“I see… Mr. Saito is truly far-sighted!”
After listening to Saito Shigeru’s “lofty discourse,” the few underlings in the private room immediately wore expressions of sudden realization and began to flatter him one after another.
“As long as we can control a real Oni, forget about a small place like Tokyo, even the whole of Japan will be under the command of our Miyuan Cult in the future!”
“When that time comes, money, beautiful women, power… won’t we have whatever we want!”
The group began to immerse themselves in beautiful fantasies of the future, letting out wild and triumphant laughter.
Hiding outside the door, Mizuki Mirei felt waves of nausea.
These people were simply a bunch of lunatics!
They had no idea how terrifying an existence like Ibaraki Doji truly was.
They actually dared to fantasize about controlling an Oni?
It was sheer lunacy!
“But speaking of which, Mr. Saito.” Another underling who looked slightly more clever rubbed his hands together, smiling obsequiously.
“I heard that little shrine maiden from the Mizuki Family, the one guarding the shrine, is quite a looker. Do you really just plan to take the shrine’s land and then wipe their family’s debt clean? Isn’t that letting that old man off too easy?”
Hearing this question, a malicious, hypocritical smile spread across Saito Shigeru’s face.
He reached out, pinched the cheek of the girl in his lap, and said slowly.
“Of course I won’t let that old geezer get off so easily.”
“Hmph, after losing the shrine, the Mizuki Family will have no more use anyway. I’ve already rigged the acquisition terms we drafted.”
His voice was low, yet filled with an unquestionable, sinister ruthlessness.
“Once that old man signs and hands over the shrine, he’ll be in for a surprise. He’ll find that in our Miyuan Cult’s agreement to acquire Shifune Shrine, the Mizuki Family is also included as ‘attached property’ of Shifune Shrine, to be acquired together.”
“When that time comes, not only will they get not a single yen, they won’t be allowed to leave. They’ll have to serve us like dogs, working like beasts of burden, never able to turn their fate around in their entire lives.”
“That old bastard isn’t interesting at all, just a useless pushover. We can dispose of him somewhere, no problem.”
As he spoke, Saito Shigeru stuck out his tongue, licking his dry lips, his eyes gleaming with lecherous and greedy light.
“But his daughter… hehehe… I’ve long heard she’s a famous beauty in the area. When the time comes, should I have her wear a shrine maiden outfit and dance the Kagura dance in front of me, or make her change into some other interesting clothes… Just thinking about it gets me incredibly excited…”
“Hahahaha! Mr. Saito, you really know how to have fun!”
“I wonder if that girl will wet herself when she learns her future fate!”
“Being noticed by you, Mr. Saito, must be the fortune of eight lifetimes for her!”
Instantly, a wave of even filthier, more unspeakable raucous laughter erupted in the private room.
Standing outside the door, Mizuki Mirei’s entire body froze the moment she heard Saito Shigeru’s words.
A “buzzing” sound filled her head, as if something had completely snapped at this moment.
Her face, originally pale from tension and fear, now, bit by bit, drained of all color, becoming as white as paper.
The last trace of hesitation and struggle in her beautiful eyes also completely vanished. Get faster updates on g.com.
In its place was a near-lifeless, bone-chilling calm.
So… that’s how it is?
So, in the eyes of these people, she and her father weren’t even worthy of the most basic human dignity.
They not only wanted to take her home, they wanted to completely destroy her and her father’s future, reducing them to slaves to be toyed with and controlled at will.
And… they even harbored such vile, shameless fantasies about her.
An indescribable cold fury surged from the deepest part of her chest, instantly burning away the last shred of reason and goodwill in her heart.
Having witnessed the true faces of these cruel, cold-blooded scum, who were even worse than demons, she no longer felt any guilt about using Ibaraki Doji’s power to do that “transgressive” thing.
Some trash simply didn’t deserve to live in this world.
“There’s no need to wait for my father to hand over the shrine.”
A cold, emotionless voice sounded from the private room doorway.
“Because, I’m already here.”
Thinking this, Mizuki Mirei acted on it.
