Chapter 170
When Jinseong arrived at the shrine, he was greeted by the exact same scenery he had seen during the recent video call. However, the only difference was that an eerie atmosphere surrounded the shrine, which couldn't be seen in the video call.
An atmosphere that naturally made people solemn.
That unique atmosphere that made hearts sink and made one consciously careful of every action.
Some might call this the inherent reverence of the shrine itself, but Jinseong knew the true nature of this atmosphere very well.
It was the atmosphere emitted by divine power without subjectivity, originating from hon and baek, and dedication.
The divine power that once gathered in one place over a long time and had will had now fallen to mere energy, and it was trapped inside the slime-like cursed object created by Jinseong. And there, Saigo Rise, who was qualified to handle divine power, gave a 'distorted image' to the divine power and worshipped it, and by repeatedly exchanging the power of divine power as if in response to that worship, fixed its form as a 'twisted form'.
Not far from its essence.
But something that felt off, yet when you delved into that discomfort, you couldn't find anything strange.
The bizarre atmosphere coming from that slight twist.
Jinseong took a deep breath as if he was very pleased with this bizarre atmosphere.
It's becoming the right form.
He savored the atmosphere emitted by the shrine as he entered through the torii.
Then he strode towards the main hall.
Creak.
And he flung open the door of the main hall and went inside.
Then the divine power filling the main hall moved silently as if welcoming Jinseong, clinging to his side, and repeatedly clung to him just enough not to be bothersome, as if showing affection.
"You've arrived."
And in the place where the divine power clearly favorable to Jinseong was emanating, a woman was greeting Jinseong, kneeling modestly.
It was a woman smiling brightly, wearing miko clothes and with fox ears and tail made of non-material pulled out.
"Indeed."
Jinseong answered Rise who was greeting him, then gestured for her to stand up. Rise then slightly lifted her fox tail that had been lying on the floor and brought its tip to the floor. Then she easily stood up by pushing against the floor with her fluffy tail.
Jinseong smiled brightly at that sight.
"You've become accustomed to using your tail. Very good."
"I'm glad."
Rise smiled slightly at Jinseong's praise.
"Since it's a body part that originally doesn't exist, I practiced a lot to get used to it."
Jinseong glanced around at her words and could see evidence that her words were true scattered here and there.
1kg and 3kg dumbbells.
Exercise rubber bands.
And even clumsy drawings that seemed to have been drawn with ink on her tail.
Jinseong could see from these that Rise had put effort into training her tail.
Of course, muscles wouldn't grow on the tail.
While it was part of Rise's body, it didn't belong to her physical flesh at the same time.
But by doing this, Rise would have been able to understand how to handle and move her tail.
"I can clearly see that you've worked hard. You've done very well."
Therefore, Jinseong couldn't help but praise Rise.
He glanced at Rise wagging her tail at the praise and then looked at the corner of the main hall.
In the corner of the main hall, there was a square box.
It was an ambiguous size that could be called large if you said it was large, or small if you said it was small.
The box was covered with a soft cloth as if it was meant to be used as a chair substitute, and a cushion was placed on top of it. There were sitting marks left on the cushion as if Rise had been sitting there until just a moment ago.
In front of the box that might have been used as a chair substitute, there was a small table, and on the left side of the table were small pouches that could hold talismans.
And on the opposite side of the pouches, there were piles of paper scraps with identical writing without a single error, as if they had been produced in a factory.
Under the table was a plastic basket, which seemed to be filled with talisman pouches with their openings well-tied, as if well-made ones had been thrown in there.
"These are omamori (お守り) sold at the shrine. There's a rumor that they're effective for studying, so they're selling well even at 1,000 yen each."
"The paper looks like it's been printed?"
"Yes. We're getting them supplied from the town's printing shop."
Rise answered Jinseong's question with a smile.
"Effective..."
Jinseong looked at the talismans, the omamori, in the plastic basket.
The small pouch made of soft cloth that might be used for lucky pouches had golden embroidery on it, which looked like it resembled a round sun, but as it reflected light and cast shadows, it seemed to have clear undulations.
The shadows cast by the bumpy undulations held a mysteriousness that resembled Jupiter, or perhaps an eye.
"Right. As long as it's effective, that's all that matters."
