Book 4 Epilogue, (4)

Book 4 Epilogue, (4)

Revision: Kou Aki => Hikiyo

After crossing the Shiraki river, there was a world of snow and ice, as it was called.

The winters are long, the land is frozen, the mountains are steep, the forests are deep with youkai and beasts, and there is the unfriendly Ezo tribe... Among the central land and its four main lands, the northern land is the most uninhabitable and the most severe in nature.

Of course, people still live there. They burn the fields, clear the forests, hunt beasts and youkai, defeat Ezo (barbarian), cultivate the land, and build houses. The trees that have grown since ancient times are thick and sturdy, promising as lumber, and the food from the mountains and the sea is also abundant, as they have been untouched by humans for a long time. In the mountains, several iron and gold mines have been exploited. Although the soil is indeed harsh, it is not barren.

And in this northern region, there is the most prosperous city named Shiro'oku, where the Northern Province office is located under the direct control of the Imperial Court. Its population exceeds 100,000. The city is the center of the northern region both in name and in reality.

And there was a residence in the valley, a day or two's walk from there. The residence, which stands overlooking the village of about 1,500 peasants, is a house of the family of exorcists who rule this area.

The name of the exorcist family is Kizuki, the same name as this valley... Kizuki valley, and they are the descendants of those who exterminated monsters, which is the origin of the valley's name. They were as influential as deities at least in the Kizuki valley and the surrounding villages.

Now, after a day and a half of being separated from the Tachibana Company on the city road that separates from Shiro'oku city, the group finally arrived at the valley in question, overcoming the snow that almost scooped up their feet.

The snow was still falling and visibility was poor... but not completely white. As soon as we entered the valley, villagers and miscellaneous laborers mobilized under the order of Kizuki's residence and held lanterns in their hands to serve as guideposts. How many hours had they been waiting for us? Anyway, the procession of people returning home from the capital passed through the village by the light of the lanterns of the people, and thus, we arrived at the gate of Kizuki's residence.

"Hold on! You will be inspected before entering."

However, we cannot enter immediately. The family exorcists and servants who had been packed into the residence stopped the procession at the gate and began to inspect the men in the procession and their cargo. They are concerned about the presence of cursed objects in the cargo or the fact that some of the men have been substituted by youkai.

"Lord, they don't look familiar. Are they the ones reported?"

The exorcists of the family ask with grim looks on their faces when they see Magoroku and his sister on his back. The newcomers brought by the gorilla-sama are especially scrutinized carefully, for they do not know where they come from. The old exorcist has a demon's eye for inspection, and he can easily recognize the clever disguise of youkai if he looks closely enough. But...well, forgive him for not being able to spot the infiltration of Aoko the blue demon. She may be a weird one, but she's the real deal.

"Well, good. Go on in now."

"Y-yes!!"

Magoroku walks past the inspector, who have a sneer on his face, as he hugs and cares for his sister who is blind.

"Wait, you... Are you the half-youkai from the message?"

"E-eek!"

As Shiro is dismounted from the ox cart, the inspector gives her a hard look and shrugs in fright. If anything, she bit her tongue. With a twitch, she glances up and down at the inspector with an uneasy expression on her face. Perhaps she is afraid she will be eliminated the next moment.

"...Princess, it is troubling. It's not nice of you to pick up a half-breed like this one, as well as the one you just saw. It would be a loss of prestige to allow people of unknown origin like this into Kizuki's venerable residence one after another."

"Are you finished? Before you start talking again, why don't you decide quickly whether or not you want to let her in?"

To the inspector, who was seriously complaining, Gorilla-sama said in a manner that was nothing but a complete provocation.

"...Half-youkai there, get your ass out of here."

After a moment of silence, the inspector gave a short order. Meanwhile, Shiro obeys the order and returns to the ox cart with a shive.

"That's all right... Then, go ahead."

And then, without hesitation, Gorilla-sama naturally ordered the ox-cart coachman.

"Wait a moment, Princess. The inspection of the servant there is not yet finished."

