67: Fellowship

The surrounding whispers surged in like a tide, and only then did Furuhashi Fumino realize, belatedly, how easily her previous words could be misunderstood.

"Ahhh—what am I saying!" She covered her instantly blushing face with both hands, "It must be because I've been reading too many romance manga while staying up late recently..."

Lin Luo looked at her pretty face, which was blushing all the way from her cheeks to her ears, layer upon layer like an evening sunset, and smiled helplessly, "If you have something to say, let's go somewhere else. If we don't leave now, I'm afraid I'll be 'attacked' by your 'fan club' on the spot."

In an unused classroom in the laboratory building, the atmosphere was subtly divided into two camps.

"I have already understood your situation, and I have agreed to Teacher Kirisu's request." Lin Luo broke the silence first.

"Um... why did you agree, Lin Luo?" Furuhashi Fumino clasped her hands in front of her chest, her eyes trembling slightly, "Knowing about the choices Ogata and I made, won't you laugh at us?"

"Why do you think I would laugh at you?" Lin Luo crossed his fingers and looked at her calmly, "Although I don't know why you want to give up the Domain you excel in, since you are still persisting despite the opposition of so many teachers, you must have a reason you cannot give up."

"There are too many people in this world who live in a daze, just living for the sake of living." His voice was gentle yet firm, "When a person finds a goal and is willing to bear the pressure and carry the burden to move forward, to use a phrase from a book—you are 'people who have found your own light'."

Under the attentive gazes of the two girls, he solemnly concluded, "Therefore, no one has the right to laugh at you."

"Stare—"

Furuhashi Fumino suddenly leaned in with her hands on the table, her clear brown eyes staring unblinkingly at Lin Luo. He could even clearly see his own reflection in the girl's pupils.

A scent of a young girl, mixed with the fragrance of shampoo, wafted towards him.

"Too close." Lin Luo leaned back to avoid her.

"Rizu-chan!" Furuhashi Fumino sat back in her seat with a slightly red face, tugging on the sleeve of the legal loli beside her, her voice as melodious as a flower bud blooming in early spring, "Lin Luo didn't lie, all I saw in his eyes was sincerity!"

As a literary Genius, she had always been good at discerning whether others were being insincere—but this time, there was absolutely none.

"Even if he didn't lie..." Ogata Rizu, who had been silent all this time, finally spoke. She lifted her small face to glance at Lin Luo, then quickly looked away, "Maybe in two days he will be like the other teachers, find it troublesome, and give up on us."

"Eh? Eh?" Furuhashi Fumino blinked, immediately clasping her hands together and looking at Lin Luo with pitiful eyes that spelled out "Please don't abandon us." Even though she was supposed to be a proud daughter of heaven standing at the top of the campus pyramid, at this moment she was like a small animal worried about being abandoned.

"That won't happen," Lin Luo said calmly, "You need to trust my training, and you also need to have confidence in yourselves."

"Training?"

Furuhashi Fumino's eyes widened, her hands covered her chest, and she leaned back, a faint blush spreading across her pretty face as she stammered, "Um... Lin Luo, I only want to focus on studying right now. And, and I don't want to do some strange things just for the sake of studying... lewd things are absolutely not allowed..."

Ogata Rizu's reaction was even more straightforward, "Pervert?"

"You two are overthinking it." Lin Luo's face darkened slightly, and he couldn't help but rub his forehead, "Flat chests are not in my aesthetic range, you little ones should grow some more!"

"Flat... flat chest... that's true." Furuhashi Fumino dimmed at a speed visible to the naked eye, as if she had lost her color in an instant, "I'm really sorry, someone like me should just find a corner and disappear quietly..."

Ogata Rizu also puffed out her cheeks, glaring at Lin Luo with her round eyes, her small palms tightly clenched into fists.

A displeased click of the tongue suddenly came from the other side of the classroom.

"From just now, you guys have been chattering away endlessly over there." A magnetic female voice sounded, filled with obvious displeasure, "It's ruined my train of thought for outlining the next script. Rinri-kun, this is supposed to be the activity room our interest group applied for, right? Can I ask you to please ask the irrelevant people to leave?"

The person speaking was a beautiful girl who could be described as enchanting. She had long, smooth, jet-black hair, dark red pupils, and a voluptuous, curvy figure. Although she appeared quiet on the outside, she was clearly quite displeased at the moment because her creative train of thought had been interrupted—as the writer for the club, such interference was indeed unbearable.

"This..." Aki Tomoya, suddenly called out, was taken aback, snapping out of the state of enthusiastically introducing things to Kato Megumi. He had previously been excitedly explaining his still quite rough game project, as well as the doujin game club "blessing software" that was in preparation—though, since the number of members wasn't complete yet, they could only operate as an interest group for the time being.

After all, the visitors were friends of Kato Megumi, so asking them to leave directly would be too rude, and besides, everyone was a classmate...

Kato Megumi spoke up at the right moment to defuse the situation, "I'm really sorry, how about I take them out first?"

"No need, no need!" Aki Tomoya hurriedly waved his hands, then turned to Kato Megumi and bowed formally at a ninety-degree angle, "Kato-san, my introduction isn't finished yet, please make sure to hear it in full before deciding whether to join. Our club really needs a Soul figure like you!"

After straightening up, he looked sincerely at Lin Luo and his group, "I'm really sorry, could I trouble you all to speak a little softer? Senior Kasumigaoka doesn't like to be disturbed when she's creating."

