I Truly Love You.

“Rejuvenating after eating poison… Forget it.”

I sighed and sat down on the opposite side, examining her face.

The fresh smile on her lips was joy itself. No one looking at it would think it was the face of someone who had consumed poison.

Pretending to be fine… No, that’s not it. This person just has a constitution where poison doesn’t affect her at all.

It’s not for nothing that she remained only as a character in the game setting. Damn developers.

“You’re really something. Knowing full well what was in it, you still drank it without hesitation?”

“Of course. Mommy understands that this is also our Seine’s clumsy way of expressing love.”

“Ugh, stop saying such disgusting things.”

At that moment, I felt the urge to vomit up everything I had eaten as a late-night snack right in her face.

Thinking that even that wouldn’t work, I gave up and lowered my head, quietly asking.

“…Anyway, why did you come here?”

I had long since given up on the idea of defeating this person.

But that doesn’t mean I could just say goodbye to her like this.

The opponent is none other than the strongest in the world setting and a shut-in who hasn’t left her domain for decades.

The fact that such a person has set foot on this land is reason enough to be on high alert.

“Of course, to meet our Seine?”

“Did the poison not only smooth out your facial muscles but also your brain wrinkles? Didn’t you say until just now that you didn’t know I was here? What nonsense are you spouting?”

“…Seine, if you speak like that about a joke, mommy gets hurt too.”

“Do I look like I’m in the mood to joke with you?”

As I glared at her with a crumpled expression, the damn woman drooped her shoulders.

She’s pretending to be pitiful, but I didn’t want to give any sympathy to someone I already despised so much.

“Does His Majesty know you’re here?”

But if I carelessly give her the pace of the conversation, she’d probably whine for three days and nights about how she missed her daughter and wanted to see her constantly.

When I asked about the most curious part right away, she nodded and answered.

“…Yes, he knows.”

Well, even with her idiotic mindset, she’s skilled enough to single-handedly defeat the imperial army.

Unless His Majesty secretly ordered some task, he would never allow her to come to the border for a trivial reason.

“…Is that ridiculous appearance also meant to be a disguise?”

“Ah, you noticed!”

Of course I would notice.

Although it’s said that this person doesn’t discriminate in terms of sword types or forms, in this world’s setting, the only way to obtain a Japanese sword in this continent is to go to the outer continent.

Isn’t the only reason to deliberately bring and use such an outdated weapon for disguise?

“As Seine guessed, mommy is currently using the setting of a mercenary who has completed training in a foreign country and is wandering the continent. I even came up with a proper alias. Derived from Celia, it’s Setsuha (雪華)… How about it? Don’t you think it suits me well?”

“I don’t care whether it’s Setsuha or Yunsetsu.”

In other words, this person came to do something while hiding her identity.

Certainly, if it were the army, it would be impossible to hide, but for the imperial side, hiding just one person wouldn’t be a big deal.

But before asking what she came here to do while going to such lengths, there was something I needed to address first.

“What about the domain? You didn’t just leave it unattended, did you?”

Despite having a screw loose, this person’s status is that of a duchess.

No matter how carelessly she handles domain affairs, there’s a big difference between just leaving the position empty and setting up even a scarecrow.

If the head of a family leaves the domain without any precautions, chaos would ensue.

“I stepped down. Unofficially.”

She answered my question that contained such anxiety.

“…Unofficially?”

“Yes, I just left my name in the domain, but I entrusted the role of lord to someone else.”

In other words, it’s no different from before.

This person always entrusted domain management to her relatives while she went off to practice swordsmanship.

All sorts of embezzlement and corruption occurred frequently in that process, but now I couldn’t just think of her as pathetic like back then.

“Don’t tell me…”

The war is over.

And if the war is over, ‘that person’ would have returned too.

“Don’t tell me, to Dad?”

Sion Bertayu.

My father. The person I love.

“Yes, from now on, Bertayu will be managed by him.”

Ah, he came back.

Of course he would have come back. Now that the war is over, there’s no reason to leave the family anymore…

Although the name remains, taking over the management of the family in place of this person essentially means he’s going to root himself in the family for the rest of his life.

But why?

Even though the person I’ve longed to see is in my hometown, why don’t I feel like returning to the domain now?

“Oh right, speaking of which, there was something I wanted to ask when I met Seine… Have you found a suitable husband?”

Here’s the reason.

“…Hey.”

“Mommy is serious.”

“What does your seriousness have to do with me?”

“It’s to show how much mommy regrets. After all, at that time, I didn’t understand Seine’s feelings and pushed things forward forcefully. So I’ve been carefully selecting candidates to match Seine’s preferences. Among them, the person mommy recommends is Riness from the Duke Heinrich family…”

Damn it, should I be used as merchandise in a virgin auction by the mother I met after 10 years?

