Lin Xingyao looked at his mother, lying in a pool of blood before him. Had someone discovered who he really was and come after him? Or was this the work of the mysterious person from the E-175 incident a month ago?

Or...

“Mom, get up. Quit messing around.”

The “corpse” didn’t answer. It lay there like a corpse.

“If you keep this up, I’m gonna get mad!”

As soon as Lin Xingyao finished speaking, the “corpse” on the floor sprang right up, pulled the retractable knife from her chest, and shouted at him, “You get home this late and you still have the nerve to get mad at me? Your mom’s starving to death over here!”

The “corpse” before him was none other than Lin Xingyao’s biological mother, Miss Lin Xuanyin, who claimed to be a mere seventeen (thirty-five) years old. She’d given birth to Lin Xingyao at nineteen, then raised him as a single mother. She was also a popular manga artist. Her work had flopped for years, but after Lin Xingyao supplied her with all kinds of ideas from another world, she’d finally started gaining popularity. Her currently running manga, Attack on the Giant of Light, was now selling to rave reviews.

Though she was actually thirty-five, it seemed time had never left a mark on Lin Xuanyin. In Lin Xingyao’s memory, his mom’s beautiful face had never changed. She also loved taking him shopping so she could hear sales clerks say things like, “Oh my, he’s your son? I thought you were siblings! You look so young, ma’am.”

Lin Xuanyin could be a little mischievous, but she was absolutely a wonderful mother. She’d cared for Lin Xingyao every step of the way as he grew up, trying to make up for the fatherly love he’d missed in every way she could. She was always coming up with new ways to make her son happy—in fact, she spoiled him a little too much. If Lin Xingyao hadn’t had the mind of an adult man, who knew what he might’ve turned into under all that affection?

Even so, this mother’s selfless love had given Lin Xingyao—a former orphan in his previous life—a taste of family affection he’d never known before. She was the most important person in his life in this world.

……

“You spent money on one of these silly things again?” Lin Xingyao’s face went dark as he picked up the retractable knife from the floor and clicked it in and out a few times.

“Well? Did I scare you?” Lin Xuanyin watched her eagerly, excited to see how her prank had gone over.

“No!” Lin Xingyao said, though the truth was that he’d been startled when he first came in. After all, he’d already been through one unexpected incident after another today. It felt like anything could happen next.

“Huh? How come? Then next time, I’ll get props that look even more realistic.”

“Please don’t. If I could choose, I’d rather come home to a smiling, gentle mother than a mom pretending to be dead in a pool of blood.”

“You brought this on yourself! It’s eight at night and you’re only just getting home. I called you, but you didn’t answer, so I finally called your homeroom teacher. She said another teacher had asked you to help with something. That’s the only reason I calmed down.”

There was nothing he could do. After the brutal fight today, his phone had gotten smashed at some point. An Wan said the Containment Facility would give him an identical replacement tomorrow, so she’d taken the broken one away. It wasn’t like he had any embarrassing study materials on it anyway.

Come to think of it, it looked like his homeroom teacher had ties to the Containment Facility too. No wonder Su Xueqian’s leave slips had always been approved so easily.

“Have you eaten? Want me to make you something?” Lin Xingyao headed for the kitchen.

Ever since Lin Xingyao first cooked at the age of seven, his mom had been won over by his skill. To be fair, Lin Xuanyin’s cooking had always hovered right around the line between edible and bland. It couldn’t compare to the excellent cooking skills Lin Xingyao had honed over more than twenty years of living alone in his previous life. So Lin Xuanyin had simply given up. What could be better than food her son cooked?

“Of course I’m hungry. I’ve been waiting for you to come home. I only ate an apple to tide me over.”

Sometimes it was hard to tell which of them was the parent and which was the child. Still, this easygoing, fun life made Lin Xingyao feel especially safe.

She went into the kitchen and checked what vegetables were left in the fridge. She planned to make a vegetable salad and shrimp tempura. As she busied herself in the kitchen, Lin Xuanyin quietly crept up behind her.

“Sniff, sniff~” Lin Xuanyin leaned against her back, looking her up and down as she sniffed. “Something’s not right! This smell—it’s a girl’s scent! Lin Xingyao, come clean!”

