Chương 450: Tanya and Aron. The Moon in the Sky.

The Moon in the Sky.

While Liu Shu said that she would think about it, she was already observing the young catkin by herself. The adorable beastkin was in the middle of class in one of the schools Liu Shu had opened. These schools were created from a modified Lignified Tree House. The structure was so different from usual that the species changed to a <Lignified Hill Tree>. A <Lignified Hill Tree> was only a Tree in name. When one looked at them, they would see a horizontal and long trunk with many rooms and entrances.

It was around 20 meters in height, but over two hundred meters long and wide. This allowed Liu Shu to create a structure that didn't aim to grow tall but instead wanted to be wide like a giant bush. At first, Liu Shu didn't find the structure appealing. After all, it was much more efficient to reach upward than sideways. Nevertheless, the World Tree found out why such structures were much more ideal for locations that needed a lot of traveling between rooms, like in a school or college.

'People get more tired walking up and down stairs than going from side to side…' As simple as that statement was, it made lots of sense when a person was faced with walking for several hours a day in the same building almost all year long. With around 20 meters in height, the <Lignified Hill Tree> had five floors, each nearly 4 meters in height. Tanya was on the third floor, where children from 6 to 12 years old took classes.

"Hm… This is so difficult. Why can't we just rely on the system for these calculations?" The young catkin's green eyes showed an annoyed look as her cheeks puffed. This gesture made our World Tree giggle in her mind. She was also like that when she found something difficult to deal with.

"Hey, Tanya!" Liu Shu paused and saw a tall boy approaching. Tanya's body language was not that of a person who was glad to see him, though. This made our World Tree a bit more attentive to their conversation.

"What do you want, Aron?" Aron smiled a bit and placed his books on Tanya's desk.

"Here. I am too lazy to do the homework, and since you've probably finished it, I wanted to ask for it. Can I copy them and be done with it?" Tanya's face became somewhat awkward. She was not a really good or clever student. However, she was hard-working enough to always finish the homework in advance. A few weeks ago, Aron discovered that through the compliments of a teacher, and since then, he has come to her almost every day. After all, Tanya didn't really deny him at first because of the excuses he used.

"I had a family meeting, so I couldn't do it."

"I forgot the books in school, so I couldn't do it at home."

"I had a small accident when sparring with a friend, so I twisted my wrist." And many more. So, Tanya nodded out of goodwill. Still, when something happened for the seventh, eighth, or even tenth time in a row, even Tanya understood that Aron was taking advantage of her. Sadly, now that she was on the routine, it wasn't easy to just stop it. The time she tried, Aron condemned her quite a lot.

"Aron… you should do these things yourself because—""Ah. Whatever, whatever." Aron interrupted, waving his hand.

"You've already told me this in the past. Are you now going to nag me as if you were my girl or something?" He leaned on the table and put on a teasing expression.

"Of course, if you want to, I don't mind at all." Liu Shu looked at the young 11-year-old boy with a baffled expression.

'Is this how you flirt with Tanya? Even if you are a child, you should know that annoying her won't work!' Since she was young, Tanya had slightly fewer sensibilities, so she answered with a disgusted expression.

"What are you talking about? We are still 11 years old! Yuck, don't say that again!" Aron laughed.

"Well, how about we go to the part behind the third building? Nobody usually goes there." Tanya scratched her head.

"No, thank you. I need to go back home. Someone is waiting for me."

"Someone? Is it a boy or a girl?" Aron's face changed slightly.

"She…" Tanya showed a pondering expression.

"I guess she is a girl?"

"What kind of half-assed answer is that?" Ignoring the baffled expression of the slightly older boy, Tanya stood up.

"Either way. I am leaving. See you tomorrow, Aron." This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. Then, Tanya bounced away while grabbing her books. A mischievous smile appeared at the corner of her lips, like a cat who had successfully stolen a fish.

'Hehe, he was so baffled that he forgot to ask for the homework again~.' Aron also realized, but since Tanya had left the school, he could only groan.

"Ah… she escaped." Liu Shu paid attention to his mutters.

"Well, she won't escape another day. Also, I wonder if the little cat can escape my palm~." The World Tree didn't know what to think.

'Are children so active nowadays?' She scouted the school with her gaze, and soon, she stopped after gaining a subtle expression.

"... I guess sexual education is a necessary subject that schools need to add. At least to speak about the importance of the act…" Liu Shu began investigating the matter, creating a course that would be hard to corrupt. After all, such a delicate class could easily be manipulated to do wrong or involve strange values. She didn't want her population to be manipulated in the education sector.

