Nobody knows how to be a villain better than me.

Looking at the limbs that were perfectly reattached to the fracture, Samael couldn't help but be amazed and full of admiration for Aozaki Touko's craftsmanship.

It should be noted that even after his powers were dismantled, his body was still a divine body of extremely high specifications. The difficulty of replicating it was several levels higher than simply copying human parts, no less than having a high school student manually create a nuclear bomb.

But this high school girl actually managed to overcome this hellish problem using only the available materials and her current knowledge, which is simply unbelievable!

The future Grand Puppeteer truly lives up to his name...

Samael was constantly amazed as he adapted to the performance of his new limbs.

In fact, there is no such thing as a Grand rank for puppeteers. In the future, Aozaki Touko will be described as "the highest-ranking puppeteer".

After the 17th century, the concept of magic that mimics the human body declined, and even the most skilled magicians could not compete with antiques from hundreds of years ago in the field of automata. However, Aozaki Touko was able to mass-produce automata with capabilities no less than those used in medieval battles.

This genius magician even broke the absolute rules of puppet creation left over from the golden age of medieval magic.

That is, "Even if you create a doll that surpasses human beings, you cannot create something that is the same as a human."

However, in her pursuit of the prototype of the physical body, Aozaki Touko not only mastered the technology to create dolls that were exactly the same as her own original body, but also insanely imprinted her own consciousness into the replaceable dolls.

Once her original physical body decays or dies, she can immediately transfer her soul to a new vessel, becoming a near-immortal non-human being. It is because of this forbidden technology that she has attracted the Mage Association's "Designated Seal".

The future remains uncertain, but Aozaki Touko's doll-making skills have already begun to stand out in front of Samael, and even this creator of humankind from the Greek Age of Gods is amazed by the talent this girl has shown.

Speaking of which, you and Medea must have a lot in common.

Who knows, maybe we can even open a figurine shop together in the future?

The ancient snake stroked its chin, muttering to itself, its surging thoughts suddenly veerging off course, unknowingly veering off-topic.

boom!

Just as Samael was idly lost in thought, the half-open door was flung open, and a hurried figure rushed into the bedroom.

"Orange, you're here? Perfect timing! Quick, let's see how the compatibility is this time..."

"Take it off!"

However, before Samael could finish speaking, Aozaki Touko interrupted the ancient snake's question with a startling remark, causing the man to freeze in shock, instinctively tighten his shorts, and look horrified in the eye.

No way, again? Can't you give me some time to prepare?

But the snake, which instinctively tried to create some distance, was pulled back by Aozaki Touko and roughly pushed down onto the sofa.

"Take it all off! Grandpa's coming! He's down the mountain! If he finds out you're in the Aozaki family's magic workshop, you're finished!"

The girl muttered anxiously, frantically trying to remove the prosthetic limb that Samael had just bumped into. But the more flustered she became, the more mistakes she made. What should have been a three- to five-minute disassembly took more than ten minutes.

By the time Aozaki Touko had completely stripped Samael naked, fine beads of sweat had appeared on her forehead, and her back was soaked.

"orange……"

Before Aozaki Touko could catch her breath, a slightly aged shout from outside the courtyard sent shivers down her spine.

With her orange eyes quickly scanning the room, Aozaki Touko quickly stuffed the still somewhat confused Samael into a large suitcase. Then, as the old man in the courtyard walked into the house, she decisively kicked the suitcase under the bed.

No sooner had the girl finished doing all this than a sprightly old man, dressed in a loose black kimono and wooden clogs, stepped across the courtyard and into the house.

The distance between the steps of that figure was as regular as if measured with a ruler. The silver-white hair that highlighted his old age was meticulously groomed, and beneath the elegance he maintained, there was an air of antiquity and rigidity.

"Orange, what are you doing?"

The old man stepped over the threshold, stood behind his granddaughter, and frowned as he asked.

"N-nothing, I was just tidying up the house...that's all...it's a bit messy here..."

Aozaki Touko suddenly turned around, her hands behind her back, her body instinctively stiffening, cold sweat pouring down her forehead, as she stammered an explanation.

The old man looked around at the still somewhat messy room, his expression showing some hesitation.

Seeing that the hawk-like gaze was about to shift to behind her, Aozaki Touko forced herself to remain calm, took the initiative to step forward, and changed the subject.

"Grandfather, what brings you here?"

The old man came to his senses, frowned slightly, and looked displeased.

"Orange, it seems you've forgotten that today is the day to test your academic knowledge..."

Upon hearing this, Aozaki Touko felt a sudden jolt in her heart.

Lately, she has been so focused on reconstructing runes and studying puppetry techniques that she has completely forgotten about this important matter.

