I'm in a real religion, why are all the people who confess to me girls?

Geniuses are never easily controlled, and their arrogance dictates that they are only willing to bow to those they acknowledge.

Ayanokoji Atsuomi? He's still a long way off.

And what he said to Kanzaki was extremely superficial.

Having power doesn't mean you can use it indiscriminately. Power itself is a double-edged sword; while displaying one's power, one may also attract the attention of people like Ayanokoji Atsuomi.

Of course, Ayanokoji Atsuomi, who had never experienced that supreme power, could not possibly understand this principle; rather than saying he longed for power.

Rather, it's more accurate to say they were simply dissatisfied with his tumultuous fate.

There's still a score to settle between Amane and Ayanokouji Atsuomi.

Chapter 107: Greed

Kanzaki sighed. He wasn't some clueless idiot. The moment Amane threw out a point of view, Kanzaki understood why Ayanokouji Atsuomi had said those words to him.

It's simply because that man is a fanatical madman. He reached out to try and touch the realm called genius, but in the end, he couldn't even touch the shadow of genius. It's because he has no talent that he obsessively pursues the power brought by the talent that only geniuses can possess.

The result was naturally nothing. If we could touch the moon with our bare hands, then humanity wouldn't need to develop any technology. Even if we successfully reflected its image in a puddle of water, it would still just be a phantom.

He is still 38.4 kilometers away from the real moon, a distance that cannot be overcome by human effort alone. This distance seems far, but with the help of technology, humanity will eventually be able to set foot on the surface of the moon one day.

No matter how much ordinary people stretch their arms or stand on tiptoe, they can never reach the innate talents of those geniuses.

It was this sense of despair that drove Atsuomi Ayanokouji to choose the path of creating artificial geniuses. Amane was the vessel through which Atsuomi Ayanokouji understood geniuses, while Kiyotaka Ayanokouji was, in his eyes, a near-perfect replica of Amane, except for some personality flaws.

As a result, everyone knows the answer.

Despite giving it her all, Ayanokouji collapsed on the green field of the sports festival.

That arrogant figure looking down at him was not someone that could be surpassed by mere cramming education that teaches the slow learner to catch up.

But Kanzaki was unaware of all of this.

All he knew was that a single sentence from a fanatical man who craved power and was on the verge of madness had led him astray.

Perhaps his refusal to use force was seen by that man as either an incurable idiot or an unforgivable sinner.

But no matter how he is reflected in other people's eyes, he should wake up from that statement now.

Kanzaki chuckled. It was precisely because of Ayanokouji Atsuomi's words that he couldn't doubt whether or not to use his power. That's why he hid behind Ichinose and tried to use his power tentatively from behind the scenes. But every time he used his power, he was bullied miserably by Amane, which made him doubt himself again. Then he gave up on himself and decided to become a fool.

But unexpectedly, even at this point, he actually saw himself clearly again with Tianyin's help.

It's just... a pity that he has nothing left now, otherwise he might still be able to... sigh.

Kanzaki exhaled a breath of stale air, his eyes clearing. He had made up his mind to let go of everything. From now on, he would just be an ordinary student in Class D. As for class conflicts... he would leave those to Himeno.

He was a little tired.

However, he cannot rest now, because he has not yet completed the task that Tianyin asked him to do, and he must at least finish his last shift before he can rest.

"It's already this late? It seems we wasted a lot of time. If we don't speed things up, we really won't have time to rest tonight."

Kanzaki glanced at the time on his phone.

It was already past midnight. Practicing power generation and talking had taken up too much time. There was still at least half of the demolition work to be done. If he didn't catch up, he would have to work non-stop. It was obvious that his body would not be able to handle working through the night during special training. So, Kanzaki put the towel he was using to wipe his sweat aside and decided to climb the ladder again to continue his demolition work.

Amane noticed Kanzaki's change and nodded in satisfaction. Some people you can't reason with; you can only solve problems with your fists, which is relatively troublesome.

People like Kanzaki, who can understand with just a little guidance, are rare indeed. It seems that even geniuses without any outstanding talents can be communicated with as long as they don't go mad.

"Kanzaki."

Amane softly called Kanzaki's name. Kanzaki, who was passing in front of Amane, seemed to realize something and turned to look at Amane.

"Thank you, Miyako...!!"

Before Kanzaki could finish expressing his gratitude, he saw Amane raise her hand and launch an attack. Normally, Kanzaki would have been able to react, but now, due to his significantly reduced physical strength after training, Kanzaki had also let down his guard because of Amane's words of comfort.

As a result, Amane's swift hand chop knocked Kanzaki to the ground in one move.

