A Missing Mother

It was a rainy day.

The war with Kaslavna had just ended, and though the empire somehow managed to emerge victorious against the much larger northern nation, the effects of the war had still been felt throughout the entirety of the country.

Of course, the changes hit the commoners the hardest. Unlike the nobility who had amassed fortunes to soften the economical blow that always followed war, the commoners had no such luxuries and it would take months, if not years for the country’s economy to recuperate from the losses that it suffered.

While the Revelo duchy was by no means poor, it wasn’t a particularly affluent territory either, nor did it earn many accolades during the war unlike the Castellia duchy which bordered the invading nation’s territory. Thanks to that, relief and support from the capital came not in a steady stream, but in small bursts that were barely enough to keep the commoners afloat.

Of course, some of the nobles who governed fiefs attempted to use their own private resources in an effort to support their citizens, but such generosity was not widespread nor was it common. Instead, many commoners and the cities that they inhabited were simply left to fend for themselves.

Orinth was one such city. Once a bustling metropolis that owed its fame and fortune to its iron mines that were vital to the war effort. However, with the war over and peace treaties established, their most valuable import was grain. While there would always be a market for iron, its demand had fallen precipitously, and there would be little difference even if it hadn’t. After all, Orinth’s iron veins were now completely depleted.

Henri trudged through the unkempt streets tiredly. Just weeks ago, the streets of Orinth had been busy and bustling, but now the city was nothing more than a ghost town. Anyone with a modicum of funds had already moved out a month ago, including his own parents. Everything had happened so quickly, he’d barely had the time to process it.

When the war ended, Henri expected to greet his father at last, but all he received was a letter describing his father’s courageous achievements and contribution to the country. Accompanying that letter was a bag of silver coins. It was a hefty sum for a commoner, but it couldn’t replace the father he’d lost.

Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be able to replace the mother he’d soon lose either. Within a matter of weeks, Henri’s mother had found a new man in another city, abandoning Henri with nothing more than a few silver coins. It was only thanks to those coins that he could continue eking out a miserable existence in this miserable city.

That day, Henri decided he had enough. Without ambition, pride, or even just a family, he could no longer retain his desire to live. He held a dagger in his hands as he made his way back home, a freshly sharpened and polished blade that he’d bought with the last few coins he owned.

Today’s the day... Henri resolved. Today’s the day that I finally free myself from this damn world.

Though destitute, Orinth had not yet become unpopulated. A few other individuals still wandered the streets along with Henri, and though they witnessed a child carrying a too-large dagger, they thought nothing of it outside of passing curiosity. After all, the people who’d been forced to stay in Orinth no longer cared about lives other than their own.

The door to Henri’s home swung open silently as usual, its hinges barely even producing a creak. He bit his lip, the lack of sound reminding him of the peaceful past he once had. They’d bought this house a few years earlier back when his father still drew breath. Back when the city still flourished and promised a bright future.

But that hope had died along with his father, passing into the great beyond and never to return.

Closing the door behind himself, Henri stepped into the dark interior of the house and found his breath growing short as he made his way to the living room and raised the dagger to his chest. His gasps came ragged, and his hands trembled fiercely as he struggled to make the first real choice in his life.

But even that would be denied to him. The dagger clattered uselessly to the ground, its shining blade reflecting his despair in an almost mocking fashion. Henri fell to his knees, inhaling deeply and rapidly, his eyes widening as he stared at his face mirrored in the dagger’s steel. He couldn’t do it. He just couldn’t do it.

Henri had chosen to die in this very room not because he didn’t want to die in some unnamed alleyway where his corpse would soon become food for passing rats, but rather because he knew this was the only place that could give him the courage to end his own miserable life. After all, this was the place where the last remaining image of his family hung.

Henri’s tears spilled from his eyes uncontrollably as he stared at the canvas hanging on the wall before him. A portrait commissioned in better days, it captured the bright and happy image of Henri sitting in a beautiful park with his parents. Even now, he could recall the warmth of the sun on his skin that day. He could hear the cheerful laughter of his mother’s voice and feel the gentle touch of his father’s embrace. He could taste the food they ate together as they sat together upon a grassy knoll.

The sole remaining shard of life in Henri’s heart wanted this happy memory to be his last, but he couldn’t even muster the courage to make that morbid dream a reality. He was powerless and useless, a child whose fate was cursed by the effects of a war that never should have touched him. The proud nobles and brave knights who fought on the front lines in desperate defense of the country now celebrated their accomplishments, but Henri saw no reason for celebration.

After all, what was the cause for celebration when they couldn’t even shield a child from the aftereffects of the war? What was the cause for celebration when storied knights couldn’t even allow a father to return home? Henri couldn’t understand any of it. As far as he knew, those knights and soldiers hadn’t protected anything.

