NOVEL NEXT Chapter 20 - Wendy
Scene 020: Wendy
Wendy first used magic when she was just eight years old.
As the eldest daughter of a poor farming family, she had been helping her parents with farm chores from a very young age. Like all farm work, it was unbearably hard for a child. From dawn until well into the night, she followed her parents to the fields, cultivating the land and harvesting crops. The plot of land assigned to her family to cultivate was absurdly large, and even with Wendy’s help, the work seemed endless. Her hands were never free of wounds; cuts formed over old scars, again and again.
Every time her small hands were injured, her older brother was the one to treat them. “Are you okay?” he would ask. He was the eldest son and her only brother. Though still young, he worked as hard as any adult. He was the pillar of their household, and at the same time, he was Wendy’s source of strength. Despite the heavy workload, he would secretly help her with her chores while doing his own. That’s why his clothes were always dirtier than anyone else’s, and he was always drenched in sweat. Wendy thought that made him seem all the more reliable.
Then one day, a severe drought hit. The land dried up, and the hearts of the farmers withered along with it. As the drought dragged on, even food rations became scarce. Her younger siblings cried from hunger every day, but Wendy didn’t cry. She was the eldest. She was their sister. …And she had her brother.
One day during the drought, Wendy found her brother kneeling in the field, muttering something under his breath. “Oppa, what are you doing?” she asked.
“I’m praying,” he replied.
“Praying…? To who?”
“To the gods. I’m asking them to save our fields.”
Her brother looked desperate. Wendy knew he hadn’t eaten for days. His arms were thin, his cheeks sunken, and his eyes had lost their strength. She wanted to give him strength.
“I’ll pray too,” she said, kneeling beside him under the scorching sun. Together, they prayed earnestly—begging for rain to fall on the dry land, for help to come for her brother.
And then it happened.
Plop.
A single drop of rain fell onto the parched ground.
Plop. Plop.
One drop became two, then three, and soon it was a downpour. Too many raindrops to count. It was a miracle.
“Oppa!” Drenched from head to toe, Wendy threw herself into her brother’s arms with joy. I did it! I helped him! She wanted her kind brother to praise her and hoped he would pat her head. But no matter how long she waited, her brother didn’t say a word. There was no warm touch, no kind words of praise.
Wendy lifted her head and looked at her brother. And then she realized she had been wrong. His gaze was filled with a mix of complicated emotions as he looked at her.
“Oppa…?”
“Is it because I prayed on my own…? Is that why you’re upset with me…?”
It wasn’t until later that Wendy realized what she had done was magic.
…
The drought ended. Food rations were distributed again. Farming resumed. Everything went back to the way it was before. Except for one thing.
“Oppa…”
No matter how many times Wendy called, her brother didn’t answer. Bewildered by his cold attitude, she tried to figure out what she had done wrong, but as young as she was, she couldn’t understand. She cried, but he didn’t comfort her. He no longer tended to the cuts on her hands. The brother who had always been her pillar was gone.
Not long after, her brother decided to leave home. He said he would follow a wandering merchant to the city to earn money. Wendy clung to him as he was about to leave.
“O-Oppa I’m sorry…!” She felt that if she let go now, she would never see him again.
“I… I was wrong… sob… I won’t pray again… I won’t use magic anymore… So… don’t leave…”
“Wendy, it’s not your fault. It’s just…” Her brother stopped mid-sentence. What had he been about to say? Without giving her an answer, he said his farewell.
“Take care…”
“Oppa! Don’t go!” Wendy cried, but she couldn’t stop him. She could only watch helplessly as he grew further and further away.
She wanted to pray—to pray to hold him back, to pray for her kind brother to return. But Wendy didn’t pray. She couldn’t. She was afraid that if she prayed, she would lose him forever.
So she decided not to pray. And never to use magic again.
Crumple.
Something inside her broke.
Just thinking about it made her voice tremble, and her heart pound.
How much time had passed since her brother left?
One day, a man dressed in expensive clothes arrived in the village. “The Count of Ruelberta is recruiting servants. Is there anyone interested?”