Chapter 145

Chapter 145

Can yokai and humans coexist?

Throughout history, in countless wars with yokai, people have earnestly studied this. Must humans continue to wage war with yokai? Isn’t there a path where they can achieve harmony?

Tigers can be domesticated if confined in cages. Therefore, coexistence with yokai is possible.

There were actually several people who made such claims. At first glance, it wasn’t an incorrect assertion.

But there was one thing they overlooked.

Because yokai feed on fear and grow, coexistence is more difficult than with tigers that only need to be provided meat.

And also, that they’re far, far more dangerous than tigers.

“Yokai…!”

Seeing the girl’s eyes, Seohwa unconsciously gripped her sword hilt and stepped back. A sudden surge of nausea and faint fear.

‘Why is there a yokai here?’

As if answering the question that flashed through her mind, Seohwa bit her lip and glared at the village chief. The situation was rapidly organizing itself in her head.

“…Don’t tell me.”

The reason yokai don’t enter this village.

Seohwa had thought the village chief was repelling yokai through some kind of technique, or some mysterious power that repels yokai.

It’s natural, isn’t it? One doesn’t normally assume humans are keeping yokai. If you’re human, you can’t make such an assumption.

Especially if you know how terrible an end those who tried to keep yokai have met since ancient times.

“Are you in your right mind?”

“Mm.”

“You’re keeping yokai inside the village to block yokai? Do you know how dangerous that is…!”

“Of course I know. I know better than you folks.”

“But you see. We had no choice but this method.”

With a wrinkled face, the village chief leaning on his staff looked at Seohwa with loose eyes and continued.

“Do you know when this village was established?”

“…Wasn’t it five years ago?”

“That’s when we moved here. It’s actually been about ten years. Originally it wasn’t this large a village.”

Ten years ago.

The slash-and-burn village formed by gathered slash-and-burn farmers was shabby and miserable.

“Barely five households gathered. People who gathered in the forest to avoid government soldiers. They burned the forest, farmed on the enriched soil, and when the soil’s strength was exhausted, moved locations and burned again…”

In the far reaches of the southern barbarian lands, slash-and-burn farmers call themselves ‘forest eaters.’ Like insects that gradually eat away at the forest if left alone. Like duckweed that abandons their settlement and wanders when food disappears.

“Who would want to live that way?”

“They’re people who hid deep in the forest to avoid government soldiers because they had no land to settle on, no way to pay taxes. They did slash-and-burn farming because there was no other way to survive without it.”

Even in the mountains they entered to avoid government soldiers, there were enemies.

“Tigers frequently appeared and dragged people away. Those who fell to their deaths on treacherous terrain were countless, and yokai occasionally wandered at night. Have you ever heard the sound of something knocking on a hut’s roof in the middle of the night?”

“…No.”

“I have. It was the sound of a yokai that couldn’t properly understand what a door was, mistaking the roof for a door and knocking. Whether it was knocking or trying to open it, I don’t know.”

For five years, seven households became five, then eight households became four.

The slash-and-burn village repeatedly grew and shrank. Building wooden palisades and such to prepare for yokai was meaningless. Slash-and-burn farmers had to move locations every year, and defensive facilities that could be built in such a short time couldn’t stop yokai.

“We started with twenty people. Over five years, sixty-two people joined, and seventy-three died.”

“…Seventy-three people.”

“When we arrived here, fewer than ten remained.”

Deep in the forest where they didn’t need to worry about government soldiers, land with abundant soil strength.

The moment they touched the soil, they knew. If they cultivated this land, they could easily stay put for at least three years without moving.

“We settled down. This time we built the wooden palisade high. So tigers couldn’t invade. But you see.”

“There were too many yokai on this land.”

Two people who went to pick mushrooms went missing for two days, and on the third day were found as white bones with all their essence blood drained. The number of people diminishing far too easily even considering precedent.

“We had to escape. But we couldn’t escape. To survive, we’d have to head toward villages under government soldiers’ protection, but we were people who’d die if caught by government soldiers.”

Inward, further inward.

The remaining seven desperately fled their location. They ended up going deeper inside to avoid yokai, entering land with even more abundant soil strength.

The sensation of walking into a deathtrap. Is this how insects feel when caught by carnivorous plants, lured by sweet scents?

“Everyone was exhausted. Our escape reached its limit.”

“But at some point we realized. The fear that had been chasing us disappeared. We no longer felt the yokai’s gaze.”

A girl with skin so transparent she didn’t seem human was sleeping on a rock inside. In a forest full of yokai, completely uninjured. With an appearance around ten years old.

“We spent a week in the vicinity. Strangely, yokai didn’t approach within several li of the Divine Maiden.”

“…Then, do you know what principle blocks the yokai—”

“I don’t know. I don’t want to know either. I only know one thing.”

Being with the Divine Maiden means safety.

“This is why you can’t take the Divine Maiden away. Because our village needs the Divine Maiden to continue existing. Understand?”

