Vol 4. Chapter 64: Liyu’s Little Classroom

At noon,

a breathtakingly beautiful black-haired girl draped in a black cloak was walking barefoot through the forest in silence.

After spending such a long time surrounded by the commotion and noise of the city,

Miss Yumo was finally able to experience the tranquility of the forest again after what felt like forever. As she strolled along, Miss Yumo closed her eyes and quietly immersed herself in the natural atmosphere of the forest.

The Great Winter Forest was saturated with the aura of Abyss Demons. To other living creatures, it was undoubtedly unbearably oppressive, as though they had been thrown into a purgatory filled with poisonous miasma.

However, for Miss Yumo, the mother hen of the Abyss Demons, this environment instead made her feel refreshed and relaxed, bringing her a sense of comfort she had not experienced in a long time.

During the time she had spent in the human world,

Miss Yumo had practically been immersed in the aura of humans every moment of [N O V E L I G H T] every day. The dense presence of mana, battle aura, and Holy Aura had constantly been stimulating her.

Although Miss Yumo had quite remarkable endurance, remaining in that kind of environment for such a long period still made Yumo instinctively feel uncomfortable.

It was not as though Miss Yumo had never spent time together with people from the Black Rose Family before.

However, back then, there had never been that many Black Rose Family members staying around Yumo at once. On top of that, the proportion of Shadow of Silence Power within the Great Winter Forest had still overwhelmingly dominated the environment, so Miss Yumo had not really felt anything.

But after living in the human world for an extended period of time, constantly exposed to all kinds of mana and Holy Aura, Miss Yumo had become mentally exhausted.

The reason she had chosen to return to the Great Winter Forest this time was not only because she wanted to see her children and introduce Yuan’er to Karina and Shuoyue, but also because she wanted to let herself relax a little.

Otherwise,

if she continued staying in human society, Miss Yumo was genuinely worried that something might go wrong with her mental state.

After all,

the instincts of an Abyss Demon were constantly influencing her behavior from somewhere deep within her subconscious...

In a certain sense,

Yumo actually admired her third daughter, Karina, quite a bit.

After all, that girl had spent long periods mingling within human society, yet she had never shown the slightest sign of being affected by the aura of humans.

......

“Forget it. I’m not going to think about anything anymore. I should just enjoy myself.”

Miss Yumo emptied her mind and leisurely wandered through the forest.

The nearby Abyss Demons,

after sensing the arrival of their boss, all forcibly restrained the violent instincts inside their minds. They stopped hunting and fighting, quietly lying down either in the snow or on tree branches, doing their best to create a peaceful and pleasant atmosphere for their boss.

They were so obedient it was almost heartwarming.

Of course, there were always some tactless magical beasts that chose moments like this to let out untimely roars or screams.

Fortunately, Yumo’s Abyss Demon underlings were all very considerate.

In order to prevent Yumo from being disturbed, they decisively gifted those noisy magical beasts with an exceptionally high-quality sleep.

The kind of sleep from which they would never wake up.

For a time,

even the biting cold wind carried a faint scent of blood.

However,

this bloody scent did not make Miss Yumo uncomfortable.

Instead, it gave her a strange sense of satisfaction.

Her heart relaxed even further.

And just as Miss Yumo continued strolling around and enjoying her leisurely time, a clear and pleasant voice suddenly came from somewhere in the distance, causing Miss Yumo to raise her brows slightly.

Hm?

“The children’s voices? What are those girls doing right now?”

Slowly turning her head toward the right, Miss Yumo gradually became curious.

Considering that the pent-up pressure inside her had more or less completely dissipated, Miss Yumo allowed herself to be enveloped by a surge of crimson Shadow of Silence Power.

She transformed into countless blood-colored butterflies and flew toward the direction the voices had come from...

......

Several seconds later,

Miss Yumo arrived at an open clearing within the forest.

Then,

the sight before her made Miss Yumo pause in slight surprise.