“I came home with Xiaoxue today! Ask her if you don’t believe me!” Lin Xingyao raised both hands in surrender.

“Nope! Besides Xiaoxue’s scent, there’s another girl’s scent on you! It’s familiar, but somehow unfamiliar...”

“Are you a puppy? How can you smell all that?”

“Heh heh. Back in high school, your mom was known as Lin Xuanyin, the Super High School Sniffer Dog!”

“That’s not something to be proud of!” Lin Xingyao couldn’t help making a comment. Then she said, “Fine, I’ll come clean. On my way home today, I met a woman named An Wan. She said she used to be your friend, so she pulled me aside for a chat.”

Lin Xingyao tested the waters. From the strange look on An Wan’s face when she mentioned his mom, it was clear the two of them had some kind of history.

“That woman? What did she want with you? I remember she used to be really into cute younger boys. You’d better watch out!”

Director An’s embarrassing past: unlocked. But Lin Xingyao was already long past the cute-younger-boy stage—and had even left the category of boys behind...

“Xiao Yao, have you run into anything strange lately? Otherwise, that woman wouldn’t have come looking for you out of the blue.” Lin Xuanyin looked at her son with deep concern in her eyes.

“Um... I’ll tell you after dinner.” Lin Xingyao wanted to wait until his mom had a full stomach before telling her what had happened today. Otherwise, he was afraid she might faint from the shock.

……

After dinner, the mother and “son” sat facing each other on the sofa. Lin Xingyao wore an unusually serious expression.

“Xiao Yao, what on earth happened? Don’t scare your mom!” Seeing how serious her son looked, Lin Xuanyin grew unusually tense too.

“Mom, what I’m about to tell you is terrifying. You have to stay calm!”

“It’s fine. Your mom’s had professional training. Go ahead and tell me.”

“Well...”

“You like boys, don’t you? I knew it! You always looked so strange when you watched those muscular guys on TV. Don’t worry. Whoever you like, your mom will support you!”

“That’s not it!” Lin Xingyao had only been affected by the side effects of E-175 back then! He absolutely wasn’t gay!

“Ahem. Here’s what happened. This afternoon, I ran into a monster on the road. At the last possible moment, I made a Magical Girl pact with a strange creature.”

“......”

“Mom, don’t look at me like I’m some poor, pitiful thing! I’m not spouting chuunibyou nonsense!”

“Seriously!” Lin Xingyao let out a long sigh and dispelled the visual hallucination caused by E-175. A beautiful girl appeared before Lin Xuanyin.

“Now do you believe me? Your child really did go through something strange today.” Then she told her everything, from the E-175 incident to her first arrival at the Containment Facility.

Lin Xingyao looked up at her mom, still wondering how to explain what came next. But Lin Xuanyin didn’t look the least bit shocked. Instead, she gazed at her with a serious, thoughtful expression and said nothing. The mood was so different from usual that Lin Xingyao started to panic.

“M-Mom, what’s wrong? Say something!”

“Sigh... Child, it seems I have no choice but to come clean.” Lin Xuanyin spoke in a grave tone.

“???”

“When you were little, you once asked where your dad had gone. I told you that the heartless man had dumped me. But that wasn’t the truth.”

Lin Xingyao hadn’t expected his mom to suddenly come clean about his biological father. He’d planned not to dwell on it if she didn’t want to talk. The two of them had been doing just fine on their own.

“Then... what really happened?” Lin Xingyao asked cautiously.

“Child, technically speaking... I’m actually your dad!”

“Gasp!!!!”

So his succubus bloodline came from her? Had she been a boy too, just like him? The enormous shock shattered the defenses Lin Xingyao had built around everything he’d believed for over a decade. His gentle mom, his mom who radiated warmth and motherly love, the mom who had patiently told him bedtime stories when he was little—she was actually...!!!

“I’m kidding. Hehe~☆”

“Ptooey!” Heart pills! Fast-acting heart pills! Lin Xingyao’s poor heart couldn’t take another shock like that!

Lin Xingyao considered himself calm and rational, but he always lost it around his mom. Even though he was older than her if you added together his age in both his previous and current lives, he could never win against her at home.

