“I don’t know what my real father looked like. My mother worked hard until late every day and raised me by herself. But when I was 12 years old, she remarried.”

I think those were the happiest years of my life. I was happy to see my mother happy, and my stepfather was a cheerful and kind person.

But the peaceful days the three of us spent together as a “family” didn’t last more than a year.

“Less than a year later, my mother died in an accident. My grandparents had already passed away, so my stepfather raised me.”

It mustn’t have been easy to make the decision to raise me after only a few months together, not to mention we weren’t related by blood.

Even at the age of 13, I knew how grateful I was for that, and I remembered doing as much housework as I could.

“A year later, my stepfather remarried. She was a beautiful woman and was kind to me. I was happy that I would have a mother again.”

“Hmm…”

Every time I took a deep breath, Alvin-sama nodded at me gently.

──My new mother was young and beautiful, only 10 years older than me, so I was happy to have an “older sister” type of mother.

I tried not to intrude on their time together as much as possible and spent my days peacefully for a while.

“But everything changed after my younger brother was born when I was 15. They obviously love the child who was related to them by blood, and they were both very devoted to him.”

But I think that was to be expected. Until now, my stepfather had been very kind to me, even though I had no blood relationship with him, and I was truly grateful just to have a house to live in and be able to go to school.

“However, my stepmother became increasingly irritated, perhaps due to the stress of raising a child, and so, she vented her frustration on me. She was verbally abusive, calling me a stranger to her family, threw things at me──and finally, just for going out with my stepfather after school for a few minutes, she started crying and raging, accusing him of cheating on her.”

I cried in disbelief and shock when she told me that it wouldn’t be strange for me to have feelings other than familial love towards him because I wasn’t related to him by blood, and I resembled the woman he once loved.

Even if they didn’t love me very much, I still considered my stepparents as “family.”

“Of course, my stepfather seemed to understand that my stepmother was crazy, but he still avoided me because he thought that my stepmother and my stepbrother were more important than me…. But my stepmother’s skepticism of me never disappeared, and I was constantly monitored and verbally abused, and she wouldn’t allow me to leave the house freely when my stepfather wasn’t home.”

I knew that my stepfather would have found it even more troublesome if he defended me, so he didn’t protect me at all.

It was hard and suffocating for me to stay at home, but I was 15 years old and had no way to survive if I left.

Even so, I didn’t want to report the current situation to the authorities and break the family further. If only I hadn’t been there, none of this would have happened.

I eventually endured it, telling myself that I just was happy to be able to be provided like this.

That was why I loved my time at school. Because during that time, my stepmother never complained or questioned me, and I was free to be myself with my friends.

Since I was always cooped up in my room at home, I would also binge-play “Adolescence of Swords and Magic,” which I borrowed from a friend, as if to escape from reality.

I now wonder if God might have taken into account my desire to escape from that place and teleported me to this world.

“Hahaha, I’m sorry. This is such a long and heavy story….”

After I finished talking about everything, I reflected that it wasn’t a pleasant story to hear, but Alvin-sama held my hand and said, “Thank you for telling me.”

“It was hard. Nina is a kind girl after all.”

“No, that’s not true.”

Without a doubt, Alvin-sama had been through much more pain over the years than I had.

But still, for the first time, I felt my heart lighten up by talking to someone and having them speak kind words to me.

“Thank you for listening. It’s actually the first time I’ve ever told this story to anyone.”

“…. Is that so?”

Alvin-sama, who reacted a little surprised, stared into my eyes and continued.

“From now on, if you don’t mind, I’m willing to listen to whatever you have to say. I want to support Nina.”

“Eh….”

The sudden change in his attitude was still puzzling. He was a completely different person from the Alvin-sama of a little while ago. He might have felt a considerable debt to me for saving his life.

However, it was completely normal of me to do that. Even Theo and Dirk would have done the same thing as I did.

Even though I didn’t want him to get too worked up about it, I was happy with Alvin-sama’s words and kindness.

After that, we talked about each other’s affairs, and eventually, after successfully purifying all the curses, I used my last bit of strength to heal Alvin-sama’s wounds.

“Thank you very much. Shall we go now?”

“Yes….. E-Eh?”

Although I tried to stand up properly, I couldn’t put any strength into my legs.

I felt a terrible dizziness that made my vision distort, and I realized that I had already reached my limit.

“──Nina? Nina!”

And at the end of Alvin-sama’s desperate voice calling my name over and over again, my consciousness was cut off.

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