Chapter 80 – Extraversion – First Encounter

Drops of water falling on your face.
Hernan woke to the unpleasant weather signal.

He blinked at the barren configuration of furniture and dripping roofs.
It is a desolate room that I can’t adapt to even though it’s the scenery I’ve seen the most in my 12-year-old life.

“It’s raining.”

The sound of raindrops pounded relentlessly on the roof of the old mansion.
He put the bowl he had prepared earlier on the bed.

The water will overflow anyway and the bed will get wet, but if you do something like this, you will get less wet inside.

So I got out of bed and slowly made my way to the living room.

The weather is not good today, so we have to eat at home without moving.
It will be the same for his father, so he is already depressed.

Please, I wish I could sleep because of my hangover.

“Hey!”

Hernán froze in shock at the sudden shout of his father.

Just before entering the living room.
Have you ever heard footsteps?

While thinking about that, Hernán finally opened his mouth.
If you are late in answering the call, you will be beaten, so you have no choice.

“I-I’m here…”

“Honey…”

But it seemed that it was his wife, not his son, who had been called by his father.
Hernán clung to the wall by the living room door and listened to his mother’s helpless voice.

“Since I brought alcohol, now I can eat…”

“Who is your honey?”

Her harsh voice ran through the house again.
If that word came out, it would soon begin to disparage her mother and herself.

Hernán was already appreciating his father’s vitriol, feeling his mood go underground.

“Before marriage, pretending to be chaste in the world, dropping everything, and embracing someone else’s seed… Are you looking at me honey?”

“No…”

When Hernán was young, more excuses than that came from her mother’s mouth.

Please believe me
She herself never really slept with anyone but her husband.

Could it be a coincidence?
How can I meet another man when I don’t go out well because I’m weak.

It was difficult for young Hernan to understand everything, but he could roughly understand that his mother was very unhappy.

By comparison, her father’s suspicions were more detailed.
Because it was always the same structure.

“No? I heard that wheat was sown in the field, so when I went to harvest it, barley came out.

Wheat means father, and barley means himself.
It was easy to understand because I had heard similar analogies for years.

After several more swear words poured out of his father’s mouth, Hernán just wanted to skip this morning and go up to his room.

But soon, along with the sound of hitting the table, the words of freezing footsteps were heard.

“Bring that bastard!”

“You hit me yesterday too… I’ll be resting today because I’m sick, so I’ll feed you separately.”

The cheek that had been beaten yesterday was slightly pulled.
Now, if he doesn’t go to the living room, his mother’s cheek will be like this.

“I’m here… Ugh!”

As soon as Hernan opened the door, the bread was stuck in his face.
It was a hard bread that usually does not go well with a knife, so the shock was considerable.

“He takes good care of his meal time.”

Against the background of his father’s sarcastic comments, Hernán hastily picked up bread.
Then his cheek exploded and he swallowed the flowing blood.

He raised his head, worried that he might not even cry.

Then he saw his parents.

At the head of the old but luxurious dining table, my father is already showing a drunken face.

Similar to the color of his face, his hair was blazing red, and his eyes were a dull blue.

Is it because I drank too much?

His skinny body and trembling hands are impressive.
Perhaps he would have been less impressed had it not been for his father.

“L…”

The woman next to her who called her by her nickname was her own mother.
A beautiful woman with blonde hair and green eyes… Was

In fact, she doesn’t even know what it is.
The mother in my memory was always sick because she was hit somewhere, or she was sick because she got sick, so she had a dark atmosphere like now.

Her father’s exclamation broke out as soon as her own observation was over.

“If you pick up the bread, give it back quickly! Are you going to steal my food and run away again?”

Hernán hurriedly placed what he had in his hand on a wooden bowl in front of his father.
Then she felt the man looking straight into her head and eyes.

Her own face reflected in her father’s blue eyes.
Black hair, black eyes.

“Even if you see this, you won’t admit it even once.”

