涼介君の所願

*6 Years Later*

*November 26, Akanashian Year 292*

*Mizukoku*

      All the royal families had once again gathered in Mizukoku for King Ohno’s 51^st birthday.  It had been a grand birthday and the town was decorated beautifully. 

      The day after, Alliance Day, was also spent in Mizukoku that year with the four royal families.  Everyone had gotten up early to start the day.  Yuto and Yuri had headed down into the town to play around along with Saki, Sato, and Hina.  They were considered the “younglings” of the families.  Likewise, Yuya, Daiki, Keito, Kota, Tomohisa, Hikaru, Yuya, Takahisa, Maki, Kei, and Yuma were all considered the “older kids” of the families.  None of them needed to be watched over anymore and they were free to do whatever they pleased for the most part, as they were all legally adults now.  That only left Ryosuke.  By this point in time, Ryosuke had figured out that he was born at a horrible time.  He was four years too young, or four years too early just about.  There was no one his age and he kind of hated it.  It was hard too because Ryosuke didn’t want to play around like the little kids anymore, but he didn’t have the freedom the older kids did. 

     For some reason, he wasn’t very popular in school either.  His grades weren’t the best and his brothers constantly overshadowed him.  Recently the kids in school had been paying more attention to him and some people constantly trying to talk to him.  He was happy, but at the end of the day there was only one group of boys who had offered to be ‘friends’… 

***

     His ‘friends’ had gotten him in trouble.  At the time when he was 15, to become friends, there had been a challenge.  It was February and temperatures were so freezing cold.  It was cold, this was the weather that kids were not allowed out past eight o’clock due to the cold and adults were recommended to stay inside.

      But that day at school, the boys had to told Ryosuke to become friends, he had to jump into the lake at the park that night--they had all done it and passed into the group that way.  Ryosuke had no friends and he was desperate, so he agreed, not thinking.  He snuck out of the castle successfully, which was really hard to do, and made it down the side of cliffs, since the cable car wouldn’t let him ride since it was after eight.  In fact, it was eleven at night.  He had school in the morning too.  It was freezing cold even in all of his clothes—thick socks, boots, wool pants, wool shirt, and his fur coat with his mittens, hat, and scarf.  Desperately using hearth magic he ran quickly.  He finally made it down to the park and the boys were waiting for him there.  There had been another agreement too of course.  “Did you bring it?” the leader of the boys asked.

     Ryosuke had nodded, taking out the money from his pocket.  The boys had asked for a 50000yen fee to join the group, which they said was easy for a rich kid to pay, so Ryosuke stole the money from his parents. 

     After handing it over, the boys looked at him.  “Okay, halfway there, huh?” he said, “All you have to do is jump in the lake.”

     The boys all glanced at the lake.  “It’s frozen solid, though,” Ryosuke said, “I don’t think I can jump in it.”

     “Come on, we don’t study magic for nothing,” one boy snickered and Ryosuke looked at him.  The boy melted the ice away in a spot.  “Jump in there.”

     The hole was big enough for Ryosuke to jump in and he figured maybe the water would be semi-warm right now, so it was best to jump quickly.  He went to jump, but the boys stopped him.

     “Wait, you can’t jump in with all that.”

     “What?  Why not?” Ryosuke demanded.  “It’s too cold to jump in without it.”

     “Stop complaining!  Do you want to drown with all of that stuff on?” the boy snickered.

      Ryosuke merely shook his head and the boy ordered him to take off everything but his pants and undershirt.  So he sat down in the snow and quickly tried to remove his boots and socks.  Then he pulled off his hat, mittens, scarf, and coat.  Once he stood up, his feet were already going numb with the coldness.  He said a small spell once more, trying to warm his feet, but the boy hit him, “No spells or magic.  That’s cheating.”

     “But it’s so cold,” Ryosuke had whined a bit, "This is starting to get dangerous."

     “No cheating or you’re out.  We’ll put a spell on for the time being so you can’t do magic.  We’ll undo it when you come up.”