Listening to her endless nonsense with one ear and letting it pass, I quietly asked a question when she finally fell silent.

“Putting that aside, let me ask a few more things. How long are you planning to stay here?”

“Hm? How long, you ask?”

“You said you came here because you have something to do, right? You’re not planning to stay here for hundreds or thousands of years, are you?”

“…Yes, that’s right.”

The mother bowed her head at my firm question.

The fact that she’s not meeting my gaze at that moment suggests she doesn’t want what she’s planning to do to be known.

Is it natural since His Majesty also kept it secret?

Of course, this woman doesn’t lie to me, so she’d answer if I asked, but I didn’t want to get involved in troublesome matters by prying into something that involved His Majesty.

“Is this purpose of yours political?”

So instead of digging deeper, I just asked about fragments.

She shook her head and answered that question.

“No, it’s somewhat personal. My interests aligned with His Majesty’s, so I was able to get permission.”

“This thing you’re doing, it doesn’t involve causing trouble for this academy, does it?”

“……”

The damn woman tightly sealed her lips.

Just by the lack of an immediate answer, I could sense that she was planning to cause a major incident centered on this academy.

Or perhaps she’s not the main instigator, but a big incident will break out externally in the near future.

“…Seine, are you worried that mommy might harm this academy?”

Yes, the delayed question that followed probably teaches me that such a possibility is not entirely absent.

Just because of that, I had no choice but to throw away even the small sense of relief I had.

“It’s entirely possible. For someone who just stood by and watched countless sacrifices for personal reasons.”

This person is dangerous.

Therefore, I shouldn’t feel at ease until she leaves this academy.

“I’ve told you many times, but that’s…”

“If not, just go back.”

But I have no intention of getting personally involved either.

Unless it’s a direct confrontation with this person, I absolutely wanted to refuse to help with her affairs.

“…Seine.”

“What, did you think I called you here to have a comfortable conversation with you?”

I had been thinking about it since I called her to this infirmary.

That all I have for this person is resentment, and if I exclude that emotion, all that remains in its place is wariness.

Her position, her power, and even her past actions.

Doesn’t all of that teach us that this person doesn’t fit in a place of peace?

“In the first place, do you even have the awareness that you shouldn’t be having such a brazen conversation with someone? You, who overturn everything around you even with what you call ‘controlling your strength’?”

His Majesty seems to want to use this person in a beneficial way, but if a nuclear power plant for energy supply were installed next to one’s home, anyone would be terrified.

If that place is a school…

When this person causes trouble, it’s not just me who might be harmed, but also the students I teach.

How could I welcome her presence?

“Really.”

Of course, if by any chance this person was my family.

Or if I acknowledged it even one in a billion…

“You really intend to sever ties with the family.”

“If I had wanted to go back, I would have done so long ago.”

I’ve already left that family, and more than 10 years have passed since then.

The reason I didn’t return to the family immediately after the war ended was because I was aware that I no longer had the right to return there.

“Even with Dad.”

Even if there’s someone I love there.

“You don’t intend to meet Dad either?”

“……”

“…I see. If that’s your choice.”

My enemy quietly rises from her seat,

But does she still have lingering attachment?

“Still, I hope you’ll understand this one thing.”

Then, standing at the exit of the infirmary, she turned to me one last time and said.

“Dad, and mommy too, although we haven’t seen you for over 10 years, we still truly love you. Both of us are also aware that we’ve done things we’re sorry for to Seine.”

“……”

“…Let’s meet again when we have the chance, our daughter.”

The damn woman leaves, hoping for a reunion I don’t want.

She still seemed to consider me her child even though I’m such a bastard, but I still couldn’t acknowledge that person as my mother.

No matter how much time passes, I might be her cute daughter to her, but to me, that person is just a stranger connected only by blood.

Such a person not only failed to properly act as a mother, but even went on to walk a path contrary to what I consider normal without a word.

Isn’t it strange to accept that person as my mother now?

-Whine.

As the atmosphere gradually turned sour with such thoughts, something that had been hiding in the infirmary all along began to reveal itself in front of me, making crying sounds.

A young god born just a day ago.

Looking down at the small being that somehow ended up being taken in at this infirmary, I felt my agitated feelings gradually subsiding.

“…Come here.”

-Arf!

Hugging the crying little one in my arms and stroking its body, I sank into solitary contemplation.

Seine Bertayu, or Seine Velvet…

About where this second life, continuing under such names, went wrong.

---

No, if we’re being precise, the beginning could be said to be not this life, but the previous one.

After all, the core of everything that makes up who I am in this life is based on my previous life.

Then, what kind of person was I in the past?

If I had to say, I was someone you could find anywhere.

‘Mom, where’s my antidepressant?’

‘That? Your dad threw it away.’

Someone who inherited the blood of a person who doesn’t acknowledge pain as pain.

That’s the kind of common young person I was.