"I am home!" Tanya's shout made the World Tree snap from her investigation.

'Oh? She is home? I wonder who this friend of hers is…' After Tanya entered her room, she threw her <Blossom Satchel> to the side and let her body drop onto her soft bed. The <Blossom Satchel> was created from the husk of a large seed pod. The straps were made of leather or vine roots, depending on the quality. It was a perfect bag to carry different solid items.

"Sigh…" Tanya turned around, looking at the ceiling of her room.

"Aron is so annoying." Liu Shu almost burst into laughter. Then, she heard her mutter.

"If he wants to have his homework done, can't he go with that super-intelligent friend of his? He is the first in the class in both sports and studies." She looked at the side where a pair of rocks was placed on a beautiful hand-crafted frame.

"Right, Liu Shu? He is always super annoying and bothers me! He wants to take my homework, do the nature-learning class with me, and he even exchanged with my previous seatmate to sit by my side during class!" The World Tree's opinion of Aron changed after she heard that.

'The poor boy is head over heels for Tanya. Hahaha. I wonder why he is trying to attract her by acting like a villain. Well, at least he has her attention, so perhaps it is not that bad of a tactic. Hahaha.' Seeing that no roots appeared this time around, Tanya's smiling face became a bit lonely. After that day, around half a year ago, when the World Tree's roots played with her, Tanya was unsuccessful in getting the World Tree's attention.

Of course, she was not too bothered because she heard from their teachers that their World Tree was sleeping.

"I wonder when you will be awake, Liu Shu? Will you ever talk to me? Perhaps, make yourself known around me like that day?"

'Her thoughts are quite mature…' Liu Shu pondered while hearing her mutters.

"Ah!" Tanya jumped with a large bounce from her bed and raised her hands.

"I ask you to manifest, Liu Shu!" Silence filled the room, making Tanya's tender and fair face gain an increasingly obvious red color.

"... That was embarrassing—" Creak~.

"Huh?" Tanya blinked her beautiful emerald cat eyes and looked over to the place where her cat ears twitched. There, a small root with blue energy veins was poking out from the wall carefully, as if she were shy. Tanya's eyes glittered like green suns.

"Liu Shu! You've come!" She approached with brisk steps, crouching down in front of the wrist-wide root.

"Are you already awake, Liu Shu? I heard from the teacher that you were sleeping!" Our World Tree sighed and decided to just play with Tanya. It would be a nice distraction as well as a good moment to test if she could befriend people once again. For the rest of the afternoon, Tanya guided Liu Shu's root and presented all the new toys she had gotten from her parents during the last half a year. Liu Shu just followed behind and had a great day, feeling quite satisfied when Tanya fell asleep with a smile on her face.

Observing the sleeping little beauty, Liu Shu's feelings were complicated.

'Such a strange little one. I've searched all around my domain, and I couldn't find a second person who so genuinely called my name in order to just play and be friends with me.' There was a reason why Tanya caught Liu Shu's attention when observing millions of people. Her subconscious had a hunch that this girl would be a nice try in her search for friends.

"Well… Let's allow nature to take its course." Liu Shu looked upward. Her <World Tree Eye> allowed her to look a distance around ten times her height straight up. So, by now, as long as she focused, she could see the clouds and part of the night sky reflecting in the atmosphere. The sight was like staring at a blurry night sky where only the clouds were clear.

"I wonder when I will be able to see the Moon's silhouette?" While she could use the eyes on her World Tree body to look like a normal human, the top of her head was covered by her gigantic canopy, making looking upward almost impossible. As she thought of that, she remembered Tanya's disciplined routine and strong heart. With that in mind, the eyes of the World Tree opened, and the head above her trunk tilted upward. Looking around, she quickly spotted the few moonlight beams falling through her canopy.

"So… the moon is in that direction." Her Aether and Phoer surged inside of her body, rushing up toward her canopy as she tried to use her skills to manipulate the branches in her gargantuan canopy.

"Ugh… So weighty." She was trying to part the branches, creating a small hole through them, so the sheer weight that she needed to move was nothing to scoff at.

"Come on… A bit more…" The branches slowly moved and parted, and after a few hours of trying, right in the middle of the night, Liu Shu finally managed to create a big enough hole through her canopy. The light from the Moon poured like silver threads through it, falling onto her face. That night, the young World Tree saw the beautiful white Moon for the first time. Even if it was just for a few minutes, our big girl thought that all the effort was worth it. The sight was nothing less than magnificent.