Extra 5. Hestia
Hestia was an intelligent child to begin with, and her tenacity and passion overflowed within her. In other words, she was incredibly stubborn. Even if nobody around her supported her or her opinions, once she thought she was right, she never changed her mind.
If someone with a strong conviction was surrounded by other who had similar ideals, it wasn't much of a problem. If it was the opposite, however, then there were no positives in the situation at all. They could only make enemies, after all. After Hestia had revealed herself, she had become surrounded by enemies. But she didn't regret it at all.
"Eugh... So cold."
Even if that meant that she had been kicked out of her house.
Hestia warmed up her hand in her armpits as she sighed loudly. A long, visible puff of air appeared. The piece of bread she had bought from the bakery a few hours ago was completely old and stiff, but she was hungry enough to stuff it in her mouth.
Early morning, in the cold so fierce that water was freezing over, Hestia scrunched her nose in the cold air. Her face was numb.
It felt like her nose was running, but she was so cold that she couldn't feel a thing.
"...a dog, a horse... a cat..."
Hestia's legs shook from cold as she stared at the living beings in front of her.
"One human... One bastard.... One motherfucker...."
Then, when humans began to appear in her sight, she remembered how her father had found her manuscripts and had burned them in the fireplace and cursed lowly.
The incident began right after she had graduated from the academy. Hestia lived busily, going back and forth from the capital where the newspaper publisher was to her home. If the count figured out what she was doing, she was going to be in big trouble, so she waited to leave until he left first, and he made sure to return home before he came back. Hestia wrote at home and attended various meetings with important people to create connections for herself.
But devastating news came to her as she lived a busy, quiet life. It happened when her family met at the dinner table.
"Hestia. Your wedding will take place in December. It's someone you're familiar with. You remember Count Brian, the one you served tea to last time, right? He came over to our residence for a contract, but he seemed to have taken a liking to you after seeing you."
This was something she had thought was coming soon, but her heart dropped when she heard it. Hestia remembered Count Brian, who she thought she had maybe seen before. A mustache that looked perfectly drawn and pasted onto his face, and a figure a wide as a mountain. Eyes that raked her up and down. He wasn't someone entertaining, to say the least. Count Flowith had told her to serve tea to him before, so she had briefly held a conversation with him where all he did was talk about himself.
Hestia hated, despised that marriage. She remembered how Harun was a great excuse and stated that she was already in a relationship, but she was ignored.
"He says he will be coming on Friday to see you, so be prepared. The port he owns is very beneficial to my ongoing business, so treat him especially well."
He told Hestia this as if he just wanted to let her know, then headed to his office and slammed the door to express his discomfort.
Then, on Friday, Count Brian came to meet Hestia.
She purposely tangled her soft pink hair and asked Shuraina to do her makeup and clothes. Even still, Hestia thought she looked too good and did everything in her power to look disgusting.
"Shushu, what can someone do to make someone hate them?"
"Bark bark!"
"Okay. I just have to respond like a dog, right?"
Hestia was unable to meet with Shuraina, who was currently busy, and remembered what puppy Shushu had told her and put her advice into action. No matter what Count Brian said, she mimicked the sound of an orangutan, a dog, a lion, and other various animals. She made the fancy sitting room into a zoo. In other words, she pretended to be completely crazy while she met with Count Brian.
The count became terrified of Hestia and ran out of the estate, and Hestia's father was so angry at her actions that he shouted curses at her.
She had nothing more to fear, so Hestia looked straight at the count and cursed right back. The count soon looked like he had settled on something and yelled loudly at her.
"I can't even stand to look at you! Get out of my house!"
Hestia had been slightly nervous about the possibility of getting hit by the count, but he had said exactly what she had wanted to hear. She sighed in relief. Hestia was so happy that she nodded excitedly.
The count had assumed that Hestia would be shocked and beg him for forgiveness, but she was cheerily packing her things. The count was shocked. She had nowhere to go and no money to buy food, so he had thought she would panic.
He thought that she might have a man outside of the home, but after a bit of research, he had discovered that Hestia was writing various articles and earning money.
