Problems

The next day, Adam did not look well when he got up.

He had suffered from the rare bout of insomnia the night before.

The agitation in his bloodline made it impossible for him to think calmly, as though a wildly excited husky had taken up residence inside his body and was furiously tearing the place apart.

It could be understood as the restlessness of adolescence, one of the signs that his body was maturing.

As long as he endured this period, once his bloodline fully matured, Adam would be able to perfectly control it.

"I need to be careful. My thoughts aren't very clear, and I'm likely to leave flaws behind. These next few days, I should also come up with some excuses to leave myself more personal time and space."

A somewhat impatient Adam quickly left home and headed for the church. He did not know whether he could hide his abnormal state from Alva. With the other man's sharp perception, he most likely could not.

"So I also need to think of excuses to explain why I'm so distracted." Adam did not intend to voice those excuses. Instead, he intended to show them through his actions and let Alva and the others discover them.

After all, if he said it himself, people might think he was lying. But if he showed it and let others notice it on their own, it would be far more believable.

"As long as I get injured or fall ill, I can recuperate at home alone for a few days and get through these days of bloodline awakening safely." Adam had already begun thinking about it on the way there. Adel's injury had given him some inspiration, but he ultimately abandoned the idea of getting injured.

Adam was different from Adel. He had become extremely close with a group of priests before this. If he got hurt, some passing priest might simply toss a divine spell at him.

Adam, in his human state, could receive the healing effects of divine spells, but they would bring intense pain. It was like eating holy bread: it would not harm him, but it would hurt.

Pain alone would have been fine, but once his injury was healed, Adam would have suffered it for nothing.

With the affinity Adam had displayed, the chances of that happening were extremely high.

"Can having relationships that are too good become a problem too?" Adam frowned. The best solution had been rejected for this reason, yet he could not think of a better way to handle things.

"I need to hide my abnormal state while also securing more freedom, time, and space for myself."

"I'll take it one step at a time." Adam ultimately settled for the next best thing. Seeing a muddy puddle by his feet and hearing a carriage approaching from behind, he deliberately did not move aside, allowing the mud splashed up by the speeding carriage to spray over him.

When he had been selling pickled vegetable pancakes, he had once seen such a scene. A speeding carriage had knocked down someone unable to dodge in time, and all they received was: "Get lost, don't block the road, you mud-blooded wretch."

"One bad thing can sour someone's mood and make them overthink. That's perfectly reasonable." Adam looked at the mud on his body, then slipped naturally into the emotions.

He was Adam, a commoner. Even though he had worked hard to become a painter's apprentice, he was still called a mud-blooded wretch. He became even more ashamed of his status and more lost about his future.

Following the script he had written for himself, Adam took those emotions to heart and arrived at the church covered in mud. He forced a smile as he greeted people, his haggard agitation almost impossible to conceal.

This made nearly everyone who knew Adam realize that something bad had happened to the boy.

Watching Adam force himself to begin working, only to mix the materials incorrectly because of his poor mental state, Master Alva coldly told him to prepare them again.

Those who noticed began to feel sorry for Adam.

Adam's intelligence and diligence were obvious to everyone. While working, Alva could clearly sense the dissatisfied looks the priests were casting his way.

But that only made Alva's gaze toward Adam more complicated.

"This fellow's affinity is terrifying. If he had a good background, he could probably build a career for himself in a short time." Alva had met many people, and he understood one thing well: people were different.

Some people were born with certain qualities—qualities that inspired trust, qualities that inspired worship, qualities that made others like them, and so on. Those who possessed such qualities could be called geniuses.

Once such people entered the fields suited to them, they could display terrifying power and easily accomplish things that others could not achieve even after a lifetime of effort.

Adam was undoubtedly such a person, but Alva had also seen another trait in him.

"Ambition!" From the moment Adam began learning painting from him, Alva had understood one thing. Although Adam studied seriously, his goal had never been simply to become a painter.

Ambitious people were never satisfied, and Adam was one of them. Becoming a painter was likely only a stepping stone for him.

Alva did not particularly like such people. If Fula had not asked him to take Adam as an apprentice, and his old friend Xia Ya had not asked him to guide Adam onto the proper path, he would never have begun teaching him painting so quickly.

Adam frowned and began mixing the materials again. The agitation in his bloodline truly affected him too much, to the point that he made mistakes he should not have made.

But at that moment, Adam suddenly noticed that Alva's expression was somewhat off. Then he caught sight of several priests giving him sympathetic looks, or casting unfriendly looks at Alva.

"Has my affinity grown stronger? Or does appropriately showing weakness earn more sympathy? I'm about to undergo bloodline awakening—could my awakened ability be charm?"

Adam's expression suddenly stiffened. He poured too much pigment from his hand, making the mixed material darker in color.

"Go home first!" Alva shoved Adam aside, took the remaining materials, and spoke without looking at him. "Your mind is completely unsettled."

"If you continue, you'll only turn this place into a mess. Come back after you've calmed down. I can tell you clearly that if you make such a basic mistake again next time, then you needn't come back."

This was the most Alva had ever said to Adam at once.

"Teacher, I..." Adam hurriedly tried to say something, but Alva ignored him completely.

This made Adam appear deeply dejected. That dejection was not an act; it was Adam's genuine emotion at that moment.

Both accidents had been Adam's mistakes, not part of his plan.

Although they had produced results beyond his expectations, they still made Adam feel as though he had failed.

If there could be successes outside the plan, then there could also be failures outside the plan.

Losing precise control over his own actions would mean handing everything over to fate, and that was exactly what Adam hated most.

If he could not control his own actions, then he would also lose control over his future.

Adam walked toward the exit of the church. Most priests he passed looked at him with concern, but none went to comfort him. Just as Alva had said, it was better to let him calm down for a while.

"I have to solve the bloodline problem." Adam lowered his head and silently made up his mind. "At the very least, I need to understand the nature of my bloodline."

"I still know too little about bloodlines. Since a bloodline can become agitated when it is about to mature, can it become agitated again for other reasons?"

"This agitation caused two mistakes. It happened to produce good results, but what if it struck at a critical moment and made everything worse?"

Adam would not reject the power of his bloodline because of this. Rejection was merely another form of escape.

Nor would he turn a blind eye to the problems his bloodline had revealed and assume they were temporary, only to cast them aside once his bloodline matured.

After returning home, Adam dejectedly explained the situation to Yalis and Maggie. After receiving their comfort, and then being somewhat healed by little Lina cheering him on,

Adam returned to the attic, closed his eyes, and began fighting against the agitation in his bloodline.

Tonight, he still needed to meet with those mutants. He absolutely could not make a mistake because of this, and he wondered how many mutants Adel would be able to gather.

Again and again, he considered every issue, imagined all sorts of possible situations, and thought through how he would deal with them.

Meanwhile, Adel limped along to visit his "friends" and complete the task Mr. Riges had given him. At last, he knocked on the door of a household.

The door was opened by a burly man with shoulder-length brown wavy hair.