I Became the Mother of a Sub-Male Son

“… Um, is this enough?”

She looked down at the poorly planted seedlings that somehow managed to get from the villagers. She didn’t know if they were planted correctly.

She sighed as she looked at the place which  she wasn’t sure if it was a kitchen garden or a mud pit. She wondered why she was suffering like that.

Then, her beautiful hands came into view. She touched her smooth hand and groaned. She didn’t put on anything in particular, but her skin was good and her hair was still silky. She brushed her platinum and wavy hair, which glistened in the sunlight, tidied it up and entered the house.

Since she was using a house that has been empty for a long time, there were many signs of broken and scuffed things here and there. She needed to fill in the holes all over the house, but she couldn’t do it. There were one or two places to repair everyday.

She shook her head and took the water bottle which she gulped down. After moving for about 30 minutes in the scorching sun she was thirsty.

Even though she just moved from here to there, for her it was quite difficult. Maybe it’s because her body wasn’t originally very healthy. Although her body was not at the level of being extremely weak, it was still different from her original body and she was not able to adapt to the new environment.

She kneaded her numb wrist and sat down on the chair. After a while, her eyelids got heavy and started to close. While yawning lightly, she stretched her arms behind the chair. It was not healthy to sleep on a chair so she raised her body.

She decided to wash up later. Water had to be fetched anyway, so it wasn’t too much of a hassle. So she walked to the bed in the corner that creaked when she lay down. Even the slightest movement made a dense noise. But she ignored it and closed her eyes. It was the moment she was about to fall asleep that…

Cooong!

There was a rather loud noise somewhere.

“What… What?”

She got out of bed and blinked her eyes. It sound as if something heavy had fallen to the ground.

She raised her head and looked through the window. Someone in the garden near the house was seen lying down. What was that man doing? She jumped up from her chair in embarrassment.

Surely no one had been there before? It was the moment to rush out.

“Ahh!”

Her legs got twisted and she fell to the floor. She groaned for a while as her whole body felt tingling.

“…Gosh, it slips.”

When she finally got up, it was when she saw the man who had been lying face down in the garden. But when she looked around, it was not him who was on the ground. There was a small black mass at the man’s feet. A boy who appeared to be about six years old was crouching over him.

What the hell was that situation? A mad man was kicking the body of a small and delicate child with his feet without remorse. And not just once, but many times.

“Hey, you crazy bastard!”

She ran outside, grabbed the broom she had left in the corner of the yard, and ran toward the man. The unknown man looked at her, frowned and reached out his hand towards her.

“Ugh!”

At that moment, the pain arose as if something had bluntly hit her body. But that was only for a moment. Soon the pain went away and she was back to normal.

“…What, what is it? Why doesn’t it work?”

The man looked at his hands with a puzzled expression.

“… What did you do to me now?”

“Why doesn’t it work, why!”

The man suddenly started to get angry. She looked at such a man with a puzzled feeling. Wasn’t he really crazy? Why was he angry when it was him who did something strange?

“Huh…”

She came back to her senses at the sound of a small moan nearby. That’s how she remembered that it was not the time for that. She hurriedly lifted the grunting child from the floor. The condition of his face was difficult to ascertain as the child had his head wrapped in his arms. She was wary of the man while holding the child tightly.

“Who are you to hit a kid like this?”

“Shut up, bitch!”

“…What?”

 “Shut up!”

“You shut up. Who do you want to shut up?”

That was crazy, not only those gangsters broke into her house, they were yelling at her to shut up.

“A madman is poisonous.”

She carefully put the child she was holding onto the floor. Then, she walked towards the self-harming man, tearing at her own hair. Without hesitation, she lifted the broom and raised it upwards.

Puck!

She hit the man’s head with a broom at once.

“Ah!”

The man screamed and collapsed. She touched his body lying on the floor with her foot. Did he pass out? She tried to touch him a few more times just in case, but luckily he didn’t budge. Relieved inside, she took the rope from the house and came out. After tying the man’s body tightly with a rope, she dragged him along.

“… What did you eat that made you so heavy?”

Her wrists hurt from the heavyweight, but she endured it. One couldn’t never know what will happen if they keep leaving a person with that personality there. He did kick and hit a child after all. Fortunately, the house was located halfway up the mountain and there was a cliff if they walked a little bit, so she could throw him under it. She thought he might die from the height, but it didn’t matter. The existence of a man had already been decided as the worst for her. For cursing at her and hitting a poor child. Whatever it happened to that man, it wasn’t her business.

When she finally reached the cliff, she threw the man to the ground. She was about to push it away, but she noticed a black stain on the back of the man’s neck.

“What is this?”

It could have been overlooked, but it didn’t look like a simple stain. When the man’s frizzy hair was removed, the shape of the stain was fully revealed.

“Looks like a pattern…”

It looked like a painting, and at any rate, something like a mysterious tattoo was engraved on the back of the man’s neck. Well, she didn’t know.

Without regret, she pushed the man off the cliff. It sounded like something was screaming, but she ignored it and turned away. It was about the time she walked diligently and almost arrived home when she saw the child still curled up on the floor.

“Baby, are you okay?”

She hurriedly walked over and asked, but the child was still crouching down. What was this? She thought for a while and then lifted the child’s body. She couldn’t leave him as he is, could she?

