Moreover, how could Finney, who had been raised by her adoptive mother, the Great Sage, as a standard model of a Female Hero on this timeline, ever tolerate betrayal?
The force of that push following her angry, laughing retort was so great that with a thud, Valo’s already frail body hit the podium, nearly knocking the wind out of her.
“Cough…”
A dizzy Valo almost spat out a mouthful of blood—her stats were still too low.
But the girl who just looked like she wanted to press a hole through her on the podium suddenly stopped, her hands trembling as she ceased her movements.
Biting her lip and wearing a look of reluctance, she let Valo down.
Her lips moved, and seeing that Valo could not even straighten her aching waist, she sighed in frustration.
With a dark expression, she picked her up by the waist and glanced to the side.
“I used a bit too much strength just now. Are you okay, Mother?”
“Ugh, don’t misunderstand. I’m just being cautious to avoid a slip of the tongue later by changing how I address you now.”
‘Fine, fine, Finney, whatever you say.’
How could the current Valo dare to talk back to her Hero daughter? When Finney got angry, grabbing her was as easy as picking up a doll.
Then, Finney kept holding her and walked over to sit on a bench in the Chapel.
Valo could only sit on Finney’s lap, held in the girl’s arms.
She sat up straight, not daring to move—after all, some daughters did not hug their mothers to provide warmth, but because they could twist their mother’s head off at any moment.
The only thing that allowed her to breathe a slight sigh of relief was that Finney’s tone was a bit softer than before.
“Now that it’s just the two of us, answer me, Mother. Why were you eyeing the Holy Relic?”
There was a hint of disappointment in the girl’s voice. “This isn’t what we agreed upon! Weren’t you supposed to just help Kaika adapt to the life of an ordinary person?”
As she grew more emotional, the girl’s hands tightened around Valo’s waist until she could barely breathe.
The back of Valo’s head was pressed against the girl’s chest, where she could feel the clear, intense rising and falling of a beating heart!
This stage had finally arrived—the one where the Female Hero’s [Justice Value] became unstable because the protagonist took a Holy Relic.
In that case, she had to do her best to be a good mother and raise her [Favorability]!
“I didn’t take it… Do you believe me if I say that, Finney?”
Taking a deep breath, Valo tried her best to look calm.
Even though she was actually scared to death, fearing that Finney would turn into a bottle opener in the next second, she absolutely could not show it—how could a good mother who loved her daughter be afraid of her own child?
“It was Kaika who wanted to take the Holy Relic on a whim. I only rushed to save her after discovering her reckless behavior. Just as we encountered Sister Superior Kenes, Ascara responded to me, and I had no other choice at the time.”
Natural, smooth, and just like the truth.
‘Bah, what “as if”? It clearly is true!’
She was not lying in the first place.
Finney thought she had stolen the Holy Relic for the resurgence of the Demon Clan, acting like a good mother one moment and revealing the fangs of a Villainous Demon King the next.
But she had clearly only sought the Holy Relic to cut off her identity as a mother and avoid a Bad Ending.
That night, Kaika really did act on her own, and she had just gone to clean up the mess for her unfilial daughter.
As for the Holy Relic? To round it off… it was like: ‘Who put this Holy Relic in my fridge? I didn’t dare take even a single cent’s worth of it.’
“Don’t give me that.”
Unfortunately, the next second, the Hero lady coldly interrupted Valo’s explanation.
Having lived in the same room for so long, the current Finney was not easy to fool at all.
“No matter how Kaika acts, isn’t it all for you in the end, Mother? Hmph… Mother, you aren’t trying to say: ‘It wasn’t me, it was the blade,’ are you?”
Valo could only give a meaningful look. ‘Daughter, you don’t understand.’
Even she did not understand what was going on in her younger sister’s dark, blackened, mother-hating, buff-loaded brain.
Explain?
Of course she could.
But after a little thought, Valo directly gave up on that option. When there was a disagreement, would a mother argue with her daughter?
