Chapter 106: Their Respective Crises

Minamoto Kiyomoto quickly calmed down and analyzed the situation before him.

“To trap me, you let the gem leave you. Aren’t you afraid that the bow and arrow will kill you?” he asked.

“I won’t give you another chance,” the golden-haired princess said as she walked into the area covered by the gem.

Minamoto Kiyomoto’s hand was still on the hilt of his sword. He immediately wanted to draw his sword, but found that his body could not move.

“In the face of shackles, everything is futile,” the golden-haired princess walked over and took off his helmet.

Princess Noi sized up Minamoto Kiyomoto. His handsome looks, rosy lips, and sharp, deep eyes made it impossible for people to look away.

“If you wore a wig, I might really mistake you for a woman,” the princess laughed.

As soon as her voice fell, Minamoto Kiyomoto’s gaze shot over.

His eyes, which were originally as dark as gems, widened slightly, and a trace of scarlet flashed.

The fierce and domineering aura of the Hakone evil dragon, almost materialized, rushed towards Princess Noi with a silent roar.

Princess Noi, as if she were anemic, temporarily lost her vision. Her vision went black, and her head was dizzy.

Minamoto Kiyomoto’s face darkened, but his body still couldn’t move.

“Without divine power, you can’t use curses,” Noi gently rubbed her eyebrows, closed her eyes, and calmly relieved the dizziness. “Is this the ability of a yokai?”

“Unfortunately,” Minamoto Kiyomoto said, “my gem is lost. Otherwise, I could let you see a real yokai.”

“Unfortunately, and fortunately,” the golden-haired princess opened her eyes, her green eyes rippling like a lake.

“I have a question.”

“Go ahead.”

“Why can you use… what are you doing?”

The princess, who was taking off her armor, did not stop and replied matter-of-factly, “I can’t sleep standing up, can I?”

She took off all of Minamoto Kiyomoto’s armor and, with a strength that surprised Minamoto Kiyomoto, placed him on one side of the large bed. She herself still slept in the center of the large bed.

“This way, even if I fall asleep, the bow and arrow won’t be able to harm me,” Princess Noi said softly, turning on her side and looking at Minamoto Kiyomoto.

“Why can you use the power of the gem?” Minamoto Kiyomoto asked.

The two of them looked like friends chatting at night.

Minamoto Kiyomoto could smell her fragrance, see her eyelashes, and in his peripheral vision, her breasts that were peeking out of her nightgown shoulder straps.

“Can’t you use it?” the golden-haired girl asked curiously.

“Of course not. It can only be forged into a weapon, or the divine liquid inside can be extracted. Even I can only use the power of the gem after turning into a yokai. Usually, I can only use it to boil water.”

“Perhaps, because I am the incarnation of a god?”

Princess Noi was joking, but Minamoto Kiyomoto fell into deep thought.

“A yokai is a god, so you might really be the incarnation of a god,” he said. “This world is the body of a yokai; other people, plants, and animals are divine breath; and you are the capacity of the yokai, that is, its thoughts.”

“Don’t yokai have no thoughts?” the princess asked.

“You lost your power and gained thoughts. This conforms to the rules of curses. To ensure your own safety, you instinctively left a piece of remains for yourself,” Minamoto Kiyomoto’s gaze fell on the gem that enveloped the two of them.

He withdrew his gaze and looked at the silent princess.

“You gained thoughts, led the ‘divine power,’ and ruled the ‘body,’ but you want to go to the real world, and you are bound by the ‘divine power’ and the ‘body’.”

“If…” Noi raised her lowered eyelids and looked at Minamoto Kiyomoto. “If I give up the ‘divine power’ and the ‘body,’ can you take me out?”

Minamoto Kiyomoto looked at her quietly. Her eyes were saying, ‘Don’t go,’ ‘Don’t leave me,’ ‘I’m scared.’

She was a “normal person” with her own thoughts, a girl of about twenty.

Such a her, staying in a group of robot-like “people,” when she heard “Your Highness, you can’t go anywhere” late that night, did she feel lonely and scared, curled up in bed alone?

