Chapter 13 – To Not Regret

Okay.
It is not a topic that can be avoided by avoiding it.
This is a matter directly related to life.
Once I had to put an end to the story.

I braced myself.

“Mother.”
“Yes?”

A mother with a worried expression.
Whether I like it or not, either way, my mother will be hurt.

Still, it was something I had to draw a conclusion from.
I made up my mind and started talking.

“I think our situation is being sent somewhere.”
“Sending… If so, something like an internet broadcast?”
“Yes. If not necessarily, it could be something like scientists observing lab mice. Anyway, I think it’s clear that someone is watching us.”

At the word that someone is watching, the mother reflexively looks around her.

Of course, there are no cameras around. If it’s enough to make a device like this, I’ll be able to watch everything without a camera.

“So I thought about it. What is the purpose of someone who brought us here?”

As she nodded, her mother’s hands were clasped as if to withstand her fear.

“It drives survivors into extreme conditions. In the meantime, there are holes to spring up. However, how will humans act if the hole that will emerge is an unacceptable, anti-human act? Will you prioritize survival, or will you protect your dignity as a human until the end—”

These are all just my hypotheses.
But if this is not the case, there is no explanation. It’s not like he really just wanted to see mother and son’s incest.

“To be honest, I don’t want to go the way they dictate. I want to destroy all of this laboratory they have built and give them a shot.”

All they want is for me to succumb to the threat and fall with my mother.
But I had no intention of becoming such a spectacle.

Could this be a rebellious temperament inherited from her father? More than anything else, they never wanted to move the way they wanted.

My mother listened to my story and nodded her head in her depth.

“… I understand Changjae’s thoughts well. Then, can I tell you what I think of my mother this time?”
“Yes. Tell me please.”

It was unexpected.
It was rare for my mother to tell me her opinion.
On the one hand, I wondered what such a mother was trying to say.

“Mom, I don’t care what the people who say they’re watching us want. The only things Mom is interested in are Changjae and me, the two of us.”

Mother started talking like that.

It’s probably a normal reaction on the mother’s side. In this situation where life comes and goes, it might be strange that I care about the observer who may or may not be there.

“Mom thinks that if there is a safe route, she must take it. She doesn’t want to see Changjae get hurt anymore.”
“But mother.”
“Changjae, do you know Rubens’ painting ‘Simon and Perrault’?”
“… No.”

When I stopped trying to say something, my mother suddenly started talking nonsense.
I know the name of the painter Rubens. But the title of the painting was the first I had heard.

“Simon was sentenced to death by starvation for a crime. Death by starvation is a punishment that confines a criminal in prison until he or she dies of starvation. Simon’s daughter, Pero, visited Simon every day, but she was not allowed to bring food into the prison. That’s why she nursed Simon instead of her food, lest her father die of starvation. She’s outside the prison while the guards watch.”

She seemed to know what her mother was talking about.
In a way, it was similar to the situation we are in now.

A daughter breastfeeding her father to keep him alive. Is it humane or anti-humane?

“What do you think of this story, Changjae? Did the daughter who was breastfed by her father really commit an act against humanity?”
“… That…”
“I have a mother. If Changjae was in the same situation as Simon, she thinks her mother would have acted like Perro too. And if there’s even a chance she’ll save Genjae, whatever the method, she’ll take that route.”

Mother held my hand tightly.
Her hand was trembling weakly.

“I was fortunate enough to be safe this time, but what about next time? What if it’s a tiger or a lion instead of a hyena? What if an animal more dangerous than that comes out?”
“Mother…”
“Mom is scared. I’m afraid Changjae will go wrong. And she is afraid that she will be hurt that way, that she will die.”

I couldn’t even empty words to say don’t worry because I’m fine.

There is no guarantee that he will be safe even if he fights the same hyena next time.
Moreover, the hyena is the first beast we met. In terms of game, it’s a beginner monster like slime or goblin. There was no law that would prevent something more dangerous than that from happening in the future.

And, above all, there were other survivor issues.
If there were survivors who came with the intention of harming others, they were far more dangerous than a dumb beast.

