Chapter 36 33: Like Her

"That's because I received the memories of another life."

A bout of silence took over as I said that.

A strong man didn't need to bother with hiding these things. I didn't think this information was worth hiding at all.

"AHA..." A loud sound broke the silence, "Hahahahah! What are you talking about?"

"Haha! Young master, you have the weirdest jokes."

"Another life! I almost got scared there hahaha!"

Keith, Maria, and Lily started laughing out loud while calling me silly. I didn't not expect this, so I crossed my legs and waited patiently with a serious face.

Keith noticed my look and stopped laughing. He leaned closer to me and whispered.

"Seriously?"

I nodded.

Maria and Lily shut up as well as they watched me.

"Can a person learn the piano and become a superb mage in just one night after not being able to see faces? I thought this one was more obvious than the other."

Lily and Keith closed their mouths and continued staring at me. These two were attached to the me they knew now, so this reaction was only natural. That and well, it would be tough to accept things right away. But, there was also another person here who probably thought differently.

I slowly turned to my side and looked at Maria. Her eyes must have been trembling, no, I was sure they were as her entire body in front of me shook as if she was put in the coldest place on the planet with wet clothes.

She cracked her lips open and let out a pained voice.

"I... I always looked at you thinking... it was someone else..."

Keith and Lily winced at her words, but I calmly observed her as she struggled to continue.

"I always thought it was like this... but I didn't want to admit it... t-there's... there's a small scar on the back of your neck, young master..."

I didn't know that. I didn't know anything, since I had no idea what I looked like.

"I checked and made sure it was you." Maria's head dropped and she sighed. "This makes much more sense now..."

Lily carefully grasped at Maria's sleeves while Keith stared at me. I could tell from his shoulders that he wasn't looking at me suspiciously at all, but instead with worry.

In my opinion, Maria was too bothered.

"So... are you not... my young master in the end? Are you not Eugene Hall...?"

"I don't know what you're on about," I sighed and said. "As I explained, I got memories of a previous life and nothing else. I am still me. We have never discussed why I was kicked out of the family, but I remember that it was because I ended up hurting the youngest and my bitch of a stepmother wanted me gone."

I spoke with all the seriousness I could muster while keeping a 'no big deal' attitude about me.

As I had thought, they all had their suspicions. It was best to clear it out right now than to end up harming our relationship down the line. We already trusted each other enough to overcome this minor difference in perspective, there was no need to let it evolve into seeds of doubt down the line.

"I, of course, don't remember a lot of things since I was a child, but I remember the rest. I remember walking around the pond back at the main residence with you, Maria. I remember well how you once fixed me up after I got hurt chasing a dog. I remember you telling me about the flower that my mother used to love in the garden."

Over the years, I had pulled up whatever memories I could from the time when I was just Eugene. It was tough, since it felt as if those events happened even earlier than the events in my life as Yujin, and Yujin's life was unbearably eventful already by my current age of 14.

Maria's trembling intensified as I listed the events that tied us together. I still couldn't think of it as a big deal, but this was still the person who had raised me since she was a young girl.

I was more than willing to reassure her tens, hundreds, or even thousands of times. And I was equally willing to wait for her.

"The only things that I forgot which I should have known are all of your faces. Nothing else."

Another round of silence filled the room.

For some reason, Keith and Lily were just shaking their heads between me and Maria.

Just like before, I relaxedly watched her as she gripped at the hems of her clothes and her fingers trembled.

After many minutes had passed, Maria took in a deep breath and spoke.

"Young master, your mother and I. My master... she... she hoped that you would always be happy."

Maria's voice contained more pain than it had yet.

"S-she said, she wanted her son to be smiling, to trust others and to help others, to not doubt others, to not worry and just be himself... She... She didn't want her child to be tainted by the sorrows and cruelty of this world... She didn't want you to be like her..."

Maria bit her lips.

My mother was an idealist, it seemed.

At last, Maria raised her gaze and looked straight at me.

I couldn't see her face.

Not one bit.

"You've become so much like your mother that it's scary, young master."

My eyes trembled.

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Something pulled at my heart at her words. What was it? What made me feel this way?

I couldn't tell, but I could feel my heart racing.

It was different from the racing of my heart from when I fought or made a breakthrough.

I felt... regretful.

Maria suddenly stood up and bowed.

"I'll start making preparations for us to leave."

I could only watch as Maria walked out of the room without looking back.

Keith and Lily looked at me as well, but I shook my head and shooed them away. They left chasing after her.

"Was I... too insensitive?"

What look did she have in her eyes as she left?

For the first time in a long, long time. I cursed my inability to see a person's face.