Doggone Academy Chapter 1: I Love You (1)

I didnt pay much attention to other peoples opinions. I didnt care what they thought of .

Whether soone liked or not, didnt matter much to .

People often branded as indifferent and contemptible by nature.

That wasnt true, I was not always indifferent and contemptible.

There was a ti when I longed for attention and love, the kind which reciprocates openly and sincerely, with genuine displays of affection.

I beca this way as ti went on.

My mother was the first person who said I love you to .

My father died in an unfortunate accident just a month after leaving ho to another city to earn a living, so my mother raised alone.

After several years of hardship, my mother disappeared one day, leaving only a letter that said, Im sorry.

I wandered all over the city for ten days and ten nights. I was run over by a carriage while crying on a main street and bled from my forehead, but even then I didnt stop looking for my mother, fearing that she would disappear forever.

Every night I cried on the sidewalk until I fell asleep. When the sun ca up, I would resu the search for my mother. By the eleventh day, I was so hungry and exhausted that I couldnt shed any more tears. It was then that, in a desperate act, I tried to steal fruit from a street market and was discovered. Despite my pitiful state, I was beaten for the theft.

I had been thrown half-dead in an alley in the slums, but I was lucky enough to cross paths with a priest from the Temple of Acates, who took in.

From then on, I lived in the Temple of Acates, in the orphanage located in the Lorail Pavilion.

We were dozens of orphans. Although most of them didnt even know their parents faces, none of them lost hope that one day their parents would co looking for them.

I missed my mother every night. I asked myself how she could abandon so ruthlessly after she said I love you? I was still too naive to understand it.

I cried for months every ti night fell. I felt desolate, alone in the world. But as ti went by, I got used to life without my mother. Only then did I realize that no matter how terrible the sadness, there will always co a day when one can cope with it.

I couldnt deny that sotis the sadness of abandonnt hit as hard and suddenly as lightning. Especially when I saw children my age walking the streets with a happy smile holding their parents hands.

The orphans at Lorail Pavilion had similar scars to mine in their hearts, which probably made it easier for to relate to them. By spending ti with them, I was able to fill the emptiness in my heart, if only a little.

It was there that I t Liza. She was my age, and her care had been entrusted to the Temple of Acates a year before my arrival.

She was a girl with dull gray hair and large bright eyes.

Liza was a descendant of a prestigious family of mages who had connections to the Imperial Family. She was at the orphanage even though she had a family who could take care of her.

Her parents lost their lives in the war, so her uncle succeeded them as head of the family. Liza told that her uncle was violent and mistreated her, and after all kinds of acts of rebellion, she was sent to the orphanage.

Ever since Liza and I beca friends, she often poured her heart out to .

I envy you.

Why?

I wish I didnt have a family.

You dont know how lonely it feels to not have a family.

So, do you think its all right to marry a mber of your own family?

What are you talking about?

My uncle says that we are the most powerful wizarding family on the continent and, in order to preserve the blessings bestowed upon our bloodline, marriages must exclusively take place between family mbers.

What?!

He also used to refer to my mother as a slut due to her lack of powerful bloodline and status.

Hes a wicked man.

Shh! Be careful with your words. If you are caught badmouthing my uncle, it will be the end of you.

Then she pretended to cut her own throat with her hand.

My uncle beat up every night for the insults I spoke. You wouldnt be safe either.

I nodded and asked curiously, Will you have to marry your uncle?

Yes, but I refuse. My uncle will co for when I grow up. Its horrible. Id rather die or beco a nun than marry my uncle.

Liza didnt interact much with the other children. The other children knew that Liza belonged to a noble family, which made it difficult for her to integrate into the group.

I dont know exactly why, but I was Lizas only friend. Maybe she liked because I was a good listener, while she liked to talk. She sat next to at worship services, religion classes, liberal arts classes, and als. Even when we played with the children, she always tead up with .

Liza loved flowers and dicinal herbs and studied her biology in her spare ti. She took for walks in the woods after class and enthusiastically told about the uses of the dicinal herbs we ca across.

For most of my childhood, Liza was by my side. Although her presence certainly helped cope with my sadness, our friendship wasnt always a source of happiness.

If I sat next to another child or spent ti with other children after class, she would pout and beco cranky, lock herself in her room, and not co out for hours.

When she was in a bad mood, I would go out into the woods to pick Lizas favorite flowers and dicinal herbs for her. The one she liked the most was a flower called Elcanto, which had no use, but she loved its beautiful petals and sweet scent. Giving her flowers and dicinal herbs quickly cheered her up.

However, there were tis when Liza would get so angry that even flowers and dicinal herbs couldnt calm her down.

When she saw spending ti with other girls, she would express her jealousy and anger with violent actions.

Sotis she threw sand on my quilt or tore my clothes and papers to shreds. It was even worse for the girl with whom she saw . She once was severely punished for secretly sprinkling poisonous herbal powders on another girls pillow.

I beca fed up with extre actions, so one day I firmly told her that I didnt want her near anymore. As a result, Liza completely stopped eating and drinking, locked her bedroom door, and went into seclusion for a week. The priests said that during the day she was silent, but they heard sad cries whenever they walked past her room after midnight.

When Lizas health deteriorated, the Abbess intervened and forced a reconciliation between us, putting an end to her seclusion.

Since then, Liza and I have always been together.