Vol 4. Chapter 79: A Simple Question

As everyone knew, Limo was a relatively carefree child, and her nerves were extremely thick.

And for a child like her, there had always been only one thing she feared most.

Being separated from Mother Yumo.

If her mother were gone, Limo’s world would surely become bleak and lightless.

In Limo’s eyes,

if her mother abandoned her, then from that day onward she would never be able to see her mother again, never be able to smell her mother’s scent, never be able to feel her mother’s caresses, never be able to enjoy the warmth her mother brought her...

A life like that...

She would rather die than experience it!

Compared to being separated from her mother, Limo would rather take a few hundred blows from the feather duster!

Therefore, the moment she felt that Yumo was going to abandon her, the wolf girl immediately burst into heart-wrenching sobs. Her miserable cries made everyone in the hall shudder involuntarily.

The pitiful wolf girl even threw herself directly onto Yumo’s thigh, raised both arms, tightly wrapped them around Yumo’s slender waist, and buried her face in Yumo’s skirt, sobbing nonstop as though she were going through the most difficult and painful moment of her entire demonic life.

“Awooooo! I-I’ll never dare disobey again! Mother, don’t abandon me! Waaaaah...”

Seeing this, Yumo seemed to freeze in place as well.

For a moment, the black-haired girl simply could not understand why Limo thought she was being abandoned.

Compared to Yumo’s confusion,

after seeing her older sister’s reaction, Liyu more or less guessed what had happened.

Her foolish older sister had probably let her imagination run wild and assumed that Mother sending her to the Sadik Empire meant Mother no longer wanted her, right?

Seriously...

Still,

wasn’t this reaction a little too intense?

Looking at her foolish older sister crying so miserably, Liyu instinctively felt a pang of heartache, but at the same time, a look of sudden realization appeared on her face.

“Looks like, compared to the feather duster, Sister Limo is even more afraid of being abandoned by Mother? If... she refuses to behave again in the future, maybe I can scare her with this? It might work surprisingly well.”

Liyu muttered inwardly and raised a hand to her chin, briefly sinking into thought.

However, while Liyu was thinking, some increasingly strange words gradually entered the girl’s ears, causing her expression to suddenly change!

At this moment,

Sister Limo, who was hugging Mother and bawling her eyes out, seemed to have started babbling some rather dangerous things:

“W-Waaah... M-Mother... I-I’ll definitely behave from now on, really. I’ll listen properly, I won’t eat random things anymore... I won’t randomly bully groups of magical beasts anymore... I won’t randomly cause destruction outside the forest anymore... I won’t randomly go to the Church and...”

?!!

Hm?

Wait?!

Hey! Hey, hey! Why is Sister saying stranger and stranger things?! If she keeps going, something bad is going to happen!

My butt has already bloomed once! If it blooms again, I’ll die!

Realizing the seriousness of the situation, Liyu immediately abandoned her thoughts, hurried forward in a panic, grabbed Sister Limo’s tail, and tried to pull her up.

“Sister Limo! Stop thinking nonsense! Mother never said she was going to abandon you! Stop saying weird things!”

“Waaah... Hm?”

Hearing Liyu say that, the wolf girl froze slightly and slowly lifted her head from Yumo’s thigh, turning her confused gaze backward.

“Hm? R-Really?”

“Of course it’s true.”

Before Liyu could answer, Miss Yumo gently spoke.

“Honestly, you child... what exactly is inside that little head of yours? How did you even come up with that... Mommy would never abandon you.”

The girl revealed a loving and gentle smile.

Along with a soft surge of Shadow of Silence Power, an exquisite handkerchief suddenly appeared in Miss Yumo’s palm.

Yumo slowly raised her hand and gently wiped away the tears around Limo’s eyes, as well as the snot that kept dripping down...

Her crimson eyes were filled with helplessness, along with a trace of guilt.

Clearly, Miss Yumo had not expected her words just now to provoke such a huge reaction from Limo.

“Good girl, Limo. Be good, don’t cry.”

As she spoke, Miss Yumo gently stroked the wolf girl’s little head.

Under Yumo’s soothing comfort, the deeply aggrieved Limo finally began to stop sobbing. She slowly raised her head and looked at Yumo with tear-filled eyes.

“Really... you won’t abandon me?”

“I won’t abandon you.”

“Mother... you don’t not want me?”

“I don’t.”

“You really don’t... want to abandon me?”

“I don’t. Stop letting your imagination run wild, okay, you silly child?”

Faced with her daughter’s endless questioning, Yumo smiled bitterly, raised her hand, and flicked Limo on the forehead.

“Pia~”

After the crisp sound, Limo drooped her little ears and pitifully covered her forehead.