“No,” Minamoto Kiyomoto replied faintly. “The gem is in your hands. The way to destroy this world is already obvious.”

“You could have lied to me.”

“I’m not mature enough, and besides, I can’t lie to you. You already have the answer yourself.”

Princess Noi laughed. Speaking of which, this was the second time Minamoto Kiyomoto had seen her laugh—the first time was in the garden, when he was forced to admit that she was more beautiful than the miko.

The young girl came over and buried her body in Minamoto Kiyomoto’s arms.

“Why did you let me have my own thoughts?” Minamoto Kiyomoto heard her murmur-like question.

Her hands, as if holding on to something, tightly grasped Minamoto Kiyomoto’s short sleeves, like a child who had been left in a separate room by her parents.

◇

The next day, the maids walked in and saw the princess and Minamoto Kiyomoto sleeping together, their eyes wide with surprise.

But they were maids. They did not cry out, as if they had seen nothing.

Minamoto Kiyomoto, who had not slept all night, calmly observed them.

The maids were doing the exact same things as yesterday.

Before this, Minamoto Kiyomoto had thought of this as being well-trained. Now it seemed that without the princess’s orders, they were just programs, or body organs, doing what they could only do.

Noi opened her eyes, glanced at Minamoto Kiyomoto, and got out of bed.

Her cold leisure, her subtle and arrogant rejection, she had returned to the mythical golden-haired girl.

“Notify the nobles and knights who are attending the morning meeting,” she ordered while being dressed by her maids. “Announce to the whole city that at dusk, in the palace square, Minamoto Kiyomoto will be executed.”

“Yes,” the maid was not concerned with who Minamoto Kiyomoto was.

The golden gem floated on the bed, glowing faintly. No matter how anxious Minamoto Kiyomoto was, no matter what method he used, it still imprisoned everything.

◇

“To avenge the wizard, Cooper, and Belladonna, at dusk, in the Rose Palace square, an important figure among the defective products, Minamoto Kiyomoto, will be executed.”

It was not Cooper’s house, but an inconspicuous private house.

On the oak long table, there was a piece of paper announcing the death sentence.

The Hokkaido miko withdrew her gaze from the paper and suggested, “While the soldiers are concentrated in the square, let’s go and rescue the cultivators in the prison.”

“I agree—” Himemiya Izayoi, feigning the laziness of a young girl, dragged out her words and looked at Kamibayashi Miko with a grin.

“Two votes in favor?” the Hokkaido miko confirmed.

“We can go to the prison first and rescue the cultivators,” Kamibayashi Miko said slowly. “Then, with them, we can go and rescue Minamoto Kiyomoto.”

“The other side is already prepared,” Himemiya Izayoi continued to smile. “That’s not to save people, but to let everyone go and die.”

“Yes,” the Hokkaido miko agreed.

Kamibayashi Miko glanced at Himemiya Izayoi and said, “Our purpose is not to save people. It doesn’t matter how many cultivators die. The yokai must be eliminated.”

“So you’re giving up on Minamoto Kiyomoto, taking everyone and escaping, and waiting for outside support,” Himemiya Izayoi replied with a grin.

“It’s almost October,” the Hokkaido miko also said. “The next batch of cultivators will be at least ten brigades, tens of thousands of people.”

“No matter how you think about it, there’s no reason to risk saving Minamoto Kiyomoto,” when Himemiya Izayoi said this, she stared at Kamibayashi Miko, not missing any change in her expression.

“I’ll go alone,” Kamibayashi Miko said coldly.

“Compared to eliminating the yokai and saving everyone, is he more important?” Himemiya Izayoi, as if she had been waiting for this, immediately said this.

“I’ll hold them off for you, which is to save everyone and create an opportunity to eliminate the yokai.”

“You say it so nicely.”

“He’s the only one who can use the yokai body curse. Saving him…”

“No one is stopping you,” Himemiya Izayoi interrupted her. “But you have to think clearly how dangerous it is to save him, and how slim the chances are.”

“Almost impossible,” the Hokkaido miko said.