He grabbed her child’s hair in a fit of rage.

“Ah!”

“Hey, honey!”

Her mother approached, frightened, but she did not dare to free her child from the violent clutches.

“Where the hell did you end up hanging out with a black-haired guy?!”

“Let’s talk about the kids first…”

“A bastard who takes away every piece of my property can’t do what he wants?”

Hernán thought it was funny despite the pain of his hair falling out.
The family’s food is all bought with funds sent by his maternal grandfather.

Perhaps his father’s only possessions were this old mansion and the castle of Terotas?

“Please let go! This kid really is yours…”

What her mother said while stopping her made Hernán’s father more excited.

“What?”

After that short word, bang.
Hernán fell to the floor, feeling his eyes sparkle.

Did you hit your head on the corner of the table?
I can feel the hot water running down my forehead, so I think it’s blood.

A rough conversation between father and mother that unfolds even while he is down.
As I listened to it, a thought came to my mind.

I wish my mother would have admitted that I was not her father’s child.

When she was younger than she is now, she could not understand why she was not her father’s son.
She just thought her father was stubborn because he didn’t like her mother.

However, as I grew up and met other people and my hair grew thicker, my thoughts changed.

She herself bears no resemblance to her father.
Everyone is startled when they see their own black hair and dark eyes and see their father and mother.

Black, between red and gold.

Now his mother’s son, he doesn’t even believe her words.
He really is someone else’s son.
So, I want to escape this house.

Hernán thought she was rehearsing it and got up from her seat quietly.
Today I hit myself, so I won’t hit her mother.

You can go out safely.

The father and mother didn’t even notice that they were leaving because the subject of the argument changed to a difficult story related to making a living.

Hernán passed through the yard of the mansion where the rain was pouring down and she came out into the streets of the capital.
She then walked on her toes.

It’s hard to go home for a while anyway.
It’s good to meet a friend you know while passing by and get something to eat.

Sadly, she didn’t see any friends on the street in the rain.
She is hungry and her head continues to bleed.

Although he is said to have a better physique than his peers, walking in this condition on a rainy day was quite hard for Hernan, who was still just a child.

Is that why?

She bumped into the leg of someone standing in the middle of the street.

“Sin, sorry! I’ll wipe the blood right away.”

Hernán was frightened when he saw the blood on the man’s black clothes.
As you can see, this man in expensive clothes told me to ask for this, and when I went home, I would be beaten to death again.

But what Hernan heard was nothing more than a dull call.

“What is your name?”

“Yes?”

Hernán raised his head.
A tall man stood there.

“I asked for your name.”

His tone itself was not particularly hostile.
However, I felt a strange coldness that was not human.

“Eh, Hernán Terotas.”

“Hernan.”

When the man heard his name, he removed the hat that had shaded his face.

Pitch-black hair and eyes.
And Hernán was distracted by his outstanding appearance that made people dazed for a moment.

The man looked down with emotionless eyes at Hernán, who opened his mouth, and stretched out his hand.
When the hand touched his forehead, he felt the coolness and the pain disappear from the torn wound.

“Ah, are you a priest?”

While he was talking, the treatment continued, and the pain in the other places where his father had hit him was gone.

“It’s a wizard.”

The man spit out the words and smiled.
Young Hernán stood up, thinking that smile was not very warm.

“Thank you, but the money…”

“Can you see it over there?”

The man stretched out his hand towards the street where the raindrops were falling.
Then he noticed a secluded alley he hadn’t normally noticed.

It’s probably the area where rich people live…

“If you go all the way along that road, you will find a place to shelter from the rain. Let’s get out of the rain there for a while.”

“Yes?”

The man did not repeat his words twice.

“Go.”

An unknown feeling of pressure was transmitted.
No, it was invisible, but the force that actually pushed him away was applied to his back.

Hernán was pushed away in fear.
Meanwhile the man put his hat back on and walked to the other side.

