#9
“Ah! Young Master, I believe this is what you were referring to. But how did you know about this?”
Noah’s eyes widened into circles as he watched the merchant guild leader, who had clapped and risen from his seat, retrieve something from a piled-up heap of toys. It looked similar to a skateboard but had no wheels. It seemed they had made a stand-up sled for the snow, given this was a place with heavy snowfall, rather than a sit-down one.
But saying that, standing on a snow sled is really dangerous. As this thought reached him, Noah shook his head. It seemed like riding that thing and standing on a snow sled would likely end with more than just breaking a bone if one fell wrong.
“It’s a new product that hasn’t been out long. I didn’t mention it because it seemed too dangerous for the Young Master, but speaking of which…”
Noah, who was drinking juice without much expectation towards the guild leader starting his product explanation aimed at Loren, blinked his large eyes and alternated his gaze between the man and the object next to him.
If his current explanation was correct, that was a hoverboard!
Using magic, it could hover about 5cm above the ground and move, he said.
What use are bumpy wheels? The explanation continued: using magic, it detects the ground and can move, hovering over 5cm above anything, and moving and stopping are controlled by buttons on the handlebar.
No need to laboriously kick and push to run either.
The magic stone inside… something about cumulative distance, blah blah. Ultimately, it was a consumable, so the magic stone needed regular replacement, the guild leader said. As he gently lifted the board, a cheer escaped Noah’s mouth.
With both feet on the board and gripping the handlebar, Noah’s face was filled with a brighter smile than ever before.
“Pressing the left button here stops it, and the right button starts it, you see. For safety, it can’t go above a certain speed, and if there’s an obstacle within 5 meters, it automatically adjusts speed and…”
“……Waaahhh!”
Simultaneous with pressing the right button as the guild leader said, Noah was lying flat on his back on the floor. His head, back, and bottom hurt. Stars seemed to be twinkling on the ceiling.
“Noah!”
“Young Master!”
This situation felt familiar.
After regression, on the first day he met Mom and Dad, he had fallen forward and got a nosebleed. The strength in his hands gripping the handlebar was weak, and the moment Noah pressed the start button and the hoverboard moved forward, he fell backwards and tumbled.
Feeling Loren holding him and the hand stroking his sore head, Noah couldn’t hold back and cried bitterly. He hated his young body. Really hated it.
Failing to properly hold onto one hoverboard handlebar and tumbling backwards so pathetically. How was he supposed to deal with this embarrassment?
“We won’t be buying this.”
Noah’s loud, sobbing cries cut off abruptly.
Mother, what are you saying now? I need this more than that useless bundle of fairy tales, more than that strange thing that’s supposed to help with writing practice, more than those blocks that stick together and come apart easily like they have magnets!
“Ahem… cough. The Young Master is still young… When he’s a bit older…”
“No. Something that dangerous is unnecessary for our Noah.”
“No!”
At Loren’s firm words, Noah urgently shouted.
“Feeling a bit better now?”
Noah met Loren’s gaze as she wiped his tear-stained face.
“Wan dat!”
Then he stretched out his hand, pointing at the hoverboard still floating in the air.
“Noah, that’s too dangerous. You just went bonk on your head, didn’t you?”
“Dat one!”
“No. Shall we see what else there is?”
“Dat one!”
Seeing Loren’s expression frown, it seemed his insistence wouldn’t work this time. Well, having shown her the spectacle of him falling flat on his back and hitting his head on the floor right before her eyes, it was clear no parent in the world would easily buy that item.
“Dad!”
As Noah pondered how to overcome this hurdle, he turned at the sound of a clear, ringing child’s voice. A boy riding a hoverboard was entering the reception room.
“James, Dad told you to play outside.”
Listening to the guild leader’s words with half an ear, Noah stared blankly at the boy skillfully riding the hoverboard.
Was that bright blue hair even a possible natural color?
He knew people’s hair and eye colors here were quite diverse, but this was the first time he’d seen such a pretty blue.
It was a sky-blue tinged azure. And eyes of an equally bright blue captured Noah’s gaze.
Why is it that everyone I’m meeting lately is so handsome and full of personality… The child’s future looked very bright, his stark white skin and vivid blue complementing each other perfectly.
If he just gets through the dreaded puberty well, he’ll probably capture everyone’s attention, though in a slightly different way from Raymond.
“Hello.”
