Chapter 78: A Mother’s Struggle and Hidden Truths

‘Hasn’t Kamen Rider gone a bit too far?’

Ink Crystal gazed at the scene unfolding below. “He’s made Carnelian cry! Is this really appropriate? If someone takes a picture of this and posts it, Kamen Rider’s reputation will be ruined!”

Emerald, too, wore a look of lingering fear. “I never imagined he would…”

‘Teacher Lin, who is usually so gentle, was surprisingly fierce when he punched the Magical Girl.’

“Is this… what it means to be like a beast?”

Hearing Emerald’s unconscious remark, Ink Crystal felt a little overwhelmed. ‘Was what I said about being like a beast… not meant to be taken literally?’

It was normal for a girl her age not to understand such things, after all. Emerald was still a pure-hearted maiden.

Well, not *especially* pure-hearted. Hadn’t she sent Ink Crystal her photos last time? Though nothing was explicitly shown, it suggested she wasn’t entirely innocent.

Speaking of which…

‘Being beaten?’

‘If it were Teacher Lin… perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad…’

At that moment, Kamen Rider’s face beneath the mask seemed to finally break into a smile. Although no one could see it, his joy was palpable.

“Yes, excellent. Just like this, Magical Girl Carnelian.”

“Kamen Rider will protect your wish. I will bring your child back to you, completely unharmed. This is the meaning of my existence.”

He gently placed Carnelian in the corner of Ink Crystal’s wall before striding towards the enormous mimosa.

The mimosa, which had seemed almost invisible, now revealed immense, human-like terror. Countless roots clung to Ink Crystal’s wall, attempting to escape the area.

“Emerald Seal!”

Emerald immediately acted, resembling a manhole cover. A massive, emerald-green disc enveloped the Ink Crystal Coffin.

Then, Ink Crystal and Emerald descended together from the sky.

“The mimosa has nowhere to run.”

“Ink Crystal, Emerald! Protect Carnelian. I am going to enter the internal core of this monstrous fiend. It will rampage during this process, but I trust you.”

Though she didn’t know Lin Han’s exact intentions, Ink Crystal trusted him implicitly. So, if he said it, it must be so.

She landed beside Carnelian, and several Ink Crystal swords and small Ink Crystal walls appeared around her, forming a protective stance.

Seeing her so obedient, Emerald nodded in agreement. “We will protect Carnelian.”

‘Play that ‘Symphony of Life.”

By this point, the mimosa monster seemed to finally realize that escape was no longer an option. Its only recourse was to eliminate this strange individual before it.

Its massive roots converged, forming thick, violent tendrils, far larger and more robust than Lin Han’s body, which lashed out fiercely.

Lin Han, however, did not dodge. He directly collided with the root.

Ink Crystal and Emerald watched.

In the instant of impact, Lin Han seemed to directly enter the monster’s body.

There was no true collision. Lin Han was already inside the monster’s form, like a foreign object.

‘Parasitic absorption…’

Ink Crystal surmised this was the power of the monstrous fiend within Lin Han. As a ‘perfect’ fiend, his fundamental ability was to absorb other monstrous fiends and monsters.

The capacity for unlimited growth was a terrifying power in any story. Such characters usually had to be dealt with before they fully matured.

Or, alternatively, they developed some intrinsic flaw.

Abilities like Teacher Lin’s were generally associated with villains.

But just as Teacher Lin had predicted, the mimosa fiend instantly began to rampage.

Ink Crystal could roughly understand what the monster was feeling at that moment.

A foreign object had suddenly entered its body, and this object was continuously draining its life force.

It was likely an instinctive resistance, fear, and a struggle against being devoured.

Emerald simultaneously activated her Emerald Barrier. Both Magical Girls, formidable in their resilience, now shielded Carnelian.

After all, Carnelian had just been thoroughly beaten by Lin Han. It was hard to say if she had any combat capability left.

Ink Crystal began to assess her and Emerald’s combat strength.

She realized that neither she nor Emerald were the type of Magical Girls capable of single-handedly defeating large-scale monsters.

If Magical Girls were to be graded, using a scale based on ‘grade-level’ Magical Girls, then national top-tier Magical Girls would be Grade S.

Rainbow Jade might be considered Grade A, while she and Emerald were only Grade C. They might be able to handle ordinary monsters, but monstrous fiends were usually beyond them.

Common knowledge dictated that monstrous fiends, born from negative energy, were stronger than regular monsters. Evil organizations typically used special methods to modify humans. If a monstrous fiend was not on its original host, it would lose its powerful negative energy absorption ability.

Of course, this also depended on the monstrous fiend’s own condition. Different monstrous fiends had different capabilities.

