Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Chapter 5. Something Closing In

CHAPTER 5

Something Closing In

I will face Fuyu.

The next morning, she swore this to herself.

Kiyoka, Miyo, and Tadakiyo finished their breakfast together before both men went off to their work.

Miyo didn’t really know where her father-in-law was headed, but her fianc

é

was investigating the unnatural phenomenon just as he had yesterday.

“Kiyoka, please make sure you don’t push yourself too hard,” Miyo reminded him when she saw him to the entryway. Kiyoka smirked slightly.

“Yeah. I should be the one telling you that, though. You better not do anything reckless now.”

“I won’t.”

She looked him straight in the eyes and shook her head, but for some reason, he stared back at her dubiously.

“…I’m serious.”

“I know. I’ll be okay.”

“All right. Please, learn to be more attuned to your pain. For me…”

“Huh?”

What exactly did he mean? There were times when the things Kiyoka said were too abstract for her to understand.

He turned around, exasperated.

“I’m off.”

“Okay. Take care.”

Waving her small hand, Miyo watch Kiyoka depart until his retreating figure vanished behind the door.

After the door had closed, she psyched herself up by giving both of her cheeks two light slaps.

All right, I need to head to Fuyu’s room.

According to Kiyoka, their stay at the villa would be over in another two to three days.

It made sense. He was an important figure in charge of a whole military unit. He went out on field investigations only under exceptional circumstances, and he obviously couldn’t afford to be away from the capital for very long.

If there were only a few days left of their time there, however, that meant Miyo had fewer opportunities to talk to her mother-in-law.

When she thought back over the flat-out rejection she’d received on the first day, and then Fuyu’s demeanor on the second—yesterday—she felt both her emotions and the pace of her steps naturally grow heavier.

She had the feeling it would be utterly impossible to get the woman to open up her heart to Miyo in just two odd days.

No, no, stop. I have to stay strong.

When she thought about it, she hadn’t even properly greeted Fuyu and introduced herself yet. If she went back home with things unresolved, she knew she’d regret it.

The villa was different from the Saimori home. There was kindness and compassion here. Just a look at the faces of all the servants was enough for her to tell. She didn’t see a clouded look on any of them.

That’s why she was sure things would go well.

Convincing herself of this, Miyo stood before Fuyu’s room. She took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

“Mother-in-law, it’s Miyo.”

It was possible Fuyu wouldn’t even let Miyo into her room if she announced herself honestly. But she couldn’t think of any other way in.

Surprisingly, she heard the words “Come in” echo from inside the room.

“Pardon me.”

Miyo carefully entered the room then gasped in surprise.

Fuyu was atop her bed. Despite how energetic and lively she’d looked yesterday, her complexion was now sickly, and she wore a completely sullen expression. The pale-colored pupils she turned Miyo’s way had lost all their strength as well.

“Mother-in-law, are you feeling—”

Before she could finish her question, Fuyu cut her off.

“What are you here for?”

“U-um, well, I…”

“…Go ahead and laugh if you want.”

Why in the world would Fuyu talk about laughing in a situation like this?

What was she thinking? What sort of emotions was she feeling? What could Miyo do to understand her? Regrettably, Miyo was at a loss as to how to answer such questions.

“I don’t understand. There’s nothing amusing at all, so how could I laugh?”

“No need to try keeping appearances now. With how things have played out, why, you must be on cloud nine, no?”

“I couldn’t possibly…”

It was plain enough even for Miyo to realize. Fuyu was definitely misunderstanding something.

Unfortunately, she didn’t know what Fuyu was mistaken about, and she didn’t have any guesses about how to clear things up.

Miyo summoned up all her courage and approached the bed. As she did, Nae, waiting at Fuyu’s bedside, greeted her with a simple “Hello” and prepared a chair for Miyo.

“Mother-in-law, are you feeling unwell?”

“Indeed I am. All thanks to you.”

Though she replied to Miyo’s question, she remained brusque.

“Were you able to have breakfast?”

“No. Your face came to my mind. It was so detestable, it made me sick.”

“…Do you hate me, Mother-in-law?”

“Yes, more than anyone else in the world.”

Hearing Fuyu say that to her face made Miyo depressed.

“

More than anyone else in the world.

” Just how was Miyo going to reverse Fuyu’s impression of her? She felt lost enough to cry on the spot.

“What can I do to make you not hate me anymore?”

This sort of foolish question wouldn’t fix things, either. But she couldn’t think of any other way forward.

“I hate everything there is to hate about you. And there’s absolutely no room for improvement whatsoever.”

“B-but.”

“It’s your fault that Tadakiyo scolded me. If I end up losing his favor because of this—”

“Huh?”

“Anyway, you’re an eyesore, so make yourself scarce. Having you here will only make me feel worse.”

Miyo panicked internally as Fuyu waved her away.

She hadn’t yet resolved anything. At this rate, their conversation would end with the only thing made clear being Fuyu’s hatred for her. While confirming it for herself was likely necessary, nothing would come from learning that alone, and she’d be unable to move forward.

She couldn’t ruin this perfect opportunity.

