With hollow eyes, she walked into her room, silently changed into the red and white shrine maiden outfit she was so familiar with, then picked up a broom and began to mechanically sweep the empty courtyard of the shrine.
She swept for several hours straight.
From sunset until the bright moon hung high in the sky.
She seemed tireless, repeating this simple action over and over again.
The cold moonlight fell on her thin shoulders, stretching her shadow very, very long.
“Perhaps…”
“This is the last time I’ll be sweeping here as a shrine maiden of Shifune Shrine, right.”
Harboring such thoughts, her heart was filled with endless sorrow.
Just then.
“Oh my, I originally just wanted to find a place with abundant spiritual veins to replenish the magic power I consumed, but I didn’t expect to see something so interesting?”
A female voice with a hint of childishness, yet sounding exceptionally frivolous and lazy, rang out from behind Mizuki Mirei without warning.
This sudden sound gave Mizuki Mirei, who was immersed in her own world, quite a fright.
She turned her head instinctively.
“…Who are you?”
As soon as the words left her mouth, her eyes widened abruptly, and her pupils contracted to the size of pinpricks in an instant.
Because what came into her view was not some child who had lost their way in the middle of the night and wandered into the mountains. Find the original chapter at g.com.
It was an extremely petite young girl.
She looked to be only eleven or twelve years old, wearing an extremely luxurious yet somewhat tattered golden kimono, her long golden hair flowing freely like flames under the moonlight.
Most striking were the pair of slightly curved, ferocious demon horns on her forehead, and the huge, scarlet, twisted, and ominously patterned demonic claw on her right hand that completely contradicted her petite frame.
At this moment, she was sitting on a large rock in the courtyard in an extremely wild posture, watching her with great interest.
“Haha, since you asked so sincerely, I will graciously tell you!”
Seeing Mizuki Mirei’s terrified expression, the demon race loli on the rock seemed very satisfied; she grinned, revealing an innocent yet cruel smile.
“Listen well, human girl!”
“I am Ibaraki Doji! The best friend of Shuten Doji, and the leader who rules the demon kingdom of Mount Ooe!”
“Ibaraki Doji!”
When this name was spoken by the other party, Mizuki Mirei only felt her brain go “buzz,” instantly becoming blank, and all the blood in her body seemed to freeze at that moment.
If she had heard this title before today, she would have at most thought it was some child with chuunibyou playing some kind of role-playing game.
But now, it was different.
Just this afternoon, she had witnessed with her own eyes, from a video sent by “Senior Koto,” just how ferocious and terrifying this legendary demon leader of Mount Ooe was.
She had seen with her own eyes how this seemingly innocent-looking demon loli strolled leisurely through a hail of bullets, and how she tore those fully armed police officers into pieces one by one, as if tearing paper.
Killing humans was as simple for her as stepping on an ant by the roadside.
“What does she want to do?”
“Eat people? There are only Father and me here!”
“Ibaraki… Ibaraki Doji…-sama?”
Mizuki Mirei’s teeth chattered uncontrollably, making a “clattering” sound.
She used all her strength just to squeeze these words out of her throat.
“May I ask… what is the purpose… of your visit to my humble abode in the middle of the night?”
She asked cautiously, even her breathing becoming incredibly guarded.
Sure enough, when a person is unlucky, even drinking cold water will get stuck in their teeth.
Now, never mind the issue of preserving the shrine’s heritage; the Mizuki Family might just be eaten clean by this legendary evil spirit here tonight!
“What is the purpose?”
Hearing this, Ibaraki Doji on the rock tilted her head, seemingly contemplating some profound question.
A moment later, a brilliant smile bloomed on her stunningly beautiful face.
“When an evil spirit comes to a shrine, besides filling her stomach, what else could she do?”
She jumped lightly off the large rock and, with joyful steps, walked step by step toward Mizuki Mirei, who was already pale with terror.