Similarly, modified monsters also varied. Many monsters couldn’t even withstand the full power of a monstrous fiend, possessing only a fraction of one within them. Even ‘Masked Men’ had emerged, who, despite having no monstrous fiend within, became monsters due to the inducement of monstrous fiend power.

In summary, Ink Crystal defined Magical Girls capable of single-handedly vanquishing monstrous fiends as C-B grade.

Magical Girls of Rainbow Jade’s caliber, on the other hand, were almost ‘invincible.’ Unless facing a rare, powerful large-scale fiend or an ultimate monster created through modification, few could truly challenge Rainbow Jade.

Of course, Ink Crystal didn’t consider herself the weakest type. It was simply that being able to fight monsters and monstrous fiends didn’t necessarily mean being able to vanquish them.

To fight, to win, to kill, to prevent escape, to utterly crush… these were all different concepts.

Her and Emerald’s roles were not those who could crush monsters. Emerald was a support. In a sense, they could confront very powerful monsters and monstrous fiends, but even if the opponent was a weak monster or fiend, they might not be able to apprehend them.

Carnelian, however, was a different story.

She was incredibly tough, having been beaten by the mimosa monster for so long yet still lively. Masked Men, for instance, could be kicked apart by Teacher Lin.

But Carnelian, after taking those punches, merely cried. Her physical constitution was astonishingly good. As for her output, the melting ground would speak volumes about Carnelian’s power.

Her combat strength was so formidable it was enviable, making it no wonder she had become a ‘star.’

“Um, Carnelian—are you alright?”

Although she didn’t look alright, Ink Crystal couldn’t help but ask. “It seems there are some issues in your relationship with your child. You can trust Kamen Rider Great Aum’s abilities; he will definitely bring your child back safely. Have you thought about how you’ll face your child afterward?”

Carnelian paused, suddenly realizing the significance of Ink Crystal’s question.

“I… my child and I…”

Her gaze flickered, just as Ink Crystal’s question implied. She didn’t know how to face Ye Liuyun, how to face her own child.

She had misunderstood some things.

“I’d like to recommend someone to you, named Lin Han. I don’t know if you’re aware, but he’s the psychological counselor for this area, and also your child’s physics teacher. He possesses extremely professional qualifications and extensive experience in parent-child relationships. The repair of your mother-son relationship might also rely on Teacher Lin Han’s help.

“He once helped me. He kept me from going astray, and even enabled me to become a Magical Girl as I am today.

“I think if he had known about the issues between you and your child earlier, Teacher Lin might have resolved them already, preventing them from escalating to this extent. What do you think?”

‘Isn’t she the observer?’

‘Do you think I don’t know Kamen Rider’s identity?’

‘I even know *your* identity…’

After all, she served as an instructor for many Magical Girls. She was well aware of the Sky City Magical Girls’ files, and Ink Crystal herself had applied for special training during the winter break.

But precisely because she knew, she was also very clear that the boy named He Yao had indeed received psychological counseling from Lin Han.

Ink Crystal’s parents were the richest people in Sky City, and she knew them. She knew that the couple’s relationship with their child had once been very bad. At that time, she had secretly congratulated herself on her good relationship with her own child.

She believed herself to be a qualified mother.

But now she realized that she was the one who had been terribly wrong.

But Lin Han had just beaten her. She didn’t know what he would do next. Should she ask for Lin Han’s help to mediate her family’s relationship?

She harbored a certain arrogance, unwilling to accept this outcome.

However, a moment later, she realized that she truly couldn’t solve the problem on her own. Even if it meant lowering herself to the person who had just beaten her, if it was to mend the mother-son relationship… she would do it at any cost.

“I… I will consider that.”

She wanted to ask about Ink Crystal’s past issues with her own parents but didn’t know how to begin, especially with Emerald present.

Emerald, however, chimed in, “But I heard Teacher Lin is quite busy, isn’t he? Didn’t he say that a boy whose family was massacred by Rat Mask needs psychological counseling?”

…

Ink Crystal froze. “How do you know that?”

“Teacher Lin told me! I asked him this afternoon what he’s been busy with recently, and he told me about it. He said he expects to spend a lot of time with that boy… Is there anything strange about Teacher Lin telling me this?”

“No, why do you have Teacher Lin’s private contact information? I’ve always thought there was something between you and Teacher Lin… secretly adding his contact behind my back?

“How could you do this to me?”

Though she wanted to say it, Ink Crystal knew she was actually the one who had wronged Liu Xingyue. But she couldn’t say that.

She needed to keep herself in a favorable position, occupying the moral high ground, so that if her secret was exposed, she wouldn’t be judged by Liu Xingyue.

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