episode_0138

About Impoverishment IF [134 – Episode 1] – Give you a red leash (4)

“I. word. “You did it.”

Titania cut her sentence short and continued to slap the maid’s left cheek. Wow! Wow! Wow! Exactly three times. Titania hit the maid on the cheek, causing the maid’s knees to collapse in three blows.

The maid collapsed on the floor, tears streaming down her cheeks. Rather than being painful, it was so hot it felt like I was on fire and I couldn’t bear it. I tried to soothe my hot cheeks from the flowing tears, but it was no use.

The maid was crawling on the floor, pleading with Titania to please stop and that it was too painful, but Titania, who frowned, looked down coldly at the maid and said,

“wake up.”

“Ah, uh…”

The maid stumbled and somehow managed to stand up. With her trembling hands, she covered her already swollen cheeks to hide them, but Titania paid no attention and raised her hands above her head.

“Put your hands down.”

The hand that was covering my bright red cheek came down trembling. The maid stood with her hands somewhat clasped together, clenched her left hand with her right hand, and clenched her molars to the point that her jaw muscles bulged.

It was a measure to somehow endure the pain. I held back my trembling shoulders, gritted my teeth, and closed my eyes tightly. The maid knew that she would be hit more if her head was lowered, so she held her head upright.

“My mother. well. “Take care of it.”

Wow! Wow! Wow!! The maid’s knees collapsed once again with three sharp bursts. The maid eventually fell to the floor in tears, suffering from what seemed like a torn cheek.

“Send it to me, send it to me…”

The maid could not pronounce the words properly because her cheeks were so puffy. I just bowed my head and asked Titania for forgiveness. However, Titania’s anger did not diminish at all.

“I entrusted you with this task because I trust you the most in the capital. So you asked for it. Take good care of your mother. If your mother wants anything, please give it to her. By the way, what is this supposed to do?”

“I recommend it… I really, really recommend it…”

“……”

If he were the poison, the maid would have to be the medicine. That’s why I entrusted my mother to the maid whom I trusted the most in the royal castle. Reality looked like this. The reality is that even the maid treats the mother like a dog.

Titania now seemed to understand why her mother’s condition had become worse than she thought. I felt sick at my own complacency. Regret and resentment washed over Titania’s body like waves.

“Get up right now!”

The moment Chimi raised her hand again in anger, Titania’s gaze caught Vivian looking at her. Their gaze looks as if they don’t believe this situation, as if they are watching a play.

“…Get out of here right now. “Go to the main castle and keep quiet about this matter.”

Suddenly, Titania gritted her teeth and put her raised hand back in place.

The maid nodded roughly, crawled on all fours like a dog, and ran out of the room. Squeak, boom! With the sound of the door closing, Titania quickly walked towards Vivian.

The mother’s expression as she looks at herself with a cold expression, as if she is not impressed even after seeing the maid’s cheek almost bursting open. Titania continued speaking nervously.

“……Mother, are you okay…?”

Vivian chuckled and roughly shook off Titania’s hand as she approached her. Feeling a tingling pain in the back of her hand, Titania lowered her head and looked at Vivian, who was glaring at her as if she were going to kill her.

Vivian looked up at Titania with a sharp gaze and frowned. To Vivian, this situation of hitting the maid could only be seen as a ‘play’. Who put the leash around my neck in the first place?

“What should I do now? Can I just crawl in front of you now? Or do you treat me like a pet? Can you at least make animal noises? “Is it okay for me to do that now?”

“……”

“Speak up. What on earth should I do to you? Are you really trying to treat me like a pet? “Didn’t you put a leash on me to treat me like a pet like your maid said?”

“Oh, no… I-”

“I understand now. The reason why I was shackled and leashed. So running away was a good excuse? Do you see me as your mother? No, that can’t be possible, so they must have put a dog collar on me like this.”

“I… it’s just that my mother…”

I just wanted my mother to know just a little bit of the pain I felt. It’s just that I told him not to run away, but he kept running away. So, I was angry too. I don’t want my mother to leave.

The words rose up in my throat and never left my mouth. These were just excuses. An excuse to appease his mother. In the end, Titania couldn’t say anything.

Vivian screamed in that silence.

“I am not your pet!!”

He screamed in a voice filled with heart-rending anger. I howled like a crazy person, scratching the dog collar around my neck as if it were going to rip. I sobbed as I looked at Titania with tears in my eyes.

“With what kind of feelings did I raise you!! It was for you!! How can you… look at me like that…? “I, I…!”

Seeing her mother crying at the top of her lungs while looking at her, Titania took a step back and shook her head. Her mother’s green eyes looking at her were empty and unfocused.

