Chapter 3: She"s My Mother (3)
He cried.
It was heartbreaking. The child"s eyes looked so sad. But I couldn"t help it. I was not his mother, so I ignored the child"s desperate eyes.
I"m sorry, kid. I thought the sudden and embarra.s.sing situation would end just like that but the child shook his hand and sank to the floor. Then, he started crying more sadly than anyone else in the world.
“Uhuhuu…, Papa is bad… It was not enough to leave her on the street, and now you won"t even feed Mama. Papa is very bad….”
The child with a small body cried with an incredibly loud voice. People walking along the side of the street began to leer and stare at us. The handsome young man was definitely the father of the child, and then the hungry mother…
Do they mean me? I didn"t know how I became a hungry mother, but they were right.
“Josh! Get up right now! Or you"ll get in trouble with Papa when we get back to the mansion! ”
The man"s voice grew louder and louder, his forehead wrinkled in anger.
Josh, when you get back to the mansion, you"re really going to get punished!.
The man"s angry voice did not scare the child at all. He let out an even louder noise and threatened his father.
“If Papa leaves Mama here, I will stay here, too.”
“What the h.e.l.l are you talking about? ”
“She"s there! ”
Josh pointed to me with his small hands.
Well… I"m not your hungry mother, but I am hungry…
“Your mom is not here!” The man shouted.
“She is right there!”
“Josh… That dirty thing is not your mom. ”
“She only got dirty because Papa didn"t take care of Mama! ”
“Josh…” The man sighed heavily and didn"t speak for a long time…
The little guy was a bold fellow. He didn"t budge a single inch from his stubborn att.i.tude.
I felt like I was going to get tired of interfering in their argument. I hoped the man would take the child and disappear quietly. For a moment I hoped so, but I was suddenly proven wrong by the handsome man, as he began to come towards me again. The man"s fair face was distorted into an expression of disdain.
“Hey, beggar.”
A beggar? Who was he calling? I looked around and realized that there was no one but me who could be called the beggar. I might have looked like a beggar, but I was not a beggar. I bit my lips, unable to say that.
“Yes, the beggar answers.”
“Do you work?”
“No, I just got fired.”
“Yes, it would be strange for someone like you to work."
“What? ”
What was this man really saying? The man answered brazenly, with no change in his face.
“Don"t you want to try a new job?”
"What is it?”
“For now, let"s go to the mansion and talk. The child isn"t calm.”
The little guy"s cries continued. The man was becoming increasingly impatient, although not intentionally. The man looked nervous when I didn"t answer right away. The number of people who stopped walking and watched us began to grow. It wasn"t intended either, but it was a feeling of involuntary attention.
“Why aren"t you answering?” The man complained to me.
I tilted my head with a blank face.
The only reason why I did not answer readily was due to the small doubt I held towards the stranger. Was it OK to follow this man? I looked at him with suspicion. A man with good looks was never seen as a swindler, but that didn"t mean he could be trusted.
The man spoke as he noticed the suspicion in my eyes. “Are you doubting me?”
I answered with a nod of my head. ” Yes, the beggar suspects you.”
The fact that I was called a beggar only fueled me.
The man spat in anger. “I am John Lancaster.”
“What?”
“….”
John. It was a familiar name for some reason. I tried to recall where I"d heard the name before, but to the me who was wandering about the streets with no memory, nothing came to mind.
“Well, that"s a good name.”
Kirk!
The man touched my forehead with a serious face and spoke, “That"s fantastic. Listen, I"m the youngest person to inherit the t.i.tle of Duke and I have a lot of accomplishments. There is also a t.i.tle that was given to me by the King himself. Do you know who I am now?”
So he was just a big, powerful guy, right? I wasn"t that interested in whether he was the youngest person to become a duke or any such merit. The only thing I was interested in was… growl….
There was another loud noise in my stomach.
"Was that a horse?” John asked in a silly tone.
“If you come with me, rice will be served.”
“Okay, let"s go.”
“Where?”
“To eat rice.”
“I won.” He laughed disappointingly.
It must have been such a disappointment for him to go eat. I stared into his dejected smile. His laughter and voice were still ringing in my ears. As I dwelled on his voice, it suddenly felt strange.
It was because I felt a sense of wonder.
I feel as if I"d heard the good voice of this man before.
Where did I hear his name before?
“Ah! ”
Fortunately, I remembered the source of the voice right away.
"Are you sure you"re gonna be okay?"
The voice of John and the voice of the man whom I had often heard in my dreams. It was strange. I asked him the first thing I knew.
“John Lancaster. Have we ever met each other before?”