I Became a Leader in a Wretched Prison - Chapter 180

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 180

A very long time ago, Mint suddenly realized something.

That realization was both trivial and insignificant, yet on the other hand, it was chilling.

It was that the girl who was the original owner of this body had already died and no longer remained within this body.

She didn’t know if she had died or simply disappeared.

Mint could only guess that everything had ended just before she opened her eyes in this body.

So Mint had no idea what kind of person the girl who had vanished as a passing extra in the book was.

What kind of personality she might have had. She knew nothing at all.

However, now that she had become Minte Limnades, she intended to show at least minimal favor.

Just as you had your ‘Mama,’ and I have my Mama who would be in the afterlife.

…Though she thought this way, it wasn’t something she had started with any great significance in mind.

“…Can, dy.”

However, as she watched the Former Marchioness Limnades whose eyes glistened with tears even while dying, she unconsciously thought of Mama.

Mama, if you and I hadn’t met in prison. Would we have had any reason to see each other without being prisoners?

Mint had wandered all over the continent to collect the items from Mama’s will.

She met countless people, and there were more events than expected. It was troublesome and bothersome at times. She also gained insights.

I sometimes think about it.

Mama, you probably never thought I would give up on mourning you.

The path of mourning for you is endlessly long.

Even so, she never once thought that ‘mourning’ was troublesome or bothersome. If it were longer, she would have accepted it as such.

Just as the path of mourning for Mama was like this for her, perhaps the years that Marchioness Limnades spent waiting to see ‘Minte’ who had entered prison again held similar meaning.

She still couldn’t empathize, but she could understand.

“Yes, Mama.”

Mint smiled even more brightly as she thought of the young ‘Minte’ she had seen a little while ago.

“This kind of address is a bit embarrassing now. Isn’t it?”

“…”

She was naturally dull to emotions, but imitating wasn’t difficult.

Just like when she was Pakha, she had tried hard to follow ordinary children and hide while pretending to be a normal person.

Having wandered the continent and met countless normal people and other abnormal people, Mint had become able to imitate many more types.

“Child…”

A withered hand reached out toward her. Mint didn’t refuse and offered her cheek to that hand.

Tears streaked across the Marchioness’s dry cheeks.

“I thought… that you stopped smiling because you couldn’t forgive your mother.”

“What is there that I can’t forgive?”

Mint took the lady’s thin hand and leaned against it.

“Mother and Oppa did nothing wrong at all.”

“…”

“I was fine. Though there seemed to be days when my body hurt…”

‘Minte’. I don’t know how you’ll think of these words, but right now I am Minte and Mint. I’ll live shamelessly.

I’m okay, and I’ll be okay in the future too.

“I’m fine now.”

“….”

“And we met again.”

Mint hesitated for a moment before adding.

Before her eyes, she seemed to see Mama gradually disappearing as she was swallowed by the rift in the prison.

What was it I wanted to say when I entered the rift.

“…I’m sorry for being late.”

If I had been faster, could you have lived?

I’ve thought about it countless times, but I still don’t know.

“I didn’t know you would wait like this.”

Whether I was worth protecting even as you threw away your life. After all, the most important thing to humans is their own life, so why did you throw it away for me?

I still don’t know, but at the same time I think I understand.

“I thought you had abandoned me.”

“….”

Pontos, who had been quietly listening from behind, flinched his shoulders.

“That’s why I didn’t want to come.”

“…sob, ah, go.”

“If I had known this would happen, I should have come a little sooner.”

Mint wandered somewhere in her imagination.

Imagining her younger self running to the rift just a little faster to save Mama.

But imagination was just imagination.

She was a daughter who didn’t even know how to wail before the mother who died for her.

Mint smiled.

“I think Mother would want to see me smile.”

Mama in the afterlife had loved Mint’s smile. But she had hardly ever smiled.

“…How could a mother abandon you. How could she forget you….”

