"Lei seg. Illska was always told to hide from place to place. Before, Illska was always with Olaug, but now Olaug is gone."
Allen and Illska talked in a room inside a hole called "Illska's house," which had many blankets and illuminated crystals inside. When Allen looked at Illska's messy clothes and hair, he thought the room would be messy and dirty, but the room turned out to look cleaner. They sat against the wall and had a piece of bread next to them. Since Allen was forced to look after her, so he was responsible for bringing her food.
After a few days of talking with Illska, she finally started talking about her past with Allen. Illska's stories were never important to Allen, and he even listened to them while studying or reading a book. As a result, Allen did not fully comprehend most of Illska's stories.
But when she started telling him about her past life, Allen couldn't focus on the book and instead focused on Illska's story.
Illska is a Norttish, and because the existence of Norttish is considered dangerous, she cannot live in the upper world. She was born underground and is constantly moving from one location to another. Every time she moved, she was always put to sleep by Olaug.
"Ensom. At first, Illska was always with Olaug. Olaug was Illska's 'far' who always looked after Illska."
Olaug is her father, who always tells Illska about her 'mor' and 'familie' and also tells Illska how beautiful the outside world is. She said the Norttish could talk to each other even when they were far away, but Illska didn't know what it was or how. So after she parted ways with Olaug, she never moved to other houses again and had no contact with other Norttish.
"Hey, Allen, Iskaria also asked you to stop talking about the outside world, right? Is the outside world really that bad?"
Allen couldn't answer. He just kept quiet while searching for the answer in his brain and pretending to read his book. He had always had bad experiences since he got out of the dungeon.
First, he starved in a cold room under Barkaley's residence, being stoned by the humans; then, here, he was a slave. He had never thought about it too deeply before because all he could think about was vengeance. Was the human world really that bad? He met Isabelle, who enslaved others; he also met Felicia, who liked to look down on others; and then he also met Theobauld, who punished him like hell. Although since coming to this house, everything seemed bad, but somehow he felt that it was not as bad as he thought, and he did not know why.
He didn't understand why Isabelle's enslaving him didn't make him angry, or why he couldn't hate Felicia even though she always put him down, nor Theobauld for punishing him. In fact, he was tired of cleaning the training ground every day; In fact, he was humiliated by Felicia's words, and in fact, he couldn't stand theobauld's punishment, but he didn't feel hatred towards them. Maybe he does hate them sometimes, but at least it is different from his hatred toward Leofric.
After a long silence, he began to think about his hatred for Leofric again. It was as if he wanted to eliminate the good things that happened to him and just keep the bad things in his mind.
"There's nothing good in the outside world; you will just suffer more. It must be so... You will definitely suffer, trust me," Allen said coldly.
Illska, who saw it, felt confused as to why Allen's face could look so miserable.
Illska then laid her head on Allen's thigh and looked at Allen's face from below.
"What?" asked Allen.
"Even from below, your face hasn't changed."
"Of course, are you stupid?"
Illska chuckled, then, with a comfortable face, she rubbed her head against Allen's thigh.
"Illska likes Allen; does Allen not like me?" asked Illska.
"I don't."
"Does Allen hate Illska?"
"I don't."
"Then does Allen hate Iskaria?"
"Not really."
"Does Allen hate Isabelle?"
"Not really."
"Sa. Then, does Allen hate Allen's house?"
The house she was referring to was probably Isabelle's house. And as she asked that, Allen thought of Isabelle, Felicia, and the people in it, and then he answered
"I don't hate it,"
"FORVIRRET! Then why, why does your face look like that? You don't hate Illska, nor do you hate Iskaria. Then you hate something else, right? Olaug said hating others is not right. We shouldn't just hate them, even if they are mean to us. The one harmed by hating others is ourselves; our eyes become closed to the people we love, making our hearts foggy and uncomfortable. As for the person we hate, he may not necessarily think of us; he was maybe just living happily while drinking tea in his house and laughing."
"..."
"Allen?"
"Did you understand what you said?" asked Allen.
