Chapter 192 Who is hated? Farewell to the fireplace...
[elder brother……]
Mainkuhn couldn't understand whether he really missed his brother or just wanted to escape the painful reality and find someone to pat him on the head.
Regardless, he was indeed swayed by a crude doll and quietly curled up in the empty storage room for a long time.
"Sleep together... just like before..."
"He's still a complete child."
Lord Liuyun Borrows the Wind revealed a look of affection.
But Mainkun's peace did not last long. As the moon set and the sun rose, Kujavina rushed into the storage room in terror, accompanied by an enthusiastic blue-haired youth.
"Fourth seat, is this the little thing that killed 'me' and scared you out of your wits?"
He smiled as he pressed the child to the ground, the blue-purple fluorescent collar fastened tightly around the child's slender neck.
"He looks like a sickly little brat, like he could die at any moment."
Kujavina didn't answer, only stared with her bloodshot eyes:
Is it secure?
She asked about the collar.
"Hmm?" The Doctor tilted his head back slightly. "You can't assess it like that. This confinement device is operated by your water elemental power and the lightning-type evil eye. As long as you're still alive..."
Xiaomei blinked and then slowly tucked her nails into the collar; cats don't wear those things.
"ah!"
But almost the next second, he let out a sharp scream and fell to the ground, his body convulsing.
"...He just can't break free from it." The doctor whistled at Maine, who was glowing purple all over. "Electrocution damage, you'll have to practice your resistance to interruptions, little thing...!"
Before the doctor could finish speaking, the device around the child's neck shone brightly, unleashing wave after wave of intense elemental reactions in a fit of rage, at least a dozen times in just a few seconds.
"!?"
Torture? He turned around abruptly and saw Kujavina with a tense face, her water elemental power flashing wildly in her hands. Looking down again, he saw the little cat-eared creature twitching from the electric shock, its mouth agape but unable to utter a sound, drool uncontrollably dripping onto the ground.
"Ah... thank you, Second Seat."
Looking at the child's pitiful face, the mother's stiff expression finally relaxed, and after a while, she revealed a relaxed smile.
"This has been a huge help."
The doctor was stunned by what he saw and remained silent for a moment. "I remember you wanted him to be the king of the Hearth House, right?"
"Yes, he has far greater talent than I do, and sooner or later he will spread the horrors of the House of Hearths throughout the world."
Kujavina relaxed her stiff shoulders, gently slipped her hands under Mainkuen's armpits, and lifted his twitching little body.
"He's just a bit eccentric, but thanks to your invention, with gentle guidance, he'll get better... Mainkuhn, does it hurt? Be good, and I'll hug you so it won't hurt anymore."
As she held him, pale yellow water trickled down Maine's legs and dripped onto the ground, but Kujavina pretended not to see it, gently humming a song while shaking the unresponsive child.
"My little rabbit, grow strong quickly, forget your mischief and worries, and only look at the green grass..."
"My God, this is terrible." The young PhD student stroked his chin. "If it weren't for our consistently stable working relationship, I would have rescued him and taken him to the lab."
Mainkuen rested his head on his mother's shoulder, his eyes darting vaguely toward the artery in front of him.
He remained completely unmoved by everything that had just happened.
[You blue-haired devil, what are you pretending to cry about?]
[It's just physical suffering; isn't that the lowest form of punishment?]
As for the humiliation that incontinence should bring...
[Ha, do I still retain even a shred of human dignity?]
"It's completely broken..."
The audience never imagined that one day they would feel so heartbroken over a child's silence.
“I would rather he could cry, yell and complain, call for his father and mother, like a spoiled child… Well, he doesn’t have any of those things, sigh.”
With a low moan, Leosley placed his hand on his adopted brother's neck and stroked his skin.
As he touched it, he said, "I can't find the scar anymore."
“I remember some details, ring-shaped, radiating outwards in a thin line,” Navelette replied instinctively, “like… a collar.”
"I know."
Leosley remembered every scar on Main Coon's body; he would never forget the night he took off Main's clothes.
