Chapter 384 – My Baby (4)
A thin stream of rain falls incessantly.
The early morning air was quite chilly.
Kiik-
The cabin door opened, and a dog peeked out.
Heh heh heh heh-
Its short snout looked around from side to side, then stuck out its tongue and licked its black nose.
The sound of rain that smells like grass.
Stepping into the muddy water on the floor, he crawls out of the cabin.
Behind the tail that moves gently, four men and women who are fully prepared follow.
They were Seojun, Karina, the salesman, and Shane.
“Are you really going to leave…?”
“···Sorry. Mother.”
Herena, dyeing her hair red with henna powder, stood beneath her dripping eaves and squeezed her adopted son’s hands.
A look of uneasiness was evident in the eyes that could be seen under her wrinkled eyelids.
The first time a man named Seo-jun came to see him, he was so surprised.
Those black eyes looking down indifferently were definitely not the eyes of someone who had lived an ordinary life.
Not to mention, the men and women who are with him also have a rough face.
However, after revealing that the man was her son’s brother, and telling a story in detail—Let’s cry while hugging our son—Helena also said that her tears flowed at the same time.
I didn’t know that my son had a story like that.
I don’t think anyone in the world has a story, but isn’t she the child she gave birth to and raised with her heart?
She couldn’t help but feel her heart aching.
But when the night gets late and the man spreads out the futon and lays down side by side with his son, they talk about their empty years together-.
Helena felt as if her web spider was crawling up the back of her arm.
Every time the son reminisced about the past and recited a word- the man sent a pitiful look.
He comforted his son with a sad smile and patted him on the back with a warm hand.
Each action seemed to be for a lost brother, but as they blended together, it was like seeing a huge mass of contradictions.
Bright lighting and dark shadows, clear sky and raindrops, warmth and cold are mixed together, and I don’t know what it is.
It felt like a man.
Helena watched them silently, trembling with anxiety.
The son, who was half leaning on the man’s arms and talking, fell asleep before he knew it.
The man withdrew his hand from patting his son’s back and suddenly looked at Helena.
It was only for a moment that he met her eyes in the dark, but Helena was so startled that she gasped and swallowed her breath.
While she watched her man – her man also watched her.
She felt a sense of alienation from the man—the man seemed to notice.
But the man said nothing else.
Just turn her body on its side and try to sleep.
So the moon went down and the sun rose.
The son-, he revealed that he had decided to follow his brother on the road.
Helena had been thinking-that her son would leave ever since she first found her son when a strange dark-haired man showed up.
She must let her son go with a smile on her face—she was determined.
But the inexplicable fear she felt in the man forced her to seize her son.
“···Mother.”
Even seeing her son’s eyes blush right away – that’s why she couldn’t let go of his hand.
“Son…, My son. Shane.”
“Yes, Mother.”
Helena swallowed all her ramblings.
When I asked if I had to go, I pressed down hard on the words.
Son will leave
In order to meet the mother who gave birth to her, not her adoptive mother, she will go a long way with a man.
So he can’t be caught.
Even so- I’m sure he’ll listen to a mother’s words of concern for her son-.
She said she by.
“Mother, I only wish for your happiness.”
“I know, mother.”
Shane smiled brightly.
I was no longer the child of that time.
The boy who had been hiding and crouching in the barn has now grown up and become a handsome young man.
Whatever crisis may come before the child, he will surely be able to overcome it.
“I want to be careful.”
“What…?”
Even if it’s just an imagination born out of useless anxiety – as long as the child can be safe and happy, that’s all.
“Please be careful. The person called your brother-, and even the person called your birth mother, whom you will soon meet. There will be no one in the world who loves you more than me. That’s all I’m sure of.”
“…”
Shane looked at her adoptive mother in silence.
The kind-hearted and naive child did not doubt her intentions.
With her eyes open, she stared intently at her mother, who had raised a child without a face-to-face for years, and now has grown old with the years.
Helena pleaded with God.
“Don’t believe everything you see. Hunger sometimes turns even good people into robbers. Trust yourself. Save only yourself Don’t sacrifice for others, only for yourself. Do you understand…?”
Her son nodded his head.
Outside the cabin – along the side of the road where the thin raindrops were pouring down – along the road where the ashes turned to black water, the son left.
Even after her child had completely disappeared from her sight, Helena remained motionless.
“`
Hush-
Seo-joon, who was walking along the road, raised his fist slightly.
It meant to stop here and rest for a while.
The dog runs to the shade of a tree that is good for shelter from the rain and sits down.
The dog vendor squatted down beside him and took out her jerky and chewed it. He also throws a dog.
Seo-jun also took a dried raspberry out of his pocket and approached Shane.
“Want some?”
“···Yes. Thank you.”
The boy smiles awkwardly and accepts.
I put it in the palm of my hand and rolled it here and there- and looked at Seo-joon.
It wasn’t until Seo-joon put one of them in his mouth that he put it in his mouth too and mumbled.
The vigilance was higher than expected.
It was because the words whispered by the red-haired woman who picked him up and raised him before leaving were deeply seated in his heart.
Sometimes there were such people.
Those who do not have any special psychic powers – those who do not have mana in their bodies, but have sparkling eyes.
Helena was like that.
She saw through Seo-jun’s mask.
No, I haven’t fully heard of it, but… I noticed lies mixed in his words and actions.
Well, I was planning on clearing the village anyway.
It was not that the villagers had any ill feelings.
The problem was that Helena knew too much.
I couldn’t let useless information flow into Andalote.
“It is a bit humid. But even on a day like this, fires can spread greatly, right?”
“…Ah, that’s right. There was a time when I was careless because it was raining and almost got into a big accident.”
Shane answered Seo-jun’s words.
The slash-and-burn people were those who sowed wheat grains on the ashes.
The fact that they set fire to the mountain ridge and then burn to death—was more common than I thought.
Seo-joon glanced at the salesman behind his back.
The salesman, who met his eyes, nodded with an expression of “Yes,” And got up.
The dog dealer, who patted the bastard’s ass and raised it up, said to Seo-jun.
“Let me go pee for a while.”
The dog vendor and the dog disappeared into the bush—and shortly thereafter the barking of the dog resounded along the ridge.
Mountain birds fly in flocks.
The sky turned black.
Seo-joon wrinkled the tip of his nose at the smell of burnt air coming from somewhere.
“Looks like you turned the lights on again.”
“Yes, because that is the only way you can plant a grain of wheat.”
Shane answered, scratching the Volga and raising his gaze.
However, the fire seemed to be bigger than I thought.
Even with a tall hill in between – black smoke rises to the point where you can see a ring of fire.
Are you thinking of significantly increasing your farmland?
If the fire was lit at once, the flames could spread out of control.
But it was raining lightly, too, and considering her mother’s skill, which she had seen – she didn’t have to worry too much.
Hush-
After a while, the dog owner returned with the dog.
Because the time was delayed more than expected— Karina, who was annoyed at kicking out the bugs clinging to her skin, screamed.
“What? Why are you so late!”
“The poop gets caught in the butthole and doesn’t come out well. Uhhhhh…”
Karina frowned as if in disgust.
Seo-joon patted Karina on the back of her arm as if telling her not to do that too much, then stood up.
“Let’s start again. We have a long way to go.”
Gathering up her robe, she held out her hand to Shane.
After hesitating for a moment, he grabbed Seo-jun’s hand and stood up.
Then, standing at the end of the party, he was about to walk—but he felt a familiar smell somewhere and turned his head abruptly.
It seemed that a particularly strong burnt smell was coming from the black fur of a dog sticking out its tongue and panting next to it.
