MCAV Chapter 08

Chapter 008

“It’s not a fatal wound. She’s just a bit exhausted and fell asleep. If you go in now, it will interfere with her treatment. You wouldn’t want your mom to heal slower, would you?”

Hearing that, Ronschka finally relaxed but continued to cry.

How do I comfort her?

Letting out a sigh, Lucas noticed Leon standing at the end of the hallway.

“Leon.”

“Master.”

Leon approached.

“Is she alright?”

Now even his apprentice was worried about Adele.

“She’ll be fine.”

“That’s a relief.”

Leon nodded and turned to Ronschka.

“She’ll be okay. Master never lies.”

He gently wiped Ronschka’s tear-streaked face with a handkerchief, clearly concerned for the younger boy. After all, Ronschka was two years younger than him.

I need to make sure he eats more, Lucas thought as he sat down in the hallway, feeling drained.

***

Even after the treatment, Adele didn’t wake up.

One day passed, then two. Despite Madeleine’s dedicated care, Adele remained in a deep sleep.

Of course, Ronschka refused to leave her mother’s side.

“You need to eat something.”

Ignoring everyone’s concerns, he neither ate nor went to the bathroom, staying glued to Adele’s side. He felt as though something terrible would happen if he stepped away.

After several days passed like this, Madeleine grew so exhausted that she fell asleep under the warm sunlight.

Ronschka, meanwhile, fiddled with his fingers and cautiously took Adele’s hand.

“Mom…”

You’re not staying asleep because you hate me, right?

The doctor said you’re fine, so why won’t you wake up?

Ronschka pressed Adele’s hand to his face, tears started to fall onto the soft palm.

“Mom…”

The tears wouldn’t stop. A world without her mother meant nothing to Ronschka.

“Wake up, please…”

Or I’ll follow you.

Was it Ronschka’s desperate plea that reached her? Adele’s limp hand twitched, and her closed eyes slowly opened.

“Ronschka?”

“Mom!”

Ronshuka smiled brightly with joy. Adel, smiling kindly, pulled him into a hug and kissed his forehead.

There was a light surrounding her mother. The light grew stronger, and soon, her mother seemed to melt away.

“Mom!”

Startled, Ronschka shouted, and suddenly his eyes snapped open.

Breathing heavily, he looked around and saw his mother still asleep. So it was all a dream. Of course. No wonder it wasn’t making sense.

Letting out a sigh far too heavy for his age, Ronschka blinked back tears.

“This won’t do.”

Lucas’s voice came from behind him, but he didn’t turn around. When he reached out and grabbed him, he struggled.

“What, what, what!”

“Come here.”

Lifting the messy-haired boy, Lucas carried him to the dining hall and sat him down. He placed a bowl of soup in front of him.

“Eat.”

“No, no, no!”

I have to go back to Mom!

As Ronschka tried to get up, Lucas firmly held him down.

“Eat. You need to stay healthy.”

“Why, why?”

Lucas explained patiently.

“When your mom wakes up and sees you all skinny again, will she like it? Or will she hate it?”

At that, Ronschka remembered how his mom always praised him for eating well.

Pressing his lips together, he picked up the soup bowl with both hands and gulped down the still-hot soup.

“I finished it all!”

“You’ll burn your mouth!”

Lucas panicked and considered calling the doctor, but Ronschka only stamped his feet, eager to return to his mother.

“Now can I go?”

“After you wash up.”

Once Ronschka was done from the bathroom, he dashed straight back to Adele’s room, leaving Lucas to sigh in exasperation.

***

Adele dreamed, or was it something more than a dream? It seemed like something that actually happened, though it felt like a past event.

If she had possessed someone else, maybe the guilt would have been less. But it was definitely her. How did it end up like this? Wasn’t this supposed to be in a novel?

After a reckless night, she found herself pregnant.

At first, she took great care with everything, singing gentle lullabies to her baby and watching her actions closely. People whispered that she’d gone mad, but she didn’t care.

Then, before the child was born, her mother passed away.

On her deathbed, her mother said:

“I should have warned you better… Raising a child alone is unimaginably hard.”

She wasn’t wrong.

But Adele held on. Surely, if she raised the child well, he would return one day.

For a time, she believed that. But as the child grew, she began to feel uneasy.

Why was Ronschka so strange? Why couldn’t he be ordinary? Why did he have these strange powers?

As people in the village turned against them, Adele couldn’t help but resent Ronschka. The guilt consumed her, but she couldn’t stop.

She hated herself for it.

Thinking this way, Adele couldn’t leave Ronshuka’s side. She decided to wait until Ronshuka grew up enough to recognize true love. Once that happened, she would leave, when she no longer needed her.

Adele slowly opened her eyes. As she lifted her heavy eyelids, she saw Ronshuka’s tearful face right in front of her.

“Mom!”

“Ronschka.”

Adele extended a hand to her son.

You can hold my hand now. I won’t hurt you again.

“My beloved child.”

Adele pulled Ronschka into a hug, smiling faintly.

***

After waking up, Adele began a proper recovery.

She wanted to help around the house immediately, but the head maid, Madeleine, sternly told her to stay in bed.

“The doctor said you need plenty of rest. Lie down.”

Madeleine handed her a bowl of brown porridge filled with mysterious ingredients.

“It’s good for you,” she insisted.

Madeleine said it was very healthy, but it didn’t taste very good.

“Why? Doesn’t it taste good? It’s filled with good things for your health.”

“Good things?”

“Of course. It has some very rare ingredients. They’re quite precious, so eat it all.”

Adele forced herself to eat the porridge, even though she felt like vomiting a few times. It must have been expensive if it was rare.

Ronshuka, watching her, finally started eating heartily.

During her recovery, Lucas visited once. Ronschka was in the bath with Madeleine at the time.

“I’ll be starting Ronschka’s lessons soon,” Lucas said after a long silence.

Adel understood what he was implying.

Since Adel woke up, Ronshuka had been sticking to her side. he wanted to eat with her, and even when he bathed, he rushed back, just to be with her.

“I’ll tell him to pay attention during his lessons.”

Lucas frowned, staring at Adele’s feet for a moment before nodding and leaving.

He seemed to want to say more, but Adele lay back down, her thoughts unsettled.

Her luxurious bed felt far too soft compared to the straw mattresses of her past life.