Chapter 505: Despairing Times

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"W-Who are you?!"

"Is he really like that?"

"W-What…"

"Uwah! He's so ugly!"

"G-Get away from us!"

"…Eh?"

That day, Bernard learned about the harsh world outside, and how people often discriminated  one another for even the slightest of things. Although one could not say that his difference in appearance compared to others was really "slight".

"W-What's wrong with my appearance? G-Grandma always says that we don't have to judge a book for its cover!" said the boy timidly, as he slowly approached the kids, only for the kids to only move backwards fearfully.

The boys gritted their teeth as one of them grabbed a stone and threw it at Bernard.

SMACK!

"Ah!"

The stone hit his head as blood began dripping out a wound, Bernard felt horrendous pain, as his skin was twice as sensitive as normal skin due to his skin cancer.

"Get away from us! Ugly old man!"

"We'll call the guards of the plaza if you get closer!"

"I bet you're a pedo or something!"

"Eh? W-What? I-I am… not an old man!" cried Bernard, as tears began to come out of his eyes.

"Go away!"

The kids began to throw him more stones, his sickly and skinny body couldn't take such beating, he ran away painfully, but aside from physical pain, there was an even more painful pain on his heart, as it was utterly shattered. His young hopes were completely destroyed as he got to know how harsh people can get.

"Sob… Hahh… Sniff…"

Bernard stopped running as he rested in a alley without much people, gasping for air, his body couldn't even bring him far before he were to get incredibly exhausted… he was born with a very weak body.

"I am that ugly? Sniff… Hahh… Grandma was right… the people outside is awful… Sniff… Sob…"

As Bernard cried his eyes out, a group of workers suddenly noticed the strange kid wearing fancy clothes crying in the streets, and then noticed his ugliness and were almost as terrified as the kids. But unlike the kids who were more fearful than anything, these old men had rotten hearts and laughed at him.

"Look at that kid! Good lord, he's ugly!"

"Was your father a bat or something, kid?"

"Look at those fancy clothes though! He's so uglier than all of us combined yet he's having a luxurious life!"

"While we all are handsome compared to him, we are barely living with pennies!"

"Eh? S-Stop calling me ugly…"

Bernard was about to run away but one of the old man stopped his path, his lips trembled in fear as the look of the half-drunk bastard shrunk his resolve.

"Oi kid do you got some change?"

"Give us something!"

"Yeah I bet you're so freaking rich you have some coins on your pocket?"

"I-I didn't brought any money…" muttered Bernard.

"Come on, don't get cocky you ugly monster."

The old men intimidated the kid with their harsh words, but Bernard had not brought any penny.

They quickly kicked him into the ground as one of the old man kicked his face out of nowhere, pain quickly taking over his entire face, so much pain like he had never felt before.

"Agghh! Aaahh! H-Help!"

"Nobody is going to help an ugly monster."

"Give us all the money you got, you shitty brat!"

"Or else…"

The three old men began to gang on Bernard as they started to hit his entire body, kicks, punches, and they even threw stones at his body, anything to intimidate him so he could give them money, but he really had no money, he had not brought anything with him.

"Stop! Aaggh…! It hurts… my teeth… sniff… uwaahh…"

Bernard was only 7 years old, being brutally beaten by three adult men left an horrendous trauma to his life.

The beating only stopped when a cop appeared in the scene, the three drunkards ran away and the boy was carried back to the office of the cops, where his servants came to pick him up later that day.

His face was all swollen and he could barely walk. It was a miracle his fragile bones had not broke from such a beating.

"My lord, you shouldn't go away form the house… your grandmother always says that the world outside is… hard for you." Sighed his butler.

"I-I… I just wanted to make friends…"

The servants who saw the little Bernard as their child had their hearts broken as they heard his little words. The little and hopeful spirit he always had was completely shattered that day.

His grandmother reprimanded him the next day, although she couldn't possible be harsher to him than the world outside, so she quickly forgave him, and simply told him to not go outside anymore, or at least, until he grew older and stronger.

The young and ugly boy looked over the windows of his house, at the outside, as the kids played around, and the people had nice lives.

Always confined on his house…

Time went flying, and when he was 12, notices about his father coming to finally meet him reached him. It seems that the father he had never seen on his life was finally recognizing him as a son when he hit 12…

He had grown excited, perhaps his father was like his grandmother, and he would accept him too, he had always wanted a father figure, the butlers were not enough for the boy. And a strong father that taught him how to be strong-willed was something he desperately needed in his life.

Alas, reality is often disappointing.

As his father came to the house, he had actually come here to greet his grandmother, but when he greeted him as he reached the door, his father almost dropped into the floor out of horror.

"Ah! W-What is that?!"

"F-Father? It's me! Y-Your son…"

"S-Son? You… I had completely… forgotten that you were still alive! You! The one that took away my beloved Maria…" muttered his father, only looking at him with… hatred and despise!

"Leonardo! How dare you treat your child like that?!" roared his grandmother, as the two began to argue in front of the kid, who was once more heartbroken.

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