The old man glanced at his granddaughter, who seemed somewhat dazed, his brow furrowing even more, and a hint of coldness appearing on his face. Clearly, he was quite dissatisfied with his granddaughter's behavior.

"You have ten minutes to get ready. I'll be waiting for you outside!"

The old man glanced at his somewhat dazed granddaughter, spoke coldly to remind her, and then turned and walked out of the room.

Watching her grandfather walk out of the bedroom, Aozaki Touko's tense body suddenly hunched over and deflated, her chest heaving, and her clenched palms were already soaked with cold sweat.

Fortunately, we've weathered the storm for now...

The girl wiped the cold sweat from her forehead with lingering fear, glanced back at the large black suitcase under the bed, and took the opportunity to calm her breathing and compose herself while tidying up the clutter.

After a moment, barely suppressing her unease, Aozaki Touko, with a touch of trepidation, went outside to the courtyard and waited meekly for her grandfather's test.

Without wasting words, the old man looked straight ahead and decisively presented the test question.

"Orange, use the methods I taught you to attack that grove of trees ahead."

Aozaki Touko nodded, her unease lessening slightly. She curled her right hand forward, closed her eyes, and chanted the incantation she had learned. The surging blue-red magic power was rapidly compressed in her palm, and then, accompanied by a deafening explosion that tore through the air, it blasted towards the target.

"boom!"

Instantly, the dense forest trembled violently, as if struck by a meteorite, and the surroundings became hazy.

The old man casually waved his hand, and the curtain of dust and wood chips was instantly shattered as if by an invisible sword, revealing the scenery before him in a clear manner.

What appeared before the grandfather and grandson was a giant crater nearly a hundred meters in diameter and tens of meters deep, surrounded by burning wood chips and shattered rocks. The once lush forest had been ravaged into a barren wasteland by the aftershocks of the explosion, demonstrating its immense power.

Even so, the old man's tightly furrowed brows did not relax at all. He turned his head and looked at his talented granddaughter, on whom he had placed high hopes, his expression becoming even more displeased and his voice growing colder.

"Orange, is this the result of your more than ten years of cultivation? I'm so disappointed!"

"Grandfather, I..."

Aozaki Touko's face paled slightly. Faced with this imposing presence, she lowered her head even further and bit her cherry lips tightly.

"Enough, no need for explanations. Failure is failure! It seems you're simply not qualified to inherit the Aozaki family's magic!"

The old man's face was cold and expressionless. He raised his hand and rudely interrupted his granddaughter.

In the present day, with the decline of the divine age, magic and magic tricks are two different concepts. Although magic tricks are amazing and omnipotent, they can only do what contemporary humans can do.

For example, the magic bullet that Aozaki Touko just fired, although it was powerful and destructive, could also do the same thing with airplane bombs in the human world. It's just that it takes time, money and effort to make these weapons. In other words, magic is just using magic as a medium to skip the steps that the magician has to take to achieve his goal.

Such so-called achievements are nothing to boast about for magicians who seek the roots of magic.

Magic, unlike magic tricks, is the divine law that exists outside the heavens. It means that a mortal can reach the realm of the gods and gain the power to create miracles. That is a height that human beings cannot reach.

The Aozaki family has been able to establish itself in Misaki City and the magic world because of this tradition.

As a mage who controls this principle, the old man is naturally qualified to make such a judgment.

Because Aozaki Touko's progress was far from his expectations, and even seriously inconsistent with the genius halo bestowed upon her at birth.

More than ten years of painstaking cultivation and more than ten years of painstaking effort have resulted in such a terrible outcome!

The more the old man thought about it, the angrier he became. His face was clouded with anger, and a thunderous rage was gathering in his veins.

Aozaki Touko, who was bearing the brunt of the pressure, felt her bones creaking and her spirit like a small boat caught in a storm in a turbulent sea, in danger of being swallowed by giant waves at any moment.

"Grandfather, I...I will try my best..."

The girl's face was deathly pale, her pearly teeth clenched tightly around her cherry lips, and she could only bury her head and make promises, hoping to appease her grandfather's anger.

"Effort? You've made no progress for so many years, I really don't know what you've been striving for!"

However, the old man, who was already tired of hearing this kind of talk, raised an eyebrow and gave a cold snort without any politeness.

Then, the figure, still seething with anger, turned and walked up the steps without saying a word. He pushed open the workshop door, his sharp eyes sweeping around before landing on the few dolls placed in the corner and the several fragments of runes waiting to be repaired on the table. His expression grew increasingly gloomy.

"So, this is the result of your hard work? You even forgot about the magic of the Aozaki family in order to tinker with this junk?!"

"Grandfather, I just wanted to try other methods, to see if I could break through... I didn't..."

