One Day, I Picked Up a Mom - Chapter 50

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

One Day I Picked Up a Mother – Episode 50

I was just realizing that I trusted Ludrio more deeply than I thought and feeling flustered about it.

“What?”

A hollow laugh mixed with bewilderment flowed from between the Countess’s lips.

“How shameless.”

There was no effort to hide it.

Cold gaze and twisted lips.

“So you mean you don’t care what happens to the Count’s reputation.”

It took me a moment to understand what she was saying through her raw hostility.

“That’s not it.”

I hurriedly shook my head, thinking my disorganized words had caused a misunderstanding, but I couldn’t stop her accusations.

“Muttering ‘that’s not it’ won’t change anything. In the end, whether the Count’s dignity crumbles, the family’s reputation gets tarnished, or he becomes a laughingstock in social circles, the Count will bear all responsibility while you’ll be protected, so it’s fine with you.”

Her gaze toward me grew even colder.

“Now I see you’re not staying by the Count’s side out of love.”

“…”

“You just chose a place to leech off. That’s why you don’t even blink when told the Count will suffer because of you.”

Leech.

Only then did I close my mouth that had been fidgeting, wanting to clear up the Countess’s misunderstanding.

This tea time the Countess had prepared was a setting created from the start to blame and humiliate me.

Unless I gave her the answer she wanted, her hostility toward me wouldn’t disappear.

“That’s why I hate children who have nothing. Since they have no dignity to protect, they’re shameless and only greedy.”

Now I understood why Ludrio told me to avoid these people.

She disliked my birth, and that wasn’t something I could change through effort.

So nothing would change no matter what I said.

“I never thought I’d have to deal with your type again at this age.”

Maybe I should have just agreed halfheartedly to that offer of money to leave the estate.

‘I wish someone would tell Ludrio that I was summoned…’

In this situation that didn’t seem likely to end soon, I really wanted to see Ludrio.

I wished he would come and rescue me.

So until then, I resolved to stay quiet without offending her with unnecessary words and closed my mouth.

“Seeing how shameless you are makes me wonder again. Is the child you brought really Ludrio’s child?”

No matter what I said, the situation would only get worse…

“What?”

“I already know you brought Ludrio’s brooch from somewhere. But can a mere brooch really prove the child’s paternity?”

My brow furrowed involuntarily at her slander toward Iban.

What she was saying was very rude and dangerous.

If the previous generation stepped forward to question Iban’s bloodline, the child’s future life wouldn’t be smooth.

“If he’s really Ludrio’s child, why did you raise him alone until he turned seven?”

Even knowing that her single word could fill the child’s entire life with pointing fingers and whispers, her voice was excessively calm.

As if any petty act was fine as long as she could cut me and Iban out of the Rharhart family.

“You know well that saying you didn’t come because it might harm Ludrio can’t be an excuse.”

If the petition to the Imperial Family stated that Iban’s father was unclear, or if the Countess spread word to others in social circles…

“Were you perhaps worried the grown child wouldn’t resemble Ludrio?”

“You’re being rude.”

“What?”

“What you’re saying right now, Countess, is very rude.”

The Countess couldn’t close her mouth and distorted her face terribly, like someone who had suffered a great insult.

As if she never thought I would dare point her out.

“…I’m not feeling well, so I think I should excuse myself first. I’m sorry.”

I looked at the Countess for a moment, then stood up from my seat.

There was no longer any reason to stay here.

Though Ludrio said there was no need, following her to the drawing room instead of making excuses to avoid it.

Being careful with my words and actions in front of the Countess – it was all because I wanted to improve relations with them even a little.

Ludrio said it was impossible, but still.

But in the end, he was right.

“How dare you!”

The Countess stood up following me, her face flushed red.

“You really have no manners. Until I give permission…”

“And Iban clearly resembles the Count perfectly, and rather than me making the Count suffer out of greed, isn’t the petition you plan to submit what will make the Count suffer more?”

If Count Ludrio married someone of insignificant status like me, there could be talk that he lost his judgment or abandoned responsibility for personal feelings.

It was true that marriage with me would give social circles grounds to attack Ludrio.

But what would really endanger Ludrio was the previous generation’s petition.

Social whispers and officially raising issues with the Imperial Family were completely different matters.

That would be what truly shook Ludrio’s legitimacy from the roots.

“In the end, you just want to overturn this marriage because my status doesn’t satisfy you.”

If she had just said that from the beginning, I could have understood her.

This was a class-based society, and it was natural to want what you have to remain unblemished.

“Just saying that would have been enough, why go this far to vilify me.”

She dragged me, who already had nothing, down to the bottom. For her own justification.

“Do you love the Count, Countess?”

The question I had been holding back spilled out.

It was just a moment, but a different expression from before crossed the Countess’s face.

It wasn’t contempt or cynicism.

Her lips stiffened slightly, and her unfocused, wavering gaze was the face of someone recalling something.

“So you’re going to officially submit a petition that the Count’s choice betrayed the family? Without blinking an eye…”

Suddenly her eyes quickly became moist.

It was truly completely unexpected.

This was supposed to be a setting prepared by the Countess, full of pride and self-respect, to insult and belittle me.

So if someone should cry, it should be me, not the Countess.

“Ah…”

The Countess turned around abruptly with a face as bewildered as mine.

And then, with a bang.

The drawing room door opened without a knock, and Ludrio entered the room with long strides, looking extremely displeased.

‘Did she cry on purpose?’

I was thinking this while alternately looking at the Countess wiping away tears with her back turned and Ludrio who had just entered.

“What is this about? I’m sure I told you I had no intention of having tea together.”

He stopped beside me with an extremely annoyed face and began questioning.

“Don’t you dare order around my employees and my people in my estate, and just rest quietly until train time before going back.”

Ludrio firmly grasped my arm.

The servant who had apparently received the news late and came down immediately was pacing in front of the drawing room door, having just arrived following the Count.

“Enough. I have nothing to say to you.”

The Countess turned her head as if she didn’t want to show Ludrio her face.

“Servant, escort the Countess to the coach station. Right now.”

And Ludrio, seeming even angrier at the Countess’s attitude, ordered the servant outside the door.

“…Yes, sir.”

The servant with a troubled face hesitantly entered the room.

Ludrio stepped back two or three steps with me, as if he didn’t want to be near the Countess at all.

“Luna, look at me.”

It was when Ludrio called me with his gaze fixed entirely on me.

I saw a tear that had fallen from the chin of the Countess who stubbornly kept her head turned away.

She was still crying. Silently, as if she didn’t want anyone to notice.

“Count, I want to have tea with the Countess.”

“What?”

His gaze wavered finely as if flustered.

“No.”

Just as Ludrio firmly spat out his refusal and was about to turn his head toward the Countess, I grabbed his arm.

“Please. I want to do that.”

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