Chapter 506 – Original Sin and Atonement

000

“From the 1st formula to the 9th formula. Try using it next.”

In the spacious underground training ground, a Yoho who seems to be of an age talking to a young girl.

It was hard to guess how old she would be, considering that a pure-blooded Yoho ages slowly.

Outwardly, he may be in his early 60s, but his actual age his would be 40 to 50 more than that.

And, a child standing in front of her. She’s probably about 5 years old at most.

Her hair was black and her eyes were gold.

Unlike the Yoho next to her, there are no ears on top of her head or a tail on her waist.

However, even though she is still a child, the girl with the buds of a “Beauty” Can be felt somewhere like a fox.

It was proof that she, too, was carrying Yoho’s blood.

Around her neck her hung a necklace made of jade cut into the shape of a leaf.

The jewel embedded in her center her glowed softly with magical energy swirling in blue.

She nods her head at the woman’s voice directing her, and puts her finger on the jewel of her necklace.

Then, from there, her magic power flows out of her and swirls through her fingers.

The young girl moved her arms and hands as if dancing, forming her spell her by connecting her hand signs her.

The 9 magic arts that yohos learn as a foundation.

The difficulty level increases the further you go, and only after learning all of these spells can you be recognized as a person’s magical spirit.

The time it takes for most yohos to master level 9 is about 15 years old.

So, Yohos who turned 15 had a ‘coming-of-age ceremony’.

But she is five years old as she looks.

The adult Yoho’s instructions seemed to be ‘reasonable’ to common sense, but.

The girl who received the instructions safely continued from meal 1 to meal 5 without difficulty.

“…”

Watching the scene, the grown-up Yoho’s eyebrows twitch and twitch, but he does n’t say anything more and watches her next her.

From the sixth incantation, the difficulty increases rapidly.

There were children who learned up to 5 meals in one year, and after that, there were children who needed more than a year to be able to use one spell.

“Whoa…!”

The girl wipes the sweat from her brow and takes a deep breath as she begins her sixth incantation.

Her magical power Her contained in her necklace Her is enough to use just nine spells.

If you make even the slightest mistake, or if there is a problem with the composition of the spell, your magic power will be exhausted before completing all the spells.

However, the girl calmly used her 6th and 7th spells and continued that momentum.

The trembling of the tips of her fingers showed that she, too, was feeling her tension.

And when the 8th spell is over – all that remains is the last spell.

It is the most difficult spell, but it is also the most practiced spell.

All elements that could make mistakes have been checked.

The next moment after trying to calm her mind her and wrap her magic power around her body her.

When she heard a rattling sound, the wall behind her opened and a monster made of paper came out.

“…!”

He might be taken aback by the sudden situation, but he turned around and continued the ceremony he had been preparing, and it manifested itself.

The ninth spell is a huge stone made of magic that appeared behind her back her.

From the tip of the killing stone, beams made of magic of three different attributes come out and aim at the monster.

Fierce flames, violent streams of water, and flashing lightning burst out at the same time, annihilating the monsters that rushed towards him on the spot without leaving ashes.

As her spell her was completed, the girl stumbled upon her body her only after the mana that had filled her body her completely disappeared.

“Haa…! Haa…! Is this a test…?”

“…Okay.”

The older Yoho answered that, but his expression did not change.

Seeing that, the girl nodded her head with difficulty and—

Dump. She did and fell in front of her, passing out.

“…Is it exhaustion due to depletion of mana?”

The old yoho shook her head while talking like that, and when he saw another yoho coming closer to him, he spoke.

“You must have been watching. Tamamo.”

“Yes. It’s great… No way, mastering all 9 spells at the age of 5 isn’t enough… I never thought I’d be able to complete the spell without any problems even in an emergency.”

She covered the corners of her mouth with a fan, but behind it, I could see that the corners of her mouth were raised to an unprecedented degree.

“Neither a yoho nor a human being… It’s a problem that I’m a yoho.”

“…”

Tamamo frowned at her words for a moment.

Then she shuts her mouth – and she talks.

“Don’t worry. This talent is real. As a vessel, no problem.”

Her eyes her seemed to see the fainting girl not as a ‘human’or a ‘personality’, but as a tool.

