Do it again. (3)
Do it again. (3)
Jeobeok-, jeobeok-.
The sound of footsteps piled up.
Alicia and Aria, understanding Laika's heart, had intentionally given her time to be alone, but...
When Laika was actually this exhausted and hurting.
She didn't know what to do when, even after pouring out her emotions, they wouldn't dissipate.
She wandered through the inner rooms she used to frequent with Kael, and looked at the stairs he would usually come bounding down, excited to go tree-climbing.
The stairs were high, and the rooms were too big.
And she herself felt so small.
Orphan.
That word became a dagger.
She hadn't taught him anything for Kael's sake, but it was so sad that, on the contrary, that had only made Kael hurt.
She knew she had to be a mother Kael could rely on, but...
She was so frustrated and upset that she had shed tears like a fool, even while Kael was watching.
She knew, too, that the people she should have been angry at weren't Alicia or Aria.
Rather, she knew the fact that she was the one who was pathetic—acting on her own whims, still stubborn despite having associated with humans for so long.
Why did she spit out words that would hurt Alicia and Aria like a fool?
"... Why, why are you acting like such a fool."
A tear fell, ttuk-.
With every breath she drew, it felt as if sorrow was filling her alveoli.
The curtains she had always kept open because she wanted Kael to receive sunlight, to receive moonlight.
The moonlight seeping through them had always been a friend to Laika, an elf.
But at least for today, it only felt cold and frigid.
'... Kael cried. He cried because he thought you were having a hard time because he was pathetic!'
As she sat blankly, looking out the window, the words Alicia had uttered came to mind.
She hadn't even sorted out her emotions, but she hated that Kael was sad for such a reason.
She was clearly hurting and exhausted, but thinking of Kael, for some reason, she found the courage to climb even those high stairs.
Laika forced herself to take steps toward Kael's bedroom.
Because Alicia had clearly told her.
That Kael was hurting.
Laika walked up the stairs, where memories with Kael were layered, and stopped in front of the bedroom.
In case Kael might be awake, she opened her eyes wide and fanned them with her hands to dry them.
Lifting the corners of her mouth, she remembered the feeling of the forced smile she had made.
"Kael, are you asleep...?"
She called Kael in a cultured manner, as if imitating the voice Alicia or Aria used when they were in a good mood.
She hesitated at the lack of an answer, but then carefully pushed open the dark-colored wooden door.
*Kkii-ik-. *
The bed, which had been large because the three mothers always slept together, had a lot of empty space.
She should have always felt their body heat, but today, no one was by his side.
'While I was visiting the Hasla Family....'
Since Alicia and Aria must have been looking for 'me'....
Clearly, Kael must have been alone during that time.
Laika took a step carefully.
Kael might wake up.
Quietly, even more quietly, holding her breath to avoid making any sound.
However, the more she did that, the more the noise grew little by little.
Because Kael, who always used to peek his head out saying he wanted to see his mothers more, was covered head-to-toe in his blanket.
*Seu-euk-. *
Laika sat beside Kael.
She carefully lifted the blanket and, without realizing it, inhaled with a 'heup'.
In the dark room, the seeping moonlight illuminated Kael's face.
Tears were pooling and flowing from the corners of Kael's eyes as he slept curled up, and he was forcing himself to breathe slowly, afraid of being caught.
"Heup...."
Laika, seemingly defeated by her emotions, ended up letting her forced smile fade away.
"T-today, I should sleep in the tree...."
If I cry next to him, Kael will hurt too.
After talking to herself as usual, just as she was about to hurriedly leave the spot.
"... M-mom."
Kael sat up and called out to stop Laika.
He hadn't called her to be sad or to cry together.
He loved all his mothers.
He didn't want to see Laika crying.
Today's events are nothing; it's okay because Mother gave me love.
He wanted to comfort her, and comfort her again, and make her smile by acting spoiled as he always did.
"Heugeuk-, because I, I'm, I'm pathetic-."
Kael wasn't mature enough to overcome his mother's sorrow.
It was natural, as he had already lived as their son for over three years.
The boy, a mere eight years old, sobbed while wiping his eyes with his small, slender hands.
"... So, m-mom, you got into a difficult situation, right...?"
Kael asked Laika, blaming himself.
"No, that's not it-."
Laika denied it, but.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry for being pathetic...."
Kael hugged Laika and sobbed.
Even though he hadn't done anything to be sorry for, he apologized, saying he was sorry.
Similar sobs could be heard from outside the bedroom door.
...
An awkward atmosphere flowed.
Alicia, Aria, and Laika.
It wasn't that the Three Heroes had never fought, but this was the first time they had cried and even shouted.
Nevertheless, the mothers all sat by Kael's side and stayed around him.
They hid the events of last night deep in their hearts.
Aria prayed by Kael's side, who hadn't woken up even though the sun was bright, unlike usual.
Alicia pondered Kael's question from last night, and Laika just stroked Kael.
It was when they were spending time blankly, leaning on each other without a word.
"... Someone has come to visit."
Alicia said briefly.
She had noticed that someone had entered through the boundary magic that surrounded the mansion.
"... Who is it?"
"I don't know."
Even if someone came to visit, she didn't want to go out of her way to see them.
Alicia briefly asked a spirit to go check outside and return.
The puppy-shaped fire spirit that had been staying by Kael's side quickly ran out of the mansion, checked the visitors, and returned.
A man with a paralyzed half of his body, a young man around the mothers' age, and a charming woman.
And the answer returned that a small young girl had come to meet 'Kael'.
"... Kael, someone says they've come to apologize to you. Do you want to go out with Mom?"
She didn't need to ask who had come or why they were trying to apologize.
Alicia asked back, hoping Kael's heart might feel better if he received an apology, but....
