Chapter 73 – Foir (9)

The collective leader’s screams echoed around Seosan. Since we were on a low ground where the red sunset didn’t shine, we sat in the shade and had to deal with our emotions. I had to hide my joy that I could finally get things done and get closer to Lorena, and Lorena was leaking out of concern for her shocked father.

We shared a fresh smile while hiding our hearts from each other. The corners of Lorena’s mouth quivered, and her eyes couldn’t smile properly.

Lorena swept her table and bent her back.

“Dad, you seem very shocked.”

Her breasts grew more prominent as she pressed her body against her table in her thin shirt.

I straightened my back and lifted my head. When I looked up, the old ceiling was facing me. Up there now were Alice and Jack. Alice went upstairs to talk to Jack, who was in despair.

I said.

“…It will be fine. A lot of people are worried about Uncle Jack. Alice is worried about Uncle Jack too.”

Lorena followed my gaze and looked up at the ceiling. Due to the narrow and noisy nature of the house, the only way we could observe the upper floors was by looking at the ceiling. I was able to infer the atmosphere by hearing the muttering of words through the cracks in the ceiling where nothing could be seen.

Conversation was going on in a flat tone. Here, too, Alice’s clear, piercing pronunciation was clearly audible. Lorena grinned and then she spoke to me again.

“Thank you so much. I don’t know how to pay this back.”

It was human nature to want to do anything to a woman who said thank you. I nodded her head and thought about what kind of pleasant daily life she and her would lead from now on.

“I don’t have to pay you back. Lorena, you are my friend.”

“Evan…”

Lorena was impressed. She looked at me weeping, then hugged me tight and whispered in my ear once more.

“Thank you very much.”

I patted her on the back and savored the smell of her flesh.

******

“Is there a problem?”

Her strange woman who followed her into her own room aroused her discomfort in Jack’s mind. Jack sat on the mattress of the bed and faced the woman who was looking at him obliquely. Alice asked Jack, twisting her fingers through her red hair.

“…How was it when you just heard about it? It’s the story of the union leader.”

Jack looked at Alice. Alice was looking at Jack without changing her expression. With her eyes down, she scratched the soles of her shoes on her floor and sighed.

“It was shocking. I could never have imagined that the existence of me was being hated by people like this. I mean, I really, really didn’t expect it to be able to come up to the surface like this and stab people.”

Jack covered his face. He made a scouring scouring sound as he brushed the rough palms of his wild hair and badly trimmed beard. Said Jack.

“You heard that I used to be a knight.”

“Yes. I know. Ellen praised me a lot, saying that she was a wonderful person. He said that even at the office, he’s not the kind of person who would do that over you.”

“It was. Even after being framed and kicked out, there were many people around me who supported me that way.”

Jack was thinking about the past. When he put his face into his glass, he always saw the brilliant past. You are not the wrong person The world that made you this way is wrong.

It was all right. Because the world had brought him to the bottom, he wanted to do whatever he wanted to do. He bought alcohol by selling whatever he could catch, and gambled at random. Amidst the pleasure of winning pennies and the crushing hangover, neither resentment toward the country nor pressure for the future came to mind.

Although he still had a chance to recover, Jack wasted his life.

“Someone once told me that. Do something else Be a good father even if you think about your daughter. But it was something that never touched me. My daughter failed the knight test because of me, and she couldn’t become a knight because of me.”

Jack was too afraid to look at his daughter’s face. When was the last time you had a proper conversation with your daughter? Jack spent more time with his glasses and roulette than with his daughter. Because the look on his daughter’s face made him face his incompetence. It was because she admitted her guilt for not being a good dad to her and she seemed about to crumble.

“I just thought it would be better if I just lived like a dead person. I just gave up. He didn’t even have the confidence to properly say he was sorry when he faced Lorena, and to be honest, he enjoyed playing. I lost my purpose in life, so I had no motivation for anything except play. Drinking and gambling, I just wanted to die like that. At one point, I collapsed drunk and a carriage ran over me. My head is broken, and I lost my ID, so I can’t be seen anywhere. Just die like that, and Lorena will forget about humans like me and find her new life.”