Kanzaki, who fell heavily to the ground, instinctively covered his neck. His mind was blank, and he had no idea why Amane had attacked him. But just as he was about to question Amane, he heard Amane make a cute sound.

"what?"

Then Kanzaki felt a similar pain in the other side of his neck, and then everything went black and he completely lost consciousness.

"I didn't expect the sneak attack to fail. It seems I need to practice more when I have time."

Tianyin frowned slightly as she looked at her hand, which was still in the chopstick position.

Tenon dragged the unconscious Kanzaki to an open space, casually tossed it aside, and picked up the construction drawings Kanzaki had put in his pocket. She then happily went to the wooden house whose roof had been removed.

Gazing at the wooden house in front of her, Tianyin already had a plan for its demolition in mind.

If the demolition proceeds at Kanzaki's pace, it will take until dawn. In order to pursue efficiency, Amane will have to resort to some special methods. However, if Kanzaki sees her rude treatment of everyone's hard work, she will probably give her a lecture.

Therefore, Amane had no choice but to knock Kanzaki unconscious first, and then complete the demolition task by herself.

"Let me look at the picture first, like this, then like this... and finally... hey!!"

Tianyin kicked open the wooden house wall, which had been pierced by the cut ropes and damaged fixtures.

With a deafening roar, the wall that had taken more than an hour to build collapsed under Tianyin's kick.

Tianyin nodded in satisfaction as she looked at her work.

"Let's go with this."

Compared to the large amount of manpower and time spent building, destruction was undoubtedly much simpler. Tianyin destroyed all the walls in less than an hour, and then spent another hour dismantling the wooden pieces that made up the walls one by one.

In the end, all the demolition work was completed in just two hours. Looking at the 2 a.m. displayed on her phone screen, Amane didn't plan to go back to rest. At this time, Kushida should be sleeping soundly in her big sleeping bag. If she went back, she might wake everyone up.

Since she didn't care where she slept, Tianyin didn't have any particular preference. She casually put a few pieces of wood together, took off her coat, and placed it on the wood to prevent moisture and splinters from scratching her skin.

After preparing everything, Tianyin curled up on her tracksuit jacket, gently closed her sleepy eyelids, and parted her lips slightly.

"Good night~"

In the woods late at night, apart from the chirping of insects, the only sound was the rustling of leaves being scraped by the night wind.

But if you listen carefully, you can faintly hear some sounds that don't belong to the dead of night.

Click.

The branch snapped with a crisp sound as it was stepped on.

The figure in the darkness froze, standing motionless like a statue. After a long while, the figure pricked up its ears and listened intently. Only after confirming that the figure not far away had not been awakened did it twitch its ears twice and then approach the sleeping Tianyin with even lighter steps.

At this moment, the miniature camera hidden in the shadows quietly turned its lens and aimed at Tianyin's resting place, recording everything that happened in front of it with a faint red light.

"I knew you couldn't resist coming over, Marina. You are still that child's mother after all. But... what are you holding in your hand?"

Sitting in the monitoring room, Chairman Fujiwara put down the cup full of black coffee in his hand and manipulated the large, dark mass in Marina's hand, trying to magnify it.

When the camera zoomed out to its maximum, the object finally revealed its true form.

However, after clearly seeing what it was, Chairman Fujiwara's lips began to twitch.

A bear skin, peeled off with impeccable skill, was gently draped over Amane's body by Marina.

"Seriously... there's no way to deal with Marina. Let me think of a way to smooth things over."

President Fujiwara covered his forehead, his face full of frustration from being entangled in this troublesome matter, but for some reason, a subtle smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

After covering Amane with the still-smelling bearskin, Marina planned to leave quietly.

Actually, Marina originally intended to drape a coat over Amane, but she was in a bit of a rush when she came here and only brought this set of clothes with her. She was wearing this outfit when she met Amane, and with Amane's memory, it's impossible that she wouldn't know who draped this coat over her.

This inevitably gives Amane the feeling that she is spying on her, which is actually the case. However, without knowing how Amane views her, Marina is unwilling to risk doing something that would make Amane uncomfortable.

Would a normal person run over at 3 a.m. to cover someone with their own clothes and then leave without saying a word?

Just thinking about it makes you realize there's something seriously wrong with this person, so Marina had no choice but to give up covering Amane with her own clothes.

But when Marina noticed that it was getting windy outside, fearing that Amane would catch a cold, she still chose to risk approaching Amane. This time, she even brought a bear skin that had just been skinned that morning. She had heard that Amane liked bears, so on the very night she arrived at the forest school, she went and hunted down an adult brown bear all by herself. Marina originally planned to capture it alive and keep it as Amane's pet.