Asking her to talk things out together a little longer isn’t going to get anywhere…

Ultimately, Fuyu was feeling unwell. If Miyo stayed by her side constantly trying to talk to her, even for idle chitchat—though it was definitely more than that—she wouldn’t be able to rest properly.

She desperately searched for some way to remain behind in Fuyu’s room.

“What’re you waiting for? I told you to get out.”

Miyo could see Fuyu rolling her eyes in anger.

She needed to say something. Though she tried to think of a topic, Miyo didn’t possess any tactful or suitable material that would pique Fuyu’s interest.

She wasn’t great at talking to other people in the first place.

Miyo lacked knowledge in many areas, had a narrow vocabulary, struggled to keep up with conversation, and couldn’t find the perfect words for a situation on the spot.

She hadn’t always been that way. But she had gone a great many years without talking to others at all, so her conversational ability had withered.

Trying to get a sense of Fuyu’s true feelings with my conversational skills was a foolish plan from the start.

If her words weren’t enough, she needed another method. At this point, making her feelings clear through action was the only other option she had.

“Mother-in-law.”

“…What now?”

Miyo was nearly discouraged by Fuyu’s utter disgust that she still had more to say. But she managed to hold out somehow and fired herself up.

“You did say…you hadn’t eaten breakfast yet, correct?”

“And what of it? No, don’t you dare do anything unnecessary; you’ll just cause me more trouble!”

“It is necessary. I’ll go and bring you some breakfast.”

This was it. Miyo could leave the room as she was told, while still being able to come back again.

Miyo gave herself a mental pat on the back for her brilliant scheme. She had simply blurted out the first idea that came to mind, but it seemed when her back was against the wall, things had a way of working out.

Unfortunately, Fuyu’s response was far from ideal.

“Enough already. How much more will you torment me before you’re satisfied?!”

“Mother-in-law…”

Miyo cast her head down when Fuyu stopped her from leaving the room.

“And dispense with that ‘mother-in-law’ nonsense, too. That inability of yours to listen to what your betters have to say is but a sign of your poor and uncivilized upbringing, wouldn’t you say?”

Fuyu’s words stabbed right into Miyo’s heart.

She wanted to do her best to get on friendly terms with Fuyu, to have the woman accept her. It was just as pure and innocent a desire as wanting to study how to become a proper noblewoman. And yet…

Perhaps Miyo was imposing her wishes on Fuyu by trying to realize this dream, forcing the woman to bow to her whims.

Have I been acting pushy and uncivilized?

Doubt gradually took shape in her chest.

Was she doing things right? Was she a terrible person, purposely doing things Fuyu disliked?

But her time here was short. If she backed down now, she’d likely never have another chance to talk to Fuyu like this. And if that happened, this would no longer just be Miyo’s problem.

I’m sure Kiyoka would get involved, too…

Though her son would say otherwise, Fuyu was doing this for Kiyoka’s sake.

It was sad to imagine them quarreling with each other and never talking things out as a family despite the love Fuyu had for her son.

I’m sure this would work out if the two of them spoke their true feelings to each other.

The one thing she had wanted to avoid was Fuyu’s dislike of her erasing any possibility of Kiyoka and Fuyu being able to face each other.

After all, Kiyoka hadn’t been acting so stubborn when they decided on coming here. Surely he could have found other accommodations to avoid staying at the villa if he wanted. Maybe this was just Miyo’s optimism speaking, but it was possible that Kiyoka himself had seen his chance to confront his mother as constructive and positive.

Yet Miyo’s presence had ruined that opportunity.

I can’t let myself ruin any more of his chances.

This wasn’t the time to hesitate or falter. But a part of her was scared that Fuyu would hate her even more than she did already. She hesitated to take the first step.

“…I.”

Was this really the time to back down? To be scared, trembling, and simply floating along with the status quo? Nothing would change if their relationship stayed like this.

A cold sweat ran down her forehead. She squeezed down tight on her trembling fingers.

“Um, I just, wanted to, um, talk more.”

She expressed her honest feelings without realizing it.

“Excuse me?”

“I thought it’d be nice to chat freely with my mother-in-law, er, with you, Fuyu…even a little…”

If only she could act more gracefully. Miyo was fed up that she could make only clumsy, artless comments like this.

Now she’d basically revealed herself as the opposite of the clever woman Fuyu wanted her to be.

I’m such a fool…

The same thing had happened the day before. Miyo had worked hard to get Fuyu to realize just how serious she was. She had thought if Fuyu understood Miyo’s resolve to be at Kiyoka’s side, then she’d be willing to listen to what she had to say.

She wondered why it hadn’t occurred to her.

It was obvious she’d just hate her even more. After all, it was Miyo’s essential foundation—her lineage, her upbringing—that bothered Fuyu in particular, so learning more and more about Miyo would only make her hatred even stronger.

She sniffled. Her vision blurred.

“…What can I do? What will make you stop hating me?”

“I already told you. There’s nothing for you to fix.”

Sure enough, Fuyu’s answer left her completely helpless. Miyo had thought herself in circles, but she was all out of responses; the only words she had left would lay her deepest feelings bare.

“I’ll—I’ll try harder. I’ll spare no effort to become a noblewoman suitable for Kiyoka.”

