Episode 78 — Youkai Mountain
～ Part 1 ～
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Depart northward from town, cross over the mountain and further pass through the great grassland, one finally can reach the Time World Desert. While gazing at the origin of the Time World Desert’s materials — the many crumbling magic weaponry — during her journey, the ‘girl’ finally arrived at her destination.
She had come all this way to the northwestern part of the Time World Desert in order to negotiate with a certain clan — the blood clan. Indeed, it had been 200 years since she last met them. In the other world, only 70-80 years should have passed, but thanks to that ‘she’ had aged considerably.
This land Seria — which seemed to be called the ‘New Continent’ by the people of the center continent — had a unique civilization.
But, only a limited few knew of it. Adventurers came from the center continent who recognized its existence, naturally didn’t exist. That knowledge certainly belonged to only a very small fraction of those related to the imperial family of the Central Empire, and then the blood clan.
She, as the representative of Seria where those diverse and unusual culture melded together, had come to negotiate. The blood clan should more or less grasp the circumstance of Seria, so the common point of the discussion was visible to both sides. In short, they should just maintain mutual non-interference.
The girl gracefully moved her 4 feet and treaded on the cold sand. Her bushy golden hair retained body temperature, so it didn’t feel too cold. Foxfires to illuminate the night march floated around.
“Coming this far, adventurers or something will spring up, won’t they?”
Looking the wide desert, the girl muttered. The young fox walking by her side, raised its face.
“I heard that the adventurers are zealously catching ayakashi, it may be better to be careful.”
“What, I’m not going to lag behind the likes of the adventurers around here just yet.”
Fluttering her 9 tails, the girl laughed.
Having said that, some of the foxes she sent out to scout hadn’t returned yet. The humans also had people who could contend evenly or exceeding them, in fact, they had a bitter experience against those kind of human 200 years ago, so she wasn’t going to take them lightly.
The negotiation with the blood clan is tomorrow. I guess it’s about time we rest here. Just when she thought so. Three of the foxes that hadn’t returned, came back from the west side of the desert. Looking closely, the 3 foxes caught something in their mouth and were dragging it on the sand.
“My lady!”
One of the foxes shouted.
“This guy went till he collapsed. I mean, flew till collapsed!”
“He flew at full speed, then plunged straight into the sand and fainted!”
“What happened!?”
Since the foxes unanimously said so, the girl also inclined her head and walked over. Judging from the the way the foxes spoke, it wasn’t any kind of adventurers. Neither was it a demon. In Seria, it was customary to kill on sight any kins of demon.
Seeing that shadow being dragged by the foxes, the girl was surprised.
A body covered in black feathers with ascetic monk clothing on top. That being with big beak and wings was an existence that she and the foxes could easily tell.
“A crow tengu? Why is he in this kind of place?”
“Did the holy priest make him follow us?”
“There’s no way he would be in the west in that case. A stray?”
At a glance, he seemed emaciated and fatigued, but there was no conspicuous external wound. Crow tengu itself wasn’t something so unusual, but finding only one of them in a place far from Seria civilization was a situation she couldn’t quite imagine.
Even so, this race was basically her brethren. She would never treat him poorly. The girl instructed the foxes to nurse him. The foxes nodded, they carried the crow tengu to the shade of a rock nearby.
It took not a short time for the crow tengu to wake up after that.
«Yoshitsune, a heart like that is called ‘demon fate’»
When he was a child, a man living on the mountain in the neighborhood admonished him so.
«It’s also a word indicating 3 wickedness 4 demons. An ascetic monk who got caught up in their self-conceit will fall to hell after death, that’s what they call ‘demon fate’. Hell is a place disconnected from the six realms of the circle of transmigration. No matter how much time pass, that soul will never be reborn, thus, never receiving salvation.»
After that, the man went on and on about some difficult stuff, summing it up, all he had been saying the whole time was «Don’t become a tengu».
Do not get conceited with your talent. Always keep a humble heart. You may be fine now, but it won’t last forever. You can do anything skillfully, but that only applies an narrow world till the end. So said the man.
The speech stunk of sermon, so he didn’t listen properly. Seeing him like that, the man exhaled an amazed sigh. That was all he could remember.
The man’s words started to have a trace of reality as he grew up. The surroundings’ talent was catching up to his self-conceit. Before long, they caught up to his place, and now, he finally got left in the dust.
If I was more humber, more acceptant of reality and controlling myself better, would it end differently?
“Uu…”
While carrying that hazy thought, Karasuma Yoshitsune regain consciousness. The area was dim, but it was being illuminated by faint light. That time when Karasuma fled the hill where his comrades were, he aimed at the lights floating in the desert and flew straight ahead.
But, perhaps due to hunger, or the cold of the night desert, in the end, his stamina immediately ran out and he plunged straight into the sand and fainted.