However, the other party was too noisy, and in order to avoid being discovered by the forest rangers, Marina had no choice but to kill it. Then, in the morning, she skinned the bear and carried out the most basic cleaning and drying.

Then, just as Marina was about to expose the fabric to the sun for a few days before processing it, it was used as clothing material to protect Amane from the wind and cold.

So the bloody smell hasn't completely dissipated yet, but because it has been dried, the bear skin is already quite clean and shouldn't be a big problem to use it as clothing.

However, since no hunting permits have been issued recently, Marina's behavior is technically considered poaching, which is the real reason why Chairman Fujiwara is having a headache.

Marina subconsciously pulled her foot back after taking the first step.

Looking at Amane, who was sleeping soundly nestled in the bearskin, Marina smiled happily for the first time.

Her rationality was frantically telling her not to be greedy. Tianyin's vigilance was terrifying. Even though Tianyin already knew her identity, there were some things that everyone knew, but as long as the secret wasn't revealed, everyone could choose to be selectively blind.

If she were to confront Amane now, and if Mari couldn't control her emotions and broke through that barrier, and Amane didn't rush into her mother's arms as she had dreamed of, things would spiral out of control, and she would probably never have the chance to see Amane again.

but……

but……

But can a mother really ignore the enormous temptation to spend more time with her child who is so close to her?

Marina knew that what she was doing was a foolish emotional impulse.

But when she placed her hand on Tianyin's soft hair, an unprecedented sense of satisfaction, like a warm current, filled her chest.

"Heavenly Sound..."

Driven by that warm emotion, Marina couldn't help but softly call out Amane's name. The next second, Marina realized what was happening and quickly covered her mouth.

"Mmm..."

Tianyin responded in a low voice as if in a dream, then made the sound of teeth clashing.

It looked as if Tianyin was dreaming of some delicious food.

"call……"

Marina patted her chest in relief. She had almost thought she was about to be exposed, but it turned out that the little glutton was just dreaming about delicious food.

Should we prepare some delicious food for Tianyin tomorrow?

Marina lay down on the ground to the side with a smile.

Marina, seemingly oblivious to the dust and sawdust on her white tracksuit, lay on her side, gazing intently at the sleeping child beside her.

Marina reached out and carefully stroked Amane's cheek. She had only touched her once before, more than ten years ago, when Amane had just given birth to her. At that time, Amane's face was still small and soft.

The fingertips lingered on Tianyin's face for a few seconds, then transformed into a palm and stroked Tianyin's cheek.

Sometimes you can't help but sigh that greed is indeed human nature.

Even Kiryuin Marina, who had been practicing kendo day after day for fifteen years and whose self-control was so terrifying that even Kiryuin Kaede thought she was a pervert, couldn't suppress her primal instincts at this moment and quietly leaned over to lightly touch Amane's cheek.

"Sleep soundly, I'm here with you..."

Before Marina could finish her gentle words, an unpleasant voice suddenly rang out behind her.

Who are you?

Chapter 108: The Performers

Kanzaki watched the white figure lying next to Amane with tension.

After being knocked unconscious by Amane, Kanzaki regained consciousness after several hours. However, before he could even check his injuries, he caught a glimpse of a figure lying on its side next to Amane out of the corner of his eye.

Her snow-white figure seemed so out of place in the pitch-black night.

At first, Kanzaki wasn't too surprised. After all, he was aware of the rumors about Amane. Maybe he had arranged to meet a woman here in secret. If that were the case, his sudden awakening might ruin the current atmosphere.

After hesitating for a few seconds, Kanzaki made up his mind that he should continue to pretend to be asleep, otherwise everyone would be in an awkward situation.

But just as Kanzaki was about to fall asleep, a casual glance sent chills down his spine. The woman had an exquisite katana and a bloodstained iron spike at her waist.

The iron cone gleamed in the moonlight, its chilling light sending a shiver down Kanzaki's spine.

This discovery immediately brought Kanzaki to his senses.

In the dead of night, a woman approached Amane with a blood-stained iron awl. If she said she was just there to see Amane, Kanzaki would never believe it, not even if he were beaten to death.

Thump, thump...

Oh no.

Feeling his heart racing, Kanzaki quickly closed his eyes. At that moment, he had to find a way to rescue Amane or protect himself.

However, simply pretending to be asleep was not a realistic option; he needed to come up with a perfect solution.

Forcing himself to calm down, Kanzaki began to analyze the current situation. Judging from the other party's open and aboveboard attitude, the woman must be a master. Otherwise, she would never have come to carry out an assassination while wearing sportswear. In that case, Kanzaki's strength would definitely not be able to defeat such a highly professional assassin.