Seeing Tamamo’s gaze, the older Yoho sighed and spoke.

“Tamamo… Do you really intend to do it? Revenge for the ‘Cult’ is-“

“To both the Empire and the Church. We have always suffered. To the Empire, as experimental material, to the Church, as a heresy and an unbalanced being. It is absurd that we should be treated like that if we take even one step forward in the East. It’s a story, isn’t it?”

Tamamo sharply glared at her, and she responded as if repulsive to Yoho.

“…”

“I need it for that. The emperor of the empire. Like the father of all things in the church- our god.”

“Hakumen…But she-“

At the words of the old Yoho, who seemed to be worried about something, Tamamo put a hand on her shoulder her.

“… This child is our hope. That’s why, Inari. You teach her everything about her. As a ‘Hakumen bowl’…”

And, in Tamamo’s hand her, there was a gem shaped like a white fox.

Inari looked at his friend’s hand her and closed his mouth for a moment.

It was her nod her.

“… I’ll try my best.”

001

When Tamamo hurriedly found the mansion where the two lived, the mansion had already completely turned to ice.

“What kind of magic is this…!”

Tamamo melts the ice of the mansion with their subordinate her, Yoho Shaman.

And she runs hastily inside, looking around her head for the hope she has entrusted to her friends—friends!

“Inari! Kuzunoha! Shit… Why…!”

Tamamo bit her lower lip, and her heart raced at the sight of the two invisible.

It’s been two years since Inari took care of her Kuzunoha and started nurturing her.

In order to protect Kuzunoha, who was about to take her life her, and the spirits of the brothel that could get caught up in it, the “Hidden mansion” Where Kuzunoha was raised as a vessel for Hakumen, hidden from the cult.

However, information leaked out by someone, and they came in haste after hearing the news that the damn cults had attacked Inari’s mansion.

“Please… Be safe…!”

Inari is one of the most powerful shamans among Yoho of the time.

He didn’t want to think that he could have been beaten so easily.

At that time, hearing a rustling sound, Tamamo hurriedly turned around and searched for the source of the sound.

There, he saw Kuzunoha, trembling with her blanket wrapped around her body.

“Kuzu, noha…”

And, next to her, with Inari, who lost her life as her entire body her froze-

I could see charred corpses lying around it.

“…A mask imitating the face of a beast. After all, a member of the Order.”

While saying that, I looked at the horn of ice that they had brought and felt the magical energy that seemed to be the cause of this horror.

Soon after, I closed my eyes and approached Kuzunoha, who was trembling with cold and fear, and checked her condition.

‘There is no scar on her… Inari must have protected her with all her might her.’

In Tamamo’s mind, to some extent, the sequence leading up to the creation of this scene came to mind.

Inari fought back to protect the exiled church that she had been attacking, but both sides died as if a cross-counter had been fired.

Only “Kuzunoha” Survived, protected by Inari’s magic in her.

Tamamo bites off her lower leaf tuft once again.

“Inari…”

Her mind her was too unprepared to let go of a woman who had once been her lover her beyond her simple friendship her.

“T-Tamamo-sama… I’m sorry… This, Inari-sama, it’s because of me…”

Then, as her Kuzunoha spoke to her her in her trembling voice her, Tamamo shook her head and pulled her shoulders as if to reassure her and held her in her arms her.

“No… It’s okay. If you’re all right… From now on, let’s stay together at the brothel. I hope Inari taught you a lot during these two years…”

As Tamamo said that, her gaze was on her and Hakumen’s magatama hanging around Kuzunoha’s neck on her.

002

“After that… I started living with Kuzunoha. I didn’t know it when I entrusted Kuzunoha to her. As Inari started to teach Kuzunoha magic, she became attached to it. A simple vessel, a disciple. Rather, she regarded her as her ‘real daughter’. I only found out about that after looking at her journal found in the ruins of the mansion.”

Tamamo explains her her and Kuzunoha’s past her to Cleon and her friends her in front of the liquor table.

While listening to the story, it was a natural fact that the party’s expressions couldn’t be brighter.

As her Kuzunoha told her, Tamamo regarded her as her ‘vessel’ her and put her Hakumen in her her to create the future of her yohos her.

