The room rumbled under the various orders. Many tools and items materialized and arranged in the way Xue Mo willed and imagined.
The previously empty room quickly filled up. The alchemy cauldron appeared in the far west corner of the room. The potion beaker emerged on the north side while a giant forge took the space from the south to the east; it was that large!
Once the bed appeared in the middle of the chamber, the entire room started shining. Many runes on the walls and the ground activated, and the surrounding Mana and Qi increased in quantity and density.
Watching the scene, Xue Mo concentrated on the density of energies and nodded his head with a smile. 'This is very satisfactory,' he felt around him, estimating, 'it is about 300 times better than the Assassination Academy.'
"Alright," Xue Mo said while cracking his fingers, "let's start!"
"Start what?"
"I will refine some pills and forge some weapons!" Xue Mo excitedly replied, fixing his gaze on the colossal smithy.
"Hmm, then should I practice making potions?" Lu Yao asked herself after seeing Xue Mo find something to do.
"Why don't you try it?" Xue Mo suggested, "you might have a talent for it. You don't know!"
Lu Yao raised a brow, figuring the reason he summoned the tool, "Was that your plan from the beginning?"
"Yes," he replied with a radiant smile.
"Alright," she nodded before smiling slyly," but..."
"But?"
"First, let's continue the conversation that Purple Geezer ruined," she said with utmost seriousness and jumped on the bed.
Gesturing for Xue Mo to sit, Lu Yao delved inside her mind and started, "what do you want to know about me?" She asked.
"Everything," he gazed at her with warm and severe eyes and held her small paws.
She took a deep breath and began, "am I a magical beast or an abomination? A living creature, or a curse?"
"I asked these questions all my life. The answer," she felt a door, long shut, open in her, "I am all of those!"
"The daughter of a Nephilim and a Dranix[1] I always wondered why I felt different from everyone else," she sounded melancholic. "I never knew my father, and I only knew my sick mother! Yet, I always tried to be cheerful and live a happy life in our small house."
"As I grew up in a love-filled environment, I didn't know that I wasn't normal. My mother was always sick and coughing, but her beautiful appearance illuminated her. When she smiled at me, I felt at ease." She reminiscent as her heart opened with the emotions that got suppressed for so long, "she always talked to me about my father and how great a man he was, 'your father is the strongest man, his power and love for us made him suffer,' she always told me."
Xue Mo squeezed her hand to reassure her when she stopped. Lu Yao forcefully smiled at him, "if it's hard, you don't have to continue," he told her lovingly with a tone only she ever knew.
She shook her head, and her ears cutely moved in response, "if I don't tell you, I won't tell anyone! You are my one and only Partner, someone I hold dear."
She took another deep breath, "at the time, I didn't know what she meant or how horrifying the outside world was," she commented, her toned filled with hate and disgust.
"When I was eight, my mother called me to her room. It wasn't unusual, so I went there with a smile, but I knew something was wrong when I saw her. Her breathing was ragged, and she was suffering, yet even in that state, she looked at me tenderly and said with a tone she hadn't used before, 'Yao, I am dying.'"
"When I heard her words, I felt my whole world crumbling, tears filled my face, and I shook my head, 'No, no, no,' I denied. My mother held me close as I fought helplessly in her arms; she comforted me, 'it will be ok, Yao. Mother is happy as long as you live!' Her words made me cry and struggle even more, but there was nothing I could do."
Lu Yao's whole body trembled as she remembered that scene, her eyes streaked with tears down her furry face, which made Xue Mo hug her close to his chest. They stayed in that position until Lu Yao calmed down somewhat and resumed her story.
"After I stopped struggling, my mother held me and made me face her, 'Yao, your father is alive. He is out there feeling as helpless as you do now. He feels the same sorrow of not seeing us while being used as a slave and a blood bank. The reason your father isn't here isn't a choice he made but one forced upon him by the people that betrayed us, ones that we thought of as family!' Her voice crackled in anger as she said that, for the first and last time in my life, I saw my mother like that."
"She told me how my father went to help a friend in another world but got betrayed and confined by shady methods; he was alive as a slave, and because the daughter of the kidnapper took a liking to him and wanted him for herself, he still lived. 'This is too much for an eight-year-old, but you need to know this be-before I leave.' I listened carefully and engraved her words in me as I knew these would be the last ones she would ever utter."
"If only my grandparents knew," Yao clenched her paws, drawing blood. "It seems that these kidnappers are using some methods to divert my grandparent's attention, which is why they hadn't gotten annihilated till now."
"I am a curse, aren't I Mo?" Lu Yao mumbled as her tears dried from how much she cried. "My mother barely survived giving birth to me, and to protect us, my father is suffering."
"Maybe, just maybe, if I didn't exist, this wouldn't have happened," she bowed her head while her eyes seemed to be drifting. It was as if the sadness she repressed under the guise of toughness broke her.
Xue Mo felt something go wrong as Lu Yao stopped moving. Although her body was fine, her mind appeared to be a mess. He never dealt with emotions like these before, so he didn't know what happened or what to do.
With no idea what to do, Xue Mo panicked as anxiety and fear gripped his heart, and for the first time, he knew what it meant to lose someone precious. He didn't want to feel that! With no other option, Xue Mo transmitted his emotions and thoughts into her soul. And thankfully, he felt her consciousness move. She hadn't succumbed to Arch Deviation.
'ao, Yao! LU YAO!' Xue Mo shook her aggressively. His face tightened, and his lips seemed to have lost more color than his skin.
Seeing Xue Mo's dreary and distressed face, something awoke within Lu Yao, and she awoke from her state. Her instincts told her that if she continued sinking into that state, she wouldn't have woken up, and Xue Mo would have lost his mind. Unconsciously Lu Yao caressed Xue Mo with her paws, wearing a sad smile, 'it's alright. I am not here,' she transmitted.
"Don't leave me," Xue Mo gazed at Lu Yao and held her paw. He squeezed it, and for the first time in his life, he begged.
"Please don't leave me, Yao!" He hugged her as she did the same. Silence enveloped the duo, and as if one of the walls holding them back crumbled, they felt closer.
"I won't," Lu Yao separated from Xue Mo and stared at his distressed face. He appeared calmer, but his eyes betrayed his face. "I will never ever leave you, Mo!"
Just like that, hours passed in that position, neither of them moving. They finally looked like a couple.
Note: [1] Dranix is dragon and phoenix offspring. I made it, so no need to search for the meaning.