I Became the Tyrant’s Translator - Chapter 4

“…Here it is.”

 

Leticia hesitated and handed over the basket.

 

Her grandmother’s face soured when she saw the wet basket and the mud-covered severan.

 

“You weren’t careful. It looks like you only want this old lady to die.”

 

“No!”

 

“Then why is the severan in this state? From now on, don’t even bother going out. I’d rather dig it up myself. And if I die, then isn’t that what you wanted?”

 

Her grandmother’s words were more painful than ever.

 

“Well, I tripped and rolled down-”

 

“Rolled?”

 

Only then did her grandmother look at her, realizing that Leticia was also covered in mud.

 

“Geeze, Leticia! What if you catch a cold and give it to us? You really want me to die, don’t you?”

 

“Well, I-”

 

Leticia wanted to tell her that she was almost killed by lightning.

 

But her grandmother coldly cut her off.

 

“Hurry up and wipe off the mud. I don’t want Paddington to come out for a break and slip.”

 

Her grandmother waved her hand, a gesture for her to disappear from her eyes.

 

Leticia ran to her room, clutching her pounding heart.

 

“Ah…”

 

Leticia tightly cupped her hands over her mouth, but the groans mixed with tears did not stop.

 

The cold truth was that her grandmother didn’t even care about Leticia.

 

She must have looked like a horse. She had been in the mud and rain for a long time.

 

And yet not a single word of concern left her grandmother’s mouth.

 

Only scolds and orders.

 

Leticia wiped away her tears with a clean sleeve.

 

‘I’ll wait for Mother and tell her. I don’t want to dig up severan anymore. I’ll do the housework, but I don’t like taking care of my grandmother. She hates me…’

 

Leticia wanted to change her clothes, but it was obvious that even her clean clothes would be covered with mud.

 

She left the room without her muddy shoes and apron.

 

The old water pump squeaked, but cold, clean water came out. Leticia was in a hurry to wash out the mud.

 

A huge shadow appeared, and instantly pushed Leticia away and settled in front of the pump.

 

“Move.”

 

It was Paddington.

 

He began to fill the largest bucket in the house with water, ignoring the still-muddy Leticia.

 

“Geeze, I just want to wash off the mud. I tripped over while digging for severan all day. See? I have mud all over my head.”

 

Normally, she would have waited for Paddington to finish his business, but after seeing new memories, she couldn’t act like before.

 

“If the mud hardens in my hair, it will be difficult to remove it…”

 

“Then just cut it off. Wouldn’t it be better to cut your hair short? Your hair always looked ugly, anyway.”

 

Leticia’s face hardened. Her flaming red hair was always something Paddington had made fun of since childhood.

 

The other family members were either blonde or brunette. Leticia was only told that her maternal grandmother, who had died before she met her, had the same red hair like her.

 

As he continued to fill his bucket, Paddington opened his mouth after a long time.

 

“I didn’t like today’s lunch. Make a decent dinner.”

 

“…I won’t.”

 

“What?”

 

“I won’t.”

 

Paddington stared at Leticia. His hands stopped. Leticia did not avoid his gaze.

 

“I’m tired. I almost got hurt badly today so I’m going to sleep.”

 

“You won’t make dinner just because you’re tired? So does that mean everyone else should starve?”

 

“Then make it yourself.”

 

A strange feeling began to creep up.

 

So far, Leticia has never fought with Paddington.

 

There were many times when she wanted to complain about Paddington’s unreasonable demands, but she always justified that it was because he had a hard time studying.

 

But now Leticia knows something Paddington and her parents don’t know.

 

It would be better if Paddington didn’t get into the Academy.

 

He was supposed to be a corrupted boss who would only take bribes.

 

Based on Paddington’s answer, he didn’t completely deviate from Leticia’s new memories of him.

 

“Are you crazy?”

 

Instead of answering, Leticia strode towards Paddington’s bucket of water where the clean water was overflowing.

 

‘…’

 

Leticia stared for a moment at the water and dunked in her mud-covered hair.

 

“You!”

 

Paddington pushed Leticia straight away, but the water in the bucket was already dirtied with mud.

 

Leticia pushed the dripping hair back. A strange mixture of exhilaration and a small bit of guilt rose in the nape of her neck.

 

She uttered the words that came to her mind.