Whether it was because he was the guild leader’s son or because he had good manners, James, who had gotten off the hoverboard, first offered a polite greeting to Loren.
“Bwother!”
Noah blurted out the words he had only been thinking in his head and reached his arms out towards James, who had approached.
Seeing James hesitate to come closer, Noah went right up to him and grabbed his hand.
“Pway wif me!”
Of course, he deliberately didn’t voice the subsequent words he wanted to say: ‘ride the hoverboard’. And Loren, perhaps pleased that Noah’s interest shifted from the hoverboard to the newly appeared ‘brother’, quickly allowed them to leave the reception room.
And then…
“Wheeeeeeeeee~”
Noah’s cheerful laughter filled the long, wide corridors of Schwein Castle’s second floor (not the first). Noah, who just moments ago had been in Loren’s arms shedding tears and pleading, ‘Mommy, dat one. Pwease buy dat one,’ was now riding the hoverboard to his heart’s content.
“Bwother! Faster!!”
Noah, tightly holding onto the waist of James—the guild leader’s son who had opened the reception room door and entered earlier—shouted loudly.
James, who was ten this year, had found himself having to let the little boy, who ran up to him shouting ‘Me too! Me too!’, ride behind him in a daze. He wondered what he was doing, coming up to the second floor instead of the busy first floor, but he had no choice.
If the young master of the Northern Duke wants to do it, what can’t he do?
Moreover, James, who had no younger siblings, had at some point thought it would be nice to have a cute little brother like this.
That’s why he had quickly followed along when his father said he was going to the Northern region. Thanks to that, he was happy to see the snow-covered mountains and touch snow he’d only seen in books, but James’s expression was more excited than ever as he made his tenth round trip down the long corridor.
It would be even better to go outside and zip across the snow, but it was too cold outside for the small and delicate Noah, and if he went too fast, Noah would surely get scared.
“Noah, shall we stop now?”
Having ridden for quite a while, James cautiously suggested they stop.
“No way!”
Seeing Noah shaking his head stubbornly, James stopped at the end of the corridor, got off the hoverboard, and bent his knees to match Noah’s eye level.
“Is riding this fun?”
“Yes.”
The moment James got off, Noah quickly walked forward and stretched both arms towards the handlebar, which was adjusted for James’s height.
“You can’t ride it alone. It’s too dangerous.”
“Yes, I can!”
Noah said decisively, his green eyes sparkling. Even knowing James was taking off the helmet he was wearing, Noah stretched his arms up as high as he could, grabbed the handlebar, and made a “Vroom~” sound with his mouth.
Riding it himself was even more fun. For safety reasons, it only went as fast as an adult’s light jog, but by Noah’s current standards, it was incredibly fast.
Now he wouldn’t have to trudge breathlessly down long corridors, or sit down to rest because he was tired from walking. When he got tired walking, he wouldn’t have to ask passing servants or knights to carry him.
How do I get them to buy this for me?
He remembered how Loren had firmly said no, even when he was fully geared up with a helmet, knee pads, and elbow pads, ready to ride the hoverboard with James in the corridor. He had cried, smiled prettily, and even acted cute, but Loren remained completely unmoved.
“Then. Do you want to try riding to the reception room by yourself, Noah?”
Having taken off the helmet that was too big for Noah despite being the smallest size, Noah’s fine, curly hair was all staticky and standing up. James smoothed the hair down a few times with his hand, put the helmet back on, and said the words Noah most wanted to hear.
“Yes! Yes! James, good.”
(Note: The original “쩨고야” seems like a child’s mispronunciation, perhaps for “좋아” (good) or similar. “Good” fits the context of approval.)
James lowered the handlebar to Noah’s height and held one side of it with his hand, slowly pulling the hoverboard along.
“Daddy!!”
Thrilled, Noah placed one foot on the hoverboard, tapped it, and called for Lucas with all his might.
In the study on the second floor, Lucas, who had been talking with the financial manager, hadn’t been able to focus at all due to Noah’s voice that had been carrying for a while.
In that state, the sound of Noah calling his name loudly was enough to make Lucas shoot up from his seat.
“Your Grace, let’s continue our discussion after you check on the Young Master.”
Seeing that Lucas’s mind was already elsewhere, and knowing any further talk wouldn’t register, the financial manager began hurriedly gathering the spread-out documents. And even before he could finish collecting all the papers, he felt the empty space where Lucas had already vanished and smiled a contented smile.
