Chapter 283: I Was Asked about my Upbringing by the Handsome Lad!
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Bennyboy snapped his finger――I had told him to do so――and in response, light particles gathered next to him, soon turning into a humanoid.
“My name is Sakura. Please allow me to lead you to the saleroom.”
After our guests became speechless for a while, they made a stir.
“I-Isn’t that a wraith?”
“Of course not. Please think of her as a mass-less golem,” answered Bennyboy.
The male guests were immediately fascinated by Sakura.
“A golem…!”
“This is…!”
“How beautiful…!”
Watching the men’s reaction, Damsel Scarlet grinned broadly.
“Sakura will guide the gentlemen, but we need a male escort for the women, don’t we?”
With those words, she clapped her hands twice. At once, light particles gathered and a handsome butler manifested.
“My name is Sebastian. Dear ladies, please allow me the honor to guide you.”
Wait, Scaaarleeet…! You made a devil of a butler!? But sure, have it your way! 1
Though, I guess he’s different from the devil of a butler since he has silver hair and green eyes.
I see…so that’s the sort of guy Damsel Scarle likes, huh? …Hmm? Wait, doesn’t he kinda look like Sword?
＊
The noble madams swarmed towards the butler. Damsel Scarlet’s preference seemed to mesh with their preferences too.
Ah, except for the duchess, that is.
She scrutinized his build and asked her daughter, “Scarlet, how far are you involved with this?”
“Unfortunately, I only provided the idea. Ah, I tampered a bit with the handsome butler over here, but I could only do so because I had a tool allowing me to do so. Without a doubt, it would be impossible for me to reproduce something like that by myself.”
“I see…… No choice then. But, the idea alone is already outstanding.”
She praised Damsel Scarlet in the end. And her daughter looked very happy. How nice. I wanted to have such a mother, too.
…as I thought that, the handsome youth, who treated me as a woman earlier, drew close and said, “The Chaudgal family is famous for parents and child being on good terms. Having said that, other nobles aren’t that bad either, unless they’re fairly terrible people.”
I looked up to him, “…Is that so? I only got to know such terrible people, though.”
The handsome youth looked at me, tilting his head, “Does that include your parents?”
Hmm? He phrased it in a way that struck me as odd. I nodded at him.
“Quite so. …Going by your way of speaking, I suppose you know my upbringing, but I used to be part of the nobility. The man who appears to be my father was a fickle playboy and married my mother for the money, but then fled after getting tired from being shackled down by her. My mother went mad over her attachment to the guy she married and gave birth to me amidst that madness.
The face of my mother as I can visualize it is so terrifying that it would put the face of an ogre to shame. I received an education bordering on abuse until I turned five years old. Thanks to that, my noble education is perfect, not only as a woman but also as a man. Not a single day went by without me getting beaten, and the times I suffered terrible treatment went way beyond a hundred times. I think there were times when I couldn’t open my eyes because my face had been beaten so badly.
Back then, I frantically learned everything as I wanted to be praised by my mother. I reached a level where I could handle all of it, but not once did I receive any praise. On her deathbed she blamed me for her husband not coming back to her and cursed my very existence. From my birth until the death of my mother, I never saw my father, and yet…it was apparently my fault nonetheless.”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“…After a brief moment of me feeling relieved that the fury, which was my mother, had died early, the man who appears to be my father marched into the mansion with the daughter of his mistress in tow. Oh, 『appears to be my father』 because he himself sneered at me, saying 『It’s not set in stone that I’m your father, right?』. In my eyes, it’d be good news for his blood to not flow through my veins though.
Even the girl, who’s definitely his daughter, was someone who bragged about receiving stuff from her father after he had previously stolen everything from me while mistreating me, but her stupid forgetfulness as retard was in a certain sense easier to handle than my parents as it lacked malice, I suppose.”
The handsome youth had become dumbfounded as I rattled down the story of my life.
“……Your mother did something like that?”
Hmm? Does he know my mother?
While tilting my head, I asked him, “Were you acquainted with her? Well, she was that sort of person for me. However, humans have many faces. For some people they may be good humans who have not a single fault while at the same time being the worst for other people. That’s what I mean with 『that sort of person』 when it comes to me. Of course, the face she showed to you depends on your relationship with her.”
He stared at me.
“……Assuming you truly experienced something so terrible, why can you talk about it so indifferently as if it’s someone else’s problem?”
What’s with the 『assumption』? Has he been so close to my mother that he feels like doubting my words? Then he should have simply married her… Oh wait, love marriages are almost impossible for nobles, aren’t they?
After breathing out, I stared directly into the youth’s eyes and said, “The little girl Indra Springcoat, who desired to be loved despite the abuse by her parents, has died a long time ago.”
The handsome youth was lost for words.
I continued, “The one standing in front of you right now is Indra, who met Sword, became his companion, discarded her family name, and goes on fun adventurers as an adventurer. The Indra from back then is gone, so I don’t feel any emotional attachments to those related by blood to me. Though I’ll naturally feel pissed if I think back on the treatment I suffered in the past. However, as far as I’m concerned, those people are of less importance than pebbles at the roadside, and that’s why I can be completely indifferent about it.”
“……” The young man averted his eyes from me, lowered his face, and squeezed out, “……I see.”
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