Chapter 1007 – Afterword ─ Ceres Never Had Any Expectations From His Mother
“Do you have any good memories of Ceres with Eve?”
Venus, unable to bear it any longer, ended up openly asking Ceres a question.
“You’re suddenly asking me something really strange, Your Majesty.”
Eve happened to be away. It wasn’t busy work, it was really just a situation where I was away for the restroom.
The whole situation of waiting for Eve to go to the bathroom on a street full of shiny things was a bit unusual and funny to Venus, but it didn’t matter.
Venus sincerely hoped that Eve and Ceres would get along better today.
“Are you saying out loud that this is a strange thing?”
“It’s a strange thing.”
Ceres, who spoke as if driving a wedge into his heart, did not even touch his hair and just blinked normally.
‘Ceres… Ceres’s feelings for Eve are stronger than I thought…?’
Embarrassed, Venus swallowed his saliva.
‘If this is the case, it’s not just that the walls are high, it’s that you don’t have expectations, right?’
The terrible mother who never apologized until now was Eve Terra.
No matter how kind Ceres was, it was truly impossible for her to have good feelings toward Eve.
“That… But still. Haha! Isn’t it the relationship between mother and daughter? When I think of Mama, I too have a lot of good things that come to mind.”
“My mother and I do not have an ordinary mother-daughter relationship.”
“Queu, queu…”
Venus groaned in front of Ceres, who struck an iron wall again.
“Hmm! Still! A birthday present or something! Don’t you have some happy memories of spending the holidays together?”
At Venus’s words, Ceres made a strange expression and crossed her arms.
“Did your mother say that?”
“Oh, no… Eve didn’t say anything. Isn’t this the first time you’ve talked to Ceres and Eve alone?”
Venus had a perplexed expression, and Ceres, on the other hand, had an expressionless expression that could not be read, neither angry nor disappointed.
“What kind of serious conversation did you have that made Ceres look like this?”
Ceres raised the corner of her mouth at a word from Eve, who belatedly came out of the bathroom and was fiddling with her purse.
“Your Majesty asked me if it made me happy to think about the holiday I spent with my mother and the birthday present she gave me.”
“… Cough! Cough!”
Eve, who was trying to drink the coffee she was holding in her hand, started coughing in quite a bit of pain.
“Eve…?! What on earth have you been doing all this time?”
“W-what… Rather than doing…”
“You don’t have to worry, Your Majesty.”
Ceres smiled brightly.
“My mother has never celebrated my birthday even once.”
“… What?!”
Venus looked at Eve with a truly horrified expression.
Eve’s face turned red, and she sipped her coffee in silence and turned her head.
“Why on earth did you do such a thing?! Eve?! Wasn’t Ceres the daughter you gave birth to because your stomach was hurting? You never gave her a birthday present? You’ve never even spent a holiday with her?”
“… Well, it has to be that way.”
“There’s no choice but to do that…?”
Venus was startled, touching his cheek with both hands.
“Say something that makes sense! Say something that makes sense!! Not Abama… Not Abama… Not…?”
Venus shouted and felt the back of her neck hurting, and naturally thought of Emperor Jupiter.
“Eve… I can’t tell you this, but taking care of Pandemonium is your priority, so you didn’t just work 365 days a year without taking a break, right?”
Eve rolled her eyes to the side and sipped her coffee.
“The Great Mother never rested for a single day. She worked for the future of Pandemonium. She never rested. Furthermore, she worked for thousands of years, and she loved it, so she was called the ‘Great’ Mother for no reason. That’s not it.”
“… There are many drugs and methods to effectively relieve fatigue. And because Pandemonium’s work was endless, someone had to work every day.”
“Well, that… Isn’t that right? Huh? Does it make sense to abandon your only family to work?”
Eve closed her eyes at Venus’ words.
“But it had to be done.”
“That’s what the Great Mother always says.”
“… Ceres, there’s nothing I couldn’t do for you, right?”
Ceres frowned slightly at Eve’s words.
“There is nothing I couldn’t do for you. I could wear the coolest clothes in the demon world at any time, and thanks to the card with unlimited money, there was nothing I couldn’t eat or enjoy. I could also buy friends with as much money as I wanted.”〈 Br〉
“… I mean…”
“You’re not going to say no, are you, Mother? You said you didn’t want to give her anything special for her birthday since you usually gave her cards and attached people.”
