Japanese Terrorist: What? I'll fight Hellstar!

Babirus maintained a smile throughout, watching the clown fall, then smilingly gesturing for Joe to continue throwing the knife, watching with amusement as the knife hurtled towards the blonde woman's throat.

The smile on his face finally disappeared the moment the throwing knife shattered, and his gaze locked onto Amamiya Rin in the audience.

"Oh my goodness, my circus has some very special guests today!"

Babyrus narrowed his eyes into slits and muttered to himself with a forced smile.

Joe stood there, stunned and at a loss.

A strike he was absolutely certain of would miss, and then be shattered by an attack launched from who-knows-where. All sorts of unexpected events left him completely bewildered.

"What? Is this all the quality you've got?"

Tomie Kawakami leaned back in her chair, crossed her legs, and rolled her eyes in disgust.

"If you can't even throw a throwing knife wide, you might as well let Ah Lin go up and perform."

Tomie Azawa licked her ice cream and mumbled a response, equally dissatisfied with the unexpected incident.

Everyone finally managed to get together with Amamiya Rin to relax, but it turned out to be such a disappointment.

Amamiya Rin didn't respond. The explosive power of the Crimson Lotus Breathing Technique was still surging within her body, and her heartbeat was a few beats faster than usual, but it quickly calmed down.

It was indeed a disappointment, but circus performers are human too, and humans make mistakes.

Although this mistake almost resulted in a death, it was fortunately prevented and no irreversible consequences occurred.

Despite thinking this way, Amamiya Rin still felt a little uneasy.

At the edge of the stage, the smile on Babirus's face had returned.

He walked slowly to the center of the stage and bowed deeply to the audience.

"Oh dear, I'm so sorry to have startled you distinguished guests."

He straightened up, clapped his hands, and two men in black work clothes rushed onto the stage and helped Joe off the stage, one on each side.

Joe's legs went weak, and he was practically dragged along, muttering to himself, "Impossible...impossible...how could I have missed..."

The blonde woman was also taken off the wooden plank; she clutched her neck and staggered behind.

Between her fingers, a faint bloodstain had been wiped away, leaving a pale red line on her fair skin.

"It was a mistake, just a small mistake."

Babyrus spread his hands and gave the audience an apologetic smile.

"Our Babirus Grand Circus has always repaid everyone's support with the most spectacular performances. The accident just now was due to our knife-throwing artist not being in good condition. On behalf of the circus, I would like to express our sincerest apologies to everyone."

He bowed again, this time even deeper, and his hat slipped off his head. He caught it quickly and put it back on, eliciting a good-natured chuckle from the audience.

"Ladies and gentlemen—"

Soon, Babyrus's voice regained the exaggerated excitement it had at the beginning.

"Next up is Ares, the king of the African savanna, and his tamer Claude!"

A huge iron cage was pushed onto the stage, and a massive male lion lay in the center of the cage, its mane thick and its eyes languid. The animal trainer was a muscular young man, holding a whip and a round stool.

Claude opened the cage door, and the lion slowly walked out and crouched down in the center of the stage.

The whip cracked crisply in the air, and the lion lazily raised its front paws, performing a prescribed movement. Sparse applause immediately rang out from the audience.

Claude cracked his whip again, and the lion stood up, its hind legs trembling slightly. It slowly turned its head toward the tamer, its mouth opening a crack to reveal sharp fangs. In the depths of the lion's eyes, a crack appeared in the dullness of its murky gaze, and long-suppressed restlessness began to overflow.

Suddenly, the massive body sprang up from its crouching position, like a ball of dark yellow flame that had been ignited, and pounced on the beast tamer.

Claude instinctively raised the stool to block.

But what's the point of a mere stool when facing a lion?

However, just as Claude was about to despair, the lion's forepaws froze in mid-air.

That magnificent body seemed to be frozen in place, its mane bristling and standing on end, like a provoked hedgehog.

Sharp screams erupted from the audience. The sudden leap of the lion made the children instinctively cover their eyes, too afraid to watch any longer.

Several female audience members had already stood up, and their chairs were being pushed around with a loud clatter.

Claude collapsed to the ground, his pupils shrinking to pinpoints.

He could see the trembling deep in the lion's throat, and the bloodstains remaining on its yellowed fangs. The gaping maw so close to him left his mind blank, his body frozen in place, and he didn't even have time to give the order to escape.

However, the lion, which was so close, never pounced; on the contrary, it retreated!

That's right! The ferocious beast, which was clearly about to bite the tamer to death and was only one step away, has now shrank back.

The animal trainer keenly noticed that the lion's massive body was trembling. It tucked its tail between its legs, and its pupils contracted sharply. In its originally cloudy, dark yellow eyes, there was now only one thing left—fear!

