A finger rested atop the King, tilting the piece at an angle. Ren propped his head up with his right hand, looking boredly at the chessboard where the outcome was already decided a brutal victory.
Sitting opposite him, Arisu Sakayanagi's fingertips turned slightly white. Her body trembled faintly from mental exhaustion.
Ignoring the candy Ren offered, Arisu raised her beautiful purple eyes and stared intently at him.
They had played a total of five games. Every single time, Ren had won with a devastating board state.
Once might be a fluke. Twice might be good luck. But three, four, five times? Could the fifth time still be explained away by luck?
Everything pointed to a truth that frightened Arisu slightly: Ren was intentionally controlling every game.
In these five games, every single piece on Ren's side was used to perfection.
Except...
The King.
From the very beginning, the piece named "King" had never made a single move.
Checkmated? Sacrifice the lives of other pieces to block it.
Cold and ruthless, treating the lives of other pieces as nothing.
As a radical chess player herself, Arisu would sometimes make such choices, but only after careful consideration.
Ren was different.
It was as if he were deliberately telling Arisu something. No matter what crisis arose, that King never took a step.
The King, sitting high on the throne, seemed not to care about the lives of his soldiers below. Every choice was filled with bloodshed and cruelty.
This was completely different from when Ren told Arisu she needed a ticket.
Back then, Ren had placed his King at the very front of the soldiers.
"Sakayanagi-san, you really are a genius."
Releasing his fingertip from the King, Ren acknowledged Arisu's genius status.
The King, which had been tilted, stood firmly once again in the position it had never left.
"Katsuragi-kun, saying that in this situation sounds like mockery no matter how I hear it."
Losing so miserably, yet having Ren say he recognized her as a genius—Arisu found it laughable no matter how she listened.
It was like...
The pity of the strong for the weak.
Or like...
The Hero in a novel who fought his way through obstacles, overcoming untold hardships to finally reach the Demon King.
The Hero thought he could at least fight the Demon King to a draw, only to be instantly defeated by a single punch.
As if that wasn't enough, the Demon King then walked up to the Hero, patted him on the shoulder, and comforted him: "You are already very strong."
How ironic.
The countless tribulations the Hero thought he had overcome were merely the threshold to see the Demon King.
"Does Sakayanagi-san think Kiyotaka Ayanokoji is a genius?"
Ren didn't dwell on whether Arisu was a genius or not. Instead, he brought up Kiyotaka Ayanokoji.
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji of the White Room was called the most perfect artificial genius by that group of ignorant adults.
Even Arisu had admitted that he was a genius, albeit an artificial one.
"To me, there is no difference between Sakayanagi-san and Kiyotaka Ayanokoji."
"Since Sakayanagi-san thinks Kiyotaka Ayanokoji is a genius, then Sakayanagi-san, who is on the same level as him, is naturally a genius too."
People in society are divided into classes, and geniuses are also divided into classes.
As a human, Ren was born at the peak of society.
As a genius, Ren was the same.
In Ren's eyes, geniuses were divided into only two types.
One type was the genius who could see his back. The other type was the genius who wasn't even qualified to peek at him.
Which type of genius Arisu belonged to... who knew?
"Katsuragi-kun, am I that annoying to you?" Arisu lowered her beautiful eyes, her tone becoming somewhat dejected.
In Arisu's view, Ren kept mentioning Ayanokoji in front of her simply to shift her attention from himself to Ayanokoji.
Regarding her appearance, Arisu was quite confident.
In a novel, relying on her appearance, she would be a white-haired loli, with a soft body and soft voice—easy to push down.
A character with such maxed-out buffs would surely be a heartthrob.
"Sakayanagi-san, don't pretend."
Ren wouldn't fall into Arisu's trap of the "fragile white flower" so easily.
Too green.
Ren had seen enough of these sad faces from Chie-chan and Kikyo-chan.
He wasn't buying it one bit.
"My, my, Katsuragi-kun~ Do I really have so little charm?"
Seeing her disguise seen through, Arisu put away her small expression, and a smile returned to her face.
After carefully observing Arisu's figure, Ren rubbed his chin and said matter-of-factly, "Mhm... You have plenty of charm, but it would be hard for you to bear children."
"???"
Arisu's face stiffened.
She was just teasing as usual; she never expected Ren to answer her question so solemnly.
This actually threw Arisu off.
"Katsuragi-kun... should I say you are honest, or should I say you are a hentai?"
From Ren's tone, Arisu could tell he was simply evaluating her body.
In this situation,
Arisu would rather Ren say she had health issues than imply her figure was lacking.
No matter how old a girl is, she is always competitive in this regard.
"Sakayanagi-san, I'm just telling the truth, aren't I?" Ren spread his hands, feigning innocence.
Hands spread, nothing to do with me.
Arisu ground her teeth in anger. "You'd better be!"
Having nowhere to vent her anger, Arisu noticed the candy Ren had placed on the chessboard. She snatched it up, unwrapped it, and popped it into her mouth.
To Arisu's surprise, the candy Ren prepared this time wasn't the usual hard candy, but jam-filled candy.
With a hard candy shell, the core of each piece contained different jams or marshmallows.
The jam inside was very helpful for Arisu, who was frail and had overused her brain.
The corner of Arisu's mouth curled up as she thought of a good way to get revenge. "Katsuragi-kun, you really are gentle~"
Didn't Ren dislike her saying he was gentle? Then she would say it on purpose.
"Crazy."
Ren indeed disliked the word "gentle."
The true trait corresponding to the word "gentle" is a person who calmly accepts the result of being hurt just to avoid bringing pressure to others.
Ren was selfish. There was no such thing as him calmly accepting the result of being hurt.
Either you get beaten to death by me, or your whole family gets beaten to death by me.
That was Ren.
"Gentle"
Seeing Ren push the door open and leave, Arisu, chewing on the candy, felt a few degrees happier.
...
"Ren-kun, you're finally back~"
Lying on Ren's exclusive lounge chair, Chie Hoshinomiya waved when she saw him walking over.
Hearing Chie call Ren's name, the other three girls also looked over.
"Ren-kun~"
"Ren..."
"Bastard!"
When the girls returned, they saw Chie lying near the villa by the lounge chair, next to a barbecue grill and a series of facilities for enjoyment.
They didn't need to guess to know whose handiwork this was.
The two angels, Ichinose and Kushida, took the initiative to take over the grilling. They stood in front of the grill, seriously turning the grilled fish and other vegetable skewers that Ren had already prepared.
Airi, meanwhile, squatted beside the giant grouper, using a small towel to wipe the body of Mochi, who had eaten until he was a bloody little kitten.
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