Chapter 325 – A Family (4)
“Excuse me.”
There was no response to the knock, so Matilda opened the door. There was no one in the office. Matilda tilted her head and looked around her again. Her office was still empty. Matilda carefully closed the door and stepped out into the hallway. She bumped into Elsie while walking down her hallway. Elsie was on her way out of the capital after washing her hands. Her shaggy hands her were wet and limp. Matilda looked curiously at her cat’s hand her, then jerked her head away.
She was very awkward as a prisoner.
“Little.”
Elsie said when she saw Matilda turn her head away. Matilda answered her call her, pouting her lips.
“I’m not a kid.”
“He’s a kid because he’s smaller than me.”
“…So, why did you call me? I have to go for a quick walk now.”
Elsie did not show any particular displeasure at Matilda’s remarks of her, which she could be harsh to hear. She glanced at Matilda with her expressionless face and asked.
“Is the kid afraid of me?”
“Yes?”
“I understand. Humans. The beasts are afraid of a lot. But I’m not a scary beast. Little. I heard that you will be staying here for a while. I don’t want to see you continue to be afraid. That I’m not afraid I want you to know.”
Matilda nodded her head. Because she was a smart person, she could understand what Elsie was saying to her. Because Elsie and Mila were distinctly different people. When she saw Elsie say that with her serious face her, Matilda felt apologetic. She said, bowing her head to Elsie.
“I’m sorry. I recently had an experience of being burned by a beastman, so it must have come out subconsciously. Did you say Elsie? It’s not because I have any ill feelings toward Elsie.”
“To say you were burned by a beastman, it seems you met a bad beastman. Do not worry. There are many more good beasts in the world. I am also a good prisoner.”
Elsie proudly described herself as a good prisoner. Matilda liked her simplicity and frankness of her. She said with a laugh.
“Thank you.”
“It’s nice to see you smiling. Smile more in the future If you smile, good things will surely come.”
Elsie said as she made her mouth into a smile. Said Matilda, startedled by her Elsie’s sharp claws her.
“Would I really?”
“It really is. Among the beastmen I knew, there were those who had gone through a lot of really hard things, but always had a smile on their face. As I continued to live with hope like that, I married a high-ranking person.”
“Okay… Incredible.”
“I think so too. But where did you go If the way is the same, I will guide you.”
Elsie asked Matilda about her business her. Only then did Matilda, reminded of her own business her, replied.
“Oh right. She came to see the lord. Where is the lord?”
“The priest went on a trip with the dragon to the Dwarf kingdom.”
“…No. Mr. Eve, who is acting as the lord now.”
Matilda understood Elsie’s remark a beat late. Elsie understood when her Matilda corrected her remark her, then nodded her head and pointed outside her.
“The mermaid is in the pool with the big mermaid.”
“Are you a mermaid?”
“A mermaid is a mermaid.”
“A mermaid?”
Matilda looked out of her window in surprise. There was Eve squatting in front of the pool. In front of Eve, Selu was making eye contact with her as she waggled her tail. Matilda thanked Elsie and carefully walked down her steps her.
****
“Why did Mom decide to make me her daughter her?”
Eve asked as she looked over the sandwiches she had picked up from the restaurant. Sellu, who was munching her sandwich at the edge of her pool, looked at her with her eyes wide open. Eve asked again, avoiding Sellu’s gaze at her.
“So, that… From her mother’s point of view, I was a very troublesome kid. He’s not a mermaid like he’s a mermaid, he doesn’t mix well with other kids, and he’s violent. But my mom followed me all the way. Why is that?”
“Why are you asking me that out of the blue?”
Sellu asked. Eve took a bite of her sandwich and thought of her. Why did she want to ask about this story? Eve herself couldn’t figure out why. She looked at her mansion and munched her mouth. Her sharp teeth her chewed her sandwich to the point of grinding it into powder.
“I know. Why would you ask such a thing? So, why did you do that? There was no reason. It didn’t even benefit my mother.”
“Hehe, why is it important?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Would you be angry if I told you that you did it because you felt sorry for me?”
“…I don’t know. Should I be angry?”
For that reason, the two of them had come too far to be angry. Sellu’s sympathy had become real love, and Eve was furious at her pity for her because she truly loved Sellu. She said Sellu.
“That’s it. Once you become a family, from then on it doesn’t matter why. They’re just family. It’s no use asking why you raised it. Because it’s family. If I took you away for trivial reasons, would all the love I have given you, and the love you have given me, become nothing?”
“It is not.”
“Right?”
