Abyssal Chronicles

Chapter 600 - 601: Growing Unease

"A birthday party?"

Hearing Yumo’s words, Yuan’er brightened up instantly, her little face beaming with excitement.

"Yes! Yes! Yuan’er loves lively events!!"

"Good"

Seeing her daughter so thrilled, Yumo smiled warmly:

"If Yuan’er likes it, that’s great then. I will organize a grand party for you in the Winter Forest."

"Will grandpa and grandma come?"

"Of course, they will. Don’t worry about them. I’ll make sure they can come to the eastern part of the forest safely. The Abyssal Demons nearby will be very well-behaved."

Sensing the concern in Yuan’er’s eyes, Yumo reassured her with a smile.

Assured by Yumo’s promise, Yuan’er became even more elated and cuddled up in her mother’s embrace:

"Hehe~, thank you, Mommy~"

"Sure."

Gently patting Yuan’er’s back, Yumo looked thoughtful for a moment:

"Not just Yuan’er’s grandparents, but also your brothers and sisters, and... the people from the Black Rose family, including Grandpa Sebastian."

"The Black Rose family?"

"Yes."

Yumo nodded:

"You’re curious about the people from the Black Rose, right? This birthday gathering will be a good opportunity for you to meet them."

"Really? Thank you, Mommy~!"

"Alright, you stay in the bath. I’ll go and send the message to your brothers and sisters, and the people from Black Rose family."

"Okay~!"

Yuan’er nodded eagerly.

But as she nodded, something seemed to occur to her, and she hesitantly spoke up:

"Mommy... for this gathering, um, can we invite Sister Youlan too? She was so nice to me at the Red Moon Tower, and I want... I want to return the favor..."

Yumo: "..."

Hearing this, Yumo hesitated for a moment.

Then, breaking from her usual caution, she didn’t warn Yuan’er to keep her distance from Youlan. Instead, she smiled reassuringly and said with a soothing tone:

"Don’t worry, little sweetie. I’ll invite Youlan... After all, she is my eldest daughter. How could she not be there for her little sister’s birthday?"

"Really?! Thank you, Mommy!! I knew Mommy is the best~!"

Looking at the little girl snuggling and wriggling in her arms like a dumpling, Yumo affectionately pinched her soft and tender cheek.

"You’re such a handful, you know that?"

...

After helping her daughter clean up and engaging in some intimate mother-daughter interaction, Yumo slowly got up, leaving Yuan’er alone to play merrily in the pool, and walked towards the mirror. She picked up a towel hanging nearby and began to gently dry her body.

However,

Unlike her interaction with Yuan’er, the moment she turned away from the pool, the affectionate and gentle expression on Yumo’s face gradually faded, replaced by a chillingly expressionless expression. Her furrowed brows and focused eyes revealed the heavy thoughts weighing on her mind.

Comforted by Yuan’er, Yumo had managed to pull herself out of her low spirits. At the same time, she made a significant decision in her heart.

"Let’s have a proper birthday party~"

This decision wasn’t just about making Yuan’er happy...

It was also an opportunity,

After a long time, to gather all her children together.

As a ’naive’ and even ’foolish’ mother, it was time to have a thorough discussion with the children of the Black Rose family.

Each and every one of them.

Thinking this, Yumo’s expression grew darker, and a dangerous aura began to leak from her crimson eyes.

Of course,

Yumo wouldn’t actually punish the ’bad children’ who upset her, as Yuan’er suggested. There might be misunderstandings involved, after all.

She was a parent who believed in reason.

She needed to hear her children’s explanations first.

What exactly did these ’bad children’ want to do? What was the ’plan’ that Sebastian and Xizhi mentioned? Why keep it hidden from her? And for how long had they been deceiving her?...

To communicate better with her children at the party, she needed to investigate thoroughly before confronting them.

Initially, Yumo thought about confronting Sebastian and Xizhi directly, demanding an explanation.

But she quickly dismissed this idea, realizing it might not be the best approach to uncover the truth.

Indeed, Yumo realized that confronting Sebastian directly, as she had initially thought, might not yield the truth. From the story ’The Mask of Family’ she recalled, where the protagonist, Momo, was deceived by her trusted nanny, she understood the complexity of confronting someone entrenched in deceit. Even when Momo used her authority to extract a confession, the nanny took all the blame, leaving the real depth of the deception uncovered.

Yumo suspected that if she directly confronted Sebastian, he might use endless excuses to deceive her again, hiding his true intentions, and protect other conspirators. She didn’t believe Sebastian and the others would confess honestly, even under duress.

Therefore, she decided it was better to play along with their plans for now, to avoid alarming them prematurely. She would use her bloody butterflies to conduct a thorough investigation in secret.

’Gather enough evidence...’

’And then, facing them all at once!’

Additionally,

Yumo wanted to investigate another matter that concerned her.

That was,

"Who else is involved in this?"

Standing by the window in her black dress, Yumo gazed thoughtfully into the distance, pondering aloud.

Sebastian’s recent actions had set off alarm bells for her.

Apart from Sebastian, Xiao, and Xizhi, who else might be deceiving her in the same way? This ’someone else’ naturally referred to those children who shared her bloodline.

’Kalina,’

’Liyu,’

’Shuoyue,’

’Limo... ?’

"…."

"Hmm, that’s unlikely. I shouldn’t be deceived by her..."

As for Pierre, he seemed too brazen in his misdeeds to be considered deceptive.

Considering the frequent interactions these children had with Sebastian, Yumo couldn’t help but feel a strong sense of doubt. The thought that her own children, connected to her by blood, might also be deceiving her, made her clutch her chest, where a dull ache had begun to form.

"Hopefully, I’m just overthinking it."

"However, speaking of my children..."

Yumo glanced at Yuan’er, who was happily splashing in the pool behind her, and her eyes narrowed slightly. Her daughter was still fondly thinking of her ’Sister Youlan.’ Since she had promised to invite her brothers and sisters to Yuan’er’s birthday party, as a mother, she couldn’t go back on her word.

’Moreover, there were many things I needed to discuss with Youlan’

Having made this decision, Yumo slowly opened the window. As the cool night breeze flowed in, several bloody butterflies fluttered into the bathroom, dancing around her. They relayed the information they had gathered back to Yumo.

Receiving this information, Yumo’s brows furrowed, and her crimson eyes filled with confusion.

"Hmm? No trace of Youlan? How is that possible..."

’Wasn’t Youlan repelled by the church?’

’Why were there no traces of her near Anvika?’

Yumo had hoped to follow the remnants of Youlan’s Shadow energy left from her defeat to locate her and personally bring her back.

But why, apart from being the site of the battle at the Church, could she not detect any trace of Youlan’s presence? How did Youlan enter the church, and how did she leave after being defeated, remained an unsolved mystery.

"Something feels off" Yumo murmured uneasily.

Recalling the message from Kalina about the rapid depletion of everyone’s vitality at Red Moon Tower, a worry began to spread within her. Despite acknowledging Youlan’s strength, Yumo had always believed that even if defeated, Youlan would manage to escape unharmed.

But the current signs indicated that her judgment might have been wrong.

"Could it be that something had actually happened to Youlan?"

...

’Well…’

’The Church… is not too far away.’

"I might as well go there myself to check"