One Day, I Picked Up a Mom - Chapter 8

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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 8

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“Good night, Iban.”

Iban quietly reflected on the woman’s voice that had already disappeared in the pitch-black darkness.

After pondering like that for a long while, Iban cautiously opened his mouth.

“…But Mother. Where is Mother’s original family?”

The house where even the candlelight had disappeared was so dark that even shapes were hard to distinguish. Iban hid his expression in the deep darkness and waited a long time for her answer.

Worry flooded in that perhaps the woman would get up and leave, saying she was going back to her home because of his unnecessary question.

“…Mother only has Iban.”

Just as he was about to change the subject due to his increasingly anxious heartbeat, a deeply sunken voice quietly resonated.

“Then you have no family? Have you been living alone all this time?”

Even though there was nothing he could make out in the darkness even if he sat up, Iban hurriedly rose from his spot.

“Yes. …Iban hasn’t met Mother’s family until now either. Right?”

“That’s true.”

“If there were other family members, there’s no way Iban wouldn’t have met them by now. Isn’t that right?”

It was as if they had been together for a very long time, even though they had first met just three days ago.

Though it sounded quite foolish and strange, Iban decided to just let such trivial matters slide.

“Then you have nowhere else to go besides me, right? You won’t suddenly abandon me, right?”

The arms that wrapped around his back pulled him close, and Iban was embraced in the woman’s arms.

“Iban, where would Mother go? I told you, I’ll stay by Iban’s side. I promise.”

“…”

“There’s nothing to worry about. Mother will definitely protect Iban. No matter what happens.”

Both the voice whispering not to worry and the embrace that held him were excessively warm.

‘…I wish this woman was really my mother.’

Such a thought suddenly occurred to him.

The moment Iban realized he was having such foolish thoughts, he shook his head to cut them off.

‘Then I would be happy like other kids too.’

However, even though he knew it was a foolish thought, controlling his thoughts wasn’t as easy as he wished.

‘Not a mother who gets drunk every day and throws tantrums, not a mother who throws leftover food from the tavern at me.’

In the end, Iban couldn’t stop the floodgates once they had opened.

‘Not a mother who doesn’t care where I get beaten up…’

This old, small house that he had never once liked since she came, he liked for the first time.

He liked the sparkling floor, the disappeared stench, and the delicious food.

But more than that, he liked this woman who always looked into his eyes.

He liked how she gently met his gaze and softly stroked his hair.

As if.

It was as if he was being loved…

Iban slipped out of the woman’s arms, who seemed to have fallen asleep, and groped through the darkness as he approached near the bed.

Iban swept the wooden floor with his hand and lifted up one of the boards.

He put his hand into the small gap in the wooden floor and pulled out a brooch the size of his palm.

It was the brooch that Mother would hold preciously in her arms when drunk, giggling as she muttered about making a good fortune with it.

It was also the reason why Mother had no choice but to return even after leaving home several times.

The cool temperature of the brooch stopped Iban’s heated heart.

If she found out he had taken this, Mother would curse and rage furiously.

If things went well, he would never see Mother again.

If things went wrong in the middle, he would get beaten severely and locked up.

“…Iban?”

However, his contemplation didn’t last long.

At the voice softly calling his name, Iban approached the woman who had half-risen. And he pressed the red jewel into her hand.

“Mother, Mother. I want to go to Father. Let’s take this and go to Father.”

He placed the brooch that Mother cherished more than him into the woman’s hand.

“I want to go to Father. We decided to go before, remember? Hm? Let’s just go tomorrow.”

“…Father?”

“Yes, Mother said so. That my father is a tremendously great noble. And we were going to move anyway.”

“Ah…”

“I want to move. Okay? Let’s go tomorrow.”

He grew anxious at the woman who didn’t answer readily.

To continue living with this woman, he had to go somewhere no one knew him or the woman.

Somewhere no one could say nonsense to the woman.

“Tomorrow…? Iban, I understand your feelings, but we can’t go tomorrow right away.”

The woman trailed off as if flustered and troubled. Even so, she stroked his head to comfort him.

“This is too sudden. There are things we need to prepare…”

“I really hate this neighborhood.”

She was a woman who couldn’t bear to see pitiful things.

