"M...Mother?"
Mirena stared at the woman lying unconscious in a pool of blood.
A long sword still hung from her belt.
The sight before her made Mirena doubt her own eyes.
She couldn't believe her [mother] lay like this in blood, her life hanging in the balance.
Though Mirena claimed she didn't care about anything in this game world, she had grown attached to the mother who raised her for fifteen years.
She knew nothing of her birth mother, but everything about this woman—
Mirena knew it all too well.
In fact, she’d come to see her as family.
She didn’t want to lose the mother who’d been by her side for fifteen years.
Nikaido Yuki had always been starved of parental love.
In his original world, both parents died after he came of age.
He longed to live peacefully with family, but his sister killed her.
That very longing made him refuse to lose his [mother].
Though not her biological daughter, Mirena treated her as her real mother.
Remembering all those years of care, seeing her now, Mirena’s heart felt torn apart.
"Hey, Mother! Mother!! What’s wrong?"
Mirena shook her mother’s body, staring intently with serious eyes at the blood-soaked figure.
Two lines of data popped up, making her eyes widen in shock.
HP: 30/300 (Bleeding, Critical), MP: 200/200.
Blood kept flowing from her stomach—clearly wounded by someone.
"Mi...Mirena..."
The injured mother softly called her [daughter]’s name.
Perhaps she felt Mirena’s fair, tender hands shaking her.
"S...Sorry... I... promised... yesterday... on your 15th birthday... I’d be by your... side... but... cough..."
Tears fell unconsciously from Mirena’s eyes.
As someone not from this world, she shouldn’t cry over a game NPC.
But—
She never, ever expected—
her mother, even near death, still thought of her, of yesterday’s promise, of celebrating her fifteenth birthday.
"N...No more! Mother! Sniff... I’ll cast healing magic now, Mirena!"
Mirena placed her hand on her mother; green light glowed in her palm.
She channeled her MP into a healing spell instantly.
Though Mirena’s stats were weaker than humans’, her high affinity with elemental spirits was a blessing.
Not the Elf race—world-shaping elemental spirits.
—At least stop the bleeding!
She converted MP to the healing spirit, slowly mending wounds.
But a huge problem arose: even when her MP ran dry, the bleeding didn’t stop.
Damn it—was her MP too low?
Or did she need bandages to staunch the blood!?
Her mother had lost consciousness, yet still smiled at Mirena.
Mirena clenched her fists, burning with frustration.
—She really had to go out.
To buy bandages and medicine for her mother, she must leave.
Their home supplies were nearly gone.
Sometimes her mother treated injured Elves here.
That’s when Mirena learned their healing magic.
"No matter what happens, never leave this place..."
Her mother’s loving voice echoed in her ears.
Startled, Mirena whirled around—thinking she’d woken.
But her mother still slept peacefully.
—Just a memory.
Not a hallucination—a promise from long ago, when she was a child.
"Never leave this place, no matter what."
But—
Mirena looked at her dying mother.
Her healing spell only restored twenty or thirty HP temporarily.
Critical and Bleeding statuses remained; even healed, they’d need massive medicine.
If she didn’t find supplies, her mother’s life might end here.
This was the first family who’d accompanied her since transmigrating to this strange world.
The one who raised her, cared for her—more than a birth mother to Mirena.
She couldn’t let her life end here. With trembling hands, she pushed open the heavy iron door.
"Mother, I’m sorry. Even with our promise to never leave... but..."
For you, I’ll break it.
You won’t blame me, right? Mother Dorothy—
And with shaking hands, she shoved the iron door wide open.
