Ch.290290. Incompetent Parents

“Hahaha! I’m back!”

Despite us standing right in front of him, Goven immediately goes to Illuania and embraces her.

Illuania looks bewildered by his intense and enthusiastic greeting, but sensing the mood, she carefully hugs him back.

“Yes, welcome back.”

Darius makes a somewhat displeased expression as he watches Goven, who didn’t even properly greet him despite him being the master of Norsweden.

“It’s a reunion of sorts. Just let it go.”

“Ahem.”

Thanks to Deia’s intervention, he merely clears his throat and lets it slide.

After finishing his greeting with Illuania, Goven comes to us and bows his head.

“I’ve returned. Thank you for taking care of Illuania.”

Taking care of her.

That one phrase revealed Goven and Illuania’s future plans.

“Yes, good work.”

“Yes! Fortunately, I was able to take on another request on my way back! This rarely happens, and thanks to it, I earned much more money than expected!”

In the past.

Before he left for the Republic of Clark, I would have taken this as his desire to make Illuania happy.

But now, for some reason, he just looked like a nouveau riche bragging about the small fortune he had made.

[…..]

Also.

Disgustingly, souls were clinging to Goven and his carriage. They were attached without their own will, craving something.

[They’re like zombies. The way low-level necromancers handle corpses.]

I agreed with the Dark Spiritmaster’s words. Just like zombies, they acted without thinking, products of violence driven by instinct and craving.

Despite being souls, they all looked haggard, unable to speak properly as if their tongues were stiff, only letting out faint moans.

[Ah, what on earth happened to them.]

Stella, with tears in her eyes, carefully puts her hands together and prays.

However, what could satisfy their thirst wasn’t prayer or divine gospel.

While I was looking at the souls clinging to the carriage, Darius invited Illuania and Goven to a meal.

He said he would prepare a modest celebration for Illuania, who would now be retiring from her position as a maid.

“It’s lunchtime now, so spend the day at the mansion. I’ll prepare a nice dinner tonight.”

“Thank you.”

Goven straightens his shoulders and smiles brightly. He’s changed so much in just a week.

As everyone leaves, I’m the last to step away.

Stella stays behind, saying she wants to offer prayers.

[What are you going to do about those?]

The Dark Spiritmaster approaches quietly and asks. She too seemed unsure about the state of those souls.

[Simple Black Magic couldn’t damage them that much. I think it might involve mental magic or perhaps a demon’s intervention.]

That was reasonable.

Though she was a spiritmaster, the Dark Spiritmaster couldn’t see all souls during her lifetime, so she probably didn’t know about this type.

“No, it’s not that.”

However, I had encountered such souls once in the Republic of Clark. They gather in one place and move together.

“You’ve seen them before too. But at that time, there were too many souls for you to notice.”

[What?]

The Republic of Clark was a place where an enormous number of the dead wandered around.

“Sigh.”

A deep sigh escapes me.

Illuania and Sevia.

I know I become somewhat sensitive when it comes to matters related to these two.

Perhaps that’s why, beyond disappointment, a slight despair weighs down on my shoulders.

I had hoped that the man named Goven wouldn’t let go of the change that had come to him.

I had hoped he would pour all his love and affection into the mother and daughter, Illuania and Sevia.

Even if their meeting and beginning weren’t ideal.

I had hoped he would become their life’s purpose.

But just a week.

In just a week, Goven’s goal had changed. He had found a new opportunity and changed again.

“Those souls are…..”

I can see the back of Goven’s head as he walks with Illuania behind Darius.

With a voice heavy with complicated emotions, I said:

“They are souls contaminated by a specific drug.”

Simply put, drug addicts.

Monsters of drugs so damaged that even their souls are contaminated.

They mistakenly believe they’re experiencing withdrawal symptoms.

Even though such things disappear when they become souls, they lived lives so steeped in drugs that this time continues even after death.

[Wait. I’ve seen the souls of drug-addicted people before. But they weren’t damaged like that?]

“Yes, that’s true for ordinary drugs.”

Just look at Deus Verdi. He was a man steeped in drugs, but as a soul, he didn’t seek drugs.

“That’s not an ordinary drug. It’s something that even the Republic of Clark, which directly produced drugs, put great effort into making.”

When I visited the Republic of Clark, I saw countless souls while confronting Magan.

Among the many secrets they whispered to me, this was particularly malicious.

“The Golden Flower made in Flower Garden.”

A drug made in a village that manufactures drugs, one that damages humans down to their souls.

“I believed it had disappeared into history with Magan’s death… but it seems to have entered the mansion’s front yard.”

The reason souls addicted to the Golden Flower and died clung to the carriage and came here.

It wasn’t hard to guess.

* * *

“Whew, I’m tired.”

Entering the room provided by the Verdi family, Goven sighs and relaxes his shoulders.

His relaxed expression held a strange arrogance.

“You worked hard.”

When Illuania bows her head and speaks, he nods with a bright smile.

“Things went really well this time. Not only with the trading company, but I also made new business connections. I was very lucky.”

“I see, that’s fortunate.”

Listening to his boasting wasn’t difficult. It was something Illuania always did when she was at the brothel.

Thinking about it, she suddenly wondered if this was really a family atmosphere.

