The Head Maid of the McGwire family, May.
Today, the madam barely touched her food as usual.
There wasn't even a shadow left of her innocent personality pre-Grey-sama's birth.
Still, while the ill rumors about Grey-sama in the Millard family floated around, she had optimistically went to the church to every week without fail. Now, those vexing rumors had turned her into holing up in bed and refusing to take a single step out of her room.
"It's a nice, warm day outside, ma'am. Won't you go take a breath of fresh air?" May asked.
"I'm fine......"
Her answer was as lifeless as usual.
Why did they have to adopt Grey-sama? No matter if they were a commoner or a noble, a mother always had her right to live with her child. In the first place, the madam had never even begun to think about having Grey-sama succeed the McGwire family. She just wanted to live with him until he grew up. That's all she wanted. May couldn't wrap her head around why he had to be sent to that inhuman family all because of some stupid dispute over succession.
The madam would be happy as long as Grey-sama were here, so they could just put the two in a separate house to live together. At the very least, there wouldn't be any succession problems as long as the two didn't return to the McGwire estate, and if the Millards hated Grey-sama so much they constantly bullied him, they shouldn't have hesitated to expel him from the family.
And yet these so-called nobles are incapable of choosing the option that made everyone happy.
May picked up the tray full on uneaten food and exited the room.
The madam's body wouldn't hold much longer at this rate, but there weren't many people she could turn to.
The most trustworthy person she could talk to about Grey-sama's adoption was the previous head who had pleaded with the Millards over and over, but he was currently dispatched to Sutherland and currently wasn't present.
That said, the undead assault safely ended with the empire's victory, and May had heard from the neighboring city's relay magicians that the previous head was not on the list of deceased. He would probably return soon.
No matter the state she was in, the madam needed Grey-sama. May had no choice but to entreat the previous head about this matter again.
It was getting noisy outside now. It seems the previous head had returned.
May hastily descended the stairs to find the current head and his wife curiously fixated on the front door.
In contrast, the children to their side blushed furiously as they sent zealous stares near the exit.
At the end of everyone's gaze, the previous head stood alongside a mysterious boy wearing foreign clothes who looked like a girl at first glance.
"I-impossible......"
May knew who the boy was. No, everyone knew who the boy was. After all, he had been living in this estate up until a few years ago.
She frantically tired to explain the situation but couldn't put it into words.
"Guu-chan.....what about him?" she asked with a faint voice.
May tapped her chest a couple of times to forcefully calm herself down before responding, "Grey-sama is downstairs right now."
"Guu-chan is?"
Had she just woken up? She was just parroting back words.
"Yes!"
Light illuminated the madam's lifeless eyes.
"He's in this estate, right now?" she confirmed.
"Yes! He's waiting for you!"
"Guu-chan!!"
She tried to leap from her bed but only ended up pitching forward as her legs had atrophied. A thin trail of blood formed on her head, but the madam paid it no heed and staggered out of the room.
"Guu-chan! Guu-chan!"
As the madam looked down from the second floor, her eyes widened in surprise and she began to tremble all over.
"I'm home, Mother," he replied, shyly scratching at his face with a finger.
Tears streamed out of the madam's eyes, and she bounded down the stairs to bring Grey-sama into a tight embrace.
"Guu-chan, I'm sorry. I'm sorry!"
While the madam apologized and wailed like a child, May finally realized that the nightmare from these past few years had finally ended.
TL Note:
With this, the first volume of the novel, The Millard Arc, has concluded. Thank you all for coming along on this journey with me while I'm learning and practicing my translation skills.
I hope you've enjoyed this novel so far, and I hope you enjoy the chapters to be coming. I want to give a big thank you to all who have been supporting me, and I will continue to keep translating to the best of my ability.
Lastly, I wanted to say I don't actually have access to the comments on patreon, so if you have anything to say please come over to the discord where you'll be given a special role and access to the patreon-only channel.