At the village chief’s low tone, Seohwa lost her words and pressed her lips together while looking at the girl. The girl just tilted her head, not properly understanding what conversation had been exchanged.

‘She doesn’t… look dangerous.’

The fear and revulsion felt when encountering yokai.

The girl has less of that. Apart from her red eyes, she’s in completely human form, and unlike other yokai who readily show hostility, she’s different.

But even so, isn’t she still a yokai?

‘Using yokai abilities to survive against yokai? Is that… okay?’

Just as predators’ claws or fangs grow to facilitate hunting, yokai abilities are the same. Abilities are created to obtain fear, to kill people more easily.

Then might the girl’s ability also be like that? Might all this be a trap?

“…Ah.”

While Seohwa frowned at the problem making her head tangled up in complexity.

The girl made a small sound and looked up at the sky. A large moon reflected in her eyes.

“…Pretty.”

Even facing imminent death, she showed no interest in it.

Like a cat tracking a butterfly with its eyes, watching the sky endlessly—at the sight of the girl, strength naturally drained from Seohwa’s grip.

“…I’ll decide about the Divine Maiden’s treatment in a bit. It’s not something I should decide alone.”

“If you’re thinking of taking the Divine Maiden away, I can’t stand by as village chief.”

“That protection has already ended anyway. Haven’t you heard that yokai approached right up to the village’s wooden palisade?”

“It’s unprecedented, but they haven’t crossed the palisade.”

At the village chief’s stubborn attitude, Seohwa sighed and removed her hand from her sword hilt. Then came her following words.

“It doesn’t matter what you think, Village Chief. What’s certain is this village is no longer as safe as before.”

Even betting one’s life requires courage.

While there are those who fall into gambling and pour their entire fortune into it, those who gamble with their own lives are rare. The village people wouldn’t want to bet their lives on uncertain things either.

“We need to somehow create a way to break through this situation.”

Don’t they say a cunning rabbit digs three burrows?

She’d learned that the method of protecting the village was one that couldn’t be blindly trusted. Then it’s time to think of countermeasures for when that method fails.

‘Either strengthen defenses, or find a way to escape.’

Either strategy would result in significant casualties. But it’s also true there are no other strategies.

‘If only the Sect Master were here.’

—When I’m not here, you’re the acting Sect Master. Seohwa.

Despite the weight pressing on her shoulders, Seohwa forced a smile and turned around.

“Let’s go. It’s time to devise concrete plans.”

Whether for enemies or themselves.

There wasn’t much time left.

At the entrance of a dark cave.

“The third wave was blocked.”

“Right. I expected it would be blocked. But to be blocked without even inflicting much damage… that’s rather incompetent, don’t you think? What do you think, vile thing?”

At Yuknachar’s muttering while sitting on a cliff checking the village panorama through a telescope, Agwi broke into a cold sweat and bowed his head.

—My apologies. However, there are still many yokai remaining, and they’ll continue…

“Are you saying to just watch because it’ll fall eventually? Telling me to be patient?”

“Vile thing. Vile thing. Not only are your thoughts vile, but even your intelligence is vile. How can you be so unable to see ahead?”

The Blood Cult’s grand plan follows heavenly energy. While trying to go against heavenly energy, the Blood Cult’s grand plan tries to read heavenly energy and ride its flow.

Therefore, at points that aren’t critical moments, they mustn’t allow heavenly energy to twist. Yuknachar cannot read heavenly energy, but the Blood Cult’s high priest has already read the heavenly energy and informed Yuknachar of the grand plan’s progression, hasn’t he?

“Originally, by now the village should be consumed by anxiety.”

Fanaticism blooms its most brilliant flower in anxiety.

As the village people’s anxiety accelerates, their fanaticism toward the Divine Maiden grows—that’s the principle of the world. For them who can’t win fighting yokai, the only breakthrough is the being called the Divine Maiden. Because there’s only the means to block yokai.

“What’s the situation now? Is the village consumed by anxiety?”

—…My apologies.

“Sorry, sorry. Sorry! That word again!”

Kwa-jik!

—Keu-eup.

Having stomped on Agwi’s hand until it crumbled, Yuknachar wore a fishy smile.

“How long will you just keep being sorry? Isn’t the village peaceful because of your pathetic plan?”

Martial artists appearing as variables. The defenses becoming more solid because of that.

Such things aren’t actually important. If martial artists appeared unexpectedly, they just needed to factor that into calculations and push a bit harder to send more yokai.

“In the end, your arrogance created a small distortion.”

It’s not a critical error yet, but they can’t allow even an inch of error. If things keep twisting, plans eventually become completely twisted.

So I must punish you.

Wu-woong!

Having slowly raised his blood-stained hand, Yuknachar reached out thinking to tear off Agwi’s shoulder. And.

“Reflect on this.”

The moment the blood-red hand energy was about to touch the shoulder.

Pa-jik.

Before Yuknachar’s eyes, lightning sparked.