Chapter 262 – The Boss Tells You How to Overcome the Past!
One.
After listening to Stell’s words, I took my luck and said that there was nothing to talk about because I didn’t have Scar, so I just brought up the story of my academy days.
The academy days, which felt so terrible and long, weren’t very long when I explained them in words, and while I was talking, I remembered the past and, contrary to the premonition that it was about to end, I was able to talk to the end without incident.
“So, well, that’s how it happened. Didn’t it matter when you said that?”
Until now, I had regarded my academy days as a dark history that I would never want to remember again, and until just a few months ago, it was painful every time I thought about it, but now it really doesn’t matter.
A lot has happened in the last few months, and I think I was able to shake off those days without even realizing it while I was developing myself.
Of course, thinking about my academy days doesn’t hurt anymore, and it’s a different story to sometimes unknowingly hit my butt and bounce because I’m mad at what Scar did to me in the past.
Anyway, I was feeling a subtle sentiment that I had grown up like that, but Stel, who was restless and didn’t know what to do in front of me, suddenly bowed her head and apologized to me.
“I’m sorry, ah… Sah, I didn’t know that the boss also went through something like that…”
Stell apologized, adding that he was sorry for reminding her of such a terrible memory, but I didn’t really care.
So, so that Stell wouldn’t feel sorry for her unnecessarily, she said it really casually and patted her on the shoulder.
“Yes? No. What. It’s all in the past. It’s okay, Mr. Stell.”
Then, Stel looked at me with disbelief eyes, then asked cautiously in a trembling voice.
“Boss… How did you overcome…?”
※※※
For Stel, it is no exaggeration to say that the academy was the darkest period of her life.
If I had to explain one by one what was terrible, three days and three nights would not be enough, a time of hardship where every day was like hell.
Stell endured those terrible 3 years only for the family he had to protect, and eventually got out of the academy, but the past still remained as a pain for Stell.
That’s why he felt an inner kinship with Paster, who went to the academy as an awakened commoner just like himself, but when he heard that he went with Scar, he felt a bit betrayed.
He betrayed no one, and he felt betrayed because he believed Pastor was the same as himself, and the feeling of envy of what it would have been like if he had had a friend like Scar, Stel involuntarily joked.
“I hope the boss is fine. Thanks to Ska Lait-sama, you wouldn’t have been bullied like I did while attending the academy…”
Of course, since Stell was more reluctant to let the atmosphere get colder than anyone else, he was going to dismiss it as a joke right away, but Pastor spoke faster than that.
“Ay what? I was bullied because of him all three years at the academy.”
Stell was unable to say anything at Pastor’s nonchalant reply and his subsequent conversation.
“So, well, that’s how it happened. Didn’t it matter when you said that?”
“I’m sorry, ah… Sah, I didn’t know that the boss also went through something like that…”
It was only after Pastor’s story, which was short from Pastor’s point of view and long from Stell’s point of view, that he was able to come to his senses, apologize, and see Pastor’s face.
It was a serious and painful story that reminded him of his terrible academy days just by listening to him, but Pastor himself, who told the story, had a calm face.
How can you be okay? After going through such things, when you tell others about it, do you not frown?
The things Pastor went through were so heavy that even Stel himself, who had been bullied at the academy for three years, thought, ‘Isn’t it worse than me?’
Although they were Awakeners from the same common people, the treatment of Stell, who had firmly secured the top spot in the academy, and Pastor, who had been in the bottom of his ten thousand years, were bound to be treated differently.
That’s why, even after graduating from the academy, Stel, who still gets goosebumps when thinking about what happened back then, breaks out in a cold sweat, and her heart beats thumping.
To be precise.
“Yes? No. What. It’s all in the past. It’s okay, Mr. Stell.”
I couldn’t understand Paster’s attitude, as if he was really thinking that it was a thing of the past and that it was nothing.
Stella, who wants to overcome the past like Pastor, asked him in a voice of disbelief, thinking that he would not be able to understand Pastor even after he was dead and awake just by thinking with his mouth closed.
“Boss… How did you overcome…?”
