The Hunter Mage

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

It has been over a week since the Unmagic came and left but it was still the most talked about topic. The students fanned over Marvis and Lae to the extent that Vernon feared a fan club would arise. However, he did not let any of it bother him as their presence did nothing to change his situation.

The only useful information he got was that his mana was unstable, no explanation as to why, and certainly no offer to help. The only good news now was at least he had a reasonable excuse whenever his magic refused to obey his will.

It sure as hell didn't make him feel better but at least he knew why he was not getting any better even though technically, he didn't really know why and there was no solution. He could not find the zeal to pester, for some reason he was losing interest in a lot of things. He could not place his hand on why just yet.

He picked up the toy that had fallen off one of the new baby's hands. He was no longer crying as the first day he came and it was because he'd picked a thumb-sucking habit. He was a little chubby and Vernon found him very adorable.

He sniffled but nothing too much. Vernon and Dev had not known how to handle him because Madame Rebecca handled all the new children and for some reason, she had a way with them. However, this time around she had her hand tired with two other newer children and had to let go of the chubby boy faster than he can get used to his new environment.

Luckily, he found a coping mechanism and Vernon tried to play with him as often as he could but chubby was a little sensitive and the slightest trigger can send into a phrase of soft crying and loud sob, so Vernon had to proceed with caution around him so as not to send in into another fit of crying.

"You know he has a name right?" Dev said suddenly.

"Huh?" Vernon asked, he had been distracted with cooing at chubby boy that he had not heard Dev's words.

"You keep calling him chubby boy. When you know his name is Phillip." Dev muttered, glaring at Vernon.

"He likes it, see watch this." Vernon returned, wondering why Dev seemed pissed. "Phillip," the baby looked up but didn't say or do anything. "Chubby boy," he said and Phillip broke into a smile, showing his incomplete teeth. "See what I mean," Vernon muttered, throwing his hands in the air. "Why do I have to call him Phillip when he likes Chubby boy and you can't deny that Chubby boy does have a nice ring to it?"

Dev rolled his eyes, "Whatever." But he laughed at the end of it so Vernon knew he was not pissed.

He returned his attention to Phillip and continued playing with him. It was a little hard though because he knew in a couple of months Phillip would likely be gone too. Sometimes, it took a while before the next kid was taken but at the end of the day, they always left.

It was getting harder to come back because one could always tell who would be next and the kid who didn't go today was likely to leave in a couple of months at most.

He had been coming to play with the children for a while now and only about two of them from the original number he left remained. One was already showing the sign that she would leave soon.

It was hard and Vernon could not figure out how Dev kept at it. He had stopped coming regularly for a while and was only here because chubby boy had caught his attention.

Besides, he had nothing else to do, it was either here or being depressed on his bed. Here seemed like a lesser evil even if he would get depressed later. He sighed. If he guessed right Chubby Boy still had at least a couple of months to go since he was one of the newest but a couple of months was all he would get.

He had lost count of the number of children that had come and gone in the last couple of months, it was hard to keep track and the less he remembered, the easier it was.

He and Dev never spoke about it whenever they discovered a child was looking sicker and sicker, and even when they disappeared. It was easier this way. After all, they had both found the hard way that there was no answer and it was better to imagine nothing at all than to imagine the worst.

Madame Rebecca's attitude was the worst. The moment a child left, she would never speak about them, and if one of them mistakenly mentioned the name of a child that had left she would flare up in anger and yell sometimes that she should be left alone.

Vernon was hoping that at some point he would get used to it but months in and he finally figured out that it was but getting easier in any way just worse. The children weren't as many as usual but of course, that was expected, they were losing more than they were gaining.

He couldn't comprehend why they would take children from their parents only to have them adopted, it didn't make any sense. Last he knew, the King was trying to build an army, giving them away just didn't seem right. Then why take them in the first place?

He had tried to rack his head around it but he knew he was not going to get answers all by himself and he knew no one else who would help. It wasn't like he could do anything. Though he would be sad to see Chubby Boy and wished he could do something to prevent it but he couldn't stop the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, what would make the Twentieth any different.