“no. no. As for me, I have never looked at my mother like that. “I just…”

Titania flinched and trembled at the raw emotions pouring into her. A tear rolled down Titania’s cheek as she saw her mother looking at her with sad blue eyes.

“Uh, because my mother keeps abandoning me… because she runs away from me… I have only her… all I need is her… because my mother is a bad mother…”

As the tears flow, the hatred that has built up until now melts away. What was beneath the hatred that melted like ice was, as expected, sincere affection for his mother.

In the end, it wasn’t just Vivian who fell apart. Faced with her mother’s fierce hatred towards her, Titania realized that this was not what she had hoped for. What I really wanted from my mother.

“Mother, you lied first. How long have I waited? I waited only for you, but you abandoned me with just one letter. You left me here. So I…”

“Titania, I…”

“I-I begged you…! You asked for it…! Please don’t abandon me, don’t run away…! But my mother keeps trying to abandon me! What on earth should I do?! What on earth should I do?!! Please, I don’t want to be alone anymore… I’ll do anything… Just be by my side. “Please don’t hate me…”

I just wanted you to be by my side.

Titania, who was sitting on the floor, begged and begged in front of Vivian. I hung and hung again. I gently held Vivian’s fingertips and cried and cried like a child who was afraid of being abandoned.

please love me. Please don’t throw it away. Please don’t hate me. Please want me. Please tell me you need me. I just need my mother by my side. I don’t need anything else other than that. sorry.

Vivian was just listening to Titania’s rambling words while crying with a sad expression. The feelings of hatred and regret become tangled and tangled inside, turning into feelings that cannot be expressed in words.

‘Did it hurt that much?’

I just wanted my daughter to stand on her own.

‘Was it this sad?’

I was just thinking about my daughter’s future.

Vivian looked at Titania, who was holding her fingertips and crying like a child. The sight of Titania crying like a six-year-old child was enough to turn the hatred I felt until now into guilt.

Vivian shed tears as she caressed Titania’s fingertips. Clearly, he believed that Titania would live well even if he left. I thought I would leave the nest I made and fly high in the sky.

However, Titania was unable to fly and sat down on the ground. Because of his choice to push it out of the nest, it couldn’t even flap its wings and just crawled on the floor. The result was the current situation.

At the bottom of the tree under the nest, he was crying out to his mother, begging for help and for his life. And, he just looked down at his daughter sobbing.

They said you could do it.

They say you will be able to do it.

He said he believes in you.

I just gave meaningless words of encouragement and cheered on my daughter who felt like she was dying at any moment. Not even stretching out his hand, just widening the distance. And the result was the current situation.

Vivian slowly moved the fingers holding Titania’s fingertips and squeezed her hand tightly. The fingers that remained wet from wiping away tears were tangled with each other’s, acting as if they would never separate.

Titania, who strengthened her intertwined fingers, sobbed as her emotions grew even stronger, and whispered to Vivian, throwing away her pride.

‘Please don’t abandon me. Please stay by my side. Please don’t run away. i love you. i love you. sorry. sorry. I was wrong. I just didn’t want to be away from my mother.’

As Titania sobbed in a throaty voice, Vivian gently lowered her head and pressed her forehead against Titania’s. Caressing Titania’s cheek with one hand, Vivian also whispered.

‘I won’t run away anymore. I’ll be by your side. I love you too. are you okay. are you okay. I am very sorry. I’m sorry for leaving you behind. I will be by your side from now on. Titania. Titania. Titania.’

As if soothing her aching heart, he stroked Titania’s face. Titania began to lean closer and cling to Vivian. He hugged Vivian like a child asking to be hugged and did not let go. Vivian smiled bitterly as she looked at her daughter, suffering from the wounds she inflicted and clinging to her.

It was he who caused the irreparable harm, and it was he who made him harbor such strong feelings. He didn’t intend to easily forgive Titania for what she did to him, but…

It was also true that I no longer felt hateful.

It didn’t take long for them to pour out their feelings to each other. In the end, when Titania, exhausted from crying, fainted while crying, Vivian hugged the sleeping Titania on her lap and laid her on the bed.

The sight of her daughter looking for her, saying ‘Mommy, Mommy’ even though she was asleep, reminded Vivian of old times. Vivian smiled sadly as she recalled the happy and joyful memories she had with Titania.

As I continued to stroke Titania’s hair and comfort the child, Titania started tossing and turning in her sleep. As she was tossing and turning in her sleep, a small key fell out of Titania’s pocket.

Vivian knew what the key was without even having to listen.

Vivian took out the key that had fallen out of Titania’s pocket and quietly untied the dog collar around her neck. When I turned the key, the dog’s collar came off with a light clanking sound.

I felt like I had regained my lost humanity. Vivian smiled bitterly at the feeling of finally returning to human form, and looked down at Titania, who was sleeping soundly in her bed after tidying up her leash.

