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“I don’t wanna read.”
Julius sighed heavily, “Listen, Yami. You have to learn how to read.”
“It’s boring. And it’s my birthday. I’m not spending it doing nerd stuff.”
“You picked up quite the interesting words, Yami…”
“And I know how to read. Just not your language.”
“You should at least learn how to read numbers…”
“I don’t need to read your numbers and I don’t need to read your language, I’ll go home soon.”
Julius smiled softly and Yami hated it with all his might. He might not know this continent’s language perfectly, he might not get everything the people from here would try to tell him, but that sorry smile was universal. Yami didn’t have to learn it. It meant: it’s unlikely you’ll ever go home, my boy. And Yami didn’t like that.
“I’m going out.” Yami shouted as he ran out of the office.
♣
Yami had been in Clover long enough to get the basics of Suitish (Clover, Heart, Diamond and Spade language), mainly thanks to Julius and to listening to random conversations in shops or markets. He got around fine with the few words and sentences he knew; they were enough to survive. For anything he couldn’t deal with on his own, Julius would help. But reading? He didn’t need to read or write. He didn’t have to bother himself with this. When he would get his grimoire, he’d be strong enough to go back home. He’d find his way back to the Land of the Rising Sun, and he’d leave this place behind. He’d leave Julius behind too. And yeah… he didn’t like the sound of that either. He wanted to go home, he missed home, but… at the same time… he didn’t want to. He liked it here. He liked the idea of getting a grimoire without having to join the military. “Magic Knights” they were called here; Julius was one, he was from the Grey Deer. Yami found it weird that military divisions would be called with animals and colors but everything was so tacky in this country anyway; it wasn’t too surprising. It was, in any case, different from the stern divisions from the Land of the Rising Sun. Not that he knew much about how it was at home anyway; he was from a family of fishermen, there was no need from Yami to know about any of this.
Julius told him that this was the Noble Realm, basically where the rich lived. So, Clover was tacky, but this place was the tackiest. People were so weird here. Yami wanted to go somewhere else. If Yami didn’t need Julius to get around, he would already be traveling the country and he’d probably be by the ocean, trying to find a way home…
Maybe he could stay here. He missed his family, yeah but… attempting to go back with the frail things that this continent called ‘boats’ was suicide. It wasn’t so bad here. Sure, people looked weird and he, from their point of view, looked weird too. The language was a pain too. But it wasn’t too bad. Julius was nice. Annoying when he wanted to see his magic, but otherwise nice.
“Go away, foreigner!”
Yami stared back at the kids, but before he could ask him to repeat, they scrambled away in what looked like fear.
‘kay. Why not.
Yami blinked as he heard one of these kids apologize loudly. Now, he was intrigued so he followed them and stopped as he noticed someone down the alley that wasn’t the kids. There was a girl.
She was crouching and holding her hand, so Yami got closer and probably scared her because she sprung to her feet and backed away quickly. He hesitantly raised a hand, waving. That’s how people said hello casually here, apparently. He had seen Julius do it with some of his squad members, so he had decided to do the same. Visibly, it wasn’t working. She was still staring back at him in puzzleness and she still looked… scared. A different kind of scared than the fear and disgust on the faces of the kids who’d sometimes throw pebbles at him. She looked… embarrassed kind of scared. Her clothes were fancy; then again, everything around here looked fancy compared to his little fisherman town. But there was something about her, a sort of aura that shouted: rich, high and mighty. Maybe from how she was slightly looking down on him. She was barely a few centimetres taller than Yami, but it still felt like a lot. He looked down at her hands, noticing blood there, and it didn’t take long to piece everything together. She had probably injured herself when the kids bumped into her.
“Help?” he asked.
“I’m not hurt,” she said. “I don’t need your help. Leave now.”
Okay, he didn’t quite get all of that, but surely she had agreed. Yami frowned and threw his hands in his pocket: a few yuls and the rest of a sandwich. He had nothing to help stop the bleeding… he looked up, cocked his head on the side, squinted. But that thing in her hair… he reached for it, ignored her yelp and untied the ribbon, letting it slide into his fingers. He watched as her blonde hair fell back on her shoulders in a cascade.
Alright. That was pretty.
Yami grabbed her hand, ignoring what sounded like a protest to wrap the ribbon around her wound. That, he knew how to do. That would at least stop the bleeding. He finally let go of the hand.
“You have to get this treated,” he said before realizing that there was no way she spoke his native language. Well, at least he hoped she got the gist of what he was trying to say. But while he was expecting a ‘thank you’ (one of the few expressions that Julius had been hammering at him, trying to get him to say it), what came after that was a confused and confusing profusion of words, sentences, and sounds he had never heard; coupled with facial expressions that he found hard to interpret. The girl was annoying. She spoke too fast. Her voice was too high. Julius was easier to understand, his voice was deep and slow and he made sure to articulate so Yami could understand him without having to frown and squint (weird, but it did help to frown and squint). But the girl was just making sounds that Yami knew were supposed to be words… but he couldn’t catch anything he could recognize. He thought it was impossible that she wouldn’t even use some of the words he knew, but even as he focused intensely, he couldn’t understand a thing.
“What?” Yami said when she finally stopped talking.
Yami didn’t know what use there was in him asking ‘what’ because he didn’t understand what she was angrily answering and it didn’t look like she understood he couldn’t get any of the words either. It was getting old now. It was getting frustrating now. And she looked like she was about his age too. It was annoying. He was annoyed with himself right now. He wanted to understand.
It looked like she had given up on talking and for an instant, Yami was scared she’d just leave him like that, confused and not understanding a thing. She resorted to simply glaring back at him until she reached for her purse and taking out something and handing it to him. Yami blinked a few times before taking hold of the envelope, puzzled and watched as she was leaving.
Weird.
Yami looked down at the card inside the envelope. He had no idea what she had meant to say, but she had given him this so maybe there were some answers right there. His eyes set on the ink and this time, he couldn’t help but groan in annoyance.
He still didn’t know how to read.
♣
Yami debated the rest of the day whether or not to tell Julius about the card, whether or not to ask him to teach him letters, whether or not to learn how to read… but mostly whether or not he would give up on going back home and decide to stay here. Because if he learned how to read, and if he started learning the language seriously, and if he decided to start defending himself and beating up the kids who threw rocks at him, it meant, if he was going through all this trouble, that he’d be risking staying here forever. Most of all, if he read the card and made friends with someone here (someone his age, Julius didn’t count), it meant he’d be staying here.
♣
“What caused this change of heart?”
“Dunno. So. How d’you ‘read’?”
Julius smiled.
♣
Julius taught him the entire day and Yami could tell that Julius was surprised by just how motivated he suddenly was. Yami didn’t let Julius go until he got the basics. He thought that the basics would be enough. He doubted that the girl had written poetry on that card anyway. So, he took out the card and started deciphering the message.
Yami stared at the ‘letters’, formerly meaningless splashes of ink on the card and read slowly. Tea party, Charlotte Roselei, Roselei Estate, Invited, Birthday… there were numbers too, a date… He read once. Twice. Three times. But he already knew. He still lifted up his eyes and stared at the calendar Julius had given him, before glancing at the clock. His heart sank to his stomach as he got the confirmation.
The party was today.
But it was hours too late.
♣
♣ ♣
“I don’t wanna read!”
Yami snickered before ruffling his son’s hair, “I know you don’t.”
“So I can go outside and train?”
“No. You’re learning how to read.”
“But dad… Reading is boring. I don’t need to read anyway.”
“Let me tell you a story about me and your mom…”