3 . Rihanna, her circumstances (1)
My hands are shaking.
Once again, I slowly started reading the full text of the article about the warrior party.
The article, written in a stiff style that shows no emotion, criticizes the fact that Leon, who failed to capture the castle despite receiving a lot of support, irresponsibly escaped from the weight that weighed down him, and the future of his colleagues is bleak. It was written that it seemed to be a prospect to do.
In fact, it was an article that touched me a lot even for someone who was once a member of a party like me. It was something that other people could read and skip over without thinking about it.
He will appear one day, and a young warrior who is expected and hoped for by many people organizes a party and leaves for the Devil Castle, encounters various difficulties, struggles against monsters stronger than expected, and even reaches the Devil The story of a failed party before was one of the more common types of party failures that we had seen many times before.
Leon spoke like a habit with a confident face still vivid in his memory. I was immersed in an incomprehensible pride that I was different from those foolish warriors, but in this cruel world, it was the law to be recognized only when the result was shown rather than the process.
I folded the newspaper in half and set it down next to me, thinking about it.
If you had abandoned me and decided to go to the Devil’s Castle, if you had always shown an attitude full of confidence, if you had abandoned your friends for money and fame, shouldn’t you have subdued the Devil?
Isn’t that at least polite to me?
I lowered my head and started to tremble.
Pity and sadness caused by old affection for colleagues? It wasn’t like that. My tremors were gestures tinged with pure joy.
Nice one, bastards.
If I could express my feelings in just one sentence, this would be the best expression.
The greatest reward for the victims was the downfall of the perpetrators. True rest was a law that bloomed in darkness.
The bloody downfall is an opportunity, and for the victim, it is a light to follow a new life.
“Dad? What’s the matter?”
Elia looked back at me with worried eyes and held my trembling hand tightly.
Only then did I get rid of the memories of the past by shaking her body, raising her head, and looking at Elia’s face.
“Why do you sweat so much again?”
Elia ran her cold fingers through my hair and gave me a weepy look.
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Feeling sorry for me because I felt like I had unintentionally caused concern.
Elia was the most intelligent of her sisters. You will soon notice my change, and you will quickly know that the source of the change is the downfall of the warrior party in the newspaper.
Once revealed, the truth will persistently bite its tail and eventually reach my past.
I haven’t told them about my past yet.
When the memory of that day came to mind, I had a nightmare.
When I woke up screaming, I didn’t think of it because the children were worried.
I was going to hide it until the end because it wasn’t a good story, but I changed my mind.
As long as they are a family that has promised each other to be together for the rest of their lives, there must be nothing hidden from them.
Secrets will destroy each other’s trust someday.
Around the time I finished thinking, the door opened and children rushed out.
“Dad, let’s go quickly!”
I’m sorry for the children who came out to the living room with happy faces looking forward to spending time with me, but I called them with a rather dark face.
“Guys. I have something to say.”
Realizing that the atmosphere had subsided, the girls erased the smiles from their faces.
It was questionable what filled the place where the smile had disappeared.
I cautiously opened my mouth to the girls who were huddled together on the sofa and listening to my words.
“Actually, Dad… ….”
●
My stories of joining the warriors’ party, the stories of meeting colleagues one by one, the stories of struggling against formidable enemies, the stories of laughing and chatting while drinking…. And finally, on a rainy day, the story of being betrayed by them.
I vomited everything without missing a single thing.
The children who heard all of my long story, close to complaining, showed different reactions.
Just crying silently, being angry like I was at the time of being abandoned, or quietly closing my eyes and only shaking my hands.
The final destination of the children who show different reactions was comfort for me.
The children pressed their tears and snot-stained faces close to me and added words of consolation one by one.
“It’s okay. We are here now.”
“That’s right, we’ll never abandon daddy like those bad guys.”
Did you grow up to be this extraordinary before?
I got up from my seat, wiping away tears and brushing the children’s soft hair.
“Yes, we should work hard for our daughters.”
I couldn’t be immersed in gloomy feelings forever.
“Then shall we go out now?”
After coming out with the children, I headed straight to the back mountain.
There were no dangerous monsters, and the hill behind the village was not particularly high, and the mountain road was designed to be suitable for the elderly to take a walk, but if you deviated a little to the side, a wonderful scenery that was not envious of the great forest of elves spread out.
Olivia began to search for her deer’s tracks, even humming her song.
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Followed by Stella the second and Noah the third walked silently with a sad look on their faces.
Compared to the three, I and Ellia, who lacked her stamina, followed her at a leisurely pace.
Elia rummaged through her bag for something of her own, then she pulled out a small water bottle and handed it to me.
“Dad, here is the water.”
“Thank you.”
After taking her water bottle and quenching her thirst, I handed her water bottle back to Elia and she smiled.
“When Elijah grows up, she will make a good bride.”
It was already grown up, but it was a normal thing to say out of courtesy.
