Chapter 7: Vol 1 Chapter 7: Alone No More

"And that's why I'd like Father and Mother to take her in."

There. I finished my explanation. At this point, both Father and Mother had called down--both sitting back on their chairs upright. They were exchanging glances with each other. Like a good couple, they could communicate just by that.

"So, let me get this straight, you want us to take in an orphan girl that you barely even know, that has unnatural super strength on top of a really bad temper, who actually has psychically assaulted you just because you surprised her, and could have probably killed you if your sister wasn't there?" Father looked at me with an exasperated look, shaking his head.

I didn't plan to tell him about the incident from before. But for some reason, Marina thought it was a good idea to blurt it out to Father and Mother when I was telling them about Sherry! That tattletale! I gave her the most glariest glare I could muster!

"Your Father is right, Hugo." Mother then spoke up with a concerned look. "We can't just take in a dangerous, wild girl like that. If she doesn't hurt you, then she would definitely be a bad influence to you. And besides, there are many other unfortunate kids like her out there. What makes her so special that she should be the one we take in?"

And there it was again. "Wild and dangerous"--the term used by the adults to describe her. I wanted to disagree yet I knew that she was right. She was indeed wild and she was indeed dangerous. With her temper, one day she could end up killing somebody by accident and I would not be surprised.

And yet, and yet I still wanted to help her.

I remembered the first time I met her. As cheesy as it might sound, I could see the loneliness in her eyes when our sight met. She’s just like the old me, I thought to myself then.

Afterwards, we met a couple more times by accident, while she and I were both running errands in the village. And every single time, she would have the same, lonely look.

And then, I decided. I wanted to know more about her.

And so my visit to her became a routine.

We never really talked much to be honest. I would just greet her with a smile, and then she would just return it with a scowl. And then the conversation more or less ended there. I tried asking her to go play with me, but she always refused, saying that she still had a job to do. But I knew, the more I visited, the more she became happier every time I did.

My old, scaredy self would’ve backed out on this matter a long time ago.

But now--now I refused to give up, just like that.

“She’s not a bad girl, Mother!” I tried to argue with her first. “Sure, she might have a terrible temper, but she never meant ill towards anyone! That accident—it was all my fault! I was the one who surprised her! Of course any girl would be flustered if a boy suddenly held her from behind like that! And she had it worse than any other normal orphan, Mother! With her unnatural strength, the villagers always called her as a demon’s child! She couldn’t make friends with anyone! Anyone except me!”

Father and Mother exchanged looks once again.

"So, are you saying you are willing to take the responsibility?" Father then said, folding his arms while staring straight at me. "You will take care of her at all times, until she grew up and became an adult that could take care of herself. Until then, you would have to be beside her by all times, with no exception. And of course, all her mistakes—if she lost her temper and broke something, or even hurt someone, you would share the blame as well. And If even once, you ever expressed any displeasure, or even boredom, of her presence, then I would kick you both out of this house.”

“Father! That’s too much!” Marina immediately jumped out of her seat.

“Silence!” Father’s booming shout was enough to immediately frighten her. “Adopting a kid is a huge task and responsibility! And if your little brother isn’t willing to put his own well-being in the line, then I would never grant his request!”

Silence fell. No one spoke. Defeated, Marina sat back down.

All eyes were on me now.

...

“I’ll do it! I’ll accept your conditions, Father!”

I looked at him straight in the eye with a determined look—both palms tightened into fists.

I had resolved to save Sherry, and I would not back out of my promise, even if that promise was only to myself.

And then, suddenly, the mood changed.

“Aha… ahahahahahaha! Ahahahahahahahahaha!”

Eh?

All of a sudden, Father laughed. And Mother soon followed, though hers was more of a serious case of giggling fit.

"Oh, Hugo, I am so proud of you!” With a big grin on his face, Father lifted me straight off my seat to the air. What in the—what’s going on here?!

“We’re just testing you, you know!” Mother then said between her giggling. "To see just how much you really want your little friend here! Oh, sorry about calling her 'wild and dangerous' by the way. I didn't really mean that. I'm sure that she's a good kid, just like you said."

