Chapter 71.1

Chapter 71.1

In a room of an estate, a man was writing calligraphy. He polished the ink, and in the space filled with the fragrance of mellow and clean ink, the fat man was writing with a pouty face.

Since he lost his wife, many people secretly despised the man who was just trying to make money like a lowly merchant, but such things did not matter to the man himself.

He understood that he was nobody expected to be. Comparing himself with the rest of the crowd was meaningless. Neither is he offended now that he is less powerful in exorcism than his brothers. He has already come to terms with it. In fact, he has a role that only he can play. So, there is no need for him to complain about what he cannot do.

Of course, the person who taught him that while patting him roughly on the back is no longer in this world...

"...Well, it's a little late for that, isn't it?"

Remembering the past, the man sniffs and laughs scornfully. When he first saw her fragile and skinny self, he was quite surprised. In the same way, when she first saw him, she was dumbfounded.

She was a head taller than him, with tanned skin peculiar to southern lands, her limbs were toned with muscles, and her abdominal muscles were ripped. What was amazing was that such muscles were not strengthened by spiritual power but were her own. Her own muscular strength alone would have killed him with just a punch if she were herself at that time. Moreover, when she strengthened her muscles by pouring spiritual power into her limbs for exorcism work... it made him gape.

She was armed with a huge hammer, but she probably killed more evil spirits of mountains and rivers with her bare hands. If anything, her evil demon-like fighting style frightened many of the youkai and they ran away. Of course, they couldn't escape.

"By the way, who are you? Peeking at me is not something nice, is it?

For a while, he has been focused on the past, and then, as if after all this time, he turns his sharp gaze to the gap in the sliding door. He squints his eyes at the thing that has been peering at him for a while now and warns it. Now, who in the world would want anything to do with him...?

"Eeek!? Did he just find out!? Wh-What should I do!? ■■!?"

"Well, I told you he'd find out soon enough, right...?"

The voice echoing from the other side of the sliding door caught the man off guard. It was the voice of an innocent child. A familiar, child's voice...

For a while, a conversation was going on on the other side of the sliding door, and then the door opened and a little girl came out. A child with red eyes and glossy black hair, which flowed like wet crow feathers. Her face peeked out with a nervous expression, a lovely but mischievous daughter who resembled her mother.

She was Kizuki Uemon's niece. She was also the daughter of his unfortunate brother to whom he owed a debt of gratitude.

"Well, well, Princess, this is very unusual. What brings you here?"

The man asks the girl politely. The other people had been calling her an earthy peasant girl, an illiterate monkey, an egomaniacal princess with a temper tantrum, and so on, but he had no malice toward her out of his gratitude and sympathy for his brother and pity for the girl. In fact, he could even understand her a little. Of course, one can understand the attitude of a child who has no mother, no father, and is separated from her family and friends.

"There's no need for you in this room, right?"

As he said so, The girl pointed at him with her small finger. He can't help but make a quizzical face. Well, what's this all about?

"■■ had said it. You're not busy, you've got time to play, don't you?"

"P-princess...!? Didn't I say I wanted to remain anonymous!?"

The girl sniffs and declares in a high-handed manner, while the young boy stands by her side, looking pale. If anything, when he turns his eyes on the boy, his face goes tense.

"...If you're looking for someone to play with, don't you have other people to play with?"

He tilts his head and shakes his head. Then the little girl puffs out her cheeks in a sulky manner.

"They don't play with me seriously. They're so random, and they're so quick to warn me about this and that, it's no fun. Besides, I get tired of playing with ■■ all the time."

"Would I play with you seriously?"

"You can do it! That's what ■■ said!!"

"Please don't mention my name, Princess!"

The boy screams at his niece who declares with bright eyes. It was a strange scene. A rare thing that his difficult, hot-tempered niece was so friendly to him.

(Come to think of it, has she become more understanding nowadays...?)

He had heard that she had started to like the miscellaneous person who had been bought recently, and that she had started to throw tantrums less these days and to study, albeit reluctantly... perhaps the boy beside her is the one. Well, this niece of his is quite a handful to handle...

"Well, then, let me be your companion, if I may be so bold. So, what shall we play with?"

"Ah, in that case, I'll prepare the board now. The other day, ■■ came up with a new game. It's easier than Go, so even you can play!"

As soon as she said that, the girl ran out to the porch and probably went to her room. Her footsteps were clattering. It was a very immodest thing to do. He thinks his wives would have warned her on the way.

"...I can see she likes you very much. Little boy?"

"What!? Uh, yes..."

In the room where the noisy girl has disappeared, he looks quizzically at the boy who has been left behind and asks him a question. The boy had a somewhat embarrassed and indescribable expression on his face. It was like a brat who had been seen preparing for a prank.

"I'm surprised. You've gone so far for my niece in such a short time. How cunning of you."

"Hahaha..."

He was glad that his niece had someone she could trust, but he had to give the young boy a warning. Since ancient times, it has been a common practice for people of low birth to befriend those in power for personal reasons. He had to get rid of the bad bug for his niece's sake. Even if they hate him for it.

"...Well, that's all right. You seem to have some wisdom in you. Shall I have you do your job for me soon?"

"I don't know about Yun-shoku's home village, but my village was the worst. It was quite closed off, and they used to keep servants to serve as sacrificers and to relieve their sorrows."