“It’s unfair, isn’t it?”

Henri whirled around at the sound of the unfamiliar voice, his eyes widening as they searched the interior of the house. Though he usually left the house unlit, the shadows seemed to be darker and longer as if they were reaching out toward him like the claws of a hungry great beast, desperate for its next meal. His heartbeat accelerated, and his tears stopped. Unconsciously, he knelt and picked up the dagger, holding it out toward the shadows.

“Oh my.”

The sea of darkness seemingly parted as a woman stepped forth, her movements filled with such unearthly grace that she appeared to be gliding across the wooden floorboards. The shadows of the house clung to her body, wrapping around her like an umbral dress that hugged her body perfectly. With long, elegant steps, she made her way toward Henri with a serene smile on her face.

“S-Stay back!” Henri stammered, holding the dagger with trembling hands as he thrust it toward the mysterious woman to no avail. He had no idea where she came from, but more than that, he felt an innate evil lurking within the woman’s core. It was not something that he could logically understand, but rather a primal instinct that drove him to fear the woman and her very existence.

The woman stopped in front of Henri, the light that offered him a meager amount of protection slowly becoming devoured by the voracious shadows accompanying the woman. Paralyzed by sheer terror, Henri could do nothing as the woman reached out and ran her fingers across the length of his dagger’s blade in an almost painfully slow fashion, dragging her flesh across its surface with just enough force to draw blood.

Henri stared in horror as he witnessed rivulets of pitch-black liquid stain the once-gleaming steel of his blade before dripping onto the floor below him. The woman knelt, placing the point of the dagger against the soft skin of her throat. Even with death seemingly a thrust away, the woman’s smile never left her face.

“What’s wrong?” She spoke in an almost melodic voice that held the perfect amount of discordance, almost as if it were deliberately modulated to desecrate the very concept of perfection. “Don’t you want to kill me?”

Henri could hardly breathe as he stared into the woman’s eyes. They were the most beautiful and exquisite thing he’d ever seen, like twin crimson moons that gazed not at him, but into his soul. He knew that he should be afraid. That he should thrust his blade into the woman’s throat, hoping that it would end whatever great evil she carried in her body...

...But he couldn’t. He had been enthralled the very moment he looked into those red eyes of hers, never to recover from the stupor induced by the woman’s sheer beauty. He knew it was wrong, but even so, he couldn't help it. For the second time that day, the dagger clattered uselessly to the ground. The only difference was that this time, its blade no longer shone, for it was now stained black.

“...It was delicious, you know?” The woman’s smile never left her face. “This city is filled with so much grief. So much sadness and despair... But yours was different. Yours was exquisite.”

“W-What do you mean...?”

“It’s hope, child.” The woman walked around Henri, placing her hands on his shoulders and staining his torn shirt with the black blood that still flowed from her fingers. “Everyone in this city has already given up. They’re nothing more than husks pretending to live, but it’s hope that gives flavor to someone’s soul.”

Hope...? Henri didn’t know what the woman meant. He had already given up on life. He had resolved to take his own life today. To end it all and be in a place where he could finally reunite with his father, even if it meant he would have to return to that accursed god’s embrace. After all, there was no one in the world who would miss his presence. Not even his mother.

Especially not his mother. She had abandoned him the moment he became a liability to her happiness and left him to rot in the festering slums of Orinth where he would draw his last breaths while she enjoyed a life of luxury with her new husband. It was only right that he should disappear forever when not even his mother wanted to acknowledge his existence.

But even so, he clung onto the faint hope that she would one day return. After all...

“...M-Mom said she would be back one day...” Henri managed to say through his tears. “S-She said that she was just leaving for now a-and she would come to see me when I-I’m an adult...!”

“Oh? Is that so...?” The woman asked, her voice low and gentle as she whispered into Henri’s ear. “Do you really think such a mother deserves her child’s love though? Her child’s hope?”

Henri hesitated before answering. He knew his mother had been irresponsible, and he hated her for leaving, but... She was still his mother. Slowly, he nodded. “S-She’s... I... I want to see my mo—”

The door flew open abruptly. The sound of high heels rang loudly against the wooden floorboards as an overly-embellished woman made her way through the house, staring at its humble interior with disgust and derision. Gradually, the sound of her footsteps came closer and closer until she entered the living room.

Henri couldn’t believe his eyes. True, she was wearing expensive clothing and decorated in all manner of jewelry now, but she was still unmistakably...

“...Mother! Y-You’re back! You’re really back!” Henri tore himself from the mysterious woman’s grasp, running toward his mother at full speed without regard for her coincidentally convenient appearance, the despair he felt instantly washed away by his mother’s presence. He stretched out his arms to embrace the one person he always wanted by his side. Though his father had departed this world, there was still one person he could depend on.

