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

Immediately afterwards, Arisu gently tapped his head with the back of his finger.

"I think you're pretty unserious. You should think about what you're going to ask first."

Being called indecent by Arisu was a huge blow to Amane, who felt that she was at least quite proper in front of others.

"Isn't there still Hiyori who hasn't been asked yet? I'll wait until she finishes asking before it's my turn."

As Amane spoke, everyone turned their attention to Shiina, who had remained silent.

Shiina felt a little embarrassed by everyone's stares, and blushed as she quietly asked a question.

Question 7: Is the other person furry?

When the members of the Tianyin group heard Shiina remain silent for a long time and then ask such a question, they were all dumbfounded.

But upon closer inspection, it doesn't seem to be a problem.

"Yes! By the way, it's very cute! Ahem..."

Realizing she had said something unnecessary, Hoshinomiya quickly resumed her professional smile.

According to the rules, everyone should ask at least one question. The group representative has the right to ask three questions, which means that the remaining three questions will be asked by Tianyin. So everyone's attention turned to Tianyin.

Question 8: The treasure is inside the ski resort.

"no."

Question 9: The treasure is on the snow mountain.

"no."

Question 10: The treasure is in the forest.

"Yes……"

Teacher Hoshinomiya looked at Amane with a strange expression.

In Tianyin's group, most of the students are students with exceptional learning abilities, but only Tianyin noticed the most crucial issue.

This treasure hunt isn't about guessing what the treasure is to win; the real goal is to find the treasure.

To find treasure, you must know where it is hidden.

The questions asked by the previous people all revolved around the type of treasure. While the type of treasure is important, this is not a puzzle game where you only need to know the true identity of the treasure. This treasure hunt requires teams to bring the treasure back, so the most crucial part is where the treasure is hidden.

The area centered around the ski resort is extremely vast, including unique terrain such as snow-capped mountains and forests. Without confirming the location of the treasure, it might take more than four hours, or even a whole day, to find it.

"So you wanted to narrow down the search area? Miyako-kun is quite resourceful! So what should we do now? Should we just go into the forest to look for treasure?"

Ando's eager look elicited kind smiles from everyone.

"Ando, ​​don't rush. From the ground, there are three entrances in the direction of the forest, which means that if we want to find the treasure as quickly as possible, we need to split into at least three teams."

Tianyin pulled out a map from somewhere and pointed in the direction of the forest. Strictly speaking, the forest is not very large. Although the other end of the forest is connected to a famous mountain range, there is a cliff separating the two sections, so this forest located east of the ski resort is not very big.

However, although the forest is not large, it has little development value and the trees inside are species that need to be protected, so there are basically no particularly good roads. So far, there are only three small paths opened up by forest rangers or hunters for convenience.

These three paths are separated by the terrain, and from mid-air they look like the tip of a trident. Crossing from one path to another requires a lot of time to climb undeveloped hillsides to reach the other path, which is even more time-consuming and laborious than turning back and choosing a new path. Therefore, if you want to search this small forest in the shortest amount of time, the best way is to split into three groups and proceed together.

"Three squads? But we only have eight people in total..."

Yukimura had reservations about Amane's plan to split into three groups because, among these people, Yukimura's physical condition was relatively poor. No matter who he teamed up with, he might slow down the other person. He himself was not confident that he could find treasure while exploring the forest. If something unexpected happened, such as spraining his ankle, he would lose the ability to move. If everyone explored together, they could at least look out for each other.

If the troops are split into three groups, each team will only have two or three people. If he is assigned to a girl, frankly, Yukimura is not confident that he can take care of her.

"To be precise, there are seven. I'm very sorry to have held everyone back. Although I wanted to go with everyone, my physical condition doesn't allow me to explore the forest..."

"Please don't worry about it. This isn't your fault, Sakayanagi-san. The seven of us are enough, right, Miyako?"

Seeing Arisu's remorseful expression, Madoka quickly comforted her and then turned the conversation back to Amane.

“Tomoyo is right. Just wait here for our good news. As for the group assignments, I’ve decided to go down one path by myself. The six of you will explore the remaining two paths in groups of three. Any questions?”

Tianyin's grouping method seemed a bit simple and crude, but no one questioned Tianyin's physical strength, so although the allocation of numbers was a bit strange, most people nodded and accepted the arrangement.

Except for one person.

Sakayanagi Arisu was not satisfied with this arrangement because, in her view, this group treasure hunt was an excellent opportunity to continue to bring Arisu and Shiina together, so she hoped that Amane could bring Shiina along.

However, compared to bringing Shiina along, it is clear that Amane is more likely to be moved by her alone. So how can she persuade Amane?

"Is there something you want to say to me, Arisu?"

Just as Arisu was still pondering her words, Amane's face suddenly appeared in front of her, startling her.

"Tianyin, why are you so close? You startled me..."