“Do you understand now? Mommy won’t abandon you, so stop thinking nonsense, okay?”

“Mm...”

Under Miss Yumo’s repeated efforts to comfort her, Limo finally stopped crying completely and obediently nodded.

Seeing this,

under the somewhat envious gazes of everyone around them, Yumo contentedly pulled the wolf girl into her arms and gently patted her back, while the wolf girl gradually revealed a sweet smile brimming with happiness.

In an instant, the pitiful atmosphere vanished without a trace, and the scene became extremely warm and cozy.

...

After a brief moment of affection, Limo reluctantly left Yumo’s embrace.

Then, the wolf girl looked at the black-haired girl with an expectant gaze.

“Then, Mother, can I not go to the Sadik Empire?”

However,

in the very next moment, little Limo received an answer that left her utterly disappointed.

Faced with her daughter’s question, Miss Yumo revealed a sweet and loving smile, then replied with two words without the slightest hesitation.

“No.”

“Huh?”

“I really won’t abandon you. But Limo, this time you absolutely have to go to Sadik and properly study under Xiao.”

Miss Yumo’s tone brooked no refusal, and her words were filled with seriousness.

Upon receiving that answer, Limo instantly petrified and cracked apart. After recovering from the shock, her ears immediately drooped again, and her scarlet eyes filled with tears.

“Why, Mother?! I don’t want to go... Why do I have to go... Can’t you send Shuoyue and the others instead?”

“The others don’t need to be taught all over again. The only one who needs to be reeducated is you, you silly girl.”

Although Yumo felt somewhat reluctant to be so strict with the teary-eyed wolf cub, she ultimately suppressed her emotions and put on a serious expression.

Limo was simply too foolish and too good at causing trouble.

If Yumo was no longer around in the future, this child’s reckless personality would definitely cause no small amount of trouble for the Black Rose Family and the other children.

In order for Yumo to be able to “die” peacefully in the future, Limo absolutely had to be properly educated.

Besides, even if she did not “die,” this child still needed to be reeducated.

Considering the dirty books Liyu had secretly stored away, as well as the fact that Limo and Liyu were practically inseparable, Yumo seriously suspected that this silly child Limo had already been poisoned by unhealthy ideas.

Moreover, perhaps Yumo also had to accept a tragic fact.

The children had grown up...

Maybe they would have needs in that area.

In order to prevent this silly child Limo from being easily tricked away in the future, only to one day come back carrying an entire litter of little wolf cubs,

Yumo believed

that educating the wolf cub could not be delayed any longer.

That was why she had asked Xiao to take on the role of teacher...

As for Liyu?

That child was relatively clever and quick-witted.

She probably would not be tricked away so easily...

“In short, you’re too stupid, child. You need to properly study under Xiao. Otherwise, Mommy won’t be able to stop worrying about you.”

Miss Yumo emphasized this several times.

“No, no, no!!”

At Yumo’s words, the wolf girl pitifully shook her head so hard that afterimages appeared.

“I don’t want to leave Mother! I’m not stupid! I don’t need any kind of teaching!”

“...Enmmm...”

Faced with her daughter’s intense resistance, Yumo raised a hand to her chin and sank into brief thought.

“Then how about this?”

“Waaah... Hm?”

“Since little Limo says she isn’t stupid and doesn’t need tutoring, then how about proving it?”

“Proving it?”

“Yes. Answer a few simple questions for me. If you get them right, you won’t have to go for tutoring. If you get them wrong, then Limo will obediently go back with Xiao. How does that sound?”

“Answer... questions? W-Will they be hard?”

“Hm? No, they won’t. They’re all basic questions. I taught you these before.”

“Th-Then... okay...”

After hesitating for a moment, Limo somewhat blankly nodded.

Seeing this, Miss Yumo smiled and began her questioning.

“I’ll only ask you a few very simple questions. Your older brothers, older sisters, and younger sisters all know the answers.”

“Mm.”

Under the complicated and sympathetic gazes of everyone around her, little Limo clenched both fists and put on an expression full of fighting spirit.

In order to avoid going to Sadik, the little girl intended to completely unleash her brainpower.

She would make Mother understand that she was not a stupid child!

Her older brothers, older sisters, and younger sisters could do it, so why couldn’t she?!

They were all Mother’s children.

She could definitely do it too!

“You can start, Mother.”

However,

the moment she heard her mother’s question, the confident wolf cub instantly froze in place and directly weathered away and cracked apart.

“Then, the first question. Let X be a nonsingular complex projective manifold. Can every Hodge class on X be written as a linear combination with rational coefficients of the cohomology classes of complex subvarieties of X? If so, how would you write it?”

“Huh?!?”