# 19. Hello! Were You Kidnapped Too? (1)
A vigorous and strong morning!
"Huaam... I'm so tired..."
Hero Luna opened her eyes in bed.
Training was always hellish, so even after waking up, she didn't feel refreshed at all.
Still, since she was sending money to her family, she had to keep her spirits up.
"Let's do our best today too! You can do it, Luna! Fighting!"
Luna shouted encouragement, and the Hero immediately rushed to the bathroom.
She carefully washed her face and brushed her teeth, then checked the mirror.
"What? Did I gain some muscle?"
She had biceps now, muscles were forming, and even some abs were starting to show.
At this rate, she might become totally ripped?
"Hehe, I'll be able to take down that old man soon! The era of me, Luna, is coming!"
Having forgotten her past defeats, Luna greeted the morning with optimism.
However, perhaps because she was too excited by herself.
She didn't notice that the bathroom door was open.
"Luna, eat your food."
"Hii, hiik..! Wh-when did you get here..!? M-more importantly, you should knock!"
"...I knocked over five times. Couldn't you hear it? With that level of awareness, saying you'll beat me is shameless, Luna."
"O-okay... People can't always be focused... Tch, does praise make you cocky?"
He praises Hare so much.
But he never praises me.
Luna pouted and sat on the bed.
Today's breakfast menu was toast and fried eggs.
Seeing the delicious food before her eyes, her hurt feelings vanished instantly.
"Come down in 30 minutes after you finish eating. Training today too."
"Hehe, looks delicious... Ah, yep, understood."
"And, don't be too surprised..."
"...?"
What does that mean?
Don't be surprised? Is it a surprise gift?
Luna couldn't understand the last comment.
Not until she went out to the yard.
After tying her hair with the red ribbon Jun-woo had given her and taking her wooden sword down to the yard.
A black-haired girl was sitting in a chair reading a book.
She had sanpaku eyes that gave off a scary feeling.
It was a girl she'd never seen before.
"Did this old man kidnap someone again!? Wh-what kind of person is he really?!"
For what reason does he kidnap people!
How far is he planning to go with this?!
Luna's head was spinning.
*'...Hare came here on her own feet. How did this one end up here? Still, since we're fellow victims, I should say hello.'*
Luna approached Saten with a bright smile.
Saten remained expressionless.
Luna flinched at that appearance but, acting as if she wasn't flustered, smiled brightly and said,
"H-hello! I'm Lunacia Luna! What's your name?"
"Saten."
"...?"
What?
Is that all she has to say?
The flustered Luna carefully asked,
"That's... it?"
"...What more do you need?"
"N-nothing..."
If I greeted you, shouldn't you respond with something like "hello!" too?
When I asked for her name, she really just said her name and nothing else.
Luna thought to herself that this friend was also quite unusual.
Saten spoke to Luna, who wasn't leaving.
"If you have no business, could you leave? You're in the way."
"N-no. There's one more thing I want to ask. Why did you come here? Were you kidnapped like me?"
"No, I asked to be kidnapped."
"Eh...?"
"Do you need more explanation? If not, please go away."
Saten waved her hand dismissively, telling her to leave now.
Luna was chased away with a blank expression, without time to think.
She couldn't understand it at all.
"Do people normally ask to be kidnapped...?"
Normally, wouldn't you shout "Please don't kidnap me!"?
If you're normal, that would be right, wouldn't it?
Whether it's a child who came on her own feet or a child who asks to be kidnapped...
Common sense didn't work at all in this place.
"Why do all the kids here want to come in on their own...?"
Am I the weird one for being kidnapped and trying to escape from here?
Ugh...
Luna clutched her head.
"Am I the strange one...?"
Luna wondered if she was the strange one and checked on Hare, who was looking outside through the window.
Hare's gaze was directed at the old man without a single degree of error.
There was no wavering to be found in those red eyes.
Luna shouted loudly.
"Th-this isn't right! Th-the world has gone crazy!!"
"What isn't right, Luna."
