[72.7] Lovi's Face Reveal

As soon as we landed, Atta jumped off of the ice chunk and ran into the courtyard still hiding her lower face in her hands. I quickly picked Lene up and carried her in my arms as I ran after her, "Atta! Wait!"

Lovi followed after us, breathing heavily as she tried to keep up.

Rose and Asmonious were inside the courtyard, Rose was sipping on tea as she lay in the sun while Asmonious was beside her painting in silence. Their relaxing atmosphere was completely shattered once Atta kicked open the door to the courtyard and raced over to them.

Atta rushed over to Asmonious and finally pulled her hands away from her face to write on a piece of paper. She shoved it in his face for him to read.

He read it aloud, "Am I ugly? Huh? What?"

He was caught off-guard by this and froze up. Seeing his speechless expression, she turned to Rose to push the paper in her face.

Rose blinked in confusion, "Um… No? I don't think you're ugly-"

Atta suddenly ripped the paper up, throwing it on the ground as she fought back tears. She wrote on another paper and threw it at Rose.

Rose took it and read it aloud, "Your beautiful, you lie."

Atta turned and sprinted to her room as her emotions that she herself didn't understand became uncontrollable. 

"Atta!" I went to go after her, but stopped to read the note, "Oh… Atta. It's you're not your."

Ah! No! I'm getting distracted.

I ran after her, "Atta! Wait-"

She went into her room and slammed the door, making cracks appear in the frame. Since I wanted to give the children a sense of privacy, I didn't force open the door.

I knocked on the wood, "Atta…"

An overwhelming sadness came over me, forcing tears to roll down my cheeks. I knew it was coming from Atta and felt my soul being crushed by her sadness.

I placed my hand on the door as my eyes lowered somberly, "Don't worry, Atta… One day, you'll find someone who will see you for who you truly are… They will be able to see the truth- that you are beautiful inside and out."

I waited to hear a response, but even though no noise answered me, the overwhelming feeling of emotion slowly pulled away.

I stepped away from the door and cast a few glances at it before leaving her alone.

Ugh… What can I do to make her feel better?

As I smacked my head to jog my memories, Asmonious came over to me and asked in concern, "Master… Is everything okay?"

"THAT'S IT!" My eyes lit up as I grabbed his hand. I started dragging him with me and out of the courtyard, "Help me with something!"

I led him to a few trees outside of the courtyard and pointed them out, "Can you make training dummies from these?"

"Training dummies?"

I pulled out some paper and charcoal and made a quick sketch to show him, "Like these! Something that will rotate on its own in several places."

He studied my drawings, "Oh… I see. I think I can manage that."

My smile grew, "Wonderful! Let's get started now!"

I spun around and blasted out a ball of fire to knock down the trees, however, I completely obliterated them instead. My face fell, "Oops… Too much mana."

Ugh! I can't control it as well without my wand…

"Pfft-" Asmonious tried to stifle his laughter, "M-Maybe I should collect the wood."

I rubbed the back of my head and let out a guilty chuckle, "That's a good idea."

Together, Asmonious and I worked tirelessly until the training yard was finally completed. I wiped my sweaty brow with a large grin, "We did it!"

Asmonious smiled, "I think she will love it. This will definitely cheer her up."

"Let's go get her!!" I made it to her door and knocked on it quickly, "Atta! Come out! I have a surprise for you!"

Atta was feeling down, but she could never ignore me when I called for her. She opened the door slowly and stepped out. I froze when I noticed the scarf on her face, covering half of her face.

Oh no…

Asmonious noticed I was frozen and nudged me, "Um, Master?"

I shook my head and forced a smile, "We have a surprise for you. Come on!"

As I led her out of the courtyard, the others followed after me. Everyone was excited to see the surprise. When I made it to the field, I held out my arms theatrically, "There! What do you think? It's your own personal training yard! You'll certainly become the hero you're destined to be if you practice every day."

Her eyes twinkled for a moment before she shook her head and scribbled on her paper. She held it out to me and it read: 'I can't be a hero. I am ugly."

Lovi shouted, "Oh that's enough! Why do you even care about the opinions of those plebians?! They don't know what beauty means!"

Atta wrote hastily on her note: 'You don't know!'

"You think I don't know!?"

Lovi suddenly pushed her hair out of her face, revealing her full face for the first time since she's arrived. I gasped in surprise but covered my mouth before I could be heard.

Half of Lovi's face looked as if it had been burnt off as her skin was indented and pink. She looked as if she had no eyeball in the socket as her eyelid was permanently closed and flat. She didn't have another horn on her forehead, and it was hard to tell if that was a result of whatever caused her burns or if she was never born with one.

She pointed at half of her face, "If you think you're ugly, then what does that make me?!"

Atta stared at her for a moment, confused by the reveal. She wrote down on a paper: 'Lovi has a jaw.'

Lovi's face twitched, "Huh?"

Asmonious suddenly realized the problem and explained, "Atta doesn't understand emotions since she had to kill them off to survive in the military. She can only connect the overwhelming disgust and hatred those children felt and the fact that her jaw triggered it. However, she doesn't get the connection between them."

"Huh?" Lovi turned pale and dropped her hair to cover half of her face once more, "Y-You're telling me that I didn't need to reveal my face?!"

"Oh! Lovi!" I pulled her into a hug and kissed her forehead, "You don't need to hide it from us!"

Her eye started watering up and she pushed me away, "GET AWAY! I'M HIDEOUS!"

She sprinted from us and I quickly followed after her, "Lovi! Wait!"

What is up with all this running today?!

She ran into her room and slammed the door. My footsteps slowed down before I could stop and catch my breath.

I thought I would be in better shape by now…

I let out a sigh and knocked on her door, "Do you want me to get you something to make you feel better like I did for Atta?"

A soft voice answered from behind the door, "...A pet bird."

"A pet bird…" I turned around in defeat, "Okay… A pet bird it is." 

She added before I could leave, "A blackbird."

I smiled to myself, "Alright. I will find you a blackbird."

In the next few days, I managed to find what I thought was a blackbird and captured it. When I showed it to Lovi, she screamed so hard in excitement that she even fainted. Once she awakened, she dedicated every second to staring at her bird.

Since I had to stay true to my word, the children did get grounded as they did cause trouble in the village. However, because they weren't like the children in my world, all I could think to do as punishment was give them more homework. Thanks to that, I had more freetime on my hands.

I lounged in the sunlight with my eyes closed as I listened to Rose hum while brushing her hair. Lene was asleep in her hammock, her breathing even and peaceful. Atta was at her training grounds, practicing moves and attacks on the training dummies.

Lovi played with her bird, shoving all sorts of leaves and twigs into its face, "Do you like this one? Or this one?"

Asmonious sketched on a piece of paper, the sound was just like sleep-inducing ASMR to me.

Finally…

I can finally relax in peace…

I think this may be the first time I've been able to since I traveled back in time.

I closed my eyes, smiling to myself.

Asmonious suddenly dropped the paper and charcoal onto the ground and jumped up shouting, "Master! Trouble!!!"

I sat up in surprise, "Eh!? Eh!?!?"