Reading through the contents of the articles made him panic. The count slowly began to understand Hestia's high-and-mighty attitude. He had raised her so well, and she was going around doing such nonsense? He suddenly felt sick and tired of her. He burned all of her manuscripts and kicked her out of her house immediately.
The count said that Hestia didn't even deserve any financial benefits and took all her belongings, too. He was planning on removing her from the family tree before her articles caused any onflicts.
It had happened in an instant. If the countess didn't secretly provide Hestia with some money to survive outside, she really would've had to sleep on the streets.
"If this continues, I'm going to be on the streets..."
Hestia sighed as she buried her head into her arms. The money that her mother gave her was almost gone now, too. The original plan was for her to get a contract with the manuscript that her father burned and earn a pretty big lump sum for it. But the manuscript that was supposed to feed her had turned to ash and she was now on the streets.
She had spent all of the money she needed to pay the inn, and the only money she had left was 10 bronze–what was left after buying the stiff piece of bread.
But she thought that this situation was better than marrying someone she didn't know, so Hestia didn't regret begging for forgiveness from the count.
"....I don't want to bother Shushu though."
Hestia hesitated before taking out a contact orb from her pocket. Shuraina was currently busy as she tried to survive the harsh training of the 1st order. She trained in the halls in the morning and worked on documents in the evening. She had visited her to get her makeup done but Shushu looked completely out of it. She let out sounds of pain as she applied lipstick on her eyelids.
"Yeah. Being a bother to her in the academy was enough."
She decided to leave contacting Shuraina as her lat resort. She stuffed the rest of the stiff, hard bread into her mouth and stood up from her seat. She didn't know how to react when she was faced with questions about where to sleep and how to eat–things she had never worried about before. Should she contact the newspaper company and explain her situation? She couldn't do anything about her manuscript, so she would ask for a payment in advance for her future manuscript. Hmm.
Hestia tightened the grip of her armpit on her hands as she hung her head low to hide from the cold wind. Then, she walked slowly as she wondered how to survive by herself.
First, she needed money to buy food and a house and something to take care of her needs, so she needed to be able to earn money first and foremost. But the only thing she knew how to do was…..writing, writing, and writing…..
Just as she thought ,she had to focus on writing as her main priority. But based on the amount she paid for her manuscript, it would be hard to make a living out of it…..
Hestia wanted to write what she wanted–she didn't want to write for money. She thought that it would be impossible to write with the fervor she had if it was based on survival.
Shuraina had thought about this since she was ten–I should've done the same. If I knew that money made someone feel so stifled, I should've aimed to be a knight like her. Or even a civil servant….. She finally understood why Shuraina obsessed over money so much from a young age.
She regretted her past choices as she sat back down on the bench she had originally sat on.
It was the perfect weather to die of cold exposure. Hestia just blankly stared at her breath and reminisced about how happy she had been in the academy. When she hadn't worried about food and other basic needs, away from her household and able to do everything she wanted with the support of those around her.
"Excuse me, miss. You can't sleep here."
It was right then. Hestia opened her eyes at the voice calling her.
As soon as she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was a black uniform and a shoulder tassel made with gold thread signifying that she was part of the palace. A sun-shaped badge, rose-shaped badge, and etc. covered their chest. Hestia slowly blinked at the fancy yet clean outfit before she looked up to see who had called her. She saw a familiar head of long, curly orange hair–someone familiar.
"Shuraina!"
Hestia stood up from her seat and hugged her visitor.
"Whoa, hold on."
Shuraina tilted her head as she ran her fingers through Hestia's hair. When Hestia suddenly hugged her, she was so surprised that she almost fell backwards. But her superb reflexes quickly helped her regain her balance.
"Shushu! Shushu!"
Hestia grinned widely, showing off her teeth. She was so, so excited to see Shuraina that she couldn't seem to say anything but her name.
"Long time no see."
Shuraina smiled back, seeing her greet her so ecstatically.
Hestia's hands were so tight around Shuraina's figure that Shuraina's feet hovered off the ground for a moment.