The inspector said so, referring to me who was packed in the oxcart as Aoi's guard. But her reply was a cold stare.

"What? Are you still going to make me wait?"

"No, but..."

"But?"

In an instant, the surrounding temperature dropped several degrees. A dense torrent of spiritual energy swirled around us. It was so oppressive that if one had no tolerance for it, he or she would have been intoxicated by it alone...

"No, it's nothing, Princess. You can pass."

"Giggle, you're welcome."

The inspector finally had no choice but to yield to the deadly glare in her eyes. But well, it's not a smart thing to offend the whimsical princess in front of him, and thus, he orders the men to bring the oxcart through the gate.

...and I'm allowed to pass without inspection.

"Well, I guess a boundary can be fooled. I don't know what would happen if someone probed me too deeply with their insightful mystic eyes."

"Hehe, you finally came to this side, didn't you?"

Aoi boasted in the moving oxcart. Then she leans her body toward me, who is standing by her side, and lightly taps my cheek with a closed fan with narrowed eyes.

"...Well, if they know what's going on inside me, it's going to be a big problem. I'm sure they'll dissect me into pieces. Maybe they'll use me as experimental material."

"I won't let that happen."

It's scary. Even though she boasts with an air of smugness, her gaze reminded me of a vicious, cunning, rabid predator. But

"Thank you for your generosity and concern, Princess."

And then I answer. As if in surrender, as if in total submission. For my fate depends on the mood of this girl in front of me.

"Hehe, don't worry. I won't let you go so easily... Oh, look at that..."

"That one's coming."

Aoi, who had been smiling with a lecherous smile, noticed it with a frown on her face.

The next moment, the oxcart shook violently. At the same time, the viewing window was forcibly opened, and "something" entered the oxcart.

"This is... Huh!?"

"Hah~... Hah~... Almost there, huh?"

I stop to take a rest, breathing white breath from the cold, but soon resume climbing the mountain path. I climb the stone steps one by one, and not much time passes before I finally reach the top of the small mountain.

At the top of the small mountain... there spread out a series of crude gravestones. The graveyard was a place that neither Kizuki's family nor the villagers rarely visited...

"D*mn! The stairs here are too hard... It's even harder when I'm carrying my baggage on my back."

I grunt, and I click my tongue. Then I start to do what I have to do without complaining. It's snowing when the sun goes down. If I'm not careful, I could freeze to death from the disaster. Well, first of all...

"Uhh, Yahiro guy is... Oh, this is it. I'll give you this one."

When I find Yahiro's (Appeared in ch.1) grave, I put some rice crackers in front of it. I think he liked soy sauce-flavored ones.

"Heigun (Appeared in ch.4) is kind of cookie, Hei (Appeared in ch.4) is... konpeito, right? It's expensive, so just a little bit, but bear with it, okay?"

I unload the baggage and offer the favorite foods from among them to the graves of my former subordinates. Especially Hinoe was crazy about konpeito, which he had eaten only once before, and he must have been complaining about wanting to eat it again every time.

I will leave candy for Yoi, a roasted chestnut for Mizunoto, a soybean flour cake (mochi) for Kanoe's grave, and for some reason, some tasteless dried fish for Renzen, Also Yanagi's favorite food was... dried persimmons, right? I'm sorry if I'm wrong.

"Well, a lot of them aren't buried under here to begin with, are they?"

Many of the bodies were never found, or if they were found, they were not brought here but were disposed of on site because they were rotting. I don't know if there is really any meaning to these empty graves... Even if they are not, not all of them were close to me, and many of them died before or soon after I came. In such cases, I offer something appropriate.

"But they are not well managed. Some of them are buried under snow and crushed."

In the first place, the graves of the servants are not worth taking care of, and the only monk from the village who visits them occasionally is a dying old man, whom I can't force to do so. In such a situation, I have no choice but to shovel snow.

I brush away the snow from most of the graves and finally stop by one of the graves. I stopped and crouched down at one of the gravestones that had been set up in a mess.

