“Ugh… hmm… mmm… yeah!”
The bedboards let out a light squeak, accompanied by a rhythmic shaking.
“Ha — ha! Du Lin… I’m out of strength…”
“Hang in there a little longer! Use some force! Oh — it’s almost done! Ha — ha!”
“Mmm… hmmm…”
*Squeak, squeak…*
Lucoco lay limply in the corner of the large bed, staring at the ceiling with teary eyes.
Her small body swayed gently with the movement of the bed.
Her gaze was complex, a mix of confusion and a sense of sentimental growth.
She had grown up.
On the other side of the bed, Du Lin and Su Yue were drenched in sweat, teeth clenched.
They were struggling to use their teeth to untie the knots of the ropes wrapped around each other’s bodies.
Unfortunately, the ropes were tied in an exceptionally complex manner, like some kind of work of art, and they were incredibly sturdy.
The cause of all this was simply Lucoco’s passive skill being triggered subconsciously — an instinct carved into her very marrow from the days of Blue Star and her wits-matching battles with Instructor Bai He.
Last night, the two of them had crawled onto Lucoco’s large bed while drunk, and Lucoco had skillfully bound them with ropes using a very artistic binding method.
As for why Lucoco’s eyes were teary?
Don’t misunderstand; she was just feeling sentimental.
She had truly grown up — in the literal sense!
She had officially entered the Half-Demon childhood stage, and her overall attributes had increased by 20%.
Her height had also increased significantly.
She now looked like a young girl of eleven or twelve.
The pajamas that used to fit her perfectly could no longer cover her little belly.
However, her small panties had automatically adjusted their size as her body grew.
It didn’t seem like much to be surprised about; after all, those were equipment, not ordinary clothing.
A memory of a small companion who had been with her for a long time, but whose whereabouts were now unknown, suddenly flashed through her mind.
She let out a soft sigh, feeling a strange sense of melancholy.
***
The sound of a key turning rang out, and the metal door pushed open with a creak.
Lucia walked in.
The room instantly fell into an eerie silence.
Lucia frowned, blinked her eyes, and hesitantly closed the door.
A moment later, she pushed it open again.
She wanted to confirm she hadn’t walked into the wrong place!
“Oh! Lucoco has grown up!”
Her face was full of joy as she stepped forward, looking Lucoco up and down.
Nodding in satisfaction, she pulled a brand-new dress out of her bracelet.
“Now you can wear this directly!”
Du Lin and Su Yue glanced at each other.
“Mmm!”
“Eek!”
They buried their heads back into their work, the battle between teeth and knots continuing.
“Did Mother know I would evolve?”
Lucoco climbed up slowly, took the dress, and sat on the edge of the bed looking at her.
Lucia gave a playful wink.
“Was the fruit wine delicious?”
She asked suggestively.
“…”
Lucoco stared at Lucia silently.
Even now, her head still throbbed slightly because of that fruit wine last night.
Lucia couldn’t help but chuckle.
She reached out and gently rubbed the top of Lucoco’s head, asking softly, “Does Lucoco want to take a few jars with her?”
“Yes!”
Lucoco’s eyes lit up, and she nodded her small head vigorously.
“Hmph!”
(Su Yue gave a hard tug)
“It’s untied!”
(Du Lin finally freed her hands and shouted excitedly, quickly helping Su Yue untie the remaining knots.)
“Su Yue, Du Lin, you two take some fruit wine as well!”
Lucia looked at the two lively girls and smiled helplessly.
“Thank you, Sister Lucia!”
The two said in unison, busy untying the ropes on the rest of their bodies.
That fruit wine was good stuff; it could restore both HP and MP at the same time.
A single sip could fill them up completely, even if it did make them drunk.
“I’ll go get the fruit wine. After you’ve cleaned yourselves up, go find Sebas. He has gifts for you,” Lucia said before turning and briskly closing the door as she left.
“Goodbye, Sister!”
***
*Rustle, rustle.*
Lucoco stood in front of the mirror putting on her new dress set, her movements still a bit clumsy.
As an NPC, she didn’t have the “click to equip” privilege that players enjoyed; she had to do it herself.
At least, she had to do it this way whenever people were around.
“Come here, let Big Sister help you,” Du Lin, now free from the ropes, approached with a grin.
“Sister Du Lin, I can do it myself…”
Lucoco’s face turned slightly red as she tried to refuse.