A paying customer and a prostitute providing service.

Only the room atmosphere had changed from then, but the actions were quite similar.

“Haha, only good things await us from now on. Let’s move our family to a better city than Norsweden.”

Illuania’s lips tightened. Personally, she didn’t want to leave Norsweden.

But it was hard to refuse his proposal as he smiled brightly and talked about “our family.”

“Oh, right.”

Not noticing her feelings, Goven slapped the sofa he was sitting on and asked:

“Do you have any contacts among Colton’s gang?”

“…Pardon?”

For a moment, she thought she had misheard.

Colton.

Wasn’t he the gang leader who ruled the area when Illuania worked at the brothel?

A man who did anything for money, mainly selling women and drugs.

Illuania was in charge of the women among them.

She was about to ask what on earth he meant, but.

Waaaaaah!

Sevia’s crying echoes loudly. The child must have woken up, and Illuania quickly walks over to her.

“It’s okay. It’s okay.”

The crying, more intense than usual, shows no sign of stopping.

“Why is she like this today?”

“Let me try?”

Goven gets up abruptly and approaches Sevia. He awkwardly adds an explanation:

“I’m her father, so I should at least do this much.”

But the moment Goven holds her, Sevia cries even more intensely.

Sevia cries so loudly the room might shake. His hands are confused, not knowing what to do, and eventually Illuania takes Sevia back.

“S-sorry.”

“It’s always awkward at first when learning how to hold a baby.”

In that awkward posture as he held Sevia, Illuania felt a faint sense of familiarity.

She too had memories of being confused about how to hold Sevia at first.

In truth.

Illuania didn’t have strong feelings for Goven. She was a prostitute from the beginning.

She had long lost the way to love men, but wanting to love endlessly, she desired a child.

“I’ll try to do better from now on.”

Goven says awkwardly, scratching the back of his head. But his eyes held sincerity.

“The Spiritmaster said so. That I would make you and Sevia happy, no matter what.”

Rather because of that.

Illuania found it strangely uncomfortable, but.

Setting aside her own feelings, judging objectively, there couldn’t be anything better.

In the end, Sevia had gained a devoted father.

What else could be more important than that?

* * *

“Sigh.”

After seeing Illuania and Goven enter their room, I returned to my own room.

Darius and Deia are busy preparing a grand celebration party, but.

I, who should be congratulating and helping them the most, couldn’t hide my complicated feelings.

“It’s sad.”

Yes, I was sad.

If I could shed tears, I would want to.

Illuania and Sevia.

I had hoped for a happy future for the mother and daughter I felt responsible for.

But life wasn’t so easy.

Was it because I witnessed the moment when hope turned into despair?

My heart ached even more.

[Just go and stop them!]

The Dark Spiritmaster swung her fists around as she gave her opinion. Soho, lying next to her, was startled and turned his head to look at us.

[If you tell Illuania the truth, it’s obvious she won’t accept it!]

“Yes, you’re right.”

I think that’s good too.

It’s not a good thing that a coachman working for the Wellington Trading Company has turned into a drug courier.

[I agree too.]

Stella, with her hands clasped together, mourned the tragedy that was about to come.

We thought a family had been formed.

We were happy that after a miraculous encounter, a time had come when everyone could be satisfied.

“Illuania will have a hard time.”

I sigh, pressing my throbbing forehead.

I know that Illuania doesn’t love Goven that much.

But Illuania wanted Sevia to have a father.

A strong and reliable father who would always be on the girl’s side.

She needed such a father.

“There’s a possibility that Illuania won’t accept it.”

Even if we tell her the whole truth, she might endure for Sevia’s sake.

Even if we tell her it’s not right, there’s a possibility our voices won’t reach her.

Because she was a mother.

In any case, the pretext of doing it for the child could easily paralyze Illuania’s rational thinking.

“Especially if Goven is devoted to the family.”

[…..]

[That could be the case.]

She might respond self-deprecatingly, saying she was just a woman who worked in a brothel.

“Even a poor father might be better than none…”

But then.

“That’s nonsense!”

Suddenly!

A voice rang out from somewhere other than us three. In the center of the room, the monster girl with now six tails was glaring at us.

“Soho?”

[B-Boksil!]

Boksil?

Stella and I look at the Dark Spiritmaster simultaneously. Didn’t we tell her not to name it? Why did she give it a name?

And Boksil at that?

“Don’t call me Boksil!”

At Soho’s outcry, the Dark Spiritmaster covers her mouth with a shocked expression.

[B-Boksil!]

She looks at Soho with half-tearful eyes, but.

Soho stared at me intently and shouted:

“Is that right? Giving a child such parents? A drug trafficker who damages even human souls?”

“Are you done with your monster act?”

“…..”

Soho bites her lip hard.

Looking at her, I could understand why she couldn’t hold back.

It was enough to make her abandon her resolve to live as a monster.

“Yes, I’m done.”

Brushing back her hair, Soho said:

“Sevia? I haven’t really seen her properly, but.”

She was in pain from her own wounds and didn’t want others to suffer the same.

“You shouldn’t entrust a child to incompetent parents.”

Her words, mixed with a sob, were filled with sincerity.

The girl who had lived her entire life with monster parents.

She was hoping that there would be no more victims like herself.