This is Why I Hate Kids
The city gates were right in front of us, so what the hell was this bolt from the blue? This was exactly why I hated children.
If it were up to me, I would have abandoned her on the roadside without a second thought.
“Are you serious?”
“I don’t need an academy or anything! I want to stay with Mom! I want to go back! Waaah!”
“……Haa, your sister isn’t going to like this.”
“Hic…… Hic, sob.”
Hold it in. Just hold it in.
She was just a kid, after all. Filthy temper flared up for a moment, but I forced it back down.
I walked over to the bushes and held out my hand to Einy, who was still bawling her eyes out.
“Come on, let’s go. Once you wash up and eat something proper, you’ll feel better. You’re just tired from the journey……”
“I’m not going!”
This damn brat.
Having my hand slapped away was more humiliating than painful.
I had tried to be as kind as possible, and now that she had rejected even that, I had no idea what else to do.
Einy had picked the wrong person to throw a tantrum at. I was even less mature than she was.
“Fine. Don’t come, then.”
[We’re leaving without her, Master?]
“Let’s go, Rai.”
[Kekek, honestly, that kid was nothing but a nuisance!]
I looked down at Einy in silence before turning away as if it didn’t matter.
I had caught a glimpse of her face going deathly pale, so I didn’t stop. I knew she would follow on her own once I started walking.
And if my guess was right, she would probably start wailing again within three seconds.
Want to bet? Three, two, one.
“Hic! Hic…… Hwaaaah! Hic, uwaaah!”
When I glanced back, she was crawling after me on all fours, rubbing her tear-soaked face with the back of her hand.
[Ah! She’s following us! Should I chase her off?]
[You little devil. Just let her come.]
[We’re taking her with us? Ugh, I don’t want to……]
Rai hated all children. In that sense, maybe we really were a good match.
I gathered the horses and began walking slowly toward the city.
Riding would have been much faster, but then we really might lose the kid.
I planned to leave her alone for a while and only put her on a horse once she surrendered.
The sound of crying continued behind me, so I didn’t need to look back to know she was keeping up.
One thing was certain.
I had zero talent for looking after children. Taming a dragon would have been far easier.
Suddenly, I missed Magi.
That brat tried to eat me, but at least he never cried.
***
Once we reached the main road where several side paths converged, the number of passersby noticeably increased.
Mielta was a major transportation hub in the west, and this area was crowded with people heading to Elan or Dmitry through the city.
It was also the place where you could see the most tribal people.
I stared at the various travelers passing by as if I had never seen so many people before.
Then I turned to check if Einy was still following. With the growing crowd, I was worried she might get lost.
Einy had just thrown that ridiculous tantrum about not going, so she was trudging along with a sulky expression.
Startled by a merchant caravan’s carriage rushing past, she tripped and fell on her own.
Good grief, this frustrating child.
[Rai.]
[Yes?]
[Knock a wheel off that carriage.]
I said it wrong. Please take me with you! Was it really that hard to say? She was so good at throwing tantrums!
“Huuu, hic! Hic! Hwaaah!”
Whether it hurt from the fall or she just felt pathetic, Einy’s sorrow seemed to explode again.
She plopped down right in the middle of the road and began wailing so pitifully that everyone passing by turned to stare.
It was a kind of protest aimed at me.
She wanted me to comfort her. To pick her up, put her on a horse, and forgive her already.
But I had not the slightest intention of accepting that protest.
I wasn’t her mother. I would take responsibility for her safety as a guardian, but that was all.
Wrapping her in love was beyond what I could do.
I had firmly decided not to give in until she reflected on her own, and was looking back toward the city gates when a voice called out, making my resolve meaningless.
“Hey! Newlywed! Take your kid!”
Hmm. Surely that wasn’t directed at me. I wanted to believe that.
“Little one, why are you crying?”
“I miss my mom…… I want my mom. But my sister…… Mom……! Hic, ugh!”
“Oh dear…… Looks like your mom left you behind.”
“You there! The one in the gray cloak walking with the mutt! Newlywed, take your daughter……”
I threw off my cloak and cut the stranger off with a shout.