My daughter is clinging to herself so pitifully and pitifully.

Vivian felt like she had been shackled again. I felt like the shackles of Titania were binding me. However, it wasn’t unpleasant. In fact, I even thought it wasn’t that bad.

Is this a normal feeling? Or is it a distorted feeling?

Vivian stroked Titania’s cheek, then lay down next to her and fell asleep quietly. Sleeping with Titania for the first time in a long time was as comfortable as I had honestly missed it.

*

The first thing Titania saw when she woke up was none other than the peacefully sleeping face of her mother.

After waking up, Titania remembered what she had done to her mother yesterday, and her face turned bright red with various emotions including guilt and shame.

Should I secretly go back to my room right now? What should I do? At the moment when Titania was confused, she noticed that the leash she had put on her sleeping mother’s neck was no longer attached.

Titania felt like crying a little at the sight of her mother remaining here even though she had taken off the leash herself. I was so happy that he didn’t run away and stayed by his side.

Titania gently fixed her sleeping mother’s hair and looked down at her. As expected, every time I looked at my mother’s face, what I felt was ‘affection’ boiling deep in my heart.

As I was contemplating the image of my mother sleeping for the first time in a long time, she woke up and blinked. My mother, who was looking up at me with just a glance, rolled her eyes and smiled.

“…good morning.”

“…Yes, good morning.”

It’s just a good morning, but why am I so excited? Feeling like she was going to cry at any moment, Titania forced a smile to hide her emotions and answered Vivian.

Then, he brushed the hair that had fallen towards his face and asked.

“Why are you still here?”

“……well? “Why did he stay?”

Vivian chuckled and looked up at Titania. Titania also smiled and looked down at Vivian. As they looked at each other smiling, the room began to fill with each other’s laughter.

The laughter died down, and Vivian, sighing, got up from the bed and approached Titania. Vivian walked up to Titania’s nose and raised her hand to stroke Titania’s head.

Titania didn’t like Vivian, who still treated her like a ‘child’. Titania frowned slightly in annoyance and gently pushed Vivian’s hand away from her head.

“I feel like being by your side is the right choice right now.”

“…Do you know that now?”

“Yes, foolishly.”

Vivian chuckled, raised her head for a moment, looked at Titania’s face, and stroked Titania’s cheek with a sad expression. Was it because I was trying to give up too much?

It seemed like it had been a long time since I had looked at Titania’s face this closely.

“…You cut your hair.”

“…It’s been a while.”

“I knew, but I don’t think I told you.”

The hand that was running down Titania’s cheek went straight to the hair that fell down to her shoulder. Vivian smiled and stroked Titania’s hair, her hair half as thin as before.

“It suits you.”

“Do you know that it was your mother’s fault that you cut your hair?”

“…I thought so.”

So Titania and Vivian exchanged small stories with each other. How he lived without his mother until now, and how Vivian lived in the cabin.

Stories bloomed and filled the room. Unraveling stories that have never been shared before. We continued talking to each other, as if we were narrowing the distance that had been pushed away for a while.

While talking for a while, Vivian folded the backs of Titania’s hands and made eye contact. In a slightly serious mood, Titania quietly looked into Vivian’s eyes and listened to the story.

“…I promise that I will continue to be by your side from now on.”

“really…””

“…huh. “I won’t leave your side unless you push me away first.”

“……”

Vivian grinned and held out her little finger to Titania. When Titania didn’t stick out her little finger, as if it was hard to believe, Vivian forcefully grabbed Titania’s hand and hooked her little finger.

Titania looked at the little fingers that were forcibly intertwined and smiled.

“If I think about the promise my mother broke to me, a thousand needles wouldn’t be enough…”

“It’s true this time. “I will really protect it…”

Titania chuckled at Vivian’s confused appearance and looked at her little fingers intertwined. My mother’s little finger got caught somewhere in my own little finger.

Titania let out a laugh as she looked at the intertwined hands shaking up and down as if to renew their promise. If I get fooled again this time, I really wonder what I should do to my mother.

“…I’ll trust you just one last time.”

A smile bloomed on Vivian’s face at Titania’s reply, ‘I believe.’ Now in an atmosphere of reconciliation, Vivian looked at Titania, squeezing her intertwined little fingers.

Vivian looked like she wanted something. I just slightly raised my eyes and asked Titania. As if he was being cute. Titania smiled at that attitude and looked at Vivian.

“Well, now that we’ve made up, can we get out of here?”

“…..”

There was a short silence. Surely you don’t plan on keeping them here forever? Titania sighed as she looked at him like this. Titania opened her mouth as if her worries were over-

“…I will allow you to go to the garden.”

“What…?”

I still had no intention of letting Vivian go.

*Continues with Episode 135: A Walk.