Elia blushed at my words. Like her snowfields, her white skin stood out as if a poisonous red blush was emphasized.
“Really? I don’t need anyone else I will marry you!”
After her words, Elia immediately clung to her arm. The feel of her breasts against her forearms was soft and cozy.
I stroked Ellia’s head again and said in a soft tone.
“Okay, let’s marry Daddy. Can we forget it later?”
Elia looked up at me with a melting expression, and just as she was about to say something, Olivia, who had been walking in front of her, suddenly looked back at her and put her finger to her lips.
“Shh.”
At that signal, we habitually lowered our stance through the bushes.
Olivia, a deer leisurely drinking water at a pond, drew the bowstring without a moment’s hesitation.
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For Olivia, who loved to play with a bow since she was a child, her hunting was as easy as breathing.
The arrow that flew through the wind was pierced right between the deer’s forehead, and the deer fell to the ground without even resisting.
Olivia ran with her excitement and brought her deer back to me.
She was a deer in good condition, clean overall except for the small cut Olivia had just given her brow.
“Tonight’s dinner will be venison. Noah, can you let Uncle Hans do the cleaning for you?”
The third Noah, a dark elf with bronzed skin and shiny silver hair that stands out in stark contrast.
People were bound to tremble in fear when they stared at others with sharp eyes and ruby-like red eyes.
It’s a cold impression that’s hard to talk about, but in fact, she’s the most shy of her sisters, so she doesn’t talk much.
I’d rather have her run errands as often as I do now, in her mind that she wished she had been more friendly with her other people, not her family.
Noah shyly avoided her gaze and nodded her head.
“Yes… If Dad asks….”
●
After coming down from the mountain, we were able to have a pretty sumptuous dinner thanks to the venison skillfully prepared by Uncle Hans at the butcher shop.
Venison stew, venison steak, extra meat for smoking, etc.
At the table, only the rattling of cutlery echoed. Said Olivia, smearing her sauce on the corners of her mouth and giving her thumb up at me.
“As expected, Dad’s cooking is the best!”
I’ve always seen him complimenting me honestly, but after reading the newspaper about the party in the morning, it felt different.
When I was at a party, cooking was always my responsibility.
I wanted to serve delicious food by somehow collecting visible ingredients and spices while passing through the mountain roads.
But it was the first time to say thank you.
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From a certain moment on, the other guys left more than half of the meal I had carefully prepared because they had no appetite, and inside the tent they laughed amicably among themselves and rustled something.
I had to eat leftovers or throw them on the floor.
I should have noticed the strangeness even then… Then at least I wouldn’t have been betrayed like an idiot, but I would have been mentally prepared.
Elia sends me a worried expression as I put my spoon away for a while in my thoughts.
“Dad, what’s wrong? Are you sick?”
As soon as Elijah finished speaking, the other children also stared at me.
Oh my, I couldn’t ruin the meal time that should have been enjoyable.
I smiled hard as if telling me not to worry.
“No, it’s okay.”
However, the eyes of the children looking at me did not change easily.
Rather, it seemed that he had made up his mind on something.
I hurriedly got up and spoke to the children.
“If you’ve finished eating, shall we go to bed now?”
The children’s room is a small room filled with two wooden bunk beds, but I rather like that side because they can feel each other’s warmth.
I put a chair in the center of the room, took out a storybook and started reading in a quiet voice.
The request to read the book was also Elia’s request.
Olivia, who is far from reading, fell asleep snoring her soft snoring before I could read the book, while the other three were just staring at my mouth with buzzing eyes.
The longer the story went on, the more the children started yawning one by one, and soon went to bed.
It was the time when I carefully got out of the room so as not to wake the children, and stretched out in the living room to warm up my sluggish body.
Smart.
A knock sounds.
There must be no one to come at this time, right? Besides, it was raining outside.
The elders of the village did not have the stamina to come to our house while facing this heavy rain.
I stood at the door and asked.
“Who are you?”
No answer.
Suspicious.
Perhaps the villagers would have answered right away.
I held the blunt weapon for self-defense next to the door in my hand.
If anyone is suspicious, I must protect my children.
Still no answer.
I took my eyes through the little hole in the door.
Clearly, people existed.
I couldn’t see her face properly because she was wearing the hood deeply, but judging from her busty chest and narrow waist, it seemed that she was a woman.
There are hardly any young women in this town except for our children. Even the wives and children of the village didn’t even come close to our house for the reason that they were compared to elves.
The outsider, who had been silent for a long time, finally opened his mouth.
“… Ain, it’s me.”
I have never forgotten this voice, even now, four years later.
A voice I barely wanted to forget.
It makes no sense.
Why is she here?
As if breaking my denial, the hooded woman slowly raised her head.
Unforgettable face.
One of the party members, Rihanna, was standing there.
Agreed
Get lost bi*ch