In the process- Kuzunoha’s will her was not respected.

“You can say that I’m a hypocrite… In fact, even after reading Inari’s journal, my thoughts haven’t changed. …But- It wasn’t just me who was deeply saddened by the loss of Inari, Kuzunoha was the same. It was necessary to hold on to her so that her ‘will to live’ would not disappear. I tried to alleviate her sadness by erasing her memory of Inari and doing the same thing that Inari did.”

Not just teaching witchcraft, but reading books together. Or walk around the market. Enjoy tea and sweets.

While repeating that, Tamamo also began to have feelings similar to Inari’s.

She feels that Inari and herself are similar beings, and at the same time, she is conflicted by the fact that the day will come when she will have to sacrifice Kuzunoha for the future of the spirits.

However, the conflict came to an end when he realized that the ‘future’ obtained through ‘sacrifice’ was fleeting through the smile she sent to Tamamo at Kuzunoha’s coming-of-age ceremony.

Tamamo chose not to tell Kuzunoha about it, and she tried to seal Hakumen’s magatama.

If she does n’t use her mana her more than necessary, Hakumen won’t dwell in her body her.

That was about a year ago.

But- Hakumen was already half-open.

Hakumen, who noticed Tamamo’s intention to seal her magatama her, quietly whispered to Kuzunoha to tell her the whole truth.

Tamamo’s purpose her, memories related to Inari.

The reason Inari and Kuzunoha had to live in a hidden mansion away from the brothel.

That’s why Inari died.

And, she erased that fact from Kuzunoha’s memory of her.

Kuzunoha was furious.

Or maybe even that rage was an emotion inherited from Hakumen.

‘Why… Why!! I believed in you…!’

Still, her mournful voice her plays vividly in Tamamo’s head.

As a violent whirlpool of magic surged from her body her, Hakumen’s magatama flashed and carved her own imprint on her body her.

The black hair was changed to silver hair like Inari, and a fox tail was created.

The ears of her beast that rose above her head were what made her look like her demon, not her human.

‘I will never forgive you… If what you sacrificed me to bring Hakumen-sama down to create is the future of the yohos… Then I’ll devour Hakumen-sama in reverse and destroy the yohos’ future. I’ll give it to you…!’

Saying that, Tamamo couldn’t stop Kuzunoha from going wild.

Not because of her lack of skill her—seeing her her weakened her witchcraft her because of her rising remorse and guilt her.

In the end, a year passed as Tamamo was unable to bring back Kuzunoha, who had left the house after that.

Meanwhile, Poltuk appears and spills the medicine.

Naturally, he thought that if Kuzunohara wanted her power over her, she would get her hands on the drug.

When Tamamo finished talking to that point, none of her party could easily open their mouths and speak out.

“…This is a story related to me and Kuzunoha.”

“…Then, Tamamo-sama doesn’t intend to make Kuzunoha-san a vessel for Hakumen anymore…?”

When Sasha asked that question as if to confirm it, Tamamo nodded her head.

“Yes. To me right now, rather than Hakumen-sama, Kuzunohara is a young yoho-…No, she who can be called the daughter of Inari and I is more important to me…As an elder, it may be a disqualification.”

“No. It’s not a disqualification at all…As Tamamo-sama said, a future built on sacrifices will soon collapse. Such a future will require sacrifices again.”

Amelia shook her head at Tamamo’s words, respecting her will her.

“But, it’s understandable that Kuzunoha can’t trust you. … She must have been too much of a betrayal for a 15-year-old to feel.”

At Cleon’s words, Ryla also nodded.

“… When she wakes up, she might as well try talking slowly again.”

“That’s what I thought. -Anyway, since all the spirits have been retrieved. The next thing left is to set fire to the brothel… It’s too late today. Let’s do that tomorrow.”

Saying so, Tamamo drank from the glass placed in front of her.

“I’ll bring someone who can fix Kuzunoha’s finger her. … Keep an eye on her so she does n’t run away.”

“…Of course.”

To Cleon’s words, Tamamo answered calmly, and looked down at her reflection in her liquor in her.

As an elder, she has only thought about the future of the yohos, to the victim she created, Kuzunohara.

How can I apologize and explain?

Her mind her was a messy mess.