The Bonds We Formed, Like Magic | Chapter 9

[healingbonds]

Chapter 8 << | index | >> Chapter 10


Riquet: Do the nuts go here?

Nero: Yeah, can you add them as toppings right here?

Riquet: Got it. I’ll do my best.

(Footsteps)

Bradley: Yawn...... What are you doing first thing in the morning?

Riquet: Ah, Bradley! You can’t eat these yet!

Bradley: I wasn’t gonna. They haven't even gone in the oven. You making pies?

Nero: That’s right. What’ll you have for breakfast? Bread and eggs?

Bradley: Yeah.

Riquet: You can eat these, though. I tasted them and everything. Would you like some?

Bradley: What are they?

Riquet: They’re called caramelized nuts. We’re going to put them on top of the pies and bake them.

Bradley: I can’t eat something that sweet this early.

Riquet: I could, though.

Bradley: Are you bringing this to Borda Island?

Riquet: Yes.

Nero: I know there’s going to be a fancy party over there, so the food will probably taste better. But Riquet said he wanted to bake some pie, so here we are.

Riquet: Nero, I think your sweets are definitely more delicious.
But if I find any delicious sweets there, please make me the same thing.

Nero: Ahaha. Hope I can live up to your expectations, your honor.
Here, Brad. Take this and eat up.

Bradley: Thanks.

Riquet: Bradley, you always have two fried eggs cooked so well that the edges are almost burnt.

Bradley: Good eye there. Want some?

Riquet: No, thank you. I asked Nero to make me the same thing the other day, because you ask for it every single morning.

Bradley: The egg whites are good when they’re crunchy, right?

Riquet: Omelettes are more delicious.

Bradley: Oh yeah?

Riquet: Pies are crispy and delicious. Do you like pie, Bradley?

Nero: You don’t really eat sweets, huh.

Bradley: Yeah. That pie was good, though. The one stuffed with meat.

Nero: Meat pie?

Bradley: No, not that one. What was it called again? Anyway, that was the best. It was the perfect snack.

Nero: You should tell me when I serve it to you......

Bradley: I didn’t realize you liked making sweets. You’ve been doing a lot of baking since you came here.

Nero: Not really, but......

Bradley: You don’t have to hide it. The little wizards are happy about it, right?

Nero: I hope they are.

Bradley: Well, our gang was just a bunch of hot-blooded guys......

Nero: Hey, cut it out. Riquet’s right here.

Bradley: Like you haven’t been the careless one this whole time. Don’t worry about him: he doesn’t get it.
Right? Central tiny.

Riquet: I’m not tiny. I’m Riquet.

Nero: You know, you’ve always had a habit of underestimating kids.

Bradley: No way?

Nero: You’re supposed to be such a vigilant guy, but you had me pouring drinks like it was nothing during those secret meetings when I was a kid. I was sweating listening to all that talk.

Bradley: That’s just because it was you — I trusted you.

Nero: Oh, come on......

Riquet: You met Bradley when you were a child, Nero?

Bradley & Nero: ............

Nero: Nah..... Nope.

Bradley: It was just a what-if.

Riquet: I see?

Nero: Riquet, how many have you done?

Riquet: Um...... one, two, three..... I’ve done twelve. Just a few more to go.

Nero: Alright, let’s warm them up in the oven. Thanks for helping me out.

Riquet: Not at all!

Bradley: What a sneaky guy.

Nero: It’s your fault, asshole.

Riquet: Nero, "asshole" isn’t a very nice word. You should be more careful.

Nero: Ah..... Yes, sir. Sorry.

Bradley: Ahaha! You’ve got some guts, making Nero apologize like that. You’d make a good underling one day.

Riquet: Aren’t you a bandit, Bradley? I won’t be a bandit’s underling.

Bradley: What a waste. You’ve got so much potential.

Riquet: What’s the difference between an underling and an apprentice? Are they the same thing?

Bradley: I don’t think so..... At least they’re different to me.

Nero: Why do you ask?

Riquet: Because I don’t really understand the difference. Prince Arthur said he was Sir Oz’s apprentice. And Cain said he was Prince Arthur’s vassal.
Is an apprentice different from a vassal too?

Nero: I’d say they’re probably different.

Riquet: I know that they’re terms that refer to the connections between people, but I don’t understand how they differ from each other.
Shino has told me many, many times how he’s Heathcliff’s retainer: he says it like it’s the most wonderful thing in the world.
Is a retainer also different from an apprentice?