Kamibayashi Miko did not say anything. She returned to her room and, as if it were the last time, solemnly and slowly changed into her miko outfit and took the longsword she had been playing with Minamoto Kiyomoto last night.

As if it had been arranged, ten minutes later, she walked out of the room and said to the two of them:
“Let’s go. You go to the prison, and I’ll go to the Rose Palace.”

Rokka nodded, “Be careful.”

Himemiya Izayoi asked one last time, “Are you really going?”

Kamibayashi Miko pushed open the door.

◇

Although it was daytime, the Rose Palace was as quiet as a ruin. The seagulls cried from time to time, making the palace seem even more like an empty shell.

Of course, it couldn’t be an empty shell.

Kamibayashi Miko hid in a corner of the palace, looking down at the corridor that was pierced by the sunlight.

According to the intelligence Minamoto Kiyomoto had gathered over the past half a month, the guards patrolling this corridor would change shifts every thirty minutes.

It was almost time for the shift change, but Minamoto Kiyomoto had been captured. Could the previous intelligence still be trusted?
Kamibayashi Miko pondered inwardly, her expression still indifferent. At a critical moment, she had a transcendent temperament.

Why she was saving Minamoto Kiyomoto was no longer important. What was important was to save him.

The guards changed their duties normally. In that instant, without time to think further, she followed the plan and hid in a room.

“Swoosh!”

The moment she heard the sound, she immediately flashed out.

“Capture her!”

She didn’t have time to see how many ambush soldiers were in the room. She slashed a soldier’s neck with her sword and rushed forward in the splashing blood.

She was not escaping, but charging in.

She didn’t know where Minamoto Kiyomoto was, so she could only go to the garden where the princess often stayed in the morning.

She didn’t even know if the princess would still be there today.

She moved quickly, almost flying. No soldier could stop her.

She had already memorized the terrain in her mind, so these people couldn’t form an encirclement.

But as long as she wasn’t escaping, she was in a large encirclement. The further in she went, the smaller the space became.

Kamibayashi Miko, in her red and white miko outfit, was like a wooden boat, rushing into the overwhelming storm on the sea.

“Fire!” a knight roared.

The next moment, a uniform sound was heard. It was the sound of archers drawing their bowstrings.

Kamibayashi Miko, with a slash of her sword, split the head of a soldier who was blocking her way in half like a pear.

While killing, she hid behind a corridor pillar.

“Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!”, ten thousand arrows were fired at once!

“Ah!” The soldiers who were rushing towards her, without time to retreat, were turned into hedgehogs in an instant.

Kamibayashi Miko gasped for breath, her back against the marble corridor pillar, and she was covered by arrows on both sides.

It seemed safe. The arrows couldn’t reach her, and the soldiers couldn’t get through. But she couldn’t move.

She glanced at the left and right of the corridor. In the places that the arrows couldn’t cover, countless guards were already waiting there.

What was even more troublesome was that there were archers going upstairs, preparing to shoot arrows from the left and right.

This was not troublesome.

If she couldn’t find a way, she would die here.

She leaned out from the corridor pillar slightly. The rain of arrows, which had just stopped, immediately fell again.

“Thud, thud, thud!” The arrows hit the wall, making a crisp sound.

Kamibayashi Miko looked down at the corpse at her feet, planning to use him as a shield.

But, Kamibayashi Miko gasped for breath. With her stamina, how far could she go carrying a corpse in armor?

It was just like the responsibility of a Divine Miko. With that kind of responsibility, no one could live past twenty-five.

It was too late to retreat. She didn’t even know if Minamoto Kiyomoto was in the direction she was heading.

Why was she doing such a stupid thing?
The Divine Miko seemed to have been doing stupid things all along. No one had ever asked them to sacrifice themselves.

That’s right. She was a Divine Miko. She had to advance even if she couldn’t. She had to do even the stupidest things. This was a Divine Miko.

Only this time, she was not to save the world, but for one person.

Kamibayashi Miko tightened her grip on the hilt of her sword, took a deep breath, and her eyes calmed down, preparing to continue forward.

“Swoosh!”

