TLed by NolepGuy
Chapter 37
The Young Lady was crying.
Big tears, like late summer rain, fell from her large eyes and dropped to the Wardrobe floor.
“It’s not, you didn’t fall and get hurt…!”
The Young Lady, hiding in the small Wardrobe, looked pitiful, like a wet Mouse, and was crying.
I wanted to say something, but my lips wouldn’t move, partly because I was afraid that if I opened my mouth, I would tell the same Lie as before.
The Young Lady said to me, standing awkwardly.
“How can this be from just falling and getting hurt…!”
As the Young Lady spoke, her suspicions and Chicken-Droplet Tears continued to flow.
She wiped away her tears with her Sleeve, but they kept flowing, and with a runny nose, she looked up at me with a scowl, her eyes red from crying.
The Young Lady said to me again.
“I’m not a fool, so I won’t be deceived…”
I know that too.
The Young Lady wouldn’t be fooled by such a Lie, and it was a ridiculous excuse, even I wouldn’t believe it.
But what’s certain is…
I had been hiding my Scars from the Young Lady for the past year, and my Lie hadn’t fooled her.
“You said it was a Tattoo, a Tattoo that looked like tree bark…”
“If you look closely, it does resemble a Tattoo.”
“Where can you see it as a Tattoo? It’s clearly not a Tattoo!”
I had made up an excuse about a Tattoo, but now my Scar was exposed, and no one would believe that it was from falling.
The Young Lady, wearing a Pointed Hat and crying, looked up at me, and I couldn’t raise my head.
I couldn’t think of an excuse.
I hadn’t expected to be found out like this.
And I didn’t want to be discovered.
If only I had a month’s time, my Dark Magic Resistance would have increased, and my Scar would have faded a bit more, then maybe the Young Lady wouldn’t be so shocked.
It was a pointless complaint, but I wished I had been discovered a bit later.
The Young Lady reached out towards my wounded hand.
With a trembling hand, like an Aspen Tree swaying in the wind.
She dropped the Chocolate Cake and reached out.
“Don’t Lie… how can this be from just falling…?”
I cautiously avoided the Young Lady’s outstretched hand.
“Why… are you avoiding me?”
The Young Lady asked, her voice trembling, as if worried that she might have hurt me or made a mistake.
“No.”
“Then why are you avoiding me…?”
“I haven’t washed my hands after exercising, haha…”
The Young Lady’s eyes widened.
“Do you… dislike me?”
“No, it’s not that.”
I didn’t want to show her my hand.
My hand was dirty from training on the dusty ground, and if the Young Lady saw my Scar, she might remember That Day’s Incident, and I wouldn’t know what to say to her.
So I forced a smile.
“Why are you smiling…!”
The Young Lady shouted, her voice filled with resentment.
Whenever she got angry, the strings on her Pointed Hat would swing, and it wasn’t scary, but I could tell how upset she was from her clenched Fist.
The Young Lady said.
“You said it was a Tattoo.”
“…”
“You said it was a Tattoo…”
The Young Lady’s voice trailed off.
“You said it was a Tattoo, but why… why are you Lying?”
I said to the Young Lady in a calm tone.
“It doesn’t hurt.”
“You’re Lying.”
The Young Lady snorted.
She didn’t seem to believe me.
The Young Lady clenched her Fist, and it was funny to see someone who was telling me not to get hurt clenching her Fist.
The Young Lady, who had been joking around, now looked at me with a firm expression.
“Give me your hand.”
“No.”
“Give me your hand.”
The Young Lady’s eyes showed that she wouldn’t give up, but this time, I couldn’t follow her lead.
The Young Lady’s brow furrowed.
She looked at me with a scowl, her face red with anger, but her eyes, which seemed about to tear up, didn’t look scary at all.
“It’s really nothing.”
I heard the sound of grinding teeth.
“I told you not to Lie.”
“I’m not Lying, I’m just telling the truth.”
The Young Lady’s hand, which was holding her Dress Hem, turned pale.
“Ricardo, if you keep this up, I really won’t be able to take it. I really won’t…”
The Young Lady shook her head.
Like a Young Child throwing a tantrum in a department store, the Young Lady asked me not to Lie.
But I couldn’t grant her request.
“Please… please…”
The Young Lady hit her chest with her Fist, frustrated, not because she was angry at me for Lying, but because she was angry at herself for being deceived.
Olivia didn’t want to hear any gentle words; she wanted to hear the harsh truth, no matter how painful.
But I kept avoiding her, and that made her angry.
I hid my hand behind my back and smiled weakly.
“It’s really nothing.”
As I picked up the shirt that had fallen to the floor, I thought of what to say next, something that the Young Lady might believe…
Ah.
‘I couldn’t think of anything.’