"Sorry, sorry. I just thought you seemed to have something to say to me, so I came over to listen. Who knew you were just daydreaming? If you don't have anything to say to me, I'm off on my treasure hunt now!"

After Tianyin finished speaking, she began to tidy her clothes, ready to take action at any time.

Seeing that Amane was about to leave, Arisu started to get a little anxious. However, she couldn't think of a good reason to get Amane to bring Shiina along in a short time. In the end, Arisu had no choice but to take the most direct approach.

"Amane, please include Shiina in your group as well."

"Eh? But I might implicate Tianyin..."

"No problem, is there anything else?"

Shiina seemed a little flustered when she suddenly heard Arisu ask Amane to take her along, but before she could voice her concerns, Amane readily agreed.

The decisiveness of her actions surprised even Shiina. Amane agreed without even asking for a reason. Did Amane originally want to be on her team, or... did Amane trust Arisu to this extent?

"be careful on the road."

"Okay, don't worry, I'll take good care of myself and Hiyori. Let's go then!"

Have a safe journey.

As Amane left, Hoshinomiya-sensei also pressed the timer.

If it were any other group, Ms. Hoshinomiya would have actually planned to reveal some information, since as a teacher she wouldn't want her students to spend four hours aimlessly searching for so-called treasures in this temperature.

But the leader of this group is Tianyin. With Tianyin around, there shouldn't be any need for instructions. With Tianyin's abilities, completing this treasure hunt should be a very easy task.

Soon, Hoshinomiya-sensei will feel immense regret for not giving Amane a hint.

Tianyin and her group of seven arrived at the entrance of the forest. Looking at the three narrow paths in front of them, which were entirely made by people walking on them, Tianyin quickly divided them into groups.

Amane and Shiina entered through the leftmost path to search for the treasure, while Yukimura and Albert entered through the rightmost path. The three with the most members, Matoba, Hamaguchi, and Ando, ​​started their search through the middle path.

After the groups were assigned, the three groups began their respective forest treasure hunt tasks.

Happy Lunar New Year's Eve everyone!!!

Chapter 314: Baby Bear

Amane and Shiina walked carefully along the path trodden by the forest rangers.

It is already morning, but because it is a cloudy day, the sky is gray and overcast, especially in the forest.

At first, the two didn't notice anything unusual, but after Tianyin led Shiina through the narrow path, they realized that they could barely see the road in front of them.

The gray sky and thick, murky fog reduced visibility in the forest to its lowest point. Worried that the two would get separated, Tenon had to hold Shiina's hand, afraid that Shiina would lose her if she wasn't careful.

However, compared to the worried Amane, Shiina, who was being led by the hand, had a big smile on her face. At this moment, whether or not she could find the treasure was no longer important to her.

If she could, she even hoped that Tianyin could hold her hand forever and walk on like this forever...

After walking a short distance, Amane suddenly bent down and touched the soil on the ground. Seeing Amane doing such a strange thing, Shiina asked her curiously.

"Tianyin, have you discovered something?"

"We're out of luck; there might not be any treasure on this road."

Amane's answer surprised Shiina. Even though she considered herself very good at reasoning, she didn't know why Amane was so sure that there would be no treasure on their path.

"Although I'm not quite sure where the school would hide the treasure, according to the map we've only traveled less than 1% of this road. Tianyin, how did you determine that the treasure isn't here?"

Shiina picked up the map and compared it. Actually, she didn't need the map to know that the distance they had explored was insignificant compared to the length of the road. They had only been there for less than ten minutes, and because of the thick fog, they were walking very slowly, at most about two hundred meters. Walking two hundred meters in any forest can hardly be called exploration.

"Yesterday's snow made the soil here very damp. Hiyori, look back. We left footprints all the way here. According to the clues provided by Hoshinomiya-sensei, the treasure is a living animal. So the school couldn't possibly have arranged for this animal to run to the designated location on its own, right? In other words, this animal needs someone to escort it to reach the designated location. But there's only one path here. If the school really hid the treasure on this path, there's no reason why we wouldn't see the footprints left by the staff."

There are only two possibilities to avoid leaving traces. One is that the staff did not walk along the road but instead weaved through the gaps between the trees on the hillside. In this case, although the traces would not be easy to find, the progress would be very difficult and there would be a risk of accidents while transporting the treasure. I don't think the school needs to go to such great lengths for a small game, nor do I think they would notice such details as footprints.

Another possibility is that the staff delivered the treasure to the designated location before it snowed yesterday. However, if I remember correctly, it snowed around 3 pm yesterday. That means if the treasure was delivered before that, the staff and the treasure would have been at the designated location for 30 hours and had been soaked in snow all night. I find it hard to imagine what it would be like to spend the night alone in the forest on a snowy night in Hokkaido. Even with warm clothing, it would be difficult to guarantee that nothing bad would happen to the staff.