Whaaat? H-had I just been tricked, befuddled, and quite possibly bamboozled?

"To think that my son at such a young age could already be this gallant! Here! Let me give you a big hug!"

F-Father, you're smothering me! Aaarghh! At least let Mother do it so I could get buried in her big boobs instead! Thank God he soon put me down afterwards.

"Alright, Hugo." He patted me in the shoulder. "Tomorrow, we'll go fetch your girlfriend the first thing in the morning, alright?"

"S-she's not my girlfriend, Dad! How many times I–"

"Oh, I don't know about that~ If any boy goes that far for me, I would swoon all over him for sure~"

Goddamnit, Mom! Don't make me even redder than I already am! And wipe that smirk off your face!

“Teehee, I see my little brother is all grown up now!” Now even Big Sis couldn’t help herself from giggling!

And so ended our dinner, with me feeling relieved that Father and Mother were willing to adopt Sherry after all. And annoyed as well. That teasing was too much! 

But I was also surprised—surprised by the resolve I just showed. Instead of being all scared and second-guessing myself, I answered Father's challenge readily, even though if I were to fail, the consequences would be severe.

Have I really changed that much?

My old self—he would have never been able to do such a thing.

I smiled. I couldn't help but be proud of myself.

----

Renee

Oh, I am so proud of my son.

To think that he could already be so brave, dashing, and gallant in such a young age—oh, I'm so happy that I've raised him right! And he's so kind too, willing to go that far to defend a girl he doesn't even know much of.

Hehe, I wonder if he really does have a crush on her. Well, if he does, I have to make sure that she is a suitable girl for him. I can't have him marrying a girl that would just take advantage of his caring nature after all. No can do.

And of course, I would have to start teaching him how to treat a girl right. Yes. That is really important indeed. So that he wouldn't end up like him when he's older.

By him, I was of course referring to my dear husband Alan, who was now watching me change into my nightgown with that all too familiar perverted look on his face.

Hmph, really, we'd been together for how many years now and he still never got bored at looking at my near naked body as if he was still a teenager. That's why I had to keep wearing skimpy panties and bras every time. I'm already a mother, you know. Mothers shouldn't be wearing sexy undergarments like these.

"A lacy black pair today, huh? Really shows off your butt nicely, my dear." And he said that with a grin and a cheeky thumbs up too! He's always like this! No shame at all once we were inside our room away from the kids! "But I think white indeed suits you the best, dearie. You always wear white in our adventuring days, remember?"

"Of course I remember." I huffed. "You kept peeking at my panties after all." I used to wear a short skirt back in those days under my long robe. It wasn't even that short yet somehow he just kept finding angles and situations to peek at what's inside.

"You know,” At this point, I already finished wearing my nightgown, “That's exactly why I have to start teaching Hugo on how to treat a girl right. So that he wouldn’t be like you when he’s older."

“Hey, I thought Marina was on that job,” Alan protested. “And besides, that kind of stuff should be done by me, you know, his dad! This is the kind of thing that should be talked over by a man to another man! Well, he’s still a boy now but you get the point!”

“Hmph, you’re just going to teach him to woo girls instead! And Hugo doesn’t need that anyways. If he kept that level of devotion he showed us tonight to any girl he liked, there would be no doubt whatsoever in my mind that she would fall for him.” I couldn’t help but puff my chest and smile as I said so. Oh, how proud I was of my little boy.

“Hah, true enough.” My husband chuckled. “Alright, I think that’s enough of the kid for now.”

And then, he suddenly stood up and pushed me to the bed.

The rest, well, you could probably imagine on your own.

----

Sherry

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“Wake up you lazy little brat!”

When I returned to the world of the living, it was because of Mrs. Tennyson shaking me so hard that I couldn’t help but open my eyes.

No, that wasn’t the truth. I was already awake when she started calling my name from downstairs.

I simply wasn’t in the mood to wake up early.

After receiving another scolding from her, and the punishment from not having any breakfast, I went downstairs and outside to wash my face. Drawing water from the well beside the house, I threw my entire head inside. I stayed like that for a few seconds, taking in on the nice feeling of cold water on my face.

