“It’s the people from the Miyuan Cult!”
“They actually came directly to our door, using such a blatant method to force Father to hand over Shifune Shrine!”
Hiding in the shadows of the wall corner, Mizuki Mirei’s eyes widened in an instant.
She reached out in terror, clamping her hand tightly over her mouth to keep herself from screaming out loud.
She never imagined that the other party’s pace would be so urgent, to the point where they didn’t even bother to adhere to the one-month deadline they had previously set, too lazy to even keep up the bare minimum of appearances.
“They actually… actually used my safety to threaten Father!”
“Those bastards! Those devils wearing the cloak of religion!”
The conversation between the Mizuki Chief Priest and the messenger from the Miyuan Cult did not last long.
Or rather, it wasn’t a conversation at all, but a one-sided ultimatum filled with threats and intimidation.
Soon, after getting the answer they wanted, the suited messenger walked out of the Chief Priest’s room with a few roguish followers, strutting arrogantly, completely unaware of Mizuki Mirei hiding in the shadows.
The man walking at the front was none other than the Deputy Leader of the Miyuan Cult, Saito Shigeru.
As he walked, he used a handkerchief to wipe his hands, as if they had been contaminated by something filthy.
A subordinate following behind him asked in a low, puzzled voice: “Mr. Saito, didn’t we already agree with that old guy to give him a month? Why is the Cult Leader suddenly in such a rush, demanding that we must get this land today?”
Hearing this, Saito Shigeru let out a sneer of disdain.
He stopped, turned his head, and looked at his subordinate with the eyes one might use for an idiot.
His voice was lowered to a whisper, yet it was filled with an unquestionable fanaticism.
“You idiot, do you think it’s still the same as before? The times have changed!”
“You’ve all heard about what happened in Bunkyo Ward, right? That evil spirit called Ibaraki Doji… that is a true ghost god! Impervious to swords and guns, and she can even turn people into monsters!” Get faster updates on novelping . com.
“Use that brain of yours, clouded by lard, and think carefully. If ghost gods truly exist in this world, then… could there only be one?”
Greed and madness flickered in Saito Shigeru’s eyes.
“The Cult Leader has issued the highest directive. We, the Miyuan Cult, must spare no cost and take the shortest time possible to scour all the traditional shrines with long histories scattered across Japan! We must find more existences like Ibaraki Doji before the government and those other old fogeys react, and… control them!”
“This is the only true, eternal power! Money? Power? In the face of real ghost gods, those are nothing but passing clouds!”
Listening to Saito Shigeru’s nearly manic whispers, the subordinates behind him all felt a chill shoot from the soles of their feet straight to their scalps.
Once the group from the Miyuan Cult had completely left the shrine and disappeared at the end of the mountain path, Mizuki Mirei walked out from the corner of the shrine, her body feeling weak and limp.
In the Chief Priest’s room, her father, who was usually weak but still tried hard to maintain the dignity of the head of the household, was now sitting slumped on the tatami mat.
His spine seemed to have been pulled out, and his tall, thin frame appeared incomparably old and lonely.
Seeing his daughter suddenly appear, the Mizuki Chief Priest’s tall, thin frame shuddered violently, and his face revealed the panic of being caught in an embarrassing situation.
He opened his mouth, seemingly wanting to say something to cover it up, but in the end, all words turned into a sigh filled with bitterness and helplessness.
“I’m sorry, Mirei… am I… very useless?”
The Mizuki Chief Priest’s voice was hoarse and dry.
He did not dare to look into his daughter’s eyes, only keeping his head lowered, apologizing over and over again to his only child.
“It’s that I’m too much of a failure… it’s that I lack the ability… I can’t even protect the shrine passed down by our ancestors…”
“That’s not true! Father has already done very well!” Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
Watching her father, who seemed to have aged ten years overnight, Mizuki Mirei felt her heart ache as if pricked by needles.
She forcibly composed her own equally chaotic emotions, walked up quickly, knelt beside her father, and comforted him softly with a maturity and gentleness far beyond her years.
“Really, Father. This isn’t your fault; it’s just… just the trend of the times. You’ve done your best.”
She tried hard to squeeze out a sensible, relaxed smile, as if she didn’t care at all about losing her home.
“Actually, it might be nice not to have to inherit the shrine. My grades are good enough to get into a top-tier university in Tokyo. After I graduate from college, finding a good job and becoming an ordinary office worker wouldn’t be that bad, right?”
That’s what she said…
But in her heart, how could she truly be so calm and indifferent?
In order to become a qualified successor to Shifune Shrine, she had received the most rigorous shrine maiden training since she was a child, learning a vast amount of Shinto knowledge and complex sacrificial rituals.
She had dedicated her entire childhood and youth to this shrine.
But now, all the effort she had put in, and all the skills she had mastered, were about to become useless.
This huge sense of disparity, falling from the clouds into the mud, was enough to completely crush anyone with a weak mind.
“It’s good that you… can come to terms with it.”
Seeing that his daughter did not seem to feel lost or resentful because of this, the Mizuki Chief Priest’s heart, which had been suffering, finally found a glimmer of comfort.
He sighed wearily, said no more, just waved his hand to indicate that he wanted to be alone for a while, and then, all by himself, walked staggeringly back to the inner sanctum of the shrine.
Watching her father’s desolate back, the smile on Mizuki Mirei’s face could finally no longer be maintained, and it crumbled bit by bit.