“Mom, if you keep pulling stunts like this, I don’t think your son’s gonna make it to twenty.”

“Sorry, sorry! You looked so nervous, so I thought I’d lighten the mood~”

Lin Xingyao sighed. His mom was wonderful in every way, except that sometimes she acted like a little kid and loved playing pranks. She was always testing how much stress his heart could take.

“So, what really happened?” Talking to his mom was giving Lin Xingyao a terrible headache.

“The truth is, your succubus bloodline came from your dear old dad’s side.” As Lin Xuanyin spoke, she picked up a lollipop from the table. “Want some candy to relax?”

“I thought the succubus race was all female!” Lin Xingyao waved her off. His head was still pounding. At this point, if his mom pulled out a picture of some woman and said she was his dad, he’d probably believe her.

“What are you thinking? Of course your dad was a man! It’s not like I’m into that sort of thing. He was just a hybrid with succubus blood, and not that much of it. The succubus bloodline specifically came from your grandma.”

“Dad” and “Grandma”—those were words Lin Xingyao had never had any real connection to growing up. He’d always said he didn’t care, but having been an orphan in his previous life, he’d secretly longed for family. He desperately wanted to know where his other relatives were.

“So where is my dad now?”

“Boo-hoo-hoo! Didn’t I tell you when you were little? That heartless man abandoned us long ago. He vanished when I was four months pregnant with you.”

Watching his mom’s over-the-top acting, Lin Xingyao knew she was still hiding something. If she didn’t want to tell him, she must have her reasons. He wouldn’t press her. His mom would never hurt him.

“Mom, you mentioned my grandma just now. Does that mean she’s a pureblood succubus?”

“That’s right. And your grandpa was pretty incredible too. He managed to suppress the succubus bloodline and have a son who was a succubus hybrid. That’s extremely rare in the entire history of the succubus race.”

“Then... are Grandpa and Grandma doing well now?” Thinking that he had two relatives he’d never met, Lin Xingyao couldn’t help feeling a little wistful.

“They’re doing great. Didn’t you meet them this year?” Lin Xuanyin said casually.

“Huh??? When did I meet Grandpa and Grandma?”

“Your ‘Sister Lu’ and the others, of course. You just met them two months ago.” Lin Xuanyin said as she sucked on her lollipop.

Growing up, Lin Xingyao hadn’t met many people outside the family. But ever since he was little, two pretty young women had often come over to play. He called them “Sister Lu” and “Sister Ai,” and had always thought they were friends of his mom’s. Wait... one of them was his grandpa???

“That’s right! That’s exactly the surprised look I wanted! Shocked, aren’t you? That ‘Sister Lu’ you mentioned is actually your grandpa! He’s an elf, so of course he’s beautiful. And by elf standards, he’s still young. But the first time you met him as a kid, you ran right up and called him ‘big sister.’ You should’ve seen me and your grandma—we nearly died laughing!” Lin Xuanyin’s face lit up as she recalled the amusing memory.

“Wait, why didn’t you tell me back then?!” Lin Xingyao’s mind was a tangled mess. Could this family ever get it together?

“What would’ve been the point? Should I have told you those two pretty young ladies in front of you were your grandpa and grandma? I was afraid your little heart couldn’t take the shock. Besides, those two old folks didn’t mind, so what are you making a fuss about?”

“...”

So the “Sister Lu” who’d always been so gentle with her, letting her ride on his shoulders and taking her out to play, was her elf grandpa? And the other one, “Sister Ai,” whose awful personality was clearly inherited from Mom, was her succubus grandma?

Forget it. Let it all fall apart already. I’m tired...

“Heh-heh!” Having finished explaining everything, Lin Xuanyin looked over her “daughter” with smug satisfaction. Just look at that nose, those eyes, that pretty face! She was obviously Lin Xuanyin’s kid, and had absolutely nothing to do with that old man!

“There’s one more important thing!” Lin Xuanyin puffed out her chest and stood tall, looking proud.

“Go on.”

At this point, even if someone told Lin Xingyao the world would end tomorrow, her unshakable heart could handle it.

“Your mom here! I’m actually a retired Magical Girl!”

“Oh.”

Lin Xingyao didn’t feel the slightest ripple in her heart.