Bradley: Yeah, I’d say they’re different?

Riquet: Would you say that the followers of the church are like my apprentices then?

Bradley: That depends. What did you think of them?

Riquet: I wanted to guide them towards the correct path, and grant them salvation from the degeneration of this world.

Bradley: Did you ever think that you’d be fine with dying as long as those guys lived on?

Riquet: ....... I don’t really know......
I’ve never thought about dying.

Bradley: You’re still tiny, after all.

Riquet: I’m not tiny.

Bradley: If you ask me, an underling and an apprentice are completely different. Underlings are the guys I command, protect, and keep alive in exchange for their undying loyalty to me.
I teach them how to be my arms and legs so that we can move as one powerful body.
But I’d teach my apprentice how to be the head of the body — the leader. I’d only recognize someone as my apprentice if I felt like I could pass on my entire life to him.

Riquet: Pass on your entire life....?

Bradley: That’s right.

Nero: .............

Bradley: I was born to a large family. My old man was a wizard, so he wanted a kid who was a wizard too.
So he impregnated women left and right and made them give birth like rabbits until I popped out.

Riquet: .....? What does that mean?

Nero: Brad.

Bradley: No use covering up something vulgar with pretty words, right?

Nero: Riquet thinks eating too many sweets counts as corruption and depravity. At least choose your words more carefully.

Bradley: My old man thought of his kids as his underlings. He wanted a strong underling, so he made kids till a wizard was born.
How’s that for an explanation? Do you understand what I’m saying?

Riquet: .....I think I do. So you were a strong underling, Bradley.

Bradley: That’s right. My siblings were all human, so they dropped like flies in the North.
I felt a vague semblance of sadness gazing at their abandoned belongings after their deaths, but.....
I got over it in no time. Because in Northern Country, you’re too busy trying to stay alive.
And I might’ve been a wizard, but my old man pushed me to my limit. I don’t loathe him for it. That’s just the way it is.
Wizards live long lives. Even if they have kids, the kids always die first. You know what happens then? It becomes impossible to grow attached to humans.
And without any attachment, your ties to this world grow more and more fragile.
That’s why we end up with a paradoxical emptiness: we stick around in this world for so long, all while feeling no attachment to anything or anyone.

Nero: ..........

Riquet: .....Is that the same as being all alone?

Bradley: I’d say it’s a little different. You can still live all alone while burning your own life away. I’m talking about....
The futility of having nobody to pass that smoldered life on to.

Riquet: Futility.....

Bradley: It means being worthless. I don’t think there really needs to be any value to life.

Nero: ............

Bradley: But sometimes, it feels like a pity. It makes me wonder — the skills, the knowledge, the experience I’ve gathered — am I gonna let it all turn to dust?
I’ll turn to cold stone, and nothing will be left of me. That’s fine. That’s fine, and yet....
If I managed to find someone I could pass my life on to — someone who could take my life and run with it — I feel like something in me would be fulfilled.
It’s just a crazy dream.

Riquet: Passing on your life.... If you do that, you can forge a bond with this world?

Bradley: It’s not like there’s any guarantee. Like I said, it’s nothing but a fantasy. But fantasies are fun, right?

Nero: .....Are they?

Bradley: They were. I’d go, this is how I messed up here, so I’m gonna teach him to do it this way.
When this guy improves, we’ll get to fight together like this — I’d craft all kinds of formations.

Nero: ...........

Bradley: Hey, don’t make that face. I get it.
I was in a daydream. I’ve woken up now.

Nero: Brad......

Riquet: Did you have an apprentice, Bradley?

Bradley: Nope. Everything I just told you was hypothetical.

Riquet: I see... But it was very helpful.
By the end of my life, I hope I can find an apprentice who will carry on how I lived.
Because the thought of death is a little... No, it’s very scary.
So I would wish — in my last moments as I disappeared from this world, sinking into the serene, endless depths of a pitch-black pit — that I could reach out.....
And someone would be there to accept a fragment of my soul.

Nero: .......
......The only winner here is the guy who’s dying.

Riquet: Nero? Could you repeat yourself?

Nero: Nah.... I’ll go grab some eggs. Enjoy your meal.

Riquet: Nero!

Bradley: Don’t go after him. Just let him be.

Riquet: .......But.....

Bradley: You can’t catch someone like that, even if you chase after them.
Just like you can never catch a shooting star.

Chapter 8 << | index | >> Chapter 10