"When you said you and I were similar, what did you mean?"
Sighing, Viltz looked at the boy beside him and began to speak.
"A long time ago, when I was nothing more than a foolish child like you, someone came and took away everything I loved. I had to watch my mother bleed to death little by little as the life left her body..... While the culprit just looked at everything coldly. That day, the innocent child full of dreams and illusions inside me died, leaving only a shell full of sorrow and depression.
When I turned fourteen, I met a girl, she was the opposite of me, she was cheerful, funny, enjoyed her youth. Unlike me, after my mother's death I became a quiet, reserved, unfriendly boy with no hobbies besides seeking knowledge, I spent all day studying in the library, I had no friends. But one day, that cheerful girl came closer to me, she began to come closer to my life, where before I only saw a bland world without color now I began to see a world a little more cheerful.
After a year in which I kept rejecting her advances, I finally got tired of her insistence and ended up agreeing to go out on a date with her, I thought it would be boring but I ended up liking her.
When I turned seventeen, I was already completely in love with that girl, I had stopped being that boy trapped in his traumas and I thought I had turned the page, my life seemed perfect, I graduated from college early, leaving all my classmates biting the dust, I had a beautiful girlfriend, I was the son of one of the richest men in the world and it seemed that I had a bright future, I was even hailed as the future scientist who would revolutionize the world. But all that ended when I caught her talking on the phone with this person...the same person I hated with every fiber of my being, the same person who caused my mother's death.
I found out that she had been hired by him to keep an eye on me and distract me so I wouldn't spend so many hours of my time studying and instead they wanted me to become a leisure addict and end up throwing my life away.
Haaa... After her plan to turn me into an entertainment addict failed, next plan was to introduce me to the world of drugs little by little.
I confronted her, but she just confirmed everything.
I was devastated, again I ended up taking a hard hit from that person that if I had in front of me right now, I would give anything to tear him alive.
Two months after breaking off my relationship with that girl, I suddenly felt sick and ended up demaying at my own desk.
The next thing I knew, I had an incurable terminal disease that had been germinating inside my body for over a year now.
First came the weakness, my whole body felt weaker than ever before, followed by the gradual loss of mobility of the body's motor functions. I could no longer defecate or urinate like a normal person, I felt an unprecedented helplessness and humiliation every time a nurse had to clean me down there.
I thought that my torture would not increase any more but how wrong I was.... A month later, I began to lose my senses one by one until I was completely cut off from the outside world.
Finally, one day, miraculously I was able to recover and here I am, telling my miserable life to a ten year old boy who doesn't understand half of what I'm saying.....
Wait!"
Suddenly Viltz frowned as he realized he was acting strange, normally he wouldn't tell anything about himself to others let alone something so personal.
With a frown, he began weaving multiple detection spells until an illusory red thread materialized in front of him.
"I was affected by the smell... It must be some kind of plant."
Stepping down from the carriage, he began to follow the red trail to a small red flower.
"So this is responsible for loosening my tongue."
Rubbing his chin, Viltz plucked the flower and put it in a jar to keep it fresh before returning to the carriage and continuing on his way.
After a while of silence, Magna looked at him and asked.
"I don't understand, who was that person who did all those bad things to you? And if your father was one of the richest men in the world, why didn't he do anything? And why didn't you seek revenge against that person?"
A melancholy look passed through Viltz's eyes for a moment but it was quickly erased, replaced by resentment.
"Sigh, if only it were that easy.
For starters, the person responsible for my problems was none other than my stepbrother, my father's firstborn. My father loved him more than anyone else due to the fact that he was the only memory left to him by his dead former wife. As for my mother, she was just a one-night stand my father had that resulted in my conception. My father reluctantly had to take responsibility and was never in love with my mother to begin with so he purposely neglected us.
When the accident with my mother happened, I went to reproach my father, who only shrugged his shoulders and asked if I had any proof.
I left disappointed from there and that day I swore I would never have anything to do with that man again, but it seems my stepbrother had some kind of mania with me, maybe he was afraid I would take our father's fortune from him after his death or he was just envious.
There is one thing I am sure of and that is that my previous illness was not something natural, rather it was something unheard of, none of the doctors I visited knew what the hell it was or how I acted, I am sure my stepbrother had something to do with it but that doesn't matter anymore, the past is past, those people are probably already dead....
I shouldn't have told you all this, it seems that I really had too many things repressed eh...?
I'd better erase those things from your head before you start asking too many questions."
"Wait master! I swear I'll keep my mouth shut! I won't ask anything related to this topic in the future nor will I tell anyone about what you told me today!"
Magna closed his eyes tightly as he saw that Viltz's hand would not stop.
Viltz patted his head and just sighed.
"Huh?" Magna opened his eyes in confusion, not feeling like her memories had been erased.
"You know what, I don't care anymore, total no one would believe you even if you told them my story, they'd just take you for an idiot or a liar."
With a self-deprecating smile on his face, Viltz took his hand away from the boy's head and continued driving the carriage.
Half an hour later, they arrived in front of the entrance to a village.
After stopping the carriage in the common square of the village, Viltz conjured a large ball of blue light and exploded it in the air, quickly attracting the attention of the people in the village.
"Ahem! Attention all people of the town! I am the wizard Cliveland of Narok! About six months ago a few children from your village were kidnapped! I want the families of the children to gather here as quickly as possible please! I have rescued your children and I expect you to come and pick them up!"
Using a wind spell, Viltz made his voice travel throughout the village.
About ten minutes later, the village common square was surrounded by all the villagers.
Viltz opened the carriage and three boys and two girls jumped out of the carriage, throwing themselves into the arms of their relatives as both parties wept non-stop.
An elderly man leaning on a crutch approached Viltz and thanked him sincerely.
"Thank you so much for bringing these children home safe and sound my lord, their families have been extremely distressed these past few months."
The old man pulled out a bag of money and I offered it to Viltz sincerely.
"This is a token of our gratitude, it is not much but please take it."
Viltz did not take the bag but instead grabbed both of the old man's hands and spoke to him with a hearty smile.
"You misunderstand me good man, I'm not doing this for money or fame, I just couldn't watch those children suffer so I felt compelled to help. Please use that money to help the families of those children, I have money to spare."
The old man looked at Viltz with gratitude and tried to bow but Viltz grabbed his shoulder and prevented him from doing so.
"Thank you very much my lord! Our village will never forget your name sir Cliveland of Narok!
But sir, could you tell me who and why the children were kidnapped?"
"Sigh, I wish it was just a few children, actually there were more than twenty my dear friend, and as you can see they did not live in the best conditions, an evil witch of the forest, a driade of Brokilon kidnapped them all to take them to her forest to turn the girls into more driades using an evil spell and to use the children to breed to death."
Horror appeared on the old man's face and he looked at the girls in fear.
Viltz noticed this and assured the old man.
"Don't worry, everyone is fine, to turn the girls into driades, the witch needs to get to her forest but fortunately I met her in the middle of my journey and managed to kill her, the children don't remember anything from the last few months because the witch had them hypnotized to be obedient but by killing her the spell was broken."
"Phew... Just as well."
The old man let out a sigh of relief and the worry on his face was replaced by anger.
"How dare those green-skinned witches try to kidnap our young!"
The old man gnashed his few remaining teeth and began to rant for a while.
"Well, I'll leave the children in your care, there are still more children left who must go to their families."
Viltz bid the old man a hasty farewell and climbed into the carriage before opening a doorway to where Rita was standing, who had another group of seven children climb into the carriage.