“I’ve learned about about 80% of their backgrounds in the last few days. Does that mean he’ll have a slightly easier time in the rest of his days at the Hearth House?”
Leosley sincerely hopes this is true.
And indeed, it seems that Mainkuhn's situation has improved somewhat.
It seems that because the toxins from the food still lingered in his body, or perhaps because Kujavina was too harsh when she electrocuted him, Mainkuen fell seriously ill and almost died.
“It was my fault, Mainkuhn. What kind of compensation do you want?” Kujavina seemed not to have given up on her fantasy of a loving mother and filial son.
But Mainkun just wanted to sleep in the storage room with his brother's little doll and do nothing else.
"Mother."
Several days later, Clementine finally found her and nervously conveyed Mainkuhn's wish.
"He said he wanted a pair of pigeons, preferably bigger and prettier than the old one, and the more the better."
"is that so?"
To be honest, Kujavina generally doesn't like children keeping birds as pets because they poop everywhere, and if the droppings aren't cleaned up in time, they can damage the walls, and the resulting flocculent crystals can only be barely cleaned by scraping with a shovel.
"But since he wants it, let's set up a pigeon coop and he can take care of the hygiene himself."
"I'll take responsibility for him!"
"Whatever you want."
The new pigeons arrived quickly, and they were indeed large and beautiful, with green and red colors, and their tails were like fans. They were so clumsy that they could hardly fly.
"Is this really a pigeon? It looks like a golden pheasant."
"They're pigeons, the crimson fantail pigeons and leaf-green fantail pigeons unique to Fontainebleau... but actually it doesn't really matter whether they're chickens or pigeons..."
"It looks so fat."
"You can't eat this! Are you Mainkuhn?"
The children whispered among themselves in front of the pigeon coop, dumped large amounts of feed into the troughs, and took on all the chores, including cleaning.
The manure was neatly collected in bags, but the pigeons' true owner, Mainkuhn, never actually visited them once.
[Pepe.]
Mainkuhn's mind was elsewhere.
[Does everyone hate me?]
"certainly."
Peruvelli nodded expressionlessly. "I secretly broke Rongnock's most cherished bracelet and faked your claw marks at the scene. He thinks you did it and is very angry now."
I see...
Mainkun pressed his still low-grade feverish forehead against the storage room wall to cool it down.
"Not enough, Pepe, keep going."
He obeyed his friend's wishes, isolating himself from the world and waiting in a secluded storage room for hatred to replace love and engulf him.
Logically speaking, a child who stays indoors and avoids peers when going out should be a worrying thing for parents, but Kujavina's heart is full of joy.
"Do you finally understand your own nobility? That's good, my little prince. Don't associate with commoners."
To show her approval, and also out of caution, she finally piled Mei's favorite foods onto her plate this time.
Meat, fresh meat, whether roasted or stewed, can bring out its original delicious flavor with just a little seasoning.
But as Mainkuhn looked at them, his expression gradually turned grim.
Why aren't you eating?
[Human food...]
Mainkuhn pushed the plate aside and slowly lowered his head.
"vomit!"
[Danger! ]
"It's an eating disorder."
Seeing him vomit so much acid on the floor, Hitchcock immediately drew a conclusion.
"It seems to be... an avoidant type? Although death did not actually occur, the pain it brought was enough to leave an indelible shadow on a child."
What does "I never want to eat again" mean???
Kujavina panicked and tried to force-feed Mainkuen by pinching his mouth, but he spat it all out each time.
"Do you intend to receive nutritional injections for the rest of your life?"
With the dishes all gone, she grabbed some raw meat in a fit of anger and shock, trying to make something simple.
Before the pot was even heated, she saw the cat-eared child open its sharp teeth and swallow the raw meat mixed with blood as if it were starving.
"..."
Kujavina stared in disbelief at his thin tongue licking his lips.
"Monster!!!"
The incident ended with a shocking electric shock.
"I give up... I give up! Wasn't his eating disorder your fault? Go electrocute yourself, you reaper!!"
The stragglers started cursing wildly.
