IBDHD 5

Chapter 5

This was the Empire.

The reason I couldn’t speak properly was that it had been so long since I’d spoken the Imperial language.

If that was the case, then wasn’t Mommy living somewhere beneath this same sky, too?

I can see Mommy again!

Our home had originally been in the Empire.

It had been five years since I’d last seen Mommy, and I worried every day that I might forget what her face looked like. But if this was the Empire, then I could go home!

When I returned home, Mommy would be so surprised to see me that she’d burst into tears and hug me tightly.

— My daughter!

— Mommmyyyyy!

We’d have a tearful reunion just like that!

So I tried to hold back my hiccups and opened my mouth to tell the uncle our home address.

“(O-our home address is… um, uh…)”

“What? What did you say?”

I’d been about to explain, but I just stared up at the uncle like an idiot.

It felt as though something terrible would happen if I didn’t hurry up and tell him, but there was one problem.

I couldn’t remember the address.

If I don’t tell him quickly, the uncle might scold me…

So, the address was…

Um…

It had already been five years since I’d left home, so I’d forgotten it.

Of course, Teacher Anne-Marie knew our home address, but I wasn’t in a position to see her right now.

If I don’t know the address, I can’t see Mommy.

The thought that I might never see Mommy again because I was stupid was too much for me to bear.

“Sniff…”

The uncle’s face twitched. He looked as terrifying as an evil old demon, which made me feel even more miserable.

“(I m-miss Mommy… Bwaaaah!)”

“Hey? Don’t cry. I said don’t cry!”

“(WAAAAAAAAH! MOMMYYYY! WAAAAAAAH!)”

When I started bawling, the uncle grabbed his head and lightly bumped his forehead against the wall.

“This is driving me insane. First thing tomorrow morning, I’m going straight to the hospital.”

Mommy was in the Empire, but I still couldn’t see her! It was so unfair and heartbreaking.

Tears came pouring out. When I wiped them away, snot started running down my nose.

If Mommy were here, she’d hug me right now and wipe away my tears and snot. But the uncle didn’t get angry, comfort me, or pat me reassuringly, either.

He simply crouched down and stared at me crying, as if I were giving him a terrible headache.

Stupid Goddess!

I said I wanted a daddy. I never said I wanted to be separated from Mommy or live with a monster uncle!

I kept sobbing and sobbing. The uncle, who had been looking down at me with an exhausted expression, let out a deep sigh.

“This is exactly why I hate kids.”

After muttering something to himself, he suddenly picked me up.

I guess he was sick of listening to a crying child and was going to kick me out.

I missed Teacher Anne-Marie and Uncle Michael.

Whenever I felt like this, Teacher Anne-Marie would pat me comfortingly like Mommy, while Uncle Michael would cheer me up by giving me candy.

“I’d better put something in your mouth. You’re gonna make my ears fall off.”

Contrary to my expectations, he didn’t toss me out through the front door. Instead, he sat me down at the dining table and brought out a chocolate bar from somewhere.

“Bwaaaah… Waaaaah? Huh? Whoaaa!”

I’d been bawling my eyes out, but I stopped crying for a brief moment and stared up at the chocolate.

It’s HUGE!

It was bigger than my face! Much bigger than the uncle’s hand! It was a gigantic chocolate bar.

There were marks suggesting it had already been opened, as though someone had been eating it, but that didn’t matter.

Ch-ch-chocolate!

I stared at it with my mouth hanging open, and the uncle said,

“Hey, squirt. If you stop crying, I’ll give you this chocolate.”

“Sniffleee—Waaaaah!”

Even though he’d told me to stop, my crying continued.

At the same time, my hand was already reaching toward the chocolate. It was instinct. I couldn’t help it.

Whoosh!

The uncle quickly moved the chocolate out of my reach.

I adjusted the trajectory of my hand to follow it, but the chocolate only moved farther away.

The uncle spoke with a firm expression.

“If you don’t stop crying, you don’t get this chocolate. Stop!”

I missed Mommy, but I wanted chocolate, too…

I was sad, but I still wanted to eat it.

I’d always miss Mommy, but this might be my only chance to eat chocolate!

I forced myself to stop crying, though little hiccups kept escaping me.

When I reached out for the chocolate, the uncle snapped off half of the enormous bar and placed it in my hands.

Even after being cut in half, it was so huge that I had to hold it with both hands!

My friends would be so jealous if they saw this.

Thump. Thump.

My heart was pounding.

I carefully let a corner of the chocolate melt in my mouth. It was smooth milk chocolate.

Th-this is my favorite chocolate!

