Chapter 1290: A Sad Life
Chapter 1290: A Sad Life
At the end, we gave up on trying to convince or help Ruby for now, though I was sure going to come back again. She might insult me or try to attack me, but I'll stand my ground and show her my honesty one way or another.
It'll be a hard battle, but I am not someone that gives up at all...
And about dad? Well, we went to a nice restaurant and ordered a lot of tasty food for dinner. I sat down by his side and hugged him, telling him he was a good father.
That he didn't have to worry about the past now, and concentrate more in the present, on what he could do now to improve the world and our life.
"You're the best father I could have ever asked for, okay? Don't feel like that, I love you a lot... Zephy too, and mom," I said. "Maybe the past... was a living nightmare, but you're in the present now. I know those memories won't go away, but you can always make new ones too! With me, with us..."
"Sylphy..." he sighed, smiling a bit. "Thank you for those words... I feel embarrassed that my little daughter is cheering this grown ass man. I should have gotten my shit together, haha..."
He still looked really sad, but at least he smiled a bit.
"It doesn't matter if you're grown or not, you're still a person with emotions, so of course you'll feel that way from time to time, nobody is immune to these emotions we all have," I said. "Right girls?"
"Yeah! Uncle Allan is nice, I've never thought bad about him... I don't care what he did or was forced to do in the past, he saved me and mom, and everyone else in Eastgrain!" Celica nodded, eating a big sandwich.
"Yeah, you gave me a second chance to atone, despite the horrible things I did..." Celeste said. "I am nobody to judge here, you're a good person, uncle."
"Hahh... T-Thanks I guess, this is a bit awkward now... Hahhh," he sighed a second time. "A- Alright then! Let's eat a lot and go back home! Tomorrow's another day after all, right? We'll train, hunt, get stronger, and you girls will learn alchemy! Yep, yep! No more bad thoughts here!"
I guess he was trying his best to cheer up so we wouldn't worry too much.
Dad is always smiling and trying to make others happy.
But deep down, he's often very sad...
However, I am here now, right?
So I'll take care of dad and cheer him up, as a daughter should do!
And about Ruby... I don't know when I'll come back, but I'll try to visit her weekly, at least at the end of every week.
I won't be forceful though.
I hope she can one day trust me...
I am not really mad at her, more than anything, I'm worried.
She didn't seem fine, not at all.
•
"Why the fuck did I do that...? What's wrong with me?"
Ruby sat over her chair, looking at the flames of her smithy, her face twisting in anger and frustration.
"I'm such a fucked up idiot... I always do this to myself..."
She sighed one last time, throwing her hammer away and packing her things, walking back home as it had gotten darker.
"After how I treated them, they're surely not coming back... Fuck..."
She looked in front of a small wooden house in the darker areas of the city, it looked much older and poorer than the rest.
"I'm home..."
She slowly stepped inside her house, opening the door with her keys.
The sound of the wooden doors slowly opening quickly resonated around the old house, as the living room and the stairs leading upstairs greeted her.
And there was also an old, angered-looking bald dwarf man, with a long white beard.
Sitting over a sofa, drinking alcohol.
He looked unkept and unhealthy, and overall really furious the moment she appeared.
"H-Hey dad..." she muttered.
"You're back earlier, I bet you didn't sell a single thing again, didn't you?" he asked her.
"I-I'll sell something eventually! I'm sharpening my technique!" she said.
"The only thing you're good at is pretending to be something you aren't! When will you stop dressing like a woman, Ruby?!" he roared, standing up.
"What...? I'm a woman!" Ruby said.
"No you're not a woman, you fucking idiot! You were born a man, you're my son! Stop pretending being something you aren't! You'll never be a woman!"
"H-How can you say that... I-I'm your daughter..."
"You're not my daughter!"
The dwarf threw the empty wine bottle at her furiously, Ruby barely evaded, the bottle hitting the floor and breaking into countless pieces.
CRASH!
The stench of alcohol filling the air, making Ruby even more disgusted, memories of this abuse surging inside of her mind constantly...
"Since your mother died that you've been dressing like a freak and acting like you were always a girl! You don't know how much DISGRACE you've bought to this family!" he screamed furiously. "I can't even forge anymore, and you think you can take upon the family job with your shitty skills and your total lack of talent?! You're more talented at painting your face like a clown than at doing any decent weapon!"
The man's hands were revealed to be metallic, both of his real hands were long ago amputated due to an accident, making him unable to forge like before, losing his job.
"Y-You can't say that..." Ruby started to cry. "I-I will... be a blacksmith! That's what mom was, t-that's what you are! A-And I am a woman... I-I won't back down o-on this-"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY!"
Her father grabbed a chair and threw it at her, Ruby quickly ran away, as the chair hit the floor
and shattered.
CRASH!
"S-Stop throwing things at me!"
"Then stop being such a disgusting freak!"
Ruby started crying more and more, quickly opening the door.
"I-I HATE YOU!"
She ran away as far as she could, as quickly as she could.
She wanted to run away from all of this hell.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
From everything that has gone wrong since her mother died.
Since her dad lost his hands...
And since she discovered she was a woman.
Ruby opened her smithy and ran inside, closing the door and falling into the floor.
She kept crying constantly, without knowing what to do.
Without knowing how to escape from this horror of a life. "Mom... Why did you leave me...?"