Chapter 79
Chapter 79
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 79
Chapter Title: Mother (2)
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Kline left, leaving only mother and daughter behind.
A hospital room where no one else was permitted to enter.
Ariel unwittingly lowered her head.
"......"
Silence followed.
She had no idea what her mother was thinking. Ariel truly didn't know what she should do.
What should she say?
What words would be the right thing to say?
Should she thank her for giving birth to her?
Regrettably, Ariel had never once felt that way.
There was no experience of feeling glad to be born, no sense that it was fortunate to have come into the world.
She had only found meaning in life because of her brother.
Gratitude for life itself had never been possible from the start.
Should she lash out, asking why she'd been left alone?
She wasn't sure. Did she even have the right to be angry about that in the first place?
Her mother had only left because she wasn't well.
In the end, the reason her mother had fallen ill was Ariel's own fault.
If she, a lump of the reverse world, hadn't existed, Ash Leonhart would have lived a perfectly healthy life.
......Even if there had been moments of sudden emptiness from the fact of being alone.
Still, Ariel had no right to blame her for it.
Should she ask how her mother had been all this time?
It felt unfamiliar. She'd never spoken to anyone in such a friendly, intimate way.
Ariel, who had never shown the slightest interest in others. It was hard to make that kind of communication feel natural now.
Even if her mother was an exception—habits built up over time didn't change easily.
So.
Comments about the nice weather today, what she liked, how her brother had been before she was born.
Even as countless questions floated in her mind, she swallowed them all down in the end.
She didn't know.
Ariel didn't know.
She didn't know an ordinary life. She didn't know everyday conversation. She didn't know a normal mother-daughter relationship.
So she kept her mouth shut.
How much time passed like that?
Short in reality, but for Ariel, it felt like an eternity.
Finally, Ash spoke first.
"My daughter."
Ariel flinched.
As her small body trembled, a hand came down onto her white hair.
Gently. But warmly.
Ariel lifted her head at the touch stroking her hair.
There was her mother, with an endlessly kind face.
"You've been through a lot, haven't you?"
For a moment, her vision blurred.
Ariel thought it was dizziness.
Stress from trying to process a situation outside her data.
......But that wasn't it.
They were tears.
Tears of sorrow, ones she had never shed since birth.
"I'm sorry, Mommy. I should have been by my daughter's side, but I got sick like an idiot. It's all Mommy's fault."
"......No."
The tears stopped quickly.
A body that had no need for such functions in the first place. Her body, filled with the reverse world's blessings, wasn't swayed by hormones.
But strangely, her throat felt hoarse.
It was odd.
She'd never felt tired before.
"It's not Mommy's fault. It's because I'm a monster. If I were a normal girl, Mommy wouldn't have ended up like this."
Ariel didn't like calling herself a monster.
She'd heard it plenty. Others always called her a calamity.
There was no reason she'd want to call herself that.
Yet strangely, in front of her mother, she belittled herself without thinking.
Ariel, who had never self-deprecated before, couldn't understand it.
Why am I like this?
Why am I getting stranger and stranger?
......That this was self-reproach born from guilt toward her mother.
That it proved she was becoming human. She didn't realize it yet.
"......"
In truth, Ariel had thought about it now and then.
Unconscious self-denial she wasn't even aware of.
It's all because I'm a calamity that everything got messed up.
Kline, Gerard, Ash. If I hadn't existed, they would have lived ordinary, happy lives.
There were times she'd suddenly thought that if only she weren't there, the Leonhart family would have been fine.
Thwack!
"Ah."
A shock hit her head.
A much gentler strike than when her brother ruffled her hair.
Her mother's hand was balled into a fist.
A knuckle rap...... it seemed.
"Don't say things like that. Mommy doesn't regret giving birth to Ariel."
"......Really? You don't hate me for being a monster?"
She asked cautiously.
She feared denial but hoped for it all the same.
Contradictory emotions.
Unlike Ariel, who was always honest about her feelings.
"How could I? In Mommy's eyes, my daughter is the cutest bundle of luck in the world."
Words she'd never heard before.
Even her brother hadn't said that.
No, of course her brother wasn't a parent, so calling her a bundle of luck would feel awkward.
But—yes, truly the first time.
That her birth was a blessing.
That she was someone's happiness.
She'd never thought such a thing.
"......Yeah."
She just nodded.
Silence.
They fell quiet again.
But compared to the start, the atmosphere was much more relaxed.
A strange feeling.
Her chest tickled.
Like touching lamb's ear. Like holding a puppy.
It was weird, that soft, fluffy sensation.
......What have I become?
But she didn't dislike it.
"Mommy. Should I fix you?"
So Ariel asked.
She wouldn't have with anyone else.
But somehow, she wanted to for her mother.
"......"
Her mother blinked in slight surprise.
Seeming flustered, yet pleased.
Ariel didn't quite understand those mixed emotions.
She just wanted to help.
Even if it meant tearing off a part of herself.
