EDM 26
by Cherry“Sasha? What’s wrong?”
Kafka spoke first. Upon hearing his voice, Aisha’s expression contorted. It was a face filled with rage not so much at Kafka, but at something else. Calling “Kaf,” Aisha ran toward him with both arms spread wide.
He thought she was going to suddenly embrace him, but Aisha stopped right in front of Kafka’s nose and suddenly began tugging at her own hair. After screaming while disheveling her hair, she clenched her fists and shouted right in Kafka’s face.
“I really can’t take it anymore!”
“…Take what?”
“That Ren bastard!”
“Ren?”
It was a nickname he’d heard but hadn’t heard before. Kafka said, “Wait a moment” to calm Aisha down and asked quietly. If it was someone with the nickname Ren, then surely…
“Are you talking about Ibelnoia?”
“That’s right!”
“Why all of a sudden?”
“I’m thinking of just not being friends with him anymore!”
Aisha shouted as if she was furious and going crazy. His eardrums stung from the yelling right in his face, so Kafka covered his ears and closed his eyes tightly.
Ah, what’s their problem this time?
Of course, she was probably just talking like that and it likely wasn’t a big deal in reality. Maybe Soren had stolen and eaten some of Lady Julie’s jelly beans. Or perhaps someone who liked Soren had declared an end to friendship with Aisha.
In any case, the ‘Sonder family’s fighter’ was getting heated in the middle of the men’s dormitory. At this rate, gossip would be guaranteed by tomorrow morning. Regaining his senses, Kafka quickly opened the dormitory door and pushed Aisha inside.
“I’ll make you some tea, so just sit for a moment. Calm down a bit.”
When he patted her shoulder, Aisha let out a deep sigh and buried her face in her palms. Grinding sounds echoed roughly through the quiet room. Kafka quickly made tea while watching Aisha’s condition and cut a piece of chocolate terrine he had been saving. He needed to get her to eat something and listen to her story before that anger boiled up again.
“What on earth happened to make you like this?”
When he quickly served the refreshments, Aisha first took a big bite of the terrine. Seeming to feel better from the sweetness, her expression that had been like a dragon robbed of its gold softened considerably. After devouring the palm sized terrine in an instant, Aisha also gulped down the chamomile tea that had cooled to just the right temperature.
“Huh? What’s this?”
“It’s sweet,” Aisha said, smacking her lips slightly after emptying the tea in one go. Kafka immediately lifted the teapot to refill the empty teacup. At the same time, the scent of sugar preserved chamomile spread gently on the warm steam.
“Professor Pomodona gave it to me. She said it’s chamomile flowers preserved in sugar and dried.”
“So you can eat chamomile this sweetly too.”
“She said it’s effective when you have nightmares.”
“Nightmares…”
Upon hearing this, Aisha laughed bitterly and nodded slightly. After taking another sip of tea, she set the teacup down hard enough to make a clinking sound.
“Right, exactly. It’s a nightmare.”
“…What is?”
“Ren, that damned bastard.”
“His very existence is a nightmare,” Aisha said while covering her head with both hands again. Kafka wondered what they could have fought about to make her call him a bastard and a nightmare, but at the same time, he understood Aisha. Even in the considerably adapted webtoon version of “Knight of the North Wind,” Soren, around this time had a very bad personality.
‘In the novel, he was supposedly almost like a malicious spirit.’
A collaborative work born from chronic trauma and a stress filled environment. Kafka rested his chin and quietly watched Aisha as she began taking deep breaths again. He could have chimed in with a word or two saying that guy’s personality was indeed a bit bad, but silence seemed better right now. The current situation was quite puzzling.
‘Even though Soren is ill-mannered, he wasn’t like that to Aisha.’
Based on the webtoon, while the two often had minor arguments, they had never had a big fight worthy of mentioning cutting off friendship. Kafka’s brow furrowed slightly. It was due to anxiety that the original story might have been twisted again.
“You two were getting along well lately. So why are you fighting?”
“How could we not fight? The way he talks.”
“What exactly did he say to you?”
“Not to me, to you! Didn’t you hear what he said this morning?!”
Aisha’s voice grew louder and louder. Afraid she might explode again, Kafka gestured for Aisha to calm down. Aisha took another sip of tea, then let out a long sigh and held her forehead.
“Kaf, you really… You’re too insensitive to insults.”
“Am I?”
“Yeah. Really really really, truly truly truly, you’re waaay too insensitive.”
Aisha rapidly fired off while pointing accusingly. Kafka pretended not to know and avoided her gaze while drinking the tea he had poured for himself. He was afraid that if he responded wrongly, a ‘denunciation meeting about the stupid brother who can’t even find his own rice bowl’ would begin and the topic would change.
