Legend Management Bureau Chapter 481

[ … words ]

Even though he was already half a kilometer away from the Shiranui estate, Jinjiro decisively turned back.

His face revealed absolute despair, his eyes brimming with sheer panic.

He remembered the perfectly arranged colors of all the floral wreaths in the village, and a freezing chill spread from the top of his head down to the soles of his feet.

“Enenra… Even at the very end… you were still lying to me!”

He understood now.

He understood absolutely everything.

The answer was ‘smoke’!

They had naturally assumed that since Enenra’s eyes were pale, she had lost her vision. But she did not use her eyes to see the world!

That smoke was originally a part of her body!

Jinjiro recalled every time Enenra had released her smoke, and the hairs on his arms stood on end.

She knew absolutely everything!

She released her smoke and knew Jinjiro was nearby, which was how they met.

She released her smoke and saw Jinjiro and Ootengu roasting fish, which was how they became acquainted.

She released her smoke in Shuten’s lair, and she released it in Hiezu Village. She knew everything with crystal clarity.

“Her smoke and the hay wreaths.”

Enenra had known all along. She had never joined the Shiranui family, nor had she ever become an Onmyoji. She had always been that insignificant Yokai.

She knew that the villagers who loved her were all dead, piled up like fish at the village entrance. Yet despite that, she still forced a smile, bestowing names upon the Yokai to prevent them from exposing their flaws.

Jinjiro had thought he was protecting Enenra, but in the end, it was Enenra who had been maintaining their childish lies.

“No wonder you said you didn’t want formidable power, but only wanted a pair of eyes that could see the cherry blossoms… Such a lie must have exhausted you…”

Jinjiro had no idea just how powerful Enenra’s smoke could truly become.

r> “If she could even distinguish the colors of flowers… then the handwriting on the letter…”

…

“Blind Princess… so you… can see?” Yamabiko asked in confusion. “Your eyes aren’t facing the moon, yet you know it’s a crescent moon tonight.”

“You no longer need to call me Blind Princess,” Enenra smiled and said. “Yamabiko, Ootengu, thank you so much for taking care of me all this time. It is time for me to bid you farewell.”

“What?” The two never expected her to know their true identities, but they quickly caught onto another crucial point. “What farewell? Where are you going?”

“I am going to a very, very faraway place. If I am lucky, I might become a human,” Enenra said cheerfully, her tone filled with nostalgic longing.

“That doesn’t sound right,” Ootengu questioned. “Setting aside the issue of how a Yokai becomes human… if you leave, what about my brother?”

“He is already on the verge of ‘demonization,’ and it is all because of me.” Enenra offered a bitter smile. “I know how miserable the life of a Yokai is. I can absolutely never let the person I love become one.”

Ootengu and Yamabiko were not fools. They both caught a bizarre underlying feeling in Enenra’s words.

“What are you going to do?”

“Jinjiro gave me fish to eat, clothes to wear, got medicine for me, and put on an act for me. He brought me back to life in that freezing winter, and to this day, I have never thanked him.” Enenra added, “But perhaps I can gift him a bright future.”

Yamabiko frowned and stepped forward to grab Enenra. “Hey! Whatever it is, wait until Jinjiro gets back to discuss it!”

“I cannot wait for his return.” Enenra pushed Yamabiko’s hand away, slowly picked up three wine bowls from the side, placed them on the ground, and then retrieved a wine jug from not far away

.

This was the very same wine jug that Shuten had just tossed to Jinjiro.

Enenra proceeded to fill all three bowls to the brim with wine.

Then, she sat on her knees, raised one of the bowls, and spoke toward the moon:

“I, Enenra, have been a Yokai my entire life and have told countless lies, but my love for Shiranui Jinjiro and my decision to marry him as his wife hold absolutely no falsehood.”

After speaking, she lifted the bowl and drained the wine in three sips.

She then picked up the second bowl.

“I, Enenra, have taken countless lives. Whether I fall into hell or incarnate into an Asura, my devotion to Shiranui Jinjiro will remain unwavering until death.”

Once again, she finished the wine in three sips.

Only then did the two Yokai realize that drinking three cups of wine in nine sips was clearly a part of a wedding ceremony.

Enenra was completing a solitary wedding.

Under this pitch-black moonlit night, in this haunted village covered in blood, she married Jinjiro with countless ghosts as her witnesses.

“I, Enenra…” When she reached the third cup, she paused briefly, but still suppressed her sorrow to speak. “…wish for Jinjiro to forget me forever. The sorrows of this world only need to be borne by me alone.”

With that said, her body released smoke once more. Facing the moon, she slowly uttered, “If the gods agree, then let it rain immediately.”

Just as the words left her mouth, a muffled clap of thunder echoed in the sky, and a pattering drizzle miraculously began to fall.

“Thank you… I have made wishes for so long, and this is the only time it has actually rained.”

Enenra offered a bitter smile and drained the final bowl of wine in three sips, her eyes welling with tears the entire time.

“But this one time is enough.”

“Hey!” Ootengu, now understanding Enenra’s intentions, immediately shouted, “Don’t do anything stupid! With the two of us standing guard here, you won’t be able to do anything! Just be good and wait until my brother comes back!”

r> Enenra ignored Ootengu and simply stood up slowly, the smoke around her growing thicker. “Bankotubo, Yamabiko, you cannot stop me.”

Before the two could make a move, Enenra’s smoke materialized, binding them both like tightly coiled ropes.

They did not even realize when the smoke had drifted around them.

Enenra slowly floated into the air and said, “Please tell Jinjiro for me: thank you for being willing to barge into my world with the most clumsy lies during my darkest hour. Many years from now, if he encounters a female swindler on the streets being chased and beaten by everyone, it might be my reincarnated self, relying on faint memories to search for his traces amidst the vast sea of people. After all, in his heart… I have always been a liar.”

“No!” Ootengu struggled relentlessly. “My brother won’t care whether you’re a human or a Yokai, and he won’t care if you’re a liar! Don’t do anything stupid!”

Tears welled up in Enenra’s eyes, yet a brilliant smile blossomed on her lips.

She recalled the first time she met Jinjiro. The man had been so terrified that he didn’t dare move a muscle.

As the most formidable Onmyoji of the Shiranui family’s younger generation, he was too scared to even twitch.

The Assassin sent to kill him was right in front of his eyes, yet he had taken off his own clothes and tossed them to her, shivering as he walked away into the freezing wind.

He was already starving, yet he had placed that roasted fish right in front of her.

“What an idiot… what would he do if he met a scammer?” Enenra smiled gently, then lightly waved her hand.

The smoke in the distance continuously condensed, forming into a massive blade.

“Compared to the life of a Yokai, the life of a Time Master is far more fascinating…”

The blade fell in one swift motion.

Under the faint moonlight, the head of this pale, slender figure was severed.

Her body dissolved into smoke and slowly drifted away, leaving her head resting peacefully on the ground.