"I didn't understand. I just remembered everything Olaug said"
"Haaaaah..."
Allen closed his book, and for some reason, he felt annoyed, like all his life goals were being mocked in front of him. He walked up the stairs and out of there.
"Allen, do you want to take Illska to the outside world someday?"
Allen was silent for a while, and then he looked at Illska with a cold face.
"I told you, you better not get out of here. Didn't Olaug ever tell you that?"
Illska's face became gloomy. He lowered his head and said,
"Sorry, Allen."
Allen got out of there and went to his room with mixed feelings, unable to forget Illska's words in his head.
.
.
.
The next day, during sword practice with Thurstan, Felicia watched Allen sparring with Theobauld.
Allen attacked Theobauld carelessly and seemed angry. Theobauld also didn't seem to take Allen seriously, nor did he give any advice during the sword fight.
"I wonder if anything happened to him," Felicia muttered.
After a few attacks, Theobauld stopped using his sword; he kicked Allen's body, and Allen was thrown back until he hit one of the shelves.
"That's it for today," said Theobauld.
"Wait! I'm not done yet!"
"No, all you have to do now is cool your head. It seems like this heat is driving you crazy. A little kick like that, as usual, you should be able to dodge it easily."
"TCH! Then let's try one more time! This time I show you I am able to stop it!"
"No, it's over; your mind is foggy. You become weaker than usual."
Hearing Theobauld, Allen recalled what Illska had said underground. 'The one harmed by hating others is ourselves; our eyes become closed to the people we love, making our hearts foggy and uncomfortable.'
Just like now, his heart was as foggy as Theobauld had said. Then he imagined Leofric, who was probably having a good time in his room right now.
'Allen somehow looks like the first time we met,' Felicia thought.
"How about a duel?! You said that I'm currently weak, right? Then you should duel with me! It will increase your chances of winning! You can ask for anything if you win this time!" yelled Allen angrily.
Theobauld let out a long sigh; he had completely lost the intention to fight with Allen.
"Gahaha, that's interesting. I want to do this duel thing."
"!!!"
The one who said that was not Theobauld. But another man who suddenly appeared from the left, from the horse parking lot.
"So, what are the stakes of the duel?" he continued while walking towards them.
His presence shocked everyone. Theobauld immediately covered Allen's body and pointed the sword at him, but it seemed useless; that man had already seen Allen and probably had already seen Allen's white hair.
The man has a soft voice but a big, muscular body, wearing white full-plate armor. He held an axe whose long handle was as long as a spear in his right hand. Although the axe looked long and huge, he seemed to lift it easily with just one hand. There was a church of fire crest on his chest.
He was a messenger from Archbishop Benedict Spelman, who visited the church of fire in Wolverlope, the Paladin.
"GAHAHAHA, What's going on? Why is everyone silent?"
The paladin looked at Theobauld, more precisely at Allen, who was hidden behind him, and then he looked at Felicia and greeted her.
"Hello, little lady; it's been a while. You look a little different, don't you? I like your outfit better today. It's not too elegant and doesn't emphasize your social status."
"Wh-What are you doing here?!" yelled Felicia.
"I just wanted to visit the Earl's residence before returning to the capital."
The paladin glanced at Allen, then said
"But who would have thought? I found something very interesting here. You tricked me. I didn't expect the black-haired boy at that time also have a little white hair on his head. Maybe Earl Isabelle will receive punishment for lying to the bishop."
Elsewhere, Iskaria ran in a hurry to Isabelle's room, and when she got there, she didn't knock on the door, just entered without respect.
"Lady Isabelle! The Paladin and the Bishop suddenly come to visit!"
Isabelle's face was immediately shocked—so shocked that she didn't even care about Iskaria's rude behavior.
Isabelle stood up and immediately looked at the window beside her room. Bishop was talking to one of the guards.
"Damn it. We have to hide Allen!" Isabelle shouted.
"Not only that, lady!" Iskaria shouted again, and Isabelle looked straight at Iskaria. Iskaria panted, slowly caught her breath, and said
"Illska, that child is out of place! The hole is open!"