I Was Transported to Another World with a Male-to-Female Ratio of 1:3000 and Made into a Breeding Pet for the Demon Lord’s Army - 21

Chapter 21: Secret Chapter 1: The Ones Left Behind

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【Mom! Look, look! I draw a cat!】

【Oh my, you did such a great job. Is that Mommy and Daddy next to it? Where’s Kento?】

【Geez, Mom, look properly! I’m drawn big right here!】

【Oh, so the cat is Kento… But why?】

【Hehehehe~ This is a secret, but my dream for the future is to become a cat! Don’t tell Dad, okay? I’m gonna surprise him by turning into a cat all of a sudden!】

【Fufu~ So Kento wants to be a cat? Mommy’s looking forward to the day you become a cat then.】

Click!

【I’m home!】

【Ah! Dad… look… at… me… I’m…】

……………

………

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When I woke up, a familiar ceiling filled my vision. I slowly sat up, my body feeling as heavy as lead. As I turned my gaze toward the wall, I saw the drawing of the cat from my dream, still hanging there.

“What a nostalgic dream…”

That was from when Kento was still in kindergarten… It was about ten years ago, wasn’t it? I still clearly remembered how excitedly he had shown me that drawing he’d made with crayons.

His dream was to be “becoming a cat”… What a very childlike dream, and just remembering it made a smile appear on my face naturally. I wanted to ask him—how long had he truly believed in that dream?

…But I had no way of knowing that now. Because that child was already gone.

For five long years, he had fought tirelessly against his illness. Sometimes he complained, sometimes he lashed out at us in frustration. There were days when he suddenly coughed up a terrifying amount of blood, and days when he slept without waking for an entire day. In that unchanging scenery, he continued to fight… And yet, the only thing waiting for him at the end was the cruel fate of death.

Couldn’t I have done more for him? If I had searched harder, wouldn’t I have found a way to cure him?

“If only I had given birth to a stronger child!”

Even though I knew it was too late for regrets, my mind was consumed by them.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

……….

“It’s okay. This isn’t just your burden to bear.”

Before I realized it, my husband, Haruto, had woken up and was gently stroking my head.

“Hic… You know, I keep thinking… What if he’s not actually dead? What if he’s still alive somewhere, still living his life without us knowing?”

“Yeah… I feel that too. We never got to see Kento in his final moments, and his body wasn’t even at the funeral. To be honest, even if they tell me he’s gone, I just can’t accept it yet. It still doesn’t feel real and I can’t bring myself to move on.”

Yes… The day Kento supposedly passed away… I never got to see him before he died. All I received was a single phone call from the hospital.

【He passed away in his bed today.】

With just that one sentence, our days with him came to an end. Of course, there was no way we could accept this unfair treatment so easily. Desperate to see him one last time, we protested to the hospital. However, due to the commotion within the facility, no one gave us a proper response. Seeing that we were getting nowhere, I decided to sneak past the nurses and head to his hospital room.

Even if he couldn’t hear me anymore, that didn’t matter. I just wanted to say one thing.

【You did so well.】

That was all.

But when I finally reached his room, Kento was nowhere to be found. There wasn’t even a trace of him left. As we stood there in shock, his attending physician arrived and explained the situation. Since his illness was still unknown, they had immediately performed an autopsy upon his death, fearing that any changes in his condition could be problematic for future research.

Upon hearing that, I collapsed in tears. Haruto, on the other hand, was furious at how they had acted without our consent. He grabbed the doctor by the collar in rage. But no matter how much we got angry, no matter what we did, the reality wouldn’t change. We could never get to see our son again.

What had he been thinking in his final moments? Had he been in pain? Had he been lonely? Had he… Come to resent us?

“Kento…”

Just imagining his final moments made the tears impossible to stop. What a terrible mother I was.

“Hic… I’m so sorry…”

“Youko… Alright! Let’s go to the mountains today.”

“Huh…?”

“Do you remember? The three of us once climbed a small mountain together.”

“Yes… Hic… I remember. It was full of greenery and the view from the top was beautiful.”

“Good! Then let’s take our time and get ready. If Kento saw us looking so pathetic, he’d definitely scold us! And besides… Now that Kento is gone, we have to push forward. We’re the only ones left to keep his memory alive.”

“Yes… You’re right. Then… Hic… I should hurry up and make a nutritious bento! Maybe I’ll even pack some of those meat skewers he loved so much!”

I couldn’t just keep wallowing in despair. This heavy, painful feeling would probably never leave me, not until the day I died. But if that was the case, then at the very least, I had to accept it and move forward. Even if I could only move on little by little… I still had to keep moving forward…To prove that Kento had been here…. To make sure we never let go of the memories he gave us.

We had to keep on living for his sake.

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