Expressionless, she pushed open the slightly ajar private room door and walked in, step by step.
The originally lewd and noisy atmosphere in the private room instantly fell silent due to the sudden intrusion of this uninvited guest.
All eyes turned in unison toward the door.
When they clearly saw that the newcomer was the very person they had just been freely discussing and fantasizing about, Saito Shigeru and his underlings all visibly froze for a moment.
None of them had expected that this frail shrine maiden, who should have been in a suburban shrine dozens of kilometers away, trembling with fear for her family’s fate, would appear alone, in the dead of night, at their headquarters.
After a brief moment of surprise, a playful smile was the first to appear on Saito Shigeru’s face.
He pushed the two girls in his lap aside, stood up from the sofa, and leisurely straightened his suit and tie.
“Well, well, if it isn’t the shrine maiden from the Mizuki Family?”
He looked Mizuki Mirei up and down with a teasing, cat-and-mouse gaze, his tone flippant.
“What’s the matter? Couldn’t wait to join our Miyuan Cult? Or… did you hear our conversation just now and rushed over, wanting to get a taste of being ‘cherished’ by me ahead of time?”
“Hahahaha!”
His words immediately provoked a roar of laughter from the underlings behind him.
In their eyes, Mizuki Mirei’s current actions were no different from a lamb walking into the slaughter.
A weak woman with no strength to even truss a chicken, barging alone into their den of wolves filled with men—it could only stir stronger sadistic desires in them, with no other possible outcome.
“Quite the bold little girl! Couldn’t wait to be trained by Mr. Saito, huh?”
A thug closest to the door, wearing a malicious grin, spoke while reaching out with his greasy, dirty hand, trying to grab Mizuki Mirei’s shoulder.
However, before his hand could even touch the hem of Mizuki Mirei’s clothes, it was effortlessly caught by the wrist by a suddenly appearing, small, pale, delicate hand that seemed utterly out of place in the surroundings.
The thug was stunned.
He followed the hand with his gaze, and then an obvious look of confusion appeared on his face.
Because he saw that, behind Mizuki Mirei, a petite figure wearing a golden kimono had appeared at some unknown time.
The other looked less than 150 cm tall, completely like a little girl, though dressed rather strangely.
Was she a child actor from some stage play?
Why did the Mizuki Family shrine maiden bring such a little girl…
“That is!?”
Unlike the shallow underlings, Saito Shigeru shot to his feet the moment he clearly saw the person emerging from behind Mizuki Mirei.
All the hairs on his body stood on end, his eyes wide with fear.
That figure… he had seen it before, next to the Cult Leader, in that top-secret file from the Metropolitan Police Department.
The leader of Mount Ooe, the Oni from the Heian era—Ibaraki Doji!
“Yes…”
Just as Saito Shigeru’s brain was crashing from extreme fear, Mizuki Mirei’s icy voice sounded again.
Her face showed not a trace of fear or panic, only a chilling indifference.
“I couldn’t wait any longer.”
She raised her eyes, sweeping a gaze that looked upon the dead over the faces of everyone in the private room.
“Couldn’t wait… to send all you worthless scum, who only waste rice by being alive, straight to hell!”
The moment her words fell, she hesitated no longer.
In her mind, with all her strength, she issued the first, and most ruthless, command of her life.
“Lady Ibaraki! Kill them all! Leave none alive!”
“As you command, my Master.”
The corner of Ibaraki Doji’s mouth lifted in an innocent yet cruel arc.
In the next second, a terrifyingly vast demonic aura, enough to freeze souls, erupted from her petite frame like a burst dam!
The temperature in the entire private room plummeted to freezing point!
“BOOM!!!”
With a tremendous noise, the thug whose wrist Ibaraki Doji had grabbed didn’t even manage to scream.
His entire body exploded like a low-quality balloon filled with water, instantly becoming a shower of flesh and blood fragments flying everywhere!
Bright red blood and shattered entrails splattered over the walls and ceiling of the entire private room like a rainstorm.
This bloody and shocking scene caused the brains of everyone in the private room to completely stop functioning at that moment.