Chapter 316: A New Start
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 316: A New Start
“Hehe... M-Mom? This is Mom’s... Why is it here...?”
“...Rita, that’s—”
“Mom must have... she must have dropped it. She said this was very, very precious to her....”
Rita wrapped the pendant in the hem of her skirt, carefully wiping it clean. She rubbed it against her cheek to feel its texture and even took a deep breath to catch its scent.
But the metal pendant offered only a faint chill and the smell of iron, mixed with the scent of dust transferred from her dirt-stained skirt.
“I knew it... she really was in the Labyrinth. My mom was an explorer, you know. A r-really strong one....”
“...Is that so?”
“Yes, a very strong explorer. She had... lots of skills, too. My mom told me she had a skill that made her incredibly strong.”
Every day at dawn, she would wake up and carry two buckets filled to the brim with water—weight that even a large, burly man would struggle with—visiting every inn throughout the village.
“A-and... she said she was immune to fire, too.”
She had baked bread tirelessly in front of the scorching communal village oven. Sometimes, she would even dissolve the burnt bits of flour that fell from the bread into water to make a porridge for them to eat.
Because she was small with short arms, she had to lean her face in much deeper than anyone else. Yet, even as she drenched herself in sweat, she never once complained about the heat.
Even when her scorched bangs curled and frizzled, she insisted she didn't feel the heat at all.
“Besides... she said she had a skill that made her never get tired...?”
From dawn, she carried dozens of water buckets. Even after kneading tough wheat dough with her thin arms until evening, she would invariably head into the Labyrinth once her work was done.
“Sh-she even had a skill to overcome the cold.”
Even in the dead of winter, she would shovel snow diligently, wearing only thin layers of clothing. For the young Rita, she would pile up massive snowmen with hands that didn't even wear gloves.
“She even h-had a skill that gave her strength without needing to eat....”
On the rare days they had meat, she wouldn't even touch it. She would just sit across the splintered, rickety wooden table and watch Rita eat with a look of pure contentment.
“She was a great fighter, too....”
Whenever scary men came to the house, they would always leave as meek as lambs after going into her mother’s room. She said she had taught them a lesson with her fists—she really did. She would say that while leaning against the wall on trembling legs, clutching her tiny fists tight.
“She’s probably stronger than Aven, right? My mom... she was really, really strong....”
“....”
“She just dropped this by mistake, right...?”
Rita stared blankly at the pendant in her hand as she asked.
In the summer, she worked in front of the oven that everyone else avoided; in the winter, she cleared the city’s only carriage road alone. She broke the ice to fetch river water, took the lead in the autumn harvest, and through it all, she never forgot to enter the Labyrinth every single day.
“There’s... there’s no way that’s possible without skills... right...?”
A child’s innocence is a powerful shield. To hide her withered arms, she never rolled up the long sleeves of her only outfit, even in summer. To hide her trembling eyelids, she never lost her bright, smiling eyes in front of Rita.
The reason the girl had eaten every last scrap of the handful of meat she’d been given, right in front of her dying mother, was because...
“S-so, Mom... in the Labyrinth, she would never...?”
Rita carefully tucked the pendant into her bundle and began rummaging through the pile of explorers' legacies that had been poured out.
“Ugh, uuuuh...!!! Mom...!!”
“Rita, wait...!”
Blades that hadn't been properly sheathed poked out here and there, and though she cut her arms, Rita didn't stop.
—Clatter....
“The-there must be an Explorer’s Plate...! My mom’s, too...!!”
“I’ll help you, so just step back for a second...!”
“Let go! Let me go, please—!!!!”
As Rita struggled while being held up by Yoo Eon’s arm, he quickly searched through the pile of items for all the explorer plates.
18 Brass Grade plates. 43 Lead. 27 Iron. 21 Silver. 16 Gold, and 8 Platinum.
“My mom is a high-ranking explorer. My mom is...!”
Starting from the Platinum Grade plates on the floor, Rita began to scan the small, engraved names one by one.
Her mother’s name was not among the Platinum Grade.
“Ugh...!”
She couldn't find it in Gold, either.
“N-no... my mom is strong....”
It wasn't in Silver.
“No....”
Iron Grade.
“Huh...?”
Lead.
“M-Mom...?”
[ Name: Lisa / Grade: Lead
This explorer is hereby notified that they have been issued an Explorer Activity Certification Plate at the Mascena Branch.
Mascena Branch Mana Seal { - } ]
The mother who had been so strong in her memories was a lower grade than Rita herself was now.
“No... no....”
To ease her own guilt, Rita desperately tried to deny the Explorer’s Plate in her hand.
“I-it’s not true... Aven? There’s no way a normal person without skills could do... could do such hard things...?”
“...That’s true.”
For a normal person, that would be the case. But a mother might be different.
Even without skills, she could carry heavy water buckets around the city from the crack of dawn.
Even without skills, she could endure the entire day in front of a scorching fire.
Even on a freezing winter day, she could break ice to fetch river water in thin clothes and shovel snow until dawn to clear a path.