“Pretty words and nothing more. Simple effort doesn’t always yield

results, does it? Surely you’re

very

familiar with that notion as someone born to a family with the Gift, pitiful as your family’s abilities are, of course.”

“That’s… That’s right.”

Gifts were at the top of the list of things you couldn’t obtain with hard work.

Without that innate quality, you would never achieve recognition or success. Even love was out of reach.

Miyo was all too familiar with that cruel, heartless world.

“We cannot change the past. Feelings alone are meaningless.”

“…I…”

Those weren’t just feelings for Miyo. But when she tried to answer, neither her throat nor her lips nor her tongue would budge, as though they were frozen in place.

Miyo was a thoroughly inexperienced failure. She’d studied and studied but was still far from being adequate. But even if her mouth had thawed that instant, Miyo couldn’t say that she would make Fuyu accept her in spite of her past.

That would make her sound like nothing but empty talk.

“No matter what you try to do, I have absolutely no plans to accept you. If you want my recognition so much, start with the family you were born into, your parents, and your upbringing. Go redo all of that and then come back.”

“…”

Fuyu’s words were both a cutting blade, rejecting and cutting up everything about Miyo, and a high, high wall, demonstrating the strength of her denial.

Nae followed after Miyo as she’d left Fuyu’s chamber in devastation.

“Young Mistress.”

“…It doesn’t seem like I’ll ever be the ‘young mistress’ at this rate.”

In reality, since Kiyoka’s will as the head of the family was absolute, she’d be able to gain the title of “young mistress.” But it would be a meaningless title to bear.

The tears she had held back the whole time came tumbling down her cheeks, one at a time. They surprised her.

Why am I crying?

She hadn’t been hurt at all. She had heard so much worse on an almost daily basis back when she lived with her family. Where had this come from all of a sudden?

Kiyoka’s exasperated voice came to mind.

“Please, learn to be more attuned to your pain. For me…”

Attuned. To pain.

Am I in pain?

she asked herself, putting a hand on her chest.

Miyo thought she was used to abuse. But perhaps she had been in pain this whole time and simply hadn’t realized it.

“Young Mistress…”

Nae’s concerned voice brought Miyo back to her senses.

Not good. Right now, Miyo didn’t have any time to stand around in a daze.

“Nae. Um, please give me some work do to, like yesterday.”

“No, I could never.”

“Please.”

Miyo had fled from Fuyu. She couldn’t find a way to resolve things. She wanted to do some work she could manage at the very least.

If even that wasn’t possible, then it meant there was no longer anywhere in this villa where she belonged.

Nae showed the slightest hesitation before giving an empathetic frown.

“In that case, will you help out with the cleaning and laundry today?”

“Okay. I’ll come as soon as I get changed.”

Miyo returned to her room and put on the uniform from yesterday.

To pull herself together, she bound her hair up tighter than usual and tied up her kimono sleeves.

I’m not in any pain. Nothing about that exchange hurt me at all.

She managed to convince her heart of this. She had to, or she felt like she’d lose all her energy and sink down onto the floor.

Back when she’d lived with the Saimoris, she could move her body no matter how hurt she was, without shedding a single tear. Now,

however, the world in front of her had gone black, and she was unable to take a single step forward.

Had she gotten weaker than she was before? That wasn’t it.

I’m sure it’s because I’m happy now.

She’d tasted happiness. She knew its warmth. That’s why this was so much more painful than it had been in the past.

Desperate to lift her spirits, Miyo diligently got to work. She fully immersed herself in it, averting her attention away from the problem, from her wounds.

But the more she tried to forget, the heavier her chest grew, as if she had swallowed lead.

She spent the whole day working in silence until evening fell. When she greeted Kiyoka as he returned home, he immediately picked up on her despondence.

“Did Fuyu say something to you again?”

“…I’m okay.”

“That’s not an answer.”

She didn’t want to worry him. Still, she wasn’t able to fully gloss over everything.

Miyo let out a long sigh.

“…Will you listen without getting upset?”

“This again?”

Miyo filled Kiyoka in about everything that had occurred during her conversation with Fuyu. Just as Miyo had asked, Kiyoka didn’t interrupt her once, silently listening to everything until the end.

“Miyo. What can I do?”

At Kiyoka’s words, Miyo looked up. He gazed down at her with peaceful eyes, devoid of anger.

He did this because his fianc

é

e had asked him not to get mad, to let her do things her way.

“…Kiyoka.”

She wanted to manage on her own. She had been so enthusiastic, only to end up like this. It was pathetic and embarrassing.

Maybe she’d just lean on Kiyoka. While it might not solve things,

she wouldn’t get hurt anymore. She’d be able to get through this ordeal painlessly. He would protect her.

Am I fine doing that? Will I regret it?

Miyo wasn’t strong. Even now, she was fighting back the urge to run away. And no one would blame her for doing so.

She had cold feet. Outside of both being human, and being women, Fuyu and Miyo were so completely different that she couldn’t help thinking that they might never understand each other.

Yet Miyo’s head shook itself from side to side of its own volition, and her mouth selfishly answered for her.

“Don’t do anything. Please.”

“Are you sure?”

“I can still… I can still work harder.”

After letting the words slip out of her mouth, she continued.

