The Obsessive Maniac Is Trying To Confine Me - Chapter 152

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 152

The memory of first going to the temple with Dillen remained vivid even as I grew older.

What I felt when I went to the temple was shame.

I had vaguely imagined a modest, rarely visited place, but contrary to my expectations, there were many people dressed grandly and impressively.

I suddenly found myself looking back at my own shabby appearance.

My hair was disheveled, my clothes were tattered.

“Is this child Lord Dillen’s servant?”

When the priest mistakenly asked this, I really wanted to hide in a mouse hole.

I wished no one would look at me.

To the point where I couldn’t carelessly resent the priest who mistook me for a servant.

Dillen got angry at that priest, but I felt neither grateful nor moved.

Fortunately, only Dillen and I entered the prayer room together.

I was relieved that no one other than Dillen could see my appearance.

On the other hand, I was also embarrassed to keep showing Dillen this appearance.

I briefly thought this might be how Eve and Adam felt when they realized they were naked.

“Why do you hang out with me?”

I suddenly became curious about why someone like Dillen would associate with someone like me.

My self-esteem, worn down by a year of various humiliations, sparked such curiosity. Why would a kid like this be with me…

“…Am I not supposed to be with you?”

“…Huh?”

“Why are you suddenly saying that?”

When Dillen asked as if hurt, I was flustered.

“No, it’s just… I’m kind of, you know.”

“Kind of what?”

“You don’t know, so you’re asking?”

Whether he was without prejudice or just foolish…

“Let’s just pray.”

What am I even saying to a little kid?

Having spent a year in Roji’s body, perhaps because I’d grown accustomed to this small body, I too felt like I’d become a child.

Or maybe it was because I experienced the same helplessness as a child.

“Please don’t let Mother be sick… Please cure her illness…”

Dillen prayed earnestly beside me.

He and I had the common point of having sick mothers. Maybe that’s why I felt closer to him.

My mother in Korea raised me diligently by herself.

She worked hard day and night to raise her daughter without want.

Thanks to her, despite our poor circumstances, I could attend academy and she even sent me to university when I grew up.

The mother I remember was always tired from work.

Perhaps because of that, by the time I was graduating university, Mother had fallen ill.

I hurriedly applied for a leave of absence and nursed Mother. However, Mother’s condition hardly improved.

From then on, nursing my sick mother became my daily routine.

Perhaps because it was serious, whenever I saw sick people, I would think of Mother.

“Please make Mother healthy…”

“Do you pray while speaking out loud?”

“Well, if I do it silently, it’s the same as everyone else. If I speak while doing it, God will hear better.”

I thought it was a childish idea, but Dillen stopped praying and said something unexpected.

“Actually, I don’t believe in God.”

“Then why do you pray?”

“My mother believes in God. She asked me to pray on her behalf.”

Dillen focused on praying again.

Watching him, I also clasped my hands together and prayed.

I want to go home.

I miss Mother.

…I want to go back and apologize to my underclassman.

And then, like a miracle, I heard a longed-for voice.

-Senior?

I immediately raised my head.

“Huh?”

-It is you, Senior, right?

Why is this voice…

“What’s wrong?”

“Dillen, didn’t you just hear some sound?”

“Bird sounds from outside?”

“No…”

Did I hear wrong?

I didn’t notice the small miracle at that time.

When we finished praying and were about to return, the sunset was already glowing.

“You’ll come pray with me again next time, right?”

Dillen asked with an excited face, as if being with me hadn’t been bad.

“Yeah. Let’s definitely come together.”

We two promised to meet tomorrow and parted ways.

However, Dillen never came looking for me again.

* * *

The day I parted with Dillen, I checked the mirror.

The disheveled bangs I usually just left alone bothered me.

I looked in the mirror and tried moving my hair this way and that.

“Roji, what’s wrong?”

Perhaps because I was doing something I didn’t usually do, my grimacing in front of the mirror seemed to catch Selline’s attention.

“Nothing, just… I wanted to do something with my hair…”

“Our daughter usually didn’t care about appearance, but did you perhaps get a boy you like?”

“What…?”

“I’m right, aren’t I?”

What a terrible thing to say.

If I liked such a little kid, I wouldn’t even be human.

“I don’t like him.”

“Really?”

She didn’t look like she believed me, but I decided to let it pass.

I just became embarrassed about being next to that glossy child with my shabby appearance.