Iban still vividly remembered how distressed her face looked when he was getting beaten.

She was a woman who kept giving him bread even though she was hungry herself.

She was a woman who never got annoyed even when he kept waking her up while she could barely speak from sleepiness.

So please, this time too.

“I hate the drunk men and I hate the drunk women too. I hate it when those women keep touching my face and body.”

Iban’s voice became tearful.

“I have no friends here. All the adults tell their kids not to play with me. They say I’m a very bad kid and playing with me will make them badly behaved. I didn’t break the window, but everyone only scolds me. I hate this neighborhood, Mother.”

“Iban…”

“Please, I want to go tomorrow. There’s nothing to take from this house anyway. Let’s just go. I’ll eat only a little bit of food. …Once we go to Father, we’ll be rich now. I want to go there, Mother.”

If he could follow his heart, he wanted to drag the woman away from this house and neighborhood right now.

“I want to live with Father.”

Right. He didn’t want to lose this woman who had rolled in on her own.

Once he acknowledged that feeling, anxiety flooded in even more.

“Iban.”

Iban hugged the woman tightly.

“…Alright, let’s do that.”

After some more time passed, the answer he had been waiting for so desperately came from the woman’s mouth.

The woman who hugged him tightly said so as if she had made some kind of resolution.

“Tomorrow… let’s go to Iban’s father.”

“Mother, let’s go early in the morning. Let’s go as soon as the sky brightens.”

“…Alright.”

The woman nodded as she wiped Iban’s tear-soaked face.

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Iban urged the woman to leave the house as soon as the sky began to grow dim.

The woman dressed in the most modest clothes among Mother’s possessions and put the money pouch and the brooch he had given her deep into her coat’s inner pocket.

And she also carried a large bag containing some food and spare clothes.

On the other hand, as he made the resolution to leave the house he had lived in his entire life and never return again, all Iban held in his hand was the woman’s hand.

He held the hand of the woman with deep golden hair and green eyes tinged with blue light and hurriedly escaped through the narrow alley.

Even though they had started their day early, they had to encounter several people wandering the streets.

Iban raised his coat collar to cover his face, worried that someone among them might recognize him.

Then he squeezed the hand he was holding and earnestly pleaded to some unknown someone for the first time in a very long while.

Please don’t let us meet anyone we know. Please let us escape this village.

Please, don’t take this woman away from me.

“What time is the earliest carriage?”

Upon arriving at the carriage office, Iban stood on his tiptoes and urgently asked the office employee.

“Where are you going?”

“Nothing….”

“We’re trying to get to Bakarah.”

The employee’s unfocused eyes passed over Iban and turned to the woman.

“There’s one carriage to the capital in 30 minutes, one in 4 hours and 30 minutes, and one more in 8 hours and 30 minutes. They’re all fully booked.”

“What? All booked? What do you mean?”

“Carriages to the capital are always in high demand. If you had such urgent business, you should have come earlier.”

The employee’s brow furrowed with wrinkles as Iban protested indignantly.

“Then if we go to a slightly larger city, could we find a carriage to the capital?”

“That would probably be difficult too. …What business do you have in the capital?”

The employee who had been looking at the woman and Iban tilted his head sideways.

Just as Iban was about to snap back asking what business it was of his, the woman spoke first.

“We’re going to meet family.”

“…Does it have to be today?”

The employee asked thoughtfully for a moment.

“We need to go meet daddy.”

Catching that fleeting look in his eyes, Iban quickly nodded and spoke in a sweet voice.

“Hmm, if that’s the case, there might be seats available on the mail carriage. I can’t guarantee it though. Or, there’s the box seat on the carriage leaving for the capital in 30 minutes.”

The employee looked over the woman and Iban as he added.

“It won’t be comfortable since the weather’s cold, but since you don’t have luggage, you should be able to make it to the capital in that seat.”

“We’ll take it! Mother, let’s take this one.”

Iban nodded vigorously.

More and more people were starting to wander the streets.

In 30 minutes, they had to board that carriage and leave immediately.

“Then we’ll take the box seat….”

“Iban!”

Just as the woman was about to pay, someone shouted his name from a short distance away.

At the clear, ringing voice that shook the street, Iban’s face turned pale.

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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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