One Day, I Picked Up a Mom - Chapter 15

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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 15

‘It’s okay, so follow the servant, Iban. Be good?’

When the door to the room where only the Count and the woman remained closed firmly, Iban’s hands and feet grew cold.

He feared that when the door opened again, the woman would be lying there dead, covered in blood.

That foolish woman didn’t even know what kind of situation this was.

Even as the situation was turning serious, she was leisurely sipping tea, which showed it all.

He was a nobleman with a considerably bad reputation. So if she acted foolishly or without tact, she would surely face his wrath.

…If only they hadn’t left home.

If they had just stayed in that village, if he hadn’t given her the brooch. If he hadn’t called her mother and hugged her.

If that had been the case, the woman wouldn’t have died at the hands of the blood-crazed Count.

The servant only repeated that they should wait until the Count finished his conversation and came out. As if it didn’t matter at all if the woman died.

So there was only him. The only person who could save the woman.

He had to save her himself.

‘If I collapse now, will people stop tormenting us and abandon us?’

People would torment them relentlessly, but when someone fainted, they would get scared and run away. So this time too…

At least, that was what Iban was thinking at the time.

The only way to open that firmly closed door was for him to collapse, that one method alone.

Iban’s eyes blinked vacantly as he finished his thoughts.

‘…Since the woman is alive, is it a success?’

Since they still haven’t been abandoned from this estate, is it a failure?

Just as a small curse was about to slip out of his mouth at the situation not going as he wished.

“You’re awake.”

At the man’s voice quietly echoing from behind the bed, Iban froze in place.

Duke Ludrio Rhart.

That voice, though he had heard it only once, was one he could never forget.

The sound of his shoes slowly echoed in the room.

Iban instinctively swallowed to moisten his throat and slowly turned his head to look at him.

To look up at the man who had somehow come close to the bed, Iban had to crane his neck up tight.

“So, you’re saying you’re my son.”

The Count was the largest person Iban had ever met in his life. He was as tall as a door, and though he wasn’t fat, his body was strangely large.

‘Did he realize that the woman isn’t my real mother?’

Looking into his glass-like blue eyes, Iban somehow felt like all of his secrets would be exposed.

“Your mother was very worried about you.”

As the child hurriedly lowered his head to avoid the Count’s eyes, he spoke another word.

Iban’s mind raced quickly.

‘Hasn’t he noticed yet?’

Mother and the woman looked nothing alike.

Unlike his mother who had brown hair and brown eyes, the woman had dark blonde hair and blue-tinged green eyes.

Mysterious green eyes that looked almost like blue eyes at a glance.

Even seeing those eyes, he didn’t notice that she was a different person from his mother?

Could that really be possible? If you don’t see someone for seven years… Would I also forget the eye color of Hank or that grandmother?

Would I eventually not remember mother’s brown eyes either?

However, Iban didn’t think he would forget their appearances just because some time had passed.

The moment he realized that to Duke Rhart, his mother was about as significant as some nameless passerby in the village.

The Count pulled a nearby chair close to the bed and sat down.

As their eye levels became roughly similar, the Count’s face naturally came into Iban’s view.

Duke Rhart smiled at him.

…What’s his intention?

At that painted-on smile whose true meaning he couldn’t fathom, Iban’s heart beat rapidly.

It wasn’t a mocking smile, nor was it a smile filled with affection.

There wasn’t anything particularly amusing either…

In any case, what was certain was that it was a smile deliberately crafted to show him.

“…I want to leave.”

At those words, the smile instantly disappeared from the man’s face.

“I want to leave together with mother. Please let us go, Your Grace.”

“You want something different from your mother.”

The man’s hand gently stroked Iban’s head.

He seemed to be carefully caressing his head, but perhaps because his hand was so large, Iban’s head drooped under the weight.

“It seems you didn’t come here of your own will.”

Iban somehow thought the man had become more lenient.

“If you answer my questions, I’ll do as you wish.”

Because the Count leaned forward, his face came a little closer.

Iban looked into the man’s blue eyes that were exactly like his own. Pure blue eyes with no other color mixed in.

When he hurriedly nodded at the silent pressure, the man took out a red brooch from his chest and handed it to Iban.

“Where did this come from?”

Didn’t the woman answer him?

Iban briefly looked at the woman whose eyes were reddened as if she had cried a lot, then hurriedly opened his mouth.

“It came from under the floorboards at home.”

Instantly, the man’s eyes turned cold again.

“Iban.”

When he quietly called his name, his shoulders naturally hunched.

“I really hate those who lie.”

He spoke with emphasis, as if giving a warning.

Lie. As soon as he heard that word, Iban’s heart began to beat violently.

However, the child soon shook his head as if there had been no lie.

At least what he said about the brooch coming from his home was true.

“…I heard you missed me a lot. That you said you wanted to live with me because you hated the village where you lived.”

The man slowly changed the subject while quietly observing Iban.

“But why are you saying you want to leave now? Did your mother lie?”

The moment the Count’s gaze slowly turned toward the woman, Iban hurriedly opened his mouth.

“That’s not it!”

This was a man who said he hated lies.

Iban shook his head earnestly to capture the Count’s attention.

And he quickly turned his mind.

What if he told everything truthfully?

The Count had said he would do as he wished if he answered the questions. So…

“It’s true that I said I wanted to come. I asked to go to father.”

However, Iban ultimately decided not to do so.

“Because I hated the neighborhood where we lived.”

In case this man might search for his real mother and chase away this woman. Or if not that, he might tell the woman all the truth.

“I said I wanted to find father because I wanted to escape that neighborhood.”

At those words, the man’s eyebrows furrowed.

“…So mother didn’t lie.”

Even as Iban gripped the blanket tightly in fear, he finally spat out those words.

“And I didn’t lie to Your Grace either.”

“Ha?”

Finally, a short laugh escaped from his mouth.

The Count’s gaze turned toward the woman again. At that, Iban urgently reached his hand over the face of the woman who was still sleeping motionlessly.

It was an action that came out without him being able to do anything about it.

“Mother did nothing wrong.”

Hoping that his cold gaze wouldn’t reach the woman.

“…What a touching mother and son.”

The Count’s gaze finally moved away from the woman.

He let out a light sigh as if quite annoyed, then soon rose from his seat.

“You’re quite natural at fainting.”

It was then that Iban, who had been carefully moving toward the woman’s side, raised his head.

“What? What do you…”

The moment he met those piercing blue eyes again, Iban’s entire body stiffened.

He wanted to lower his head. He tried to hurriedly hide his face, but his neck moved strangely with creaking sounds.

“Still, don’t do that next time.”

As if he had finished what he wanted to say, he left the room just like that. Iban only raised his head again after hearing the sound of the door closing.

Then he stared at the door through which the Count had left for a long time.

Not long after, someone entered and said something or other, then flipped Iban’s eyelids and shoved metal into his mouth.

Even during all this, Iban’s mind was completely filled with Count Roderich.

Iban’s hand carefully found and grasped the woman’s hand that lay limply on the bed.

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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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