Tamaki drank the sacred sake in one gulp and sighed softly, returning the cup to the old maid. The room was quiet for a moment as they waited for Tamaki to settle down and not get too drunk.
How much time has passed? Well, after what seemed like a long time, someone knocked on the door and asked, "Is the maiden ready?"
The others except Tamaki bow their heads in unison as someone knocks on the door and enters. Hotoya Yoshinori, the head of Hotoya village, followed tradition and personally welcomed the maiden.
"Father..." Tamaki calls out to her father. But Yoshinori looked surprised for a moment before coughing to reprimand her. Tamaki, sensing his intention, quickly remembered her role and recited the designated lines.
"I'm ready. Let's proceed to the ceremony. Please guide me on the journey," said the girl as she stood up. According to legend, in the early days of the ceremony, walking shrine maidens and people from well-known shrines were invited to play the role of shrine maidens. They were treated as guests and assisted in preparation, and then led by the local lord and escorts to the shrine.
Following Tamaki, Suzune and the other maids also stood up. It was customary for them to accompany the girl to the stone steps leading to the shrine.
Leaving the residence, they were greeted by the evening sky transitioning to night. The night wind brushes coldly against their cheeks, making Tamaki and her companions feel even colder, having just left the warm interior of the residence.
But noticing the attention and stares of the villagers, the shrine maidens face the front. The villagers holding lanterns lined up and illuminated the path, leading them to the shrine. They, too, are startled at the sight of the shrine maiden and, like Yoshinori, begin to talk amongst themselves in hushed tones. The sudden transformation of the usually reserved young lady into shrine maiden was indeed a shock to them.
Tamaki, who sensed the attitudes of the villagers, felt a sense of awkwardness and embarrassment. At the same time, she became even more aware of the absence of one person who would have surely cheered her on loudly enough to make her blush...
"Let's proceed..." Tamaki said, suppressing her loneliness and forcing a smile. The others also respond and begin to march silently and ostentatiously.
There are not many who can tell that her smile is forced, even among the inhabitants of this village...
* * *
In the midnight darkness, when not even moonlight shone, the calamity youkai saw the castle sinking into a raging fire and immediately realised that it was a reminder of the past.
It was the all-out war between Fusō-kuni and the youkai army that would later be called the Great War of Humans and Youkai. It was the final scene of the great castle that had fallen in the early stages of the war. In their memory, the weasel couldn't help but break into a smile at the sight.
It was a natural reaction, even if youkais are not particularly cruel and brutal. The battle for the key transportation points in the western land, which lasted for over half a year, was not an easy one for the non-human army either.
Despite being surrounded by a large force and attacked repeatedly, the castle remained stubbornly resistant. But after thoroughly cutting off the supply lines and driving the people holed up in the castle to the verge of starvation, the castle finally fell in an all-out assault. Nobody can be happy about that. The same reaction would occur even if it were a human-to-human war.
'Sigh...'
Except for their king who sighed quietly alongside...
"...? What's wrong? Why are you feeling down? Do you have any complaints, my lord?" asked the weasel, the youkai, concerned about the unusual reaction of their leader in the face of a great victory. Their lord's disappointment, lament, and resignation were not appropriate for the triumph that lay before them.
'...Ah, Yuka. Are you not heading towards the castle?' the king of the youkai turned around and spoke with a voice that was intellectual yet clearly not human, shaking the air around them.
"......"
There was a moment of silence, filled with displeasure at not being recognized. It was a short-sighted emotion, typical of the calamity youkai, who are intelligent but not rational... but more than that, it was overtaken by the joy of having their name called out.
Yuka... the weasel youkai, was pleased that their name was the one that gave them form, especially if it came from the one who bestowed it upon them. At least in that sense, Yuka worshipped and respected their leader. So, Yuka did not show their dissatisfaction on their face, nor did they say anything. Instead, they spoke up as if nothing was wrong.
"Well, it's already settled, isn't it? I don't think I'll get my share if I go now. It's just a waste of effort. I might as well watch this victory from here."
Yuka's words were carefully crafted, but they were also true. Thousands, maybe even tens of thousands, of demons and monsters had likely swarmed into the castle by now, ignoring the feeble resistance of the remaining humans. If that's the case, there may even be killing each other over the prey, turning on their own kind. If Yuka move snow, there won't be a single piece of meat left by the time they gets to the castle. So, going there would be pointless.
'Victory, victory... Do you really think this is a victory?' questioned its leader.
"Hmm? But isn't it?" replied the weasel, tilting their head in confusion at the despondent words of their beloved leader. Although it was a hard-fought battle, the impregnable castle where the humans were holed up has fallen. Moreover, they had been dominant in all other battles as well. Even from this far away, the screams of many humans can be heard on the wind. The cries of the pitiful survivors who had barricaded themselves in the city, their death throes, screams, and wails continued to ring in their ears like a lullaby. How could one not call this a brilliant victory?
'I told you to surround them, didn't I? I didn't say anything about attacking down,' muttered the King, sighing once again. This attitude made Yuka wonder even more.
"Are you dissatisfied with the decision of the ox-heads and horse-heads?" Yuka asked.