A past of shame and pain that is so terrible that it will follow you like a shadow for the rest of your life.
If he could forget the past and live comfortably, just like Paster, he was ready to do anything.
That’s how much Stel was eager to overcome the past, and Paster pondered for a while at Stel’s earnest question, then smiled and answered again in a nonchalant tone this time.
“Overcoming… Well, I just lived and it worked. The saying that time is medicine is true.”
And Pastor’s answer was a cliché that Stell had seen so often in numerous media outlets that could never be a solution from her point of view.
“…”
She was the same as herself… No, from any point of view, if she was a Paster who had a more terrible past than her, she would surely know the answer. I’m back.
Too much disappointment soon reconciled with too much despair and began to eat away at her heart, and Stell’s green eyes, which were always bright and lively, became cloudy as she was consumed by her despair.
In the end, am I incapable of overcoming it? Even now, every day is so hard, do I really have to wait endlessly with only the belief that it will get better with time?
“I don’t think I’ll be able to hold on…”
The moment Stell admitted to himself that he couldn’t stand it, a great misery flew in to break the dam of her endurance, which had risen to the limit.
The moment the dam collapses, Stell will also collapse, and it won’t collapse forever, but it will continue to hurt for a while.
Stell himself was well aware of that fact, but the crushing misery was not the kind of emotion he could prevent himself.
Just before collapsing like that, Pastor, who was in front of Stell’s eyes, smiled mischievously and spoke in a lively voice.
“That’s a joke! Time can be the medicine, but it’s not a panacea. It’s actually all a lie that I’ve gotten better after time has passed.”
“… Eh?”
Stell was dumbfounded enough to burst into tears the moment the dam of patience collapsed at Pastor’s sudden declaration of mischief.
Staring at Stel, who looked at him with wide open eyes and was severely dumbfounded, Pastor continued his words with a grin.
“Actually, this method is a very dangerous method, so I didn’t want to tell you about it, but seeing Stell, I thought it would be worse to skip over the word that time is medicine, so I’m telling you specifically. There was a method like this let it pass Got it?”
“……Yes, yes.”
Are you saying that it was just a really cliché and what you’re saying from now on is real? But is it dangerous? What’s the danger in overcoming the past? Isn’t that good? Oh no Stella, let’s not expect it. It’s better to have no expectations at all than to be disappointed that a different method has come out than I thought.
Stel, who was once burned hot by Pastor’s joke, started to have extreme expectations with superior learning skills as a representative graduate of the academy.
However, to Stell, Paster was ‘a person who takes things beyond common sense for granted’, and such an image naturally aroused expectations even if he did not want to, so while Pastor was resting, the expectations in his heart was only getting bigger and bigger.
“Then what do you say? Do I really have to take it as a half-joke? Okay Mr. Stell?”
“Yes! I’ll keep that in mind, boss! So please tell me quickly!”
In the end, Stell, who had higher expectations than when he asked the question in the first place, suddenly rushed to answer, and while Pastor looked at him as if he were cute, he timidly mentioned the method in a voice full of concern.
“I just screwed myself up with people who treated me badly in the past.”
“······Yes?”
“Ah, here, ‘stomped out’ doesn’t mean ‘killed’. Don’t get me wrong! Hmm… How else should I explain this so that it is easy to understand? Ha, it’s really difficult…”
The fact that he had ruined all the people he had a bad relationship with in the past came as a shock to Stel.
What a shocking reply Pastor said, ‘I did kill Scar, the biggest culprit! Well… I couldn’t tell you how it was cooked, and if you just thought it was cooked, no, what are you talking about?’
“Anyway, yes, it was. I just solved it like this, and Mr. Stell must have his own solution, so if you think about it… Mr. Stell?”
When Pastor finished his hesitation, Stell was lost in thought, staring into space with his unfocused eyes.
She was so deep in contemplation that she couldn’t hear Pastor’s voice calling her, and soon, like Pastor, she came up with a way to overcome her past.
Yeah, I’ll just have to screw it all up. The bad guys who eat away at the past.