Powerless
He was still just a hotheaded young man, after all.
The man wanted to turn and leave.
He was done with this.
Why did the old man always do things without saying a word?
He'd thought the old man had stayed because he wanted to have a proper chat with him.
It seemed he'd been mistaken.
He'd thought too highly of the old man.
But the man's body stayed frozen in place.
He told himself furiously that he was leaving...
Yet in truth, he felt somewhat reluctant.
If he left just like this...
Then he'd apologized to the old man for nothing.
And all the misfortune he'd suffered in the past would have been for nothing, too.
How innocent had he been as a child?
Even now, all he wanted was an apology.
Was that asking too much?
The man pressed his lips together.
He was a little indignant.
His fingers curled into fists.
"You..."
In the end, the man couldn't help speaking first.
But after uttering just one syllable, he fell silent again.
He didn't know what else he could say to the old man.
He'd already said everything that needed to be said.
And more than once.
He'd explained that it had been an accident, apologized, and said that he... hadn't deserved this.
He was willing to accept a small punishment.
Clearly,
the misfortune he'd suffered during that time had gone far beyond the bounds of a small punishment.
He was willing to compensate the old man for the peaches.
But the old man didn't seem to care about that at all.
The old man was like a willful child.
He just wanted to punish whoever had eaten his peaches.
He wouldn't listen to the reason.
The man took