-Nina! shouted Stephan, falling startled on the floor, sitting h h how is that possible? Didn t you -Died? asked Nina, looking at him with piety eyes I also thought that but death isn t the end this is all I can tell you - she then looked at me now regarding you I really needed to have a talk to you since now I am not bound to the shackles of social conventions - she then began walking towards me, when she was blocked by Akira.
-I w won t let you hurt my dear! Akira opened her arms before Nina, even though she was apparently very scared at the face changed Enmie.
-Akira-chan - she then lowered herself to stay at Akira s level and looked her in the eyes you must have heard a lot about me, I was the one to be on your place before you came to what Akira just nodded I just want to have one last talk with my dear little man, little kitty, as I still have a serious and unsolved thing to deal, I promise I won t do him any harm, understood? Nina then placed Enmie s paw on Akira s head side and began fondling behind her cat ears that is why, could you please let me pass?
-Y Yes! Akira replied, already purring to her touching I t trust you, dear only said good things about you.
-Good girl! she then gently placed Akira aside and walked towards me, with piety eyes she looked at me it has been quite some time Richard, I am sorry for having departed so suddenly.
-N Nina! I exclaimed, cowering even more in my corner I d don t deserve your presence! I disgraced myself in my mistakes that made me commit unthinkable acts, I am an animal and I have no more right of being before you -Boy, you still are way too na ve to know correctly the true inner character of people she then kissed me on the forehead, as she would always do do you really believe that no one makes mistakes?
-I wouldn t say no one makes mistakes I then pointed at her but you, for instance, if it wasn t for some injustice you would never became a slave so pure you are! Now me for instance, I already raped the person that loved me most when I said that, Nina s face was covered in sadness what made her do an even worse thing, and die in the process, hell is way too little for me! I deserve to die, die!
I began listening to the voice telling me yes! You are useless! You deserve to die! Died! Commit suicide! Flee from that place! everything began turning dark around me, as if it was going to suck and devour what was left of my sanity and humanity; something the shone around me and everything was illuminated again; I looked at Nina and noticed she had her whole body on Enmie s place! But this time I wasn t startled, I just let her touch me and say:
-My boy, there is the point where you making a mistake! she then helped me standing up and sitting on the bed, pointing her lap as she usually would do when I was feeling sad and, trying to cheer me up, would tell me a story I made a lot of mistakes in my life my dear, some very serious, bringing even this tragic end of those past days as result!
-I c can t believe Nina I stuttered completely shocked with the revelation do you want me to believe that someone as pure as were capable of mistakes so big that might have influenced on this disaster? What could have you - that was when I saw her sadness filled eyes, I remembered what Yumi had told me w why were you so against a relationship between Yumi and me?
-It is because of this mistake of mine boy Nina began replying I can tell you a history that explains this all, but you have to promise for the love you have for me that you won t interrupt me, as I needed to die to understand how wrong I was and dispose of my pride that haven t brought me anything, do you promise?
-Yes grandma Nina, I promise I replied resting my head on her legs.
-Alright then she then looked at the celling, thought for some moments and said here we go.
The story that is behind all these problems began eighty one years ago, on the July sixteen of nineteen forty, date in which I came to this world in a land which was devastated by war and it oppressed its inhabitants, I grew up seeing people die of hunger, cold, thirsty and illness; what didn t prevent me from being a dreaming girl, however extremely ambitious, I didn t hate being born on a humble family, however I would do my best to have a bit more of comfort.
The chance made itself present when fifteen years later, on December third of nineteen fifty five, I met a noble in a beneficent party, a admit that a long time I had been thinking into having an affair with someone rich and powerful, however in this case there was a tad of attraction between us; at that same day, despite all the morals and rigid education of those times, I went to bed with him, on the next month I found out I was pregnant from that noble; I looked for him and found out that he was married for a month already, I confronted him regarding his responsibility with the child that was about to be born, he felt threatened, and arrested me saying I was trying to ruin his marriage with lies; it is a shame that at those times we didn t have the DNA exams yet, on January twenty two of nineteen fifty six, I was enslaved.
When I thought everything had been lost on my life, I was bought by the kindhearted Montecchio Vonfred, your grandfather, the very same way that happened with you and Akira, was between him and me, as soon as he saw me, he pitied me and bought me without thinking twice; he was very gentle with me, I informed him I was pregnant in case he wanted me to abort so was I could be ready sooner for work; in the moment he said that wasn t necessary in case I didn t want to, I knew he was a special man, to which I would devote my whole life; he gave me light services as to check cleaning, dishwashing and clothing quality, among things of the sort.
