Lan Ze glanced sideways back at her. "I just see her as a mother."
Sajyou Manaka: ->.- <-.-: Lan Ze
"And you hold no romantic feelings for her whatsoever?" Sajyou Manaka continued to ask.
"Well... of course not." Lan Ze nodded.
"She's the Creation Mother Goddess, you know. How could I ever dare to desecrate the Mother of Origins, seriously..."
Lan Ze gave two dry laughs, though under Sajyou Manaka's piercing gaze that seemed to see right through everything, he felt a bit guilty for no reason.
He began to wonder if this child possessed some kind of mind-reading ability.
Yet even so, Lan Ze calmly met Sajyou Manaka's gaze.
There was no room for negotiation on this matter, and he could not back down here either; he certainly couldn't just let Mother of All sleep on the streets tonight, could he?
Lan Ze could even imagine that if Mother of All left here tonight to sleep on the streets, the entire city would probably hear her mournful "Aaa" song of sorrow that very night, lamenting with that song how her own child had driven her out of the house.
Neither side yielded in their stare, and after gazing at each other for a moment, Sajyou Manaka looked at Lan Ze's unwavering eyes, ultimately letting out a heavy and helpless sigh:
"It's fine if you really want her to live here, but I have two demands."
Lan Ze was startled, thinking to himself when Aika had ever become so easy to negotiate with.
He had already prepared himself for a war of attrition, so he hadn't expected her to agree so quickly.
"...What demands are you talking about?" Lan Ze asked tentatively.
"First, you and she must sleep separately. You cannot sleep together." Sajyou Manaka stared into Lan Ze's eyes.
"That's no problem." Lan Ze nodded.
This demand wasn't excessive; rather, one could say it was very reasonable.
It was just that Tiamat might not necessarily agree... but as long as he discussed it with her in a moment, he believed the gentle Mother of All would agree.
"Second..." Sajyou Manaka stared at Lan Ze, and after a long silence, she spoke:
"I want to live here too--"
"No." Lan Ze immediately vetoed.
"Instant answer?" Sajyou Manaka pursed her lips. "Why can she, but I can't? And I'm the landlord, you know?"
If she really were to move in, it wouldn't be very convenient to find Mother of All for mana replenishment in the future... Lan Ze muttered inwardly, explaining, "You're still underage, and people will gossip if you live with me."
Sajyou Manaka stared into Lan Ze's eyes for a long time before finally saying faintly, "Then the second demand will just be added on later."
"Does that mean whatever demand you make later, I'll have to agree...?"
"Don't worry, the demands I make won't cause you to die, nor will they make you chase her away." Sajyou Manaka said faintly, "Is even this no good?"
"That's fine then." Lan Ze ultimately nodded in agreement.
The big loli was clearly in a very bad mood right now, so it was better to go along with her for the moment; maybe she would forget about it later... kids were all like that.
"Also, I'm in a very bad mood right now, so please figure out your own three meals for this week."
Sajyou Manaka didn't actually want to compromise, but there wasn't much she could do right now.
After all, Tiamat had already come knocking on the door, and it was impossible to make her leave... Although she was the Princess of the Root, she had no confidence whatsoever when it came to truly dealing with a complete beast.
Besides, Lan Ze was watching from the side, and actually doing something like that would be a huge hit to her score.
And most importantly, not long ago she had said something to Lan Ze like "if your mother can come knocking, I'll let her stay"... so right now, this was probably just her getting what she deserved.
"I have to figure out three meals a day by myself?" Lan Ze was stunned for a moment.
"That's right," Sajyou Manaka nodded. "Also, although I won't help you cook, I'll still come over to inspect every day."
"If I see you and Tiamat sleeping together, I'll..." She paused.
"You'll...?" Lan Ze picked up the thread.
Sajyou Manaka smiled: "I'll just destroy the world. I don't want to live anyway, so I'll just drag the world down with me."
"Don't just casually destroy the world. Have you ever considered the world's feelings? Its heart is very tired." Lan Ze complained helplessly.
Sajyou Manaka raised her finger, and all the cooked dishes on the table floated up into midair.
With a wave of her finger, the dining plates came to life and left the house along with Sajyou Manaka.