“But if it gets painful, difficult, and completely hopeless, then—”

“I’ll protect you. You can cry whenever you want. So keep trying to the bitter end, and make sure you don’t leave with any regrets.”

“…I will.”

She’d be fine as long as Kiyoka was with her. Unlike before, she wouldn’t end up losing heart again.

Just a little longer. She wanted to keep trying just a little longer.

The next chance to confront Fuyu came, for better or for worse, the following morning when they all gathered for breakfast.

It was the first time Fuyu had showed up for a meal since Miyo and Kiyoka had arrived at the villa.

“Why, hello,

ma chérie

. Feeling better now?”

Tadakiyo greeted her cheerfully, but Fuyu only shot him a look.

At her side sat Kiyoka, who didn’t seem rattled by a glance. Only Miyo had stiffened in anxiety.

“G-good morning, Mother-in-law.”

Miyo drummed up the courage to greet Fuyu. Silence descended over the table.

“Did I not tell you to quit calling me that? Grating on my ears first thing in the morning, I swear. Truly no class whatsoever.”

Miyo shrank back a little at the stern reply. Though she was ready to bolt on the spot, Miyo had feared Fuyu would ignore her outright, so she also felt slightly relieved.

This must’ve been showing on her face, for Fuyu knit her eyebrows in disgust.

“What are you grinning about? How sickening.”

“M-my apologies.”

Silence enveloped the table once again.

Part of Miyo wanted to try speaking to Fuyu again, but she couldn’t help thinking back to the day before and hesitating. The men, meanwhile, were dedicated to remaining silent observers.

The only sounds in the room were the quiet clatter of their breakfast being laid out in front of them.

“Well then, shall we?”

At Tadakiyo’s encouragement, each of them began their meal.

Their breakfast for the day consisted of fluffy bread rolls, an omelet, and fried bacon. Add to that the steamed vegetable salad and mushroom pottage, and it was yet another luxurious meal.

The villa chef served only Western-style dishes to suit Fuyu’s tastes.

That being said, Tadakiyo always had a separate dish to fit his poor constitution, so perhaps following Fuyu’s wishes may not have been the only real option.

While she brought the food up to her mouth, Miyo stole glances over at Fuyu.

She really is a very pretty woman.

It went without saying that her facial features were flawless, but her beauty extended to her formal behavior and refined mannerisms as well.

Personally, Miyo found Fuyu’s look to be a bit gaudy, but she was definitely someone Miyo could learn a thing or two about presentation from.

In truth, Miyo had been overjoyed to gain someone she could call “Mother-in-law” openly and without reservations.

So even if Fuyu ended up loathing Miyo to her core, she still found it hard to give up.

How can I start a conversation with her…?

At this rate, the mealtime would end without anything happening. If Miyo tried visiting her room, that would only put Fuyu into an even fouler mood, and there were no guarantees she would be present at the next meal.

If that happened, there was a possibility she would stay like that until Miyo and Kiyoka left.

“Mother-in-law.”

All she could hear was the loud drumming of her heart in her chest.

Simply addressing Fuyu made her uncontrollably nervous.

“You really can’t learn a thing, can you? How many times do I need to tell you not to call me that?”

Miyo was so nervous that Fuyu’s insults weren’t actually getting through to her.

The room was thick with tension. But she couldn’t let that get to her.

“U-um, would it be all right, if I came by your room again later?”

“Not at all.”

“Th-there’s a lot of things I’d like to learn from you. You’re a splendid noblewoman, and…um, I’d like to learn to be one, too, so—”

“Flattery will get you nowhere.”

Miyo wasn’t attempting to mock her with excessive praise, but that’s how Fuyu had taken it.

What did Miyo need to do for Fuyu to understand she was being genuine? There was a momentary pause in the conversation before Tadakiyo calmly interjected.

“Now, now. Why not go ahead and teach her a little?”

“I’ll ask you to stay quiet, Tadakiyo. I don’t want to hear orders like that from you.”

Fuyu cleanly dashed his request, as if her weakness from yesterday had all been a lie.

When Miyo had talked to her yesterday, though…she recalled Fuyu

mentioning she didn’t want to upset her husband. Maybe she was misremembering things.

“All right, then. Sorry.”

Tadakiyo slumped his shoulders in dejection.

“Staying here any longer looks like a waste of time. I’ll be excusing myself, then.”

Fuyu slowly put down her cutlery and stood up. Half of her breakfast was still left on her plate.

“W-wait, please…!”

Although Miyo half rose out of her seat to follow her, she hesitated, feeling guilty for leaving leftover food behind. As she did, Fuyu proceeded to exit the dining room.

But at that moment.

The dining room doors flew open as Sasaki entered in a panic.

Now an entirely different tension filled the room.

After being hurt and driven to tears yesterday, Miyo looked proud, and also somewhat sad, as she stood up to Fuyu.

Kiyoka could only smile dryly at himself for becoming so sentimental just from listening on the side, but it appeared the time for leisurely listening was gone.

Red in the face, Sasaki rushed in and whispered something in Tadakiyo’s ear, to which he calmly nodded in reply.

“What’s the commotion?” Kiyoka asked.

Tadakiyo replied with rare solemnity.

“It appears the town is in an uproar. One of the villagers came rushing up here to ask for help.”

