One Day, I Picked Up a Mom - Chapter 11

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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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One Day I Picked Up a Mother – Episode 11

“Yes, my child.”

“Yes, Master.”

With a brief reply, the servant’s footsteps were absorbed into the carpet.

“The appraisal results confirm that the brooch the woman brought belongs to the family.”

“Hmm…”

The Count rubbed his chin thoughtfully and looked down at Iban.

“Take the child and leave the room.”

“Yes, understood.”

When the servant looked at the child as if to follow, Iban gripped my skirt tightly.

“I, I want to stay by Mother’s side. Please let me do that.”

The child looked straight up at the Count and pleaded.

However, the Count looked down at the child without any change in expression, as if Iban’s earnest request couldn’t even be heard.

“It’s okay, so follow the servant, Iban. Be good, alright?”

“But…”

Since the Count didn’t seem like he would change his mind, I quietly pushed the child’s back.

Even so, Iban hesitated for a long time before finally being dragged out by the servant’s hand.

“Sit down.”

The Count who had been looking me over suddenly spoke.

Then he placed the brooch I had brought, which he had received from the servant earlier, on the dark mahogany wooden table.

“This is a brooch I was quite fond of.”

At those words, I quietly nodded my head.

Seeing him recognize the brooch immediately and speak up, it seemed he had no intention of completely denying Iban’s existence.

“But your face and figure aren’t my type.”

He slowly rubbed the brooch while looking me over once more.

“Most importantly, I don’t forget women I’ve slept with once, so I’m asking – did we really sleep together?”

Count Roderich was definitely smiling.

His tone and voice weren’t authoritative but gentle, yet strangely it was difficult to guess the intent behind his question.

The situation had already confirmed through gem appraisal that the brooch belonged to the Count.

He had said with his own mouth that it was a cherished brooch, and had seen with his own eyes Iban who looked exactly like him.

And yet he still sought confirmation from me.

Was he really asking out of simple curiosity?

“Yes. Otherwise, how could I possibly have the brooch?”

“You seem to have a clear memory.”

His smile deepened a little more.

“I’d like to remember about us that day too. Would you help me?”

He leaned forward as if waiting for my next words.

I had thought this kind of situation might come, but unfortunately I had no memories left from before the possession.

However, he was a libertine and I was a prostitute who worked at a tavern.

I had no memory at all, but I could roughly guess what kind of relationship we had. That was probably right.

“I am…”

Bang!

Just then, the servant burst through the door without knocking and urgently shouted.

“Master, the child can’t breathe properly!”

The highly excited voice, unlike before, and the rudeness of bursting through the door without knocking fully revealed the urgency of the situation.

I immediately jumped up from my seat and hurriedly ran out of the drawing room.

I could see Iban collapsed in the corridor not far from the drawing room.

“Iban!”

The child was crouched over, clutching his chest as if in pain.

As I approached closer, I could hear the child’s gasping breath. His breathing was excessively fast, as if hyperventilating.

“Iban, Iban, slowly. Breathe slowly.”

His face was flushed bright red as if he might stop breathing at any moment. My hands holding the child trembled.

“Ha, haa, ha, ha.”

The rapid breathing showed no signs of improving. I grabbed the child’s shoulders but couldn’t bring myself to shake him.

He was so small that if I touched him wrong even a little, it seemed like it might be irreversible.

“Please call a doctor!”

A shrill voice burst out through my increasingly distant consciousness on a face painfully contorted.

“We’ve sent someone to Dr. Kraban, Count.”

“It seems like hyperventilation. …His breathing is too fast.”

My mind went blank.

He was definitely fine just a moment ago, so why suddenly…

My mind went blank about what I should do, how I should handle this situation.

“…If there’s something like a paper bag, please bring it. At this rate, the child might die!”

It was when I was patting Iban’s back and half-lifting the child. The child’s small body collapsed limply into my arms.

“Ah…”

Just as strength was about to drain from my half-crouched legs, firm hands grabbed my arms and lifted me up.

Then the child in my arms was transferred to the Count’s embrace in an instant.

“Let’s go directly to the doctor.”

The Count lifted Iban up in his arms. The child’s limp legs swayed quietly in the air.

“Bring the woman along.”

The Count’s long legs strode away.

I hurriedly got up from my spot and chased after him.

Tears kept coming at the sight of Iban with his face half-buried against the Count’s shoulder, eyes closed weakly.

“Be careful.”

As I was frantically following Iban with my eyes while going down the stairs, the servant following behind stopped me.

I nodded saying I understood, but the servant only let go of my hand after placing my hand on the nearby railing.

‘Why so suddenly…’

All sorts of thoughts mixed together in my head.

Had this happened before? Did the child have some kind of illness?

Or perhaps…

However, since I had no previous memories left, even in this urgent situation, nothing came to mind.

It was despairingly so.

* * *

“His body temperature has stabilized and his pulse is slowly returning to normal.”

At the explanation from the person called Dr. Kraban, the breath I had been holding escaped from my lips.

I quietly looked at Iban lying on the bed.

The child now had a peaceful face as if asleep, but his wet eyelashes and still-red face made the earlier situation feel real.

“It was probably hyperventilation shock. In other words, the child appears to have been in such an extreme state of tension that he couldn’t control his own breathing.”

“Ah…”

Would it have been okay if I had let him stay by my side as the child wanted, if I hadn’t pushed his back telling him to follow the servant?

I carefully took the child’s hand.

That small warmth felt heavy.

“Is it such an urgent situation?”

Count Roderich’s indifferent voice was heard from behind me. The doctor’s gaze turned to me as if the words were directed at me.

“…He should wake up soon.”

“If that’s the case, let’s get up now.”

As soon as the doctor finished speaking, the sound of footsteps moving several steps away could be heard.

Under the Count’s pressure to get up from my seat, I had no choice but to get up while still holding the child’s hand and looked at Dr. Kraban.

The doctor, meeting my eyes, nodded as if it was okay to leave.

I slowly let go of Iban’s hand and bowed deeply toward the Count.

“Thank you, Count.”

Dr. Kraban had said the unconscious child would wake up soon and that it wasn’t a particularly dangerous situation.

Even so, she couldn’t shake the thought that the child was safe thanks to the Count quickly moving while carrying Iban in his arms.

“Thank you so much.”

“…I see.”

The Count’s quiet voice was cut short.

Though there were many ominous rumors about him, was it because he had already accepted Iban as his own son?

Earlier, when he was carrying Iban down the stairs….

“That’s enough with the thanks, so follow me. I don’t have much time.”

“Pardon?”

“You still haven’t given me a single answer to my questions.”

With those words, Count Roderich quickly left the room.

“Please follow him quickly. I’ll let you know immediately when the child wakes up.”

As she stared blankly at his retreating figure, the servant standing nearby added a word as if urging her.

Only then did she realize she needed to chase after the Count and hurriedly moved her steps.

She quickly pursued the Count who had already climbed all the stairs with those long legs of his.

However, when she finished climbing the stairs, the Count had disappeared.

Which of the countless doors had he entered?

As she wandered around trying to find the location of the drawing room where they had been conversing just moments before, he emerged from there and gestured with his chin as if telling her to follow.

After walking for quite a while, he opened a door located at the end of the corridor.

‘I want to remember about us from that day too. Would you help me?’

As she watched Roderich entering the dark room without a single light, the words he had spoken earlier suddenly came to mind.

In the darkness, he was loosening the tie around his neck.

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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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