I'm in Teresin, dedicated to playing badly

Set up camp and rest.

With ample experience, a simple tent was set up in about ten minutes, and a small pot appeared in the open space in front of the tent, simmering with some carrots and canned meat.

It was a very simple meal, and Kitahara Shinji looked uncomfortable eating it; even Eclipse frowned.

"How about you learn to cook sometime?"

For some reason, Shinji Kitahara didn't really want to go into the kitchen, and could even be said to be somewhat resistant to cooking, so he never learned anything about it, and basically ate compressed dry food and canned meat alternately whenever he went out.

As always, Eclipse did not respond to Shinji Kitahara's question, but just stared at the small pot bubbling in front of him, lost in thought.

After finishing the meal, cleaning up the area, and making sure the flames were completely extinguished, Shinji Kitahara yawned, his eyelids starting to tremble.

It's time to rest.

He thought for a moment, then looked at the eclipse. He had originally intended to tell her to go to sleep, but when he looked over, he found that she was looking up at the stars in the sky and did not seem sleepy at all. After thinking about it, he decided to stay outside with her for a while.

"What are you looking at?"

Shinji Kitahara sat down next to her, looked up at the stars in the sky.

Originally, Shinji Kitahara's question was just a casual one, and he didn't expect her to be able to answer it.

But to his surprise, after a moment of silence, the eclipse actually answered his question.

“My future.”

She replied calmly.

Kitahara Shinji was stunned.

Her future?

Shinji Kitahara glanced at the sky and blinked.

So this child believes in things like astrology? Perhaps that could be a breakthrough...

What Shinji Kitahara didn't know was that although the eclipse was looking at the sky and it looked like she was looking at the stars, she couldn't actually see any stars at all, and she couldn't even see the moon.

Because in her field of vision, the entire night sky, wherever her eyes could reach, was covered with a layer of jellyfish-like substance, illusory, ethereal, layered, and constantly dancing, as if a white veil had enveloped the sky.

If you look more closely, you'll find that these ethereal and illusory substances fall from the higher heavens. In the far distance above, something seems to be pulling them along, and constantly producing and maintaining them.

Or, you could say it's 'rules'.

There are currently three such sources, but in the not-too-distant future, there may become four.

It's hard to say what the Eclipse thinks about this matter, and she herself may not even be sure what she thinks.

On this night, gazing at the gods in the sky, Eclipse inexplicably thought of something he had recently heard.

For every 100 meters increase in altitude, the temperature drops by 0.6 degrees Celsius.

Is it very cold at such a high altitude, so far above the ground?

Perhaps she should have worn a few more layers of clothing before going up?

She gazed at the sky, lost in thought for a moment.

But just as she was lost in thought, a pair of hands suddenly wrapped around her from behind, and then gently pulled her into their arms.

"The temperature has been dropping lately. Stargazing is fine, but remember to dress warmly..."

He held her in his arms and kept nagging, sounding like a mother hen.

She didn't respond, but after regaining her senses, she did feel a slight chill.

Although such temperature changes wouldn't affect her much given her constitution, she looked up at the sky and suddenly spoke, feeling the lingering coolness on her fingertips.

"If the ground is this cold, must it be even colder up there?"

Faced with her sudden question, although he didn't quite understand what it meant, Shinji Kitahara still answered as soon as he realized what was going on.

"Of course, didn't you just learn that for every 100 meters increase in altitude, the temperature drops by 0.6 degrees Celsius? And if it's too high, without the protection of the atmosphere, the temperature difference between day and night will be even greater—it'll be unbearably hot when it's hot and unbearably cold when it's cold..."

no answer.

The eclipse seemed to have never asked the question, continuing to calmly gaze at the sky without any further reaction.

As always, Shinji Kitahara didn't ask any further questions. He simply held her and watched the stars with her.

Cool breeze.

In a corner unnoticed by Shinji Kitahara, a petite figure nestled in his arms, resting her head against his chest, gazing at the hazy sky, a strange look flashing in her eyes.

She suddenly felt less inclined to go up.

Because it's too cold in the sky.

But his arms were warm.

Chapter 279: I won't bother you, I'm leaving.