“I’ll leave at once.”

Kiyoka stood up, and a grim-faced Tadakiyo did the same.

He had gone to the village to investigate the area, but just like before, he hadn’t found anyone at the run-down shack. On top of that, he had yet to receive any orders from the central government.

His interrogation of the prisoner had hit a brick wall as well; there had been no developments at all yesterday.

Nevertheless, Kiyoka couldn’t sit on his hands if there was a commotion in town.

He headed into the entry hall and asked Sasaki a question.

“Did you hear any specifics about what’s going on?”

“No. It seems something happened early in the morning, though… Something about a fiend, I believe.”

“A fiend?”

Yet again. An eyewitness report about an unidentified fiend. If that was the source of the uproar, then what exactly had happened differently this time?

“Kiyoka. Are you heading to the village?”

He nodded firmly in response to his father’s question.

“I’ll have to assess the situation.”

“I see.”

“There’s a chance that the villa will be in danger. If that happens—”

“I know. Just like we promised. You can leave defending this place to me.”

Though it was still pure speculation, he was going up against an unknown organization that had some manner of supernatural powers. There was no telling what they might try to do.

Since Kiyoka had come here as a military officer, he couldn’t prioritize his personal feelings.

Fortunately, there was no question he could depend on Tadakiyo. Kiyoka didn’t believe in his father as a person, but his abilities as a Gift-user were undeniable.

When they arrived at the entry hall, Kiyoka spied a villager on the sofa in the corner.

“Wait…”

They seemed familiar from behind; perhaps they were one of the village youths.

The villager seemed to sense their approach and whirled around in a panic.

“P-please help us…Mr. Soldier!”

Kiyoka had been right—it was the man that he had met a few days before, the first person to see the fiend.

“What happened?”

“The fiend, it showed up! It bit all my friends!”

“Wait. Just calm down and tell me what happened.”

The anxiety around the village rumors had reached a boiling point. Before the man or the store attendant woman could tell them to stop, a group of men got together and went to tear down the ruined shack just before dawn.

They had assumed they would manage with such a large group.

However, there was a large fiend waiting for them. The very same creature that the man had seen.

The fiend’s movements were swift, and it pierced the men’s bodies one after the other with its fangs. Despite the attack, however, the men bore no external wounds, and there was no outward change in their appearance, either.

They’d laughed it off as a childish magic trick. But they were dead wrong.

“As time went on, everyone started acting strange. Mumbling nonsense, acting violent…! The fiend must have devoured their souls!”

So terrified of the fiend was the man that he had fled the village after learning of this, despite the fact that nothing physical had happened to the group of men after they were bitten.

“But the fiend bit my legs when I was running away… It might be too late for me!”

“Calm down. They probably didn’t get their souls eaten. You should rest here a bit.”

Kiyoka thanked the man then added, “You worked hard.”

Despite how terrified he had looked the other day, though he was still trembling, he hadn’t fallen into a fearful panic. Kiyoka was certain this man truly cared about his village.

“I beg you! At this rate, the village will…”

The man furiously pleaded…until his movements came to a sudden halt.

“What’s wrong?”

“A-aauggh… Hngaaaaah!”

The groaning man’s eyes rolled back, and he gripped his head. Something was clearly wrong with him.

Kiyoka gasped quietly.

Is this what happens when a fiend devours you?

No, someone who’d had their soul eaten wouldn’t end up like this. Kiyoka got the feeling that there was something fundamentally different going on here compared to the other supernatural phenomena he had seen before.

“Fuyu. This area’s dangerous. Get back to your room.”

She showed no sign of being convinced by her husband’s words of warning.

“And

what

exactly is going on here, Tadakiyo?! I demand an explanation!”

Her stern gaze was glued on the man from the village as he writhed in pain.

Kiyoka gritted his teeth at the inconvenient development.

A dyed-in-the-wool noblewoman, Fuyu would never consent to letting a peasant inside her mansion. Even when now was absolutely not the time to cater to her stubborn pride.

Kiyoka needed to go to the village as soon as possible, but would it really be all right to leave things as they were? As he wavered on what course of action to take, Miyo quietly approached him.

“Kiyoka, um, what’s going on?”

“The villagers have been attacked by a fiend. I’m heading there at once… Miyo.”

“Yes?”

His fianc

é

e looked back up at him, her eyes showing not the slightest bit of hesitation. She nodded as if she had already seen through everything Kiyoka was thinking.

“I can look after things here. You should get down there as soon as you can.”

Just where had his fianc

é

e who had been so anxious about his mother

flown off to? He couldn’t believe how dependable the woman in front of him was.

Kiyoka lowered his eyes for a moment.

Miyo had been growing by the day. Enough not to need Kiyoka’s protection anymore. One day she’d spread out her big wings and fly off into a world of freedom.

If that happens, I bet I’ll…

His father had been right. Love was blooming in Kiyoka’s heart, and soon, the feeling would be too enormous for him to cover up.

But now wasn’t the time for him to figure out an answer.

He looked straight into Miyo’s clear eyes.

“Thanks… Miyo, don’t do anything dangerous, no matter what. Leave the fighting up to Father.”

“I know. I won’t push myself too hard. That goes for you, too, Kiyoka. Be careful.”

