sure. The little boy would have gone back to where he was.”

His voice was full of conviction, as he said that.

“You’re sure……”

But I couldn’t take the word for granted.

“How do you know that?”

“There was no sign of anyone leaving or entering. Aren’t you familiar with this situation? It’s the same as when the kid appeared in this room.”

Felix took the clothes from my stiff hands as if they were stones and put them in a bag.

“It happened the first day. Someone sent the little boy with a spatial magic, and it’s highly likely that it’s his parents. Then we can make the opposite assumption. The little boy’s parents used magic again to take him away.”

“But why?”

My low whispering voice echoed through the silent room empty.

“Why now, all of a sudden? You said yourself. The fact that parents didn’t try to find child meant that they intentionally used spatial magic to abandon him, so it’s hard to find them with our own power, so we were planning tell the professor and trace back the spatial magic.”

I’m sure it’s nothing to be angry with Felix, but my voice kept rising without realizing.

Felix carefully wrapped his arms around my shoulders, as if he had noticed my condition.

It may have been done to calm me down, but I didn’t calm down at all.

“As you said, no one has been looking for the little boy for days. But all of a sudden, his parents are taking him back? No way.”

“Elly, calm down.”

Felix shook my shoulder slightly.

“He has been sick, haven’t he? So maybe that’s why they took him away.”

“So why now? They threw him away, and didn’t even try to find him until now. Then why are they taking him now? If they cared about him, they shouldn’t have thrown the little boy away in the first

place!”

I know

As Felix said, there was no sign of anyone entering the Doctor’s house last night, so the hypothesis that the little boy disappeared by magic was the most plausible.

Nevertheless, I could hardly believe it.

What if the person who cast magic on the little boy was not his parents?

What if the little boy is not safe?

It was plausible.

It may not be his parents who sent the little boy to me in the first place.

His parents might not have taken him back, he might have been just moved somewhere else.

If that was the case, the little boy might now be in a strange place like when he came to me.

“How can you be sure when you didn’t even check it with your own eyes?”

If the person who sent the child to me in the first place was not his parents, the child might be now crying in an unfamiliar place again.

He followed me well, but he was vigilant towards strangers.

Wouldn’t he be crying now surrounded by strangers?

I had a headache because I was constantly worried about things that were trivial to me but never trivial to a the little boy.

Donnnn

We no longer had meaningless arguments.

However, not talking did not mean that the questions disappeared from my head.

Worries and questions about the little boy remained deep in my head.

Where in the world has the little boy gone?

Alice, who was told that she had to change her room as soon as she returned to the Academy after a pleasant vacation, could not hide her anger.

She literally couldn’t hide it.

She seemed firmly upset by the academy’s unilateral decision.

Alice spoke, roughly pulling the dresses out of the bag.

“Why…just why?”

She didn’t ask for an answer, so I just kept quiet.

“We were doing fine, just why?”

The Academy staff didn’t want to tell anyone about the little boy.

I could not say anything to my roommate, Alice, who had been caught up in the turn of events.

All I could do was give her a shrug.

“Really.. I don’t like it. I’m going to the administration office tomorrow to argue.”

Alice had already complained as soon as she heard the administrative staff asking her to move the room earlier.

It didn’t seem to have relieved her anger.

After listening to all Alice’s complaints, I lay down on the bed.

I had to take my luggage out of my bag and organize it, but I didn’t feel like it.

My body was heavy and droopy like a cloth drenched in water.

Maybe because I cried a lot yesterday and today, my head was a little dizzy and my eyelids were heavy.

‘What should I do?’

It was not yet time for dinner, I still have time to sleep.

I wasn’t hungry, and I didn’t want to organize my luggage.

There was nothing to do when I erased two options.

When I looked back on what I usually did at this time, couldn’t think of anything but the little boy.

This was the time I had to put the droopy little boy to sleep.

It was only then that I realized, a fact that I didn’t realize in a week – my day was focused on the little boy.

When the little boy who had occupied all of my work disappeared, I couldn’t figure out what to do.

‘What on earth did I do when I didn’t have the kid?’

I can’t remember.

I was just lethargic.

“Elly!”

Bam

Alice came opening the door with a loud noise.

Unlike the previous grumbling and cursing at the academy staff, now she had a cheerful voice.

“What are you doing? Are you sleeping already?”

She sat at the end of the bed and shook a heavy bag of cloth.

“Who bought the hazelnut? You like this a lot. It looks delicious… Elly? Why is your face so pale?”

Alice touched my forehead.

Even though the room was quite warm, her hands felt quite cool.

But looking at Alice in surprise, I could tell that her hands were not cold, but it was my forehead that was hot.

“You’re burning up! You didn’t eat properly this time too didn’t you? I told you to take care of yourself!”

Alice said, putting the bag next to me down and rushed out of the room.

I raised my hand and touched my forehead.

As Alice said, my forehead was hot.

Did I catch the little boy’s fever, or was it because I was in the cold room waiting for Felix all morning?

Since that night, I have been distracted by a fever.

That night, I had a dream.

I was standing in a dark place, and I heard a sad little boy crying from somewhere.

“Babubuuuu”

Hearing that I was terrified.

‘Is he alone?’

I ran around looking for him.

I fell down several times because I couldn’t see ahead.

I got up every time I fell and ran in the direction of sound. but I couldn’t see the little boy.

No, rather, the little boy’s cry grew farther and farther away.

“Mamamuuuuuuu”