163 His Decision
Liberty had come.
The girl walked with light footsteps while wearing a dress with very beautiful ornamental flowers. A very wide smile on her lovely face did not fade in the slightest.
Meanwhile, Hiro just stood there, leaning against a shady tree in the expanse of a flower garden. He found that place while looking for something to refine the vampire blood-eater. He managed to get +3, which meant a 15% damage increase.
He looked at the girl with a flat face. His heart was no longer beating abnormally when he saw her approaching. Hiro did not know what had happened to him. Clearly, his heart felt empty. And for the first time, he didn’t smile when he saw Liberty coming.
“Hiro, did you wait long? I’m sorry, I have to do an interview with—”
“No. I didn’t wait too long. And I don’t have much time to talk to you here either.”
Hiro’s answer managed to make the smile on Liberty’s face disappear. The girl looked confused by Hiro’s overly obvious change. Yet, she had absolutely no idea what caused it.
“Hiro? What happened?” she asked in a very soft voice. Her hand moved to touch Hiro’s cheek and forced those droopy eyes to look at her.
Only once did Liberty ever experience this. She had seen Hiro in this condition before. And she remembered all the details clearly.
“Did you have a nightmare again? You can share it with me, Hiro.” The girl looked at Hiro with pity, as if she could feel what Hiro was feeling. Liberty began to tear up.
“Is this about your brother again? The nightmare about your brother?”
The girl was still trying hard to get Hiro to open his mouth. However, all she got was a cold, blank stare. Hiro brushed Liberty’s hand away gently before speaking.
“My brother is still alive. Even if he really died, he was killed. And the one who killed him was your father, Libe.”
Liberty shook her head in disbelief at the words that came out of Hiro’s mouth. Accusing her father of murder was something that hurt the girl’s feelings so much. She couldn’t help but burst into tears.
“My father is not a murderer. He saved everyone who needed help. People think of him as a hero, Hiro. And your brother, I’m sure my father didn’t know him. Don’t make up a theory.” Liberty pushed Hiro’s body roughly, but she was thrown backwards instead because the difference in their STR points was too far.
Snap!
Hiro grabbed the girl’s hand before she tumbled backwards due to her own action.
“Let me go.” Liberty was the one who shook Hiro’s hand forcefully. The look in her eyes had changed. She was furious.
Hiro took a deep breath. He knew it would happen. However, his heart felt a little lighter after saying those hurtful words to Liberty. What he had been bothering all this time could finally come out in the form of words. Even Spyro, who pretended to be asleep on a tree branch, for the first time could hear the reason for Hiro’s sudden change of mood to become very quiet.
“Didn’t you know that my father was the one who had created a world as beautiful as this? Didn’t you know that without my father, you might never have met me? Didn’t you know—”
“I know. You don’t need to mention them one by one. The more you mention your father’s success, the more I will only hate him, Libe.”
Hiro cut off Liberty’s words with a louder voice. Making the girl look at him with a look of disbelief, while her cheeks were already wet with tears.
“I don’t like the way he uses you as a shield to cover up his crimes, Libe. I just can’t accept that.” Hiro knew he had gone too far. He was too rude, and he had hurt Liberty with his words.
Hiro spoke in a very soft voice, trying to convey what was in his heart to convince the girl. But, apparently, it was useless.
Liberty looked really shaken by his words, and the girl’s body seemed to tremble slightly. She didn’t even want to look Hiro in the eye anymore when she spoke.
“Enough. You don’t know anything, Hiro. You don’t know my father’s sacrifice in the slightest. You don’t know what I’ve been through until I die and can only live in this world. We just happened to meet and if it weren’t for that, none of this would have happened.”
Hiro let the girl pour out her emotion into words. All he could see was the top of her head. Both the girl’s ears dropped weakly because she was very sad and disappointed at the same time.
Hiro really wanted to touch her, but he knew it wasn’t a wise choice.
“He killed my brother. He’s a killer, Libe.”
Hiro didn’t know where that sentence came from. He just believed it. And, he had a feeling that was the case. Hiro was more convinced, since Dr. Jeff Johnson was constantly promoting his new project around the world. It was as if the man tried to gather as many allies as possible so that they would save him from an unseen sin.
“Stop it, Hiro. I don’t know who your brother is, let alone my father… It’s impossible for someone as busy as him to know your brother. And you accuse my father of being a murderer just because your brother is dead, Hiro?”
“What you said really didn’t make sense, Hiro. I don’t know what my father did to you, but you’ve gone too far in accusing him of being a murderer. I’m very disappointed in you, Hiro.”
The girl’s body began to tremble violently. She cried with her face down while staring at the flowers that had died from being stepped on.
“I’m sorry, Libe. I’m messed up. Seeing you just made me think back to that person. Give me some time.” Hiro felt his heart empty. He realized his words were too harsh for Liberty. And he knew he could lose her for good after this.
“Forgive me.” He repeated his apology, but the girl gave no response.
Hiro didn’t really have any proof for his statement before because he knew that getting that proof wasn’t easy. However, he was sure he would get it sooner or later. If only he had the opportunity to ask his brother directly, things would have gone much easier. But, he didn’t know his brother’s status in this world.
“Never appear before me again, Hiro. I don’t want to see you until you apologize to my father for the harsh accusations you made against him.”
Liberty suddenly looked at Hiro with her wet and swollen eyes. The girl held her breath as if not willing to say it.
And Hiro, who already knew he would hear such a sentence, nodded resignedly.
“I’ll only apologize if he really didn’t kill anyone.”