[Part 5/5]
"...Inaba-hi, I understand your worries. I know that they're the enemy of your father. However... please bear with it."
Rembering the incident, I persuade her while facing the door. It would be humiliating to be used for the benefit of the enemy of one's parent. However, hasty actions would truly beco irreparable. Even if it ant accepting injustice, I had to make her endure it for her own sake.
Even if she were to go astray, she would only be killed by the Tengu. Or if she were to achieve revenge, she would be disposed of as a dangerous elent by the court.
...It's a selfish story to harbor revenge in one's heart.
"Not my father."
"Eh...?"
However, the response to my persuasion was unexpected. I fell silent for a mont. My thoughts ca to a halt.
"Not your father, then?"
"Old man. Stepfather. Not my father."
As I called out to her, Inaba-hi looked up and replied in an indifferent tone, unchanged in any way.
"..."
Upon hearing that statent, its aning, I lost the words I should have spoken. Considering what I should speak about, what I should address, what thoughtless remarks would bring, I opened my mouth under my mask, but no words ca out...
"..."
"Ah"
The sliding door rattled. Inaba-hi, her enthusiasm cooled, leaned out into the corridor. Her still-moist hair swayed gently. She looked up at with an indescribable gaze.
"Next, are you coming in?"
"..."
"Are you coming in?"
"...Yeah, I am."
"...I see."
And then, Inaba-hi walks past . She walks past and then stops, turning back.
"The sleeping quarters in the west room."
"?"
"I sleep there."
"Got it. ...If you need , I'll head over there."
"Mm."
Minimal responses to each other. And this ti, Inaba-hi finally leaves. As her small back disappears on the other side of the sliding door, I just continued to stare at it.
In the end, I didn't go into the bathhouse...
* * *
I found white rice in the kitchen, so I made porridge for dinner by mixing in eggs. I left a tray with a hot pot on it in front of Inaba-hi, who was buried in the futon in the west sleeping quarters, as a treat. I ate separately in another room.
By the ti I finished eating, the sky was dark and quiet. I walked around the veranda, the eaves, and the terrace with a lantern in hand.
"The lights are few..."
I look towards the direction of the tree-top settlent of the Tengu in the darkness. The number of lights that illuminate the dark mountain forest is clearly fewer than the number of tree houses I confird.
(Is it deception or did they really get devoured as the story goes...)
The story that hundreds of Tengu were devoured in a snake attack, the credibility of that has indeed increased.
But I can't believe that all the attitudes of those important Tengu were just acting. They certainly show signs of impatience and a slight expectation towards my presence. They are cornered. That is for sure.
(But even if it's true... they probably haven't revealed everything)
The attitude of that female Tengu, Aka-bouchou, her behavior that seems circuitous, makes feel like there is still sothing hidden.
(What was it like in the original...)
It's true that the circumstances around the protagonist have changed a lot, but I couldn't imagine that this major incident would have such a big impact on it. But... damn it, neither the snake nor the Tengu are hardly ntioned in the main story!
"It would be true to say that there have been few things that have been useful so far, but..."
I let out a grumbling sigh. That's exactly why the future is difficult. This kind of commotion in a side street that has nothing to do with the main story... Honestly, it's just too troubleso. I want to run away.
Now, I looked up at the sky and narrowed my eyes. There was a faint presence erging in the darkness. As warned, Tengu and their friends were monitoring the area around this mansion.
I looked down. A strange shape was wriggling in the darkness. It was a large tree, so it couldn't climb, but its eyes shining in the pitch black were clearly looking at . It was looking at its prey.
"It's not a guard dog. It's wild."
Or maybe it's the snake servants I hear about... In any case, running away is a bad idea. There might be more of them since we're on the outskirts of the village.
"...Don't get cold. Should I drink so hot water and go to bed?"
I touched the insect cage hanging around my waist and whispered to the night breeze. I went back into the mansion. I shut the door tightly. I walked deeper and deeper into the hall.
And then... as I closed the sliding door, she appeared.
"Whoa!?"
"Quiet. ...Please don't make any noise until the boundary is set up."
Before I turned around, I heard a familiar, cold warning voice. Sothing long tightened around my whole body, restraining . A cold shiver ran down my cheek. As I clung to the corner pillars, I sensed sothing enveloping the entire area.
...Honestly, I knew she had been lurking all along. I knew she would make contact soday. But I never expected it to be at this mont.
"Ughh!?"
"Quiet..."
As I tried to call out after finishing the boundary, what I felt this ti was a piercing pain and a scream. It was at my neck. The wire-like, snake-like tail that had bound my body wound itself around my neck, securing it further.
"Mmm... slurp, slurp...!"
In the dimly lit room, only the sound of slurping water continued to echo. No, it was indeed the sound of slurping. Inadvertently, it was the sound of unsettling, blood-sucking.
As the fang was roughly pulled out, I was pushed down onto the floor. My face slamd into the ground, and I felt the impact on my forehead. The restraints had sohow co loose. As I stroked my head, I turned around.
"Can't you be a little... gentler?"
"Suck, slurp, scrape... Haa. Please don't complain. I'm holding back as it is."
In the darkness, only the eyes shone. A pair of youkai lights glimred like a beast, subtly resembling a human but with an unsettling aura. Wiping the alluring mouth, she licks her fingertips while exhaling. Sothing was being expelled from the mouth into a tube or sothing.
And she exuded an enchanting atmosphere that was inexplicably alluring to n...
"What is it? Please stop looking at like that. It's very impolite, you know?"
The exorcist girl, a half-succubus, noticed my gaze and reluctantly shot a reproachful look...
'(. `) Little sister! Before eating dinner, you must say 'Itadakimasu', okay?!'
"Who is the little sister!!?"
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