She went into the house and wrapped the child’s body in a blanket. But somehow it was a bit strange. The child’s body did not even move even when she brought it here. She hurriedly removed the arms wrapped around the child’s face. Seeing that both eyes were tightly closed, he seemed to have lost consciousness.

“…Is it a shock because of what happened earlier?”

She looked around the child’s body. Fortunately, he did not appear to be seriously injured except for a few bruises.

“What the hell is all this about?”

She sighed and laid the child carefully on the bed. She tucked his sweaty curls behind his ear. She didn’t know who the child’s family was but it’s quite a bi of… a bit… She could not resist and poked his cheek with her finger.

“…Oh, my.”

The child, with a small mumble, tossed and turned over his body. Even his figure was cute and made her smile.

“Oh, this isn’t the time for this.” 

Lerna straightened up her bent body and prepared to leave. She was thinking of checking the surroundings of the house in case of an emergency. In the meantime, some water was drawn. She opened the door and went outside.

* * *

After checking the surroundings carefully to see if there were any other suspicious people, she was on her way home after drawing water.

“…Whoa.”

The house was on the hillside, so going up was not difficult.

“If it wasn’t for the debt, I wouldn’t have gone through this hardship…”

She honestly still couldn’t believe it. The fact that she possessed a character in a romance fantasy novel called <Ladiana>. What was the point of possessing an extra person who was reputed to be a villainess from a ruined family?

“Anyway, there’s no luck or support.”

She set the water bottle down on the floor to take a break. She wiped the sweat from her forehead with her hand. Looking back, the scenery below the mountain came into view at a glance. A small mountain village with no mate. After being chased day and night by creditors, it was this village where she managed to escape and hide. Because of its remoteness, few outsiders went there, so she decided to settle down. It was fortunate that all the villagers were kind-hearted. So, why not buy a house and live there?

Stretching lightly, she pulled her head all the way up. The dense forest almost obscured the sky, making it difficult to tell the time. Shall she go slowly now? She picked up the water bottle she had left on the floor and started walking again. It was the moment she had just arrived home after diligently climbing the mountain.

“… Hello?”

A black mass crouching in a corner of the yard in front of the house came into sight. She blinked, wondering if she had seen it wrong, but the black mass was still there. She was sure she put him on the bed, but why was he there? Embarrassed, she put down the water bottle and hurriedly approached the child.

“Hey, baby?”

At her call, the child slowly raised his head. Tears welled up in the child’s eyes.

“Why are you crying huh?”

She reached out and rubbed the child’s wet eyes. The child just whimpered without answering.

“Don’t cry. You cute thing.”

She picked up the baby and went inside the house.

“…Mind.”

“Huh? What?”

“…Mim.”

Did she hear wrong? It was the moment when she looked down at the child in bewilderment.

“…Mom!”

Cried the child who raised his head.

“…”

She was so embarrassed that she couldn’t even say anything. Being a mother out of nowhere… after seeing him for the first time? She looked down at the child in bewilderment. The child repeated his words, still with his tears flowing profusely.

“Mom, mom…”

The head of the child who had been mumbling without rest bent forward. Surprised for a moment, she hurriedly lifted the child’s face to examine it and let out a sigh of relief. Fortunately, he was just asleep.

“I was surprised.”

She carefully sat down on the bed with the child in her arms. How the hell did he even go there? She could tell just by looking at him that he was a child of a precious family.

“Has this ever happened?”

She thought about this and that, but she couldn’t come up with a particularly appropriate scene. Or was it because that child was an extra character with no importance like her? The body she possessed, a woman named ‘Elia Lawton’, was an extra who only appeared on a few pages. She was the daughter of an insignificant viscount family, her temper was very savage, and she knew nothing but luxury. The decisive reason for the collapse of the family was the great spending of the Viscount and his daughter, Elia Lawton. If her mother, the Viscountess, had continued to live, she would not have gotten to this point at least. The Viscountess, who was weak in her original body, died within a few days after she gave birth to Elia Lawton. After that, what happened was obvious. The viscount raised his daughter spoiled and hoarded money. Then, when the family’s wealth was exhausted, the Viscount even took up gambling. And when his gambling put him in huge debt, the Viscount left her alone and ran away on his own.

It was at that point when she had just woken up after the accident. At first, she was confused because she couldn’t understand the situation. She just wondered where that place was, and got up. As she looked around, she saw a handsome middle-aged man and an attendant hurriedly running through the window.

It’s like being chased by someone and running away. The room was a mess as if it had been robbed by a thief. She looked everywhere else, but there was nothing like it. After wandering around there for quite some time, she realized that the place she was in was no ordinary building. It looked like a mansion one would see in the Middle Ages. It was at that moment that she felt that something must have gone terribly wrong that a commotion came from far away. Looking outside through the window in the hallway, she saw a group of people coming in just past the front door. Wasn’t it because they all look fierce and come running with bloody eyes?

[Viscount Ed Lawton! You better get out right away. Otherwise, I will sell your daughter, Elia Lawton, to a slave trader!]

The man who was walking in front of the crowd shouted, and she felt tingling as if she had been hit in the head. She understood what she had to do and immediately left the mansion. In the process, she luckily found a back door and barely escaped from them. It was as if she had suddenly become broke and was being chased by a debt collector.