I knew it...! I shouldn’t have tried to kill myself! Mother loves me! Mother really came ba—

“Gahk!” The air was driven from Henri’s lungs as his mother’s vicious kick sent him flying across the room. He lay stunned, unable to even process what had happened as his mother began walking forward.

“Do not touch me, you vile little vermin.” His mother spat as she advanced not toward her prone son, but the painting that hung on the wall. The last vestige of Henri’s happy memories. “I’m just here to clean up some unfinished business.”

Henri watched in horror as his mother drew a match from her gem-encrusted purse, using it to light the fireplace before tearing the painting from the wall and throwing it into the flames.

“Ugh, finally.” Henri’s mother said. “Now there’s nothing left of my disgusting peasant life. How embarrassing it would be for someone to find out that I used to be a commoner. Utterly revolting.”

“N-No... Mother, I—”

“Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut uuuuup!” Henri’s mother screamed, drowning out her son’s cries with distorted shrieks that made Henri flinch. “I don’t want to hear your filthy voice! It makes my skin crawl! In fact, I should kill you too... After all, you are a trace of my pathetic past with that idiotic man. I can’t believe he got himself killed in the war.”

Henri stared at his mother as she drew a poniard from her sleeve. It was such an absurd thing for his mother to have given her ostentatious clothing, but logic was the last thing on Henri’s mind. As far as he knew, his mother had just cursed at him multiple times and was now threatening to kill him.

Henri backed away, shuffling against the ground desperately as he unconsciously reached a hand toward the mysterious woman who simply sat there with a smile on her face. It was almost like she was enjoying Henri’s suffering as she allowed the boy to crawl onto her lap in fear.

“...P-Please mother...” Henri sobbed.

Henri’s mother glowered at him for several seconds before allowing the poniard to drop from her hand, clattering onto the ground with a ring of finality. Her lips curled into a twisted smirk. “But it’d be much more amusing to leave you alive and have you suffer. Perhaps I might even make you a slave one day... Ta-ta, you foul commoner child.”

With those words, she made her way out of the house, not even deigning to spare a glance at her crying son. In her heart, she was no longer the mother of a filthy commoner. She was a noble who was lavished in riches and status, and there was no need for her to look back at the dismal life that she once used to lead. Maybe it would’ve been different if her husband had survived the war, but if his death had led to her life of luxury, then perhaps his passing was a blessing after all.

Henri’s lightless eyes stared at his mother’s back until she fully disappeared from his view. If not for the very real stench of smoke and the empty space where his most precious painting once hung, he would not have believed this was all real. It was his greatest nightmare come alive, and one that had crushed the very last shred of hope he had in the world.

“Oh, you poor boy...” The mysterious woman wrapped her arms around Henri in an embrace. Although her body was strangely cold like that of a corpse’s, Henri couldn’t pry himself away from it. Instead, he found a strange solace in her arms. “Abandoned even by your mother... Your final hope... Crushed. Shattered beyond belief.”

Henri didn’t respond. He couldn’t even cry as he stared at the empty corridor in front of him, wishing that his mother would somehow come back and apologize for her actions. It was an idiotic thought that made absolutely no logical sense, but as a mere child who only wanted parental affection, it was the only thing he could wish for.

“...But you needn’t fret. After all, if your mother can find a new family... Can’t you just do the same?” The woman whispered, her words gently strumming Henri’s almost-snapped heartstrings.

“...W-What do you mean...?”

“You can just find a new mother... A mother who’ll love you, caress you, and care for you... A mother who’ll hold you in a loving embrace...”

Henri blinked. He hadn’t even thought of the possibility, but now that it had been offered to him, he began considering it. To him, it simply seemed like a logical solution to his problem as he realized what he yearned for was not his mother as a person, but the love that she once gave him.

...A new mother. But where— Henri nearly stumbled back as he found himself staring into the mysterious woman’s eyes. Again, those crimson discs caught and entangled him in their enchanting gaze. He stood transfixed by their sheer beauty, unable to think of anything other than their ruby glory.

“Will you... Will you be my mother?”

“Me? I’m afraid I can’t... You see, I already have a child.” The woman smiled. “But perhaps... I can make an exception if you promise to be a good, loyal big brother who will never betray his little sister.”

“Y-Yes! I... I’ll be the best big brother in the world!” Henri’s eyes gleamed even as the words fell from the woman’s lips. He knew there was something wrong about her, but even so, she was the only one in the world who still offered him a place of solace. The only one who cared... And the only one who had been there in his darkest hour.

“Really now? Do you swear it?”

“I swear it!”

The woman’s smile widened, and her eyes gleamed as if she had finally caught the prey she’d been looking for. With a gentle touch, she ruffled Henri’s hair before taking his hand and leading him out of the house.

“Then come with me... My dear son.”