What Shinji Kitahara didn't know was that shortly after he left the chairman's office, his female servants and even people connected to him received messages from Yayoi Akikawa. Subsequently, a planned organization headed by Yayoi Akikawa and centered around him began to slowly take shape in the shadows.

The horse girl, the trainer, and other people outside the school who had contact with him, along with the horse girl...

Grasshopper's Black Forest, the club run by Alice Digital, and the families behind his team and the horse girls outside the team...

Because of this storm of public opinion, the forces surrounding him that he had never noticed before spontaneously gathered together. At first, they were very weak, but they quickly grew stronger.

Especially because of the previous situation, they had already put aside much of their hostility towards each other. This time, due to the crisis and someone's attitude, they put aside their prejudices and joined hands again to plan how to fight against this storm of public opinion.

So what was Shinji Kitahara doing when undercurrents were surging and the storm was gradually gathering?

The answer is self-deprecation.

Don't get me wrong, it's not that he thinks he hasn't been criticized enough online.

In reality, given the circumstances in Japan, with public opinion escalating to this point, he is essentially socially dead, at the level where he would be pelted with rotten eggs whenever he goes out, far exceeding his initial goal of self-deprecation.

But even if his reputation is ruined, it doesn't matter. At worst, he can just resign on the surface, then secretly find a place to take care of this group of children, then find a place to settle down and live out the rest of his life in anonymity. But the children under his name still have to participate in the competition.

In order to ensure that the children and those around him would not be implicated by his reputation.

Although the storm of public opinion was already raging, Shinji Kitahara still showed no intention of running away. Instead, he stood at the very center of the storm, carefully controlling it so that it would only stay around him and not affect anyone else.

“Trainer Kitahara, I don’t think this is a good idea, and it might, well, be a little too dangerous for you…”

As a veteran trainer and a friend of Shinji Kitahara, Kazuya Hisato naturally received the news after the chairman began to take action. Based on his many years of experience as a trainer, he also sensed a dangerous atmosphere.

Although these beings, who were once at odds or even enemies, have united for a common goal, this classic shonen manga trope of good and evil joining forces sounds pretty good, and it proves that Shinji Kitahara's previous kindness to them was not in vain, but... this is Treson.

When the female horse girls are hostile to each other, it's alright; at least they can restrain each other and won't cause any real harm to the trainers.

But once they get used to working together, or even stop caring about each other's presence, then...

As Shinji Kitahara's senior, Kazuya Hisadou felt it was necessary to give him a heads-up. Even Taishi Mio, after hearing the news, took the opportunity during his break from being exploited to send him a few reminder messages.

"It's alright, it's just some gossip, I can handle it."

Faced with the well-intentioned reminders from his two seniors, Shinji Kitahara assumed they were worried he couldn't handle the online pressure, so he didn't take it seriously, gave a casual reply, and continued doing what he was doing.

Resilience, self-deprecation, documenting those who seem to be members of the Black Forest...

Training, nursing, and pretending nothing was happening, continuing to look after the little ones in the team as usual...

The scope of the black market members' identities was gradually narrowed down, and those around him were portrayed as victims to avoid the damage from the storm of public opinion.

Thanks to Shinji Kitahara's efforts, everything was progressing smoothly according to his previously given plan, and it seemed to be going very well, but...

"Get out of Treson, you cancerous trainer!"

"We will absolutely not tolerate the existence of such scoundrels among our trainers!"

Well, he admitted that things had developed a little beyond his expectations.

According to his original plan, although his reputation was bad and even aroused public outrage, his image as an "overly strict" trainer was not good, but it was not to the point of violating the law or moral bottom line. Even if the public opinion was turbulent, he could just pretend to be dead and not respond, and stay away from the school. He should be able to hold on for a while.

During this time, if he can find the black market members hiding behind the scenes and eliminate the mastermind, then given the internet's ability to remember, he might not even need to resign in advance; the matter could simply subside on its own in a couple of days.

But now, standing in the teaching building, looking at the crowds marching outside and the message from Daisuke Kamisato on his phone screen, he rubbed his temples and pondered for a while before sighing.

Although the chairperson hasn't sent him any messages or invited him over for a chat recently, judging from her behavior outside, she's probably under a lot of pressure right now.

Even Daisuke Kamiri's side stated that the government has been thrown into disarray by this matter, and they've been extremely busy lately. Furthermore, under the pressure of public opinion, several politicians aspiring to high office are putting pressure on Tresson...

