One Day, I Picked Up a Mom - Chapter 79

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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 79

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Adelaide slowly blinked her eyes in the darkness.

She thought she could fall asleep immediately, feeling tired and drowsy.

But strangely, she couldn’t sleep well upon feeling the presence of someone lying beside her for the first time in a very long while.

Instead, she recalled that day from a month ago once more.

‘Ah, please be careful, be careful.’

After Luciana’s last words as she was dragged away by Ludrio, quite a long silence settled.

Why was that?

‘Let’s depart now.’

It was Northbrant who came to his senses first.

‘…No. I think I should just stay here today.’

‘My lady, what are you saying now…?’

‘Just coming up here seems to have already tired me out. I’ve become very weary. Today I’ll stay here…’

Northbrant seemed bewildered by the sudden whim, but when their eyes met, he immediately turned his gaze away.

Adelaide could tell.

That Northbrant had also seen the same thing she had in Luciana.

‘Servant. Please bring the luggage down again.’

The brief silence that followed, the exchanged glances, and the attitude of granting her request without any particular response.

Surely he too had seen Vargas in Luciana, that child around eight years old.

Vargas Rharhart.

Our child who had ended his own life at the mere age of twenty.

It was truly a strange thing.

Because Luciana and that child didn’t actually resemble each other at all.

Their gender, age, hair color, and eye color – there wasn’t a single similar aspect.

Perhaps it was because the season when the wind grows cold again and the ground freezes had returned.

Or maybe it was because of Iban, who reminded her of her son’s childhood.

…In any case, Adelaide felt she shouldn’t leave the Duke’s mansion at that time.

There wasn’t any particularly grand reason, nor did she have any other goal, but it felt like she had to do so.

That day too, Adelaide couldn’t fall asleep, just like today.

‘How mad.’

To see that child in a mere branch member of House Orenge.

After staying up all night, that was her conclusion about the momentary commotion.

No matter how inadequate Vargas was to bear the Rharhart name, he wasn’t a child that a mere branch of House Orenge could dare imitate.

Outside the window was dim, and Adelaide put on her outer garment and went out to the garden.

‘Count Roderich is a good person.’

That’s when she happened to overhear the conversation between the two.

She thought it was an awkward conversation full of honeyed words. Stupid flattery that made her feel embarrassed just listening to it.

‘If Count Roderich treats them so coldly, those people must have done something wrong.’

Adelaide, who was about to step forward in front of them unable to bear it any longer, stopped because of those words.

Luciana’s voice when she said those words was very resolute.

…How dare a branch member of House Orenge.

Not knowing her place.

She had dishonored the Rharharts.

To speak of the family elders in order to win Ludrio’s favor – it wasn’t something a mere branch of House Orenge could say.

Adelaide bit her lips hard in humiliation.

She should have walked out immediately and struck that insolent mouth without mercy.

She should have taught her clearly what the price was for dishonoring the Rharhart name without knowing her place.

She should have, but.

For some reason, her feet wouldn’t move.

Because at that moment, Vargas came to mind once again.

‘Children are quick to forgive when they’re angry.’

Forgiveness.

It was a ridiculous word.

For a child to forgive their parents.

That was a sentence that didn’t exist in the order Adelaide had learned and upheld her entire life.

Parents were beings who corrected their children so they wouldn’t go astray, and children fulfilled their duty by not deviating from that path.

So the word forgiveness was no different from a declaration of defeat, admitting failure.

…Even though she thought it was a foolish thing to say, the words Luciana had uttered lingered in her ears like hallucinations.

Adelaide quietly looked down at her trembling palms.

That terrible sensation she felt when she held her child’s hand on the day Vargas died, completely cold without any warmth.

That chilling coldness swept through her entire body once again.

The son who had taken his own life in an instant shocked many people at the time.

Regardless of status and age, everyone talked about that child.

Because he was weak.

Because his mind wasn’t sound, so he threw away his own life.

‘But if he’s particularly harsh only to the Previous Count and Countess, then surely the fault lies with them.’

It wasn’t a story about Vargas.

It wasn’t words defending that child.

Nor was Luciana taking the side of her son who had been pointed at by everyone.

It was just light flattery.

Nevertheless, that cruel certainty Luciana uttered while defending Ludrio finally opened the door to the past that Adelaide had turned away from.

The doubt that perhaps the son’s deviation from the path set by his parents wasn’t only due to his weakness.

‘Maybe it really wasn’t that child’s fault.’

When that taboo-like question she had never voiced burst out, the resentment she had held her entire life instantly lost its place and scattered.

Adelaide buried in her heart the son who had left the world too early, in such a futile and foolish way.

Yet she was deeply ashamed of that child.

She criticized him as others did.

Even while crying quietly every day, for a very long time, deeply.

She resented that child.

‘Count Roderich is a good person.’

That resolute voice, so unwavering it was almost stubborn, instantly crumbled what Adelaide had been holding onto for so long.

Perhaps it was the guilt she had denied her entire life.

Hopes she had never harbored even once began to flood in all at once.

Hope-mixed despair rushed in violently.

Adelaide finally realized that those were the words she had desperately wanted to hear for so long.

“Hah.”

Adelaide, who let out a light sigh, tossed and turned.

‘Darling, I’ve changed my mind.’

That’s how Adelaide spoke to Northbrant’s back, who had skipped breakfast and kept his mouth firmly shut.

‘I should support these children’s marriage. I’m thinking of staying in the capital.’

Northbrant stopped in his tracks but didn’t turn around for a while.

‘…What are you talking about now?’

Northbrant, who belatedly turned to look at Adelaide, asked in a deeply subdued voice.

‘I’m thinking of personally teaching that child so she’ll have no flaws as the mistress of House Rharhart.’

‘Adelaide!’

Northbrant’s face instantly flushed red.

‘Are you really going to seat a branch member of some baron family I’ve never even heard of as the family’s mistress? That woman who had a child before even holding the ceremony?’

‘I’ve already made my decision.’

At the firm words, Northbrant seemed to lose his words and trembled his lips.

‘Marriage arrangements and education within the Family are my exclusive authority as the lady of the house, so I’m not asking for permission.’

‘He’s completely lost his mind, completely lost it!’

That day, Adelaide deliberately did not bring up Vargas’s name.

It had been something she hadn’t touched upon even once during the long years—nearly fifty years since that child had died.

Not wanting to break that long-standing silent promise, she didn’t speak of it aloud that day either.

‘Go ahead and try your best. You’ll surely regret it.’

It was the same for Northbrant.

He never asked what her reasons were for making such a decision.

He probably couldn’t bring himself to ask either.

“….”

The quiet breathing sounds coming from beside her.

Adelaide somehow felt that Northbrant probably hadn’t fallen asleep yet either.

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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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