Her heart skipped a beat. This arrow seemed to have seen through her psychology, forcing her, who was about to move, to stop.

“Lord Lynn!” Outside the corridor, a soldier’s cry of alarm was heard.

The dense rain of arrows shot in another direction.

It was Izayoi!

Kamibayashi Miko didn’t need to think. This thought had already popped up.

Without any hesitation, she continued to charge towards the garden.

Every time the sword light flashed, a parabola of blood was drawn on the blade.

Blood and brains splattered, and severed fingers flew. The arms, wrapped in armor, were thrown into the sky.

With one sword, she killed a guard. With a kick, she sent another soldier flying.

“Kill!” Two soldiers with long spears stabbed at her from behind.

“Swoosh!”

“Ugh!”

An arrow fell from the sky and killed the two of them.

Kamibayashi Miko’s beautiful hair flew. She turned her head and saw Himemiya Izayoi, who had changed into a miko outfit at some point, moving quickly on the roof while drawing her bow and shooting arrows.

Even though it was getting more and more dangerous, she couldn’t help but laugh. Then, holding her blood-stained longsword, she continued to kill her way towards the garden.

◇

The sound of screams, orders, soldiers moving, and arrows piercing the air.

Minamoto Kiyomoto ignored them, closed his eyes, and communicated with the suspended golden gem.

If he had divine power, this distance of three meters would be nothing, but now, he had no way, and was in deep despair.

Could it be that this was his burial place?
But Kamibayashi Miko had already agreed that if he could survive, he could kiss her again.

And Himemiya Izayoi, he hadn’t been to her room yet, and there were still many things he wanted to ask her.

The chaotic sounds gradually moved away.

“Where did they go?” Princess Noi asked.

“Your Highness, they went to the garden,” a maid replied.

“The garden?” Princess Noi murmured. “Don’t they even know where Minamoto Kiyomoto is?”

After a moment of silence, she said, “Bring me my armor. I’m going to the garden.”

“Your Highness…”

“Bring me the armor,” the golden-haired princess’s tone was unquestionable.

“As you wish.”

A golden armor, a gorgeous battle skirt, a blood-red cloak, convenient for movement, and at the same time, outlining the princess’s beautiful body curves.

A hairband was tied in her golden hair, and lace and silk hung behind her, looking elegant and neat.

“Are you going to die?” Minamoto Kiyomoto opened his eyes.

His handsome face was smiling, but his eyes were coldly staring at her.

Princess Noi stood by the window, looking at the bay.

The blue gauze curtains, her golden hair floating瀟灑, sparkled under the reflection of the sun.

The golden-haired, blue-eyed, beautiful girl in golden armor, as if she had walked out of a fairy tale, replied in a crisp and pleasant voice:

“The garden of life is grand, but it needs the god of death to prune it every day.”

She turned around, her cloak flying, took the golden sword handed to her by the maid, and walked out of the bedchamber majestically, towards the garden.

The empty bedchamber was left with only Minamoto Kiyomoto and the floating golden gem.

“Ah—” Minamoto Kiyomoto roared in despair.

Didn’t he even have the chance to die with them?
At least, at least, let him fight with Kamibayashi Miko and Izayoi until the end and die together.

“Useless.”

The sudden laugh made Minamoto Kiyomoto stunned.

“Izayoi?!” His heart, which was full of grief and indignation, was instantly filled with surprise.

He looked around, but did not see the charming and beautiful face that was always smiling.

“Izayoi!” he called again.

There was no response.

Was it an auditory hallucination?
“Buzz~” as if a mirror was vibrating, a red light shot out from his chest and hit the gem above his head.

The gem let out a mournful cry and fell from the air unwillingly.

Minamoto Kiyomoto looked at the scene in front of him in shock, but immediately came back to his senses.

The red light disappeared. He still couldn’t move, but the gem had fallen by his hand.

‘Heaven and earth are of the same root, and all things are one with me!’

The gem burst out with a dazzling golden light, turned into a golden ray, and merged into Minamoto Kiyomoto’s body.

(End of Chapter)