“I will,” he replied, bringing his forehead up against Miyo’s.

“K-Kiyoka?”

He was going to fully resolve the situation and hurry back to her as fast as he could. Before he could forget this feeling of her warmth on his skin.

“I’ll be back.”

Kiyoka quickly turned around and hurried off toward the village without looking back.

She watched her fianc

é

as he departed.

There wasn’t much Miyo could do for him. In fact, there was practically nothing. Simply being away from Kiyoka’s side made her uneasy. But it was her duty to see him off like this.

She closed the door behind her and rushed over to the villager.

“Hold on, Miyo. It’s dangerous to get too close,” Tadakiyo said, already kneeling down beside the man to check his condition.

The man seemed to be almost fully unconscious. He lay limp on his side, letting out an occasional groan.

“I can’t do anything from afar,” Miyo replied, resolutely kneeling down by the man to look at his face.

Miyo wasn’t a doctor, so she didn’t know what was wrong with him, or where he was hurt. Nevertheless, she knew they couldn’t just leave him like this.

“Let’s get him somewhere else for now… Nae, can you lay him down in the empty guest room on the first floor?”

“I shall make the arrangements.”

“Thank you.”

When she asked this of Nae, who was waiting in the wings, the housemaid promptly began issuing instructions to the other servants.

Next, Miyo turned back to Tadakiyo.

“Are you okay with me using the guest room, Father-in-law?”

“Of course.”

Readily nodding his head, Tadakiyo then offered to carry the man to the guest room himself.

But there was one person who didn’t agree with that idea.

“Stop this instant!”

Fuyu’s shrill voice echoed through the entry hall, and everyone who had begun hurriedly getting to work turned their attention to her.

“I absolutely will not let an unknown peasant into our villa!”

“Mother-in-law.”

“What if a contagious disease caused him to collapse? Everyone in this mansion would be wiped out.”

“Well…”

She did make a valid point.

Both Miyo and Tadakiyo had no idea why the man had fainted. If they took him in too hastily, they might increase the number of victims.

However, it wasn’t the time to be quarreling over something like this.

Miyo rose to her feet and stood face-to-face with Fuyu.

“That’s a reasonable concern, Mother-in-law. But we can’t simply leave him like this forever, either.”

“You! Why are you even giving all the orders anyway?! You don’t have any sway here. Stop acting like you can do whatever you want!”

Scrunching her brows, Fuyu shrieked. Her emotions were just as intensely riled up as they had been two days before.

But Miyo wasn’t going to back down.

“I know. I don’t have any authority myself. But I made a promise to Kiyoka. A promise that I’d look after things here.”

Exposing the house to danger. To Miyo, it wasn’t a problem if she was wrong or right—because it was a wife’s job to handle anything she was entrusted with.

Looking up at Fuyu’s eyes, located just slightly above hers, Miyo talked back to her.

Yesterday, she’d simply recoiled without saying a word, but now she was desperate.

“If you want to look after him so much, then you can go and do it elsewhere!

I’m

the mistress of this house!”

“And I’m Kiyoka’s fianc

é

e!”

“Ngh!”

“Supporting him, so he can face his work without any lingering worries in the back of his mind… That’s my job, something I can do to help him. And I want to do it right.”

Kiyoka was a Gift-user. He was one of the country’s weapons. He had to fight when ordered, no matter how dangerous the battle.

And Miyo would do absolutely anything and everything she could to support him.

This was what she’d decided. She would yield to no one.

“Fuyu, I’m the head of the house, and I’ve given her my permission. Can you leave it at that for me?” Tadakiyo asked.

“Why?! I haven’t said anything wrong!”

She was right. Fuyu’s duty was protecting the Kudou family villa and the people in it. There was nothing wrong with anything she said. Refusing to accept this villager who was virtually unknown to them was the obvious way to handle the situation.

Miyo relaxed her face and smiled at Fuyu.

“Yes. That’s why I’ll do everything. Please stay safe in your room, Mother-in-law.”

Fuyu’s eyes widened at her words.

“What…?! Are you saying you’re going to quarantine yourself with him?”

“If that is what you ask, Mother-in-law.”

“D-don’t be ridiculous! You’re a woman. Sick or not, I would never let you be alone together with a man!”

“Huh?”

Now it was Miyo’s turn to be surprised.

What did Fuyu mean by that? Miyo might have been misunderstanding, but…

“…Mother-in-law, are you concerned for my safety?”

When Miyo asked this in slight bewilderment, Fuyu’s cheeks instantly flushed with blood.

“A-as if that would ever be the case! I simply thought it absurd that you’d be the type of loose woman to be alone with another man besides your fianc

é

!”

“Oh…”

Just as Fuyu had said, Miyo’s words were lacking a noblewoman’s modesty.

She was mortified she had mistaken Fuyu’s declaration for being worried about her.

“Well, now you know.”

Looking on at Miyo’s dejection, Fuyu gave a haughty snort.

The man completely lost consciousness shortly after they brought him to the guest room.

“This looks bad. His breathing’s shallow, and his heartbeat’s weak,” Tadakiyo diagnosed, with the small amount of medical knowledge he possessed, after getting a general look over the man’s condition.

