It’s over.
When she saw Ibaraki Doji’s face, which wore a sweet smile, and heard her declaration of “filling her stomach,” only those two words remained in Mizuki Mirei’s mind.
A bottomless despair, like cold seawater, instantly submerged her completely.
She wanted to scream, wanted to run, wanted to call for help.
But her legs felt as if they were filled with lead, too heavy to move even a single step.
Her throat also felt as if it were being tightly gripped by an invisible hand, unable to make a sound.
In the end, her legs gave way, and she collapsed, kneeling on the cold stone floor with a pale face.
“Am I… going to die?”
“To actually be… eaten by a ghost?”
She muttered to herself in a voice that sounded almost like a dream.
At this moment, she didn’t even have the thought of calling her father to help.
She didn’t dare.
She was afraid that her cry for help would draw out her father, who was just as helpless, from the inner shrine.
If…
if this evil spirit could be satisfied after eating her and then leave, then her father…
would at least have a chance to survive.
But if her father were also drawn out, given the ferocious nature this evil spirit displayed in the video, she certainly wouldn’t mind adding an elderly priest to her menu.
Rather than both of them dying, it would be better…
to just sacrifice myself.
Holding this tragic thought, Mizuki Mirei gave up all resistance and slowly closed her eyes, waiting for the expected, excruciating pain of her body being torn apart by fangs and claws.
One second.
Two seconds.
Five seconds.
…
The pain she expected did not come.
The surroundings were silent, with only the “rustling” sound of the night wind blowing through the treetops, and…
a strange “crunching” sound, like something being chewed.
“Nom… nom… this, crunch crunch, is really tasty…”
A slurred, somewhat satisfied, childish voice echoed in the silent courtyard.
Strange?
The sound she heard seemed to deviate significantly from the bloody scene she had imagined.
Filled with doubt and fear, Mizuki Mirei cautiously opened her tightly closed eyes just a tiny slit.
Her first instinct was to look down and check her body.
Arms, still there.
Legs, also still there.
The red and white shrine maiden outfit she was wearing was intact, without even a single wrinkle.
“My hands… my feet… huh? They’re still attached to my body?”
After confirming she was unharmed and hadn’t lost any limbs, Mizuki Mirei finally dared to lift her head and look in the direction of Ibaraki Doji, following the strange chewing sound.
Then, she was completely stunned.
What she saw was not a hideous evil spirit covered in blood, chewing on human flesh.
The legendary, incredibly ferocious Oni loli was currently squatting under the shrine’s eaves, holding a small, round pink cookie in one hand, eating with great delight.
The corners of the little girl’s mouth were covered in sparkling white powdered sugar, and those golden vertical pupils, which should have been filled with violence and slaughter, were now happily narrowed into slits because she was tasting delicious food.
And by her feet, the exquisite gift box with a French pastry shop logo, which Mizuki Mirei had casually placed on the ground, had been opened.
The colorful, neatly arranged macarons inside were already more than half gone.
So…
the evil spirit wasn’t enjoying the flesh and blood of her, a living shrine maiden, but rather…
the box of sweets that Hibiki Tachibana had given her?
“Lady Ibaraki Doji… are you… not going to eat me?”
After the initial shock and numbness, Mizuki Mirei’s mind still couldn’t quite process what was happening.
She looked at the ferocious ghost god who, in the video this afternoon, had easily slaughtered a dozen fully armed police officers with a single swipe of her claws, and now, like a child stealing candy, was squatting in the corner, munching away on sweets.
She felt completely numb.
This evil spirit loli was really good at creating such a contrast, wasn’t she?
Clearly a bloodthirsty ghost god, yet her appearance was so petite and cute, and her behavior…
was so…
down-to-earth?
“Huh?”
Seemingly having heard Mizuki Mirei’s tearful question, Ibaraki Doji, who was immersed in the world of sweets, finally decided to take her eyes off the nearly empty gift box.
She looked up, cheeks puffed out, and glared at Mizuki Mirei with some displeasure.
“Eat you? Why would I eat you?”
As she spoke, she quickly picked up a yellow macaron and stuffed it into her mouth, saying indistinctly: “I am not one of those low-level ghosts that are so starved they have to rely on devouring human flesh to maintain their existence! Do you think I am that kind of low-class yokai that needs to eat people to gain magic power? How rude! You are insulting the dignity of an Oni King of Mount Ooe!” The source of this chapter is novelping.com.
“No… no! I absolutely didn’t mean that!”
Being accused of “insulting the Oni King” scared Mizuki Mirei so much that she shook her head frantically like a rattle.
She didn’t dare to have any thoughts of offending this moody ghost god again.
“Those sweets… Lady Ibaraki Doji, I’m glad you… like them.”
She stammered, but watching the macarons being annihilated by Ibaraki Doji at an astonishing speed, she couldn’t help but feel an indescribable sense of gratitude toward the boy who had given her the gift this afternoon.
If…
if it weren’t for the box of sweets that Hibiki Tachibana gave her, which just happened to attract the attention of this evil spirit, then whether Ibaraki Doji would have eaten a human tonight…
was hard to say.
In a sense, Hibiki Tachibana had once again, inadvertently, saved her life.
“Nom… nom… Hmm, this sweet and chewy thing is really quite good. The food in the modern world is still better than those monotonous things in the Heian-kyo, it has its merits.”
After righteously scolding Mizuki Mirei, Ibaraki Doji didn’t forget to give an objective evaluation of the food in her mouth.
Quickly sweeping away the last few macarons in the gift box, and even licking the remaining powdered sugar off her fingers in satisfaction, Ibaraki Doji finally let out a satisfied burp.
After eating and drinking her fill, she seemed to finally remember the main business.
She turned her gaze back to Mizuki Mirei, who was still kneeling on the ground, looking at a loss.
“That said, looking at your outfit, you must be the shrine maiden of this shrine, right?”
She curiously looked Mizuki Mirei up and down with those golden vertical pupils.
“This is a shrine, and deep underground, there gathers a spiritual vein that, while not large, is quite pure.”
“And I, just ate your things…”
“Calculating it this way, doesn’t it mean that I have accepted an ‘offering’ from you, a shrine maiden?”
When saying this, a meaningful smile appeared on Ibaraki Doji’s innocent-looking face.
And when Mizuki Mirei heard the word “offering,” her heart jumped violently.
The deities worshipped at Shifune Shrine were actually numerous and mixed, mostly incarnations of insignificant mountain spirits and ghosts, and the most famous among them was nothing more than the mountain god that once occupied this Zifeng Mountain.
But regardless of which one it was, their names and status were far from being comparable to the one before her, the famous and notorious Lord of Mount Ooe from myths and legends.
It was simply the difference between a rustic villager and an emperor ruling the world.
“As a ghost god, since I have accepted a mortal’s offering, just leaving like this doesn’t seem to fit the rules.”
“Moreover, I have just returned to the mortal world from that boring Void Realm, and my power has not yet fully recovered. I do indeed need to find a stronghold with abundant spiritual veins to provide me with stable magic power.”
While speaking, Ibaraki Doji patted the powdered sugar off her hands and slowly walked out from under the shrine’s eaves, coming into the cold moonlight.
She walked step by step to Mizuki Mirei, and then, under the other’s gaze full of shock and confusion, slowly extended her intact, fair, and cute left hand.
“How about it, unknown shrine maiden.”
The Oni loli’s face wore a smile as seductive as a devil’s, issuing an invitation that would change the life of the desperate girl in the shrine maiden outfit before her.
“Do you want to sign a contract with me and become my Master in this world?”