“So, why did you get it? Was it because you were really sorry?”
“My daughter doesn’t know how to give up.”
Saying that, Selu laughed. Eve asked, prodding her cellu at her laughter her.
“So what was it, what was the reason? Yes?”
“Hehe, I just ate, but don’t poke your stomach… !”
“Eight, Eight, Eight.”
“Ugh, uh, uh, uh…”
“I…”
Matilda was standing at the edge of the pool, watching the two mermaids play pathetically. She couldn’t bear to look directly at the hostess of the mansion, so Eve felt her shame soar when Matilda turned her head away. Sellu rolled on the floor, slipped into the pool without a word, and swam to the other side.
“Uh, hmm… Uh. Are you here? What’s going to happen?”
In the end, it was Eve and Matilda who had to endure the shame. Matilda turned her head and said.
“That… I think her mother and daughter got along well.”
“See? I’m glad.”
Eve said so and splashed her water at Selu who was waving her hand from afar. Selu hit the water and stuck out his tongue. Matilda said.
“Younglord. Do you have time right now?”
“Yes? Uh. Plenty of time.”
“Then can I go for a walk with you now?”
Eve asked Matilda to go for a walk with her, and she grinned and nodded her head.
The road that went around the manor house was often walked by attendants and knights after lunch. Perhaps because of that, the roads were polished to a very glossy finish, and wooden fences were installed to prevent wild animals. The flowers that someone secretly started to grow came out through the wooden fence and tickled Matilda’s white legs.
Eve said, running her foot lightly through the flowers.
“How is life at the mansion?”
“I don’t know. I think they are all good people. But I don’t think I can adapt well yet.”
“You will get used to it in no time. Isn’t everyone’s life the same?”
“Yes…”
Matilda nodded her head. Her Sieri’s tail and horns flickered in her head. Matilda hesitated for a moment before she addressed Eve with her words.
“I…”
“What’s the matter?”
“What kind of person is Sister Sierra?”
“Good people. She said It’s just an angel, an angel.”
Eve laughed and she said so. She smiled, nodding her head as if agreeing with the word ‘angel’ she had uttered to herself. Matilda was concerned about Dussieri’s identity her by the words she spat out on her. Because the average person had neither a tail nor horns. She asked again.
“It had a tail and horns…”
“Because I was cursed. Curse to turn into a demon.”
“Yes?”
Eve said so. It was something everyone in the mansion agreed upon. Sieri said she was cursed to turn into a demon. Eve and Lucius put a lot of effort into teaching all the people in the mansion this sentence. Matilda, an outsider, was no exception to the subject of learning.
“Okay.”
Matilda put on a gloomy expression. It was because it seemed that he treated a person who had received such an evil curse coldly. She felt that when she went back, she would have to apologize to Sieri again. Eve asked.
“Is there anything else that makes you uncomfortable?”
“Yes.”
Matilda said firmly. Eve looked at her and moved her steps again. The sun, standing straight on the horizon, scraped the floor vigorously. Matilda let out a sigh as she sweated from her heat. Eve asked, reaching out her hand to her.
“Shall we go back?”
“…Yes.”
Back at the mansion, Eve sat down in front of the pool again. It was because there was quite a bit of time left before the start of the afternoon routine. Matilda asked her aira and was guided to her bath. In her bath, while she was washing off her cool sweat, Selou asked Eve.
“How was it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is there anything you don’t know? Eve, it’s been a long time since you said you didn’t know something.”
“I don’t know how to treat you. Would you like it if I treated you more gently?”
“Hehe. It’s fun.”
“What?”
“Just. It’s all fun. It’s funny to see you do this, and it’s funny how that girl can’t fit in here and is curled up like her hedgehog.”
“Are you saying it’s fun? Mommy is mean.”
When Eve said that, Sellu smiled and replied.
“Hehe, you’ll find out later too, right? Why do you think it’s funny I mean. So, why do you want to be friends so much?”
“What are you talking about. That… What should I do? There’s something I want to do well for nothing. I wish I grew up prettier, and I wish I could live well. I think it would be nice.”
“Hehe.”
Sellu smirked. Eve frowned and pinched her cheek. Selou struggled and held Eve’s hand tightly. She struggled to free herself from Eve’s grasp of her.
“It hurts! It hurts!”
“Mom. Can I tease her daughter like that? Uh?”
“This is invalid! This is unfilial!”
Sellu’s screams echoed through the pool. In the corner of her mansion, Matilda was holding her book open to focus on her studies again. After her walk, she began to read her book with a clearer face.
