[Part 5/5]
"...Inaba-hime, I understand your worries. I know that they're the enemy of your father. However... please bear with it."
Remembering the incident, I persuade her while facing the door. It would be humiliating to be used for the benefit of the enemy of one's parent. However, hasty actions would truly become irreparable. Even if it meant accepting injustice, I had to make her endure it for her own sake.
Even if she were to go astray, she would only be killed by the Tengu. Or if she were to achieve revenge, she would be disposed of as a dangerous element by the court.
...It's a selfish story to harbor revenge in one's heart.
"Not my father."
"Eh...?"
However, the response to my persuasion was unexpected. I fell silent for a moment. My thoughts came to a halt.
"Not your father, then?"
"Old man. Stepfather. Not my father."
As I called out to her, Inaba-hime looked up and replied in an indifferent tone, unchanged in any way.
"..."
Upon hearing that statement, its meaning, I lost the words I should have spoken. Considering what I should speak about, what I should address, what thoughtless remarks would bring, I opened my mouth under my mask, but no words came out...
"..."
"Ah"
The sliding door rattled. Inaba-hime, her enthusiasm cooled, leaned out into the corridor. Her still-moist hair swayed gently. She looked up at me with an indescribable gaze.
"Next, are you coming in?"
"..."
"Are you coming in?"
"...Yeah, I am."
"...I see."
And then, Inaba-hime walks past me. She walks past and then stops, turning back.
"The sleeping quarters in the west room."
"?"
"I sleep there."
"Got it. ...If you need me, I'll head over there."
"Mm."
Minimal responses to each other. And this time, Inaba-hime finally leaves. As her small back disappears on the other side of the sliding door, I just continued to stare at it.
In the end, I didn't go into the bathhouse...
I found white rice in the kitchen, so I made porridge for dinner by mixing in eggs. I left a tray with a hot pot on it in front of Inaba-hime, who was buried in the futon in the west sleeping quarters, as a treat. I ate separately in another room.
By the time I finished eating, the sky was dark and quiet. I walked around the veranda, the eaves, and the terrace with a lantern in hand.
"The lights are few..."
I look towards the direction of the tree-top settlement of the Tengu in the darkness. The number of lights that illuminate the dark mountain forest is clearly fewer than the number of tree houses I confirmed.
(Is it deception or did they really get devoured as the story goes...)
The story that hundreds of Tengu were devoured in a snake attack, the credibility of that has indeed increased.
But I can't believe that all the attitudes of those important Tengu were just acting. They certainly show signs of impatience and a slight expectation towards my presence. They are cornered. That is for sure.
(But even if it's true... they probably haven't revealed everything)
The attitude of that female Tengu, Aka-bouchou, her behavior that seems circuitous, makes me feel like there is still something hidden.
(What was it like in the original...)
It's true that the circumstances around the protagonist have changed a lot, but I couldn't imagine that this major incident would have such a big impact on it. But... damn it, neither the snake nor the Tengu are hardly mentioned in the main story!
"It would be true to say that there have been few things that have been useful so far, but..."
I let out a grumbling sigh. That's exactly why the future is difficult. This kind of commotion in a side street that has nothing to do with the main story... Honestly, it's just too troublesome. I want to run away.
“…”
Now, I looked up at the sky and narrowed my eyes. There was a faint presence emerging in the darkness. As warned, Tengu and their friends were monitoring the area around this mansion.
“…”
I looked down. A strange shape was wriggling in the darkness. It was a large tree, so it couldn't climb, but its eyes shining in the pitch black were clearly looking at me. It was looking at its prey.
"It's not a guard dog. It's wild."
Or maybe it's the snake servants I hear about... In any case, running away is a bad idea. There might be more of them since we're on the outskirts of the village.
"...Don't get cold. Should I drink some hot water and go to bed?"
I touched the insect cage hanging around my waist and whispered to the night breeze. I went back into the mansion. I shut the door tightly. I walked deeper and deeper into the hall.
And then... as I closed the sliding door, she appeared.
"Whoa!?"
"Quiet. ...Please don't make any noise until the boundary is set up."
Before I turned around, I heard a familiar, cold warning voice. Something long tightened around my whole body, restraining me. A cold shiver ran down my cheek. As I clung to the corner pillars, I sensed something enveloping the entire area.
...Honestly, I knew she had been lurking all along. I knew she would make contact someday. But I never expected it to be at this moment.
"Ughh!?"
"Quiet..."
As I tried to call out after finishing the boundary, what I felt this time was a piercing pain and a scream. It was at my neck. The wire-like, snake-like tail that had bound my body wound itself around my neck, securing it further.
"Mmm... slurp, slurp...!"
In the dimly lit room, only the sound of slurping water continued to echo. No, it was indeed the sound of slurping. Inadvertently, it was the sound of unsettling, blood-sucking.
As the fang was roughly pulled out, I was pushed down onto the floor. My face slammed into the ground, and I felt the impact on my forehead. The restraints had somehow come loose. As I stroked my head, I turned around.
"Can't you be a little... gentler?"
"Suck, slurp, scrape... Haa. Please don't complain. I'm holding back as it is."
In the darkness, only the eyes shone. A pair of youkai lights glimmered like a beast, subtly resembling a human but with an unsettling aura. Wiping the alluring mouth, she licks her fingertips while exhaling. Something was being expelled from the mouth into a tube or something.
And she exuded an enchanting atmosphere that was inexplicably alluring to men...
"What is it? Please stop looking at me like that. It's very impolite, you know?"
The exorcist girl, a half-succubus, noticed my gaze and reluctantly shot me a reproachful look...
'(. ･`з･)ﾉ Little sister! Before eating dinner, you must say 'Itadakimasu', okay?!'
"Who is the little sister!!?"
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