Chapter 156

Even thinking about it made my heart feel torn as I ran into the torrenting rain.

“Daughter!”

That was a constant feeling as I looked around on the streets or rummaged through piles of boxes, but it was especially hard when I checked the passing carriages on the main road.

Instinctively, I jumped onto the road as something caught my eye in front of the approaching carriage from a distance.

Skrrrt! I was hit by a fierce curse as loud as the clashing sound of metal.

“What the hell! Do you wish to die that much?! Crazy bitch!”

“Ahh…”

No, it’s not our baby.

Even after being subjected to such curses, I’ve never felt such relief.

I collapsed on the ground as I saw the white envelope flying towards the front of the carriage, and the cursing inside only increased.

Skrrrrt!

I was splashed in muddy water as they were thrown by the large wheels, but I didn’t even think about feeling cold.

“Excuse me, have you perhaps not seen our child, or rather, a small swan? It’s really small, about the size of a fist and a white baby swan…”

“Get out of here. What a crazy woman.”

“….”

I asked everyone on the street, but I didn’t get any satisfactory answers.

I don’t even remember the gazes they all held towards me.

A shameless woman drenched in the rain? A crazy bitch?

Indeed, being crazy would’ve been way less painful…

“..Ah!”

I was walking through the alleys, searching for my child, when suddenly I stopped in my tracks. Despite the heavy rain, a thought struck me like a bolt of lightning.

“What did you learn today, my princess?”

“Teacher told me to hide like this if I got lost!”

Like this!

She was shaking their body like a white ball and her voice was loud and clear.

“This is how you do it. You can’t go to people! Even if they tell me to come, I won’t go! Until mom comes, you have to huddle in the bushes…”

The bushes!

I need to find the bushes!

As I searched around, looking dazed and confused, my already soaked hair whipped my face.

It hurt, but it kept me focused.

I grabbed my stretched out dress with one hand and ran in the opposite direction.

Remembering the map of the swamp that Selene had stolen for me before, I looked for a reed bed that the baby swan might be hiding in.

“She’ll be there. Of course she will.”

She’s very smart, after all.

I may not believe myself, but I can believe Haniel. If it’s what the adults say, if it’s my words and the teacher’s words, she is a child who nods her head from the get-go. Even if she doesn’t like it, she eventually follows me like a good child when she goes to see her disliked older brother.

The old, worn out shoes eventually came off in the pouring rain. When my bare feet touched the cold ground, I finally seemed to be coming to my senses.

“Daughter!”

Even though I thought I was already running at full speed, my strength increased when I saw the bushes on the outskirts.

After running and running, at some point, the sharp smell of blood reached the tip of my nose.

“Mom, Mom is here!”

The wet reed in my hand was smoother than the dress strands earlier. And when I thought about whether our Haniel was inside, I felt more so.

“Please, let her be safe. Just let her be safe…

You just need to be safe. As long as you’re safe, I’ll be fine. All fine…

Even though I don’t deserve to be your mother, you are so precious and valuable to me…

“Still, I want to raise you…sniff.”

My frozen cheeks were wet with hot tears. I thought I had lost all sensation in the fierce rain, but I felt a trickle of warmth –  and from that point on, I was no longer in control.

“Mother is here. Sniff, mother is here!”

“…Mommy?”

“Yes, mother….my daughter!!”

After chasing the faint echoes in the rain for a while, I stopped in the middle of the path again.

It wasn’t just an echo. It was definitely our Haniel!

I knew without a doubt that our Haniel was somewhere in this desolate field, just like how I knew that she wasn’t inside the carriage.

“Haniel! Where are you? Haniel!!”

“…Mommy.”

“Hhhph!”

As soon as I heard a child’s voice clearly, my suffocated breath bursted out. I felt a tiny, strange feeling but it was all good.

Strange or not, Haniel is my cute little swan princess no matter what…

“Mom? Mommy?”

“…”

As I waved my arms and searched through the reeds, two arms like mine reached out to embrace me. The thin, white wings were not smooth, but her small and slender arms firmly embraced my neck.

“Sniff! Haniel was scared!”

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