Chapter 108: The Night Parade of One Hundred Yokai

Chapter 108: The Night Parade of One Hundred Yokai

༺ The Night Parade of One Hundred Yokai ༻

Once the performance ended, the Yokai Festival began.

With the people watching their march as if it were a parade, the yokai formed a procession and set off to traverse the entire city.

[Here! Come here! Don’t go anywhere else, just follow my lead!]

Of course, since I couldn’t just let the yokai roam by themselves, I asked the Dark Spiritualist to head to the forefront of the procession and lead them.

Although the Dark Spiritualist was not visible to the people, as long as the yokai could see her, it didn’t matter.

The yokai relished all the attention they were receiving, whether it was wonder, astonishment, laughter out of fascination, or curses due to disgust.

Feeling delighted, the yokai voluntarily joined the procession while enjoying the attention from the people’s gazes.

It was truly a night dedicated for the yokai.

The sight of numerous yokai wandering at night could only be described using the Japanese idiom, ‘The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons.’

“Excuse me, Soul Whisperer.”

As I was seeing off the procession of yokai from a place where most people had already departed, Owen approached me.

“The performance just now... “

“It was your grandfather, Oster Valtany. I only helped fulfill his request to let you hear his final performance, and he has returned to sleep.”

I didn’t know how to play the piano at all, but becoming a pianist, even if it was just for a brief moment, was quite an impressive experience.

“As expected....”

Owen, who seemed to have expected this answer as he knew my abilities, responded calmly.

I then asked the boy.

“So, what did you learn?”

“....”

“Oster sat down in front of the piano once again to remind you about the joy of performing. Even after death, his skills seem not to have rusted at all.”

“That’s right, my grandfather was really... amazing.”

It wouldn’t be accurate to call it a phenomenon of ‘reflecting on one’s original nature’,1회광반조(Hoegwang-banjo) was a basic practice method of patriarchal Seon, through prior studies related with banjo or reflection in Seon Buddhism. Hoegwang-banjo means to turn one’s attention which is ordinarily directed to external things back to oneself. Especially in Patriarchal Seon, there is sudden awakening or ’empty quiescence and spiritual awareness’ according to the experience of Banjo or reflecting on oneself. Just as the eye cannot see the eye itself, this banjo or reflection is only possible through non-dualistic awareness. Seon or Sŏn Buddhism is the Korean name for Chan Buddhism, a branch of Mahāyāna Buddhism commonly known in English as Zen Buddhism. as Oster was already dead.

Regardless, his performance before returning to eternal rest was truly intense and explosive as it was still able to instill deep emotions and anticipation for the festival, not only in the yokai but in the people as well.

“In the end, I still failed to do it.”

Soaking in sadness, Owen slumped over. So, I shared my thoughts with the boy who had been questioning his own abilities since the last time.

“Why do you think you and Oster came to possess such abilities?”

Owen said that he had always possessed the ability as he played the piano with his grandfather, but it was different for Oster.

One day, as he was playing the piano, those yokai appeared out of nowhere. They said they received comfort from him and disappeared.

Eventually, one could argue that the suddenly acquired ability, like a strange work of fate, had an unclear origin.

“I feel like I might know why the two of you came to possess such abilities.”

“Huh?”

Owen looked at me in surprise, as if seeking an answer. However, if I did so, the boy would never experience any personal growth.

For instance, on witnessing how his grandfather comforted the yokai, he naturally assumed that was the only correct answer.

If I were to give him the answer as if he were consulting a cheat sheet, he would once again live with tunnel vision, thinking he had found the only correct solution.

“Watch the procession closely. Towards the end of the festival, if it is you, you should very well be able to figure out the reason.”

“If it is me...?”

“Yes, if it is you.”

After unnecessarily stroking his head once, I turned away.

Findenai and Illuania were waiting for us some distance away, but I had another place I needed to visit.

“What? Are you not coming with us?”

“If you have some other business, we can help you.”

“It is fine. It is not a big deal. I will just go alone.”

“You crazy bitch of a Dark Mage! This is why you shouldn’t trust them!”

The loan sharks who had ambushed me turned into lumps of meat as they fell prey to the hellhounds.

There was no need to spare them either, so I moved my hand indifferently and sighed while glancing out the window.

