"Christine is Lena's mother." Sister Delea said. "She signed the transfer before she died so that Lena would have a place to go. Many people are not as strong as her and can make decisions in pain. .After they died on their beds, the children had nowhere to go."
"Where can the children go?" Manet heard herself asking.
Sister Delia didn't dare to look at her face. She didn't understand why Manet was so naive. "The children will be adopted by childless couples who are devout believers in Gaia and full of good intentions." She found herself unable to continue.
Roma blurted out: "You sold these children to others!?"
Sister Delia lowered her head helplessly. She was just a young nun and had no ability to stop what the convent was doing. She can give these poor girls care and help as much as she can, but this is what she should give them.
Got the answer, everything became clear. Manet grabbed the armrest and felt that what he was sitting on was not a bench but a bottomless cave. She got such a terrible sense of redemption from the feeling of falling that she covered her face and cried.
"You let the children leave their mothers. Is this Gaia's decision?" The little lion threw the book down and opened his mouth to show his fangs.
"Even the church cannot afford to raise so many babies." Manai replied in a low voice. She is gradually understanding the truth of the world. The fact that the Church of Gaia takes in these unwed mothers and their children does not mean that the Kingdom will provide subsidies to the church in this regard. Even in Yotsuba City, there are homeless orphans wandering the streets. The Church of Gaia is indeed doing a good deed by opening its monasteries to admit those of us who are tainted.
"Then let them go!" Roma screamed, "Manet, Dorothy, are you going to deliver Aiken into the hands of strangers? Never see him again in this life?"
Manai said nothing, as if his soul was out of body.
She thought of her dreams among the rose bushes, longing for the warmth of the stove and the jasmine between her toes in the stormy snow. She thought of the apple tree in the yard and her mother's arms. Her cheeks burned and stung, her father's impressive slap in the face and the grief in her eyes bursting like bubbles. She thought of Damon, the only one who came to say goodbye to me. The kid tells her that "love is life's most sinister trap," as if he knows something about it. Can she still see them?
"Speak, you coward!" The little lion came over and shook her shoulders, his cry waking up the baby in the nursery. The children started crying and the room was in chaos.
"You kid don't understand anything." Sister Delia pushed her away. "Where can Manet go after leaving here? People will regard her as a loose woman, and there will be no place for her to work except a brothel. By then What do you want them to do, mother and son?"
Roma said loudly: "Let's go be adventurers!"
Both women were stunned, either by her words or her voice. Sister Drea was shocked by her whim. "You must be crazy! Manai is not a mysterious creature, she will die in the adventure. She also has a son to raise, don't say stupid things, Roma."
"I'm serious! You can be an adventurer without being a mysterious creature."
"This is not a question of qualifications." Sister Delia shook her head in despair, "You have never seen the real mysterious world, Roma, you don't understand anything."
Anger shone in the girl's eyes. "Give Aiken away." She said firmly, "Don't even think about it." Immediately afterwards, the little lion bared its fangs and jumped through the glass into the nursery, scaring the girl who was taking care of it and screaming. Fortunately, no matter what these young girls said, Dean Barnza could not see Roma's appearance. She would scold the offenders for trying to be lazy, and then punish the most rude ones to work overtime in the laundry room.
After dinner, Manet went to the chapel alone to pray. In the flickering of candlelight, she suspected that she heard the goddess's guidance.
Get out of here, Dorothy, get out of this prison, and go back to your home... This is not your destiny. You can grow wings, fly across the four-leaf field and the evergreen veins, and return to the one who loves you
The sound rang out in the flames.
People who love me. The first thing she thought of was the person she loved. People always care about what they give, but they are indulgent in taking. Did Bridget lie to me? Or does my father insist on separating us? From the moment he was born, Damon had determined that Upton was partial to Dorothy...the answer seemed obvious. She didn't understand why she would rather hate her parents than doubt Bridge. This may be like her mother, B'Elanna, who would rather endure Upton's roughness than resist. However, Upton also loved his mother, and Bridge only loved himself... Love is blind, and I couldn't open my eyes until I fell into a trap.
