Chapter 107 – Family (8)
What did Lucia expect?
Isabella getting so angry?
Maybe it’s violence she’s never experienced before?
But no matter what she expected she would look like.
Isabella kept her sad eyes and carefully observed Lucia’s actions.
Lucia’s body still did not move. However, compared to how scared she was, she had clearly relaxed her guard.
However, Isabella did not approach Lucia carelessly. If she approached her now, she would only increase her fear again.
What she needed now was her perfect performance. A well-crafted act that will fool Lucia.
Isabella slowly lowered her gaze. Just like a low-ranking beast in a herd, she made sure that Lucia saw her as an object of protection rather than an object of fear.
“…”
In that state, I glanced at her for a moment, as if urging her to answer.
Lucia’s face was full of bewilderment. It must have been such a difficult emotion for her to experience at her young age. Her furrowed eyebrows were unable to hide her embarrassment and worry.
Eventually, her small mouth opened, and her answer came out.
“… No.”
As she said that, she slowly erased her boundaries. Her body, which had been tensed and pulled back, slowly returned to its original position, and her tightly closed hands began to awkwardly relax.
She was still very shy, but she was no longer as overly cautious as before.
After checking her reaction, Isabella continued to maintain her cautious behavior and glanced at her Lucia.
Just like a harmless small animal is wary of people.
Looking at her, turning her head with a glance when her eyes meet.
Like a small, scared rabbit.
In a voice that stimulates sympathy.
“… But why are you avoiding me?”
At her words, Lucia was visibly agitated.
I no longer avoid eye contact. She looks into her brown eyes, her expression twists sadly and her voice trembles.
Lucia gaped at her mouth and wrung out a single word in a struggling voice.
“… “I’m sorry.”
Lucia’s face is turning red. Her face is full of shame and embarrassment.
Lucia was a good child. Although she may have the immaturity of a child, it was easy to see that she was a very pure and warm-hearted child.
Therefore, she knew that Lucia’s behavior today was something she could not tolerate.
Her child, who lost her mother not long ago, and herself, unable to comfort her, she avoids and runs away.
Her guilt and shame about herself made her unable to raise her head.
Eventually, Lucia, who had been mumbling in her seat for a while, came up next to Isabella. She almost smiled when her outstretched hand touched Isabella’s back, but she managed to hold back.
Isabella looked at her as if she didn’t know what she was talking about, and spoke her prepared lines in a trembling voice.
“… But why did you do that?”
These were words that struck Lucia’s heart.
Lucia’s expression darkened again, and light cold sweat was forming on her forehead.
“… That, that.”
Lucia was understandably reluctant to speak, but Isabella did not stop her questioning. In the end, unable to withstand her pressure, Lucia reluctantly began to reveal her truth.
Lucia did not have an accurate understanding of her death.
Her death was a distant concept to her. The deaths she experienced were always someone else’s. She has never been able to invade the boundaries of her relationships that constitute her.
Therefore, the news of Lady Adelaide’s death was the first shadow that entered her world.
Her parents changing into black clothes and urging Mason to take good care of Lucia, the depressed atmosphere at home, and the dark gray sky outside her window.
In the room where she and her sister were alone, Lucia suddenly had this thought.
If her mother and father died, it would break her heart.
Well, she can’t even imagine what a difficult time Isabella must be having now that she has lost her mother.
So she asked her mother to come visit her more often. She must have been having a hard time.
However, what Lucia saw was a very ordinary Isabella.
In the usual way, laughing, playing various games, and sending the two off.
Lucia felt uncomfortable.
Mason said that it could be true and that not all people think the same way, and she comforted Lucia by telling her various stories, but it was something that would not have caught Lucia’s ears.
She feels like she’s going to cry right now when she thinks she’s losing her mother.
Why isn’t Isabella like that?
Little by little, Lucia began to distance herself from Isabella. Somewhere, her unknown anxiety was keeping her away.
And today, Mason couldn’t come to help her mother.
She came to find Isabella alone.
After hearing Lucia’s explanation, Isabella quietly lost herself in her thoughts.
Lucia was afraid because I looked different from her. Because I wasn’t sad, because she felt that my feelings toward her mother were different from hers.
If that’s what made you stay away from me, I can fix it.
If it’s so that you don’t lose yourself to others and be loved by you.
I will hide anything, deceive, and disparage myself.
“… Actually. “I still don’t feel it.”
Isabella looked at Lucia with her helpless eyes. She spoke quietly, looking at her with her unfocused gaze, as if she was acknowledging and venting her hidden inner thoughts that she did not want to be found out.
“I know her mother passed away, but it doesn’t feel real. “I don’t know if it was because she wasn’t someone I saw every day.”
Isabella said her words with a thick sense of envy to Lucia, who was looking at her in surprise.
“Isn’t it a little different from your house?”
What does it feel like to have parents who love you?
What would a person who has received a lot of love their entire life think when they see someone who is not loved?
Isabella had feelings that she could not know now or in the future.
Little by little, Lucia began to sniffle as if her nose was getting sore. When Isabella saw that, she smiled faintly without realizing it.
