When Kimura Kazuki and Sei Shigeru returned to Unto Shrine, they saw that Harunaka and others were already waiting for them.
Seeing that, Sei Shigeru laughed. “Why aren’t you all sleeping?”
“Grandpa, how could we sleep? Just look at the time!” Asuka said unsatisfyingly. His stomach was growling when they were at the shrine just now, yet grandpa asked them to go to sleep. So they had no other choice but to lie down on their beds.
Mei, who was at the side, also nodded depressingly. She actually wanted to go with her grandpa to enrich her experience, but her grandpa obviously did not want to bring them along.
Not long after they had lay down, they heard some noises. They knew that their grandpa was waiting for them to sleep so he could go down the mountain to investigate. They did consider this, so they also pretended to have fallen asleep. Nevertheless, asking them to sleep at eight o’clock was too much for them. As modern people in Tokyo, if it was not twelve o’clock, they would not even want to touch their beds.
Harunaka grinned sheepishly at the side without saying anything. She actually had not fallen asleep either, even when Grandpa Shigeru came to look for her senior. She knew about that but she did not wake up. Her power was too little, so naturally she would not act recklessly. She was already content for being able to investigate this unusual incident with her senior.
Sei Shigeru smiled without saying much. He handed over the packed dishes to the three people. Their eyes shone brightly. Clearly, they were starving.
Harunaka returned the Jade of Four Souls in her pocket to her senior. The Jade of Four Souls had the power to calm wraiths. Therefore, even though they had not encountered any weird things at Unto Shrine, Kimura Kazuki let Harunaka held on to the Jade of Four Souls to keep Harunaka from any danger, just in case of an emergency when he could not react as quickly as he should.
“You hold on to this.” Kimura Kazuki did not accept it and said calmly, “You can return it to me when we get back.”
“Okay.” Harunaka pleasantly kept it after hearing that. Clearly, her senior was worried about her safety.
As the three were eating, Sei Shigeru and Kimura Kazuki did not stay idle.
The things that happened when they went down the mountain were too suspicious. Even if it was tradition, it did not make any sense.
“Unto Shrine might have records at the Deity Rising Palace, but it was always outside the community. So basically no one comes to the Sakagami Village.” Sei Shigeru once again gazed afar at the Sakagami Village below the mountain. He stayed silent for a while and spoke, “Now that I think about it, clearly Unto Shrine did this on purpose. Besides, the Onmyoji and witch from Unto Shrine never communicated with the people inside the circle. The reason that witch visited last time was because she saved the lives of the people from Unto Shrine before. That’s why she could communicate with the people of Unto Shrine… Otherwise, even if Unto Shrine was destroyed, it would take a long time until it is found.”
This length of time might be a few years… It might even be more than a decade.
It was because no one would intentionally come to Sakagami Village for a vacation. Besides, if one wanted to leave the village, there would be only one bus trip at noon each day. Sakagami Village which was practically isolated from the world would not be easily found by anyone in a short time, even if the entire village was wiped out.
“Looks like this is all because of Sakagami Village’s tradition.” Kimura Kazuki emphasized on the word tradition as he clearly did not believe that sleeping during the day and coming out at night was the tradition of Sakagami Village because this was illogical. If this was a tradition, then there was no reason for Unto Shrine to hide it. If it really was a tradition, there would be no issue for it to be investigated.
Even if it was exposed, people would just discuss it over the internet and would never dig deep into this because there were too many weird traditions in this world. Since they intentionally hid it, there might be more to this so called tradition.
Sei Shigeru nodded in agreement, but now that the two were in Unto Shrine and not off the mountain, it would be a long run even if they wanted to investigate.
Nonetheless, Sei Shigeru had looked for Kimura Kazuki during the summer holidays. Thus, he had clearly made the decision for a battle of attrition. The only thing was that they would have to go out and buy some food at noon the next day, otherwise, getting food from Otome Sakagami everyday would be inappropriate as well.
After Harunaka and others finished eating, they went into the house quietly.
Asuka kept sighing. Clearly, there was no entertainment of sorts at the Cloud Island. There was no telephone reception too. Playing an online game was a fleeting dream. Even if he were to play offline games, the battery would run out after a while. Then, he could only eat and sleep, or make some research about Enchanted Talismans.
At midnight, Kimura Kazuki woke up and helplessly caressed his belly. He was woken up by hunger, because what he had at Otome Sakagami’s house previously was only snack foods according to modern people’s glossary. They were not filling at all.
While thinking, he looked at Harunaka who was sleeping soundly on the bed. Obviously she was really asleep and not faking it anymore. He sneakily went out, wanting to see whether there were any special local products on Mount Unto.
This place was covered entirely by plantlife, the forest was thick and there must be some wild animals living in it. Maybe he could hunt and roast something for himself. If he were to battle with an empty stomach and could not concentrate, would that not give the enemy a chance?
Under the starry sky at midnight, the surroundings were dead silent. Kimura Kazuki could only hear a few breathing noises all around him.
These breathing noises clearly came from Sei Shigeru and the rest. Although Sei Shigeru was a grand Onmyoji, he still needed the sleep. After all, there was no human in this modern world who had reached the level of not requiring any sleep. At most, they would have more energy than other people, so they would not be affected even without sleeping for a few days. But with this way, they would not be able to concentrate well. In short, modern day cultivators would maintain a full energy of spirit.
Kimura Kazuki did not hunt around Unto Shrine, since Unto Shrine had 1,000 years of history on Mount Unto. The wild animals would probably not come to Unto Shrine and cause trouble.
Not far away from Mount Unto, Kimura Kazuki heard weird movements. Immediately, his ears straightened slightly and he listened carefully. That was the sound of chewing.
“There’s animal hunting?” Hearing this, Kimura Kazuki’s eyes seemed pleasantly surprised. It could not be helped, humans cannot live without food and his stomach was famished. Having meat would be the best option to fill his tummy.
Following the sound, Kimura Kazuki hid his presence. As animals were naturally more sensitive than humans, he did not want to startle his target.
However, after walking not further than 100 meters, Kimura Kazuki saw the scene before his eyes and his pupils shrank. Just about 30 meters away from him, there was a silhouette on the ground under the lights from the stars. The person’s hands were holding a grey hare and he was viciously tearing at its flesh with his mouth.
Even without the star lights, with Kimura Kazuki’s eyesight he could see clearly what was happening. The person who was lying in front of him had a buffed body and his clothing was coarse linen. This material was rare in modern days, but Kimura Kazuki knew that the people of Sakagami Village were mostly poor, so they made their own clothes. The person in front of him was most probably from Sakagami Village.
Yet now this villager from Sakagami Village was holding a live hare without even worrying about infection and was directly tearing it apart with his mouth. Kimura Kazuki could clearly see the fresh blood on the person’s hands and also the blood and flesh on the mouth. At such a night, it was truly horrifying!
“Hiss…”
The hare’s noise grew weak. It obviously never expected that someone would capture it and eat it directly with their mouth without first killing it. This kind of torture-like pain left it begging for death.
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