The Lying Counselor’s Eloquent Reasoning - Chapter 13

“I see. I understand how you feel. By the way, this hospital is fairly large, isn’t it? There was a map at the entrance, did you see it?”

“… What, all of a sudden?”

“No, according to what I found, besides this emergency room, there is another intensive care unit here. If someone with a really life-threatening injury were to be brought in, I wonder which would be the most appropriate place to transport them?”

“Eh??”

In other words, my mother’s injury was… when she was brought to the emergency room treatment room.

“Haha. It seems that you were terribly distraught. What a waste of tears. You look unattractive.” Uroma grinned.

Immediately after, the door to the treatment room opened and the doctors and nurses came out from inside. Tomomi promptly rushed over to them.

“Um… about my mother?”

“Ah, you must be one of ma’am Ayasaki’s family. Don’t worry. Her condition is not life-threatening. It seems she only lost consciousness due to concussion. Other than that, there are only minor bruises on her shoulders and back.”

“I-Is that true!”

Thank goodness. I’m truly glad. Relief overwhelmed Tomomi, and she burst into tears again.

Her mother was swiftly transferred from the treatment room to the hospital room. Tomomi remained by her side the whole time, waiting for her to wake up. Before long, Uroma seemed to have gone away.

Eventually, as night descended, her mother opened her eyes.

“Oh, Tomomi??”

“Mom!”

Once her eyes had connected with her mother’s, Tomomi was overcome with emotion and embraced her body as if she were covering it.

“I’m sorry! It’s my fault that things turned out this way??”

“Huh? What?”

Her mother looked bewildered as she woke up having been unexpectedly hugged and apologized to.

“More importantly, Tomomi. Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Nothing happened to me. I’m fine. It’s thanks to your help at that time.” Tomomi lifted her face and beamed at her mother. Tears trickled from the corners of her eyes.

“You said you are fine but… your skin color?”

“Huh?”

“Gosh, what happened to you? You are already back to your natural color.”

Reaching out her hand, she gently stroked Tomomi’s cheek. Then she smiled happily. It was as her matter was her own.

“Ah, I see…”

Speaking of it, her color has changed. Up until now, Tomomi had been completely oblivious to this. When her mother pointed it out, she was taken aback. Looking at it, it seemed that the color of her skin had indeed returned… Her mother laughed again at her reaction.

Afterward, Tomomi apologized to her mother for all the terrible things she had done to her and confessed what was on her heart. As she spoke, the tears started to fall yet again.

Her mother remained silent until Tomomi had finished telling her everything. With a calm face, she listened intently to her words.

Eventually, Tomomi bowed deeply to her mother and said, “Please, mom! Stay with me from now on! Don’t go away!”.

The answer from her mother was immediate. She squeezed Tomomi’s hand and said, “Then I will” with a gentle and cheerful laugh.

“I thought you hated me. So I figured it would be better for us to live separately. That would be the best thing for you… If you truly felt that way, you should have said so earlier. You’re not being honest.”

“I’m sorry…”

“It’s okay. I’ll forgive you since you were honest with me.”

She gently stroked Tomomi’s head. The gesture made her feel more like a slightly older sister than a mother. Tomomi’s heart instantly burned up and she broke into tears all over again.

“Hey, Tomomi. If you don’t mind, could you tell me a little bit more about your departed mother?”

“Eh?”

“I don’t believe that I can take the place of someone who died, someone you love. But I hope that I can at least ease the grief that you feel internally. So, I would like to hear from you. Memories of you and your mother. And I hope that we can get closer to each other little by little… Is that impossible?”

“No, of course, you can…!”

With those words, Tomomi realized something. Embracing the new mother in front of her as a family member did not signify losing the memories of the deceased mother.

“Is that so… Thank you. Please continue to look after me, Tomomi.”

“Yes!”

Tomomi cuddled against her mother’s chest.