"What's wrong with eating raw meat? What's wrong with eating raw meat? I even eat sparrows!" Yae no Miko, unusually, joined the soldiers in their furious outburst. "Apologize to the monster of Zeninatsume, you species-discriminating woman!"
But Kujavina never seemed to be able to accept it. For a long time afterward, she tried to get Mainkuen to accept cooked food again, but all her efforts ended up with deeper and deeper scorch marks on the child's neck.
It wasn't until Clementine knocked on the storage room door that things started to get interesting.
“Little Mei, come with me… Ah, don’t worry, it was Peipei who sent me.”
Clementine led him to the kitchen, laid out bottles and jars of seasonings on the table, and heated a pot, pretending to cook.
"Mother! Come and see! Mainkun is trying his best to cook a meal that suits his own taste!"
"..."
Mainkun watched expressionlessly as the wild vegetables bubbled and boiled in the pot, their aroma filling the kitchen.
"I see..."
Kujavina's expression instantly relaxed considerably, and surprisingly, she didn't mistreat Mainkuen over the food.
"Would you mind if I tried your soup, Mainkun... cough cough cough! What does this taste like?!"
The moment the spoon touched her lips, Kujavina immediately vomited, her face contorted in disgust. "Are you trying to kill me with all that sweetness? It's so sweet it's almost bitter!"
"No, Mother. Actually, Mainkuen's taste has always been like this. He just likes to eat things with a lot of white sugar."
To confirm this, Clementine personally placed a spoonful of soup against Mainkuen's lips.
Swallow it, don't spit it out yet.
She turned her back to her mother and mouthed words to Mainkuen.
The tasteless soup was obediently swallowed.
Mainkuhn did not vomit until the very end.
"...Strange, this kid's sense of taste is really weird."
Kujavina left with a frown, leaving behind a whole box of sugar and odds and ends.
"You can only use it, Mainkuhn."
Clementine took all the candy with her, leaving not a single bag behind.
Mainkuhn was never electrocuted again for eating.
However, Clementine always asked him to go to the kitchen and pretend to cook some dishes so that the kitchen wouldn't run out of sugar.
"White sugar, poultry droppings... The children are collecting these things?" The audience vaguely sensed something was wrong. "But what are they collecting these for? White sugar can at least stave off hunger, but what about pigeon droppings? They might as well catch lizards to eat in the corner!"
"Is it possible they're already catching them? Look at the countless lizard tails on the balcony..."
Little Mayin Kuhn didn't care at all about the strange instructions he was being given; he believed, obeyed, and nothing more.
There was only one thing he truly cared about from beginning to end.
[Pepe.]
Does everyone hate me now?
"Yeah, I was saying that you can eat your fill every day, but you deliberately don't eat and waste food, they all hate you."
[Hmm...]
Time passed day by day, and although they were all in the same house by the fireplace, Mainkun hadn't seen any of his companions other than Clementine and Pepe in a long time.
[Pepe, does everyone hate me now?]
His connection with the children seems to be reduced to just this one sentence.
"Yeah, I meowed like a cat in the middle of the night and kept everyone awake. They all thought it was you who was secretly causing trouble."
[Really……]
A lie so easily exposed can only fool Mainkun, whose mind and spirit are equally failing.
But Peruvieri knew that as the situation worsened, her lies would one day cease to be mere pranks.
What should we do then?
[Pepe, does everyone hate me now?]
Well, even though it's painful, having hope is better than having no hope at all.
Peruvéli chose to deceive Mainkuhn with a mix of truth and falsehood.
"Mainkuhn, calm down and listen to me, Sibby is starving to death."
“I staged his death scene, and now everyone thinks you killed him.”
[is that so……]
Mainkuhn was stunned for a moment, then lowered his head and tears began to stream down his face.
As the water dripped, he began to curl the corners of his mouth into an extremely ugly smile.
[Thank you for your hard work, Peipei...]
[Because of your efforts.]
He reached out and flicked his finger slightly towards the window.
*Pfft*, a few meters away, a gust of wind sent a vertical puff of dust flying off the balcony.
