KoushaRyouri ~C10

 

Chapter 10: What I wanted to do for 300 years

 

" ---- is why."

 

I told them about my circumstances.

 

My father was a very strict man, and he decided to abandon me in the mountains.

 

I told them that I survived in the mountains thanks to my medicines and cooking knowledge.

 

When I finished my story, a painful silence greeted me.

 

As if our voices had been stolen, the Knights and I remained silent for a minute or longer.

 

"Can I ask you one last question, Luciel-kun?"

 

Fletty broke the silence and asked me.

 

"Yes..."

 

"How long have you been in this hell?"

 

"Eh?　That's three hu............."

 

Awawawawa.......

 

Wrong, wrong. Not that long.

 

"It's three hu......?"

 

Fletty tilted his head.

 

I hurriedly corrected myself.

 

"Noooo. Eeto, 3 years. It's been 3 years."

 

"3 years..."

 

Fletty try to digest my story.

 

Then he stares at me.

 

As I look into his gentle green eyes, my heart starts to throb.

 

My testimony is half true and half false.

 

It's true that my father abandoned me. Still, it's difficult to believe that my medicine and cooking knowledge was enough to survive in the mountains.

 

The fact that I was able to stay in the mountains for 300 years is obviously thanks to my improved abilities and the results of eating the monster food.

 

If it's not for that, I would have been in a troll's stomach a long time ago.

 

However, there is no way I could tell him that I had been eating monsters in this mountain. And I couldn't tell him that I made his friends eat it too.

 

Fletty's stare pierced me straight through.

 

I turned away in a panic, feeling as if he could see that I was lying to him.

 

"It must have been hard for you...."

 

The next moment, I found myself being hugged by Fletty-san.

 

Tears are flowing from his green eyes. I can't understand why he is crying.

 

His chest is hard and smells a bit sweaty.

 

But I don't feel uncomfortable.

 

It is the first time in a long time that I feel the warmth of human skin.

 

No, a long time is not the right word.

 

How long has it been?

 

The last time I was hugged by someone like this .......

 

I feel like it was a very long time ago since I was hugged by my mother.

 

Then what about my father?

 

I tried to recall, but I couldn't remember.

 

It's not as if my memory has degraded over the past 300 years.

 

Maybe not.

 

I've never been hugged by my father.

 

Now, being hugged by Fletty, I realized that for the first time.

 

At the same time, I realized something.

 

It's not that I wanted to become a Sword Saint like my father or that I wanted him to acknowledge me.

 

My research into cooking monsters was probably just a way to disguise a desire that had been in the back of my mind for a long time.

 

I've been waiting for this for a long time.

 

For 300 years, I wanted someone to do what Fletty is doing for me now.

 

".........!"

 

Before I knew it, my vision became distorted.

 

Along with the distorted view, the scene of my old house overlapped.

 

Many, many years had passed since that time.

 

Tears welled up in my eyes as I realized that my father or mother would never be able to hug me again.

 

My father may be a devil to some people, but he is still my father.

 

I couldn't stop crying at the thought that I would never see him again.

 

I let out the emotions that were welling up.

 

I am screaming like a baby.

 

All I wanted to do was cry.

 

Ever since I was abandoned in the mountains.

 

I've been holding it in for 300 years.

 

So I soak Fletty's chest with every drop of tears that I've been accumulating for 300 years.