Until now, I’d hated the Goddess’s listening skills. But for the first time, I thought maybe they weren’t so bad after all.

I’d spent the entire evening dealing with one headache after another because of the nameless little squirt, and eventually I fell asleep.

They say that when you’re tired, you sleep so deeply you don’t even dream, but Cassian was the exception.

The woman appeared again today, just as she always did.

“Cassian. Please die. Just once. Please…”

The woman pleaded through her tears.

Cassian willingly agreed to give up his life.

A life like his was nothing.

Compared to what the woman was trying to accomplish, it meant absolutely nothing.

A finely honed weapon pierced straight through Cassian’s chest.

With every beat of his heart, blood gushed out of his body.

He could feel his life fading away throughout his entire body, every last cell acutely aware of it.

The woman whispered through her tears.

“I’m sorry. But…”

Don’t cry. Don’t apologize.

His consciousness was growing hazy, and he couldn’t say a word.

He wasn’t afraid of death.

There was only one thing he feared.

That the woman’s magic would fail.

His vision was swallowed by darkness. His final breath slipped through his teeth.

The woman stole that last breath from him.

After that, Cassian fell into complete blackness.

“Gasp!”

He woke with a start, feeling his heart pounding as though it were about to burst through the chest that had been pierced.

“Hah… Hah…!”

His entire body was damp with cold sweat.

For a while, Cassian thrashed around on the sofa, unable to escape the lingering effects of the dream.

Iris…

He groaned in agony.

It had already been years, yet there hadn’t been a single day when he hadn’t dreamed about her.

Whether his eyes were open or closed, whether he was drunk or perfectly sober, Iris crept into his thoughts whenever he had a moment to spare.

Her golden eyes, her jet-black hair, her delicate hands…

Swallowing a curse, Cassian weakly rose from the sofa. He thought a drink might make him feel a little better.

“What the hell?”

For some reason, the little squirt was sleeping on the floor.

She must have been exhausted yesterday. After eating chocolate, she’d started nodding off at the dining table, so he’d tossed her onto the bed in his room.

No matter how horribly he lived, he wasn’t so awful that he’d make a little child sleep on the sofa.

“Haah… Right. You’re still here.”

Forget drinking. Getting rid of the little squirt had to come first.

Cassian immediately left the house. And the place he arrived at was…

“Could you write me a certificate confirming I’m impotent?”

The hospital.

“You definitely had it cut, right? If that kid turns out to be my daughter, old man, you’re in for a world of trouble. I’m sending her to an orphanage.”

“I told you, it’s definitely done! Have you spent your whole life being lied to?!”

Even just before leaving the hospital, Cassian had asked the doctor to confirm it a second, third, and even fourth time. Now he held his certificate of impotence up to the sunlight and examined it.

This wasn’t just a piece of paper.

It was practically a free pass certifying that he had absolutely nothing to do with the responsibilities, obligations, or suffering of raising a child.

The gloomy mood he’d had that morning had vanished, leaving him feeling so refreshed he could practically fly.

“Ha! Now this is what I’m talking about!”

Perhaps that disastrous card game a few days ago had just been bad luck paving the way for today’s result.

Once he got home and sent the little squirt to the orphanage, his childcare duties would be over for good.

In high spirits, Cassian stopped on the way home to buy the spicy grilled chicken he liked to eat whenever he was in a good mood.

“Hey! Squirt? You awake? Still sleeping?”

He returned home in a fantastic mood and woke the little squirt, who was still asleep even though the sun was already high in the sky.

“Hey, squirt. Time to eat. You’re going somewhere nice now, too.”

“Mmmm…”

He forced the child, who couldn’t even open her eyes, to sit at the dining table.

Even if there was a mountain of gold waiting to be admired, eating came first. He’d feed her before sending her to the orphanage.

It was a small act of kindness from Cassian, who had grown up in an orphanage himself.

They say that a good child eats well without being picky.

I glared at the chicken the uncle had bought. It was covered in bright-red seasoning and looked incredibly spicy.

I can’t eat spicy food.

I sidled up next to the uncle and peeked at the food.

The spicy smell stung my nose, and my shoulders trembled.

Is he trying to torment me with food before sending me to the orphanage?

He’d given me milk chocolate, so I’d thought he was a silly but kind uncle. But maybe he was actually a really mean person after all.

I kept glaring at the red chicken, and the uncle pressed a finger against my forehead, gently pushing me away.

“You can’t eat this. That over there is yours.”

I followed the direction of his chin, and at the end of my gaze was a food I knew all too well.

The moment I saw it, my face scrunched up without me even realizing it.