Aozaki Touko hurriedly tried to explain, but was immediately interrupted rudely by the old man.

Shut up! Throw him out!

"grandfather?"

The girl suddenly looked up, her face filled with astonishment as she looked at her elder, her teacher.

"I said, throw all this useless stuff out!"

The old man repeated himself, word by word, looking down at his granddaughter who stood frozen in place. His gaze grew increasingly sinister, and the aura he exuded sent a chill through the workshop.

"Didn't you hear me? Or do you want me to do it for you myself!"

Faced with the absolute authority of her family, the already weak-willed Aozaki Touko was speechless and eventually bowed her head in defeat, choosing to compromise.

Like a puppet in the old man's hands, the girl, under her grandfather's cold gaze, personally collected the dolls she had polished and created, and the runes that had been restored to their original state in her hands. Following his instructions, she threw them into the pit she had blasted in the dense forest.

As the last [useless item] was thrown into the pit, a sharp ethereal explosion whistled past Aozaki Touko's ears and crashed directly into the cave.

"boom!"

In an instant, a violent gust of air swept out, ruffling and scattering Aozaki Touko's long hair that was tied behind her head. Blue and red flames splashed and fell, becoming the only color of light in her eyes.

The unexpected yet predictable turn of events left the girl frozen in place. Her orange eyes, once brightened by the firelight, dimmed further and further as the contents of the pit burned away, until they were completely devoid of light.

"From now on, stop wasting your time on these useless things and focus on what you're supposed to do! Next time, hopefully you'll show some improvement, otherwise..."

The old man casually withdrew his hand, coldly tossed out a warning, frowned, and didn't say anything more. He also lost interest in staying any longer, then turned and left, gradually disappearing into the twilight of the evening.

Boom!

As night fell, dark clouds gathered, and large raindrops, accompanied by the booming of thunder, poured down, pattering through the trees and leaves, creating a soft, rustling sound.

In the dense rain, the slender figure jumped into the pit where the embers of the fire had just been extinguished, knelt down, and used her hands to dig through the ashes, rescuing charred fragments and still-burnt doll limbs from under the mud.

However, this was destined to be a drop in the ocean of effort. No matter how hard the girl searched, she could only find some wreckage that was already unrecognizable.

Hua Hua...

The rain was torrential and the wind was fierce. The slender figure in the pit was instantly drenched by the dense rain. The water droplets hitting her head and face, without the protection of a magical barrier, brought a faint stinging pain.

Gradually, raindrops wet her eyelashes, seeped into her eyes, and obscured her vision, but they still couldn't stop the girl's search.

There is another piece...

Aozaki Touko sensed the lingering magical energy around her and her gaze fell on a fragment of a runestone that had been blasted to the edge of the crater.

Just as the girl was about to climb up the edge of the pit to retrieve her lost item, a hand with ball-jointed fingers pierced through the rain, picked up the broken pieces on the ground, and handed them to her.

"Let's go together..."

With a gentle voice and few words, his tall figure voluntarily jumped into the mud pit and bent down to search for the scattered fragments around him.

The girl in the rain gazed at the "useless thing" beside her, which was beyond saving but had been preserved because of her stubbornness. Her delicate shoulders trembled slightly, and she murmured in a hoarse voice.

Am I useless?

"When did the value of these things, the value of Aozaki Touko, need to be defined by others?"

He blinked, his eyes sparkling with a cheerful and insightful smile as he asked the question before him, his handsome face damp with raindrops.

Like a ray of light tearing through the long night and the curtain of dark clouds and rain, shining into the depths of one's heart.

Chapter 79 The Kidnapping Was a Great Success (5.2k)

As night fell, the courtyard was shrouded in a downpour of rain, with dense clouds and a fierce wind. Inside the house, the lamplight flickered like a bean.

At the experimental table, Aozaki Touko carefully pieced together the messy doll fragments and unrecognizable rune pieces on the table. Even though she managed to restore some of its basic form, as soon as she removed her fingers, the flawed creation instantly collapsed like a sand pot being washed by seawater, leaving behind a complete mess.

The girl with orange hair and orange eyes remained silent for a long time before finally lowering her futile hands. The flickering light shone on her downcast face, reflecting a gloomy and defeated expression.

"What, still can't figure it out?"

Just as Aozaki Touko was feeling down, she heard a gentle whisper in her ear, and a dry towel and a cup of warm black tea were handed to her by the only remaining doll arm in the workshop.

"I just feel like a failure."

The girl held the hot tea on the table, nodded, and stared blankly at the rising steam from the rim of the cup, murmuring softly.

"Born amidst praise, burdened with the halo of genius, and placed with high hopes by the family, sixteen years have passed, yet nothing has been accomplished; it's truly pathetic..."