Mom's Possessed - Chapter 65

Luke always makes eye contact when talking to Bonita.

There were no exceptions.

Thanks to this, Bonita could vividly see how Luke’s expression changed right after she asked that question.

It was the rawest emotion possible.

Like when he heard earlier that the second Aria might actually be a different person.

And like when he cried upon hearing the word ‘mother’ for the first time.

Luke’s face changed like that, like ripples spreading when a stone is thrown into a still puddle.

The emotions mixed within were too varied to express any other way.

“By mother… do you mean your ‘real’ mother?”

“Yes.”

Bonita nodded.

“I’m curious what kind of person mother was. Ah, of course… the people helping me have always said she was a really kind and bright person. And that I look a lot like her.”

Luke stood still and exhaled.

Even if others say they’re similar and marvel at how alike they are, that’s all.

Bonita had never been curious about her birth mother until now.

That’s why Luke also hadn’t brought up anything special about Elodie.

He planned to tell her someday when Bonita grew a bit older and became curious about her birth.

If she never became curious her whole life, he intended to just bury it in his heart alone.

Though Elodie was more precious to him than anything else in this world, to Bonita she was just a stranger whose face she didn’t even know.

So he had half given up, but.

Luke, who had been touching his lips, soon asked in a composed tone.

“Then before writing the letter, shall we talk about mother first?”

He tried not to get too excited.

He shouldn’t show an exaggerated reaction.

He had troubled Bonita before by expressing his raw emotions as they were.

He needed to be calm.

“Okay.”

Luke took Bonita’s hand and slowly walked towards the office.

Simple refreshments were already set out in the office. He picked Bonita up and sat her on a slightly higher sofa.

That was the seat where Elodie used to sit whenever he was working, back when they were dating.

“Luke, when will you be done with work?”

“I want to finish quickly too…”

“Hmm, I wonder if you’ll work hard if I give you a kiss?”

It’s a distant and nostalgic memory.

This place hadn’t changed at all since then.

It was the result of deliberately preserving things as much as possible from when Elodie was alive.

Luke gave Bonita a cute heart-shaped cushion to hold.

“This seat is where Elodie always used to sit. When I was working, she would hug this cushion and stare at me.”

Bonita gripped the cushion tightly with an unfamiliar look.

Though not dirty, the surface was smooth as if it had been handled by someone a lot.

When she buried her nose in the cushion and took a deep breath, it smelled like sunlight. It was a pleasant scent.

Bonita urged him on.

“Tell me more.”

“Where should I start?”

Luke sat down next to Bonita.

As soon as he sat, the sofa tilted to one side due to his weight.

Bonita’s bottom slid naturally, touching his thigh. She carefully leaned back between Luke and the sofa backrest.

Luke’s Adam’s apple moved.

“She was a playful person. Though her body was weak, she liked moving around, so people were always worried.”

“What kind of pranks did she pull?”

“Well… various things.”

Luke laughed briefly as he recalled the past.

“Suddenly appearing behind my back… deliberately teasing me… Come to think of it, she had quite a sly personality. At least towards me.”

Bonita swung her feet back and forth as she listened.

“But fundamentally, she was very kind and bright. It would be good to say she was without— Ah, was that expression a bit difficult for you? Anyway, um.”

Luke, who had been giving a lengthy explanation, suddenly fell silent.

His memories of Elodie are countless and vivid.

But when he tried to explain to his daughter, the words wouldn’t come out, as if his throat was blocked. He could only ramble incoherently.

He felt utterly pathetic.

It wasn’t a particularly rare occurrence.

Recently, he often thought that he was still like an immature child.

That’s how difficult it was to deal with a child.

“Then what parts did you like? I heard that daddy loved mommy very much.”

“Everything.”

Luke said, as if exhaling.

“I liked everything. The parts I knew, the new sides I discovered as we spent time together, always.”

“But wasn’t there anything you especially liked?”

“That… there was.”

After hesitating for a moment, he opened his mouth.

“Her smiling face.”

More precisely, the smile she only showed in front of him.

Others said Elodie was just as gentle as an angel, but in front of Luke, she often played quite mischievous pranks.