"!!?etc?"
Peruvée looked at her companion in astonishment.
During his time living alone, Mainkun lost a lot of weight, looked much more haggard, but also grew much taller, and his strength also increased...
"Is the progress too fast?"
After the demonstration, Mainkuen lowered his hand, his pupils unfocused, and leaned against the wall, clutching his brother's doll in his hand.
[Because of your efforts, I can clearly feel myself getting stronger every day, it's wonderful...]
But nobody hates you! Not at all!
Who is it that hates you...?
It was him.
Elhesen was the first to provide an answer.
It was him.
Xiao repeated in a low voice.
It was him.
Leosley lowered his eyes.
Finally, the long lamentation coalesced into a river, flowing slowly through the opera house.
"It was him..."
No one hated him except himself.
Time accelerated several times, and the young child's body began to stretch, his round eyes began to sharpen, carrying an unconcealable gloom, like an untamed ferocious beast.
But when the midday sun shone brightly on the storage room, no one could deny that the boy's every glance and turn revealed a youthful, innocent beauty.
He grew up in a twisted and resentful way.
It seems as if they grew up surrounded by love.
"Boss Maine!"
Finally, one day, fifteen boys and girls knocked on the door of the storage room at the same time. Jack asked:
"Do you remember how that saying goes? A lizard's tail is a catalyst for explosives."
When young Mainkun saw so many people coming, he hid in a corner somewhat helplessly, but still managed to shake his ears calmly.
I vaguely remember you teaching me many times, but I'm sorry...
“It’s alright, Mainkuhn, because I have some other things to teach you today.”
Oriz excitedly held up the old book in her hand, which belonged to an alchemist whose name was unknown, and read aloud.
"The walls and lower floors of old pigeon lofts, chicken coops, stables, and caves (especially bat caves) are the best places to find natural saltpeter, but the purification process is too long and tedious... I'm just writing this casually; does anyone really still manually purify this kind of thing?"
"When sugar and saltpeter are mixed in a specific ratio and heated, they will burn violently, rapidly creating high pressure in a confined space, leading to an explosion. The ratio is detailed below..."
"Of course, this can't beat Alice's... Add the powdered lizard tail, in the following proportions..."
"Absolutely not. You'd need a huge amount just to barely destroy one castle, adding the sap of the Blazing Tree..."
There's no need to read the rest, because you can't get those materials at all in the House of the Hearth.
[What...what is this?!]
Mainkuhn pressed his ears down as he looked at them, a rare glimmer of light appearing in his empty eyes.
"Boss Maine, you can't defeat Kujavina yet, right? Otherwise, you would have acted already!"
[right……]
"Peruvelli also said that she could not defeat Kujavina, even with the curse."
“I estimate that I should be ready in about two more years,” Fifteen-year-old Peruvier predicted. And she was right; that was how fate had ordained her.
"However, I estimate that Kujavina will not give us another two years to prepare. This royal selection experiment has been too long, and her patience is running out."
She wasn't wrong about that.
Therefore...
"So, since Mainkuhn is no good, Peruvieri is no good either."
Rongnuok took a deep breath, his eyes suddenly hardening.
"Then let's join together."
He reached out his hand to the monster's child.
"Let's be together, whether the outcome is life or death."
[...]
To live and die together—what a beautiful promise! Mainkuhn was moved almost instantly.
He did indeed gently place the tip of his claw into the human's hand.
But after the brief joy came pain, just like his life.
Boom—!!
The explosives accumulated over six years, from age nine to fifteen, instantly destroyed the underground laboratory and caused the fireplace house above it to collapse into a flat plain.
"Did it... did it succeed??"
Amidst the deafening roar that nearly shattered their eardrums, they asked each other questions.
"I think I can see the sea right in front of us! It's the sea!"
On the plains built from ruins, the destination is indeed an endless sea.
"...Is that freedom...?"
But bloodied humanoid creatures emerged from the ruins, blocking the way between the boys and girls and the sea.
"Ku...Kujavina?!"