     “But…” Ryosuke fought.

     “No buts unless you quit?  You don't have to be friends with us you know.  You can go back to sitting alone at lunch.”

     Ryosuke shook his head once more and the boy placed the spell.  Ryosuke was now freezing, magic-less, and about to jump into the lake.  “Go,” the boy said.

     Ryosuke hesitated again though looking at the dark water, “I don’t really think this is a good idea…”

     But one of the boys suddenly pushed him.  He hadn’t gone in right and hit his head on the side of the ice going in.  The first thing was cold.  It was so cold.  It was so cold, his body was burning.  After that, it was black and he felt numb and on fire at once.  He tried to get out but above him was ice and he couldn’t find the hole to come back up.  He beat on the ice and desperately tried to get out, but nothing was working.

      Above the ice, the boys had realized he couldn’t get back up.  “What do we do!?” the one was freaking out, “If he dies…We would have killed the prince!  We have to get him out now!”

     “Urusai!” the main boy said, though he was just as scared.  Just then they heard voices and yelling coming towards them.  "Let's go; hurry up!”

     “But,” the other boy looked at the boy who was slowly stopping his struggling under the ice.

     “Now!” and the boys ran off.

     Underneath the ice, though, everything was black and his body finally felt nothing anymore.  He was tired and done.  He stopped beating and felt himself float for a mere moment.

      Above the ice, it was the King, the Queen, and their three eldest sons along with a few guards.

     It had been earlier when Daiki had gone to get Ryosuke when he discovered he was gone.  When he asked Yuri, Yuri mentioned something about overhearing Ryosuke talking to some boys about the lower lake in the park.  Yuri was made to stay home, but the rest of the family rushed down to the park as quickly as they could.

      When they got there, Daiki panicked as he was the first to discover Ryosuke’s clothes on the ground.  His mother burst out into tears at the sight and panicked.  The King didn’t though, and instead was furious at his son’s risky actions.  “He’s got to be in the water,” Keito said, in shock.  The King was the strongest magic-user in the kingdom and easily melted all the ice off the pond, and his son’s body could be seen. 

      His mother had choked out tears looking at her son’s limb body.  Daiki freaked and jumped in the water, grabbing his brother and bringing him up to the shore.  Using his own magic, he dried himself quickly.  “What is this idiot thinking!?” his father yelled.  Quickly his father dried Ryosuke off and wrapped him in clothes, bringing him to the closest shelter around, which happened to be the café where Daiki worked part-time.  It was closed, but Daiki had the keys (since the locks are magic-proof).

     Inside, Daiki started the fire and Ryosuke was still unconscious.  His father angrily warmed him with his magic and his mother quickly pulled herself together, using her snow healing to her advantage.  His body was so cold, but after about an hour the color to his cheeks had come back (quite flared and red as could be) and his body wasn’t as cold anymore.  He finally woke up, teeth chattering and his skin was as dry as could be.  Water in the cold can be as bad as the hottest fire.  His skin was dry and cracking open, blood dripping down his skin.  His mother continued to warm him and soothe his skin with her snow healing as the three sons sat there staring in shock at their younger brother.  ‘Why would he do this?’ they thought. 

      Their father was not as calm as the others and when the boy was finally looking better and his skin was soothed some more and the bleeding was stopped, he exploded.  “What do you think you were doing!?  You broke the curfew, you snuck out of the house, and you about killed yourself!!!” he screamed at him in fury. 

      Ryosuke cried looking into his father’s disappointed face.  His father didn’t cry; he only yelled and lectured the boy for the next couple minutes.  When Ryosuke didn’t speak up, his father grabbed his hair and pulled him up, “Well?!”

      His mother pushed his hands away and laid Ryosuke back down.  Ryosuke cried more, but finally spit out an answer.  “T-They said we could be friends.”

      “What?” his mother breathed in looking down at her son.

      Her son cried more, “T-They said if I did what they said, we could be friends in school and I-I just….

      “Those are not true friends!” his father growled, “Don’t you know the difference!?”