“Look properly! Who are you calling a newlywed?! Don’t say it twice!”
[Krrk! Who are you calling a mutt?! Who?!]
The meddlesome man had the misfortune of making both Rai and me his enemies at once.
Rai bared his gleaming white fangs and growled menacingly while I stormed toward him with furious steps.
If I had fangs of my own, I would have done the exact same thing.
“She had a kid with her, so I thought she was a newlywed.”
“I’m nineteen.”
Among the three travelers surrounding the crying Einy, a particularly large man stepped in front of me and shrugged.
He was definitely the one who had called me a newlywed.
He was two heads taller than me, and his build was like that of a fighting bull.
“A bit young to have a kid this big, isn’t it? No, you’re still ridiculously young.”
“Your way of talking is really unpleasant.”
“Your glaring eyes are unpleasant.”
“Are you crazy? Why are you picking a fight?”
I absolutely despised people who threw their weight around just because they were big.
“You’re leaving a child on the road. How could anyone look at that kindly?”
“Got a hobby of butting into other people’s business?”
We both ground our teeth.
We disliked each other at first sight. As we spoke, our faces got closer and closer until it wouldn’t have been surprising if one of us headbutted the other.
“Grr!”
Rai wedged himself between the man and me, baring his teeth as if ready to lunge at any moment. If the man’s companions hadn’t stopped him, I would have grabbed him by the collar first.
“Chad! Stop it.”
Until then, my attention had been entirely focused on the large man in front of me. He was hard to miss, after all.
“You saw it too, Ash! This woman started the fight!”
“No, you were rude.”
“You always take her side!”
“Chad? Apologize. Now.”
The man named Chad glanced back once, then flashed his teeth with clear reluctance and gave an apology that wasn’t really an apology at all.
“Well, sorry ’bout that.”
His insincere apology didn’t even register.
“Whatever. Move.”
“What?”
I shoved the large man aside and approached the one called Ash.
His face was so utterly ordinary that you could pass a hundred people like him on the street and never remember any of them.
Brown hair, brown eyes, a nose that was neither high nor low, a build that was neither thin nor fat—an embarrassingly average face with no distinguishing features whatsoever.
Someone so ordinary that even if you tried to recall his face later, nothing would come to mind.
Yet from that painfully plain face, I felt an inexplicable sense of dissonance.
Was I being too sensitive?
Or was it simply because the name Ash bothered me?
“Your name is Ash?”
When I asked abruptly, the man looked puzzled as to why the attention had suddenly shifted to him.
Einy had already nestled herself comfortably in his arms.
She sat stably on his forearm, hugging his neck, looking far more familiar with him than with me after traveling through the forest together for over ten days.
He must have treated her kindly.
“Yes, I am.”
“Full name?”
“……That’s correct.”
“Commoner?”
When I fired off questions one after another while raising an eyebrow, the bespectacled man standing beside him openly stepped in front of me with a wary expression.
“Excuse me, what do you think you’re doing? Interrogating someone you’ve just met?”
“Sorry. You share a name with someone I know.”
“You don’t look sorry at all……”
Even I had to admit it was rude.
I had been momentarily distracted by the name Ash, but quickly remembered how common and ordinary it was.
“I’ll apologize. Give the kid back.”
“Of course. Here, little one……”
“……No! I don’t want to go!”
Einy had a talent for making people uncomfortable.
She had abandoned me and was now desperately clinging to the neck of a man she had met only minutes ago.
The man named Ash looked at a loss as he patted Einy’s back.
“Little one.”
“I hate my sister! I hate her! She’s scary! Hic.”
Yes, I could tell his voice was soft and pleasant to listen to, and his touch carried a gentleness I could never produce.
But no matter how nice he was, Einy, your group is me……
“You.”
“I’m sorry. I only comforted her for a moment, I didn’t expect this……”
“What’s wrong with your hand? That hand.”
“Pardon?”
On the right hand of the surprisingly large man supporting Einy’s small back was a faint red mark.
An old wound that looked like it had been pierced by something. For example, something like a magic dagger……
‘No way.’
Ash?
The Ash I knew?