"......Is that... even if it hurts you, Ariel?"
"Yeah."
"No, you can't."
Her mother shook her head.
Why?
I can help.
If I transplant a part of me, she'll recover right away.
"Mommy doesn't want to live at the cost of hurting my daughter. I want Ariel to live long and happy from now on."
"It doesn't matter to me."
"No."
It was a scolding tone.
Like disciplining a child not yet fully grown.
A warm, gentle mother's words.
"You have to live longer. Live longer and...... be happy with your brother."
So Ariel shut her mouth.
A gentle refusal.
The goodwill she'd offered someone other than her brother for the first time in her life.
Was rejected by someone who respected her for the first time.
It felt awkward.
Embarrassingly so, to the point she couldn't bear it.
"Oh. And by the way, Mommy won't mind if you two stay together forever until you die. Don't worry."
"......Huh?"
Ash's words were unmistakably certain.
That Ariel Leonhart loved her brother romantically.
......How?
Others had noticed her attitude toward Kline was a bit unusual.
But they hadn't realized she saw him as a man.
"You thought I wouldn't know? When my daughter looks at her brother, honey drips from her eyes. How could Mommy not notice?"
"No. But, that's—"
Ariel started to protest but unwittingly closed her mouth.
Stupid.
Her love for her brother was genuine, even if her mother hadn't said it.
"......It's not something people should do."
"So?"
"I read it in a book. Siblings loving each other is wrong. So you shouldn't. ......I thought no one would accept it."
"So what? Those people called my daughter a calamity and a monster first, saying whatever they wanted. Isn't it ridiculous if they criticize you now for not following common sense?"
"That's true, but."
"In that case, just live up to their expectations instead. Mommy will always support you."
"......Really?"
"Of course."
Her mother smiled.
Seeing that smile, Ariel felt she understood something.
She's given up.
She doesn't know how much longer she'll live.
With little time left, she wants her daughter to be happy.
So she affirms even impossible wishes.
Believing it's the last thing she can do.
"So go on now. Your brother is waiting."
"C-Can I go?"
"Yes. Come again next time. I might still be alive then?"
"......Yeah."
She stood, brushing off her seat.
Her heart was complicated.
The mother she'd just met. The impending farewell.
Her body becoming human, emotions she'd never felt, her forbidden love affirmed.
She couldn't sort it out yet, but that was okay.
"I-I'm going. See you."
"Goodbye, my daughter."
For the first time since birth.
She thought it was nice to be alive.
He walked the night road.
Away from Ikimizu Sanatorium, through the village.
To a dark, secluded spot untouched by people.
The Sword Sovereign's Residence is really far.
Last time he met the Sword Sovereign, he had no idea how he'd gotten back.
Moving like this for so long, it felt deep in the mountains.
Ariel's still talking, it seems.
They had a lot to catch up on, so she'd been staying quite a while.
Of course. Mother and daughter meeting for the first time in ten years.
It might take until dawn to unpack all the pent-up feelings.
Still, he believed this reunion would surely help Ariel.
Crack—
The sound of leaves crunching nearby.
"......"
He hadn't noticed.
Even without focusing, surrounding info entered his senses automatically.
Normally, he wouldn't allow approach to this distance.
The reason this happened was clear.
My condition's pretty bad.
When Ariel touched his soul.
His body had gone haywire then too, so he'd missed it.
"Come out."
He called out to the empty wild mountain.
No response.
Annoying bunch. Planning to target me, yet dawdling.
"I know you're there. Come out. Don't be pathetic."
"......Ha!"
With a scoff, several figures emerged from behind trees.
Suspicious guys covered head to toe in black cloth.
Bandits? Something like that.
"Impressive skills. Noticing our presence even in these wild mountains."
"You don't know anything. I knew earlier. Just noticed now due to circumstances."
"Ha! Nonsense. Don't you know excessive arrogance hinders a warrior's growth?"
"Whatever. No need to ask where you're from, right? You're hired thugs from Hiiragi or whatever."
"Heh. Sharp one. Already figured that much?"
"I looked into it. Outsiders keep interfering—how could I not be curious?"
"Right. You got it."
The scoffing bandit drew a sword from his bosom.
Shing, shing—
In the dark mountains, the blades gleamed white under moonlight.
"We're just removing obstacles to make Hiiragi win the Azure Dragon Tournament. Already got paid upfront. So, kid, it'd be great if you buzzed off."
"No thanks?"
"Then you'll have to hurt a bit. Don't worry, won't kill you. Empire noble and all. ......We'll take some money though."
Hmm.
The bandits drawing swords weren't that high-level.
His original self wouldn't have lost even to a group.
Only...... his current condition wasn't normal.
What to do.
Run away first?
No. Can't with my speed now.
And it's unsightly. Don't want to.
As expected.
That left only one option.
"Got it."
"Understood? Quick on the uptake—good. Now hands up and—"
"Let's die together, you bastards."
Me being weak doesn't mean you got stronger, right?