“I must say, you’ve given me a wonderful surprise, children of the Hearth House.”
The four seats of the Fools, the four seats of the Fools, she may be foolish and crazy, she may be stubborn and self-willed, but she is by no means weak.
"Come on, children! The final exam has arrived!!"
She was the first to attempt to swing her sword at the debris.
[etc--! ]
"Don't worry, I haven't forgotten you."
Mainkuhn, who was charging forward, was instantly electrocuted and fell to the ground.
"Retreat immediately!"
Peruvée stepped forward to defend herself with a single-handed sword, aided by the gentle breeze beside her.
"Fontaine will hear the explosion and come to investigate! We'll hold her off, you guys run!"
"Run! Jack! What are you doing if you're not running?!"
[Gurgle...]
Mainkuhn collapsed to the ground, convulsing, and in a daze, he saw a dark figure approaching.
[Jack...don't touch me...]
Kujavina never stopped giving electric shocks, and anyone who touched Maine was also struck down in the same way.
“I won’t touch you, Mainkuhn.”
Jack blinked, seemingly with some regret.
"So it's come to this in the end, boss."
[...?]
"The boss doesn't seem to know who hates you, does he?"
[Um……? ]
"But you followed me as soon as I reached out, how pitiful."
[What are you saying... Jack...]
Jack crouched down and looked at Mainkun's vertical pupils, which were filled with physiological tears, amidst the battlefield, trying to recall his past life.
Ah, there's really nothing worth remembering, it was awful. An orphan among orphans, and the only person who protected me was found in hell.
Mainkuhn.
He pulled out a dagger and placed it against his neck.
"I've actually always regretted it."
[...?]
Mainkuhn didn't know what was happening, but instinct began to drive him to twitch his muscles, which had been paralyzed by the electric current, and to spasm as he reached forward.
"I've always regretted it. If I hadn't cried to you about being hungry back then, would you not have lost your tail?"
[...Why talk about things from so long ago...]
"You seem to genuinely believe that I shouldn't feel guilty about this? Fine, never mind then, I won't say anything more."
The sharp blade left a bloody mark on the boy's neck. Jack frowned and suddenly deliberately revealed an extremely resentful and painful expression.
“I hate you, boss. I hate your stupidity, your stubbornness, and how you keep failing but still enjoy our love and respect.”
[...]
The outstretched hand froze instantly.
"Jack! What are you saying?" Clementine shouted in disbelief amidst the battle.
Jack ignored him.
“I hate that you always run away, acting all exhausted even though you haven’t accomplished anything. How many of us did you kill, Mainkuen?”
[I don't……]
"I've had enough of pretending to like you."
Blood splattered as Jack slit his own artery, trying to utter some classic lines in his final moments.
For example, something like... "Live on with my hatred," or "Don't die, because seeing your face in the afterlife makes me sick," or something like that...
Maine is an idiot; he'll definitely believe it.
Although life may be more painful, it's better than death.
"No..."
What interrupted his dying words was a sharp, indescribable howl.
"You can't do this! You can't do this!!"
Mainkun rose in excruciating pain, electric shocks lashing every inch of his skin.
"I didn't sense a single trace of hatred from you, Jack!!"
"You can't do this...you can't hurt me..."
...Huh? You can actually sense this?
Hmm... so does he even know who hates him?
"Kujavina!!!"
But it seems the objective has been achieved twice over, which is not bad.
Live on, Mainkuhn.
"I'll kill you! I'll kill you!!"
Mainkuhn saw his own frenzied reflection in the executive's pupils.
Sharp teeth and claws, vertical pupils and a beastly appearance.
"Go to hell!"
Black tears slid down his cheeks.
That was the day he said goodbye to the fireplace house forever.
-----------------------
Author's Note: Lizard tails, when dried and ground into powder, possess unique medicinal properties. Some eccentric alchemists have even developed techniques to process them into explosive catalysts. —From Genshin Impact Biology, original game text
Seeing this word count, you should know why I'm so late... Hahaha, it's me, Marseille, I never expected to write so many words...
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