Chapter 239: Viktor’s Childhood

"Half-elves are considered failed elves from the moment they are born, so they are already outcasts among the elven people. I don’t really care anymore."

Viktor said this with a bitter sarcastic smile.

Seeing that expression, Qiu Nuoya wondered if this was also why Viktor so persistently referred to himself as a child born outside his father’s main marriage.

Viktor had said before that he hated the closed minded way of thinking in the elven village.

"Viktor grew up in this house?"

"Well, yes. Though, if you put it that way, I was practically under house arrest."

"House arrest? Why?"

"As you can see, this house has perfect defenses. If nothing can enter from the outside, then naturally, nothing can leave from the inside either. I was free to do as I pleased within the mansion, but I always needed an escort whenever I went outside. I was not even allowed to leave the house by myself until I became an adult. I had a private tutor, so I received all the education I needed to enter society, but I did not have a single friend, and even now, I am not very good at interacting with people."

That explains a lot.

Viktor really was terrible at building relationships with others. Could it be because he had never developed the communication skills that most people naturally learned during childhood?

"There were a few people around my age when I visited the elven village, but as a half-elf, I ultimately never managed to fit in there either... Wait, what am I even talking about? Forget I said anything."

"Huh? Why? I would like to hear more about you. Ah, but if you don’t want to talk about it, I won’t force you."

"There is nothing about it that would trouble me if you knew. But what would you gain from hearing it? There is nothing interesting about my past."

"Then let me ask you this instead. If I started telling you about my life in the other world before I met you, wouldn’t you want to hear about it?"

"That... I would."

That made sense. Before meeting Viktor, Qiu Nuoya had been a resident of another world, so naturally, Viktor, who was always eager to learn, would want to hear about a completely different world.

And of course, people naturally want to hear anything and everything about someone they love, right?

Well, Qiu Nuoya wasn’t going to say that part out loud.

"But I really don’t have any particularly enjoyable stories about my childhood."

"Even so, I want to know how you lived in this house and what kind of childhood you had."

Viktor looked slightly troubled, but eventually seemed to give in. He sat down on the sofa and began telling Qiu Nuoya about his childhood little by little.

They were memories that left Qiu Nuoya with complicated feelings.

Most of Viktor’s childhood memories took place entirely within this mansion.

The mansion was vastly larger than an ordinary home. Although he had not been allowed to enter the outer garden, the inner courtyard was about the size of a small park, so he had never lacked a place to play.

Viktor’s family consisted of his mother and one older sister, who was eight years older than him. His father would visit the mansion during seasonal celebrations and other special occasions, but he was generally absent from the household.

The other people living there were Franz, the butler, his wife, who served as head maid, and several dozen other maids.

As a young child, Viktor never found anything strange about his family situation. His entire world existed within the mansion, and he had nothing else to compare it to. That world was everything he knew.

Of course, Viktor could never have made any friends, so his older sister was usually his playmate.

Since she was eight years older than him, his sister was always very attentive and took good care of him. His mother, meanwhile, was the kind of person who would always watch the two of them with a gentle smile.

Every day was peaceful and followed the same familiar routine. To young Viktor, that life was simply normal, and he never once doubted that it would continue forever.

The first change to his peaceful life came when Viktor was three years old, when he was taken outside the mansion for the first time.

They went to the elven village. His father took only Viktor and his sister and brought them to visit their relatives there.

At the time, Viktor did not understand why his mother had not come with them.

Apparently, among the relatives he had never met before, there was also an older half-brother of his, but Viktor said he could not remember him.

The people in the elven village cast rude, scrutinizing looks at Viktor and his sister. Until then, Viktor had grown up in a world surrounded only by kind and gentle people who watched over him with warm smiles. Those unfamiliar gazes made him deeply uneasy, and he clung to his sister, desperately wanting to go home as soon as possible.

His sister, who normally smiled as peacefully as their mother, looked frightened and childlike herself for once. Seeing her expression only made Viktor’s anxiety grow.

Whether his father noticed the children’s unease or not, he was busy discussing something with their relatives with a serious expression and paid no attention to them.

Viktor said that, when he looking back again, this was probably the first time he had ever begun to distrust his father.

Amid all this, when the two children were beginning to feel as though they had been completely left behind, someone came over to speak to them.

While the other children of the family watched Viktor and his sister from a distance, that person alone looked slightly troubled. He bent down so that he could meet the young children’s eyes, smiled, and gently patted both of them on the head.

"It’s all right."