37 You'sre Not Ugly

Rummaging around for something in the cabin was the young woman from the tavern. He had found out later that he was correct that she was the older woman's daughter. His eyes flashing, he realized that he had not imagined the glare that day. This young woman had just hid it well. Thinking for a moment, he decided to pretend to wake up in order to figure out what was going on. He already had an assumption in his heart, but since he was not sure he wouldn't speak out just yet. Shifting his body a little, the table underneath him creaked as his eyes slowly opened. Blinking and looking as if he was trying to rub his eyes only to realize he was tied up, Greyson feigned terror after "realizing" his situation.

"It's useless to pull. With your strength, you won't be able to break those ropes." A cold voice rang out quickly.

"O-o-older sister Nelly? W-w-w-what do you want? Please let me go!" Greyson continued his act while forcing tears to show up in his eyes. After a couple years of pretending to be upset to fool Sister Lily, he was almost an expert at bring up a pitiful look.

"Hmph! It's no use trying to use that face to look pitiful. I won't be letting you go no matter what. You'll be dying here today! Very miserably at that!" The young woman's originally calm face twisted with visible hate. Greyson's expression went pale and he started to tremble.

"What did I ever do to you? Why are you doing this? Please, I'll apologize..." He started crying in fear.

"Nothing... You didn't do anything, but fate did! It cursed me with living with this face. Did you know, I originally looked normal? People would even compliment me for being cute. However, when I was 4 this all changed! Before my mom set up the tavern, she and my father were normal merchants who traveled often. When I was four, our caravan was attacked by a group of magic beasts. We survived, but my father died from heavy wounds and I was scarred for life from the claws of one of the beasts! Nowadays I wish I had just died." Nelly's face changed expression quickly as if she could not control the hate within herself either. First was regret, then the wild hate, then self-pity.

"But that wasn't me... Just let me go! I want my daddy!" Greyson continued to be the scared out her mind little girl. He almost irked himself with the act, but he wanted to make sure that the woman fell for it and let down her guard.

"It wasn't you... I know that of course! But when I see beautiful little girls like you with a bright future, I can't help but hate. Just so much ugly envy and hate boils within me. I'm sure you've heard of those other girls, no point in hiding that the one who killed them was me. You are all blessed with such good looks and a nice comfortable life. Can't you just suffer a little and pass on your luck to me? The heavens looked upon you so favorably, don't you think it's my turn? I just want a normal relationship where a man will actually look at me. Why, why, why, WHY?!! Why is it just me suffering like so? I wouldn't even ask to be beautiful, just without this scar. It is blocking everything in my life. I can only be slightly comforted by making beautiful girls' lives like yours more miserable than mine. That way I know girls out there are suffering worse fates than mine." Looking at the craziness in her eyes, Greyson knew that she had already justified her actions in her mind.

"So just do me a favor and DIE!" Nelly quickly approached with a large hammer to start breaking Greyson's bones. But before she could, fire quickly broke out and burned the ropes away. Greyson stopped crying and terror in his expression immediately receded. His eyes coldly looked at the crazed woman in front of him.

"Y-y-you... What..." Nelly was shocked with the sudden change in the situation.

"I'm a magician. My friend chose a mission from the Dalia Magic Academy to catch the murderer in this city, so you. We have been trying to lure you out, so I pretended to be a girl. Sorry to say, but you have picked the wrong victim this time." Slowly jumping off the table and walking in front of the woman, Greyson calmly explained the situation. Summoning his dark magic, shadow hands acted as ropes and restrained the woman. This was the second dark spell that Greyson learned, Hands of Darkness, which restrained his enemies.

"You tricked me!" She shouted out looking at Greyson with fury.

"Trick? You have the nerve to be upset that I tricked you? I'm so sorry, but as a crazy murderer I have no feelings of pity for you. I would do much worse than trick you, but I'm not some violent psycho like you. With the kingdom's laws, you will most likely be executed once I turn you in. Looks like your suffering is coming to an end soon anyways." Greyson's cold black eyes looked down at the woman with disgust.

"No, don't look at me with those eyes. I'm not disgusting! I can't die! Haven't I suffered enough? Why must I be killed like that? I'm the victim of this cruel world that won't allow an ugly woman to live."

"You are disgusting. You are a disgusting human being."

"NO!"

"But it seems that you are misunderstanding something. I don't think your outer appearance is disgusting. In fact, you were so young when you received your scar that now that you have grown up, it is barely visible." Greyson was speaking the truth. Although the scar still stretched along her cheek, it was thin, faded and not extremely marring.

"Probably, it's been awhile since anyone has really been judging you for your looks. You just have no confidence so no one is approaching you and your personality shows through no matter how much you try to hide it. Do you know the first time I saw you I did not think much of anything about your looks? I thought you were a quiet and reserved girl. There was no negative opinion. If you had just lived your life loving yourself and ignoring your physical appearance, there probably would have been someone who would love you. I know that the world can be cruel and that there are men would look at your face and be put off, but does that mean there are no good men in the world? That no one could just look at your inner beauty? A person very close to me is a very average looking woman, almost unattractive by average standards, however, the painting I made of her has won a fairly large award. Do you know why? Because her inner self is beautiful. It radiates from within and attracts people and warms their hearts. The viewers of the painting thought nothing of her looks but were mesmerized by her smile." Greyson did not know why he was explaining this to the woman. He was just annoyed by her continuous self-pity and the fact that she was blaming everyone but herself.

"You're not ugly." Hearing these words, Nelly looked up at Greyson.

"However, your heart is ugly and that cannot be hidden."

Nelly no longer spoke out or screamed with anger. She just sat in a daze as if something had just cracked within her. No longer looking at her, Greyson shot a fire arrow into the sky to signal Lyle as they agreed. Lucius had probably already woken him up and gotten his attention.

Moments later he could hear footsteps approaching and the clanging of armor. The next moments were a blur as the soldiers brought by Lyle apprehended Nelly and took her away to await her sentence in jail. Lyle was excited to have succeeded in his mission and had thanked Greyson for his help. Before he knew it, Greyson was in a different inn. The tavern woman was already awoken and told of her daughter's situation. In distress, she denied and said her daughter couldn't have done that, but she was caught in the act. The woman had fainted in shock apparently. Greyson sighed deeply. He knew he should be happy for catching the murderer, but their was a part of his heart that was uncomfortable.

"Lu, am I weird for pitying her a little? I know that she was definitely bullied and harassed because of that scar. People are terrible in that way. Everyone is just trying hard to live in their own way, but others just have to tear people down. It doesn't justify her actions, but I can't help but understand that it was other humans who pushed her into that extreme state." He suddenly felt conflicted. On his shoulder, Lucius perked up hearing the question before contemplating.

"I could not tell you, Grey. I don't know if there is a clear answer. However, I do know that you did the right thing catching her. Just think of the future girls you saved and the past ones you got justice for. Dwelling on things will only make it harder for you." Hearing his words, Greyson nodded and stopped thinking about it. No matter what, he felt at peace with his own actions so there was no use thinking of things he could not change. Finally shaking off his negative thoughts, he felt happy for accomplishing the mission and being able to take off his dress.

...

The next day, Greyson and Lyle had split up as Lyle headed back to the academy while Greyson headed toward the capital. He would probably get there in around 3 days and he still had a week of time before the award ceremony, so he was not worried.

Thinking of the capital and his awards, Greyson started looking forward to getting there. He wondered what the city would be like...