Part of that statement was true, and precisely because it was true, it was more effective than a wholly fabricated show of vulnerability.
Lin Cuo did not move any closer. He merely softened his voice further.
"So when I first met you, I thought that if I'd had someone like you around when I was little, someone who would ask whether it hurt when I got injured, I probably wouldn't have learned so many bad things."
Nina no longer had any idea where to put her hands. She wanted to say she could not look after anyone, that Lin Cuo had mistaken her for someone else, that she was timid and useless and could only hide behind Milly when danger came. But as those words reached her lips, another thought, one she had never had before, blocked them.
Why would someone who had charged into the Hive on a global livestream, who could make India mobilize millions of troops and the emperor of Britannia announce a space race, tell her that what he needed was someone to ask whether it hurt?
"I... I could never be like a mother."
"I'm not asking you to become anyone's mother."
Lin Cuo answered quickly, as though he had already anticipated that she would retreat in this direction.
"I'm just saying that's how you make me feel. A mother's warmth."
Nina's face was now so red that she could not possibly hide it.
"But if you don't like me putting it that way, I won't mention it again. I don't want my feelings to become a burden to you."
This was the most despicable step of all: first placing a role no one had ever offered her before in front of her, then volunteering that she had the right to refuse it.
That made