87 . Maria (10)
“Ouch!”
I came to my senses with a shriek and immediately looked around.
It was so different that it was the last scenery I remembered. The bloody and fleshy ground turned into a familiar rug-covered floor, and when I looked up, what I could see was a familiar ceiling instead of a reddish sky.
I immediately went to the window, opened it, and looked around at the scenery outside.
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From the chirping of birds to the gentle breeze brushing my cheeks, everything was as I remembered it.
I stayed in that position for a while in a daze at the peaceful scenery that seemed like a lie.
Did you come home?
No, or was everything I’ve been through so far just a terrible nightmare? Well, I’ve heard that terrible nightmares are indistinguishable from reality.
It was a nightmare I don’t want to come back to again, but isn’t it a reality now? I decided to think of it as best I could.
Yeah, that didn’t make sense. Everything is a dream
How could lovely daughters commit such cruel things? He had been getting along well with the people of the village until now, but it didn’t make sense to suddenly massacre the people of the capital.
Just reimagining the series of scenes that occurred in my dream made me vomit.
As I was closing the window and tidying up the blankets after barely suppressing my vomiting, Elia suddenly opened the door and hugged me.
I felt Elia’s soft skin all over her body and gently caressed her hair.
I don’t smell blood. The fragrant smell of flowers tickles your nose.
“Are you awake?”
Elia smiled bashfully at my question and nodded her head.
Seeing that smile made me feel like the anxiety I had been harboring had melted away like snow. Elia fell from her arms, then she took my hand and said excitedly.
“Dad! There is something I want to show you more than that!”
“What is it?”
Elia didn’t answer right away, she smiled meaninglessly.
That smile reminded me of the smile I had seen in my nightmares and made me feel uneasy, but I finally made up my mind. Elia took my hand and walked out of the house.
“Know when it comes!”
Elia, whose tension is higher than usual, was heading to the basement of the house. Why in the basement?
She doesn’t say the question out of her mouth, but as she follows Ellia into the basement, the anxiety in her heart grows.
Hasn’t this happened before?
Was the basement of my house this deep? Did you make any modifications without my knowledge? Taking one step at a time feels like stepping into the entrance to the abyss, and my body trembles by itself.
Elia held her hand tightly, but her touch was like a messenger leading to the underworld. I never thought the day would come when I felt this way for her daughter.
I shook my head and tried to shake off the denial that came to me.
To suspect her daughter to the extent of having a nightmare was the worst.
But she was also aware of it herself. This unpleasant sensation that chokes your breath every time you go down underground is something that can never be dismissed as a nightmare.
Elia stood in front of the cellar door and smiled brightly.
“Dad, this is our gift.”
As soon as she finished her words, Elia opened the door to the basement, and there awaited me the terrible reality that I had struggled to deny by calling it a nightmare.
I sat down on the basement floor with my legs weak. Stella and Olivia, who were waiting for me in the basement, supported me.
I am out of breath. If it was possible, I wanted to get out of this basement as soon as possible. I slowly raised my head and properly faced the reality in front of me.
Maria was tied to her chair, her head hanging, her body trembling. Her Noah stood behind her as if to watch over her Maria, and Stella wiped the blood off her hand as if she were used to it.
I got up slowly and approached Maria. She looked pretty well, but she was bleeding from the corners of her mouth.
No, it was meaningless to be in good condition at the time of being kidnapped like this in the first place.
“What the hell is this….”
Responding to my voice, Maria raised her head and as soon as she saw me, she threw herself into a fit and screamed.
“You… !”
“Stay still.”
As Noah kicked the chair with her foot, Mary fell to her side with a moan of pain. When I saw the scene, I shouted at Noah in a determined voice.
“Noah!”
Noah twisted his body in a timid manner at the rare shout.
“But, this woman just told Dad….”
“But it is. What if I kick someone?”
I turned her gaze to Maria, who, still lying on the floor, glared at me with a ferocious gaze.
Those eyes were not the benevolent Saint Mary I had known before. She stopped her hand trying to raise Maria in a decidedly different attitude and stood there blankly.
Maria banged her head on the ground and started screaming at her like her mad bitch.
“Why should I suffer like this because of someone like you!”
“Maria, calm down.”
When Maria heard me, she seemed even more angry.
