Chapter 514 – The Blood-Soaked White Coat.
She seemed to be calling to herself and was silent for a moment.
“I think you’re looking at the wrong person.”
Usher tried to turn back, but thump! A hand holding his hand. Although it was a weak enough force to be able to shake it off if one wanted to.
“You were convinced when you just saw my face, right?”
She was stopped in her tracks by the woman’s earnestness that echoed forlornly in her empty hall.
“It’s just a coincidence.”
In fact, he already knew someone who looked like him even though he had no blood relations.
“The possibility of such coincidences occurring one after another is…”
“If something happened once, it won’t be surprising if it happens a couple more times.”
Even as Usher said this, he could not deny that she was very similar to him. Above all, isn’t it a separate story whether to admit it or not? He eventually tried to shake off the hand that was holding him.
“But don’t you have proof? A pair of rings with Sesipia’s seal engraved on them.”
As the woman continued to speak, she couldn’t shake her hand.
“How do you know that?”
The only time he showed the ring in Parsiphenia was when he took something out of his bag while being inspected. How does she know about that ring?
“I think the story will be long. Let’s talk about it while eating.”
Only then did Usher turn to look at her, and the woman smiled happily. She held his hand and led him, and she winked at the old man, Karl.
“What is all this?”
We soon arrived at the banquet hall attached to the hall. Although it couldn’t be said to be small, it could be said to be modest compared to the size of the mansion.
“Isn’t it food?”
She was the woman who answered his question as if it were obvious, but those thoughts disappeared when she saw all the luxurious food placed on the long table.
It’s a large piece of meat that’s crispy on the outside and oozing with oil. A salad decorated with a variety of colorful fruits.
In addition, the table was filled with foods that seemed difficult to make without careful attention to each and every detail.
In fact, there were only Usher and her sitting at the table, so it was impossible to bring food from far away no matter how much one stretched out one’s hand.
“…”
“…As I was making it, there were a lot of them.”
When he looked at her in bewilderment, she blushed and avoided his gaze. If you check the old man standing nearby, he nods his head with a happy expression.
It wasn’t something I was particularly suspicious of. When she held her own hand. Unlike the somewhat cute atmosphere, I could smell calluses, large and small bandages, and the smell of medicine.
It was surprising that he made all of this by himself.
“Can I eat it all?”
“There’s no need to worry because you can buy it and share it with the employees!”
Usher recalled the interior of the mansion, which was neat but empty, and she could tell the woman was calling her bluff, but she couldn’t help it.
“Huh, I understand. You prepared it for me first, so I’ll enjoy it.”
As he pretended not to notice and picked up the fork and knife, seeing her blushing made me feel confused. As the meal began, Usher swallowed her sigh and opened her mouth, hearing the occasional sound of dishes echoing in the silence.
“Didn’t you say you had something to talk about?”
“Huh? Ah, I see. But wouldn’t it be a hindrance to talk while eating?”
What the woman said was extremely common sense, but there was a different problem.
‘Why do you keep looking at me?’
Even though there was a meal prepared in front of her, she did not lift her utensils even once and just stood with her chin on her back and watched herself eating.
I was worried about that, so I glanced at the woman while eating and saw her smiling when I met her eyes. It was just a complicated feeling.
“What kind of food is this?”
Eventually she couldn’t stand the awkwardness and when she tasted the texture for the first time, she asked about it.
“Is there anything you like!?”
The woman jumped up from her seat and her amber eyes sparkled. Although the reaction was more extreme than I expected, it was quite burdensome.
“It’s definitely to my taste, but…”
It’s not like he wasn’t curious about the food that suited his taste. What he pointed to was a large piece of meat. White and black spices were sprinkled and sticking to the oily surface.
When I put it in my mouth, the skin was crunchy with a sharp scent of spices, and the inside was soft, moist, and spicy juice oozed out.