“This morning that bastard babbled about how your magic level is obvious, how you like to hide away in corners, and all that.”
“He did.”
“But aren’t you angry?”
“Honestly, since it’s true…”
“Ren is Ren, but Kaf, you know you’re really annoying too, right?”
Aisha slapped her forehead hard enough to make a sharp sound. After sighing like a growl while saying “ugh,” she brought the briefly diverted topic back to its original point.
“Anyway, what he said was harsh. So after you left, I told him. I said he crossed the line and should apologize later.”
“Did he say he would apologize?”
“If he was going to apologize, would I be this angry? He said he doesn’t see why he should apologize. That he was just stating facts.”
“Hmm…”
“So I told him again. Whether it’s fact or not, since he insulted someone, apologizing would be right.”
“And then?”
“He said it wasn’t an insult but stating facts, and he doesn’t understand why he should care about your feelings either. I was so flabbergasted, I was literally speechless!”
“Oh…”
His rudeness is certainly exceptional. Pure admiration came out.
‘Why should I care about your feelings?’ That certainly was speechless inducing. ‘Don’t carelessly insult others’ was both a social contract and very basic etiquette, but it was merely a recommendation, not something legally enforced.
“Still, I held back once more and said that’s basic courtesy between people. Are you listening?”
“Yeah, keep going.”
“Then he said there’s no need to be courteous to someone like you who’s nothing. So he’s not particularly sorry and doesn’t want to apologize either.”
“Certainly… he and you do have somewhat different philosophies, Sasha.”
“Is having different philosophies the problem? He’s just less than human!”
Aisha screamed as if frustrated. Kafka slightly hunched his shoulders and watched his sister’s mood. It was indeed the kind of statement that would come from a lowly disposable villain rather than a protagonist.
“Anyway, I was so dumbfounded I just stood there blankly. Then what he said next was quite a sight to behold.”
“What did he say?”
“He asked why I interfere in your affairs at every turn. Instead of me volunteering to be a shield, wouldn’t it be over if you, Kaf, just got strong and trampled everyone?”
A brief silence flowed. Kafka looked down and took a sip of tea. The sweetness that had intensified as the tea cooled stuck viscously to his tongue.
In a way, it wasn’t wrong. Aisha couldn’t always step up for his affairs forever…
“I roughly understand what context he was speaking from. But you’re not in a normal situation.”
“…”
“You can’t even use mana heart because of Eleanor Syndrome, and your body is weak too. In such circumstances, what strength are you supposed to develop to fight and win against those whose heads are filled with nothing but survival of the fittest?”
“…”
“Is being weak inherently wrong? Is it such a big sin that it’s okay to openly disrespect someone?”
Aisha, who had been speaking passionately, drank all the remaining tea to wet her throat. Whether it was the effect of the chamomile tea, she continued her remaining words in a relatively calm manner.
“We just need to be courteous to each other and show respect, right? Bullying and ignoring someone because they’re weak is what’s wrong.”
“…You should have said that to Ibelnoia.”
“Didn’t I say it? Up until then, I thought even if someone was a bit less than human, I could fix and use them.”
“But why…”
Don’t you think it’ll work? Kafka asked subtly. Aisha shook her head back and forth. While doing so, she expressed disgust, saying Soren was no different from the idiots obsessed with survival of the fittest scattered throughout Rigel Academy.
“Being weak might not be a sin, but just taking beatings and doing nothing is a sin, he said.”
“…”
“It’s the worst thing you can do to yourself, more than anyone else, or something like that. He said he doesn’t like that you, Kaf, don’t do anything.”
“I see.”
“Who asked him to like you? We’re just asking him to be courteous, what a sight really.”
Aisha said this while resting her chin and looking into the distance. After a brief silence, she opened her mouth again and muttered quietly as if lamenting.
“He’s strong himself. He wins all his fights, so maybe he can think that way…”
“…”
“Acting like his mouth is the only thing alive when he doesn’t know jack shit.”
With those words, the room was enveloped in long silence. Kafka, who had been silently staring at the tea growing cold, asked.
“Should I give you more terrine and tea?”
Aisha nodded with a gloomy face. Kafka immediately got up and cut the chocolate terrine larger than before, and also brewed fresh chamomile tea. When he poured water over the flower buds with sugar crystals attached, a sweet and fragrant smell spread and tickled his nose.
<When I have nightmares, I brew this tea strong and drink it. Until the tea water becomes bright yellow.> Professor Pomodona’s kind voice repeated in his memory. The quickly steeped tea water soon took on a yellow tint, but Kafka steeped the tea longer than usual. Until Aisha asked, “Isn’t it getting too strong?”