All Miyo could do was wipe the sweat off the man’s forehead as he continued to intermittently stir in agony. But Tadakiyo had told her that was plenty.

“Without knowing the cause, there’s no way to try and treat him.

Since you’re watching over him, we’ll know the instant there’s any change for the worse. That’s plenty helpful.”

“But still…”

At this rate, his life would be in danger.

Kiyoka was surely searching for the cause of it all at the moment, but there was no telling how much longer it would take. There were no guarantees the villager would hold out until then.

Just as Tadakiyo had said, the man’s breathing rapidly weakened while they attended to him, as if it could stop at any moment.

Worried, Miyo couldn’t take her eyes off him, prompting Tadakiyo to lightly tap her on the shoulder.

“Fretting over it won’t help him.”

“…You’re right.”

As she replied, a certain idea flashed in the back of her mind for a moment.

A way to save this man’s life. Since he was out cold, she could slip inside him with her Gift and work from within to make him regain consciousness.

Miyo was currently in the middle of learning about her Gift, and how to use it, from Hazuki and her cousin Arata.

Normal Gift-users were naturally confronted with their supernatural abilities from a young age and could wield them as freely as they could breathe, but it was not so with Miyo. She was still in the middle of her training and needed to be fully aware of her Gift to use it. She was quite an inexperienced Gift-user.

The Usuba special Gift, which interfaced with the minds of others, was very dangerous. One mistake with their manipulation, and it could easily destroy the mind of the person they were using it on.

Arata had explicitly instructed her not to use her Gift at her own discretion. He said it had been pure luck that she’d saved Kiyoka from his endless slumber.

It had been reckless of her to do that.

“Still, the fact he was bitten by a fiend does leave a lot of questions…,”

Tadakiyo murmured while stroking his chin. Just then, he looked around gravely.

“Someone’s here.”

“Huh?”

Miyo cocked her head, wondering what he meant. Tadakiyo let out a sigh and smiled feebly.

“We have…a guest of some kind, it seems, so I’ll go out and greet them.”

Who in the world could they have as a guest at a time like this? And how could Tadakiyo tell from here in the guest room?

Those words were halfway out of Miyo’s mouth, but she gave up asking them. There was something strange about Tadakiyo’s reaction.

“Miyo, once Kiyoka comes back, and everything’s all settled, let’s all enjoy a tasty meal together before you two head back to the capital.”

“Huh? Okay.”

He patted Miyo on the shoulder one more time before heading out of the room.

“Tadakiyo, just where are you going?”

Miyo could hear Fuyu’s voice from where she was standing directly outside the door for some unknown reason.

“Something’s come up. Fuyu, if you’re that worried, why don’t you just come in?”

“Wh—I’m not worried in the slightest.”

Tadakiyo simply smiled as he departed. At this, Fuyu went past him, wearing a begrudging look as she entered the room.

“Are you

actually

looking after him at all?”

“I am.”

Miyo replied without taking her eyes off the man in the bed.

She wasn’t going to run. This was an emergency. It wasn’t time for her to be arguing with Fuyu or getting depressed.

“You’re really doing all that just to attract Kiyoka’s eye?”

There was an ever-so-subtle degree of doubt present in Fuyu’s voice, one that Miyo had never heard from her before.

“I…”

When asked, she couldn’t deny that she wanted to. She always wanted him to praise her, and she wanted him to acknowledge her from the bottom of his heart as someone worthy to be by his side.

Yet it was true that there was more to it than that.

“I want to prove useful to Kiyoka. I don’t want to take advantage of my position as his fianc

é

e. I’ll do whatever I can, one thing at a time, so that eventually, I’ll be able to hold my head up high proudly at Kiyoka’s side.”

“…”

“That’s why, if there is anything I can do…”

Miyo gently took the unconscious man’s hand. When she put the tips of her fingers on his wrist, she felt that his pulse had gotten even weaker. His breathing was also shallower than it had been moments earlier, the intervals between each breath growing longer.

Even a layperson could clearly see that the man’s life was fading away as the minutes passed.

He didn’t have much time left.

“…Even if it meant putting your life on the line?”

“Yes. I’d risk my life. If it was for Kiyoka’s sake.”

Miyo answered unfalteringly.

She was sure Kiyoka was throwing himself into danger at that very moment to protect the village and the people who lived there. And she believed that he would be able to do it.

But what if this man were to die here? Those villagers would likely turn their anger on Kiyoka, even if he’d managed to protect everything else.

She couldn’t sit here watching and doing nothing.

“…Mother-in-law.”

“What?”

“I’m going to save this man.”

She’d made up her mind. It would mean breaking her promise to Arata, but she couldn’t sit there idly when there was something she could do to save him.

Fuyu glared at Miyo, as if she found the comment completely incomprehensible.

“A totally powerless woman like you is going to save him? And how is that, exactly?”

“There is…a way. I can use my Gift.”

She finally turned around to face Fuyu, who wore a frown that seemed to say she thought Miyo was talking nonsense and playing her for a fool.

“I thought you didn’t have a Gift?”

“I didn’t, up until recently. But despite that…I’m a member of the Usuba family. If I enter into this man’s consciousness, I might be able to make him regain his.”