And Jinseong could understand why that pattern engraved on the talisman pouch was evaluated as 'effective for studying'.
The unique feeling emitted by the shrine was seeping out from that pattern.
The feeling of making one's mind suddenly alert, calming down excitement, and as if dropping a few drops of cold water on a heated heart.
It would have been an excellent effect for students who need to gather their minds and overcome drowsiness.
Jinseong turned his gaze from the talisman to the box being used as a chair substitute next to it.
And hearing the small breathing and vitality felt from inside it, he chuckled and pulled it in front of him by grasping the air.
Then he removed the cloth covering the box and opened it.
Clank.
The door firmly fixed with a lock opened with a sound following Jinseong's hand gesture.
And the door bounced up as if pushed by the volume of what was inside, showing Jinseong what it contained.
Hiss.
Hisss.
A person.
There was a person inside the box.
A slightly mature-looking fox-faced beauty was crumpled and stuffed into the narrow box.
Moreover, her eyes were tightly sealed with a blindfold so she couldn't see anything, and cotton was stuffed in her ears. On top of that, as if that wasn't enough, she was wearing an artifact in the form of earmuffs enchanted with magic to reduce noise.
Not only that, but her nose was also blocked so she couldn't smell, and even her mouth had a gag in it. At least they didn't seem to want to kill her, as a transparent tube was inserted in the middle of the gag and connected outside the box so she could breathe...
But because the tube was too small and she was crumpled and stuffed into the box, she probably couldn't breathe comfortably for even a moment.
As evidence, the woman's expression was extremely distorted.
Jinseong looked closely at the woman's expression and then opened his mouth.
"Hmm. You said you'd educate Narumi well, and you're properly using Saetani."
"Yes."
Rise answered while standing modestly one step behind Jinseong.
She had her hands neatly folded and was smiling brightly, slowly moving her tail left and right. And she occasionally twitched her ears.
Jinseong examined Narumi, who looked terrified, closely.
"Hmm."
He pondered for a moment, thinking about something, then grasped the air and pulled Narumi out of the box. Her body seemed to be tightly stuck in the box and didn't come out easily, but Jinseong solved this by widely spreading the entrance of the box and pulling her out.
Thus, Narumi came out of the box with her body crumpled and rolled on the floor, and at that shock, as if waking from a nightmare, she shivered once. But as if she had a cramp, her muscles convulsed, and she groaned, moving around on the floor while forcibly screaming through the gag that didn't let her voice out properly.
And finally, when Jinseong grasped the air and removed the gag, she began to mutter while drooling.
"I hate nightmares, I hate nightmares. I hate nightmares..."
And along with that muttering, something began to crawl out from between Narumi's clothes.
It, with long hair hanging down, swelled its body and took shape as soon as it came out, like paper inflating to form a human shape, and smiled widely with empty eyes and a mouth full of falling insects.
Then it swayed its neck from left to right and right to left, and tickled Narumi's face with its hair that grew rapidly with the movement.
"N-no. Stop. Stop... I was wrong. I was wrong. I just hated seeing someone pretending to be noble alone, while others made all sorts of efforts and even competed to become miko, living since childhood practicing kagura (神楽) all night while being beaten with a rod until their calves bled... I just, just did it because I hated seeing it. I'm sorry. I was wrong. I'm sorry for gathering other people and bullying."
Narumi confessed her sins incessantly, terrified by the feeling of Saetani stroking her face with its hair.
"I'm sorry. If we got a little close, we surrounded her and made it so she couldn't contact others, and forced her to curse. I made her steal the lady's things, deliberately damaged her handbag, or deliberately dropped her pouch to break her foundation... I made her break her eyeshadow, and even made her break her lipstick... I made her deliberately make a hole in her bag so that the inside would get all wet on a rainy day, and even made her spread bad rumors about the lady to each of our friends... I deliberately made a love letter pretending to be the lady and sent it to another miko to spread false rumors that she was a lesbian..."
What came out of Narumi's mouth was her past that was incomparably petty, and an enumeration of all the insidious methods she had used to torment Rise.
Jinseong listened to Narumi's outpouring and then turned his head to look at Rise.
"Do you want to put her back in?"
Rise answered with a smile to that question.
"It's alright."