Chapter 6 (1/2)

Have you ever heard such a loud voice in your life? For the first time in my life, I raised my voice. And in exchange for my blathering, it punished me to catch my breath.

Surprised by my voice, the boy was covering his ears with his own hands. Unlike the menacing appearance a little while ago, he looked like the fragile herbivore that appeared surprised.

Perhaps that’s why I didn’t feel frightened, even though I saw somebody for the first time. Of course, I look more like a herbivore here.

“Please let me meet!”

When I raised my voice again, someone appeared behind me. All of a sudden, she emerged from behind, without a single sound of footsteps. She was wearing a thin shawl, a pipe cigarette in her mouth, and with an irritated face, she rolled her eyes around to find the main culprit of this uproar.

“I was wondering who’s making so much of commotion, so why can’t I see anyone?”

“Down!”

I don’t know if she was deliberately pretending not to see me or if she didn’t really see me, but because of my frustration, I raised my voice again.

Her gaze turned to me, and she remained quiet for a long time. Slowly, she looked at me from head to toe. It was a look that evaluated who I was and what kind of person I was. And a moment later, with a bizarre expression, cigarette smoke came out of her mouth.

“Yes, a little kid wearing a ragged dress. So, what do you want to trade with me?”

“Please look after me from this merchant’s group, Then I’ll give you what you need!”

“…I don’t have a hobby of doing charity work.”

Once more, the smoke came out of her mouth. The smoke spread over her, obscuring her face, making me unable to read her expression, and that worried me. So I quickly opened my bag and took out all the documents inside and showed them.

“I brought it because I heard the director saying that this document should not be in the hands of the head of the merchant’s group. Don’t you need this document?”

If you need it, take care of me. Give me a place to live and be the stage for the next step where I can twist this story. I looked at her with desperation, but I couldn’t see her face well in the mysterious mist that was still coming out.

She reached out her hand to me. If my condition had been normal, I would have decided after I had received a definite answer, but I had no intention of doing so now. I wiped the sweat from the tension in my hands and forced the papers into her hands.

I waited nervously for her answer as I listened to the little sigh of the boy next to me. She took the papers, and, as she had observed me, she turned over the papers at a leisurely pace. When the last sheet was finally over, her mouth, which had been quietly shut, opened up.

“I don’t know where you heard and stole this document from, but you came to see me just for a reason like this?” I could hear a small sound of chuckling behind that breath-taking voice.

“This is something that even the children in the slums can do. No, rather, the slum kids will move their hands and feet quicker than you.”

“What?” Well, that can’t be true. I’m sure you need that document, so the main characters were making a fuss and brought it in secret?

‘Why, why aren’t you happy to see the documents?’ She looked at the documents and showed that attitude, which made me confused. It was as if there was a sudden obstacle in front of me while I was running so hard and, It forced me to fall. I couldn’t control my expression.

‘What should I do?’ As I stood helplessly, biting my lips vigorously and shaking my pupil around, she said something to me.

“You have a peculiar hair color.”

“…..”

Purple hair, realizing her meaning, I looked up at her with a contemplated look. The eyes under the smoke seemed to me as though it was laughing at me. No, to be precise, it seemed to laugh at someone’s daughter.

“Your hair color is not common here. I don’t know if the neighboring empire would know since it’s this pale purple. Anyone who sees you would know that you’re her daughter.”

“I’m….”

It felt like something was strangling me. It was hard to breathe properly, knowing that the place where I fled to live was the same as other places. And with that, anger rose again.

What did I do wrong?

What did my mom do wrong? This much, to this extent.

You don’t even know me very well!

I could feel my fingernails poking into my fist. I don’t know how to express this anger, I was just too sad. I had to clench my fist desperately because I thought the tears I had endured would explode in front of the first person I saw in my life. Pressing down the sadness that came up with the pain in the palm of my hand, I looked up at her with quivering eyes. Before I knew it, the smoke covered her face again like a veil.

“Because I- I’m the daughter of a wicked woman? Is that why you want to kick me out?”

There was no return answer. Silence, in other words, is positive.

“I let you in and… We can’t afford to lose money in business. I’m sure you’ve come for a deal, but from my point of view, it’s just losing business. Turn around and go back when I’m saying nicely.”

[This isn’t where you belong.] With those words, she tried to disappear quietly as the way she had first appeared.

“Then where is the place that I belong to?”

But my words that followed caught her leaving footsteps.

“A nursery that ostracizes and abuses me, or next to an indifferent father who denies my existence, without even properly confirming whether I am his daughter? Or right next to my dead mother?”

“…..”

“Do you want me to die, too? No one feeling sorry, like when my mother died, saying it was nice and laughing at me. Do you want me to die like that too? Why? Is it because I’m the daughter of a wicked woman?”

There was no answer. Nevertheless, the mouth that burst once did not know how to stop, nor did I want to stop.

“But I don’t want to die. I want to live.”

I just wanted someone to listen. Yet after I said I wanted to live, I couldn’t have felt more dejected than this. Is it because I knew it couldn’t happen? As soon as my words were over, a tiny voice suddenly rang out in the air in this tense silence.

[Aa-Ah. Can you hear me, Mother? There’s a bit of a noisy commotion occurring.]

The cheerful man’s voice broke her silence.