“Hm? What’s this? What are they doing?”

Reflected within Yumo’s crimson eyes was a strange scene.

At the front of the clearing, dozens of enormous rocks had been piled together to form something resembling a lecture platform.

Standing on top of that platform were Limo, who had once again transformed into a gigantic wolf, and little Liyu.

The two of them were energetically waving their limbs around on the platform as though they were giving some kind of lecture?

Meanwhile, beneath the platform, several thousand Abyss Demons were behaving completely unlike their usual selves.

They sat there in absolute silence, seemingly listening attentively to Liyu’s words.

The sight left Miss Yumo utterly confused.

Her children...

What exactly were they doing?

Thus,

driven by curiosity, Miss Yumo leapt directly onto the platform, intending to figure out what sort of strange little scheme her adorable daughters were up to.

The moment Miss Yumo appeared, little Limo, who had been continuously making random “awoo-woo” noises, immediately revealed an excited expression.

Without saying another word, she darted over to Yumo’s side and affectionately rubbed her fluffy face against her mother.

Likewise, little Liyu immediately put aside what she had been doing and hurried over to Yumo.

“Mother, Mother! Why are you here?”

“Me? I was taking a walk nearby.”

Yumo answered with a smile while lovingly raising her hands and rubbing the little heads of Limo and Liyu.

Then,

the black-haired girl looked toward the crowd of Abyss Demons beneath the platform in confusion.

The moment Miss Yumo’s gaze fell upon them, the enormous group of Abyss Demons that had previously been sitting quietly in the snow instantly erupted into excitement.

They began releasing earth-shaking roars one after another, seemingly instinctively greeting their boss.

“Hm? These children are... new Abyss Demons?”

After sensing that the Shadow of Silence Power inside the Abyss Demons below was not particularly dense, Yumo could not help asking.

In response,

Liyu repeatedly nodded before taking the opportunity to grab Yumo’s hand and pull her mother toward the edge of the platform.

“Yes, Mother. These are all new Abyss Demons. They were born after those humans, spiritual beasts, and magical beasts that were infected during the attack on Skyvault transformed. A lot of Abyss Demons were lost during that attack anyway. To keep the forest’s demon population stable, I specifically gathered all of these guys together and brought them back into the forest. This way, Mother won’t have to deliberately create more Abyss Demons just to make up for the losses anymore! Mother can finally get some proper rest! Hehe~”

“Liyu...”

Looking at her thoughtful little darling, who had learned to consider her mother’s burdens, Miss Yumo immediately felt warmth spread through her heart.

A happy smile naturally appeared upon her breathtakingly beautiful face.

“What a good child.”

“Hehe~”

“By the way, what exactly are you doing right now?”

“We’re teaching the Abyss Demons~”

“Hm? Teaching?”

Miss Yumo could not help tilting her head, staring in complete confusion at Liyu, who had placed both hands on her hips and was once again pretending to be a little adult, as well as the white wolf beside her, who had absurdly risen onto her hind legs and put both paws against her waist in imitation...

“You’re teaching Abyss Demons?”

One had to understand that, aside from Demon King-class Abyss Demons and a small number of rare Abyss Demon species, the overwhelming majority of Abyss Demons—especially newly born ones like these—were brainless creatures that acted entirely on instinct.

Teaching them?

How was that any different from playing music to a cow?

Seemingly seeing through Miss Yumo’s confusion, Liyu smugly patted her somewhat flat chest.

“These Abyss Demons don’t have brains. But we can use Shadow of Silence Power to simulate different situations and temper their instincts that way, achieving the goal of training them! We can also use the rank suppression of Demon King-class beings to tell them what they’re allowed to do and what they’re not allowed to do inside the Great Winter Forest!”

“Th-That works? I feel like... I’m not really following you anymore.”

“It’s okay, Mother! You only need to know that Abyss Demons can be trained! Leave everything else to us!”

