As Kolin spoke, Liyami also came behind the rock. The moment she arrived, she noticed Kolin looking at her with a very complicated expression.
She didn’t know what he was thinking.
Although Liyami also wanted to know what Kolin wanted to talk about, she wouldn’t force it. So even though Kolin’s expression was complex, she found a flat stone to sit on and slowly waited for him to speak first.
After a short silence, Kolin finally opened his mouth. Liyami almost thought he had suddenly decided not to speak.
When Kolin first opened his mouth, Liyami was a bit nervous. After all, him calling her over to chat at this time made it hard not to connect it to her confession to him.
Although it was more likely that he just wanted to talk about what happened with Eleanor earlier.
“…You heard what Eleanor and I talked about just now, didn’t you?”
Whether lucky or unlucky, Kolin did want to talk about Eleanor, not about Liyami’s confession. This made Liyami feel relieved while also feeling a slight dissatisfaction.
‘A long time had passed since I confessed to him. He still hasn’t given his answer. How much longer does he want me to wait?’
‘It’s only natural for me to be dissatisfied. Who wouldn’t be angry when the other party keeps delaying a response after a confession?’
‘At least I’ve never seen such a person, so being a little angry is normal.’
‘But it’s only a little angry. I wouldn’t take it out on him.’
‘Even though this is entirely his fault!’
“…Mm, if this violates your privacy, then let me apologize first. I didn’t mean to, I was just a little curious so I…”
Kolin raised his hand to interrupt Liyami’s attempt to downplay her offense. He gently shook his head, indicating that he wasn’t interested in why she had eavesdropped. He just wanted to confirm whether she had heard clearly.
Faced with this question, Liyami honestly said, “I wasn’t listening from the very beginning. I only started listening partway through, so I don’t know the full conversation. I only heard the last part clearly.”
“I see…” Kolin was silent for a moment, then continued, “That’s fine. It was all meaningless stuff anyway. Since you didn’t hear it clearly, I won’t repeat it. Let’s get straight to the point.”
Although Liyami was a little curious about the words Kolin didn’t want to repeat, she was even more curious about what he meant by “getting to the point.”
“Getting to the point? What point?”
Hearing Liyami’s question, Kolin showed a slightly nostalgic expression for a very short moment, but quickly returned to normal. If Liyami hadn’t been observing him closely, she would have missed this change.
“The so-called main topic is nothing big. I just want to tell you about my childhood,” Kolin said slowly.
Hearing this, Liyami became completely serious. Before this, she had never heard Kolin talk about his childhood! Even though she had asked him before, Kolin had always used various excuses to avoid elaborating. Why did he suddenly want to tell her now?
Before Liyami could think carefully, Kolin directly began his memories, and Liyami had to temporarily set aside her thoughts and start listening seriously.
“When I was a child, I lived in a relatively remote village. Because it was remote, the village was fortunate enough not to be affected by the Human-Demon War and survived safely.
My family wasn’t very wealthy, but at least we had enough to eat and wear. Even raising me… and my brother wasn’t a big problem. So compared to the orphans who lost their parents in the Human-Demon War, I was already quite happy. Of course, I only realized this after leaving the village. Before that, I always thought I wasn’t that close to happiness.
The reason I thought this way as a child was because I had an older brother. Like every ordinary older brother, he was basically a completely upgraded version of me as a younger brother. Although we looked similar, when I was young, I had a lot of freckles on my face, which made a big difference in appearance compared to my brother, who had a clean face. This made me feel quite inferior when I was young.
At the same time, no matter what it was, he did better than me. My parents also favored him more, always giving him some pocket money or small gifts. I didn’t have such luck, so I could only watch him with envy. Because of this, I often felt unfair. I even… felt a bit jealous of my brother.
But what made me even more jealous and increasingly inferior was that my brother didn’t look down on me because of this. He often took me out to play, used the pocket money our parents gave him to buy me snacks, and stood up for me when I was bullied because I was shy, quiet, and not good at socializing. This made me both jealous and admiring of him.
And so, my brother and I grew up together like this. These were some of the few good memories from my childhood. Of course, I didn’t only have my brother as a playmate. Although I wasn’t good at socializing, I still had one friend besides my brother. You probably guessed it, right? That’s right, it was Eleanor, who lived next door and was only one year younger than me.”
Hearing this, Liyami finally remembered that Eleanor and Kolin were childhood friends. But after carefully observing Kolin’s expression for a while, she had some doubts. Although Kolin looked a bit nostalgic, his slightly furrowed brows and the trace of pain in his eyes fully indicated that Kolin wasn’t as nostalgic as he appeared.
Although Liyami had some guesses, Kolin’s memories weren’t finished yet, so Liyami had to continue listening.
“When I was young, I played together with my brother and Eleanor like this. Although compared to me, Eleanor actually wanted… Anyway, although there were some interesting things during this period, most weren’t worth going into detail. Let’s skip that.
When I was about 11 or 12 years old, just a few years after the Human-Demon War ended, a disaster struck our village.
A Demon Executive who was fleeing happened to come to our village. When he discovered that the place was remote and had almost no contact with the outside world, making it extremely suitable as a hiding place, he decided to settle here for a long time.
But as you know, being a member of the Demon Race, he naturally couldn’t coexist peacefully with humans. So after deciding to settle long-term, in order to transform the village into a hideout that suited his tastes, he directly started a massacre.
I don’t know what kind of magic or Dark Arts or other abilities he used, but in a very short time, he killed almost everyone in the village. This included my parents, who, although they didn’t like me much, were still innocent.”