Selline gently stroked my hair and cut the messy hair for me.

When the disheveled hair was tidied and I checked the mirror, I was surprised.

I had only thought of Roji’s appearance as not bad, but when organized like this, she was quite pretty.

“Who does our daughter take after to be this pretty?”

Selline looked at me with satisfaction.

After that, I found the neatest clothes among what I had, and Selline actively dressed me up with what we had.

It was the first time since possessing this place that being with Selline didn’t feel awkward.

After that night passed, I dressed up as much as possible and came out to wait for Dillen.

Expecting like a child that I could show Dillen a neat appearance.

While waiting for him, I encountered the village children who had been tormenting me several times.

However, strangely, the children didn’t hit me and just stared at me blankly.

Among them, one boy who was the leader looked at me, blushed, and suddenly ran away.

Why is he acting like that? I was puzzled, but I wasn’t particularly curious about the reason.

I waited for a long time.

But Dillen didn’t come.

As the sun set and the sunset glowed, then night fell.

One day passed, and then another day passed.

Why isn’t he coming?

“Hey.”

Today, as I was waiting for Dillen as usual, Aaron, the boy who was the leader of the children who used to torment me, approached me with a reddened face.

Then he threw something at me.

“You can’t even eat something like this, right? Because you’re poor?”

Another provocation?

“Eat it or don’t.”

“…?”

What Aaron threw and left was chocolate.

When I lived in Korea, I ate it to my heart’s content, but since falling into this place, it was too expensive and I had never even looked at that chocolate.

I threw the chocolate Aaron had thrown into the trash can without hesitation.

Obviously he must have done something strange to the food.

Having been tricked before, eating this would be a foolish thing to do.

When I came home, somehow Selline had returned earlier than usual.

“Roji, you’re back? Are you hungry?”

She prepared a hearty meal in front of me.

It was the first delicious meal I had eaten since possessing this place.

“We can’t afford to eat something like this.”

Instead of answering, Selline brought up a strange topic.

“Roji, don’t you want to live as a noble young lady?”

“Why ask such a question when I can’t live like that anyway?”

Then Selline laughed as if it was nothing.

Our daughter doesn’t need to worry about anything.

Mother is here.

Selline whispered in my ear.

* * *

“Hey, beggar.”

What now.

“Eat it or don’t.”

“…”

“You’re not eating?”

Aaron forcibly pressed chocolate into my hand.

“I don’t want to eat it. You eat it.”

“What? Do you know how expensive this is?”

“If it’s expensive, you should eat it.”

I’ve suffered from stomach problems more than once or twice after eating strange things Aaron gave me.

I’d rather get beaten here than experience the agony of being sick again.

“You’re refusing what I’m giving you? You’re so poor you’ve never even tried something like this!”

“Don’t make me repeat the same thing, just eat it yourself.”

“You don’t even know to be grateful for this…!”

Aaron couldn’t stand it anymore and immediately grabbed my hair.

There we go.

Let me get hit a few times and end this quietly.

As I was resigned, Aaron poured out crude words instead of hitting me.

“Those who can barely eat and live by leeching off our house…!”

I pretended not to hear and let my body go limp. This kind of thing is routine.

“Your mother works at a bar, right.”

“…”

“Our mother says women who work at places like that are the lowest. Because…”

Aaron smiled maliciously and whispered in my ear.

Those words were so dirty and ugly that I couldn’t bear to listen.

Unbelievable that they came from a young boy’s mouth.

Probably those weren’t simply thoughts that came from the boy’s head, but rather his parents’ evaluation of Selline that he was voicing on their behalf.

That’s why it was even more unbearable.

I pushed the boy away with all my strength.

“This is really…!”

“Your mother must be so wonderful then. Raising something ugly like you.”

“What, what did you say?”

“Is it so funny to see people living hard to make ends meet?”

Everyone is struggling through life to survive.

“Or maybe your parents are just as ugly as you. Among people who carelessly judge and tear down others’ lives, there are no decent people.”

“Are you done talking now?”

“Not yet. You, who live comfortably thanks to rich parents, you who can only resort to violence, how dare you tear down people who live earnestly.”

That day, for the first time, I poured out all the words I had kept inside to Aaron.

Looking back, it was truly a pointless act.

Would words that an immature boy could never understand really be meaningful?

And that night, trouble erupted.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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