My stomach rumbled. I really was hungry.

Well, what else was new? So many times I’ve gone hungry when I was still living in the orphanage. The food given to us there depended on the generosity of the people visiting the church beside it. If they gave a lot of donations, then we could eat until our bellies were full. But if not, well, we just had to learn patience, just like the Saint taught us to.

Ah, I hadn’t talked about Her yet, have I? The Saint, or Grand Saint Milicis—if we’re going by her full name—was one of the companions of the legendary Hero a thousand years ago. After defeating the Demon God that was enslaving the world then, she became the founder of the Milicis religion, spreading her teachings as the sole way of salvation for humanity. We were taught that she was the one who chose and gave the Hero his power, as a proxy of Heaven. After her death, her closest disciples became Saints of their own right. And even know, there's a Saint living in their Grand Cathedral. I believed her name was Catherine.

I was never taught in detail by the nuns about how someone could become a Saint, but I knew you needed to be capable of casting a Saint-rank Holy magic to be one. I mean, it's in the name after all. Saint-rank magic was considered the highest rank by the way. When I asked what kind of magic would that be, the nun teaching us just smiled and told us that it had to be something truly miraculous and wonderful. I myself believed it's things like reviving the dead. Now that would be a true miracle.

Personally, I was never a big believer of the Saint. Her teachings—I really couldn’t follow them properly. She told us to be patient, yet my temper remained tempestuous. She told us to be grateful, yet all I received were injustices, one after the other. The moniker of “demon”, that came from Her faith as well. After all, we were always taught that demons were these nastily strong creatures that were the eternal enemy of mankind. They even named an entire continent after them, as apparently only hordes and hordes of demons lived there. The nuns always tried to scare naughty kids—that included me—into obeying by saying stuff like “If you keep being naughty, a demon is going to come to you in the night and carry you to the Demon Continent~”. I myself was never scared by those kinds of stories. After all, if a demon popped out, I was pretty confident I could take it on with my unnatural strength.

Ha, they might be right to call me “demon child” after all.

Those were the reasons why I could never become her nun, or even her priestess, like my friend Nicole did. Nicole was always good-mannered and kind, no matter what occurred to her. No wonder the nuns liked her so much that she was sent to a Milicis religious school.

Me? Ha! I could never imagine myself becoming one! Not that they would ever send me there, with how much trouble I’d caused to them. Out of all the orphan kids, only Nicole was selected. Apparently it was the only scholarship slot that they could get. Normally, you would have to pay a decent sum of money to be accepted there. It wasn’t just a school to become nuns or priestesses—apparently it was also used as a school to train young, rich ladies to become proper ones like the Saint.

Personally, I couldn’t really see the logic behind that. I never had the impression that the Saint was a particularly “lady-like” person. After all, she fought against the Demon God. And that kind of thing reminded me of what adventurers did—defeating powerful monsters and all that. And like the nuns always taught me, adventurers were a boorish, unrefined, and wild lot.

After washing my face, I immediately started my work. Splitting up firewood would be my first task of the day.

As I brought down the big axe to the logs however, my mind couldn’t help but wander back to Nicole. I wondered what she could be doing. No doubt she’s a top student in her class. She was always a studious one after all, devouring religious books and texts like they were nothing.

If only the nuns had been willing to tell me the address of the school, I could’ve sent letters to her. Theoretically. Mrs. Farla certainly wouldn’t give the coins I would need. But they had deemed me to be a “bad influence” to her, which was why they forbid her to have any further communications with me. I already had to press them to know that she was sent to that school in the first place.

Drip drip

Oh…

My eyes are watering again.

This always happens every time I reminisce about her.

I wasn't truly alone after all.

I think… I think she might just be my very first and only friend.

"Hey, Sherry!"

I jumped.

I turned around and saw him—that nosy kid that wouldn't just leave me alone.

"H-Hugo?"

"Like I promised, we're here to pick you up!" As usual, his happy-go-lucky grin both annoyed and relieved me at the same time.

"Hey, have you been crying?"