Alice looked at Jack in silence. Jack looked at Alice. Jack’s face was full of tears.

“By the way, didn’t you hear today? The head of the union said so. A dirty person like me is bound to be hated in the village. The moment I heard those words, my mind flashed. I thought I was living my own way and that nothing mattered, but that wasn’t the case. Lorena is hated because I live this way. It’s a life I shouldn’t live on my own, but I’m just living like this because it’s convenient. It was all an excuse. I lost my purpose in life. Sorry for your daughter It was all excuses. I was a piece of trash who lived like this just because it was comfortable. It was blocking my daughter’s path and siphoning off her youth.”

Alice looked at Jack without saying anything. Jack was sobbing. In front of her daughter, she shook her head as she shed tears she never wanted to be seen. Alice said she knew a man like him.

“My biological father worked as an official in the capital. He took a bribe and went down to the province, and he was a man who liked alcohol and violence. My mom, she was always beaten up by him. Even though she cried every day, she tried not to show it to me, and she tried to protect me as much as she did. What I thought about in that environment was her hatred for her biological father. Hatred. I was less than 10 years old at the time, and I was getting used to the feeling of hatred.”

Alice unconsciously stretched out her clenched fist. She looked out the window as she untied her hand, which had been encased in her white strength. Cows were grazing peacefully on the hill today, and the moonlight cast long shadows.

“From then on, my only goal in life was to ruin that person. Works in the legal profession and breaks the person down. Or, save up the money and hire someone to kill him. Either judge that person through the law, or just send him away and live a new life by ourselves.”

Jack was looking at Alice. The round eyes had already stopped crying. Alice leaned against her desk and looked down at Jack. Her eyes were so sharp that even Jack shrank. As Jack bowed her head like a sinner again, Alice continued her words.

“It’s so strange to have a goal in life, right? From the age of 10 to the age of 20, that was the only goal I had. It’s just that baby George. Jack. Unfaithful parents ruin people. It leaves nothing but hatred in my heart. If I hadn’t met my father now, I might have become a more stray human being.”

Jack lowered his head again. His daughter’s laughter came through a crack in the floor. Lorena, she still smiles cheerfully. A child who always looks at her with a smile on her face and rolls up her arm, telling her not to worry.

“Lorena still believes in you. It’s not too late. Don’t cry, she’ll try again.”

When she closed her eyes, her daughter’s face came to mind. Jack carefully opened his mouth. It was a timid voice, like walking on glass.

“I-I really… Would that be okay?”

Jack asked Alice. Alice opened the door without a word. Her answer to this question of hers was not something she could do. Jack nodded his head and went down past Alice. Creaky stairs. Footsteps behind. The two of them sitting opposite each other at the table got up and Jack looked at Lorena as he scratched her head.

Lorena was still smiling, and Jack’s tears started to flow as soon as he saw her face. Lorena said as she hugged Jack tightly.

“Dad, why are you crying? Yes?”

“Sorry… I am really sorry Because I, I will do well in the future…”

“I understand how difficult it is for you, Dad. Dad, did you have a hard time because of me?”

At those words, Jack collapsed. He hugged Lorena tightly and began to weep like a beast. Jack’s cries echoed throughout the house. Alice was staring at the two of them while leaning against the railing of the stairs, and Evan grinned at Alice.

She cried for so long.

And.

“Excuse me. Are you inside?”

Someone knocked on the door.

“Who, who are you?”

Jack asked, gasping for control of his sorrow.

At Lorena’s gesture, Evan opened the door, and Hanson and Charlie were there. And a few more villagers followed. Hanson had his head down with a bottle of wine. His face, which was pressed down by his hat, could not be seen properly.

“…I’m here to apologize. Sorry for doubting you.”