I had started wrong, saying I fell, when I could have started with a more believable excuse.
If I had started with a more convincing story, maybe the atmosphere would be lighter now.
The Young Lady clenched her Fist and said.
“Lie.”
I replied to the Young Lady.
“I have a disease where my nose grows longer if I Lie.”
“There’s no such disease.”
“There is.”
“Don’t joke, if that disease existed, your nose would be really long by now.”
The Young Lady spread her arms wide.
“Really long.”
I wondered how many Lies I had told to make her say that.
The Young Lady’s words were laced with sarcasm.
As a seasoned Liar, my pride was hurt, and I retaliated.
“It’s not that long, I’m an innocent person.”
“That’s a Lie too, you said you had a Tattoo, and you promised to buy me a lot of Chocolate, but you didn’t.”
“I never made that promise.”
The Young Lady hesitated for a moment but quickly remembered our past conversations.
“You wrote to Mikhail, asking how he was doing.”
“…”
“That’s what you wrote, isn’t it?”
“Was I found out? I thought I perfectly imitated the handwriting.”
“Mikhail’s handwriting doesn’t squirm like an earthworm!”
“Can’t you just write so that it’s barely legible?!”
“I couldn’t read it. I only managed to read it because Ricardo interpreted it for me.”
The Young Lady, with a fit of tears, clenched her fists tightly. The tears streaming down her face wet the Wardrobe floor, and her Tearful Eyes, filled with sorrow, trembled greatly whenever she saw my hidden right hand.
I realized that I didn’t have a talent for lying.
“So, Ricardo, why is that?”
I smiled and replied to the Young Lady’s concerned question.
“Someone hit me.”
Clunk. I could hear the sound of the Young Lady’s heart sinking. Her face turned pale in an instant, and her hands trembled.
The Young Lady stuttered.
“Who… who hit you?”
“Hmm…”
I thought for a moment, chin in hand.
The Young Lady’s appearance, clenching and unclenching her Fist, was cute, and the atmosphere had loosened up a bit, so my tense heart had calmed down.
“Well, if we knew who it was, you could scold them, right?”
The Young Lady nodded awkwardly.
She clenched her Fist and made a vow to scold the person.
I smiled at the sight.
“Young Lady.”
“Huh?”
“You hit me.”
…
The atmosphere suddenly turned cold, and I was taken aback. The Young Lady, who had been joking around, now looked dejected, her head hung low.
“Do you really believe that?”
“It’s true.”
“That’s a Lie.”
The Young Lady looked at me.
“Your nose didn’t grow longer.”
“There’s no such disease.”
“Ricardo said there was.”
…
I bowed my head to match the Young Lady’s eye level.
“Young Lady, if you live so innocently, you’ll get taken advantage of.”
“Liver? Gallbladder?”
“They’re essential organs in the body.”
The Young Lady looked at me with a runny nose.
Her eyes were swollen, and if she cried more, she might really look like Shim Bong-Sa by tomorrow morning.
“Even if you had done that, what could I do? It would be unfortunate, that’s all.”
“But…”
“If you did something wrong, you’d get scolded, right?”
The Young Lady bit her lip.
Like someone who had secretly stolen a snack, she couldn’t meet my eyes and was holding back her tears.
I pressed the Young Lady’s cheek like a Goldfish.
“What are you doing?!”
“You look ugly like this.”
The Young Lady clenched her Fist.
Now, I felt at ease seeing the Young Lady’s usual self.
“You see, Young Lady.”
I spoke in a calm, gentle voice.
“I’m very prone to Exaggerated Pain. Extremely so.”
“When I was young, I tried to catch fish with my bare hands in a Valley, and I fell on the rocks, scraping my knees. Do you know how I was back then?”
“How were you?”
“I cried loudly. All night long.”
“And last time, I swung a Wooden Sword and got a Thorn stuck in me, and I whined to you all day, didn’t I?”
The Young Lady nodded, still tearful.
“You see, I can endure anything else, but I’m weak when it comes to pain. Even a small Wound makes me whine, so if I were hurt, would I not tell you, Young Lady?”
I gave the Young Lady a reassuring Smile.
“If I’m hurt, I’ll tell you.”
The Young Lady nodded.
“Okay.”
And she added one more thing.
“But this doesn’t feel right.”
The Young Lady hung her head low.
“This isn’t it.”
Like a culprit, she shook her head and wiped her eyes with her Sleeve.
I handed her a Handkerchief from my Pocket.
“Why are you crying again, Young Lady?”
“Hic… Hic… It’s not that… I mean, it’s not this…”
The Young Lady said, crying.
“You shouldn’t be hurt…”
With an unfocused gaze, she stared into Empty Space.
“You really shouldn’t be hurt…”
The Young Lady’s hand was touching the Scar on my body.