“Oh, don’t be shy!”
Du Lin teased her with a mischievous grin as usual, but then she suddenly paused.
Her voice gradually grew somber.
“…I wonder how long it will be until the next time.”
She had gotten so used to this that she almost forgot what day it was.
“…Mm,” Lucoco responded softly, no longer resisting.
Was she sad?
Honestly, she wasn’t.
Perhaps it was because she was “too old,” but she didn’t feel a hint of reluctance or sadness.
A few years were but a blink of an eye.
Even though they had spent a long time together, she couldn’t feel a ripple of emotion.
Or rather, since entering the game, she had only one goal: to follow in the footsteps of that person.
She didn’t really care about anything else.
Her current appearance as a cute little girl was, in the end, just a deliberate disguise.
She had no interest at all in the things young people shouted about — friendship, love, bonds, and the like.
Only the ties of kinship with Lucia and Luti could truly tug at her heartstrings.
‘Is it because of my age? … Why is this heart, which clearly pumps hot blood, so indifferent!’
Lucoco fell into her own little “self-righteous” melancholy.
“Lucoco got so tall all of a sudden!”
Su Yue also bounced over, looking Lucoco up and down.
“Our little rice cake has turned into a little cotton coat.”
“Am I not cute?”
Lucoco asked, tilting her head.
Du Lin threw an arm around her shoulder, laughing brightly.
“Of course you’re cute! And a bit…”
“Charming?”
Su Yue rubbed her chin, finishing the thought.
“That’s not wrong, but the correct answer is: like a villainess from an otome game!”
Du Lin looked at Lucoco’s expressionless face in the mirror and nodded with conviction.
Lucoco pretended not to understand and remained silent.
…
A moment later.
“Lucoco, aren’t you taking this necklace?”
“Leave it…”
“Oh…”
The three of them tidied up and walked out of the cabin door with high spirits.
“First, let’s go get the big treasure!”
“What big treasure?”
“Together, together!”
“It’s hidden below.”
“Below?”
“Right. Behind the door that’s been propped up by wood. It’s the broken escape pod.”
“It couldn’t be… that!”
Du Lin purposefully lowered her voice, leaving her sentence half-finished.
Su Yue immediately felt restless.
“What is it? Tell me! Tell me! Don’t always stop halfway!”
She shook Du Lin’s arm incessantly.
“It’s the hovercraft,” Lucoco said without hiding anything.
This caused Du Lin to shake her head and sigh; she had wanted to tease Su Yue a bit longer.
“Oh… my OCD is satisfied now,” Su Yue patted her chest and let out a sigh of relief.
…
After some clattering, the hatch door smashed heavily onto the ground with a creak, revealing the scene inside.
Two hovercrafts that looked perfectly intact were parked steadily inside, while everything else was tossed in the corners like junk.
“Wow! Are both of these working?”
Du Lin lunged toward them with glowing eyes.
“Woohoo!”
“Only this one. Our ride is fine, but the brakes on the other one are broken,” Lucoco said, pointing to one of the hovercrafts with a proud look.
“Are we riding this today?”
Du Lin couldn’t wait to climb onto the back seat.
“Ack, so much dust! *Cough, cough!*”
She rolled off, covered in dust and grime.
“Yes, we’ll use this. We’ll reach the pass by this afternoon.”
Lucoco covered her nose, waving her small hand to retreat from the dust.
She suddenly froze.
“Wait… wouldn’t you two be faster riding your birds?”
“We want to ride this!”
Su Yue and Du Lin looked at her simultaneously and spoke in unison.
Then, they began to clean the dust and add water.
***
The hovercraft hovered steadily in front of the blacksmith shop.
Inside the shop, Su Yue and Du Lin were crying their eyes out.
Sebas, Lucia, and the “royal chef,” Big Sister Are, took turns hugging the two, offering a warm farewell.
Sebas laughed loudly, saying something about how little girls crying was the most interesting thing to see.
Lucia and Are were much calmer, like elders who had seen through the ways of the world.
They gently patted the girls’ backs, silently staying with them as they vented their emotions.
Yinuo had run out early that morning under the pretext of “hunting alone,” but he was actually hiding on the opposite hilltop, wailing loudly.
From a distance, his intermittent cries could be heard drifting on the wind.
“Where’s Luti… *sniff*…”
Su Yue sobbed, wiping her nose and searching around with swollen eyes.