Pure, primal, and ingrained fear deep in our genes!

That's the look in the eyes of prey when facing a predator!

The lion let out a low growl, like a wild dog cornered with nowhere to run, squeezing out a mournful cry from the depths of its throat.

Its body seemed ready to turn and run away at any moment, yet it didn't know which direction to run in, exuding a sense of powerlessness and despair.

The animal trainer looked bewildered. He couldn't understand the situation. He had been with his partner for nearly five years, but his partner's behavior today was beyond his comprehension.

What on earth is going on?

The screams from the audience gradually turned into confused whispers.

"W-What happened?"

"It's...lying down?"

"Is this part of the performance?"

"I think so? Look how obediently that lion is lying down, it must have been rehearsed."

Someone whispered in response, their tone clearly uncertain.

The applause rang out sporadically, tentatively and sparsely, as if the person was unsure whether to clap or not.

Claude, the animal trainer, was still sitting on the ground, trembling uncontrollably. His trousers were soaked, and cold sweat dripped from his forehead and down his nose.

At the edge of the stage, Babirus stood in the shadows. His gaze passed over the stage, over the audience, over the crowd still whispering in confusion, and landed on the third row. The curve of his lips deepened.

Immediately afterwards, a professional smile returned to his face, and he shouted to the audience in an exaggerated tone.

"Oh! What a wonderful performance! It seems our animal trainer, Mr. Claude, and Ares the lion have grown even closer! Let's give them a round of applause!"

The applause finally broke out, a bit more enthusiastic than before. Some people breathed a sigh of relief, their expressions relaxing considerably.

Claude also shakily got up from the ground, picked up the whip, and tentatively lashed it out.

“Pah!”

The lion's massive body shuddered violently, its head lowered, and it slowly walked to its designated position in the center of the stage.

Its posture was as docile as a house cat.

Seeing this, Claude was both surprised and delighted, and breathed a sigh of relief.

Although I don't know what's going on, I'm just glad the performance can go on smoothly.

The whispers in the audience grew louder.

"So it's all part of the performance, isn't it?"

"Look how obedient that lion is; it must have been trying to scare people on purpose."

"This circus is something else; even the animals' acting is so realistic."

……

The audience was buzzing with discussion. Some of the audience members who were disappointed by the performance mistakes earlier were now intrigued again after seeing this performance, and the applause went from sporadic to enthusiastic.

Amamiya Rin leaned back in his chair, his gaze fixed on the lion lying on the ground, his imposing aura gradually subsiding.

It's obvious that he's once again saving the circus performance.

Although he wasn't as professional as the swordsman Tomie, he could still intimidate people with his aura.

but……

"That's so unprofessional!"

Amamiya Rin complained.

One mistake is one thing, but three mistakes in a row? How has this circus been running for so long?

The clown falls, the throwing knife misses its mark, and the lion goes out of control.

Babirusa Grand Circus, isn't it a very famous and top-tier circus? What's one mistake after another in a performance?

Amamiya Rin narrowed his eyes and scanned the area, but still did not find anything obviously unusual.

However, so many accidents can no longer be dismissed as mere coincidences.

"Ah Lin, come here, ah~~"

Just then, Tomie Kawakami's voice drifted over from the side. She held up the strawberry ice cream that had begun to melt and brought it to Rin Amamiya's lips. Cream dripped down the edge of the cone and onto her fair fingers.

"I buy it myself and I eat it myself."

Amamiya Rin leaned back slightly to avoid the ice cream that Kawakami Tomie offered.

"Don't be such a spoilsport. Do you dislike me?"

Tomie Kawakami drew out the last syllable of her voice, her eyes drooped slightly, and her lips pouted in a wronged arc, but she didn't retract her arm that was holding the ice cream.

"It's not that I dislike it."

Amamiya Rin said calmly, his gaze sweeping over the ice cream that Kawakami Tomie held up in front of her, lingering for a moment on the back of Kawakami Tomie's hand.

That hand was fair and delicate, gleaming with a warm glow in the dim light. The fingertips were long and slender, and the nails were painted with light pink nail polish, which complemented the skin tone of the back of the hand, like a piece of carefully polished white jade.

Cream dripped from the edge of the cone, leaving a small pinkish-white stain on the back of her hand, making her skin appear even more translucent, and even the fine blue veins under her skin were faintly visible.

Tomie Kawakami's skin has always been so good that she never needs skincare or cosmetics.

But... she seems even prettier than usual?

Amamiya Rin wasn't quite sure either. In his eyes, there wasn't much difference between beauty and ugliness. After all, he had already perfected the White Bone Cultivation, and in his eyes, everyone was equal.