'Yes. I advised them to surround the city, and it was enough to prevent them from coming out of the city,' the King responded.
"But wouldn't it be better if they fell?" Yuka pressed, taking a step closer and looking up at their king. It's true that violating orders is a problem. Yuka also knew that the King had put a lot of effort into controlling the army.
But youkais are selfish by nature. They live by instinct. They put feelings first. They are more animal than beast. Even more so when it comes to calamity youkai. Rather than criticizing them for recklessly charging in, they should be praised for leaving two calamity youkais behind to take the city by exploiting human negligence.
"And the two of them are leading a group of strong individuals. It would be a waste to use them as mere armies considering the damage they could do on the front lines. But what do you think?" the weasel says in an orderly manner. Since establishing themselves in this name and form, the weasel has succeeded in establishing a far more intelligent and stable sense of self than before.
The words the youkai weasel spun, they would never have come out of their mouth if it had been the youkai they once was. And surely by now, they would have barged into that castle without a second thought, interrupting the horde of attacking beasts. Along the way, they would have treated allies as nuisances, blowing them away and trampling them. So, Yuka feels a sense of superiority in their heart at the fact over its past self, watched for the king's reaction. They has high expectations.
'...That's true, that's certainly a rational thought. You've become a lot more rational. Quite different from before. Everyone would be a lot better off if they were a bit more relaxed like you,' the monster king's words of praise, which were tinged with profound disappointment and despair, sensed by the weasel with a sixth sense more akin to that of a beast than a youkai.
But why? Before Yuka could entertain that doubt, those words came too soon.
'Get down!'
"Eh?"
It happened just as Yuka tilted their head quizzically. A strong light flooded in from behind. It was so bright that it could be mistaken for sunrise, but the time was far from morning...
"Huh?"
As if on reflex, the youkai weasel turned around, only to be met with a roaring noise and shockwave that hit their body with a force similar to that of an earthquake and storm hitting at the same time. Their small body almost got blown away by the impact, but managed to cling to the ground and barely survive.
Dust and debris filled the air, and after a short delay, the trees that have been blown down to the ground are raining down on them. The youkai weasel staggered to their feet in confusion and saw the scene in front of them.
"Wh-what...?"
'Well, looks like the attackers are completely wiped out. They were pretty bold to try and break the spiritual veins like that,' the leader of the youkai spoke emotionlessly.
The mountain castle that was enveloped in fire just now is no longer there. If anything, even the mountain itself had collapsed. The land had been gouged out in a rather ugly way, and the only thing standing tall was the grey-brown mushroom cloud that resembled a tree reaching for the skies. Nothing else remained. Not even a single one of the thousands of monsters and demons that had attacked.
'Let's go. The contaminated dust will fall soon, even I am in danger,' the leader said emotionlessly.
Looking back, Yuka realized that to their king, this was just an extension of what had been happening so far. The humans had resorted to despicable and cowardly means to kill their kind up until now, and this was just an escalation of that. And now Yuka understood what their king had feared all along...
...
...
...
"'The cornered mouse bites the cat,' huh?"
"?"
Yuka acknowledged the blank expression on their junior colleague's face as they let out those words. Unintentionally, a self-mocking smile appears on their mouth. Yuka feels as if they are looking in a mirror from back then. Did their king feel the same way as they did back then?
"No, I was just reminiscing. It's an elderly's nostalgia. You young ones don't have to worry about it," Yuka said, jokingly, to her much younger and taller junior colleague, hiding her mouth with the ill-fitting sleeves of her clothes.
And then she looks at... the village. It is night, the hour of the dog. The sun has already set and only the light of the moon shines on the ground. Just like back then.
"Hehehe, they're having a carefree festival. Well, I guess it's inevitable to let their guard down," the youkai weasel declares wickedly at the lights of the village in the distance. It was the light of a festival. In the centre of the village, most of the inhabitants are probably gathered without a care in the world, relying on the boundaries. But it was good. She had set up the stage for this kind of situation.
The cornered mouse bites the cat, especially when humans are pushed to their limits. It was something that she had learned after experiencing the chaotic days of war. It was so ingrained in her during those turbulent days that she got fed up with it.
That's why this stage, the moment when the crisis is over and they're off guard, when they're no longer prepared, that's the right moment to take the shot. And once it starts, she has to end it all quickly. Do not drag it out. They had to devour the village thoroughly, leaving no one alive and escape. After all, dead men tell no tales. If the humans were slow to realize their uprising, they would be at an advantage.
"That's..." the junior member said, pointing towards a dark corner.
"Ah, here they are. That solves the last problem," Yuka replied calmly.
Emerging from a seemingly empty patch of the mountain slope, it was the youkai egg created by the treacherous human who had infiltrated the impatient youkai boar's belly. It broke through the boundary and spit out on the way to the shrine, and being an egg, it had deceived even the exorcists' detection. And now, as it hatched, it followed the role imprinted on its soul.
The creature from the egg appeared like an ugly squid or a spider or even a deformed centipede. It exuded a sticky bodily fluid that corroded the key point to the boundary of the underground secret passage.
