"Ow, Anna, are you trying to crush Mommy?" Chu Lian reached out and lifted the mischievous little girl up, then glanced at the girls around her and found them all smiling faintly at the scene.
It seemed they had finally begun getting along with this rather antisocial little girl. That was good. At least Chu Lian would not have to worry about them anymore.
"Of course not. Anna just missed Mommy too much. Mommy slept for so, so long. If everyone hadn't kept saying Mommy was fine, Anna would've eaten everyone." Anna struggled in her arms. Once Chu Lian hugged her properly again, she buried her little head against Chu Lian's neck, breathing in her scent as she spoke in a soft, delicate voice.
"You... How could anything happen to Mommy that easily? Oh, right, Anna, how long was Mommy asleep?" Chu Lian pinched Anna's little cheek as the girl opened her mouth and gently nibbled on Chu Lian's exposed collarbone.
The girls seemed to be deliberately avoiding the subject of how long she had slept. Chu Lian had asked several times without getting an answer. Since Anna was here now, she might as well ask her.
"Ten days. Ten whole days. Mommy isn't allowed to sleep that long again. Otherwise, if Anna gets unhappy, she'll get hungry, and when Anna gets hungry, she'll eat lots and lots of people." Anna shook her little head free from the hand pinching her cheek and answered softly.
"Ten days, huh? That's certainly not short." Chu Lian looked into the eyes of the girls who were now somewhat evasively avoiding her gaze. She knew they had only meant well, but they should still have told her the truth. Ten days really was a long time.
If she had not asked Anna, she might have assumed she had only slept for three or four days. But ten days... She did not even know what to say.
What exactly was Mom's purpose in making me do that? Was it simply to train me, or did she know that if I intervened, I'd obtain the Spirit Moonstone?
The Spirit Moonstone? Thinking about it made her think of Ayase again. Ayase and her mother should have been roughly equal in strength, right? Both of them had their own mysteries. There were many things they could not simply tell her outright, leaving Chu Lian to understand them on her own.
"Don't think about it too much. You're thirsty, aren't you? Your body may be nourished by spiritual power, but you still need to replenish some nutrients. Here, Aunt Li prepared this soup. Mm, apparently it's especially good for your body in its current condition. It's almost as though she knew you'd wake up right now."
Lux had the other girls make way for her, then walked over and sat beside the bed. She raised the bowl in her hand, stirred it with the spoon, scooped up a spoonful, and gently blew on it for a while. Once she felt the temperature was right, she brought the spoon to Chu Lian's lips.
"Mm..." Chu Lian opened her mouth and swallowed the spoonful of soup. There was not much of it, yet it unexpectedly filled her with warmth. So I'm really meant to be pampered like this? As for maintaining distance or propriety, there was no need for such things between girls who had already become so intimate with one another.
"How is it?" After watching her swallow the soup, the girls all looked forward to hearing what she thought. After all, this was the first thing she had tasted after sleeping for ten days. Surely it suited her tastes, right?
"Of course it's delicious. Mom made it as a nourishing soup, after all." She could hardly bring herself to say it was bitter, could she? Not only would that waste Mom's thoughtfulness, but the other girls would probably worry if they heard it too.
Hearing her answer, Cai Ya, Ruriko Nana, and Chu Chu all sighed in relief. Only Lux, Liu Yanran, and Inori furrowed their brows slightly, though none of them said anything.
Lux had tasted the soup herself. If she had not known it would be highly beneficial to Chu Lian, she would never have wanted to make Chu Lian drink something so bitter in her current condition. As for Liu Yanran and Inori, they simply knew Chu Lian too well. Her earnest expression made it look like she was telling the truth, but she was probably hiding something.
Still, since she had chosen not to say anything, they would not expose her. While their hearts ached for Chu Lian, they also thought she was truly far too foolish. Even if she hid it now, they would discover the truth sooner or later. Then they would have to coax her all over again.
Unfortunately, none of the others were fools either. The changes in the expressions of Liu Yanran and the other two had been extremely subtle and vanished almost instantly, but with everyone's current level of strength, they were still far too obvious.
The smiles faded from their faces. They stared silently at Chu Lian without saying a word, making her feel as though she should confess immediately. The atmosphere suddenly became strangely delicate.
"By the way, how does your body feel? Other than being weak, there aren't any other problems, right?" Seeing the atmosphere threatening to freeze, Liu Yanran decisively changed the subject for Chu Lian. Her clever intervention moved Chu Lian almost to tears. As expected, there's nothing better than an old married couple. She really knows how to care for me.
"It's not too bad. My spiritual power is circulating normally. I just can't exert any strength beyond what an ordinary person could manage. But I can feel some strange changes occurring inside my body. Maybe once those changes are complete, I'll recover. And when that happens, my strength should improve dramatically."
This was not merely something Chu Lian herself needed to care about. The other girls needed to know as well. Only by understanding her physical condition could they properly take care of her.