In fact, I did have to grow wings to return to Bonfire Town. Manai stroked his scarred fingers, life in the monastery is that even if Roma is willing to help me escape, I can't raise Aiken by myself. Sister Drea was right. Bonfire was no longer the home I was familiar with. The men saw me as a shameless bitch, and the women would comment freely on what Bridge and I did. The whole family will be ashamed of me...unless they still think I was seriously ill but survived.
The thought gave rise to goosebumps on her arms. If I take my son home, someone will definitely see me. how should I do? What can I do? The church must find new families for orphans. This frightening fact changed her mind. The dean asked me to sign a letter of transfer... Sinners are not worthy of taking care of children... She shuddered inexplicably at her own madness.
Aiken is a lucky boy, she thought again. Mother Delia pulled the baby out of my body, otherwise I would have been lying under the stone like Christine, taking the newborn with me. Then Roma suddenly broke into the monastery, Gaia bless her, she liked Aiken better than me as a mother. Since if he stayed here, he would have to watch his son be sent to the ends of the earth, so it was better to entrust him to Rome... Although Manai did not believe that this little lion could take care of the baby.
She suddenly covered her face and sobbed. Both for Aiken and for myself. "Goddess." She wanted to cry loudly, but she could not alert the church's night watchman. "What makes me cruel? Aiken is my child, the flesh and blood I gave birth to...I want to abandon him! I must be crazy——"
Go home...go home...the sound echoed in her heart like a bell.
Maybe the reason lies with the child's father. As much as she loved him once, she hated him now. The hatred is passed on... If he could start his life over again, Manet would definitely lock himself in his home and never go to Venevoise.
However, she knew she would not give up. Upton was right, I was selfish and stupid and never doubted that I was wrong until I learned a lesson. My family was worried about me, but I couldn't love them as much as they loved me. I couldn't even love my own children.
With a click, the door behind her opened. "Dorothy." A small voice drowned out the whispers in the candle flame. "Dorothy." It called her name.
For a moment, she thought it was her mother calling her. But what peeked out from the gap was a lock of shiny blond hair.
"Dorothy, let's run away," Roma said.
Manet wiped the tears from her eyelashes. "Run away. Where do I run away to?"
"Go back to your home. Don't you want to go back and have a look?"
I never dreamed of it. She swallowed the tears that had caught in her throat. I want to pick pine nuts in the snow, and I want to go to the market to see the thick furs brought by hunters. I want to hug B'Elanna and pick autumn apples for Daemon. I wanted to hear Upton scold me and then put Aiken in his arms and show them how beautiful their little grandson was. "I'm homeless," she said at last.
"Then you want to watch Aiken be sent away?"
"I am a sinner with a stained soul." She replied, "Having such a mother will only bring harm to the child. I would rather he never know that his mother is a stupid woman who was abandoned."
"So now you're abandoning him?"
"What qualifications do I have to raise him?"
"These are not reasons. Become an adventurer and no one will care about your past. I will help you, I will help Aiken. Your goddess is watching in the sky. If Gaia is really the goddess of virtue, then she will definitely not May mother and child be separated.”
"Will you help Aiken." Manai repeated, "Will you always help him? You have your own place to go, and sooner or later you will abandon him."
Roma seemed to be about to answer in the affirmative without thinking, but then she touched the ring on her finger. The little lion-head retracted his hand as if he had been stung by a bee, and could no longer speak.
"You just want Aiken to help you complete the regret of separation from your parents in the past." Manai said, "Aiken is not more important to you than a spoon when eating or a cup when drinking water. He is your willful props, because you are also a child." Not mature at all. Just like I used to be. "Go find your friends, your grassland suits you."
"I have never been to the grassland."
"You can go wherever you want, but don't bother me again. I am an unfit mother, I don't deny it, but you are not my savior. My son will be taken in by a better family." At this point , she felt her heart cramping, but she persisted. "Since the goddess has arranged our fate like this, it means that His punishment is far from over." Manai wiped away her tears before Roma came in, but now she felt that she had not done enough.
"I'm sorry, Dorothy. I didn't mean to hurt you..."
"You can't hurt me." She replied in her strongest voice. "Thank you for your advice, Miss Penelope. I will remember your life-saving grace, although I have nothing to repay you. Aiken is my child, at least until I sign the agreement... If I consider If it’s good, I’ll give you an answer. That’s it.”