"Let's begin." Lin Luo didn't care about the interlude on the other side at all, and pulled out two notebooks from who knows where, "Before studying, let's do a simple test... finish these questions within ten minutes."

"Understood!" When it came to serious matters, Furuhashi Fumino immediately perked up, clenching her pink fists, "I will do my best, I won't let Lin Luo down!"

Ogata Rizu took out a pencil, pushed up the glasses on the bridge of her nose, and said expressionlessly, "I don't mind."

Time passed quietly.

One minute...

Three minutes...

Five minutes...

Lin Luo put down the English workbook in his hand and narrowed his eyes as he looked at the two Genius girls opposite him.

"Don't, don't look at me..." Furuhashi Fumino covered her cheeks, her shameful voice leaking out from between her fingers, "I clearly said I would do my best, but as a result, I can't even write a single question... someone like me is really only suited to be an autistic mushroom in the corner..."

"The question is wrong!" Ogata Rizu puffed out her cheeks, a rare occurrence, and slapped her pencil onto the table, "It actually asks 'what kind of mood did the first falling autumn leaf express for the protagonist'... a tree is a tree, it was planted there before the protagonist was even born. Falling leaves could be due to drought, pests, or simply because it's autumn; what does that have to do with the protagonist's mood?"

She pushed up her glasses again, her small face serious, "Humans are inherently creatures unable to empathize; sometimes we don't even know what we are thinking ourselves, so how could we possibly know someone else's mood?"

Lin Luo suddenly spoke, "But I know your mood right now."

"Eh?"

He looked at the serious-faced legal loli and retorted, "—'I can't do this question, it's all the question setter's fault'."

Ogata Rizu: "..."

"I have already understood the situation."

Lin Luo scanned the blank test papers in the two girls' hands and immediately concluded—their level in the areas they weren't good at was indeed enough to compete for the bottom of the grade.

"Do this test paper." He took out two more test papers and handed them to Furuhashi Fumino and Ogata Rizu.

While the two were buried in answering the questions, he stood up and walked to the other side of the classroom—where a slightly noisy commotion was coming from.

He had originally intended to make it quick, just waiting for Kato Megumi to finish hearing Aki Tomoya's explanation before taking them away. Who knew that this glasses-wearing otaku couldn't stop once he started, and stubbornly talked for over half an hour. Based on that rough project proposal alone, it shouldn't have lasted this long, but he had actually started to endlessly analyze the pros and cons of various games on the market midway through, attempting to use this to clarify his original intention for making games.

What was even more awkward was that he also mentioned the stunning feeling he had when he first met Kato Megumi, stating bluntly that if she didn't serve as the heroine, this game could never be completed. Such a straightforward statement made Kato Megumi, who was already not good at refusing, even more unsure of how to interrupt.

If it weren't for considering Kato Megumi's position, Lin Luo would have already left with the three of them; why bother accommodating this guy who was immersed in his own world?

However, at this moment—as a new member burst in, the scene was like cold water splashed into hot oil, instantly exploding. Kasumigaoka Utaha, who had been quietly creating, watched with cold eyes while crossing her arms, and the blonde twin-tailed girl who had just arrived was arguing with her "Rinri-kun" until her face was red.

"E-Eriri?" Aki Tomoya panicked instantly, "It's not what you think! I'm just formally inviting Kato-san..."

"Ha? Formally inviting?" Eriri interrupted unceremoniously, "With that project proposal of yours that doesn't even have a complete basic framework, why should anyone believe you?"

"That's because..."

"Enough."

A cold, clear female voice intervened in the dispute. Kasumigaoka Utaha, who had been watching coldly all along, slowly stood up, her long black hair swaying gently, with a hint of mockery in her dark red eyes.

"Sawamura-san, interrupting someone's conversation is very rude." The corners of her lips curled up slightly, her tone carrying a subtle sarcasm, "Or is it that you just couldn't help but come to assert your ownership the moment you saw Rinri-kun talking to other girls?"

"Kasumigaoka Utaha!" Eriri bristled like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, "Stop talking nonsense over there!"

"Isn't it?" Utaha elegantly brushed back her long hair, her gaze turning to Aki Tomoya, "However, Rinri-kun, Sawamura-san is not wrong. That so-called project of yours really does need a lot of polishing."

Aki Tomoya, caught between the two girls, appeared at a loss. Kato Megumi, on the other hand, quietly observed this sudden dispute throughout, her expression calm and unruffled.

"Since that's the case, there shouldn't be anything for us to do here, right?" As Lin Luo said this, he had already naturally taken Kato Megumi's hand, preparing to leave.

"To be precise, this place has had nothing to do with you from the very beginning." Kasumigaoka Utaha's light remark precisely stabbed at Lin Luo, while also taking a swipe at Aki Tomoya, "The person Rinri-kun originally wanted to invite was merely this Kato-san."

This sentence was like a stone thrown into a calm lake, instantly stirring up layers of ripples—not only making Aki Tomoya awkwardly push up his glasses, but also successfully igniting the anger of the blonde twin-tailed girl beside him.

"You guys go ahead and get back to it..."

Kato Megumi said softly, while gently pushing Lin Luo's back, leading him to the other side of the classroom. Her movements were natural and fluid, both avoiding the impending dispute and drawing Lin Luo's attention back to Furuhashi Fumino and Ogata Rizu, who were concentrating on answering the questions.

Kasumigaoka Utaha's gaze followed the two, a hint of playfulness curling the corners of her lips. Meanwhile, Eriri glared angrily at Aki Tomoya, clearly still holding a grudge about what had just happened.