"W-what? N-no, not at all!" I quickly wiped off my eyes with my sleeves. Dumb Hugo! Why must you come now?

He didn't come alone too! His whole family was there with him! Now they all knew that I had been crying!

Stupid, stupid Hugo! Why must you point it out?

“Why don’t you come with us, dear?” The young woman spoke. She must be his mother, making that muscled guy beside her his father. “We’re going to speak with Mrs. Tennyson right now.”

My heart skipped a beat.

Could it be? Could it be that she was really going to take me in?

I looked at her. Her smile… it was far different from the sarcastic, mocking smile that Mrs. Farla always had. It was genuine, a-and… and warm… And she's beautiful as well, with a motherly figure that made me want to hug her.

Am I—Am I really going to have her as my mother?

I could only follow her in a daze.

----

“So, you wanted her so badly that you and your husband would come here personally to request it of me? Hmph, I know you Greenwoods are audacious but this is too much!"

As expected, the old witch wouldn't give Sherry that easily. With an all-too-smug smirk, she continued.

"She's mine. I took her in as my granddaughter. If you think I'm just going to give her like that, you got another thing coming."

Of course. She's going to play hard, just so she could feel superior to Father and Mother.

I gave a glance at Sherry. She was glaring intensely at the old woman. Of course she's going to be mad if she called her her granddaughter out of the blue! She never did that before when she worked her to the bone! She knew very well that it was just one big, fat, and terrible lie!

“I see. Your granddaughter, hmm? Then may I ask why you are working her to the bone from day to night?” Scary! Mother was absolutely pissed! She was smiling but her smile didn’t reach her eyes! Not in the slightest!

“It is good for her,” the old hag quickly retorted. “The Saint teaches us to be resourceful. An idle hand is the devil’s hands. Rather than wasting time frolicking with those lazy peasant kids, I would rather her grow up to be a diligent girl.” She smirked terribly once again. “And I see you haven’t really done that to your own children, have you? That boy of yours—he would always try to lead my Sherry astray with his idleness, to abandon her work and play with him instead.”

This old hag! How could Sherry tolerate her for so long? She must have the patience of the Saint herself!

My mother, however, didn’t seem to be perturbed by her accusation. “Oh? But the Saint surely does not approve of hitting a child so hard that it left marks on her body.” W-wait, what was that? Was that a bluff? Did she just predict that the old hag would be the type to hit children that she disliked in the guise of “disciplining” her?

I didn’t know at the time but Mother had been using one of the abilities she had as a healer. She could tell where the wounds and illnesses were in a person’s body, without even having them show it to her like you would show your wounds to a doctor. It was an advanced-level healing magic spell. And yet, she could cast it without reciting it, and without me even noticing!

When I learned this, I couldn’t help but say, “Wow, Mother is amazing!”

“Sherry, unbutton your dress. You still have those marks left on your back, correct?” she asked kindly to the girl, her smile suddenly turned genuine. She could only nod, as she too was taken aback by what Mother just did.

She gave a glare towards me, pretty much saying, “Don’t you dare look or else I’m going to punch you in the face!” And so I looked away. Well, it’s not like I would be turned on by seeing whipping scars on a child’s back.

And so she did. And the scars were indeed there, still red from a whipping she experienced four days ago when she tripped and threw a bowl of boiling soup right onto the old woman’s lap.

And speaking of the old woman, she was completely speechless by now.

“W-w-what sorcery is this?!” She yelled. “A-and you can’t criticize me for it! Children need to be discplined! Spare the rod, spoil the child!”

“Enough. You are being unsightly, Mrs. Tennyson.” Mother’s voice had turned blood-chillingly cold. Even from here, I suddenly felt chills all over my body. “Take this gold and forget you have ever mistreated a child of the Saint like this.”

Without a word, she threw over a small pouch of coins, landing right on the ground in front of the old hag.

“10 gold. That should be enough. Good day.”

And with that, she grabbed Sherry’s hand back and took her away.

“She’s not one of us, you know!” The old woman shouted as we left. “She’s a demon, through and through! She’s no child of the Saint!”

None of us heeded her words.

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