Legend Management Bureau Chapter 471

[ … words ]

That night, the renowned Onmyoji, Shiranui Jinjiro, set off with a massive procession of over a hundred Yokai.

Since Shiranui Asuka stayed by Enenra’s side the entire time, Jinjiro had no way to relay the message to her. He could only send a symbolic paper crane in the hopes that she would receive it and stall for more time.

Speeding along the road, Jinjiro felt slightly dazed.

If he had to cover a lie with another lie, this would not be the last time he had to do something like this.

But how could he bear to let Enenra suffer?

She had never seen the sky filled with cherry blossoms, yet she had never voiced a single complaint about the world.

Even though fate had been incredibly unfair to her, she continued to treat everyone with kindness.

And just when it seemed fate was finally looking out for her, she lost everything in an instant.

Now, Jinjiro had decided to bring hundreds of Yokai to impersonate the villagers, but these were the very people Enenra was most familiar with.

Whether Enenra ended up hating Onmyoji or Yokai, it would be the worst possible outcome.

If they could actually bluff their way through this, Jinjiro resolved that he would visit the Tsuchimikado family to demand answers, no matter what. Why did they have to take things this far?

“What exactly are you planning?”

…

A faint scent of blood drifted through the air.

Cherry blossom petals continuously drifted down onto the corpses.

When Jinjiro and the Yokai arrived at Hiezu Village, everyone stood still, their brows furrowed in dismay.

Not a single Yokai present had ever slaughtered humans this brutally.

Everyone in the village, men and women, young and old, was covered in blade wounds. The blood that had burst from their bodies formed red lines that completely painted the grounds of Hiezu Village.

Every strike had flawlessly severed an artery. It was clear that those who dealt the fatal

blows were top-tier experts.

Images of that night surfaced in Jinjiro’s mind. Hiezu Village had erupted into a grand display of red fireworks amidst the agonized wails of the villagers, with countless pillars of blood flashing together to bury one vibrant life after another.

“Say… Brother…” Ootengu paused for a moment before asking Jinjiro, “What exactly should we do?”

“Well…” Jinjiro took a deep breath, rallying his spirits. “First… first, carefully move the bodies away. The Yokai will divide into small groups and enter the houses. Figure out how many people lived in each home and what they did for a living, then do your best to impersonate them.”

“Can we… really fool her?” Ootengu muttered, his lips barely moving. He felt this task was far too difficult. “We don’t know how these people spoke, what their voices sounded like, or what their habits were. We are still just us.”

“Then what, do you want to let the blind girl go and fight the Tsuchimikado family to the death?” Jinjiro looked conflicted. Aside from this, he could not think of a single alternative.

The many Yokai began to slowly gather all the bodies together.

Over a hundred corpses were piled into a small mound, emitting a strong, metallic stench.

To dispose of them now, they could only bury them on the spot or burn them.

But either method would take a massive amount of time, and they were unsure when Enenra would arrive. They could only take things one step at a time.

With the mountain of corpses piled in a corner of the village, the Yokai began to scrub away the bloodstains.

At this moment, Yamabiko stopped them.

After all, Enenra was blind. Even if the ground here had been entirely dyed red, she wouldn’t be able to notice.

The Yokai entered the rooms, observing the traces left behind by the homeowners.

Just as Jinjiro had stated

earlier, they could roughly deduce the number of residents and their occupations by the clothing and tools inside, but that was the absolute limit of the information they could gather.

As for their heights, their builds, the pitch of their voices, or their ages, they knew absolutely nothing.

Jinjiro felt exceptionally frustrated at this moment, even beginning to consider whether he should just tell Enenra the complete truth.

But could she handle all of that?

“It looks like two people lived in this house, right?”

Yuki-onna examined the furnishings and spoke to Shuten beside her, “Let’s stay here. It looks like a married couple lived in this one.”

Shuten gave a slight nod, looking over the farming tools in the room.

Surprisingly, there were a lot of yellowed tobacco leaves here.

“Oh, there’s tobacco?” Shuten looked at the leaves in front of him, then glanced around and sure enough, found an old, worn-out pipe.

He crushed the tobacco leaves with his hands, stuffed them into the bowl of the pipe, packed it tight, and with a flick of his finger, lit it.

“Phew… Cough, cough, cough!” Shuten Doji took only a single puff before breaking into a coughing fit that lasted quite a while. “What the hell is this… It’s so bitter and harsh! How many years has this been drying?!”

Jinjiro slowly walked into the room at that moment. After a single glance around, he declared, “No one needs to stay in this house. This is the home of Enenra’s parents.”

“Oh?” Shuten also looked around. “No wonder there’s so much tobacco.”

“Speaking of tobacco, you just reminded me of something,” Jinjiro said, turning to the others. “In this village, almost everyone except the children smokes a pipe. Gather some tobacco and light it. Even if you do not smoke it, make sure the village is filled with drifting smoke.”

Through the hard work of all these ‘people’, Hiezu Village looked like it had regained a bit of its former appearance.

Smoke now wreathed the village, and figures bustled about.

But upon closer inspection, all those bustling figures were Yokai. They moved in and out of the human dwellings, acting as if they were going about their daily chores.

Everyone tried their best to brim with laughter and mimic the atmosphere of a human village, all while the ground was coated in human blood and a mountain of corpses sat at the edge of the village.

Under the pale, vast moonlight, the entire scene looked exceptionally eerie.

A true Night Parade of One Hundred Demons would be nothing more than this.

If someone visiting this place wasn’t blind, they would likely be driven mad on the spot.

“Um…”

Just then, someone tapped Jinjiro on the shoulder from behind.

Jinjiro turned around and frowned.

A young man stood before him. He had a lean build and wore bizarre clothing. He also had a Yaksha mask over his face, completely obscuring his features.

“Who are you?” Jinjiro had brought quite a few Yokai, and there were indeed faces he had never seen before, but this person’s aura was very strange. He didn’t feel like an ordinary Yokai.

The young man wearing the Yaksha mask stared at Jinjiro’s face, stunned for a long time.

He lowered his head, then raised it again. He seemed to want to say something, but the words were caught in his throat.

“Have you already found a house?” Jinjiro thought for a moment before asking. “What are you doing just standing around here?”

“Uh, I…” The man in the Yaksha mask scratched his head. “I need to figure out how to put this…”

A hint of displeasure surfaced on Jinjiro’s face. “What do you mean, ‘figure out how to put this’? At a time like this, time is the one thing we lack the most. If you have a good idea, spit it out. If not, hurry up and get prepared.”

“No, it’s not that…” The man waved his hand. “The main issue is that coming to see you this time is a bit of a rule violation for me, so I have to be extremely careful with my wording.”