“Me, over there!”

He screamed at the thought of asking for his name, but the man disappeared before he knew it.

Magic?
Or have you been possessed by a demon?

Hernan wondered if he should ask the priest of the temple later.
Of course, it was hard for him to keep thinking about that while he was in the rain.

The soaked child naturally moved his feet, remembering the place to avoid the rain that the man had mentioned.

* * *

It was more gloomy and deserted than I thought.
If it had been a normal slum, even beggars would have been rolling around in the streets, but this place seemed thoroughly abandoned, and not a single rat was visible.

As if someone had cleaned it up.

Hernan regretted that he had listened to people he didn’t know.

I’d rather go into the temple after swearing at the priest for coming in with dirty feet.

It was the moment when I reached out to the bend in the road with that thought in mind.

“… Who is this?”

Under the veranda of an abandoned two-story house.
There, where the rain had sheltered, there was a girl who reached out to the wall.

Hernan met her eyes for a moment.

A pretty girl of her age with fine silver hair.
The only wet spot on her body that wasn’t wet at all was around her eyes.

Her tears, which continued to flow even now, were falling on the broad bark of the tree she was holding.

“What are you doing?”

She asked involuntarily.
Instead of answering her, the girl absent-mindedly lowered her hand from her wall and placed it on the bark of her tree.

Her hand ran over her bark, smeared with black paint.
She probably melted the soot with her own tears and used it as paint for her walls.

“Why don’t you use rainwater and use tears?”

Hernan was taken aback by the question he had posed.
I didn’t even know him well, and he was such a pretty kid that it was a bit of a burden to talk to him.
How dare you ask a kid like this out of the blue.

The girl drew a line on her wall and opened her mouth.

“Don’t get caught in the rain and come in…”

Despite her soft voice, it shuddered.
Eventually, after she suggested it again, she went under the veranda.

“I hate rainwater because it is like someone else’s tears.”

As Hernán ran through her wet hair, she answered the girl’s question earlier.

“Other people’s tears?”

“Huh. If you draw with someone else’s tears, your emotions won’t be included in the picture…”

It was a difficult word to understand.
But it’s harder for her to say anything to someone who keeps crying, so she silently sat down on the box next to the child.

Then the silver-haired girl turned her gaze back to the wall.
Hernando naturally turned her face to the painted wall.

A child’s rough drawing with his fingers.
However, he could tell that it was about a crying girl and angry people surrounding her.

Rather, I thought that it was a pretty good drawing considering that I could recognize it right away.

“Is it you?”

Her drawing hand stopped at Hernán’s question.

“It’s me.”

“Who are the people around you?”

“My mother and father. And brothers and sisters…”

“You are suffering too.”

The girl averted her eyes.
She was taken aback by her father’s blue eyes for a moment, but then she was relieved.
She was so much clearer and more beautiful than her father.

She revealed her doubts to Hernán.

“You also?”

“Huh. In fact, I just came out after being beaten by my father.”

At those words, the girl looked at Hernan with her eyes shining.
Then she asked

“Who are you? I asked a question earlier, but you didn’t answer.”

“Hernan Terotas.”

“Are you noble?”

“What… He said yes.”

After a moment of silence, she spoke a little melancholy.

“It’s a lot of trouble…”

Hernan pursed her lips and asked the question in reverse.

“What is your name?”

“Carine Theolias.”

“Are you the daughter of a well-to-do family?”

The Olias were from a fairly famous merchant family.
Even to her own house, the servants of the house came and went several times to buy magic antiques.

“I am… I am not the daughter of that house.”

Carine shed another tear and draped her shoulders.
Hernan felt embarrassed and quickly brought her words out.

“Me too!”

“… ?”

Karine looked at me with puzzled eyes.

“Of course you are not our child.”

“No… That makes me feel like I’m not my son either.”

An awkward air flowed between the two.
Hernan hurriedly opened her mouth.