Eve pursed her lips in response to Ceres’ harsh words.
Thinking about it now, it was something she deeply regretted, but at the time, Eve truly thought that these actions were extremely efficient.
“… I just always thought I did my best.”
“My mother did her best.”
Ceres smiled.
“The best you could give me was just the worst than I thought.”
“Ke… Ceres…”
There was nothing Eve could say in response to Ceres’ words, which felt even bloody.
Ceres even looked up at Venus with a bright smile on his face after spitting out words full of emotion.
“Your Majesty, since your mother went to the bathroom, should I introduce you to another place? There are many places in Pandemonium that I haven’t been able to show you yet.”
“Ah… Haha…”
Venus, seeing Ceres openly angry and spewing out harsh words for the first time, broke into a cold sweat.
‘Well, I guess it’s not for nothing that there’s an old saying that the scariest thing is when a good person gets angry.’
Venus swallowed her saliva and looked at Eve, who was silently sipping coffee with eyes full of anxiety.
Her face was pitifully white, and she couldn’t say anything.
Because her sins were so great, the way she loved her family in a way that could never be forgiven by anyone…
She chose to stay still instead of needlessly playing with her tongue. She had no choice but to do so, she thought.
‘… Sometimes, even if you walk a tightrope, you need to get over to the other side.’
Venus understood Eve’s feelings, but was worried.
Venus knew better than anyone else the despair Ceres felt and the bitterness she felt when her hopes for her family were lost.
Venus, who grew up under the worst father, had no choice but to understand better than anyone else the feelings of Ceres, who was used as a chess piece under the worst mother.
‘… The worst part is that I can’t do anything.’
In the end, this problem was not solved just because Venus stepped forward.
It was a relationship that could only be improved if Eve Terra did something.
“Okay… I can’t stay here forever, so let’s move somewhere.”
Venus eventually patted Ceres’ butt, hoping that Eve would take action.
“Shall I show you the theme park that you enjoyed with Minos last time? There is something to enjoy in Pandemonium as well.”
“Is there something like that underground?”
“Because the demons had a desire to enjoy all the culture they enjoyed on earth.”
Ceres smiled brightly and waved her hand to indicate that we should move quickly.
Venus had no reason to refuse, so she moved her legs, hoping to brighten the mood a little, while Eve, on the other hand, did not move her legs as she sipped her coffee.
“Eve?”
“… Since Ceres is there, there is a perfect place to go.”
Ceres said nothing to Eve’s words, which seemed to have been pondering for quite a long time.
“Hmm? Tell me where it is. You can’t just go there blindly.”
“It’s a very meaningful place for us demons.”
Eve carefully straightened the side of her head.
“A place with deep meaning? Hmm, I guess that would be better than going to a theme park.”
At Venus’s words, Ceres briefly exhaled.
“It’s not the place I think it is, is it?”
“It seems like this is the place Ceres is thinking of. Still, wouldn’t it be a good idea to show it to VIP at least once? At least we at Nektar have a heart to honor those who have gone before us.”
Eve, who spoke with a serious expression, took a deep breath and turned around first.
“To make it easier for VIPs to understand, there is a building that is used like a cemetery. You will have to see it to understand… So please follow me.”
“Um… Okay, since it’s Eve’s horse and not someone else’s, let’s give it a go.”
Venus smiled and moved his legs, but he could not move forward. Unlike Eve, who had already walked forward, this time Ceres grabbed Venus’ arm.
“Ceres?”
“It’s not a place I really want to go, Your Majesty.”
“Is there a reason?”
Ceres sighed, unable to properly look at Venus, who had carefully asked.
“It’s a place that reminds me of my other mother.”
“Other… Ah, standing… Are you really talking about Lilith?”
Ceres sighed and nodded her head, and Venus swallowed her saliva.
“… Then shouldn’t we go even more! There’s no way Eve couldn’t have known Ceres’s feelings like that? And yet she asked her to go! Trust your mother!”
With shining eyes, Venus strongly pulled Ceres’ hesitant hand.
“Ceres, at least once! Isn’t it time she received her mother’s kindness!”
“B-But! My mother has never been away… Ugh!”
Ceres was eventually captured by Venus and forced to follow Eve.