Vonfred took the Montecchio s family name at the age of nineteen, after his dad die of heart problems consequence of one of those big parties; he was an extremely gentle young man, that accompanied each stage of my pregnancy, at each passing day I felt more and more affection towards him, as if he was even the father of this child; I knew we had a very more intimate relation then the typical master versus slave, on September eighteen of that same year; at that date my daughter was born, Kawasumi Marisol, he held my hand all the time, while the midwife kept telling me to be strong.
I was able to take care of my daughter until when she was six months old when we stopped breastfeeding her; at that day Vonfred explained me that because of the law, all the slave s offspring are born free, however they need to be sent for adoption, then he gave me the option that, with his own money, to send Marisol to an intense 24/7 of elite school, appropriate for noble children that aren t the first one, that prepared them to get ready to be successful without access to the family s money, as this is left for the first offspring; I was aware of that law but when he offered me that marvelous to the future of my beloved daughter, I accepted and found out that I loved him very much, I decoded then to give my heart and soul to that man, to whom I owed so much.
Ten years later Vonfred, now twenty nine years old, had not married yet and didn t wish to seeing he loved me as well, but the family even being the most broad-minded of all Verona, would still be horrified with the idea of a noble family leader to marry a slave, preventing any love relationship between us, which both of us were aware; hence why after a lot of pressure from the family, it was arranged a marriage with a prominent non-noble lady, which only function would be to give a male heir to the Montecchio house, her name was Maristela; and it happened on February twelve of nineteen sixty six.
On January four of nineteen sixty seven Montecchio Robert is born, the only son of the couple; seeing that that was their only objective, Vonfred allowed her to do whatever she wished as long as she didn t stain the family name; that was when she met the slave that had just arrived at the household named Stephan, that became her love almost permanently, that is why I called him when no one was looking as Raging Stallion leaving Vonfred and his son under my care, giving them nothing more than despite; that is the reason our bound grew so large.
Thanks to the great dedication and care that I gave both Vonfred, now forty and two years old, as well as Robert, now thirteen, they allowed me to fulfill one dream of mine; after being very incisive saying they wouldn t accept a you don t need to give me anything I asked them to allow me to see my daughter just once, after all it had passed twenty three years since I sent her to school; days later Matsumi Marisol, that was not Kawasumi anymore as she had married, came to the Montecchio house as a very important guest, married to a non-noble member of high society Matsumi Marcos; together with a little girl called Matsumi Mishio, five years old.
Yes, as you can imagine, Mishio was my granddaughter, to whom I was enchanted with instantly; Marisol also loved to find out her mother was alive and well, despite being a slave; the one that didn t like it too much was her husband, that thanks to a very deep prejudice rooted into his being, forbade them of coming visiting me again, to my grandchild s despair; days later I began receiving letters from my daughter, seeing that at least in that way her husband allowed them to have contact with me.
As soon as Mishio began writing, she also began exchanging letters with me frequently; with the passage of time we became much more than grandma and granddaughter, but more like very good friends in giant letters exchanged, where she would tell me her day by day problems and I would give her advice as how to overcome them; several years passed until when Robert returned from the obligatory noble military service, at the age of nineteen, is forced to marry the daughter of a declining noble family that was about to lose its title and freedom, adding all its proprieties; with a very conceited girl named Capriole Margie; fusing with our family, with all their possessions the Montecchio s became the second most powerful family of Verona.
Of course a marriage without love like that is bound to failure, but even like that at March eighteen of nineteen eight six the pact was sealed, ending the Capriole house, and initiating a new era to this house and to myself as well; on the following years Montecchio Gabriel is born, your older brother; regarding my daughter two years later I stopped receiving letters from her, just communicating sometimes with my granddaughter; after a lot of time I found out she had died in October nineteen of nineteen eighty nine.
My grandkid avoided commenting what happened, I got to know when another fact happened, but I am getting ahead of the facts; my daughter s husband business went bankrupt, leaving them on complete poverty, almost to the point of being enslaved due to the bills, what was way too much for his heart, who died victim of a heart attack on the beginning of that year, my daughter became very depressed since she loved him with all her soul, she became sick dying months later, leaving Mishio alone in the world, and she was just fifteen years old at that time; I never got to know about her poverty state, as even being like that she fought a lot to take care of her own alone, she was as prideful as her grandma.
On February twenty of nineteen ninety two, I saved Robert of being murdered from muggers giving up my promise never to use the gat-fu, of course I didn t come out from this fight unharmed, I spent four days in comma; Vonfred didn t leave my side for even a moment, when I came back to myself he said I could choose anything for me, as a reward for having saved his son s life; the old noble insisted in the anything which made me ask for some time to think to figured out what I wanted, the opportunity presented itself days later, on March eighth of that year.