Sajyou Manaka's daily breakfasts had always been terribly made; sometimes the dining table would be piled with all sorts of burnt bread, and Lan Ze would occasionally think of helping clean up the plates, only to find in the blink of an eye that Sajyou Manaka had already cleaned the table spotless.
Back then, Lan Ze had still wondered why this child cleaned up so quickly.
Only now did he finally realize... it turned out that this girl had been controlling the plates with magic.
The restaurant that had just been lively suddenly seemed to grow desolate. Tiamat looked at the previously fragrant dishes on the table, which had now all vanished from her field of vision, and her gaze inevitably carried a trace of sorrow.
Those dishes smelled very good, and she had originally wanted to try how they tasted.
"What should we do? We'll have to solve our food problem by ourselves for the next week." Lan Ze sighed as he looked at the empty dining table.
This scene was a bit like him arguing with his wife, after which the wife angrily returned to her maiden home, leaving the father with no choice but to raise his daughter alone...
Yet the problem was... logically speaking, Tiamat should be playing the role of the "wife", while Sajyou Manaka ought to be the daughter.
"Did I... do something wrong?" Tiamat suddenly asked in a low voice.
Lan Ze silently looked at this woman who seemed to not understand human relationships and worldly affairs. Clearly she looked quite mature, yet at this moment he saw unease and sadness in Tiamat's eyes.
"It has nothing to do with you. Aika is just like that sometimes." Lan Ze gently stroked Tiamat's head.
"After she calms down in a couple of days, she'll come back. I've argued with her like this before too." Lan Ze continued.
Arguing with Sajyou Manaka wasn't a once-or-twice occurrence for him; after all, having known each other for so long, arguing occasionally was quite normal.
Yet thinking about it now, his previous understanding of Sajyou Manaka had truly been quite minimal.
According to Goetia, Sajyou Manaka was a beast connected to the Root... but he had never heard the name "Sajyou Manaka" before, to the extent that when getting along with her, he had always treated her like an ordinary girl.
Well, even now he would subconsciously forget Sajyou Manaka's true identity.
Not just Aika, but Mother of All too... he would always subconsciously forget that the other party was the Creation Mother Goddess.
Though naturally, if he kept remembering it, he might end up feeling reverence toward Tiamat just like everyone else did.
He was going to live together with Mother of All from now on... Thinking of this, Lan Ze secretly rejoiced in his heart that he was a man of culture, while looking at the Tiamat beside him with a bit of small excitement.
The woman was currently staring at the empty table, seemingly in a daze, her gaze revealing worry.
Noticing Lan Ze's gaze, she turned her head and asked, "Are you hungry?"
"I'm definitely a bit hungry, considering I barely ate a few mouthfuls of food." Lan Ze smiled, and looking at Tiamat's worried little expression, he comforted her: "But it doesn't matter, we'll go out to eat today at noon."
"Consider it as celebrating your first time coming to this world."
Hearing this, Tiamat's gloomy mood seemed to be swept away instantly. She suddenly raised her head, and her eyes lit up at once:
"A date?"
Lan Ze nodded slightly: "A date."
"Today I'll take you to experience a modern date."
"However, you need to change this outfit." He glanced at the student uniform Tiamat was wearing and silently added.
Tiamat was still wearing the student uniform he had given her previously. To be honest, there was no problem wearing a student uniform out on the street...
But Mother of All's figure was far too sexy; the buttons on the front of the student uniform looked as though they could burst open at any moment... Walking down the street like that, the head-turn rate would probably be a hundred percent.
Mentioning this matter, Lan Ze suddenly recalled something: could the Illusion Manifestation used in the game previously be utilized now?
He remembered that after learning Rune Magic in the dreamscape, he could use it in reality just as well.
Then what about Illusion Manifestation from the game?
Thinking of this, Lan Ze couldn't sit still anymore.
He got up and came to the living room, digging out the fashion magazine that Sajyou Manaka had brought over a while ago. While imagining clothes suitable for Mother of All in his mind, he flipped through the magazine.
Finally, Lan Ze's gaze locked onto a goose-yellow dress in the magazine.
