Sherry
“Wake up you lazy little brat!”
When I returned to the world of the living, it was because of Mrs. Tennyson shaking me so hard that I couldn’t help but open my eyes.
No, that wasn’t the truth. I was already awake when she started calling my name from downstairs.
I simply wasn’t in the mood to wake up early.
After receiving another scolding from her, and the punishment from not having any breakfast, I went downstairs and outside to wash my face. Drawing water from the well beside the house, I threw my entire head inside. I stayed like that for a few seconds, taking in on the nice feeling of cold water on my face.
My stomach rumbled. I really was hungry.
Well, what else was new? So many times I’ve gone hungry when I was still living in the orphanage. The food given to us there depended on the generosity of the people visiting the church beside it. If they gave a lot of donations, then we could eat until our bellies were full. But if not, well, we just had to learn patience, just like the Saint taught us to.
Ah, I hadn’t talked about Her yet, have I? The Saint, or Grand Saint Milicis—if we’re going by her full name—was one of the companions of the legendary Hero a thousand years ago. After defeating the Demon God that was enslaving the world then, she became the founder of the Milicis religion, spreading her teachings as the sole way of salvation for humanity. We were taught that she was the one who chose and gave the Hero his power, as a proxy of Heaven. After her death, her closest disciples became Saints of their own right. And even know, there's a Saint living in their Grand Cathedral. I believed her name was Catherine.
I was never taught in detail by the nuns about how someone could become a Saint, but I knew you needed to be capable of casting a Saint-rank Holy magic to be one. I mean, it's in the name after all. Saint-rank magic was considered the highest rank by the way. When I asked what kind of magic would that be, the nun teaching us just smiled and told us that it had to be something truly miraculous and wonderful. I myself believed it's things like reviving the dead. Now that would be a true miracle.
Personally, I was never a big believer of the Saint. Her teachings—I really couldn’t follow them properly. She told us to be patient, yet my temper remained tempestuous. She told us to be grateful, yet all I received were injustices, one after the other. The moniker of “demon”, that came from Her faith as well. After all, we were always taught that demons were these nastily strong creatures that were the eternal enemy of mankind. They even named an entire continent after them, as apparently only hordes and hordes of demons lived there. The nuns always tried to scare naughty kids—that included me—into obeying by saying stuff like “If you keep being naughty, a demon is going to come to you in the night and carry you to the Demon Continent~”. I myself was never scared by those kinds of stories. After all, if a demon popped out, I was pretty confident I could take it on with my unnatural strength.
Ha, they might be right to call me “demon child” after all.
Those were the reasons why I could never become her nun, or even her priestess, like my friend Nicole did. Nicole was always good-mannered and kind, no matter what occurred to her. No wonder the nuns liked her so much that she was sent to a Milicis religious school.
Me? Ha! I could never imagine myself becoming one! Not that they would ever send me there, with how much trouble I’d caused to them. Out of all the orphan kids, only Nicole was selected. Apparently it was the only scholarship slot that they could get. Normally, you would have to pay a decent sum of money to be accepted there. It wasn’t just a school to become nuns or priestesses—apparently it was also used as a school to train young, rich ladies to become proper ones like the Saint.
Personally, I couldn’t really see the logic behind that. I never had the impression that the Saint was a particularly “lady-like” person. After all, she fought against the Demon God. And that kind of thing reminded me of what adventurers did—defeating powerful monsters and all that. And like the nuns always taught me, adventurers were a boorish, unrefined, and wild lot.
After washing my face, I immediately started my work. Splitting up firewood would be my first task of the day.
As I brought down the big axe to the logs however, my mind couldn’t help but wander back to Nicole. I wondered what she could be doing. No doubt she’s a top student in her class. She was always a studious one after all, devouring religious books and texts like they were nothing.
If only the nuns had been willing to tell me the address of the school, I could’ve sent letters to her. Theoretically. Mrs. Farla certainly wouldn’t give the coins I would need. But they had deemed me to be a “bad influence” to her, which was why they forbid her to have any further communications with me. I already had to press them to know that she was sent to that school in the first place.
Drip drip
Oh…
My eyes are watering again.
This always happens every time I reminisce about her.
I wasn't truly alone after all.
I think… I think she might just be my very first and only friend.
"Hey, Sherry!"
I jumped.
