At the mention of this, Kotori's expression instantly became a bit strange. She scratched her cheek, seemingly finding it difficult to speak.
She waved her hand helplessly, signaling the operator to bring up the lip-reading analysis results from that time.
The main screen immediately showed a close-up of Chinatsu's profile as she looked back, along with the analyzed text below:
[I don't like such greasy boys, you know]
Shido: "...???"
He blinked, his face filled with shock and bewilderment.
Greasy? Him? When did he become greasy? This was completely different from any farewell message he had anticipated.
—whether it was a warning, encouragement, or a riddle—
Kotori covered her forehead, with an expression of "what the heck," trying to salvage some dignity for the analysis department:
"Uh... this... maybe it was an angle issue at the time, or the AI analysis algorithm had a slight deviation? After all, it was so far away..."
"No! This is absolutely a manifestation of love!!!"
Just then, Vice Commander Kyohei Kannazuki appeared out of nowhere, holding his hands to his heart, his face flushed with intoxication, and loudly exclaimed in an operatic tone:
"This is clearly Miss Heavenly Judgment being jealous! She saw Shido-kun's 'passionate' conversations with Tobiichi Origami and Teacher Okamine Tamae, and her heart was churning with jealousy."
"But constrained by her proud persona, she couldn't say it directly, only using such sharp sarcasm to hide her true feelings! What tsundere! What..."
"Bang!"
Before he could finish, Kotori, unable to bear it any longer, delivered a precise, fierce kick that sent the deranged vice Commander flying out of the bridge, and the world instantly became quiet.
Reine pushed up her glasses, ignoring the brief interlude, and calmly continued: "Although Kannazuki's way of expressing it is problematic, the... possibility is not zero."
She brought up another set of data: a global spiritual power fluctuation monitoring map.
"Look here. Since the industrial district incident, the spiritual power fluctuations of the Heavenly Judgment Herrscher have completely disappeared globally."
"If she truly, as we speculate, inherited the core of the Herrscher of Reason and knew the so-called 'truth,' intending to seek revenge or execute the 'Anti-Entropy' plan, then DEM's various bases and facilities would never be so calm."
She pointed at the screen, which showed real-time monitoring data of several important DEM strongholds, all normal.
"With her authority over space and lightning, even if the power of 'Reason' has not fully recovered, it would be no difficult feat for her to launch precise strikes against DEM strongholds that lack a strong presence like Ellen Mathers. But she hasn't."
"More importantly, her appearance today, her spiritual power fluctuations were suppressed to the extreme; had it not been for Tohka's testimony and our prior locking, she would have been almost undetectable. This is completely different from her first appearance, when her mere presence caused wind pressure to destroy the area."
Kotori crossed her arms, reaching the final conclusion, and looked sharply at Shido:
"What does this mean? It means she is not an out-of-control disaster, but is deliberately controlling her power, avoiding unnecessary destruction and attention. And she chose to appear today, when you were undergoing 'practical training'..."
At the mention of "practical training," Shido couldn't help but lower his head guiltily, scenes of himself expressionlessly repeating "marry me," "smell gym clothes," and other suggestive remarks flashing through his mind, his cheeks burning. Although he was just a repeater, Chinatsu didn't know the inside story!
Kotori looked at Shido's appearance, snorted impatiently, and delivered the conclusion that made Shido's heart pound:
"This means that this girl is probably watching you from some corner at all times! The moment she saw you being trained by Fraxinus into that'shameless, greasy scumbag who says suggestive things without batting an eye,' she immediately couldn't sit still and jumped out to rein you in! That line, 'I don't like greasy boys,' might just be her true feelings!"
Shido was completely stunned.
This conclusion subtly aligned with his deep-seated intuition that he didn't want to believe Chinatsu was purely evil.
If she truly had ulterior motives, why would she care if he was "greasy"? Why would she specifically appear during his "practical training"?
And why would she leave such a... personally emotional remark when she departed?
Everything seemed to have come full circle, but this time, a different light seemed to shine through the mist.
Chinatsu's motives were far more complex than they imagined, and Shido's place in her heart also seemed to be far from insignificant.
Watching me...?
Shido looked at the line of "greasy" lip-reading analysis on the main screen, his feelings complicated and hard to describe.
-------------------------
If you enjoy this story, you can read 70+ advanced chapters on Patreon!
Webnovel will keep getting 1 new chapter every day but Patreon readers can stay far ahead.
Maybe it's not a big deal now… maybe it will be later.
[email protected]/Rexlent
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"