"... I, I just want to lie down and sleep today."
Kael had felt his heart pounding at the news that someone had come to apologize.
He vividly remembered his hands and feet trembling at the words the noble young lady had uttered without malice....
He knew there was no way their minds had changed in a single day, as he had already been branded as an incompetent orphan.
He could clearly picture his mothers hurting if he were to make another slip of the tongue in his young heart.
'... I'm scared.'
He remembered that Laika's eyes had been filled with moisture, and that she had handed him a dagger to help him somehow....
And he also remembered that he, the incompetent one, had ruined everything.
Even after hearing they had come to apologize, it was because he felt afraid to face them.
"... Mom Laika, please hug me."
Kael said carefully, looking at Laika.
He didn't want to see his mature side, but Kael still thought of his mothers first.
"I'll go out."
"No, let's go together, Alicia."
Laika hugged Kael and lay down on the bed.
Alicia and Aria left the bedroom together.
They knew that the child who had called Kael an 'orphan' and that family must have come together.
If they had heard such things at the banquet, surely the two of them would have made a similar choice to Laika.
No, perhaps it was no different even now.
They had never seen Kael, whom they had adopted as their son, hurt and sad like this.
Even while guessing that Laika had already taken action, Alicia bit her lip.
Aria was no different.
Her expression, which had always worn a benevolent smile, was now filled with a cold, frigid gaze of contempt.
And her heart, which had always forced itself to bless everyone, was now filled with a dark, deep curse.
Jeobeok-, jeobeok-.
The sound of the Mayhead mansion's owners' shoes walking down toward the entrance flowed coldly down the marble stairs.
However, after flowing for a while, it was buried and disappeared into the vulgar commotion beyond the tightly closed door.
The garden in front of the mansion.
Ruben, who had become half-paralyzed in just one day, and the mistress, Isier.
Because the eldest son of the Hasla family and Rone, who had uttered the word 'orphan', were having a rather rough conversation.
"Dad, you said it wasn't my fault."
"... Father, I agree. For us, the Hasla family, to bow our heads and enter for a child who inherited nothing. It would be fortunate if the rumors didn't spread, but if even a word gets around among the nobles, everyone will look down on Hasla!"
"What happened yesterday? To be half-paralyzed from stress. Who came to visit, honey?"
Ruben made a decision to save at least some of the Hasla family.
Since a reputation once etched into the mind cannot be changed unless one breaks it themselves.
First, it was to perform the sincere apology Laika had spoken of in the 'noble' way.
However, it was a hard thing to accept.
As Ruben thought, 'Kael' was just a tool to escape the heroes' duties.
Because that was what the nobles at the banquet thought.
It might be different if Kael had at least inherited a title.
But now, he was just a discarded orphan.
It was a situation where the entire family was bowing down to a mere eight-year-old child, not even an adult.
Unable to hide his displeasure, Ruben shouted as soon as he looked at his eldest son, who was holding his head high even in front of the heroes' mansion.
"... I told you it was just a matter of apologizing!"
And at the same time, Alicia and Aria, who walked out of the mansion, sneered.
"... That's right. It's just a matter of apologizing."
"Alicia, hold it in. Kael might hear."
"I know."
Count Ruben, as soon as he looked at the two, bent his uncomfortable body at a right angle.
Laika was not visible, but the pain of the wounds Laika had left behind was still there.
"... I am Ruben, head of the Hasla family. I have come to apologize for my family's rudeness."
The head of the family bowed his head, his voice trembling, but.
Isier, Rone, and the eldest son were still standing stiffly, only nodding their heads slightly.
"An apology...? It doesn't seem like much of an attitude for an apology...?"
As soon as Aria spoke, Ruben's expression twisted.
He straightened his body, walked while limping....
Jja-ak-!
And slapped Isier's cheek right then and there.
The body of the woman who had given birth to Rone, who had given birth to the eldest son of the Hasla family, staggered greatly.
"Kyaaaak-!"
"F-father!"
The two children were greatly surprised and supported their mother.
However, it was of no concern.
He was convinced that if they didn't apologize properly, Laika would kill everyone....
And Ruben was convinced that if he showed his state from last night in front of the two heroes, everyone would experience what he had experienced.
"... I am sorry. It is because I, the head of the Hasla family, am lacking."
Bowing his head to Aria and Alicia-.
He shouted in a sharp voice to Rone behind him.
"Rone!"
An 'aristocratic' apology meant letting go of the honor one possessed.
Since nobles were people who would even commit murder for the sake of honor, laying everything down.
Literally, surrendering was their apology.
"Dad...?"
Even if she was a girl lacking emotions, she knew the preciousness of the one who gave birth to her.
As soon as her father shouted at her while she was supporting Isier, Rone's expression twisted.
She really didn't understand.
"... Can you not hear me, Rone!"
Rone did not understand why her father had changed his attitude, telling her to apologize for the words he had praised her for yesterday.
Rather than anger, unfairness, or sadness, she felt a sense of rebellion against the head of the family who had slapped her mother.
"Just because of that orphan, you hit Mom... and now you're telling me to apologize too?"
"... Ro, Rone!"
"I don't understand. You said at the mansion that it was that orphan's fault. What you said yesterday and what you're doing today are completely different!"
The loud voice, the shrill voice shouting as if screaming.
It was clear that it must have reached Kael's ears, just as it had at the banquet hall.
The bedroom window opened, and Laika jumped down.
The elf, who landed lightly, spoke to Ruben.
"Do it again."
As if there was no mercy.
Her eyes were completely wild.
Ruben, almost sobbing, sweating as if he were about to faint....
"S-she is a child I will cast out of the family. I have already finished talking to the church in the slums. S-so, p-please, f-forgive me...."
The fact that he would abandon Rone.
He said it in front of the three people.