“I know because I’m Orichalcum Grade—the Guild is terrible at their jobs.”
Yoo Eon nodded at the words of the slumped-over Rita. He replied that it was likely the Guild’s fault for failing to recognize her true worth. That there was no way she was just a Lead-grade explorer.
“Hehe. I-I told you so. That... that.... Uuuugh....”
“Rita, so—”
“Manmagyeong-nim. Please, just kill me.”
If it were a guilt that could be saved by a few words of agreement, he would have done so a hundred times already.
“I... I came to the Labyrinth to find my mom. I was sure she’d be here! But... if Mom isn't in the Labyrinth... what am I supposed to do now?!”
“Rita, calm down first—”
“That’s right! Manmagyeong-nim! You hate criminals, don't you?! I’m actually a criminal! I-I stole bread three times, and when a quest reward was more than the contract, I just took it without saying anything!! I even stayed at an inn without paying while the owner was asleep?!”
“....”
“You... you killed all the criminals. That’s the kind of person Manmagyeong is, right...?”
Rita pleaded. She grabbed Yoo Eon’s pant leg and shook it, confessing her sins without pause.
“A-actually... I’m the one who killed Mom... If it weren't for me, Mom would—”
“Stop.”
His voice was low. Yoo Eon brushed off Rita’s hand from his pants, turned around, and walked toward the pile of explorers' equipment.
He picked up a short dagger.
—Thud....
“If you want to die that badly, do it yourself.”
“M-Manmagyeong-nim...?”
“If you’re going to talk like that, without even knowing who your mother worked so hard for, then maybe it really is better for you to die.”
“I-I....”
Rita gasped for breath as she looked at the dagger that had been carelessly dropped in front of her.
The blade, which showed signs of being repeatedly sharpened, was thin. The hand-worn hilt was tightly wrapped in tattered bandages, as if the cracked wood had been glued back together many times.
“Ugh, aaah....”
A faint lingering scent of mana. It was the same scent as the mana engraved on the Explorer’s Plate in Rita’s hand.
“Heeeuuugh...!! I miss my mom...!! But, but...! If I die like this... I’ll feel so sorry to Mom...!!!”
“....”
Perhaps it was the power of genetics; the dagger fit perfectly in her small palm. It took less than ten minutes for Rita to fall asleep from exhaustion after crying.
* * *
“This place is....”
The softest bedding she had ever felt. Instead of a wooden window rattling in the cold wind, there was a luxurious glass window that let in only the warm sunlight, reflecting it onto the pure white duvet.
“W-why am I in a place like this?!”
Instinctively curling her body, Rita’s head snapped back and forth as she surveyed her surroundings. It was a spacious room, but it wasn't designed for many people. It was laid out as if prepared for just one person, with a pair of high-end chairs and a table set with sandwiches made for easy eating.
It wasn't stale, hard bread with soured meat, but fresh vegetables and thick cuts of meat. Soft, fluffy bread made from expensive refined flour, and even pure, 100% creamy goat milk that hadn't been diluted with water.
“I-it’s a dream....”
It was a scene so unrealistic that even seeing it in a dream would feel like an extravagance that would wake her up.
Her dirt-stained, sweat-soaked, coarse, and tattered clothes were gone, replaced by fluffy white pajamas. The chronic headaches and muscle pains were gone, as were the cold sweats she had thought were just a part of life.
There were indoor slippers provided, but Rita, unaccustomed to such things, crawled out of bed barefoot and looked out the window.
“This isn't Mascena?!”
—Click, clack....
Rita’s ears, which had become extremely sensitive from spending half her life worrying about what others thought, caught the sound of footsteps coming from the hallway outside. The sound of firm boots stepping on a well-polished wooden floor.
“Hup...!”
Before she knew it, Rita covered her mouth with her hands, held her breath, and tried to crawl under the bed.
—Creeeeak....
But the footsteps approached faster than expected, and surprisingly, this luxurious bed wasn't high enough off the floor to make hiding under it easy.
Lying on the floor with her lower half awkwardly shoved under the bed, Rita’s eyes met the person entering through the slowly opening door.
‘S-she’s beautiful...!’
Fair skin without a single blemish, and soft brown hair that was neither too flashy nor too plain.
Eyes as green as a meadow. A stunningly curvaceous body that looked like it could only be drawn in a picture. She wore a dirndl that couldn't have suited her better, with her hair tied in a long ponytail.
“Ahaha...? Did you drop something under the bed?”
Even her voice was beautiful.
‘They’re huge...!’
Rita stared in shock at the chest of the woman sitting in front of her. With that size, she could surely get at least five bottles of goat milk. As the woman crouched, her knees pushed up against her chest, emphasizing her figure even more.
“U-uuuh....”
“Hmm, shall we get up first?”
With the help of the nameless woman, Rita returned to the bed and cautiously opened her mouth.
“W-where is Manmagyeong-nim...?”
“Hmm? Aha....”
The nameless woman sat her plump hips down on the bed next to Rita and said,
“My husband is downstairs.”
“Heh.”
So this is what an Orichalcum-grade wife looks like, Rita thought.