It was she who chased after the embarrassed him to the end and kissed him. At those times, Luke would always end up helplessly flustered with a red face, until somehow the situation would reverse.

Elodie would smile with her eyes at Luke, who would suddenly cling to her, as if saying ‘just try it’.

And that’s how Bonita was conceived…

…But he couldn’t tell Bonita about things like this.

“I think so too.”

Fortunately, Bonita seemed to have come to her own understanding as she murmured.

“I do too.”

“…Do you remember?”

Luke carefully asked after hearing her last words, but Bonita trailed off.

Bonita, who had been deeply pondering something, raised her head.

The father and daughter who looked nothing alike met eyes.

“Is it possible for two people to be in one body?”

It was a somewhat abrupt question.

But Luke answered sincerely.

“It’s probably impossible.”

“Why?”

“Because becoming a different person is nonsense.”

“Why?”

“There’s something called a brain inside people’s heads, and our consciousness is in there. Unless you swap out the brain, it’s impossible to become a different person.”

That was a theory announced by the imperial academia 40 years ago.

It has now become the established theory.

If humans don’t actually have souls, it explains why even existing archmages can’t read people’s minds or control others.

It was impossible from the start.

Of course, Luke thought a bit differently. To be precise, he wanted to believe differently.

It was unbearably sad to think that Elodie’s existence had completely vanished when her body’s functions stopped.

That’s why he even dabbled in dark magic.

Dark magic that could brainwash and control others was the opposite theory to general magic studies, which held that magic power only had physical force.

He thought that if he could master dark magic, he might be able to revive Elodie…

Though he failed.

But Luke didn’t reveal these facts to Bonita.

Books related to dark magic are strictly prohibited from import and viewing.

If it was discovered that he had really dabbled in dark magic, not only himself but the very existence of the Lisianthus family would be in danger. Naturally, he wouldn’t be able to protect Bonita either.

“Then if you swap out the brain, can you become a different person?”

“…The brain dies the moment it’s taken out. Because it can’t breathe.”

“Why can’t it breathe when you take out the brain? We breathe through our nose, right?”

“First of all, we don’t breathe with our nose, but with an organ connected to the nose. When you inhale, air goes from the airway attached to your nose into your lungs. Then oxygen from the lungs, um. I’ll explain this in more detail later. Anyway, and as for why you can’t breathe without a brain…”

After a beat, he continued.

“Even your unconscious breathing is being commanded by a part of your brain. That’s why people die when they hit their head hard.”

While explaining to Bonita, Luke wondered if such cruel content was appropriate for a seven-year-old child to hear.

But there was no sign of discomfort or fear in Bonita’s expression.

“Then is there really no soul?”

If she asked such a question to other intellectuals, they would probably burst out laughing and answer like this:

“How could there be such a thing as a soul in this world? If there was, magicians would have discovered it long ago.”

Dead people cannot be revived.

Neither God nor the devil.

Neither heaven nor hell.

Such things do not exist.

They might have believed in such things about 50 years ago.

But now, people believe in magic and science, not God.

Railways have already been laid in the empire’s major cities, and steam locomotives carry people every day.

Cars using magic power and gears have started to replace carriages. Unlike in the past when artisans made clothes stitch by stitch, factories spewing smoke have started mass-producing ready-made clothes.

Serfs have been liberated. Their workplace is no longer fields but factories, and boys over ten spend eighteen hours a day in front of machines.

The empire’s high nobles no longer even use carrier pigeons. A far superior video receiver has taken its place.

The genius who devised all of this said:

Belle Époque.

That a beautiful era has arrived.

The kingdom is still using the ‘old ways’, but that won’t last long either.

By the time Bonita becomes an adult, the kingdom will also be filled with railroads and factories.

Even now, the relatively close northern region and the capital are gradually adopting modernization methods.

But to Bonita’s question, Luke couldn’t bring himself to firmly answer ‘There is no soul’.

“Maybe…”

It was an ambiguous answer.

It was closer to a wish than a certainty. The hope that Elodie was alive somewhere.

Bonita, who had been looking at Luke’s eyes, opened her mouth.