     “No,” Ryosuke said quickly, trying to defend himself, “I don’t have friends in school!”

      “But you have friends!  Your brothers, cousins, the other royal families!  How do you think those friends would feel if they were attending your funeral in a few days!?”

      Ryosuke continued to cry, and his mother spoke up.  “So they told you to jump in the lake?”

      Ryosuke knew he would have to confess about the money too, but thinking of the scolding, he cried more out of pity for himself and the punishments awaiting.

     “What is it?” his mother looked at him.

     “T-That and…”

     “And?” his father looked sternly at him.

     “I had to pay them 50000yen,” he spit out.

     “You don’t have that kind of money!” his mother said.

    “I stole it from you,” the boy choked out.

     At that moment, his father slapped him across the face and the boy continued to sob, holding his face.  The three eldest sons looked at the scene in pure shock at the current events.  Never had they seen Ryosuke sob like this or their father so angry. He’d also never hit any of them before.   His mother told her husband to calm down and this wasn’t the time for the punishment, that it could come later. 

     They took him home after that.  The incident wasn’t talked about the next day.  While the others went to school, he wasn’t allowed to go to school.  He was confined to bed by his mother.  He was allowed to get out of bed for supper that night, but it was really awkward and no one spoke at dinner. 

     To make matters worse, the whole incident had spread around the village and was probably currently spreading around the country.  There were people at the gates with flowers and magical potions and herbs, but they were all thanked and sent home. 

     When it was time for him to go to school the following day, Ryosuke remembered he couldn’t use magic anymore.  When he tried to tell his mother he didn’t feel well enough for school, his father caught his lie.  “You have to face your class sometime.  You were stupid.  Face them like a man already.”

      Ryosuke hadn’t even thought about that, but now he was.  He was worried about both things now.  “That’s not it,” he said quickly, “If I go to school, I have to go to magic class.”

     “What’s wrong with magic class?” his mother asked.

     “I can’t use mine,” he mumbled and his father looked really furious then. 

     Yuri had waited for Ryosuke to walk to school together and had been eavesdropping.  But suddenly he saw his father slap Ryosuke across the face, knocking the boy to the floor.  He ran out of the castle immediately.  The boy had never seen his father ever use such violence. 

     His father restored his magic, not even able to look at his son in his fury, and sent him off to school.

     The boys had been expelled from the school and Ryosuke was back to being friendless, only with more whispers behind his back now.  The kids talked about the incident and took glances at him.  If he looked at them, they would quickly look away. 

     When he got home, it was another awkward night. His mother was replying to the mail from Yuriko-san, who had gotten the news also, and their family was concerned.  The following reply was to the Aiba’s, who had also written.

    It was the weekend, so there was no school, but that’s when his punishment began.  He had to do various chores and extra schooling classes and was confined to the castle besides going to school for the next three months.  His life was horrible during that period of time. 

     Ever since that time, the King distanced himself from Ryosuke and was disappointed in him--Ryosuke knew it.  His mother made it a note to always know what was going on his life.  Yuya, Daiki, and Keito were instructed to watch over him.  Yuri wasn’t told anything, but he had found out from all the rumors and the eavesdropping.  Yuri didn’t talk about the incident and tried to forget about it, pretending it had never happened.  But Ryosuke couldn’t ever forget it and it brought him only pure shame.  He was the laughing stock of his family.  The overlooked child; the one no one wants to see.

***

     Now it had been about six months since that time and though it wasn’t forgotten, it wasn’t brought up either.  That was lucky for Ryosuke because those three months had been a cruel time.  “Okaa-san,” he went up to where the adults were talking.

     She looked at him, “What are you still doing here?  Why don’t you go play with Yuri and the others?”

     “I’m just going to go down and look around,” he said, leaving the room.  It was awkward.  To this day, his father still doesn’t treat him the same as he used to.

     “Ryosuke,” his mother called him back.

     “What?” he stopped at looked back.

     “Don’t get into trouble,” she said quickly before turning back to the others.