Chapter 308 – 308. The Collapsed Home (2)
“I heard you well.”
Eun-hyeon put three silver coins on the table of the middle-aged men who told her a lot about Yeong-ji’s situation.
“You… ? This money…”
“It is a reward for telling many stories. I will buy this rice. And…”
She calmly raised her head and glanced at Lily’s face as she was eating on the table.
She looks fine on the outside, but I can imagine what it’s like on the inside.
Unknowingly, the reason Erin keeps glancing at Lily’s face and looking at her is because she is concerned about Lily’s insides.
“Thank you for letting us know where Lily’s father is.”
“… You are a rare young man. Taking care of the servant’s feelings. Are you really noble?”
“…”
The middle-aged men nodded slightly when they saw Eunhyun’s smiling expression without answering.
“I can eat well.”
“Yes.”
Eun-hyeon nodded his head in gratitude and returned to his table to resume his meal.
As soon as the meal was finished, Eun-hyeon paid the price and left the restaurant, taking Erin and Lily to the place the middle-aged man had told her about.
“…”
Unable to endure the heavy atmosphere of not saying a single word while walking down the quiet street, Erin pulled Eunhyun’s arm so that his ear was on her side.
Then he whispered in a small voice that Lily couldn’t hear.
“Oh my god. Hyuna? I can’t stand this atmosphere.”
“I have to be patient.”
“Sue, I feel like I’m choking to death! My sister is so mad right now!”
“I know that too.”
The aura that radiated from Lily, who was walking with an expressionless expression on her face, was absolutely unusual.
Not a single sigh was shed as she moved her steps, her tightly shut mouth tightening her Errin’s breath even more.
[However, Shinsoo Ai’s worries are understandable. I am also a little worried about how the devil child will feel.]
Behind Eunhyeon, Belldandi’s concerns were correct as she glanced at Lily in the air.
Lily’s mood after hearing her father’s whereabouts, who sold her and her mother, was sinking as time passed.
‘All we can do is just stay with you.’
[Mmm…]
Verdandy fell silent at the words he couldn’t refute.
Likewise, he said something similar to Erin.
“It is not a problem we can solve. You know that.”
“Yeah, but…”
Erin, who couldn’t come up with a suitable answer from her, eventually released Eunhyun’s arm.
She couldn’t figure out what to do with herself to make Lily feel better.
“Erin.”
“Uh, huh!?”
Erin, who watched with concern about Lily’s heart sinking through her bottom and sinking into the deep sea, was startled by Lily’s voice, as if she hadn’t heard it in a very long time.
“Thank you for your concern. But… You don’t have to try to make her feel better. Just a little… She just needs some time to clear her mind.”
“Huh…”
Erin reluctantly nodded her head.
As Lily followed Eunhyeon and walked side by side with Erin, she remembered the advice Eleanor had given her before leaving on her journey.
– Lily. No matter what choice you make, whether that person, Illyana-sama, or Erin, we can support your choice.
Eleanor’s embrace was very warm as she patted her back as she hugged her tightly.
-You must be thinking about what kind of ending awaits regarding the whereabouts of your parents.
The meaning of Eleanor’s hint was simple.
She didn’t know her father, but she couldn’t have hoped that her mother, who had been sold into a similar situation, would be living as well as she was.
The appearance of Eun-hyeon that happened to her is like a miracle to her.
The idea in her dreams that the miracle had happened to her mother did not enter Lily’s mind.
Eleanor’s words implying this are both kind and cruel.
– So, never let your heart break. And make sure to make a proper settlement about your past, and come back to our arms. That’s enough for Illyana-sama and me.
Concerned about her own future, her cruel words, both realistic and foreshadowing her worst, were like her double-edged sword to her Lily.
-He will lead you this time too. Just like he saved me. And… Take good care of him with Erin so that he doesn’t overdo it.
Even though she was worried about herself, Eleanor’s worries, more than her own, were directed to none other than her Eun-hyeon.
“Whoa.”
Recalling Eleanor’s request, Lily took a deep breath to calm the turbulent emotions in her chest.
Her purpose on this journey is to find the whereabouts of her own mother, who has been lost, but what is just as important is her help to Eun-hyeon, who is taking care of herself.
She remembered the faces of Eleanor and Iliana, reminded her of her own role, and calmed the anger in her body.
“… Lily.”
Eun-hyeon, who was still walking down the street, called Lily to stop her feet.
“Yes.”
“The place the two of you were talking about seems to be here…”
Then she pointed her finger at a beggar sitting down in an alley.
“Excuse me.”
“Ah…”
Lily followed Eunhyun’s finger and stared in the direction he pointed, sighing lightly.
Carefully, she moved her steps towards the alley, examining the condition of the beggar sitting on the floor.
She hadn’t eaten properly for several days, and her skinny body.