 

“Do you still need this water?”

 

“T-This… This completely…”

 

Paddington looked upset and helpless.

 

It was as if he wanted to say something, but he hurriedly left, leaving the bucket alone.

 

Leticia also seemed to have heard Paddington mutter “Mother, Father”.

 

Leticia stared at where he had been a little while ago, and then put her head back in the bucket.

 

The cold water washed all the mud from her hair.

 

For the first time in her life, Leticia felt free.

 

“Leticia!”

 

Leticia, who had fallen asleep, awoke to the sound through the old door.

 

“Uh, Mother?”

 

As she opened the door carefully, she could see the stiff faces of her parents.

 

Leticia only realized exactly what Paddington’s words meant when he muttered “Mother, Father”.

 

While the weary Leticia was asleep, their parents returned from work, and Paddington rushed to tell them.

 

Leticia wasn’t angry nor surprised. It was definitely something Paddington would do.

 

‘I should have endured it somehow.’

 

She only regretted falling asleep a bit early since she couldn’t defend herself.

 

Her mother opened her mouth with a heavy face.

 

“I heard everything from Paddington.”

 

“You have been rude to your grandmother.”

 

She heard her father’s heavy voice. Leticia bit her lips.

 

While she was asleep, her grandmother and Paddington would have already told them their own story.

 

She had no intention to make any excuses. Given what happened today, she was rude to at least Paddington.

 

‘But I didn’t do anything wrong to Grandmother…’

 

But Leticia didn’t have to make any excuses. There wasn’t much difference between doing one wrong thing and doing ten wrong things.

 

“Yes.”

 

“Leticia, why did you do that?”

 

Her mother’s voice was far from the soothing tone she had been using thus far.

 

Leticia swallowed her saliva.

 

Even if it wasn’t because of the sudden memory, it was an accumulation of what her grandmother and Paddington have been doing to her.

  

 

But her parents were a different problem.

 

It would have been harder to endure each day without her parents comforting and praising Leticia.

 

So even at this moment, Leticia didn’t want to confront her parents.

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

“Leticia.”

 

Her father bent down and made eye contact with Leticia.

 

“You can’t vent your anger onto your family just because it’s hard.”

 

“…”

 

“Letica is still quite young so you don’t know this, but the older you get, the harder it is. Everyone’s having a harder time than you, but they’re all holding it in.”

 

“…”

 

At that moment, Leticia was speechless. Her chest felt stuffy.

 

Until now, Leticia had believed that she had the least amount of hardships in the family.

 

However, her new memories have shown her that it was completely false.

 

‘This… No.’

 

Her father stroked her head to see if he had misunderstood Leticia’s silence in a different way.

 

Unlike the words that came out of his mouth, his touch was very sweet.

 

“Everyone can make mistakes, so I’ll let it go just this once. Go ahead and apologize to your brother and grandmother.”

 

“…”

 

As Leticia kept her mouth shut, her father urged her once again.

 

“Leticia?”

 

“…It’s hard.”

 

“What?”

 

“It’s hard!”

 

Leticia’s words poured out like rapid fire.

 

“I’m the first one to get up in the morning. I have to wake up two hours before you go to work and make lunch! During the day, I dig up Severan all day long in the mountains, and when I come back, all sorts of chores… are piled up…”

 

The more she talked, the more she realized that she should have said all these things.

 

She wasn’t saying these words because of the new memories. The new memories were nothing but a catalyst.

 

Leticia had always had a hard time. Her parents had only praised her for the hard work she had to do even when she was younger.

 

In fact, when she thought about it, one could see that Leticia was only praised when she had done difficult and hard work.

 

“Leticia!”

 

Her mother hugged Leticia with a shocked face.

 

“I didn’t know you thought of it that way.”

 

“…Mother.”

 

“My daughter… How hard was it?”

 

Hot tears ran down Leticia’s pale cheeks.

 

After all, her mother understood her.

 

Leticia cried for a long time in her mother’s warm embrace until the thorns in her wounded heart slowly subsided.

 

“Hey, it’s okay now.”

 

Leticia, who felt ashamed for feeling excited before, removed herself from her mother’s arms. Her mother opened her mouth with a warm smile.

 

“What a relief. Now, you’re going to apologize to your brother and grandmother, right?”