Loftus bade me farewell and left me with the crying Penrin. She no longer looked up to acknowledge me. I stood by her like a weirdo since I had no idea how to console her.
She was experiencing quite the tragedy. Her face was scarred and her feelings of affection were rejected. I wondered if she shielded Loftus with her body because she was in love with him. Perhaps she still loved him. I was never the best at understanding people’s feelings. If I were, maybe I could have found the words to comfort the poor girl.
Minutes passed and I came up with many ideas to cheer her up. Trouble was, all of the ideas sucked. I thought about telling her a joke or putting on an impromptu performance. Any words I could have said would’ve been meaningless. I knew she did not want to hear anything from me.
I heard the quick clicking of heels on the stone path behind me. I turned to see an open palm hurtling towards my face. A woman slapped me. She was aged 52, had black hair tied into a bun, wore glasses, and sported a stern look. “How dare you?”
“Ouch!” I rubbed my reddening cheek. “What did I do to deserve that?” I thought for a moment and realised I had done a lot of things to deserve that. I immediately rephrased my question. “What did I do to you in particular to get slapped?”
“How about luring my daughter onto a dangerous mission and almost getting her killed? I forbade her from taking guild requests with you, but somehow you coaxed her into it. You used your status as a hero to—”
“Mother!” Penrin shouted. “I told you not to get involved!”
“How can I not?” the mother said. “This vermin played with your heart and then cast you aside like a broken toy. What mother wouldn’t get mad?”
“Loftus isn’t like that!” Penrin said. “Plus, this kid is just a random person. They have nothing to do with the incident.”
The mother’s eyes widened and she gave me a closer look.
“Hello. Yarm here.” I held my hand in the air.
“Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry, boy!” She pulled out a clean handkerchief and placed it against my slapped cheek. “I had no idea. I thought you were that vile hero that made my daughter cry.”
The hankie felt like it was soothing the pain from the slap. Did it have magic imbued into it or something? “That’s alright. Some people pay money to get slapped like that.”
“No, it isn’t alright. I’m sure you must feel horrible.”
“It doesn’t hurt that badly.”
“You must feel horrible knowing you were mistaken for that foul piece of dung known as Loftus.”
“Huh?” So she wasn’t apologising for the slap? She was sorry that she compared me to Loftus. To be fair, I’d rather be slapped a thousand times than have any relation to him.
“You must come over for tea and scones so I may apologise with some hospitality.”
“No, Mother! There’s no need to invite him to our house. He’s a freak!” Penrin had completely stopped crying by this point. Her mind was successfully distracted. A mission well done by me and her mother, though not intentionally.
“That’s not nice, honey. Don’t say mean things about your classmate here.” Penrin’s mother helped her up from the floor.
“You don’t understand. A few days ago, when Loftus and I first met, he came out of nowhere and started attacking Loftus for no reason!”
“Oh my, is that true?” she asked in shock. “I like him even more now.” Penrin’s mother held her daughter’s hand and then approached me. “Boy, you’ll have to regale me with the tale of how you assaulted that wretch called Loftus.” She held my hand and dragged us both to her house.
After a half-hour journey, we got to a large mansion. I was seated with Penrin at a round table. Penrin’s mother poured us both tea and prepared some scones for me to eat.
“What’s your name, boy?”
“Yarm,” I answered. I looked above the mother’s head to see the name ‘Frome’.
“I hope you’ll continue being friends with my daughter.”
“He’s not my friend!” said Penrin.
“As I’m sure you’re aware, my daughter is quite abrasive. She finds it hard to open up to others. That’s why I was initially happy when she befriended that revolting Loftus. She ran around giggling and smiling about how much she liked him,” said Frome.
Penrin stuffed her mouth with scones until she looked like a chipmunk.
“Unfortunately, the blabbermouth told all her friends about her new companion that was a hero from another land. We nobles are well aware of how the king summoned a hundred heroes to defeat the Demon King.”
I reached over for some jam to spread on my scone.
“My daughter told everyone. She was boasting about it nonstop, and now that’s come to bite her in the behind. There’s a soiree tonight that many nobles will be attending. She bragged about how she’d bring one of the king’s heroes to the event with her. That repulsive Loftus had initially said yes to the invite, but after the incident he decided not to attend anymore.”
“Damn…” These scones were good. “Can’t she just pretend she’s sick and not show up?”
“Not after already making a promise to attend. We nobles take our words very seriously. Even if one is to fall ill, they must make the effort to attend.”
“Dang…” I couldn’t tell if the rhubarb jam tasted better or the apricot jam.
“When she shows up without the hero she boasted about, she’ll be ridiculed. It’s a shame our family is going to lose a great deal of status over this.”
“Your family will lose status just because a kid couldn’t bring her hero friend?”
Frome shook her hands. “Not that. It’s just that I won’t be able to take seeing my poor girl bullied by the other nobles. I’m going to start slapping anyone who bad-mouths my sweet daughter.”
“Mother! Please don’t!” Penrin yelled with her mouth full. “You’re going to make things worse. Let them make fun of me. I can take it.”
“But I cannot.” Frome sipped her tea.
I finished sipping my own tea. I got up from my chair and began to leave. I didn’t want any part in rich people’s affairs. “Well, I hope you two have fun at the soiree.”
“Yes, you’re right. I’ll at least try to enjoy some of the delicious food they’ll be serving before I begin the slappening,” she said.
“Delicious food? Can I come?” I asked.
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