From that point on, Tsunoha suddenly becomes silent. However, I could guess what he was going to say from his short but realistic words and his attitude when he had just been purchased by the Kizuki family.

"Even this job is hard, right? We don't even know if we'll be alive today, let alone tomorrow."

"But if we work hard, there is a chance to survive, isn't there? Besides, at least I'm willing to die for my friends. It's better than being eaten up by a bunch of assh*les."

His last words were full of hatred. This is not good.

"I see. ...Assistant, thank you. It's late. Go eat and sleep with the others. We're marching again tomorrow."

I order him to leave and take a rest because it is not good to leave him here. It is easy to be short-tempered when tired, and doing anything unintentionally under the eyes of others is not a good idea. If he does, he will be stopped by those around him.

"Are you sure? The work is still..."

"No more manual labor. Just paperwork. Can you write and do arithmetic?"

Although the minimum required reading, writing, and arithmetic had been added to the training of the servants due to the shortage of labor, it was not clear that this newcomer in front of me had mastered them to the extent that he could do office work. In fact, Tsunoha reacted in a way that was so obviously unpleasant that it was obvious even through his face.

"You can't compete with typos and calculation errors. Just go. Don't stay up too late, okay? We're supposed to take turns, remember?"

"Don't treat me like a child!?"

The servant exclaimed in frustration as he retreated from the scene. Unfortunately, a young man in his mid-teens or thereabouts is a brat no matter how he tries to make himself look. In fact, I'm treated the same way by all the other senior members of the group. Well, give it up.

"Okay, I've got some business to take care of..."

I sigh after I send my men away, and then I remember what I have to do today. Supplies to be replenished, expense accounts to be kept, reports to be compiled... it's all a bit tedious.

"...!"

Just as I'm putting together the complicated order of tasks in my mind, I hear a cheer from behind me. I turn around. The voice was coming from the village headman's house. A cheerful laugh. The feast of the bigwigs, held for labor and socializing...

"Well, it's quite leisurely, isn't it? Coming to a gathering for meat, alcohol, and camaraderie in this day and age. The government these days really lacks a sense of crisis, don't they?"

"...And can someone who's stealing from it really say that?"

I turn my head in alarm at the sound of a voice from behind me. The blue demon who had been sitting on the floor behind me was slurping down a bottle of sake, probably from the banquet table, and was staring at me with an evil smirk on her face as she bit into a chicken wing.

"It's pretty good sake and meat. How about it? Would you like a drink?"

"No, thanks. Why don't you drink it all?"

"And when I'm drunk, this is what I get?"

Aoko used a hand sword to show her head being chopped off. Well, drinking until drunk upon killing a demon is so old-fashioned that it's become a cliché in a sense. It is not strange that she has experienced it before. I just wish she had put a stop to it.

"...but it's surprising how unnoticeable it is. D*mn it."

I do not reply to the demon's words, but just spit them out. It's not surprising that she was able to sneak into the ladies' room in the original story as well.

Aoko-sama, also known as a red-haired blue demon, is indeed a violent, greedy, troublesome, short-tempered, moody, and selfish monster, but she is not a fool and her ability is real. In fact, she has escaped, albeit narrowly, from the hands of the seven great exorcists who have been alive for a thousand years and have slaughtered many monsters, including ancient deities. Her wisdom and ability are not small.

Although it is not explicitly stated in the work, players consider it to be a kind of illusion or perception alteration... This demon was good at sneaking into groups of people. Even now, she mingles among the human as a matter of course, yet even the members of the Kizuki family, not to mention the same human, do not feel any sense of unease with her. On the contrary, at night she goes to the feasts of the Kizuki, drinking sake, singing noisily, talking juicy stories, and getting along perfectly well with them. Although they are trembling with fear of when she will make a scene...

(Even though she has obvious horns... I remember that when I first met her...)

The scary thing about perception alteration and illusion is that people don't know when they are falling under the curse. Therefore, it is necessary to always be skeptical and suspicious of things around me, and to check with others to see if there are any discrepancies between what I see and what others see in front of me. Even so, there are many cases in which I fail to notice.

The four disasters are one and the same. If I didn't know any better, I wouldn't have been able to recognize this guy as a demon (oni). It was the knowledge of the original story that helped me to recognize her. Or maybe it was because of that. The first time I met this monster, I noticed the change, and that was the beginning of the bad relationship.

"...In any case, I hope you'll behave yourself. I can't stand it when you do whatever you want."

Even Fat... Uemon, who is currently the best fighter in this situation, cannot win against this blue demon. They clash in several bad endings, but he is usually killed within a few seconds, ten seconds at the most.

"I've known you for a long time, but haven't you been with me? You shouldn't be so cautious, should you?"

The blue demon sits down on the ground with her big breast heaving unceremoniously and slurps down a bottle of sake. She looks so rude, but I knew she was listening to me.

She also noticed that I was holding a yo-yo-like item and a dagger (tantō) from my hidden place. Of course, when she saw that I was aware of this, she grinned and showed her canine teeth.

"...What is the use for me to being so friendly with a monster?"

"You call such a gentle lady a monster?"

"Don't say that."

When I immediately respond with an abusive remark, the demon laughs in amusement. I don't know what's so funny. Nor I don't want to know. I'm answering each and every question with my life...

"...!? She's gone, huh?"