“Enmmm, all right.”

Looking at her confident daughter, Miss Yumo affectionately nodded.

However,

although the girl nodded, she still could not help asking in confusion,

“So what kind of lesson are you giving them?”

“Basic common sense about living in the forest!”

“Common sense?”

“That’s right, Mother!”

As she spoke, Liyu excitedly pulled Miss Yumo over to the blackboard she had specially prepared.

A gigantic map was hanging on the blackboard.

It was a map showing part of the eastern region of the Great Winter Forest.

Beside it were detailed images being projected by image magic stones.

Pointing toward the map and the images beside it, Liyu explained with a smile,

“I’m teaching these newcomers where they should hunt from now on! Which places they’re not allowed to enter, which areas are magical beast conservation zones, and which areas are food cultivation zones! Once they learn all of this, Mother won’t have to deliberately spend energy controlling their movements anymore!”

“I see. Liyu really is amazing.”

“Hehe~”

The little girl continued smiling smugly.

Always thinking about how to lessen her mother’s burdens.

What a good child.

Miss Yumo thought with considerable satisfaction.

While she was inwardly sighing with emotion, another stream of information suddenly entered Miss Yumo’s mind.

The black-haired girl immediately raised her brows and thoughtfully looked in the direction of the villa.

“What’s wrong, Mother?”

“Meow-woo-woo?” (Mother, what’s wrong?)

“N-Nothing.”

Yumo smiled softly and shook her head.

“It’s nothing. The memory fibers from the elves have arrived. I need to go receive them so that I can make clothes for you afterward. So I’ll head back first. You two girls keep teaching these ‘newcomers’ properly, all right? Mother won’t disturb you anymore.”

With that,

after continuing to interact with the sisters Limo and Liyu for a little while longer, waves of dense Shadow of Silence Power began surging around Miss Yumo.

The next moment,

under the reluctant gazes of her two daughters, she transformed into countless blood-colored butterflies and disappeared from the platform.

Once they sensed that their mother’s presence had completely moved far away, the wolf-shaped Limo and little Liyu beside her simultaneously let out long breaths of relief.

“Phew~ Good thing little sister Shuoyue warned us in time. Otherwise, we would’ve been exposed.”

“Awoo-woo.” (Exactly, exactly!)

“Mother was only taking a walk. Who would’ve thought she’d actually stroll all the way over here? We really were careless.”

“Awoo-woo, awoo?” (Liyu, Liyu, what do we do next?)

The gigantic wolf affectionately rubbed her face against Liyu’s little cheek and asked curiously.

In response, Liyu gave a “hehe” laugh.

“Do you even need to ask? How can we stop halfway through training? We continue the lesson!”

As she spoke,

Liyu kicked off with her short little legs and instantly arrived in front of the blackboard.

Without another word, she tore down the map hanging on it.

Then, from her spatial ring, she took out a complete set of Asumos Church clothing and hung it up instead!

Unsurprisingly, the magic stones displaying images of the forest were also put back into her ring.

The new image magic stone she took out displayed a three-dimensional image of an Asumos Church knight!

Then,

little Liyu reached underneath her skirt and pulled out a pair of glasses and a teaching pointer.

Glaring ‘aggressively’ at the countless Abyss Demons below, Liyu raised the pointer and pointed toward the knight’s head and heart.

“Listen carefully! If you run into guys like this in the future! Immediately use your strongest move and aim straight for their vital points! Don’t fucking give them a chance to fight back! Wipe them out in one go! Got it?!......”

As Liyu’s words rang out,

the group of Abyss Demons below instantly erupted.

The Abyss Demons raised their hands, their claws, their wings, and some even raised the severed heads of certain magical beasts in response to Liyu’s instructions.

“Awooooooooo!! Awooo, awooo, awooo!!~”

In an instant,

the relatively harmonious and friendly atmosphere from moments ago vanished without a trace......