I turned around and saw him—that nosy kid that wouldn't just leave me alone.
"H-Hugo?"
"Like I promised, we're here to pick you up!" As usual, his happy-go-lucky grin both annoyed and relieved me at the same time.
"Hey, have you been crying?"
"W-what? N-no, not at all!" I quickly wiped off my eyes with my sleeves. Dumb Hugo! Why must you come now?
He didn't come alone too! His whole family was there with him! Now they all knew that I had been crying!
Stupid, stupid Hugo! Why must you point it out?
“Why don’t you come with us, dear?” The young woman spoke. She must be his mother, making that muscled guy beside her his father. “We’re going to speak with Mrs. Tennyson right now.”
My heart skipped a beat.
Could it be? Could it be that she was really going to take me in?
I looked at her. Her smile… it was far different from the sarcastic, mocking smile that Mrs. Farla always had. It was genuine, a-and… and warm… And she's beautiful as well, with a motherly figure that made me want to hug her.
Am I—Am I really going to have her as my mother?
I could only follow her in a daze.
----
“So, you wanted her so badly that you and your husband would come here personally to request it of me? Hmph, I know you Greenwoods are audacious but this is too much!"
As expected, the old witch wouldn't give Sherry that easily. With an all-too-smug smirk, she continued.
"She's mine. I took her in as my granddaughter. If you think I'm just going to give her like that, you got another thing coming."
Of course. She's going to play hard, just so she could feel superior to Father and Mother.
I gave a glance at Sherry. She was glaring intensely at the old woman. Of course she's going to be mad if she called her her granddaughter out of the blue! She never did that before when she worked her to the bone! She knew very well that it was just one big, fat, and terrible lie!
“I see. Your granddaughter, hmm? Then may I ask why you are working her to the bone from day to night?” Scary! Mother was absolutely pissed! She was smiling but her smile didn’t reach her eyes! Not in the slightest!
“It is good for her,” the old hag quickly retorted. “The Saint teaches us to be resourceful. An idle hand is the devil’s hands. Rather than wasting time frolicking with those lazy peasant kids, I would rather her grow up to be a diligent girl.” She smirked terribly once again. “And I see you haven’t really done that to your own children, have you? That boy of yours—he would always try to lead my Sherry astray with his idleness, to abandon her work and play with him instead.”
This old hag! How could Sherry tolerate her for so long? She must have the patience of the Saint herself!
My mother, however, didn’t seem to be perturbed by her accusation. “Oh? But the Saint surely does not approve of hitting a child so hard that it left marks on her body.” W-wait, what was that? Was that a bluff? Did she just predict that the old hag would be the type to hit children that she disliked in the guise of “disciplining” her?
I didn’t know at the time but Mother had been using one of the abilities she had as a healer. She could tell where the wounds and illnesses were in a person’s body, without even having them show it to her like you would show your wounds to a doctor. It was an advanced-level healing magic spell. And yet, she could cast it without reciting it, and without me even noticing!
When I learned this, I couldn’t help but say, “Wow, Mother is amazing!”
“Sherry, unbutton your dress. You still have those marks left on your back, correct?” she asked kindly to the girl, her smile suddenly turned genuine. She could only nod, as she too was taken aback by what Mother just did.
She gave a glare towards me, pretty much saying, “Don’t you dare look or else I’m going to punch you in the face!” And so I looked away. Well, it’s not like I would be turned on by seeing whipping scars on a child’s back.
And so she did. And the scars were indeed there, still red from a whipping she experienced four days ago when she tripped and threw a bowl of boiling soup right onto the old woman’s lap.
And speaking of the old woman, she was completely speechless by now.
“W-w-what sorcery is this?!” She yelled. “A-and you can’t criticize me for it! Children need to be discplined! Spare the rod, spoil the child!”
“Enough. You are being unsightly, Mrs. Tennyson.” Mother’s voice had turned blood-chillingly cold. Even from here, I suddenly felt chills all over my body. “Take this gold and forget you have ever mistreated a child of the Saint like this.”
Without a word, she threw over a small pouch of coins, landing right on the ground in front of the old hag.
“10 gold. That should be enough. Good day.”
And with that, she grabbed Sherry’s hand back and took her away.
“She’s not one of us, you know!” The old woman shouted as we left. “She’s a demon, through and through! She’s no child of the Saint!”
None of us heeded her words.
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