“Wait, in that case, tell me about my mom first.”
Hearing this, Motes blinked, her gaze shifting slightly for a moment.
Even without intentionally observing her, Su Mu could still sense a trace of extremely hidden distress emanating from her.
This kind of distress didn’t seem like someone facing a difficult choice; rather, it felt more like… she was hesitating over how to answer the question, ‘Mom, where do babies come from?’
Su Mu wasn’t a naive, easily fooled child; she would be able to tell if someone was lying.
However, if Motes spoke the truth about her opinion of Su Ya… that would be quite an embarrassing matter.
“Let’s put it this way. Rather than a senior, I’d prefer to call her a teacher. While other Magical Girls had to face Strange Persons and Witches on the front lines for long periods, only Senior Su Ya could spare the time to teach us.”
“And then?” Su Mu stared with a pair of azure, almond-shaped eyes.
The curiosity within them made Motes involuntarily nervous.
Even in the Dream World, she couldn’t help but blush.
The language barrier that was supposed to be suppressed began to flare up again.
“T-There is no ‘and then.’ Anyway, Senior Su Ya taught us a lot…”
Su Ya’s education wasn’t nearly as gentle as she appeared on the surface.
She had meted out equivalent punishment for many of Tang Nai’s provocative remarks and behaviors.
However, the latter was the type to accept criticism with humility but never actually change.
Over time, Su Ya’s daily routine included the extra task of handling a problem child.
The Motes of the past, though not quite on Tang Nai’s level, was still considered a troublesome child.
Just how troublesome?
Take a look at the record.
Clip One: The student Motes, who was exceptionally concerned about how rabbits reproduce.
During a casual chat, the then 15-year-old Tang Nai, who stood at 4 feet 7 inches tall (now 4 feet 11 inches), was watching a Magical Girl anime.
She sighed to herself with a deliberately profound air, “Rabbits are so lucky. They don’t have to worry about as many things as humans do. They just spend their whole lives focused on breeding and enjoying simple pleasures. I’m so jealous~”
Although it was unclear what kind of Magical Girl anime would prompt such a remark, the 12-year-old Motes — who stood 4 feet 11 inches tall and had been focusing on her book behind her — took it to heart.
Over the next 2 days, she repeatedly visited the library to look up related books, eventually choosing the Flower and Bird Market as her destination.
In the following days, Motes hid one male and one female rabbit in her bedroom.
Every day, she found ways to bring carrots back to feed them.
At night, she would secretly shake the Rabbit’s round droppings out the window into the flower beds.
She kept them hidden like this for 1 month.
A few days after the baby rabbits were born, the secret was completely exposed.
As soon as Su Ya opened the door, she saw the white-haired girl nervously stuffing certain “mice” into a drawer.
However, the Rabbits started running all over the room and the white fur drifting everywhere had already turned the room into a chaotic mess.
Most importantly, before this, Motes had been intently watching the recently delivered rabbit regain its strength and engage in tireless breeding with its mate.
She had even thoughtfully provided them with food supplies from time to time, failing to notice the door opening.
This was how Su Ya caught her red-handed.
Unlike Tang Nai, Motes was an orphan raised by the Magical Girls, so her room was inside the Coffee Shop.
Most of the time, Su Ya looked after her daily life, including cleaning her room.
At that time, Su Ya had just returned from a Strange Person incident in another city.
She was travel-worn and had intended to rest for a day…
If the discovery had been even slightly later, the Rabbits might have reached a second or even third generation of growth.
If that had happened, Su Ya’s blood pressure would have truly hit the ceiling.
Unsurprisingly, Motes slept on her stomach that night.
Although the situation wasn’t as severe as when Su Ya disciplined Su Mu, it remained a vivid, fresh memory in her heart.
Fortunately, Tang Nai eventually took all the rabbits home on a whim.
As for the rabbit plague that later occurred at Tang Nai’s family estate, that was a story for another time.
Clip Two: Motes’s Art of Speaking.
One day, the habitually mischievous Tang Nai muttered “absently” during lunch, “Oh, so my mom isn’t a virgin.”
Besides Motes, Su Ya was also present.
Hearing Tang Nai’s familiar nonsense, Su Ya could only helplessly add a comment to prevent her from corrupting Motes, who was 3 years younger.
“That’s a matter of course. You’ll understand these things when you grow up.”
Motes let out a belated “Oh” of realization.
Then, she looked at Su Ya with an incredibly serious expression and asked a soul-piercing question: “Then, Teacher Ya, are you a virgin?”
Motes only remembered that after she said those words, Su Ya’s beautiful face turned red at a visible speed.
She immediately avoided the topic.
The final result was that Tang Nai was punished.
It was a happy ending.
Now Motes understood.
It turned out she would also encounter such embarrassing questions, especially when facing her senior’s daughter and her own junior.
If she said that Su Ya used to discipline her frequently and was a very strict teacher, then Su Mu would ask, “Eh? Then what kind of mistake did you make for things to get so serious, Senior Motes?”
At that point, the problem would be even worse.
But if she didn’t say anything, judging by the level of curiosity Su Mu was showing, there was a high possibility she would go and ask Su Ya herself…
Just thinking about it made Motes, who had a 5-year teaching career, too embarrassed to speak.
Even when insulting someone, one shouldn’t expose their private shames.
“Oh~ I get it.” Su Mu seemed to see Motes’s embarrassment.
Being empathetic, she immediately showed an expression of realization exactly like the young Motes had back then.
This sight caused Motes’s pupils to shake so hard she could barely walk.
‘She — she understands?’
“Senior, you actually…”
‘Don’t say it!’
“…were often ignored by my mom, so you don’t have many memories of her, right?”
Hearing this, Motes finally snapped back to her senses.
She coughed twice and nodded, “Uh… yeah.”
She wasn’t sure if it was an illusion, but she seemed to see a hint of teasing on Su Mu’s lovely profile just now.
It was almost like a certain wicked, gray-haired girl.
Motes sighed helplessly.
‘Who would have thought this girl is also a little devil? No, a more fitting description would be a bratty girl. She’s even more exhausting than those students…’
“Hey, Senior Motes, can I kick this statue?”
Motes looked at Su Mu, who had leaned toward the statue of Tang Nai with an eager expression, and couldn’t help but laugh.
“Go ahead and kick it. She won’t know.”
“Then I’ll just kick — “
“Clang!”
A dull sound of metal colliding rang out, sounding like a great bell being struck, accompanied by a girl’s wail.
“Sss, why is it so hard? Didn’t you say we could ignore reality?”
She had just imagined the statue was the real Tang Nai and tried to kick her in the rear.
“You have to convince yourself to believe it first, dummy.” Motes laughed again, while Su Mu continued to hop around holding her foot.
However, there wasn’t much pain on her face; it was more of an exaggerated performance.
Su Mu turned her back, a faint, imperceptible smile touching the corners of her mouth.
‘This Senior Motes was actually quite fun to tease.’