Chapter 45 – Intermission (Mother)
─ No matter what, I’ll find Earth! I’m going out of the Imperial City, but Mamu should go back to the mansion right away just in case! Maybe Earth will drop in once!
Having said that, Hiro ran out. To bring back our beloved son.
Actually, I wanted us to run together.
But, as Hiro said, there’s a chance Earth might stop by the mansion once.
His luggage and wallet, which were in the waiting room of the arena, were left behind after he ran off.
He should have hesitated to rush out of the Empire without any money or possessions, so perhaps he returned to the mansion once.
However, those faint expectations collapsed the moment we returned to the mansion.
“He didn’t…. come home….”
When I returned to the mansion, there was no particular change.
Sadiz cleans up every day, so nothing is messy.
This morning, I’m sure she had done all the housework before coming to the Arena.
“Lady Mamu… uhm…… about Miss Sadiz…”
“Let her sleep in a vacant room. It would be troublesome if Sadiz were to wake up, but…”
I quickly returned to the mansion and searched all the rooms, but they still couldn’t find him, and there was no trace of him stopping by.
When I realized that, biting my lips in Earth’s clean, well-organized room, my subordinate warriors who I had left to care for an unconscious Sadiz finally caught up.
But in the end I couldn’t catch up with Earth.
“…… Earth…… where the heck is… what the hell happened to you?”
Even now, I want to believe that it was a dream.
The Commemorative Match. Up to now, going by the academy teachers and Sadiz, Earth demonstrated fighting skills that are completely different from the expected hearsay, even displaying Martial Art without using a sword.
Those movements, driven by power and technique far beyond our imagination, tossed Rebal, and then the skill he used at the very end…
“No… That’s not.… Right…… That’s what…”
Yes, that’s not what I have to think about.
Right now it doesn’t matter why Earth is so powerful.
All I have to think about more is…
─ If I knew it would be this hard… I would not want to be born as a hero’s child
“Uh, uuuuh, uuuuuuuuuuuuuuhh!!!”
Has Earth been suffering from being our son, and we weren’t aware?
Certainly, I heard such a story.
When he entered the academy, because he couldn’t beat little Phianse, and he had nothing special unlike Fu or Rebal, he developed a slight complex…. ‘I’ve heard’.
But what did I do by just ‘listening’?
He was agonizing, he was frustrated, and he hated himself.
I…..
“Earth…”
I can’t stop crying.
In this room… packed with over a decade worth of Earth’s memories…. I smell him just by being in this room.
But he’s not here.
There is, everyday Sadiz, that girl keeps it tidy…. huh?
“Ah…”
Then I saw the clothes hanging in the room’s closet.
It’s an Academy uniform.
“Uniform… Come to think of it, when he started school, the size of his new uniform was a little big, and everyone laughed…. Heh!?”
Then I noticed that I was looking at the uniform.
Academy uniforms vary in size from student to student.
And Earth said, ‘I’ll grow taller soon anyway’, and ordered a slightly larger size.
At that time, I happened to hear the story from Sadiz, so I knew the size of the uniform.
But……
“No… it’s bigger than the large size I wore when I entered… Oh…”
Why is the size of the uniform changing? I didn’t understand it for a moment, but it was so simple.
Earth was growing, so the uniform wouldn’t fit, so I also put down a new uniform.
“I see… Earth…… you…… you’ve grown… so much…”
Yes, I didn’t know that.
And I didn’t even notice it.
Why didn’t I notice?
Because I wasn’t looking at Earth.
“I’m… even that… I didn’t see it…. I didn’t realize…”
I disqualify as a parent…… naturally…
“So… what are you suffering from…… what are you worried about…. I didn’t even know what was going on….”
Even if you don’t usually see each other very often, aren’t you connected because you are parent and child?
I felt connected, yet I didn’t see anything…. what we say with our mouths.
“Somehow, no matter what our children will be okay… hah… what are you saying, I….. I only saw Earth as an impression of myself and Hiro. Earth is different from me and Hiro. Earth… is Earth, but…”
So I…..
─ I’m just… just once… my dad… everyone… not as a son of a hero. I just wanted you to praise me…. that’s all….
“My own son… my beloved son…. for him to say that… no….. we made Earth say it!”
Why did Earth say that?
In this way, finally…… to realize that I lost Earth…… What a hero! What a hero!
“I’m sorry… Earth…… sorry…… I can’t even be a normal parent…. I’m sorry.”
Save the world…. saying it’s work, it’s protecting the world of peace…. I couldn’t protect the happiness I had in my hand.
“Little man! Haa, ha… Lil’ Earth!!”
“… Sadiz…”
Then, before my startled presence at the roughly opened door, stood Sadiz, who looked pale and trembling.
“…. Miss Sadiz. You need to take a little rest now.”
Seems she came right away after waking up.
And, the voice of my subordinate has not reached Sadiz now.
Sadiz also recalls a lot, and then…
“Mamu… Little man…”
“…… He gave up on us and ran away.”
“Heh!?”
At that moment, I couldn’t recall the words I just said to Sadis, her whole body trembling and stumbling.
Yes, it’s all on me and Hiro.
Then Sadiz…
“I’m… what…… screaming…… Little man…. I’m…”
I can understand painfully what Sadiz is thinking.
“For today… alone…. I made a silent effort…. for Little man…. I, I….”
For my own sake, I am bound by a feeling of regret and guilt.
But……
“Even if you sit down crying to death… he’s not coming home.”
“Eh… ah… ah…”
It’s not the time to cry. Sadiz too. Me too.
“I regret it and cry but… my legs move, so… me and you… Hiro, too.”
“Ma… am… Big sister…”
“Even if they won’t let me… I’ll think about making amends, but for now I’m going to chase after them.”
I have to chase after him now.
We do.
“…… Yes…”
No matter where it is.
“Isn’t Earth coming home!”
“Come on, Earth!”
“Nowhere in town… why don’t you go back home!?”
And, it’s noisy again…. these kids…
“Phi… Princess… Fu…… Rebal…”
“Lady Mamu, now… the entire Imperial Capital is on high alert and under curfew… so I searched all over the city… but he’s…”
Her face turned blue…. the princess doesn’t know what happened, but she can’t settle down to the fact that Earth is gone.
When I think about it, I know how she feels…. so I, Hiro, or Solja… If you can, take Earth…. at that point, it’s no good.
If we, unqualified parents who saw nothing of Earth, were to join Earth and this child… once, I thought that we, who were united like family as the Seven Heroes, could be a real family…I was simply thinking, ‘We are happy’.
“Umm, Lady Mamu…”
“Earth… where in the world… why…… like this…”
Fu and Rebal are breathless. The two grown-ups, now as anxious as children, are now worried about Earth. Rebal, even though he hasn’t gotten any treatment for the injury from the match yet, is running around desperately.
And it’s the same for these two.
When I and Hiro heard that they were developing the same kind of talent as ‘Them’, not knowing anything about Earth, but were motivated to compare him to these two….
“I don’t know. Where did he go?”
“That’s it!?”
“So! …… I have to know… I mean, Earth… again…”
As a parent, I’ve made a mistake that is beyond reproach.
Holding on to that, we still have to meet Earth again.
And….. I want to see you.
It’s not a lie. Because I love you.
Earth. You may not forgive me.
If it’s too late, you might reject it.
But I still… one more time…… really this time…… I want to be your mother!
No matter how long it takes.
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