"O-old man! Something's weird! Common sense isn't common sense anymore!"
"What's beyond common sense is your skill level, Luna. Go run laps around the yard."
"Gyaaah-!"
Hare and Saten.
Recalling their kidnapping motives, Luna ran around the yard, feeling like her head would explode.
She was very sad about the fact that no matter how much she ran, she couldn't escape this place.
Lunchtime.
Luna, who had fainted from today's harsh training and woken up, sniffed her nose.
She looked just like a golden retriever that had smelled snacks while sleeping.
"Ugh, what's that smell...?"
There's a smell.
The smell of delicious soup...
Luna got up from bed and checked the desk.
There was a soup with a rich aroma.
It was quite a luxurious soup with various vegetables and meat.
"The old man's cooking is really amazing... Where did he cook so much before?"
Anyway.
Luna approached the soup, drooling.
"Huh?"
However, next to it was something more important than the soup.
A letter.
A reply letter from her family.
It had already been opened, as if Jun-woo had inspected it.
"Tch, it's a letter from my family... How can he read it before me!"
Luna turned her gaze from the soup and checked the letter.
The handwriting was her mother's, and the letter contained stories about her family.
Light stories about how their day was, that they were spending the money well, and that her siblings were growing up well.
Perhaps because it had been so long, Luna's eyes became moist.
"Sniff, still, I'm glad they're doing well..."
The exhausted heart from harsh training felt like it was melting away like snow.
Luna thought it was truly fortunate that she could feel her family's warmth like this from a distant land.
*'Still, I hate the old man. He kidnapped and confined me.'*
No matter how much he sends money to her family, this is a crime!
Gratitude and hatred coexisted in Luna's heart.
"If the old man is going to be bad, he should be completely bad, but sometimes he's kind! I can't even hate him completely! Ugh! Whatever! I hate him! I'm just going to eat!"
Nom.
Unlike her words, Luna's body was honest.
The soup bowl Jun-woo had prepared sparkled clean, not even needing to be washed.
"Tomorrow is the test."
"Y-yes..! Old man..! I won't disappoint you..! I'll study more today too! I'll learn everything about you..!"
"No, you don't need to go that far..."
What do you mean you'll learn everything about me...
Hare's eyes sparkled as she studied this world's language.
After finishing Hare's basic knowledge lesson, I headed to Saten's room.
Knock knock-
"May I come in, Saten."
-Yes.
At Saten's cool voice, I entered the room.
She was sitting at the desk, reading a book.
It was a royal road novel about a Hero defeating a Demon King.
I asked her, who didn't take her eyes off the book,
"Is it worth reading?"
"No."
How blunt.
Saten seemed to have many points she didn't understand, as she closed the book with a thud and began pouring out words.
"Why does the Hero save people? Sacrificing himself for useless vermin. This book's protagonist seems really stupid. He could just live for himself. He's just being unnecessarily meddlesome."
"..."
I have nothing to say.
How am I supposed to reform this personality...
I was truly afraid of the fact that Saten was the Mage of the Hero Party.
Then, she began asking me questions she was curious about.
"Did you send my letter to the family? And tell me the reason you came to me all at once."
"...I did send it. I came to teach you magic. That's the reason I kidnapped you."
"I'm glad you didn't come to say something pointless."
Saten spoke as if she was relieved it wasn't a bothersome matter.
Then she brought her face close to mine, close enough for our noses to touch.
"So, how did you use that magic back then?"
"...Your face is too close, step back a bit, I'll tell you about the magic after that."
"Yes."
Saten followed my words without complaint.
She seemed to genuinely want to learn the magic I had used.
That magic she had developed and used, which I had inherited.
"Ahem, first I'll tell you the name of the magic you'll be using."
"Yes, please tell me."
"That magic that turned people into dust and erased their very existence. It's called 'Non-elemental Magic.'"
"That's a lie. The world is made up of the four elements. Non-elemental doesn't exist."
You lied to me.
Saten glared at me with a cold expression.
However, contrary to her thoughts, Non-elemental Magic did exist.
