The Branded Female Fencer

Note : This post have some depictions of cruelty and self-harm.
Reader’s discretion is advised.
Once again for reading this series.

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「Where do I start…?」

Lisa couldn’t hide her confusion.
After all, she had never told anyone about her situation.
Her pride wouldn’t allow her to do so, and she knew that showing her weaknesses was something she would never do in the world.
On the other hand, if she wanted to make fun of Alfiris, she was confident that she could say it like it was water off a ditch.

When she saw that Lisa was stammering, Miliazar offered her a helping hand.

「Were you always an orphan?」

「No, I was born in a very ordinary family, living with my parents.
We were neither wealthy nor poor, and I think our family was quite normal.」

「Then perhaps you should start there.」

Miliazar urged her.
She was right, her family was indeed ordinary.

Lisa’s father, according to her vague memory, was a young man who had come to Mysia from the countryside to work.
His father was also good-looking young man, but her mother was a beautiful woman, and the tavern was thriving with customers who came for her.
By the time he got married and Lisa was born, his father was hired as a full-time employee instead of a migrant because of his good performance.
It must have been the peak of his life.

Her mother had also changed her job to a florist because of the late nights at the bar, but she would brag to Lisa every night that her sales had more than doubled since she started working there.
It was a daily routine for her to teach Lisa the names and types of flowers she handled, and Lisa looked forward to learning the names of new flowers every day.
The colorful flowers she brought home one by one, their fragrant smells, their names, and their meanings.
Every time she learned the name of a flower, her world seemed to expand.

「We were a very happy family.
They always took a day off once a week, and the three of us would go to various places together.
My hair color was a little strange, but… my parents said, 『You have such a beautiful color.
When I look at you, we feel so gentle.』They were always praising me.
Yes, it was supposed to be going very well.
Until Lisa said that one word.」

A happy family.
It’s hard for people to realize that they are happy, but Lisa felt it.
However, there was one thing that she couldn’t help but wonder.
Certainly, for some reason… she wondered why there’s a woman always clinging to her father’s neck.

「A woman around his neck?」

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Miliazar asks.

「Yes, she was beautiful.
She didn’t seem to have any harmful intentions, and she looked at my mother and father with lonely, envious eyes.
She couldn’t speak and didn’t seem to be able to see me.」

「Didn’t you think there was something wrong?」

「I think so now, but at the time I could see things in other people’s eyes, so I didn’ question that humans were like that.」

「I see.
Your eyes are a kind of an magic eye.」

The magic eye is an with special abilities that one is born with, or acquires through acquired training.
Most of them are born with it.
The most famous eyes are the Clairvoyant Eye, the Petrifying Eye, and the Igniting Eye.
In Lisa’s case, it may have been the Evil Eye of Psychic Vision.

「As I said.
Lisa wasn’t born blind was she?」

「I could see when I was born… but I destroyed it myself.」

「What a painful thing to do.
I can only imagine why.」

「…I’ll keep talking.」

It didn’t seem to make any difference whether she said it or not, so she didn’t mention it, but Lisa’s questions grew more and more every day.
At this age, people want to ask adults 「why」and「how」even if they don’t have to.
Lisa’s worries were understandable.
The reason why she didn’t express her doubts was because she had a bad feeling about it.

But when Lisa’s doubts finally their limit, she was forced to say the forbidden words.
And on her sixth birthday, she finally asked her parents.

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「Dad.
Why are you always carrying a woman on your back?」

With that one question, Lisa remembers her parents freezing.
Normally, they would have laughed and said,「What are you talking about?」, but her parents had an idea.

「It was that night.
For the first time in my life, I heard my parents cursing at each other.
I remember peeking through the doorway at the scene in the living room.
And then—」

The next morning, her father left the house.
Lisa asked her mother why, but her mother wouldn’t answer.