Because that pure and pretty heart is so cute, and because it’s so easy.
“That’s why I missed you and my sister more. Because she can stop thinking like this when she’s with you.”
She tried to suppress her laughter, but the more she tried, the more her mouth twitched.
“So I acted as normal as I could, and I’m sorry for scaring you.”
It was impossible. She couldn’t hold back her laughter any longer. Isabella hurriedly spoke quietly with a soft eye smile.
“Lucia, will you forgive me?”
Lucia’s eyes, which had been staring at her as if she were fascinated from the moment she told her story, the tears that had been barely holding on until now were unable to hold on and began to flow.
Lucia couldn’t overcome her own feelings and dragged her into her own.
The sound of a child crying is in my ear.
Her shoulders were wet with her tears.
Although the body temperature was a little hot.
Isabella smiled more than ever, feeling satisfied.
After that, Lucia treated her as normally as possible. No, she behaved more cheerfully and brightly towards Isabella than before.
As if Isabella’s acting was a secret that further strengthened their friendship, she showed a more intimate attitude than before, and when she was with Mason, she even wrapped herself up, as if showing off their friendship. 〉
It felt so good to receive love and attention.
The more I got to know Lucia, the stronger my relationship with Mason became. The three have now become inseparable, and her sister’s parents even jokingly call Isabella her third daughter.
As each day passed, Isabella played herself more thoroughly.
Although she lost her mother when she was young, she lives brightly.
Intelligent and beautiful appearance. The only forbidden jade leaf of the region.
A girl who is kind and polite to everyone and gets along well with her friends.
And the price was love.
As we grew older, one year, two years, our friendship did not change. It was natural. Isabella did her best to prevent this relationship from going sour. May your two sisters be happy next to you. And he sincerely hoped that he, too, would be happy next to that happy sister.
So the three children always had a fun day. Soon, a girl their age named Becky also started playing together, and the four became a famous group of friends in town.
Isabella sincerely hoped that this relationship would continue.
From now on. No matter how much time passes.
Lifelong.
But in the near future, a variable occurred that ruined her happiness.
An epidemic struck the village, and the sisters’ parents passed away.
Soon after, Mason left the village to become a paladin.
It was when Isabella and Lucia were nine years old, and Mason was thirteen.
When Mason told her story, saying he was the breadwinner for her family, Isabella’s heart sank.
Lucia was furious and begged her nerves. She kept asking me how I knew if her sister was leaving me, and she threatened that she would die if my sister wasn’t there, but then she said, please don’t leave me behind, and she hugged me and begged me.
Although Mason consoled and consoled her with his mature behavior that was not typical of her thirteen years old, he did not see Isabella, who was so preoccupied with her Lucia that she was glaring at her as if she were going to kill her.
In the future that Isabella envisioned, farewell to each other was never even considered.
As she grew older, if any of her sisters had to leave the village, Isabella would use her father’s management rights and influence to prevent her from leaving the village.
Why, right now, I am so helpless and young.
Isabella objected along with Lucia, suggesting that she would rather persuade her father to become his adopted daughter, but Isabella rejected her offer.
Mason was mature and independent of a young age, and she was the kind of person who didn’t want to cause trouble to others, so in a way, it was a natural decision.
Because of her fucking independence.
The day she left her village, Lucia refused to see her off. Therefore, the last people to see her off were Isabella, Becky, and some villagers.
Isabella remembered that day clearly. She got into Uncle Reggie’s cart heading to her town like any other day, and with the brightest smile she could muster, she waved to herself, her Becky, and her townsfolk. 〉
“I will take good care of Lucia, Isabella.”
Before getting on her cart, Isabella smiled at her and answered her as she held her hand tightly while saying that.
Don’t worry.
Lucia will be fine, and she will make sure that happens.
And she promised to be quiet next to the whimpering Becky until she was no longer in her sight.
If Mason comes back someday.
She said she wouldn’t let anyone leave her.
I won’t let anyone ruin my happiness.
So, all of this was Mason’s fault.
It also delved into Lucia’s unstable mental state as she struggled with the death of her parents and the absence of her older sister, making her obsessed with herself.
She made Becky her opponent.
Our poor saint, Siana, is currently addicted to drugs and trapped underground.
Even though her older sister is living in danger day by day, she is suffering for her younger brother and Siana, and is suffering together every day.
It’s all your fault.
I wish I had just never left.
No, if you hadn’t brought Siana.
If you accepted the sweet helplessness that Lucia gave you.
My sister would have been happier than she is now.
So, if she doesn’t want it to be harder, give up quickly.
Please look at me again, smile sincerely, spend time with me, and love me.
Me again-
Isabella opened her eyes.
Through the gap between her drowsy eyelids, a blurry afterimage of the doll looking at herself appeared, but she was able to immediately recognize who it was.
Without realizing it, Isabella clung to her even more and buried her head. A deep sense of stability came over her, and her relaxed tension pulled her into her sleep again.
However, before falling asleep again, Isabella mumbled in a subdued voice without her knowledge.
“… Please call me Bella, sister…”
