One Day, I Picked Up a Mom - Chapter 83

—————
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 83

* * *

The silence of the pitch-black night filled the long corridor.

Adelaide personally took the small tray the servant had been holding. A bowl of warm soup and a few slices of freshly baked bread.

Though his aged body would weaken if he skipped even one meal, her stubborn husband had refused to show himself in the dining room.

Standing before the study door, Adelaide lightly knocked.

Knock, knock.

She waited a moment, but there was no response from inside.

Normally she would have listened for signs again, but today Adelaide turned the doorknob without hesitation.

Creak.

As the heavy door opened, the distinctive scent of old paper wafted out.

“I never gave permission to enter.”

Northbrant, sitting under a low lamp beyond the desk, spoke curtly.

“You’ve decided to be completely unruly now, haven’t you?”

Even as he adjusted his gold-rimmed reading glasses that hung precariously on the tip of his nose, he never once lifted his gaze from the book he was reading.

“You claimed the authority of the lady of the house, but now you’ve decided to ignore even the master of this room?”

Despite the barbed reproach and his dismissive refusal to even look at her, Adelaide remained unperturbed.

She approached with familiar steps, cleared a space on one side of the cluttered desk, and set down the tray.

“…”

Then, instead of answering, she bent down and sat on the low sofa beside him.

Northbrant was still persistently following the dense text through his reading glasses.

The sound of paper being turned by his large, wrinkled fingertips was particularly rustling.

Adelaide quietly gazed at the profile of the old man who stubbornly kept his gaze fixed, then spoke.

“We first met when I was ten years old.”

Northbrant’s hand, which had been turning the documents, paused for just an instant.

“Since then, we have spent our entire lives together.”

“…”

“When you were a fourteen-year-old boy who had to take up arms and go to the battlefield. Until your brothers, who joined the prolonged war belatedly, were all buried in the cold ground, and you, the third son who returned alone, became Count.”

Adelaide withdrew her gaze from her husband and looked at her own hands resting quietly on the armrest.

Both Northbrant and she had changed so much since then.

The ten-year-old boy who would blush whenever their eyes met was no longer there.

The fourteen-year-old boy who had been driven to the battlefield for the family’s honor was no longer there.

The second son and eldest son who had to join the prolonged war belatedly died one after another, and the twenty-five-year-old third son who had to return alone was also gone.

Even Northbrant, who inherited the Count’s position and stayed up night after night continuing his studies and work to fulfill the responsibilities given to him…

The day our first child was born.

The day Violetta, who was only seven months old, gasped for breath with an inexplicable high fever.

The day Vargas took his own life, or the day Violetta left as if cutting ties with the family.

The day Ludrio came to us.

The day Violetta returned as an unrecognizable corpse.

We were always together.

“I have always stayed by your side.”

“…Why are you suddenly bringing up old stories from the past?”

Northbrant removed his reading glasses and set them down on the desk with a thud. The frame made a small sound as it hit the wooden surface.

Though terrible fatigue crossed between his deeply furrowed brows, Adelaide did not stop.

“When you were twelve, you said you wanted to stay by my side for life, and I answered by becoming engaged to you as you left for the battlefield.”

Northbrant, who used to bring flowers or chocolates whenever they met, stopped visiting before his deployment.

‘Adelaide, I will definitely return.’

When she sought him out to see his face, he said that.

‘I will return without being too late.’

His mouth firmly clenched with effort.

His gaze cast down, unable to look straight at her.

His voice that trembled little by little.

Adelaide still remembered that boy from that day clearly.

‘Then, please welcome me back at that time.’

He couldn’t dare ask her to wait for him.

As if he himself couldn’t bear to do so.

In the end, he only bit his lips. He didn’t even say that death, that the battlefield, frightened him.

“Northbrant, there has never been a single moment in our lives when we weren’t together.”

Adelaide quietly examined her own hands.

The joints had grown thick and the nails had thickened.

Her completely wrinkled hands seemed suddenly unfamiliar.

“…”

Northbrant’s large hand, much rougher than her own with half his index finger missing, his wrinkled hand came into view.

Soon her husband’s hand overlapped on top of the back of her hand.

“We have always been together.”

“Adelaide.”

“On Ludrio’s wedding day, you must be by my side as well.”

Adelaide raised her head and looked at Northbrant who had come to her side.

Northbrant was silent for quite a long time.

Under the low flickering lamp, his wavering eyes settled all their turmoil and remained so for a long while.

Yet he did not avoid her gaze or turn his head away.

“…How stubborn.”

With a heavy sigh, Northbrant, who had been staring straight ahead, quietly withdrew his hand.

At the emptiness left by the departing warmth that had been touching, Adelaide curled her hand into a fist.

“Yes, we’ve spent our entire lives together. From our inexperienced childhood until now when all our hair has turned white.”

“…”

“You know my entire life and I know your entire life. Yet even for me, your behavior is not easily understood.”

He roughly rubbed his face with his coarse palm as if tired.

“What on earth for. Why go this far. I simply don’t understand. What is that mere branch family woman that you must even bring up our time together?”

Northbrant, who had quietly returned to his desk, gripped the edge of the desk tightly. His shoulders rose and fell.

However, before long, Northbrant released his grip on the desk.

“When you speak this earnestly, what choice do I have. I will be by your side that day. As I always have been.”

“…”

“However, know that in all those long years we’ve shared, this is the first time I cannot understand you like this.”

He sat back down at his desk.

Then he picked up the reading glasses he had thrown down earlier and placed them back on the tip of his nose.

“You’ve achieved your purpose, so why don’t you leave now.”

He glanced at Adelaide briefly and picked up his book.

It was a gentle expression that he no longer wished to converse.

Then he turned his head away as if he didn’t want to hear any response.

His eyes that stubbornly began following the black print through his reading glasses, the deep wrinkles at the corners of his tightly closed lips, and his firmly tensed jaw.

Adelaide quietly took in his profile.

His straight back was not hunched at all, and his broad shoulders remained as they had been.

Though he had certainly aged considerably, he was not a pitiful sight, yet Adelaide still felt that her husband was…

He seemed heartbreaking to her.

Was it because she recalled him at fourteen?

Because she imagined again how frightened and anxious he must have been on the battlefield for so long?

After such a very long time.

She felt sorry for him.

“Let me know when the date is set.”

A corner of her chest ached sharply, and Adelaide finally rose from her seat.

“Don’t skip your meals.”

“….”

“Dear, please eat before you sleep.”

This time, Northbrant finally closed his mouth.

Even if he endured and stood there longer, even if he said more here, no answer would come back.

“Don’t come too late. I’ll wait until then.”

Though she knew this, Adelaide offered one more word.

Gently stroking his shoulder.

Before closing the door and leaving, Adelaide looked back at Northbrant once more.

And then very carefully.

She closed the door without making a sound.

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