“And Changjae. This is my mother’s idea, but I think that’s simply not what they’re after.”
“… Sure?”
“Usually, when a situation like this happens, don’t you feel repulsive like Changjae? No one wants to do that with their family.”

Is it? Is it weird that I want to do it?

“That’s why I didn’t do this at first, and then I regretted it after one of my family members died. ‘If I knew it would be like this, I would have done it then’.”

Her mother’s words pierced her chest terribly.
It’s because it sounded like I was drawing my current situation.

“If Changjae dies, what will happen to her mother? Like the story of the cell phone earlier, she will be hugged while looking for a man she does not know to collect coins to save Chang-jae. Well that’s when she thinks mom. ‘Ah, if I knew it would be like this, then she was with Changjae──’.”

Have you ever imagined such a situation?
My mother’s hand, which held my hand, was shaking even more.

“Changjae doesn’t like what his mother does, right? She doesn’t want to do that with a man her mother doesn’t know, of course. Still, if she has the chance to save Changjae, she and her mother will.”

If I told her not to, wouldn’t she mother?

No.
Those words don’t make any sense. It’s the same with arguing that you won’t die.

Mother has already made up her mind. She said that if I die, she will choose the path to save me.
Even if the road was a thorny road, even if it was a painful road like hellfire, even if failure was inevitable along the way, Mother was willing to accept it.

“But since I don’t like that kind of future, Mom, she wants to take the safe path from the start. Whether it’s an anti-human path or whatever. She doesn’t want to regret losing her genius. It can’t be helped if you do it wrong and die, but at least you won’t regret it, right?”

I don’t like that future either.
A future Rani whose mother searches for other men to collect her coins.
She didn’t even want to imagine that.

“Mom would rather have her gun and her bullets stocked up, and live without worrying about being hungry or getting hurt. It’s okay as long as it’s just the two of us with Changjae. My mom just needs Changjae to stay by my side safely.”

What can I say to a mother like this?
It was so compared to me, who is stubborn and insignificant. It felt like her mother was showing off what an “Adult vessel” Was.

I was completely persuaded by my mother.

“Of course, she won’t force Changjae to do it even though her mother doesn’t like it either. My mother is also a lady.”

After finishing the story, the mother smiled shyly.

“… Mother. It’s not that she doesn’t like me either. Only…”

I didn’t know what to say.
I couldn’t say I wanted to or I didn’t want to.
If I said anything, her relationship with her mother would change drastically.

Even the thread of similar hat that connected her mother is cut. She becomes unable to settle for being her mother’s ‘fake son’.
I was afraid of that. So I couldn’t say anything.

“Yeah, I know. Today is only the first day, so mom will wait until her creative mind is sorted out.”

Side.
Mother took my hand and kissed her on the back of her hand.

“You know this one thing though? That Mom is always ready to embrace her ingenuity.”
“… Mother…”

My mother is dazzling

Beautiful and noble, like a holy mother to me.
Is it okay for me to soil such a mother by rolling around here and there?

… No.

Now I had to decide.
You can’t just run away cowardly.
The woman said this, but the man shouldn’t have taken a step back from here.

“Ah.”

Eyes meet with mother.
Mother widened her eyes.

My face was reflected in my mother’s shaking eyes.
The face gradually came closer to her mother.

– Chuuut.

Slightly, their lips touch.

Compared to the usual kiss, it was a very light kiss.
But for me, it was the heavier kiss than any kiss I’ve ever had.

『Teeling ♪ Successful first kiss with partner! You have acquired 20 Coins.』

Please be quiet

Looking away from her mother, her mother’s face was funny as her eyes were tightly closed and her lips were sticking out.

But I couldn’t help but laugh.
It was because I felt the presence of a third person close to me, not my mother.

I whispered so that only my mother could hear.

‘Mother. Be still.’
“… Huh?”
‘Shh. Someone’s there.’

Flinch.
I could feel my mother’s body stiffening.
It may have been discovered that we noticed.

I quietly stood up with the bamboo spear in my hand.
Then, with the sound of my footsteps still, I slowly moved to the place where I could feel the presence.

And, when I got a little bit closer.

“Wow! Find survivors!”

With a surprisingly cheerful voice, a certain girl jumped out.