Chapter 214 : Chapter 214 I'll Marry You When I Grow Up
"...Then, I'll leave Little Herta in your care."
"Please rest assured, Uncle and Auntie, I will definitely take good care of her."
Hearing the young boy's promise, the young girl didn't have much of a reaction, only giving a sweet smile.
Her parents were different, their gazes carrying a deeper meaning.
Soon, knowing the boy's character, they all broke into smiles.
The father lightly patted the boy's not-yet-broad shoulders; silence spoke louder than words.
"..."
A shadow fell over Black Herta's face.
This parting ultimately became a final farewell.
Her parents died in the Labyrinth Zone, in a Memory-Substance World within some unknown Subspace, never to return.
The moment she learned the tragic news, she finally understood and felt what Mu had experienced back then.
That feeling of the whole world collapsing makes one lose their appetite and sleep, not knowing what to do next.
Even more so, she didn't know how she, having lost everything, was supposed to face the future.
Only after experiencing the same thing did she realize how pale and powerless verbal comfort truly was.
She understood even more how utterly useless it was to tell someone to restrain their grief, to stop being sad, or that everything would be fine if they just smiled more.
It could even... have the opposite effect.
Yet, when she was little and comforted Mu, she had said similar things to him quite often.
Before the bad news arrived, neither she nor Mu realized what the future held; their days were peaceful.
Mu took care of her very thoughtfully, even more so than her parents.
In the morning, he would wake her up, help her comb and tie her hair.
He would squeeze the toothpaste onto her toothbrush and then head into the kitchen to make breakfast.
After eating and tidying up, they would head out to school together.
Lunch was a nutritional meal provided by the school, and after school in the afternoon, he would be busy with dinner again.
After eating, they would study until past 10 PM. After drinking the milk Brother Mu had warmed up, she would fall into a peaceful sleep.
Throughout the day, aside from bathing, it could be said that he took care of every aspect of her life.
He pampered her into a little princess who didn't need to worry about anything.
Sometimes, feeling bad and wanting to help share the burden, she would be gently declined by Mu every time, claiming that he liked doing it and liked taking care of her.
When she asked Mu why, he said it was because he had promised her uncle and auntie.
"As a man, you shouldn't say things you can't do."
"!!"
At this point in her memories, Black Herta's thoughts involuntarily stalled.
You shouldn't say things you can't do...
Qi Zhimu had also said something similar... no, almost exactly the same thing.
The thought that they might be the same person flashed through her mind once again.
But then she thought of a new problem: setting aside the ironclad rule that an Original Human could absolutely never become a Virtual Substance Lifeform, Qi Zhimu didn't even know her at first.
It was only because she begged him that he made a contract: as long as she became his food, he would help fulfill her wish.
Moreover, even now, she didn't know why she had fallen into an unknown world from an onlooker's perspective, reviewing the forgotten past of her childhood.
The young and innocent Little Herta, touched by Mu's answer, couldn't help but stand on her tiptoes to hug him.
「Brother Mu, when Little Herta grows up, I'll marry you. Then it'll be my turn to take care of you.」
「...Little Herta, a girl shouldn't say things like that to a boy so easily. You should only say it to someone you like.」
「But I do like Brother Mu! Does Brother Mu not like Little Herta?」
「'Like' has different emotional definitions. We're still young and don't understand the kind of 'like' that leads to marriage.」
「Ugh... then Little Herta will just wait until she understands to make a decision. You too, Brother Mu—you can't lie when the time comes!」
「Okay.」 Mu nodded gently, suppressing an unknown stir in his heart.
The girl let go of his hand and hooked her pinky with his, giving a sweet smile.
「Then it's a promise! Whoever lies is a puppy.」
「Mm... whoever lies is a puppy.」
At that moment, Little Herta noticed that Mu smiled—the first smile he had shown since his family had left him forever.
Even if the upward curve of his lips was barely noticeable.
After that night, the withdrawal that shouldn't belong to a youth gradually faded from Mu, and he began to exude a gentle temperament.
In the less than three months since Little Herta's parents had left home for work and she began living under the same roof as Mu, he no longer frequently wore a melancholic expression.
Even though he still rarely smiled, his eyes, which carried a faint hint of a smile, were very attractive.
However, Mu only showed such an expression in front of her.
His attitude toward the girls who flocked behind him after school was completely different.
It seemed he had moved on from the pain of his parents' departure.
Days passed one by one. Although the two chose different directions, it didn't stop them from sitting together and studying their respective subjects.
He delved into medicine, while she studied the Spatial Studies and Chronology books left behind by her parents.
As for school subjects, they had both finished everything from elementary school to doctoral levels long ago.
Going to school every day was just a change of scenery for studying, equivalent to just clocking in.
The teachers at school basically didn't care what they did in class.
As teachers at a private school, they naturally knew that some students had extraordinary backgrounds, and they knew even better what they should and shouldn't do.
Mu and Herta were in different grades, but the books they read in class had one thing in common: to any teacher, they looked like unreadable gibberish.
All primary and secondary schools in Fog City did not have unified midterm and final exam systems; instead, teachers continuously observed students, recording classroom performance, assignments, projects, group cooperation, learning attitudes, and so on.
Mu and Herta's classroom performance was simply treating the teachers as thin air, but no faults could be found in their other projects.
Regarding this, no teacher would say anything.
During their set leisure time, the two would play badminton or engage in other recreational sports to relax.
There were problems too; they basically didn't communicate with other peers.
To put it bluntly, they were outcasts.
For the teaching staff, this wasn't a big deal as long as the individuals weren't antisocial.
But for a certain group of people, this behavior would attract their attention, making them targets for a certain kind of behavior.
Commonly known as—bullying.
One day after school, Mu went to the entrance of Little Herta's classroom but didn't see the familiar petite figure, and her phone wouldn't go through.
He stopped a female classmate who hadn't left yet to ask, only to find out she had been taken away by several girls of the same age.
Having had similar experiences but never having told Little Herta, Mu didn't even need to think to know what had happened. His usually calm expression instantly turned frigid, scaring the young girl who had a crush on him until she was ashen-faced.
That day, a significant incident occurred at the school.
Four Year 3 (Fog City grade classification) girls experienced various degrees of debilitation in their limbs; the most severe case resulted in all four limbs losing any response.
The person responsible for all this was actually a Year 4 boy with a grim face, who had been protecting the girl behind him the entire time.
The matter eventually reached the principal.
No one expected that after the boy revealed a rare-looking insignia, the principal was nearly scared to death. Without a word, he reported it to the Ministry of Education and expelled all the girls involved in the bullying.
From then on, no one ever dared to provoke the girl who was led home by the hand by the boy every day after school.
Reviewing this part of the past, Herta felt both nostalgic and sorrowful.
Good times always come to an end, and the day she would begin to endure loss was drawing closer and closer...
...
Can anyone show some love and support for the author?
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
Read Ahead & Support
Read up to 458 chapters ahead with daily updates at 02radnovel.com.
Connect & Updates:
(Twitter) • x.com/02IsmetHQ
Instagram • instagram.com/02novelofficial
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