Chapter 137: Building a Nest (15)

After a short while, a reply arrived.

『 Are you referring to the sorcery you asked me to acquire whenever possible? 』

『 That's right. 』

Before leaving Japan, Jinseong had instructed Rise to expand the influence of shrines, manage politicians well, and use their connections and money to gather sorcery-related items.

Of course, he didn't ask her to gather them on a large scale. Japan's sensitivity to sorcery was evident from the Onmyodo plastered everywhere from airports to tourist sites. If Rise were to openly seek sorcery, it would lead to investigations into 'why she's seeking it', and they would search every nook and cranny of the shrines for anything suspicious.

If that happened, the Saigo family, the Kishimoto family, and Jinseong's existence tied to them would inevitably be exposed.

Covering it up with power? It might be possible. They had strongly tied some politicians, so using their power would be sufficient, and if that wasn't enough, borrowing their connections could make anything possible. Moreover, with abundant money to add wings to these connections, solving problems would be easy.

But why go to such lengths? It was best not to cause problems in the first place.

It was much better to use connections to discreetly acquire sorcery and money to grease the throats of those in power and journalists to acquire sorcery and cursed objects.

That was why Jinseong had strongly instructed Rise:

The most important thing is your safety.

Acquire them without revealing your identity at all.

Use those in power, but if it seems harmful to you or too much, stop.

Gather sorcery and cursed objects discreetly, without others noticing anything suspicious.

And once acquired, don't touch them at all, just gather them well in the sacred storehouse. Just roughly classify them and absolutely don't use or perform them.

And now it was time to check the results.

『 I've gathered this much so far. 』

Rise sent photos.

They showed the interior of a sacred storehouse cluttered with objects. Where there should have been ritual items used in shrines, the storehouse was filled with objects of unknown use. From what looked like farming tools to rags so worn their original form was hard to recognize, and even cold weapons covered in rust.

To anyone else, it would look more like an abandoned barn in the countryside than a sacred storehouse.

These objects, which at first glance looked like junk or trash, filled the not-so-large storehouse to the brim. And between them, ample space was created for people to pass through without touching them.

"Hmm."

Jinseong carefully examined the photos.

The walls made of old wood were covered in mold. Not just any mold, but one that somehow resembled human faces. The mold, which seemed to have taken root in the objects attached to the walls and grown towards the wall, had each formed into facial shapes with legs or bellies on the objects, stretching out long things that looked like hands in all directions.

If you closed your eyes after taking in that sight, the image remained like an afterimage, and the way the afterimage moved limply resembled sinners struggling to escape from hell.

And looking at other photos was even more bizarre. The objects were blurred as if the photo was out of focus, but strangely, everything else was clear. It was blurry as if there was something making only the part where the object was located hazy, as if fog had settled only on that part.

And some photos were distorted as if through a convex lens, and some gave the feeling of a musty smell just by looking at them.

『 These are truly excellent cursed objects. 』

Not only using them, but even affecting photos - these cursed objects were clearly holding terrifying power.

『 How did you move them? 』

『 I used delivery robots bought with the money you gave me. One robot broke down too often, so I bought three and used them in rotation. 』

『 Did you thoroughly purify them after use? 』

『 I placed the robots in the center of a room filled with sunlight, and piled salt charged with solar energy in each corner of the room. And any energy that wasn't fully purified, I purified using my tails. 』

『 Well done. 』

After he sent that, a few more photos arrived after a short while.

『 These are the cursed objects related to yokai among what I've gathered. I haven't classified them separately, so I'll send photos of each one. 』

The photos Rise sent were as bizarre as the previous ones. Some looked like they were taken with a lens covered in mold, some were distorted in a spiral shape, and some looked like faded film photos.

Jinseong examined each photo Rise sent and found four that caught his eye.

Something recorded on a scroll.

Something recorded in a book made of woven bamboo.

Something written in a book made by sewing Korean paper.

Something engraved on the surface of a box.

Jinseong selected these and sent them back to Rise, saying:

『 Unfold these and take photos of them. However, you must not go near them or let your eyes take them in. Use robots to unfold and turn pages, and use robots to take photos as well. 』

『 I shouldn't let my eyes take them in... I understand. 』

Jinseong sent the message and then grasped the air to pull out grass from around him. He wove the grass well to make a soft-looking shape and sat on it on the ground. Then he stared blankly at the darkening mountain, passing time until his smartphone vibrated softly, and he checked it.

『 I've taken photos of everything. Fortunately, the robots didn't break down. 』

Along with Rise's brief message, an enormous number of photos were sent.

Jinseong filled the space above the photos with basic emoticons to prevent Rise from seeing them, and when they were pushed up so far that it would take a long scroll to see them, he sent a message to Rise.

『 I've pushed the photos up. But in case you accidentally see them, delete all the photos from the messenger and also delete all the photos saved as data. Depending on their type, cursed objects can harm people just by being seen, and they can even make you have nightmares. So you shouldn't do this deletion work yourself either. 』

『 I'll entrust it to someone else as you say. 』

『 Make sure to do so. 』

Only after sending that message did Jinseong start checking the photos one by one.

Let's see. I asked for them because I had a feeling, but where...

Jinseong first checked what was recorded on the box. But as he tried to examine it closely, he soon frowned deeply.

"Oh no. I can't read this."

Primitive forms of writing and drawings were inscribed. To decipher this, it would probably need to be entrusted to a folklorist for interpretation.

Jinseong, not hiding his disappointment, looked at something else.

Next, he checked what was recorded on the scroll.

The unfolded scroll had neat writing in regular script, with each character seeming to breathe. And between the lines, shapes resembling monsters were drawn, looking exactly like very ugly children.

In the mountains of Kagoshima, there is a custom that must be observed, which is leaving fruits...

Jinseong read the text slowly.

Small trees don't matter, but one must not take all the fruits from large trees. This was because of something living in the mountains, which the villagers called Yamanbo (ヤマンボ). It sometimes looks like a newborn baby, and sometimes like a young child. It's about 2 to 3 feet tall, and its skin is dark, making it difficult to spot in the dark mountains...

The front part of the scroll explained about the yokai called Yamanbo.

It makes a sound like 'Oo-i'.

It bewitches people who pick too many fruits, making them unable to leave the mountain.

It has the power to confuse people's senses and make them wander in the mountains.

It usually sits in trees but hides right behind them when people are seen.

And in the middle part, content about sorcery began to appear.

In a certain village in Kagoshima, they wanted to enshrine these Yamanbo as gods and gain their power. In that village formed by wanderers, they wanted not only to prevent samurai and nobles from finding the village but also to be unknown to them. So they yearned to borrow the power of the yokai Yamanbo, which was said to prevent people from finding their way, and eventually gained the power to hide the village...

The name of the sorcery was Yamanbo's Tree Shade.

Its effect was to hide things touched by the sorcery's power from people's eyes.

Not bad. Except for needing a lot of fruits...

To use and maintain the sorcery, fruits of the Torreya nucifera tree had to be offered as sacrifice, and the amount was extraordinary. If it was just to hide one person, an armful would be enough, but if it was for a building or a village, it would probably require quite a large amount.

But money was plentiful, and if it wasn't enough, they could just take it from anywhere.

"Good, not bad at all."

Jinseong smiled with satisfaction after reading about the price of the sorcery in the latter part.

The price of the sorcery was the land becoming barren.

More precisely, the organic nutrients in the soil within the sorcery's range were needed as payment.

For farmers, this would be a terrible price, and even in the village that created this sorcery, it would have been considered a disaster, but...

To Jinseong, this price felt as sweet as honey.