“That’s right.”

Mint erased her imagination and faced the reality before her eyes.

“Now I understand a little.”

That whatever the situation, Mama would have acted the same way facing that rift.

Now that I have someone too, I think I understand a bit.

Mint felt for the presence of Helios standing quietly behind her and blinked.

“I don’t resent you. It’s not that I wasn’t angry, but now everything’s fine. That doesn’t mean I’ve given up or resigned myself to my already twisted life.”

The woman’s hands, which looked as fragile as paper, flinched every time Mint continued speaking.

“If forgiveness is needed, I’ll tell you anytime. But still, I don’t think I have any reason to forgive Mother and Oppa.”

“….”

“You just acted like family.”

Pontos, who had been standing behind, silently grabbed his own face.

At the same time, Helios quietly stepped back.

It was a time he could not interfere.

Marchioness Limnades embraced Mint’s shoulders and wept endlessly.

Even though Mint’s shoulder became so soaked that it seemed a puddle would form if squeezed, she said nothing.

She simply stroked the back of the dying Marchioness quietly.

How much time had passed?

The Marchioness slowly lifted her head from Mint’s shoulder.

Though her face was still forlorn and losing strength, somehow there was a faint determination in her eyes that hadn’t been there before.

“…Pontos, could you let us be alone for a moment?”

At those words, Pontos looked at Helios. Mint also turned her head to gaze at him.

Helios nodded and stepped back. It was a sign that he would comply.

With the two men having withdrawn, only Mint and the Marchioness remained in the patient’s room.

“I know that I don’t have much time left either.”

Though her voice was frail, there was strength in her tone. The Marchioness touched Mint’s shoulder.

Her sunken gaze rose again to take in Mint.

Her eyes were unfocused. A face ruined by tears.

“Is there nothing you want to tell me one last time, child?”

Something to say—there wasn’t anything in particular. Nevertheless, Mint pondered for a moment before speaking.

“Mother, is there nothing you wish from me?”

Since ‘Minte’ was already someone who no longer existed in this world, she was willing to fulfill at least one thing if the Marchioness had any wishes in her stead.

“…How could I dare wish for anything from a daughter who I’m grateful to simply for surviving and returning alive?”

The more she looked, the more it was a face that resembled her own. If only she had been healthy, she would have been a great beauty.

However, after being left alone together, somehow a different kind of vitality seemed to flow than before.

This seemed like the brilliant light that a living being emits one last time before death.

A face where tears hadn’t yet dried, hair slightly disheveled from lying down for so long—no matter where you looked, she was still clearly a patient.

The Marchioness, whose face alone was filled with strange vitality, opened her mouth.

“…Even if you’re no longer the daughter I remember.”

Mint wasn’t surprised. Of course there was some confusion, but it didn’t show on her expression at all.

Perhaps she wanted to express that her long prison life had changed her greatly from her childhood personality.

“I have something I want to ask.”

“Ask me anything.”

The Marchioness smiled faintly.

“…Someone who cared for me in prison told me to take revenge when I got out. Not to leave alone the person who sent me there.”

“…”

“On the other hand, she left me a will that an ordinary person couldn’t fulfill in a lifetime.”

Mint briefly mentioned the items from Mama’s will.

Yes, if Mint had been an ordinary person, collecting them might have been impossible forever.

Even if the searcher had been Mint, if she had only searched through normal methods, it would have taken a very long time.

“If she wanted revenge, spending time on items from the will like this would only make it harder to find the culprit—what was she thinking when she said such things?”

Even if I were to ask the Marquis’s wife about Mama’s will, would there be an answer?

Since they shared the same role as mothers, I thought she might possibly know.

“That person would be someone who knows you better than anyone else.”

“….”

“A will is usually… something you make thinking about when you won’t be by their side.”

The Marquis’s wife spoke quietly.

“She probably hoped for you to reconsider while also wishing for your happiness.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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