In short, this was terrible news.
It shifted its gaze toward the target indicated by the Contract and met Ye Buyu's eyes.
Both fell silent at once.
An unfamiliar sense of familiarity spread through their limbs and bones.
It was like having a relative visit: the right form of address was on the tip of your tongue, yet all you could do was smile awkwardly like an idiot, utterly helpless in the situation.
Perhaps the name Ku Rong had stunned her senseless, but Ye Buyu's brain short-circuited, and she blurted out,
"Call me Mom."
Little Whale cried out as though someone had grabbed their throat. "What?!"
"Is that... your relationship?" Ku Rong was stunned.
[Seedling Eater] roared, "You're not my mom!"
The roar, brimming with pent-up frustration, made them the center of attention again.
"What mom?"
"Where's Mom?"
"Whose mom?!"
Ye Buyu covered her face in anguish. This damned mouth of hers was going to get someone killed!
[Seedling Eater] was already so angry it had lost all reason. "Even if you're my Contractor, you can't force me to call you Mom!"
Ye Buyu lost it too, pointing at its nose and roaring, "You freaking said it yourself! Before I let you out, you were saying you'd call whoever saved you Mom!"
"I was... I was talking in my sleep!"
"But did you say it or not?!"
The human and the Calamity faced off, each line revealing more than the last.
[Seedling Eater] had completely abandoned its dignity as a Calamity. More accurately, it had never had any.
It stamped its feet in fury. "Sleep talk doesn't count! Can a human like you give birth to a Calamity?!"
Ye Buyu stopped caring too. Things had already reached this point, and however she looked at it, it was an unresolvable mess.