When it came to his mother, Simon was in a dilemma because he was not certain how to tell her about what he did.
The option of hiding the money or his actions was completely absent because there was no way he could do such a thing.
There was no way he could spend the money on food without his mother eventually noticing that something was wrong. Also, he knew that he did not have the heart to sneakily use the money only for himself while his mother suffered.
His mother had sacrificed a lot for him, and it would be unfilial of him to keep watching her suffer while he 'enjoyed himself.'
What Simon was worried about was how to tell his mother so that she would not get the idea of reporting him to the village head.
Although that would be a foolish thing to do, he knew that it was possible for his mother to do so.
His previous employer had approximately fifty mid-grade bone coins in the pouch he stole, which was equivalent to five thousand low-grade bone coins and also equivalent to fifty months of his mother's previous monthly salary.
Such an amount would have been absurdly high before the economic crisis of their tribe, but the prices of so many things were now absurdly high, and Simon knew that the money would last them only a year if they ate like before.
But Simon did not want to eat like they had been doing in the past. This was not out of greed but out of necessity.
If he wanted to develop properly, he needed nutrients—enough nutrients to be able to develop properly.
Although he was in the dark about the best path a demon should take if they wanted to reach the highest ranks in the demon realm, he had a feeling that proper nutrition at a young age was necessary.
After deliberating for three days, Simon finally told his mother on a particular night when she came back late from work with sunken cheeks, hazy eyes, and a strained smile.
As she stepped into their home, a slight frown appeared on his face when he saw her state.
"Hmm? You're still awake, Blackmoon? You should be sleeping so that you don't waste too much of your energy," his mother said, and Simon shook his head.
"I'm not tired."
Lyssa approached her son and then ruffled his hair.
"I know, but you know how difficult things are. If you don't minimize how much energy you use, you're going to end up suffering in the long run because food is now so expensive. This is also why I tell you to stop working out all the time."
Simon gave a light smile to his mother. "I'm working out to be stronger. I don't have to wait till I awaken my bloodline and demonic heart."
Lyssa gave a wry smile at Simon, and her eyes flickered with pride, concern, and anxiety as she looked at her son.
Simon was a mixture of a one-horned demon and a beastkin demon of the cat lineage.
He had pale gray skin with patches of white fur on his body. He also had a single tiny black horn on the right side of his head, along with midnight-white hair. His messy hair was white with black tips that nearly covered half of his eyes. His pointed ears twitched slightly whenever he heard a sound from far away.
Her son's build was not like that of many men among the one-horned demons. It leaned toward the slender side, and with all the strange exercises her son had been doing for years now, he had developed muscle on his lean body, making him appear attractive despite his age.
His eyes were like that of a cat. His pupils were deep indigo, and his irises were golden with a tinge of gray at the edges.
A short black tail swayed behind him, helping him balance when he moved, though his mother knew that her son often tried to hide his tail beneath his clothes—and she had no idea why.
Her son's movements were always silent, almost too smooth, and there were times he had caught her unaware because of this cat-like trait of his.
If one looked closely, they would notice his nails were slightly curved and darker than they should be. They were claws he could extend whenever he wished.
Although it looked like Simon had taken more traits from his father, his face bore a striking resemblance to hers and nothing to his father, and this always eased her heart regarding the nature of his birth.
'He has the heart and will of a warrior. If things were not this bad, I'm sure my son would have been a great figure in the tribe—or maybe… just maybe he would have been able to enter a clan.'
A smile of self-deprecation appeared on her lips as she had this thought. Her eyes flickered with exhaustion.
'I'm tired.'
"Mother," Simon called out, and Lyssa looked at him with a curious expression.
"What is it?"
Simon inhaled deeply, then placed his hand inside his clothes and brought out the pouch.
Lyssa tilted her head slightly with a baffled expression, but then her eyes widened in shock and disbelief when Simon began pouring out the bone coins from the pouch.
The sound of bone coins spilling onto the floor was like a massive thunderclap in her mind and soul.
"W-Where… where did you get all of that from?"
"I stole it," Simon said simply as he stared at his mother, closely observing her reaction.
"You—you stole it? From where? From who? How? When?" His mother's expression was completely baffled as she asked so many questions, but then she froze as a bolt of realization struck her.
"It was you. Your precious employer. You were the one who stole from Roy."
Simon nodded and gestured for his mother to sit in front of him.
"Yes, I did."