Chapter 4 - Come to our house
Come to our house
“A guy who looks like a duffel coat is clattering.”
Looking at the duffel coat I had crushed beneath me, I said while watching the scribbled coat.
“Whew whew whew…..”
The duffel coat abandoned the goods and was scribbled over the road.
People who once said they’ll die before me seem so feeble now.
Again. The duffel coat made me bow down, once more I swept the golden chain of the coat with my feet.
The duffel coat made a short groan and then scribbled in its spot.
“Are you alright?”
Glancing back at the scribbled duffel coat behind me, I kept looking at Scale and Rita while talking.
Thinking about how terrified the kids must’ve been, I wasn’t even slightly amused.
“…..”
Rita and Scale were watching me with suspicious eyes, looking upwards.
Without saying a word, just yawning and passively listening to the girls.
While engaging in eye contact with the girls, the occasional throat clearing echoed around.
Turning the dog, I looked around to see quite a number of people gathering around us.
Gazing at me while passing by with the scribbled duffel coat.
With people’s attention focused on me, I held Scale and Rita’s hands and hurriedly ran away from there.
The hands of the girls who had been caught in a hurry were very rough, and they were so wounded that they couldn’t even think of them as children’s hands.
Thus, we managed to escape there with our full strength.
***
At the end of the icy winter, Rita and Scarlett arrived at our house.
I invited them to sit in the dining room and laid out various foods in front of their eyes.
“You must have been starving, so eat this at least.”
The girls seemed to be hanging onto etiquette. Only bones were left, and they looked pitiful.
I wanted to undo the straps around their necks that seemed to be clinging tightly to only their hearts, but seeing their bodies, I thought it was urgent to give them food.
“………..”
Yet they only looked at the food blankly and did not seem to eat it.
Rita glanced at the food and Scarlett looked at me with eyes full of doubt.
‘I wonder if they suspect I’ve done something to the food?’
Scarlett gazed at me defensively.
Has a man she sees for the first time suddenly been too kind, making them suspicious?
Thinking that way, I lifted one of the dishes I had laid before them to reassure them.
Following the movement of my hand holding the food, their eyes shifted.
There was nothing left for me to do but to reassure them by putting the food that I held in front of them into my mouth.
[Sigh]
I looked at them and placed the food more generously in front of them.
“….”
With glimmering eagerness, Rita looked at the food wrapped in the plate and watched.
As if in conclusion or resolution, Scarlett now started to carefully pick up some food right in front of her with both hands and put it straight into her mouth.
“No way!!”
Looking at Scarlett’s appearance, I just let out a big sigh.
Because that’s…
I just made it, so it’s hot…
No, but as soon as she put the food in her mouth, Scarlett’s eyes grew wide, and she started waving her hands in her mouth because it was hot.
“Mom!”
Seeing Scarlett’s strange behavior, Rita focused on me.
With an angry face, Rita looked at me as if I was some human experiment.
Ruiz was amused.
Perhaps she was worried that her stomach might hurt from eating cold food, so she prepared warm food…
Doing good and receiving doubt made her sad.
Scarlett finished the meal, cooling her own heart.
Rita squinted at the normal-appearing Scarlett with puzzled eyes and spoke to me.
“The food is just made, so if you eat it too quickly, it won’t be good.”
As she said that, Rita’s face, which had doubted me, slightly softened.
Looking at Scarlett and Ritta, I could see various emotions were present.
Unlike Scarlett’s composed expression, Rita showed various emotions within a short span.
I encouraged Rita to try food like that.
“Try this once. It will really taste good.”
I handed a fork to Rita and said.
The steak, which often appeared in Rita’s scenes in the story, was her favorite food.
Rita, who had received my permission, cautiously tried to pick up the stew with her hand.
“Just a moment!!”
I held onto such a Rita’s hand as I spoke.
“Stop..!”
Rita was visibly frightened by my sudden action and was slightly trembling. I should have spoken to her.
If the stew was eaten improperly, not only could it cause food poisoning, but she was about to eat the freshly made ‘boiling stew’ with her bare hands.
I busied myself with the spoon and fork in front of Rita and spoke.
“Use this fork when you’re eating stew or soup.”
I handed the fork to Rita as I said this, and she shyly received the fork I passed.