Although he enjoyed eating meat in Farj, he usually ate it grilled or stewed. This was his first time eating it this way, so he was even more impressed.
“…”
“Is there something wrong?”
The woman stared at the dish he pointed to for a long time and didn’t say anything. When he asked, she shook her head.
“It is a large cut of aurochs tenderloin, salted spicy, mixed with spices, and roasted in the heat of an oven.”
If you just listen to the story, it’s simple, but Usher, who also helped with Nausicaä’s work, could tell that the process must have been quite cumbersome.
In addition, there are various soups, grilled fish, pickled fish eggs and other foods, as well as cakes and bread.
Things that could be cooled down were cold or lukewarm, but things that needed to be hot still retained some warmth no matter how cold they were.
‘I brought the meat dish with me while I was eating it.’
While I was eating with him, I saw him running somewhere and bringing food, and I wondered what was going on.
“Why are you doing this to me?”
It doesn’t seem like the situation is bad, but it doesn’t look like it’s rich either. Why are you so anxious about not being able to feed yourself so much food?
“Don’t you know that?”
Seeing the woman smiling bitterly at his question, Usher found it difficult to open her mouth.
“I don’t even know your name.”
“Ugh, I’m sorry. I forgot the most important thing.”
She groaned, balling her hands into fists and pounding her own head.
“I am Erene, the current mistress of Sesipia…”
She introduced herself as Erene and glanced at Usher.
“She is your mother.”
She struggled to put into words the truth she had been ignoring. He didn’t know how to reply to that. If you think about it, the reason Usher originally wanted to travel outside of that small rural town was to find his parents.
Because her life in the outside world was more difficult and full of hardships to endure, she had somehow forgotten about her biological parents.
No, it was right to say that she had given up. It’s okay if we can’t find her biological parents. Because she thought she already had people who could replace them.
“…Do you want to call me mother now?”
In fact, she could tell from the moment she first saw her that Erene was her own mother. Because her indescribable sense seemed to tell her that she was her own flesh and blood.
“Do you want to call me your mother when you let me grow up as an orphan in a village where I don’t even know you and have no ties to you?”
I have lived as an orphan my whole life. Even when all the painful and difficult things in the world came upon me and my eyes were engraved with terrible experiences and memories that made me want to tighten my throat and cut out my brain, the parents I wanted so much were not by my side.
At the end of a life that would have been very precarious if it were not for those who became his teachers and parents, he finally gained the strength to move forward on his own.
Now, she just decided to keep her promise to her girl and move on to pursue her dreams. How is it that only after she had cast off all her attachments to them did the woman who claimed to be her parent appear before her?
“Or did you want to be treated like a parent since I came to visit you as a paladin?”
Did he think that when he abandoned her and that he now told her that they were her parents, she would at least bow her head and accept him? If that were true, it was truly shameless.
“If you have such expectations, don’t even dream of it. I have no intention of coveting your wealth, status, or anything else, so you should do the same.”
If her face didn’t at least resemble her, she might not have said such harsh words. Because Erein’s face resembled her own weakness, which she hated so much, she let out an even harsher sound.
“No.”
When she got up from her seat and tried to get out of here. Uddangtang! There was the sound of a chair being knocked over and the feeling of someone running towards him and hugging his back.
“Sigh, that’s not it.”
A feeble voice filled with sadness, as if about to burst into tears at any moment.
‘Ha, I’m going crazy.’
The small weight that she could shake off at a moment’s notice reminded her of Belka, so Usher could not bear to let go of Erain who had grabbed her.
“Please! You can blame me as much as you want. Just a little bit is fine, so please listen to my excuses.”
She was shaken by the sight of her clutching his cloak and looking up at her with her tear-stained amber eyes.
“…Can you guarantee that your story is true?”
Still, I couldn’t hide my doubts, so I asked.
“If you don’t like my excuses, stick a knife in my chest.”
She didn’t know what to say when she saw Erein smiling as if she was satisfied with just that.