In his field of vision, there were several faces peeking at him. Apparently, they had been nursing him.
I have to say thanks, finally opening his eyes, what jumped into Karasuma’s eyes weren’t human faces.
“…Uoo!?”
A slender pointed beast face. Karasuma jumped back from the faces illuminated by hazy flames.
“F–foxes…!?”
He had thought they were dogs, but that was wrong. They were foxes. As far as Karasuma is concerned, he was more familiar with the messengers of Inari Shinto shrines than some wild animal. But either way, he had never thought he would meet foxes in this other world, much less to say in the middle of the desert.
Do foxes even live in the desert? While he was puzzled, the foxes turned their gaze to the back.
“My lady! He woke up!”
“(It talked!?)”
Even unicorn and slime could talk. What’s so surprising about talking foxes?
Having said that, the ones who could talk until now was basically all his classmates. Karasuma felt an intense out of place feeling from the fact that some passing by foxes were calmly uttering words like this. At the same time, he saw the weird flames flickering in the night desert, and the word «Foxfire» crossed his mind.
These foxes are not just any animals? They’re monsters?
Speaking of which, the adventurers Kyousuke and the others fought said that they were looking for local rare monsters which can only be found on this continent. Azuki was aimed at because of that. Those guys said rare monsters, that is to say, monsters like Japanese youkai, is it not?
Then, these foxes are also one of those kind of monsters?
As Karasuma spun his thought around, from behind him a sudden, huge presence peeked at him.
“You woke up?”
“…Uooo!?”
Karasuma backed off again.
The fox peeking at him was far bigger than the ones Karasuma knew, or rather, it was a golden furred gigantic monster far exceeding Karasuma’s size. Looking at the 9 tails swaying from its butt, Karasuma was convinced.
As I thought, these foxes are monsters.
Karasuma head was confused at the situation before him, the haziness shrouding his head until then had been completely blown away.
“Eh, eeeh…. Y–you!? I mean, did, did you guys looked after me?”
“Hou.”
The great fox narrowed its eyes.
“You don’t know me. As I thought, you’re not an ayakashi of the mountain.”
“The mountain…?”
“You’re not a messenger of the holy priest. But you don’t seem to be an enemy either.”
The 9-tailed great fox scratched its head with its forefoot and looked up at the sky. Bright moon light shined on its beautiful fur.
“I can send you to the mountain. But either way, it would have to be after our business is over. Well, even if I bring along a crow tengu, those guys probably won’t suspect anything.”
“Ha, haa…. Um.”
The hell this fox is grumbling about by itself? Karasuma fully operated the brain that could maintain scores of about 60 even without studying and tried to grasp the situation.
Mountain, that was surely the hometown of these foxes. There was a mountain where youkai lived, and they came from there. In that place, there were also crow tengu living. The great fox didn’t know his background, but by his appearance being a crow tengu, it was saying that it could take him back there.
Karasuma didn’t quite understand what it meant by holy priest, but he did know that a famed Buddhist priest is called a holy priest or something. Perhaps, there was a youkai called holy priest ruling over crow tengu.
Our business, he didn’t quite understand that either. But it did say that those guys wouldn’t suspect anything, which meant it was going to meet someone.
Considering that it had expressly gone to this desert for that, those guys it talked about must be people who based around here.
Kyousuke and the others, as expected, not them. If it was in contact with them, it would have known about Karasuma as well.
It shouldn’t be adventurers either. Those guys didn’t look like they knew about the youkai mountain.
Then it had to be the blood clan.
The possibility of it being something else did exist, but having lived in the area around the desert in the past several days, Karasuma and the others didn’t find any other life-form that seemed capable of negotiating.
These foxes were going to have some kind of negotiation with the blood clan, were they not?
“Well, I won’t stop you if you have some other purpose in mind.”
Looking at the brooding appearance of Karasuma, the great fox said.
“This is the friendship as the same ayakashi. What will you do?”
Certainly, Karasuma had no reason to be here. Being brought to the mountain where youkai lived wasn’t too good for him either. Now, saying thanks and leaving looked to be the most decent option.
A decent option it was, but even if he was to leave this place, Karasuma had no where to go, that’s a fact.
Now, he had no intention to shamelessly go back to Kyousuke and the others.
Depending on how you think about it, this was a chance. If he could pretend to be a comrade of these youkai and come into contact with the blood clan, he might be able to obtain special information that they had never obtained until now. May be even the location of Kumosaki and Shokuzura who fell into the enemy’s hand could also be determined.
If he could bring back that information, he could still keep up his honor.
Karasuma answered.
Without ever noticing that this thought for sure was the arrogance and utilitarian ideas which is the origin of ‘demon fate’.
To be continued…
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