A good mother would only endure in silence.
She was a veteran who was the first to achieve the True Ending for Finney in Valo Lant! No one understood how to act like a good mother in front of Finney better than her.
“If you won’t believe me no matter what, Finney, then I’ll just admit it.”
Valo put on a disappointed look and sighed bitterly. “But you can believe this: I truly only have this Holy Relic because it recognized me. I don’t have any ulterior motives.”
Valo was not sure if Finney believed those words, but the effect was already there.
When she looked again, the girl’s full [Blackening Value] on the [Nurturing Panel] had fluctuated to 95%.
It came quickly and left just as fast. The Hero lady’s current emotions were like a girl’s “vampire days” every month.
“Hmph… T-Today will end here!”
Probably because she could not find an excuse to refute her after thinking for a while, the girl used the most aggressive attitude…
To do the softest thing: she picked her up, set her aside, and then stood up to face her directly.
“Anqi already completely considers you my mother and doesn’t want to strictly audit your right to use the Holy Relic at all.”
“But don’t think that I, who knows the truth, will be as naive as Anqi! I won’t go easy on you!”
The girl pointed a finger coldly. “If I discover that you have other plans for the Holy Relic, then… hmph, don’t blame me for not recognizing you as my mother!”
‘Heh? Good daughter, you have to keep your word~ If you don’t want to be a daughter, I don’t want to be your mother either~’
Too bad she could only think such honest thoughts in her head.
Valo’s face squeezed out a doting smile, and she nodded gently. “Fine, fine. Then Mother will behave well and won’t make things difficult for you, Finney.”
The Female Hero wanted to find a flaw in her being a mother?
‘Oh, my foolish daughter…’
“Tsk…”
The Hero lady in front of her clenched her fists, but in the end, she swung her hand down hard, left Valo on her own, and fled the Chapel as if escaping.
Valo blinked as she watched her. ‘Was this first hurdle cleared safely?’
A prompt for the Holy Relic Ascara appeared on the [Nurturing Panel] in her field of vision.
[Ascara is dissatisfied with your unconditional doting: When a daughter reaches her rebellious phase, you should whip her with a leather belt! If you can’t talk her out of it, can’t you beat her out of it?]
‘Shut up, you don’t know anything. That’s a typical logical fallacy!’
‘Do you want to die!?’
—
Meanwhile, on the other side.
Finney walked quickly through the corridors of the Clock Tower.
Her fully armed posture, her cold and serious gaze, and her wordless attitude… all of it made the Clock Tower students passing by step aside when they saw the Hero looking like she was facing a great enemy.
They thought something major had happened in the Clock Tower again.
But in reality, Finney just wanted to find a quiet place to be alone and clear her head.
Her seemingly tough departure was more about hiding her inner confusion.
Now, Finney had begun to doubt herself: Was her attitude toward her mother just now too… harsh?
After all, unlike her high-ranking adoptive mother’s arbitrary behavior, her mother had not done anything out of line since coming to the Empire.
Furthermore, she had been giving her—a “fake daughter” in an act—care and warmth that were no different from a real mother’s.
Now, simply because her mother possessed a Holy Relic, she was doubting whether her mother would cause a resurgence of the Demon Clan from the perspective of a Hero…
Was that too heartless of her?
The next moment, Finney immediately slapped her cheeks with both hands to wake herself up.
‘No, no, I’m the Hero! And no matter how much Valo Lant acts like a mother to me, her identity is undoubtedly that of the surviving Demon King!’
‘Now that the Demon King has obtained a Holy Relic, I actually don’t want to doubt her just because “Mother is good to me”?!’
“What kind of nonsense am I thinking…”
The girl bit her lip in conflict, yet she had to choose to return to the Chapel immediately—during this period of auditing her mother’s eligibility to hold the Holy Relic, she had to judge her mother’s intentions even more carefully!
If it really did not work, she would have to use “that method.”