He said, "I see."
She nodded. "You should see. The smart thing to do is curry favor with you by waiting for you to finish with your plans and then telling you what I did with your students."
He grinned, feeling pleased with himself, but he still made sure not to let his mother get away with her crime by simply sweet-talking him. He won't be fooled so easily.
He said, "If you really wanted to curry favor with me and avoid offending me, you should have told me about your plan before you executed it and asked for my permission."
She nodded and said, "I should, but I didn't because asking for your permission opens up the possibility of rejection. I didn't want that, so I went ahead with it before telling you."
"I was willing to take that risk because I am your mother, so you will be lenient with me. Surely, I have to mean more to you than your students."
"Even if I don't and you want to fight me, I am still stronger than you for now, so I can bear the risk. It won't be until the future that you become powerful enough to best me. By then, this matter will be forgotten."
He chuckled and said, "That's the scheming mother I know."
She chuckled too and said, "Guilty as charged."
The two of them laughed like villains.
They had been whispering to each other so no one knew what they had talked about. All people saw was them laughing at each other for some unknown reason. It made them appear to be as crazy as everyone thought they were.
Arthur shook his head in wonder. He said to himself inwardly, "I didn't know that mothers could be like this."
His mother in his past life was a sweet, homely woman. He can't remember how she looks anymore, but he can still remember her calm, smiling, and gentle personality.
His mother in this life is more like a thug. She is also intelligent, but she is more of a thug than a mother.
The good thing about Vena is that he feels like he can speak to her about anything. He certainly can't tell her his most important secret, but he can tell her about almost anything else, and she will accept it.
Vena has always been open to him too. She told him about how she tricked and seduced his father when he was a toddler. She also told him why she did it.
She didn't tell him to harm him or belittle his existence. She just told him as a matter of fact.
He doubts his mother in his past life is capable of doing something like that, but if she did, she wouldn't tell him. And if she did tell him, she would sit him down and tell him gently, not in the gruff, nonchalant manner that Vena used.
Both mothers have their advantages and disadvantages. If the mother of his past life were in danger, he might consider risking his life for her. But if Vena is in danger and he has to risk his life to save her, he won't consider it at all.
It is because Vena is more of his friend than his mother. There is no way he will risk his life for a friend, so there is no way he will risk his life for her.
Besides, she has told him many times that he shouldn't risk his life for others. So he is sure that if he were the one in trouble, Vena is not going to risk her life for him.
"But my previous mother would surely risk her life for me. Maybe that is the difference. You get what you're willing to give."
Then he sighed and said, "Unfortunately, that's Earth, not Ethera. On Ethera, you don't get what you give, and you don't get what you deserve. You only get what you're capable of taking for yourself."
This is the main reason why Vena didn't ask his permission to use his students for bait. She could take this benefit without his permission, so she didn't need to ask him for his permission.
She also didn't want rejection, so she went over him and took what she wanted without his permission. But she is wrong about other things, though.
First of all, she is wrong about him not being able to do anything to her currently. Secondly, she is wrong about his students not being useful to him anymore.
It is true that in terms of hunting points, he doesn't need them anymore. He has acquired enough hunting points to become a level four hunter. He is even on his way to becoming a level five hunter.
As a level four hunter, he can exchange for the force diagram he needs to reach the tenth transformation of the first mortal coil. Once he becomes a level five hunter, he will be able to exchange for the rank 2 weapon he needs to fight second coil cultivators.
He needs a weapon that will help him stand out amongst other examinees at the regional sect examination. It is best if this weapon doesn't shatter each time it clashes with anything related to the second mortal coil.
With today's harvest, he will be able to finally reach level 5. He will have the choice to exchange for what he wants with hunting points or money. He hopes to use hunting points, so he still needs his students to hunt for him.
Even if he had all the hunting points he will ever need, he still needs his students because he didn't create the dojo to create hunters. He created the dojo to farm karma. So he definitely needs his students and doesn't want them to die.
But it is as his mother said; there is very little he can do about it now. He can only wait to see the result of her plan. Success and failure are out of his hands. Only retribution is not.