Mishio came to visit me at home, she was almost unrecognizable so thin she was, she had very worn out clothes; after being given me the permission to talk to her, she updated me with what happened, that was when the thing she was holding on her arms moved; she explained he was family less Richard, explaining me she got pregnant and it was born on March first of that year, from an affair that the kid s father thought she was trying to trick him into accepting someone s else child and abandoning her in the process; after a lot of insistence, I managed to make her tell me the name of the person, when I heard she got pregnant of a noble I panicked and didn t even hear his name; I just made her promise that she wouldn t ever tell anyone that history, telling her my own in sequence, she understood and
-A A A A Are you telling me that - I stuttered, at that moment I finally understood what she was trying to say, looking at her with shocked eyes that this boy, that was born on the very same day as me was me? That you are my g g g great-grandmother?
-You promised me that you wouldn t interrupt me, didn t you boy? she looked at me and smiled the old nekomimi, with a lot of sadness but are you finding just this shocking? My worst mistake was the after that, listen to me until the end, alright?
-Y Yes grandma I mean great-grandma Nina I replied, becoming silent.
I just know that in that moment I wanted to introduce Mishio to Vonfred, all she did was to hand me the child saying she had no conditions at all to take care of him, that she was going to go back and continue being the one she always had been for some time now; that was when I noticed how prideful she was, not leaving a slight chance for me to stop her, I knew I should have stopped her, but I didn t; Robert and Vonfred became fully aware of the situation and I decided to use my wish, that was this boy, my great-grandson, to have the same kind of life as the other five Montecchio sons.
It may seem like a generous wish, but it wasn t; I wanted to be the great-grandmother of a person as important as a Montecchio, and I also didn t want any other member of my family away from me; my wish was pondered for some moments and accepted, as the DNA exam was just asked in cases where the father refused to recognize his kids, we didn t use it; Robert recognized Richard as a son that came from an outside marriage affair, which made Margie s name be completely stained, making her feel all the hatred she feels for you.
Months later I received the last letter I would from Mishio while she was alive, saying that the noble that got her pregnant actually changed his mind and wanted her back, even if she had a son, as the announcement about Richard s origin was public, there was nothing else that could be done, that was why she said that the child didn t survive the deliver; she also told me that she was sincere with him and that she had a slave grandmother, the only condition he imposed her was that she would never have more contact with me, as that noble house really hated slaves, so that letter was a farewell, that she loved me and wouldn t ever forget me even if we had never lived together.
Eight years passed and the big earthquake happened, destiny s biggest irony, the only survival of the Montecchio family wasn t a real Montecchio! As I was the only one that knew about that, they never suspected anything; better yet, as you idolatrized me, I had a life par to a queen to slave s standards; on the following years I wondered if my granddaughter had escaped, but as she never contacted me anymore I considered with a lot of sadness on my heart that she had died on catastrophe; days later after the natural disaster, you brought a very pretty nekomimi girl, that so traumatized or with deep amnesia, just knew her name Yumi ; I swear I tried in all ways possible to help the poor girl, but no one actually came after her.
Another eight years after the earthquake, the deadline for the families to claim the deceased one s proprieties arrived, in the nobles cases the king couldn t leave non-nobles to deal with those subjects; as no other noble had a better reputation than yours, he asked you to help him with the task of separating everything found on the debris, so as not to throw away important stuff, nor to give along with the things that were going to be donated or incinerated; at that time you were sixteen years old and Yumi, thirteen, you brought a lot of papers and stuff that seemed like documents that day, you were pondering what to do regarding all those things when I offered myself to separate what was important from pictures and personal objects, which was very appreciated by you; everything was going well until a certain point when I found a notebook, that looked like a diary, in its frontal cover there were golden letters where you could read Matsumi Mishio .
I began going through its pages almost instantly, Mishio said that she was still using her family name because she was prideful of being part of it, as she wished to find a break on the husband s travels to come and visit me, I cried of happiness when I read the pages you said you were loved and extremely happy, how that was the life you always dreamed for yourself; but I became even more moved when you wrote that you were pregnant, that you were loving the idea of being a mother and even being extremely important and rich, she wouldn t give the responsibility to take care of her daughter to anyone else I was extremely happy reading this until the diary arrived on May twenty five of nineteen ninety five
-W What happened - I asked, as Nina became silent suddenly, feeling already a very big discomfort why did you become quiet great-grandmother what did you see on that diary that was s so bad? noticed she began crying.
-M Mishio wrote Nina replied while shaking, visibly making an ungodly effort to be able to continue.
-What did my m mother write Nina? I asked again, even more worried.
-She wrote today is the h happiest moment of my life the fruit of our love was born! I was feeling worse by the minute, as if I felt a disaster was on its way a very beautiful nekomimi, blonde, with golden fur, blue eyes, that will have the father s family s name and the name chosen by me our treasure she will be c c c c called Tsukimiya Yumi