Stray

“Father.” The young Godwin was much more cheerful than the one they knew. He looked like he was four or five years old. “I want to eat that—”

Emanuel was leading him to practice in the backyard. The honest Chief Justice didn’t buy a luxurious house for himself but chose an ordinary home. Two children from the neighbor’s house climbed onto the wall and looked curiously into the courtyard. They were holding honey cookies in their hands and their eyes was shining on Godwin’s sword.

Although Godwin Lopez was still young, that sharp iron sword was indeed real.

Godwin inserted the sword into the mud, wiped the sweat from his head with his sleeves, and had a pure smile unique to a child on his face. “If I have completed all the training today, can I eat one?”

“No.” Emanuel’s voice was cold and hard. “Sweetness will corrode your soul, and pleasure will make you fall. Godwin, you’re different from them.”

The smile on Godwin’s face solidified, and he flattened his mouth aggrieved, but finally lowered his head. “Yes, father.”

Even though he knew that it wasn’t his own feelings, the dark emotions that seemed to burn his internal organs still made Nemo very uncomfortable. Nemo didn’t think that Emanuel in this memory still retained his sanity— The pain of contradiction almost dried up the young knight’s heart, making it as dark and hard as a rock.

Entertainment wasn’t allowed, crying wasn’t allowed, weakness wasn’t allowed, and escape wasn’t allowed. The two words he said the most to Godwin was either “not allowed” or “not enough”.

In Emanuel’s sealed memory, he had looked into Godwin’s eyes many times, trying to find resistance and hatred from the depths of those eyes, but he only found full trust and love, and that unreserved affection drove him crazy. A living person trusted himself wholeheartedly, and he never thought that this relationship would be so heavy. People always say that parents are the gods to their children but look at what he had done himself— He was clearly not worthy.