Lucia reached out and gently wiped the tears from Su Yue’s cheek.
“That little one is hiding in the pond; she won’t show her face. Lucoco is over there right now calling for her to come up,” she said softly.
Hearing this, Su Yue turned and ran toward the gate leading to the vegetable garden wall.
“I’m going to see Luti…”
“…Wait for me… *sob*!”
Du Lin shouted with a crying voice, wiping her eyes.
She released Are from her hug and stumbled after Su Yue.
The three adults watched them run toward the vegetable garden with gentle gazes.
Are’s gaze seemed to pierce through the wall and the pond.
Her tone was gentle: “Luti is the most sentimental of all.”
Lucia smiled, recalling the scene of her first encounter with Luti.
A warm light flickered in her eyes.
“When I first met her, she was fiercely guarding two small fish, refusing to let anyone near. I thought it was interesting, so I brought her back.”
“She truly is an interesting little thing,” Sebas agreed with a nod.
***
By the pond, Lucoco squatted by the water’s edge with a bright smile.
She flicked the surface of the water with a piece of foxtail grass, creating ripples.
“Luti, I’m going on a trip. Aren’t you going to come out and see me off?”
There was no response.
Tilting her head, Lucoco continued to tease her with a beaming smile:
“Look, your favorite bugs are all going to turn into butterflies and fly away.”
“I’m going to pull up this seedling!”
“I haven’t seen you for several days. Get up and look at me.”
“Are you hiding under the water, secretly crying? Hmph, small fry, small fry!”
“Can you hear me? Why don’t you blow a bubble for me first?”
Lucoco’s voice gradually grew softer, carrying an undetectable sob.
“…I’m really… leaving…”
Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes, and her smile became a bit distorted.
Suddenly, two wailing figures rushed in, crying as if they were at a funeral.
They directed their loud sobbing at the pond: “Wah! Luti!” “Waaaaah!”
Well, there goes the mood she was building up.
Lucoco shook her small head helplessly and continued to flick the foxtail grass, silently watching the two scream their hearts out.
‘If I were Luti, I wouldn’t come out either…’
Even after the two had cried themselves hoarse, Luti never blew a single bubble.
‘It felt like this when I graduated, too. That memory was from such a long, long time ago…’
‘It’s not like I’m wailing because a teacher passed away, thank you very much!’
‘That’s enough. It’s time to go…’
Lucoco stood up, extended two tentacles, and picked up the two girls who were too choked with sobs to speak.
She turned and walked out of the garden.
“Awoooo!”
On the opposite hilltop, Yinuo was still wailing.
…
Returning to the front of the blacksmith shop, Are was already sitting quietly in the back seat of the hovercraft.
Two bulging luggage bags were placed in the sidecar.
Lucoco tossed Du Lin and Su Yue into the back seat and then scurried toward Lucia, crashing into her warm, familiar embrace.
She rubbed against her affectionately.
“Mother… hehe!”
“Good girl.”
Lucia’s eyes were slightly red.
She took a deep breath, trying her best to suppress the trembling in her voice.
She slowly knelt down and planted a deep, warm kiss on her daughter’s smooth forehead.
“Have fun out there.”
“Yes!”
Lucoco suddenly pulled away from Lucia’s embrace.
With a bright smile, she turned to Sebas.
“Uncle Sebas!”
“Alright, go out and have fun! If anything happens, just call for me!”
Sebas reached out with his large hand and gently rubbed her head.
“…I’m going!”
As if trying to escape something heavy, Lucoco nimbly jumped into the driver’s seat of the hovercraft.
The engine roared, the airflow kicking up scattered dried grass and fallen leaves.
The hovercraft sped out of the Manor like an arrow.
“Lucoco! Take care!”
Lucia cupped her hands around her mouth like a megaphone and waved her arms, shouting with all her might.
The tears she had been suppressing finally began to fall.
The fence gate had opened at some point, and a familiar figure leaned against it.
Luti had the piece of foxtail grass that Lucoco had played with in her mouth.
Her fish-like eyes stared deeply in the direction where the dust was flying away, just as she had done years ago when she saw the mother and daughter off.
She remained still for a long time.
From across the hill, Yinuo’s crying seemed to grow even louder.
In the sky, several clear and long cries rang out.
The Starfire Falcon spread its wings, chasing the dust that led to an unknown journey.
In the Manor, everything suddenly felt very quiet.