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Chapter 80 Part 8 – The women take a step forward with pride in their hearts. To protect, to fight, to compromise.

As I was about to feel satisfied, mother suddenly burst into tears, causing me to panic.

「…… I-I’m sorry. Scarlet. I wonder if it’s because you’ve turned into an adult form. I started to think how nice it would have been if I had had a friend like this to encourage me back then …… I grew up in the mountains and didn’t even know any noblewomen ……」

Mother clumsily wiped away her tears.

My heart clenched as I thought of my mother’s feelings when she was cornered in isolation and I hugged her tightly. At this moment, I was truly grateful that I had the height and limbs of an adult.

「I’m sorry to hear that, but I will not pity you. For you are the proudest and strongest woman I know.」

For a moment, mother let me do as I pleased, but eventually she shyly escaped from my arms.

「…… I never thought that the day would come when I would be hugged by Scarlet, who was so small. It’s a strange feeling. It tickles my heart, but it also gives me strength from the bottom of my heart. My mother told me a long time ago that a mother is the strongest person in the world when her children are around her. Now I understand what she meant. I don’t feel like I would lose to any opponent. Because I am the mother of the best daughter in the world. I’m glad Scarlet is my daughter.」

D-Don’t make me deeply moved ……!!

I am the one who is so fortunate to have you as my mother.

「…… That’s why I will not hug Scarlet back until I come back after I have won this battle. Because I think that is the only way I can repay your feelings.」

Mother gave me the words I wanted to hear the most and looked straight at me with dignity. There was no longer any fear. She had the face of a hunting goddess that was ready for battle.

「I was a fool to be afraid of failure. I wouldn’t be a mother if I did not get motivated by my daughter’s encouraging words. I want to be a parent you won’t be ashamed of. That’s all I had to think about. Just watch me, Scarlet.」

Then mother tightly grasped one end of the shawl around her like a sword.

This shawl is also a secret weapon that doesn’t exist at this point in time.

The material of the shawl is silk harvested from the silkworm known as the Atlas silkworm, which was long thought to be extinct. Its color is whiter than snow and is so light that you can’t even feel its weight, yet it is as durable as linen and depending on the color and angle of the light that hits it, it would softly shine in a rainbow of colors. When I was a young lady in the previous 「108 times」, its scarcity and beauty were so great that there was a battle over it in high society and its price skyrocketed. It reached a point that the power of the noble ladies could be estimated by the number of items they wore that were woven from the silk of the Atlas silkworm.

Silkworms are notoriously picky eaters, but this Atlas silkworm is a striking oddity, and the only thing it will eat is the less toxic 「Poison Lady’s Kerchief」 harvested on periods outside of the crescent moon phase. However, without being further processed, the cocoons as it is are severely mottled and unusable.

…… The cocoons of the Atlas silkworms are made to become threads so beautiful that it will be mistaken as something heavenly by a strange process in which the cocoons are soaked in the highly toxic extract of the 「Poison Lady’s Kerchief」 harvested during the crescent moon, which is the ingredient of Melville’s deadly poisoned arrow.

As a matter of fact, this manufacturing method was a secret family business of a noble family in the long-ago 「Silver Age」. Atlas silk took the world by storm, and portraits of royalty and the high-ranking nobles of that period in time are usually depicted wearing this garment. Incidentally, the Atlas silkworm did not get its name because it was one size larger than ordinary silkworms. Because of the enormous benefits it brought to the kingdom, it was named after Atlas, the giant who supported the heavens.

However, since they had to possess a large number of 「Poison Lady’s Kerchief」 both for making and raising the Atlas silkworms, the noble family came under false suspicion from the royal family. Furthermore, if the poison removal after the final process is adjusted, Atlas silk can also be used for assassination. But it is also recorded that it was a false accusation aimed at financial interests. The truth is now unknown. Anyway, that noble family took all the Atlas silkworms on the road with them when they were destroyed. No matter how hard the royal family searched in a frenzy, they could not find even a single living one. And so, the Atlas silk became a faraway dream.

…… However, the gardener was so fascinated by the magnificent silk threads that he secretly took several Atlas silkworms with him and escaped. From the village of his descendants, Atlas silk would be restored. I knew the anecdote through my knowledge of the previous 「108 times」. So, I headed to the remote village where Atlas silkworms were secretly raised for ritual purposes, and I was prepared to bow down three times and make nine prostrations in order to acquire them.

But for the descendants of the gardener, it was just a strange creature that was handed down from their ancestors, so they blinked their eyes in surprise. The highly poisonous 「Poison Lady’s Kerchief」 harvested during the crescent moon phase and is necessary for the final process is a premium component, and also, the passing down of the information regarding the Atlas silkworms probably came to an end as the ancestors were wary that if they completed the Atlas silk, it would eventually be traced back and the village would be in danger.

…… The village, which had depopulated to the point where it could only manage a few small fields, was on the verge of destruction due to locust infestation when I visited. So I set out to help and persuade them.

「…… Wi are going to save this villaje. Plis allow us to put you all to work, along wis the Atlas silkworms. Not only wil your village no longer starve, we wil also make this villaje richer than ani other. We will mek this villaje a cutting-edge source of the soon-to-be trend in Hydrangea. Come on, lech fight for a braight future togeter!!」

Hey Bradd, don’t tremble with laughter.

I can’t help it, okay. I was less than 1 year old at that time.

The villagers were astonished to see me, a child not yet a year old, clenching my fists and delivering a passionate speech (although with a lisp) in a single breath. But when they saw the money and food I had brought, they said, 「The messenger of God has come down to save our village in a time of crisis. Surely this is why our ancestors left us this troublesome silkworm」. They just arbitrarily misunderstood on their own and the rest of the conversation proceeded smoothly without a hitch.

Without knowing their true value, the Atlas silkworms are nothing more than a good-for-nothing parasite and the 「Poison Lady’s Kerchief」 used to feed them was so difficult to collect that it could cost their life. In short, the village found it too hard to raise the silkworms.

Just how much of a cheat is my mother who can easily harvest the highly poisonous 「Poison Lady’s Kerchief」 during the crescent moon period which had the highest degree of difficulty and she actually managed to amass a heap of them …… I got permission to accompany my mother once, but the 「Poison Lady’s Kerchief」 grew only in ridiculously dangerous places and there is no way to know when it would turn deadly poisonous. There are individual differences. And yet mother was able to sniff it out. It must be due to the instinct of the Melville family who have been dealing with poisoned arrows all their lives. I couldn’t detect it at all. I seem to have degenerated that ability in exchange for the ability to smell money.

It’s okay, this way we have the right person in the right place and each of us has a role to play.

And today, what I have to do is manage the casting and work behind the scenes.