"Mommy's body is gradually becoming stronger. Once she recovers, she might even reach Earth Rank." As a Child of God, Anna's senses naturally surpassed those of the girls who were still mortal. Since she was closest to Chu Lian, she immediately added this after hearing Chu Lian's explanation.
Chu Lian's words alone might not have been entirely trustworthy. She had far too much history of concealing things from them.
Anna, however, could be believed. During the time they had spent with her, the girls had discovered that while she could sometimes be extremely blunt, she surprisingly never lied—if Chu Lian knew they thought this, she would surely be heartbroken, considering Anna was actually the best at hiding things.
"I see. Then I suppose it's a good thing. Can you tell when you'll recover?" Cai Ya relaxed internally, though her tone did not sound particularly concerned, almost as though she were merely questioning an ordinary patient.
When will I recover? Chu Lian herself was not entirely certain. So, to give them an accurate answer, she closed her eyes and carefully sensed the changes in her body.
After a while, she finally opened her eyes beneath the tense, concerned gazes of the girls and said softly, "Half a month at most. I'll be completely recovered within half a month. I'll also enter Earth Rank, and my strength will increase tremendously. You girls had better hurry up and catch up with me."
"Then during this half month, does that mean Big Sis basically won't have any strength at all?" Chu Chu's single question immediately made Chu Lian, who had intended to hide the truth, smile bitterly. "Mm. Until I've recovered, my physical abilities will probably only be around the peak of what an ordinary human can achieve. Aside from being able to use Teleport, all my other abilities seem to have been sealed away. I can't use them."
"I see. Then for this half month, no matter where you go, there must always be at least three people accompanying you. Most importantly, Yaya has to be one of them. Understand?" Her words left everyone both worried and distressed. Half a month was a long time. What if something happened during that period?
"Right! Yaya!" Hearing Nana mention her, Chu Lian suddenly remembered that she still had not summoned Yaya. After finishing the last spoonful of soup Lux fed her, she closed her eyes and tried to sense the summoning space so she could call Yaya out.
Normally, something like this would never have required so much effort from her. But in her current state, unless she concentrated like this, she could not sense the summoning space at all. If she could not even sense where it was, how could she possibly summon anything from it?
Fortunately, once she closed her eyes, the summoning space that had previously been beyond her perception finally responded. Her spiritual sense shifted slightly, and a circular summoning passage appeared above her bed. A girl dressed in a black kimono promptly came tumbling out headfirst.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Chu Lian was startled. If Yaya crashed straight down, would her bed even survive? Inori, who had been quietly watching from beside her, moved instantly. She caught Yaya in midair, leaped toward another bed, and set her down.
"Hm? Where's Chu Lian?" The girl who had been placed on the floor seemed as though she had only just awakened. She rubbed her eyes and asked in confusion.
"I'm right here." Hearing her voice, Chu Lian called out. The moment Yaya heard her, she snapped completely awake and threw herself toward Chu Lian on the bed.
"Hey, what's wrong?" The girl's emotions seemed off, so Chu Lian frowned and asked.
"I thought I'd never see Chu Lian again... Waaaah..." Tears streamed down Yaya's face, dampening both her clothes and Anna's. Yaya herself did not seem to care, but Anna frowned, climbed out of Chu Lian's embrace, and stood off to the side, giving Yaya the space and time she needed.
"Because, because, because..." Yaya kept repeating the same word without managing to finish her sentence, leaving Chu Lian thoroughly confused.
"What's wrong?" Chu Lian stroked her black hair, her voice growing increasingly gentle.
"Because Yaya couldn't feel Chu Lian's presence at all. It was like Chu Lian had completely disappeared from Yaya's world. Before, Yaya could always feel you while she was in there, but these past few days there was nothing, nothing at all!"
Yaya raised her head. Her cheeks were soaked with tears, and her eyes were filled with sorrow and fear. It seemed being alone in that space while Chu Lian's presence vanished completely had terrified her.
"Good girl. Aren't I right here?" Only now did Chu Lian understand why Yaya had seemed so dazed earlier. Apparently, this silly girl had cried herself exhausted and unknowingly fallen asleep...
They really are a bunch of adorably foolish people... and I like them so very much.
"From now on... from now on, Chu Lian isn't allowed to do anything that dangerous anymore. Let Yaya do it instead, okay? Okay? Okay?" She rubbed her face against Chu Lian's chest. Despite still crying, she could not resist acting spoiled.
Yet she was not acting spoiled for her own benefit. She merely wanted to protect someone else. It was clumsy and adorable, making it impossible to refuse.
"All right. Then during this period, I'll leave my protection to Yaya. I won't fight. I'll leave everything to you..." Chu Lian pinched the tip of her little nose and agreed with a smile.
After receiving Chu Lian's promise, Yaya finally broke into a smile through her tears and stopped crying.
At the doorway, a white-haired girl leaned against the frame, one bare, snow-white foot braced against it as she hesitated over whether she should go inside...