Her long, shaggy beard and long hair, which hadn’t been taken care of, made it impossible to recognize who the beggar was.
Her beggar’s eyes widened as she looked up at the maid standing in front of her.
“My lady… No way?”
“Why are you living like this?”
“…”
Contrary to her plain expression, Lily’s voice was infinitely cold and sharp.
“Why… Live like this… Do you have it?”
Contrary to her initial question, her voice gradually trembled.
Her clenched fists trembled, and the anger that had barely subsided was about to come out of her mouth, riding down her throat again.
She wondered if she was looking at something in vain, and at the beggar’s reaction, who continued to make her dazed expression, Lily finally shouted.
“If you sold me and her mother, you shouldn’t be living as well!”
When we met, there were so many things I wanted to say.
She wanted to ask why she had abandoned her and her mother, what experiences she had had, she wanted to ask and complain.
But what the heck is it? What is this like?
His skinny body couldn’t move properly, and several fairy tales were placed in a wooden box in front of him.
Did he sell himself and his mother to live this kind of life?
As she looked at her father’s shabby face, which she hadn’t seen in five or six years, something in Lily’s heart kept rising.
I want to relieve this resentment somehow, but his figure is so empty that various and complicated emotions are swirling.
“Reel… Linya… ?”
“… That’s right.”
“…”
Her father opened his eyes wide and surveyed Lily’s appearance in disbelief, then opened his mouth at a loss for words.
“Uh, how… ?”
Lily’s father, who would wear it again belatedly, still seemed unable to grasp the situation.
Then she checked her daughter’s outfit again.
Lily’s maid outfit for going out was neat and simple.
Even so, her daughter’s appearance, which displayed her luxurious elegance, did not show the fragile girl she was five years ago.
“Mother, do you know where you are?”
“… I do not know.”
“…”
At first, she didn’t think her father would know where her mother was.
Even so, what did she expect from asking this question, she herself could not grasp her own intentions.
“All right.”
Hearing her expected answer, Lily turned around and walked towards Eunhyeon and Erin, who were far away.
“Now, wait… !”
“… What is it?”
Lily turned her head to the sound of her father’s voice calling her urgently.
“I am… Didn’t you come to take me away?”
“… I beg your pardon?”
Lily’s father winced at her as she questioned her ears to see if she had heard it right.
“Boo, please. Take me.”
“…”
“I will never, never touch gambling again, please… Please support me.”
When she saw Lily’s behavior, she realized that she was working in a very good environment.
She is and she has been making her shameless demands that she feed herself.
“That is…”
Far from mixing her words, the cold, cold stare, which made it clear that she didn’t want to see her again, was soon fueled by the fire of emotion she was suppressing in her heart.
At the same time as her trembling eyes, her clenched fists trembled.
The tremor was evident in her voice as she struggled through her words.
“Is that the first thing you say to me right now?”
“Lily, Lily…”
“The first thing you should have said to me was, ‘I’m sorry.'”
“Mi, sorry! At that time, what was really going on in my head… !”
Although she hastily apologized, her Lily’s anger did not subside.
Rather, she only made a bigger fire by stuffing firewood into her chest.
“You really gave up on me and my mother.”
She had once even imagined that.
Wouldn’t her father, who abandoned all his possessions and his family while falling into gambling, come to his senses belatedly and recover himself by working hard to earn money?
However, his father, far from trying to make money, was leading a miserable life begging people and subsisting from day to day with only a few fairy tales he collected during the day.
“What is this look like?”
The moment I saw my father, now a beggar and begging for money, even the slightest hope was shattered.
Lily was angry.
The people who had the most difficult experience were none other than himself and his mother, but it was so hateful to see his father trying to cling to him like the most pitiful person in the world.
“I was also trying to make money,” She said. But… Everyone ignored me.”
There was also a time when Lily’s father, now all alone, tried to get her to live by somehow finding work.
But the job never came to him.
It is because rumors about his character, who lived madly at his gambling and sold his wife and daughter into slavery, quickly spread as a rumor among her friends and local residents.
His life quickly became destitute to the point that he sat down on the street in an instant, let alone work, and the people around him did not help him.
Countless eyes of disappointment, contempt, and ridicule for the man who sold his family by going down the wrong path flew in, and the results continued to the present.
“I am your father. Are you thinking of abandoning me?”
“…”
At the words of her father, who shamelessly followed her, Lily clenched her trembling fists and glared at him.
“My father abandoned me. Instead of stopping the people who would enslave me and take me away, they begged me to take me and sold me and my mother.”
“Sorry! I’m really sorry!”
“I am… Why not?”
This emotion, which is equivalent to immorality just by having it, does not stop.
A part of my heart that I had endured until now collapsed, and I could not control my boiling emotions.
“You gave up on me and my mother! Why are you telling me not to give up!”