「From that day on, my mother slowly began to go crazy.
She started to miss a lot of work and sometimes slept all day.
Lisa couldn’t eat anything all day, and she remember chewing on a loaf of bread she had left at home.」

「…」

After a few months of living like that.
Her mother came out to the living room for the first time in a long time.
Lisa talked to her mother innocently, expecting her to cook a meal for her.
But,

「Mom was completely out of her mind.
She had depressed, dark circles in her eyes.
Her skinny cheeks and dry, lustrous lips.
I remember that she looked like a dead person, not like the one of the most beautiful women in Mysia.」

「…And so?」

「And when she saw me, she said, 『It’s your fault you were born! If you only hadn’t said those things! If only that woman hadn’t beem there… he would have been mine all along!』That’s what she said, and then she choked Lisa.」

「It’s a little late for that, but it’s not what real parents do.」

「Lisa agrees.
That’s why I did everything I could do to resist.」

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For a moment, Lisa didn’t know what had happened, but her survival instincts kicked in faster than she could think.
She stabbed her mother in the hand with a fork on the table and bit her mother as hard as she could, which was not much damage for a six-year old to fight back, but it was more of a psychological shock for her.

「『Lisa, are you going to betray me too?』I remember her saying that.
Lisa felt very bad and just stood there, but then Mom wandered off and started humming and spewing oil all over the place.」

「…And?」

「I guess she couldn’t see Lisa anymore.
She set the house on fire without even checking Lisa’s position.
I tried to put out the fire somehow, but even though I was very young, I knew that the fire was too strong amd there was nothing I could do.」

As it was, it would have been nothing more than a survival instinct for Lisa to run out of the house without shrinking back in fright.
When she turned around, all she could hear was her mother’s voice laughing like a mad woman.
There was a great commotion around her, but Lisa could no longer hear anything.

Then Lisa left as if to run away, and found herself in front of the flower shop where her mother.

「I used to go to my mother’s flower shop often, so I knew all the people there.
But the way they looked at Lisa was cold, I later found out that my mother, had been telling people everywhere,『That child is a monster.』 My hair was always this color, and people around me really didn’t want anything to do with Lisa.
」

Lisa remembered the scene.
She felt alone, as if she was the only one in the world.
It was then that she saw the weed killer chemicals that her mother used to use in the flower shop.
She remembered that her mother used to get very angry with her if she tried to play with it.

「Lisa didn’t want to see anything in this world anymore.
What I had believed in had fallen apart, and happiness would never come back… So, not knowing for sure, I put the potion in my eyes.
There were screams all around, but Lisa was satisfied.
In fact, I couldn’t see anything anymore.」

「…」

「It’s funny, though.
It didn’t occur to me to take the pills, or that I wanted to die.
Lisa’s despair deepened as I realized this.
I didn’t think I had the guts to take my own life.
With my eyes, I could not die, and I wondered what I could do… How long did it take for the snow to fall on Mysia in the middle of nowhere?」

She couldn’t see, but she could easily imagine that there was a lot of snow.
Lisa had seen it snow once before when her mother was back home, and she remembered it was very magical sight, as if the sky was blessing her.

Before she lost consciousness, she became aware of a crying voice coming from nowhere.

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「I heard a small child crying.
That was Jake.
When Lisa went to Jake, the child clung to me, crying and screaming.
Lisa was already ready to die, but I thought that I would be just like Dad and Mom if I involved the child as collateral damage.
And, I didn’t want to do anything irresponsible to someone who was in a weaker position than me.」

「Whe did you awaken as a sensor?」

「That’s when.
When the will to live came back to me, my ability as a sensor awakened.
You know the rest from there.」

Lisa replied aloofly, but it was not a very easy life for her.
Of course, Miliazar, who has livee for a long time, knows many lives that are more miserable than this.
But, however.

But Miliazar said something that could be considered harsh.
Although she took Lisa’s personality into consideration, Miliazar knew that consoling her was not the only way to be kind.

「Before you go any further, I have no sympathy for you.」

「I knew you’d say that.
I don’t want your sympathy either.」

「But, if there’s anything I can do, I’ll help you.
I have the courage and the compassion to do so.」

「I appreciate your concern.
But I’ve already taken advantage of you earlier.」

「I’m a proud woman.
Oh well.
Whenever you feel like being pampered again, you can ask me.」

「…I’ll take your offer.」

Lisa replied with a bit of embarrassment.
Seeing this, Miliazar stroked Lisa’s head with her tail again.