Legend Management Bureau Chapter 467

[ … words ]

The old man frowned slightly after hearing this, his expression becoming somewhat unnatural.

“Lord Onmyoji, you clearly just said that you were tracking a blind female yokai…”

Jin Jianglang, who had been about to leave, stepped back and said, “Old man, I mean no harm. I just want to know what exactly you are all hiding.”

Right at that moment, a wooden stick came hurtling toward Jin Jianglang. Without even turning his head, he snatched it out of the air.

“Bad man!”

A young, tender voice rang out from a distance.

Jin Jianglang followed the sound and saw an angry child standing not far away. With tears in his eyes, the boy yelled, “Why won’t you let Big Sister Enenra go?! Why?!”

En… en… ra?

Jin Jianglang felt as though he had heard that name somewhere before.

The surrounding villagers gradually closed in. Their eyes held a complex mix of fear and anger. Upon closer inspection, they were all clutching farming tools, looking as though they were ready for a desperate fight.

“I don’t quite understand,” Jin Jianglang said, furrowing his brow. “What exactly are you so angry at me for?”

“You Onmyoji…” a man growled through gritted teeth. “Will you only be satisfied once you’ve forced someone into a dead end?!”

As he spoke, the men and women of the village seemed to come to a decision, their gazes hardening with resolve.

“This time, it’s our turn to protect Enenra!”

“I…” Jin Jianglang glanced around at the crowd. If he were to strike, he could kill them all in an instant, but what would be the reason for such a slaughter?

The older man who had been smoking a pipe earlier slowly stood up and declared, “Enenra protected everyone in our village all on her own. This time, it’s our turn. No matter how much power your Tsuchimikado family has, we will no longer compromise!”

“That’s right!”

“Exactly! We won’t let you hurt Enenra anymore!”

Jin Jianglang frowned. “Tsuchimikado…?”

“What are you still pretending for at this point?!” the crowd demanded furiously.

Jin Jianglang slowly unslung the massive scissors from his back and plunged them into the ground. He then flourished his long robe and swept it over his shoulders with a sharp swish.

“You misunderstand. I am Jin Jianglang of the Shiranui family.”

Only then did the crowd notice the dazzling flame crest on Jin Jianglang’s chest, as well as the bold characters for “Shiranui” embroidered on his cuffs.

“The Tsuchimikado are the Onmyoji of the Shogunate, but we are not,” Jin Jianglang continued. “Our estate is not located in Heian-kyo, either. It is in the Town of Tottori, seven and a half kilometers away.”

If the expressions on the villagers’ faces had been filled with anger moments ago, they were now replaced by sheer astonishment.

It was as if they had never expected an Onmyoji of the Shiranui family to find their way here.

This left Jin Jianglang even more perplexed.

If they realized this entire situation was a misunderstanding, shouldn’t they clear the air?

Why were they showing such expressions?

“A-are you truly an Onmyoji of the Shiranui family?” the old man asked, his lips trembling. “You aren’t from the Tsuchimikado family?”

Jin Jianglang nodded and hefted his scissors, replying, “A family’s name is an Onmyoji’s honor. I have no reason to lie.”

The crowd found themselves at a loss for words. Glancing at the massive scissors in Jin Jianglang’s hands, they knew he was speaking the truth, and they slowly lowered their makeshift weapons.

“You… are you the legendary ‘Jin Jianglang’?”

“I am.”

The old man took a step forward and asked, “Then have you already encountered Enenra?”

“I have,” Jin Jianglang nodded. He pointed to the medicinal pouches tied to his waist and added, “Enenra has fallen ill. I fetched some medicine for her.”

“Ill… Then are you taking care of her now?”

“My younger sister is taking care of her,” Jin Jianglang said, clearly baffled. “Everyone, I truly must ask—can you really not tell that Enenra is a yokai?”

A yokai…

At the mention of that word, everyone’s expressions became highly unnatural.

The old man muttered to himself, “We all know she’s a yokai…”

“You all know?” Jin Jianglang grew even more confused.

“Enenra’s appearance is so obvious, how could anyone not know she is a yokai…?”

“Then… are you… deceiving her?”

The old man lowered his head in dismay. The surrounding villagers also wore complicated expressions; this was an unspoken secret kept by the entire village.

“So what if she’s a yokai? Where else in this world could you find a girl as kind-hearted as Enenra…” Tears welled up in the old man’s eyes. “If it were possible, we would want to hide the truth from her for the rest of her life… She is a child to all of us!”

Jin Jianglang was taken aback. “Old man, what exactly is going on?”

Through the old man’s words, the mystery of Enenra’s origins finally surfaced.

Enenra.

A yokai born from smoke.

The character ‘ra’ referred to a type of lightweight fabric. Because the ethereal nature of smoke resembled a drifting cloth drape, this yokai was named Enenra.

Nineteen years ago, there was a household in the village that cured tobacco.

The man was named Tanita, and the woman was named Michiko.

They had remained childless their entire lives, but they were master tobacconists. The tobacco leaves they cured—whether in the quality of the aging process or their selection of aromatic spices—were of the absolute highest standard.

One day, while Tanita was smoking his pipe, he discovered something strange.

He noticed that the smoke he exhaled slowly took the shape of a chubby baby. Whenever the smoke dispersed, the baby would vanish along with it.

At first, Tanita thought his exhaled smoke had transformed into a ‘smoke spirit,’ and he excitedly shared this joyous news with everyone in the village.

After all, according to legends, when an object reached the pinnacle of perfection and gathered enough spiritual energy, a ‘spirit’ might be born from it.

However, the others did not share his enthusiasm; instead, they mostly felt afraid.

Seeing a human figure taking shape within the smoke—was this an auspicious sign or an omen of disaster?

That was until a day, a year later, when the chubby baby in Tanita’s smoke no longer disappeared. She survived, constantly emitting wisps of smoke from her body, having become a smoke yokai.

The villagers panicked at the time. A yokai had been born right before their eyes; what could be more terrifying?

Tanita also had his misgivings. He considered killing the smoke yokai, but he simply couldn’t bring himself to do it. After all, she was an infant born from his very own smoke.

Tanita’s wife, Michiko, was moved by compassion. She spared the baby and named her Enenra.

Only later did the villagers realize how right Michiko’s decision had been.

Although Enenra was born blind, she was incredibly kind-hearted.

From a young age, she would take care of all the elderly in the village. She eagerly took on the chores no one else wanted to do, never shrinking away from work that others considered too dirty.

She would make everyone burst into hearty laughter and regularly crafted various small gifts for the villagers.

Ever since she became part of the village, the days were filled with joy and laughter.

Yokai possessed both good and evil qualities, and the villagers were fortunate enough to have encountered one of the ‘good’ ones.

The villagers never teased Enenra for her blindness. Instead, they leveled all the uneven paths in the village and carved names into every house, just to ensure she would never lose her way.

In her spare time, Enenra wove many floral wreaths for the villagers to hang on their doors. Strangely enough, as long as one of Enenra’s wreaths hung at the entrance, the occupants of that house rarely fell ill. Gradually, Enenra transformed from a simple yokai into the guardian of the village.

They never told Enenra, “You are a yokai.”

However, the smoke that periodically drifted from her body remained a constant risk.

If a traveler were to pass by one day and discover Enenra’s true identity, their peaceful days might be shattered forever.

With this in mind, everyone—men and women alike—spontaneously began buying tobacco from Tanita’s house and took up smoking pipes.

From that day forward, clouds of smoke wafted from every household in the village, seamlessly blending and intermingling with Enenra’s own smoke.

They had made their decision. For the rest of their lives, they would use kindness to protect kindness.