"I'm not deceiving you. The word 'non-elemental' itself exists, doesn't it? If non-elemental truly didn't exist, the word wouldn't exist either."
"What kind of wordplay is that?"
"The world is originally made up of wordplay. If you can't understand this, you won't be able to use this magic."
It took me four years to comprehend this magic.
The definition of Non-elemental Magic is roughly this:
If you say 'non-elemental' 'doesn't exist,' then the 'word' non-elemental itself 'exists' in that place.
However, if you say non-elemental exists, you end up 'acknowledging' that non-elemental doesn't exist, so non-elemental disappears.
It's elemental magic with its own philosophy.
"To explain simply, to use the magic, you just need to think as if non-elemental doesn't exist."
"...It's difficult. It's the first time I'm hearing this. That's nonsense beyond calculation."
"I told you. The person who created this magic. Was a genius more amazing than you. If you can't understand it, then that's the extent of your talent."
"..."
Saten frowned at those words that gnawed at her pride.
And, rarely, Saten didn't respond.
Though unpleasant, she seemed to acknowledge the fact that she didn't understand.
"...So, how do you use that Non-elemental Magic?"
"For that, read this book. It's a book that person wrote. If you understand it, you'll automatically be able to use it. Ask me about parts you don't understand."
"Yes, I'll read it. But I have one question."
A question.
Of course she'd be curious after seeing the book.
I nodded.
"Why is there only volume 1? This book is really thin. For containing such an amazing magic, it doesn't even go over 100 pages."
"That's. It was made that way on purpose."
"What?"
"It was made that way to mean learn slowly."
"..."
Saten tilted her head as if she didn't understand.
I didn't understand the meaning of learning slowly back then.
But now I could finally grasp that meaning.
*'So I can keep you by my side for a long time.'*
If you give one thick book, the relationship ends there.
If you learn all the magic, the relationship between master and disciple ends right there.
Probably, she who was my master didn't want to end the relationship by giving books one at a time.
In that same sense with Saten.
No matter how much she studied magic, if I didn't allow it, the master-disciple relationship would never break.
Saten asked as if annoyed.
"Where is the next volume?"
"I'll give you volume 2 when you achieve your goal."
"Hmm, what goal?"
Goal.
A goal related to Saten's very life.
I gently stroked Saten's head and said,
"Each time you realize an emotion, I'll give you one volume. Learning about your own emotions. That's your goal."
"...You're making things troublesome."
"If you're dissatisfied, you can give up on learning magic."
The one who should be disappointed isn't me, it's you.
Saten remained expressionless and still.
She seemed to be organizing her thoughts.
Soon, as if her thoughts were organized, she nodded.
"...I'll try learning emotions too."
"That's a good choice, Saten."
I stroked Saten's head once more.
She tilted her head, not understanding why I was doing this.
She also seemed uncomfortable with the head-patting action.
*'With time, you'll understand the meaning of this action too.'*
Because your emotions haven't disappeared.
Saten's emotions remained very faintly, so faint they couldn't be caught with a pincer finger.
It was a fact only I, who had directly experienced her past emotions, could know.
And so, Mage Saten's first lesson.
Not a magic lesson, but an emotion lesson officially began.
After the lesson ended.
Saten stood alone in front of the mirror.
And, facing herself in the mirror, she began talking to herself.
"Emotions."
I did lose my emotions.
But how can I regain them?
What kind of feeling were the emotions I felt back then?
Saten couldn't grasp it at all.
"...Was it like this?"
Joy.
Expressionless Saten lifted the corners of her mouth with her fingers.
It was a bizarre appearance with lifeless eyes and only the corners of her mouth ascending.
There was no soul in the smile.
"Realizing emotions is too difficult."
Though Saten was called a genius when it came to magic.
She realized that when it came to emotions, she was no different from a newborn baby.
That expressionless Saten in the mirror tried forcibly twisting up the corners of her mouth.
"..."
Unlike other people's smiles,
Saten's expression looked far too lonely.