"Aaa?" Tiamat walked up behind him, supporting her knees with both hands as she looked at Lan Ze.
She was still gripping a handheld gaming console in her hand, which she had just seen on the sofa. It seemed to be much the same concept as the "laptop" she had used previously, both being modern products.
"Wait a moment, it'll be ready right away." Lan Ze hadn't noticed the handheld console in Tiamat's hands. After saying this with a smile, he closed his eyes.
He tried to conjure the appearance of the dress in his mind. At the same time, Tiamat glanced at Lan Ze, silently walked over to the sofa on the side, tilted her head, and fiddled with the handheld console in her hand, her eyes full of curiosity.
Yet at this moment, a faint halo vaguely radiated from the palm of Lan Ze's hand. The instant he tried to construct the dress in his mind, he felt the mana within his body quietly circulating.
However, almost the very next second after the mana circulated, a wave of weakness suddenly surged from his body.
This intense sense of discomfort even made Lan Ze feel like vomiting, and he hurriedly stopped his ongoing mental visualization.
"What's going on...?" Lan Ze lowered his head to look at his own hands, his eyes filled with shock.
He could now be certain that he possessed the ability of "Illusion Manifestation" in the real world too, yet for some reason, he was unable to use it.
No, it wasn't that he couldn't use it, but rather that his current mana depletion was too severe to support him in using Illusion Manifestation.
Gazing at Mother of All, who was sitting on the sofa hugging her knees and playing the handheld console, Lan Ze's eyes widened slightly as he suddenly recalled something.
Speaking of which, the system had previously issued a quest to "kill Tiamat," and also stated that abandoning the quest would result in severe penalties, among which was the penalty of resetting mana to zero in the real world... Could it be related to this?
Thinking of this, Lan Ze raised his finger and traced a rune in midair, only for a tiny flame that had just sparked on his finger to immediately extinguish.
Sure enough... his mana really had vanished due to the system's penalty back then.
"So it really is related to the system's penalty..."
Though having his mana reset to zero didn't matter much; as long as he gave it some time, it would slowly recover... with Tiamat around, it wouldn't even take half an hour to recover.
He just needed to find her to replenish his mana a bit more.
Thinking of this, Lan Ze's gaze lingered on Tiamat's massive bosom for a long while.
Right... the system had reminded him earlier that besides mana being reset to zero, luck would also become E. Would this penalty affect reality as well?
Lan Ze suddenly remembered this matter, and his heart instantly grew alert.
Forget it, paying a little attention should be fine, right... After all, he had already promised Mother of All to go on a date, so there was no way he could go back on his word, could he?
Besides, it wasn't like he was going to stay indoors for an entire year, was he?
With that thought, Lan Ze temporarily put his worries aside and shouted to Tiamat:
"Let's go."
But the woman seemed immersed in the handheld game and didn't hear Lan Ze's words.
With no other choice, Lan Ze had to walk forward and pull the handheld game out of Tiamat's hands.
The woman immediately raised her head and looked at him pleadingly.
Lan Ze could only explain: "We're going on a date, this has to stay at home."
Tiamat still stared reluctantly at the handheld console.
"I'll let you play with it after we get back." Lan Ze continued.
Seeing Tiamat's expression finally ease up, Lan Ze felt rather helpless.
It looked like he would have to be careful in the future; he mustn't end up turning Mother of All into a gamer shut-in...
Lan Ze made up his mind to keep a closer eye on Tiamat from now on.
After all, for the current Tiamat, modern things were all very novel, and if she wasn't careful, she might easily become addicted to them.
"Do you need to replenish mana?" Tiamat suddenly asked. A pair of crystal-clear red astral pupils landed on Lan Ze, the irises reflecting the youth's figure.
As the Creation Mother Goddess, she could naturally clearly sense the intense weakness emanating from Lan Ze's body, and previously, whenever he was this weak, he would generally look for her to replenish mana.
Every time after replenishing mana, Lan Ze would be full of vigor not just in mana, but even in spirit.
Tiamat didn't understand the reason, but she felt that just doing this would restore her child's energy.
Lan Ze shook his head with a smile: "No need, let's head out first. I'll take you to buy a few outfits first."
Before you continue