"It's been a long time. I hope you've been well... But it's funny to say so, isn't it? After all, you've been dead for a long time."

I laugh at the thought that it's an incredibly inappropriate thing to say to a dead person. With a wry smile, I start mumbling to report the current situation.

"Sorry, I'm late. As I told you before I left, I was in the capital.... because the princess wanted me. Well, I'm at a loss. I had a terrible time there. I can't tell you how many times I almost died."

I say hello to the grave, making excuses for the fact that I usually see him once at the Bon Festival, but not this year. As I greet him, I blabber on about my disastrous experience at the capital. No, seriously, I was prepared for the fox thing and all, but it was way out of the story. I didn't know I was going to end up dying like that?

"...Well, I've had my share of problems, but I'm still alive and in one piece. I'm very lucky."

Even this dead senior of mine, who was much stronger than me, was covered with scars and had lost several fingers. Compared to that, how lucky I am to be in good health and not even missing a finger.

Well, let's put all that aside for now and go to...

"Well, let's get this for you first."

I say one-sidedly and take it out from my baggage. It's a cheap sake of poor quality that I got from a store in the capital.

"But even if it's of poor quality, it's still something that's sold legitimately in the capital, you know. It should be much better than the stuff found in the back alleys of the old village below."

I defend myself in a light-hearted, joking way. Well, I'm sure she'll ignore what I'm saying and just grab a bottle of sake and drink it anyway. She was a kind of escape from reality in this shitty world... but she really was a woman who was all about the booze.

"That's why. It's your junior's treat, so don't be a pussy and take it, okay?"

I put a bottle of sake in front of her grave. There is no answer. I knew that. I didn't expect it. It was just a ritual to convince myself.

It's just a ritual to cover up my helplessness, my guilt...

"...Shirato's big brother, who was appointed to the leader of servants personnel, has died. He somehow managed to survive his wounds, but he suffered for 7 days and 7 nights... and it was only a few days ago."

I report it as if out of a sense of duty. To me, it seemed too obvious to tell the person whose grave I was standing in front of.

"It's been four years since your death. Most of our seniors are no longer alive. Now, it's not funny if they're going to appoint me to this position."

I never imagined this when she was here. Back then I had just graduated from being a mere servant and many servants had more experience than me. I can't believe it's like this...

"At least if you were still alive... But it's too late to say anything now..."

That's right. If that woman had been here, none of this would have happened. I wouldn't have been offered this position. No, before that, if it weren't for me, nobody would've... Not even that woman...!!

"...Haha. I bet if she saw me now, she'd break my bones."

I laugh. I let out a dry laugh with a miserable look on my face. I'm sure she would have hit me over the head and said, "Stop whining. Do your part for everyone."

In fact, she was the embodiment of those words herself. She struggled desperately in the shitty environment, clawing and fighting so that as many of her friends as possible could survive. No bitterness, no hatred, no envy. She took care of me when I was a servant, when I didn't know what was right and wrong, and she has taken care of me ever since.

And even such a kind woman could not resist her fate. She got caught up in that d*mned Kizuki Aoi's, Kizuki family's conspiracy together, and finally lost her life because of me, and...

"Ugh!?"

I frown as a dull pain hits my head.

"D*mn... it's not something I can just forget about."

Was it the last time I screwed up? I was so badly injured that my memory of that moment is hazy in places. Thanks to this, the end of that person is also somewhat vague, and it is only a little while later that I realized that the missing piece of my memory was worsened by the experience of having my head blown off and becoming a monster after the incident the other day.

Although it was horrible to see myself becoming separated from humans and my personality being distorted... this fact was the most frustrating, frightening, and sad.

"...D*mn it."

I grumble as I sit down in the graveyard, where white snow is falling. My head was filled with anxiety, fear, guilt, loneliness, and...

"Uh... uh... uhhhh..."

...Unfortunately, I couldn't leave this place for a while.

It was a month later that I was appointed to the position of servant leader(?) (衆允)...