“Calm down!? What do you really look like in this situation!? You… Didn’t your personality change after you started hanging out with these crazy bitches?”
Certainly, as she said, I was adjusting to the situation strangely quickly.
The anxiety and nervousness I felt at first, and the shock I felt after seeing Maria disappeared before I knew it.
Stella stepped on the head of the fallen Maria and said in a stern voice.
“Even if we don’t know, don’t talk to Dad carelessly.”
I remembered the scene where Stella’s head was shattered when the archbishop was stepped on by Stella’s feet in the capital, so I hurriedly stopped Stella.
“Stella, I am fine.”
As Stella removed her feet, Maria clenched her teeth in exasperation, and she began to murmur.
“I never thought I would be humiliated like this by a porter….”
That word really touched me. Up until now Maria had never used the word porter on her travels. She was, along with Rihanna, one of the few people who thanked me.
I asked, bending her knees and making eye contact with Maria.
“Just a porter?”
She said it was a slip of the tongue, she was excited and said something she shouldn’t have said, hoping she would recant what she had just said. But she started laughing at me with a sneer on her lips.
“Yes! Only porters! Do you think a lowly bastard like you deserves to talk to me? I just took it because it was easy to use… Hellele, losing your mind….”
The Maria in front was completely different from the people I knew. As Maria was about to say more of her, Noah gave her a grim expression as he thrust a dagger right in front of her eyes.
Olivia approached me in shock and hinted at me.
“Dad, this is the true nature of this woman.”
“A woman who is authoritative and likes honor more than anyone else. The worst scum that doesn’t even want to deal with people of lower rank. Subjugating the Demon King? He went there for the honor he would later receive. Maybe it’s all calculated in your head?”
“Yeah, you only live once. What’s wrong with me being the lead role? Well, that guy over there was quite usable for a commoner. It was funny how he gave his whole heart to the point of smiling a little.”
All of Maria’s words to me came as a dagger that pierced her heart.
Are the kind words, actions, and smiles toward me all calculated and pretentious?
But this was a different matter. It was a problem I could handle. Isn’t first love a feeling that never comes true in the first place?
That only comes in the worst form. The children’s behavior clearly crossed the line.
The moment I made up my mind and was about to say something to the children, Stella stepped forward, covering my lips with her index finger.
“Dad, we know how to keep the line too. Especially if it’s your father’s acquaintance. If this woman simply hides her personality and makes it look like this, she’s sure to make her loving daddy sad, right? We don’t have to take that risk.”
After removing Stella’s finger, I inadvertently raised my voice.
“Then why!?”
Elia whispered in a soft voice as she wrapped herself around my waist from behind her.
“Simple. She is because this woman has committed worse sins than that.”
Noah and Olivia, who were watching Maria, looked at me and threw a word each.
“Should I call this woman? He and the dragon love… Everyone in that monastery and orphanage is Dad’s….”
When Olivia opened her mouth to that point, Stella put on a stern expression she had never seen before.
Olivia hurriedly covered her mouth, as if she had mistaken her words, but she couldn’t contain the words that had already flowed.
“What do you mean by that?”
The children only noticed each other in response to my question, but no one was willing to talk.
Stella and Elia pressed their temples in embarrassment, while Olivia didn’t even move, her eyes fixed on her floor.
This reaction, obviously there was something.
I grabbed Stella by the shoulder and spoke in the calmest tone possible.
“Didn’t you promise me that you wouldn’t hide anything from me?”
At that, Stella gave her body a flinch and let out a deep sigh.
Her long sighs stopped only after she had let go of all her worries.
“Dad, are you confident that you won’t regret knowing the truth?”
“Truth?”
“It may be a reality that is difficult for Dad to handle. Now it looks like aegyo.”
I was a little afraid to say that, but I hated it even more to act according to the girls’ will without doing anything.
I nodded her head, and Stella gave me a moment of sad look.
As Stella turned her back, Elia took my hand and carefully seated me in her chair.
Suddenly, the children surrounding me put their hands on me with sad expressions on their faces.
“It’s okay. Even if Dad’s mind is broken, we’ll take care of him for the rest of his life… Just like Dad did for us.”
With those words, Elia carefully placed her hand on my forehead, and at the same time, my consciousness began to fall far into the abyss.