“Is this just an attempt to buy time?”

Despite the intense appearance, it was an utterly futile battle. The situation clearly showed that the perpetrator only intended to keep me captive here.

However, how could I simply let myself be trapped in here without being able to escape from those dogs?

Therefore, I gathered mana again.

I was intentionally trying to gain practical combat experience without manipulating souls. However, this battle wasn’t like the repetitive hunting3When you repetitively hunt monsters or farm monsters in games to gain experience so that you’ll level up quickly. That’s why Deus said this is unlike the game, this is just labor for him (who is doing this in real life). for monsters in the game; this was simply tedious labor.

“I am breaking through.”

I awakened the souls of the hellhounds, who were burnt to death by my flames.

Even though I did it with the help of Lemegeton, I was still someone who had controlled the soul of a Demon soul before.

Therefore, even without Lemegeton’s help, I could forcefully command the souls of the dead demonic monsters.

Grrrrrroooohhhh!

[Kraaaaaaaah!]

Transparent-looking hellhounds sprung up from amidst the corpses.

Living and dead hellhounds clashed and tore at each other.

It was a frenzy of madness as they latched onto each other’s napes without caring for their own bodies.

Is the opponent a Monstrumancer?

I felt a profound sense of unease rise within me as I watched the hellhounds, which had been trained well enough to follow my orders without any hesitation, even though I had just killed them.

To them, my action of ending their lives seemed inconsequential.

It was akin to observing emotionless entities, meticulously trained to identify their current master and cater to their needs accordingly.

This illustrated the nature of demonic monsters, shaped and conditioned through a life of suffering.

Just as a typical Necromancer subdued evil spirits by inflicting torment upon them, Monstrumancers controlled the minds of demonic monsters, quelling their instincts through excruciating agony.

Nevertheless, these hellhounds would never die even when they got bitten. Even if they died, they would rise again like zombies.

While the individual ghost hellhounds might lack strength compared to living ones, the numbers on my side kept increasing.

Eventually, as the number of ghost hellhounds increased, all the living ones turned into cold corpses.

The office floor and corridor were covered in a sea of hellhound corpses.

Every time I stepped forward, blood spurted out as if I were squeezing water from a sponge.

I exited Bolfras’ office on the second floor, as the blood gradually dripped down from the stairs to the surroundings.

It seemed like someone had called the guards upon seeing the eerie sight.

When I looked up, I met the gaze of a woman who was giggling while peering down from a rooftop in the distance.

When she waved her hand in greeting, I could see her wearing a familiar robe.

“As expected, she is from Dante.”

Apart from me, Dante was the only organization in the Kingdom filled with skilled Dark Mages.

Given the Monstrumancer’s level, I naturally assumed she was affiliated with Dante.

The woman with crimson hair vanished into the building as if suggesting we should play tag.

However, I wasn’t pleased with her method of inviting me to chase after her by wagging her tail like that.

“Chase after her.”

I released the souls of the hellhounds that were still bound to me.

Countless hellhounds, now translucent ghosts, began to fly into the air, rushing towards their former master like the reindeers of Santa Claus.

1

회광반조(Hoegwang-banjo) was a basic practice method of patriarchal Seon, through prior studies related with banjo or reflection in Seon Buddhism. Hoegwang-banjo means to turn one’s attention which is ordinarily directed to external things back to oneself. Especially in Patriarchal Seon, there is sudden awakening or ’empty quiescence and spiritual awareness’ according to the experience of Banjo or reflecting on oneself. Just as the eye cannot see the eye itself, this banjo or reflection is only possible through non-dualistic awareness. Seon or Sŏn Buddhism is the Korean name for Chan Buddhism, a branch of Mahāyāna Buddhism commonly known in English as Zen Buddhism.

2

A hellhound is a mythological hound that embodies a guardian or a servant of hell, the devil, or the underworld. Hellhounds occur in mythologies around the world, with the best-known examples being Cerberus from Greek mythology, Garmr from Norse mythology, the black dogs of English folklore, and the fairy hounds of Celtic mythology.

3

When you repetitively hunt monsters or farm monsters in games to gain experience so that you’ll level up quickly. That’s why Deus said this is unlike the game, this is just labor for him (who is doing this in real life).

/genesisforsaken