"I guess I should just resign voluntarily..."

After some time of consideration, Shinji Kitahara decided to go to the chairman to resign.

He knew the chairperson would likely be very resistant to his proposal, and might even be angry, since she knew the whole story and that her efforts to withstand pressure from all sides were all to protect him.

But he didn't want it to be like this.

After all, a backup plan had been discussed beforehand. If the public pressure was really that great, he could simply resign nominally and then secretly continue to take care of those women. Apart from confirming his villainous status, making him take the blame, and making him less visible, it wouldn't actually have any impact.

Fortunately, although there were some slight errors in the estimation of public opinion, everything else was executed well. After several days of investigation and screening, he has now confirmed the identities of several black market members. If he were not worried about alerting them, he could have already asked someone to help investigate or even arrest them.

Thinking this, Shinji Kitahara walked to the door of the chairman's office after a long absence and knocked on the door.

"Please come in."

After receiving permission, Shinji Kitahara opened the door.

To his surprise, he had assumed that the chairman's office would still be the classic trio of Akikawa Yayoi, Surugawa Tezuna, and Kashimoto Riko. However, upon entering, he found that there were an unusually large number of people in the chairman's office.

Rudolf, Sirius, Aldan, Grasshopper, Ali Digital, and even Satomi Hikari...

Upon closer inspection, they were all people he knew.

Not only him, but the female horsemen inside the house were also stunned when they saw him enter.

"...Um, are you having a meeting?"

After seeing the situation inside the room, Shinji Kitahara swallowed back the words of resignation that were about to come out of his mouth.

He was indeed preparing to resign nominally, but that didn't mean he intended to resign directly. Instead, he planned to come and discuss it privately with the chairman first.

After all, the trainer's resignation, even if it's just a nominal one, is quite a shock to Ma Niang. Not to mention that the Satsuki Sho is just two days away, and he has a bunch of kids preparing for the competition. He doesn't want this to affect them.

"Then I won't bother you any longer, I'll be going now."

Shinji Kitahara prepared to leave.

But just as he was about to turn around and leave, to find another time to talk to the chairman, Akikawa Yayoi suddenly called out to him.

"Wait a minute! Trainer Kitahara, I also had something I was about to talk to you about. Now that you're here, don't leave yet."

Since Akikawa Yayoi had said so, Kitahara Shinji naturally couldn't leave. However, after sitting down, he was slightly puzzled, wondering what Akikawa Yayoi wanted to see him about.

Judging from the situation, it doesn't seem like he's under pressure and about to be fired. Could it be that Alice has pulled some stunt again? That seems possible...

"Chairman, may I ask what specific business you have with me?"

Shinji Kitahara asked.

"Good news! Trainer Kitahara, after discussing the problems you've been facing lately, we've come up with a solution..."

What problems have I been encountering recently?

Shinji Kitahara instinctively thought he hadn't encountered any problems lately, but then quickly realized that Yayoi Akikawa was probably referring to public opinion.

Upon hearing Akikawa Yayoi bring up the topic, Kitahara Shinji pondered for a moment. Although he couldn't directly resign because of the many people present, he prepared to express his opinion tactfully.

“Um, Chairman, I know my situation is a bit complicated right now, but I was prepared before anything started, and I don’t want my personal issues to affect Treson and everyone else…”

"Trainer Kitahara, do you think this is your 'personal reason'? And do you think that if you really take all the blame, it won't affect us?"

Rudolf spoke softly from the side, and the other horse girls all looked at him.

Shinji Kitahara fell silent.

To be honest, he knew that even if he bore all the blame, it would still have some impact on the people around him. At the very least, those who knew the truth would feel sad and indignant for him.

But there are no perfect options in the world, and he can only choose what he considers to be the more perfect one from two imperfect endings.

After a period of silence, Shinji Kitahara looked up at Yayoi Akikawa and asked.

"Chairman, how do you intend to resolve my current problem? However, I must clarify that while I appreciate your kindness, if this matter requires a significant price or would cause a lot of trouble, please allow me to reserve the right to refuse..."

"It's alright! I can assure you that this plan won't require any sacrifice, it's just..."

squeak-

The sound of the door being pushed open rang out.