When Irium showed me a book and said that a boy my age gave it to him and said that I wanted to give it to him, I was scared that someone was trying to take advantage of him by taking my name. These kinds of things often happened in kidnapping and all.
But then I found a question on the index of that book. It was an animal encyclopedia so the index was quite different from the type of literature books I was used to seeing. But in any case, the question, "Do you believe in magic?"
It was written right before a chapter named 'extinct animals', which started from page 110 and right after a chapter named 'myths about animals', which started from 124.
It didn't take me too long to notice that 100 + 124 = 224 was the page number in the book Cartel had given me on which the whole page had just one line written on it – 'a secret message'. Past that point, I went through the entire book and found many clues that showed that it was a message from Cartel.
*****
"How dare you!?" A familiar animal encyclopedia was thrown at me and the person who threw it yelled, "How dare you use my brother like that!?"
"Hah!" I sighed, and let her say whatever she wanted to for a while so she could calm down and we could talk business.
However, I being silent to her venting ended up frustrating her more.
"Are you even listening to me!?" She asked me with one of my collar in her hand.
"Do I have to?" I asked. "I mean, you are just spouting BS anyway."
"Tsk!" She clicked her tongue and swung a fist right at my face. It didn't connect though as her body froze because of a mage-craft of mine and then I got to a safe distance from her before unfreezing her.
"Are you going to listen?" I asked.
"Tsk!" Her click of tongue seemed to state that she wouldn't but then, "What is it?"
I was surprised to see that she was able to get her anger in control so fast, but I continued without showing it on my face, "Did you finish reading the basics?"
"I finished that ages ago." She said in frustration.
"Then I have some other books for you that you should read." I said.
"Forget it!" She yelled. "I don't need your help. I can learn it all on my own."
"Hah!" I couldn't help but sigh as I heard that. "I know you are frustrated but at least try to think, will you? Can you really become a capable mage by randomly studying your father's books without any guidance?"
"Tsk!" Left with no way to say 'yes', she clicked her tongue. "Becoming a capable mage is not more important than Irium. If you ever go near him again, I will-"
Both of our eyes turned wide as we noticed from the corner of our eyes a little twerp staring at us from behind a pillar.
We were in a park that was considered quite and no one used it anymore. So it was very unlikely that Irium just happened to be there. He had probably followed Grimma without her noticing.
"Oh god!"
As we both looked at him, Irium came out of the pillar, scared.
"I-Irium, what are you doing here?" Grimma asked him while walking towards him.
He didn't answer but only looked down, scared.
I surmised that he had followed his sister for whatever reason (maybe because she had taken off with the animal encyclopedia I had given him) and then ended up overhearing our conversation.
Hearing all that was bound to scare a small child like him so I couldn't really do anything but wait for Grimma to deal with the situation.
"S-sis?" He had asked, "Is y-your friend a b-bad man?"
"…" She had made an awkward smile as she heard that question and said. "N-no, he's not bad. He's just … just stupid, is all."
Back then, hearing someone call me stupid was the most irking thing in the world to me. But because of that situation, I had kept it to myself and let the brother-sister continue.
"He's just really stupid, like really, really stupid; like infinitely stupid."
"Tsk!" Even so, I couldn't completely keep it to myself after hearing those repeated insults as I at least clicked my tongue.
On the other hand, she hugged that little twerp and cuddled with him to make him stop shaking. It would have felt heart-warming to watch, if I had a heart back then.
But, to the me of the past, to the me who didn't know how to smile, that familial love felt like something to existed in a different world from mine. It felt like a sight that was as far from my reality as the superheroes in the many comic books.
*****
Later, at the evening, I left Irium in the house, in the care of Jason and Kylie, and went to meet Cartel again. Because of Irium, my mind had calmed down and I had been able to process things through.
"So, what will it be?" He asked as soon as he saw me, though with his usual deadpan face.
"Hah!" I sighed and replied, "I do need your help with learning mage-craft, but I will not tolerate it you ever do anything that could be potentially harmful to any of my family."
He nodded.
"Fine! I promised to not do anything like that. The next time I have to meet with you, I will think of something else."
"No, as soon as I finish the books you are about to give now, I will reach out to you myself." It was less was a suggestion than it may seem like but Cartel nodded without much thinking and said,
"Alright then, just don't jeopardize my life but talking to me in front of other people."
With that, our deal went forward. For the next one or so year, I was able to study about magic through my father's books and the ones Cartel gave me as well. And then, one day, two men from Remedy came to our house.
*****