Of course, I'm only saying "maybe." Perhaps the school will notice such a subtle detail as footprints, but I'm more inclined to believe the treasure is simply not on this path than to put staff at risk.

Amane's analysis was so logical and well-founded that Shiina began to doubt whether he and Amane were really just unlucky to have chosen the path without any treasure.

"It seems that's true. Should we go further in? If we don't find anything on this path, someone on the other two paths should be able to find treasure."

Amane glanced at the thick fog in front of her. After deciding that she wouldn't find any treasures if she continued, she decided to turn back. However, she thought that Arisu had deliberately paired her with Shiina, probably hoping that she and Shiina could spend more time together. If she went back now, Arisu might call her an idiot. So she decided to continue exploring further to pass the time.

"Let's continue walking in."

"Huh? Tianyin, didn't you say this road was wrong? Then why are you still..."

"Why go back so early when you have the chance to go out and have fun with Rihe?"

"Tian, ​​Tianyin, you...you mean...you want to stay with me a little longer?"

Shiina asked somewhat uncertainly.

"Of course, I believe no one could refuse to be with a cute girl like you, Hiyori, right?"

"Oh, stop it! Don't say things that make people shy... Actually... I also want to spend more time with you, Tianyin..."

Shiina blushed and whispered, and the next second her hand was tightly grasped by an even warmer hand.

"Then let's just wander around here."

"Um……"

Amane, holding Shiina's hand, slowly began to explore along the path. As their attention shifted from searching for treasure to taking a walk with the girl they liked, the forest no longer gave them the dark and gloomy feeling it initially did.

Every now and then, birdsong could be heard from some unknown tree, and occasionally small animals could be seen hopping around on the snow, seemingly searching for food for the winter.

At first, Shiina was a little reserved, responding to whatever Amane talked to her with a shy smile or short sentences. But as they continued to explore, Shiina gradually got used to the feeling of Amane holding her hand and began to act normally again. She even started talking to Amane about some mystery novels she had read and her dream of becoming a detective in the future.

As the two walked, they came to the foot of a towering tree. The giant tree, which was decorated with snowflakes and looked very beautiful, was annoyed by Amane's comment that it looked like a giant white mushroom. Shiina couldn't help but complain that Amane had ruined the atmosphere, and even made a small snowball and gently placed it on Amane's forehead to tease her.

Amane, naturally, launched a counterattack, and the two began to playfully fight. While dodging Amane's snowball attack, Shiina accidentally stepped on a rotten leaf covered in snow and slipped. Amane, not caring about bullying Shiina, quickly reached out and grabbed the falling Shiina, then pulled him into her arms.

"Luckily I reacted quickly, otherwise this fall would have kept you out of bed for days."

"It's all Tianyin's fault for bullying me... Luckily, Tianyin is here..."

Shiina, her face flushed, looked up and met Amane's gaze.

An ambiguous atmosphere gradually spread between the two. Feeling each other's body temperature and their accelerating heartbeats, Amane and Shiina seemed to be drawn to each other by some kind of magic.

The two exchanged brief glances.

"Should we be able to proceed from here?"

"It should be fine."

After receiving permission from Shiina's gaze, Amane lowered her head slightly and kissed Shiina's lips.

It was soft and slightly warm...

Just as Tianyin was eager to explore further, a strange sound interrupted their actions.

"Ouch~owoo~"

The sound of some kind of animal came from deep in the forest, which immediately made Tianyin's body tense up.

What was that sound?

Shiina looked towards the depths of the forest with some confusion, but Amane blocked her way behind him.

"Bear."

"A bear?! Amane, you're not kidding, are you? There are bears in the forest? Oh no, what about Yamada and the others..."

Shiina felt a chill run down her spine at the thought that the other two groups might encounter wild bear attacks as they explored deeper into the forest.

"Hiyori, call them now and tell them to abandon the treasure hunt and retreat."

As Tianyin spoke, she rummaged through her backpack and found a folding metal knife and a bottle of chemical agent that she had concocted herself that could instantly blind someone. Unlike pepper spray, this agent would corrode the cornea and cause permanent blindness if it accidentally touched it, so even Tianyin had to be very careful when using it.

Although it's unclear how effective it will be against bears, as long as there's only one bear, Tenon, who has killed bears in close combat, isn't afraid of them. On the contrary, the discovery of the bear caused Tenon's adrenaline to surge, and Tenon hadn't felt this peak physical state, where every cell in her body was active, in a long time.

"Okay, I'll contact them right away."

As Shiina spoke, he took out his phone and began to notify the other two teams to evacuate. In an ordinary forest, the remote location might result in no cell phone signal, but the trees in this forest were of a very rare species, there were dedicated forest rangers to guard it, and the ski resort was right next to it, so the communication facilities were relatively complete.