“Oh..”
As she awkwardly held it, she watched the fork with wide eyes.
Rita watched the fork nervously.
‘Is this the first time she’s seeing a fork?’
A thought slipped through my mind.
Still holding the spoon, she was joking.
“Ha..”
The hallway felt longer than expected, making me let out a sigh.
Having organized my thoughts, I lightly smacked my cheeks to focus on Rita and the spoon, demonstrating the usage of the spoon and fork directly.
Holding food with a fork. Placing it in the mouth.
To make sure they followed my directions correctly, I repeated it slowly as if teaching them accurately.
I told Scarlett, who I repeated several more times, to pull herself together.
“Now, follow the actions I’m showing you.”
With a disfigured face, Scarlett received a fork from me.
For a while, Scarlett didn’t move, then she raised the fork and inserted it into the meat with annoyance.
[Sigh-!]
Though the sound of the fork being inserted too forcefully was somewhat unpleasant, Scarlett didn’t bother and pushed the meat into her mouth with the fork.
[Sigh…]
Scarlett began to savor the meat slowly.
Scarlett’s eyes, which had closed for a moment, returned.
With that, a tear started to roll down her cheek, one drop at a time.
“Sob…sob…”
Scarlett forcibly suppressed her tears.
When Scarlett saw this action, she also grabbed the meat with a fork as if it were her own food.
“….!”
Rita’s face, holding the meat with her fork, brightened to the point where even her eyes were filled with happiness, and she, together with Scarlett, began to shed tears.
The women burst into tears as soon as they sat down to eat.
‘Am I really so helpless???’ she thought to herself.
It tasted good when I ate it… was my sense of taste so poor? such a question arose.
Not tasting the meat, Scarlett and Rita demolished the roles of the devoted housewife, running their hands through the side dishes.
Scarlett and Rita were sweeping up the food as if they were disposables.
Fortunately, my cooking skills weren’t completely useless, it seemed, considering no tears were shed with the delight of the food.
Suddenly, I started to wonder if I should send a message even if it was just her neck that was showing, so I served the water to the ladies.
“You’ll get sick if you eat quickly. You will appreciate the food more when you’re full. Eat slowly.”
As soon as I spoke, they left the food and turned away to look at me with skeptical eyes and Rita.
The ladies, who had been staring at my face, started to whisper among themselves, grumbling about the food once more.
Thus, they had eaten all the food I prepared, leaving the forks and chopsticks on the table.
Although I had prepared more than enough portion to eat alone, thanks to Rita and the skeptical looks, the food seemed to vanish without a trace.
Not just out of politeness, but genuinely, they savored every bit of it.
The expressions of the ladies after finishing the meal seemed slightly brighter than the time they first arrived at our house.
“Then should we start what we prepared now?”
Rising from their seats, they approached us, their faces expressing shock.
“Don’t worry. It will only last a moment.”
I held the hands of the ladies as I spoke.
***
“See? It’s really just for a moment, isn’t it?”
I told them as I untied the cloth that was tied around their necks.
The cloth was tied so tight, almost like a spell, that once it was removed, people thought it would be impossible to undo, but it wasn’t anything special to me.
A few flicks of the fingers in midair, the spell dissolved, and the cloth that had choked their necks fell away.
“Now, this should not happen twice again. Rest easy now.”
I took the cloth and burnt it in front of the ladies’ eyes.
Rita and the skeptical looks exchanged with curiosity as they watched my actions with bewilderment.
When trying to escape from a situation, the first thing to do is break free.
Making freedom purely subordinate to the owner.
Although this process has to be stopped, the old man calmly managed it.
However, while the women watched from the front, he blew a whistle and showed the will, saying.
“Also, the will is with me. It’s not that I don’t trust you all, but… I should still hold on to this.”.
Listening to my words, Scarlett and Rita’s expressions hardened slightly.
The will allows the old man to act according to his own will. At this time, if the owner loses the will, any order can be issued.
In other words, as long as I hold the will, they cannot escape my control.
The labor of shouting accusations at each other disappeared, but I still couldn’t escape from the stress of old age.
I introduced the room to them.
Even though there were only two rooms, they seemed pleased to be together.
The reason for bringing them like this had already become the first night.