“So this…”

The bizarre story that started as soon as they met continued even as the rain gradually intensified.

* * *

Hernán quietly watched Carine talking while sitting next to him.

Clear facial features and skin that is so transparent that blood vessels can be seen.
Even the beautiful silver hair and the nice scent that emanates little by little.

I felt a thrill that I had never felt in my life.

“Hernan.”

“Uh? Mu, what did you say?”

“She asked how you got in here.”

She asked, bringing her face closer to Hernán.
Hernan blushed and spoke to her.

“Of course I came on foot.”

“But this alley must have been guarded by a servant because my adoptive father bought it all?”

“Okay? I didn’t see anyone coming in here.”

Carine nodded her head and whispered in a small whisper.

“Then sneak back when you go back. If you get caught, the other servants will get scolded too.”

Hernán turned her gaze away from Karine and nodded her head.
She and she watched the waning rain.

“Are you still drawing here?”

“Until this place is demolished? It will probably take several months.”

“Then can you stay here and avoid your family?”

“Fortunately, yes.”

Karine looked around her street with slightly bitter eyes.

“Still, if you stay here, you won’t be treated coldly or insulted. And relatively safe.”

Hernan nodded her head and lamented.

“I wish I had a place like this.”

In her own old mansion, alone, there are few places to hide.
Most of the frames are rotten, so it’s full of dangerous places to enter.

Going to and from her friends’ houses also has its limits.
Most adults were reluctant to say that they were children born of adultery.

Karine looked at Hernan and carefully reached out her hand.

“If it’s okay, will you continue to come here?”

Carine held Hernán’s hand tightly.
Hernan felt her heart throb and looked back at Carine.

“Hey, here?”

“I can’t help it if I don’t like it…”

She looked down at her floor wistfully.
Then, urgent words poured out of her mouth.

“No! It’s me good But can I come in here? There was no one there today, but it was originally guarded by servants.”

Carine was silent for a moment, then drew one of her daggers from her bosom.
The one that seemed to be for self-defense looked quite expensive.

“These are the daggers that my adoptive father gave each of his children one by one.”

She passed it with her soot-stained hand.

“If you tell me my name while showing this, the servants will let you in. I’ll show my dislike, but…”

Hernán immediately put the black soiled object into her bosom.
She was warmed by Carine’s body temperature, so she wasn’t cold like that.

“Thank you…”

“Thank you too.”

Hernán couldn’t understand why Karine was so grateful, but she felt that her words made her feel better.

“The rain has stopped.”

Carine looked at the sky where the rain had stopped before she knew it.
However, the clouds were still thick, so the sunlight did not pour in.

“I have to go soon.”

Carine looked at Hernan with her face full of regret.

“Can we meet again tomorrow?”

“I will definitely come.”

Hernán rises from her box and she affirms her question.
She herself also enjoyed meeting this girl.

He hesitated for a moment, then pointed to the bark Carine had laid down on her tree.

“Can I use that for a while?”

“Huh? Doesn’t care.”

Before I knew it, my tears dried up and I scraped off the hardened soot with a knife.
The resulting powder was applied little by little to the damp wall.

Karine looked at it quietly and said quietly.

“It’s you?”

An illustration of a clumsy boy next to a crying girl.

Hernán opened his mouth, embarrassed by his poor skills.

“I’ll try to draw better next time.”

“… Okay. Let’s draw with me.”

Karine suddenly burst into tears on her hands and she was covered in soot.
And she erased her family who surrounded her.

“Let’s put what we want to put in here with me. I have a studio where I can paint or sculpt. And…”

Karine tweaked the picture of her, which was a sneaky representation of herself, and replaced it with a picture of Hernan next to her holding her hand.

Hernán laughed.
Today is a day of very strange coincidences.

A good day with very good coincidences.

“I have a nice house and a nice family.”

That’s how the first meeting of the two continued until Karine left.