“Usuba… What do you mean, enter his—”

“Father-in-law said as much, too. His condition will stabilize a bit more if we can get him to come to. My power can accomplish that.”

Now all Miyo needed to do was succeed. She was, of course, abundantly aware of her inexperience. She couldn’t simply shrug it off and tell herself she just needed to avoid failure.

When she considered what would happen if this went poorly, an unpleasant sweat beaded down her brow.

This plan would truly put her life on the line.

“What little you’ve told me makes it sound quite dangerous.”

“It is… To be honest, I think it’s reckless. I’ve only just awoken to my Gift, so it’s not reliable.”

Fuyu opened up the fan in her hand to conceal her worried, incredulous expression.

“You said as much yourself, Mother-in-law. Feelings alone are meaningless.”

“I did.”

“I think so, too. So please, let me show you my resolve with my actions.”

Fuyu frowned and furrowed her brow.

“Why, I never said anything about risking your life on a dangerous gamble, did I?”

It was such a quintessentially Fuyu way of expressing things. Miyo

felt a smile well up inside her. Almost enough to forget about the foolhardy thing she was about to do.

She understood enough to know that Fuyu wasn’t telling her to brave danger to prove herself. That wasn’t even a factor at play.

I’m doing this all of my own volition.

She might not be able to achieve anything, but Miyo didn’t want to stand there stock-still without taking any step forward.

“I know. That’s why you don’t need to feel responsible, Mother-in-law.”

“…That’s not what I was trying to say.”

Fuyu’s quiet whisper dissipated before it could reach Miyo’s ears.

Miyo turned back to the bed again. With trembling fingers, she lightly grabbed the man’s wrist. Then she closed her eyes.

There was a chance she would never open her eyelids again. That’s what would happen if she failed. She wouldn’t be able to see Kiyoka again. She wouldn’t be able to return to their home together.

It was frightening.

But for now, she desperately sealed her fear away deep in her chest.

Any unrest or hesitation can inhibit my Gift… I need to calm down.

She remembered what she had been taught.

“Are you ready? When you use your Gift, you need to be calm. If not, the effect won’t be stable, and in the worst-case scenario, you might fail to activate it.”

“The more powerful a Gift, the more terrible the result when you activate it incorrectly. You need to be prepared for there to be casualties when you use it, yourself included.”

“I’ll be blunt: the fact you were able to use your Gift without issue that one time was a fluke. Don’t get cocky about your abilities. Please don’t use it by yourself.”

Her cousin’s words echoed in the back of her mind, as if to reprimand Miyo for breaking his orders.

But she had been preparing up until that point to use her Gift when

it really mattered like this. It was inconceivable for her to avoid using it exactly when it was most needed.

It would be fine. Everything would go smoothly.

Miyo focused on her breathing. She sank deeper and deeper, diving into a pitch-black world, one where she couldn’t tell left from right or up from down.

After journeying through that pure darkness for a little while, she could see a faint and thin line, the boundary separating one consciousness from another.

Once she stepped over this line, beyond it was not herself, but the inner mind of another person.

She tensed her light and substanceless form. Gulping hard, Miyo took one step forward and—

Huh?

Suddenly, her body rapidly floated upward, returning from the world of the subconscious to the world of the living. The boundary that she had been so close to crossing was steadily fading into the distance.

Of her five senses, her hearing was the first to return. She picked up a familiar voice.

“Miyo, stop!”

“…What?”

When all of her senses had returned, she felt the heft of her physical body weighing her down. Cold sweat lay thick on her skin.

A man was clutching Miyo in his arms. The handsome face in front of her eyes was unmistakably that of her cousin, Arata Usuba.

He was furious. This was the first time she’d seen anger on his face instead of gentle smile.

In a haze, Miyo’s mind drifted to an inconsequential question.

“Why are you here, Arata?”

“That doesn’t matter right now. I’m mad at you. I told you over and over again not to use your power at your own discretion.”

When she tried sitting up, she was assailed with severe vertigo.

Miyo could only tilt her head in confusion, tormented with head pain.

Fuyu glanced at Arata, just as perplexed as Miyo about his arrival.

On the other side of the cracked-open door stood Nae and all the other servants, looking confused about what they were supposed to do.

“Miyo, are you listening to me?”

“Um, y-es.”

For the time being, she decided to nod. When she did, Arata responded with an exasperated sigh.

“In any event, I’m glad I made it in time… Honestly, is

this

why Prince Takaihito sent me?”

“Huh?”

“I came here under Prince Takaihito’s orders. Not that I really understand why myself.”

Kneeling on the floor to match Miyo, Arata then took her hand and pulled her up.

His wavy chestnut hair was uncharacteristically disheveled, and his suit looked slightly rumpled. He appeared to have been in a rush getting there.

Miyo managed to brace her teetering legs on the floor to avoid falling over.

“…And just who do you think you are? Barging into another person’s home like this.”

Miyo heard Fuyu’s firm voice come from behind Arata. When she shifted her gaze, she saw Fuyu standing there, her wariness clear as day.

Arata flashed his usual amicable smile without paying the slightest attention to Fuyu, who was glaring at him as if she were ready to shoot the suspicious intruder on the spot, and he replied in a truly dignified manner.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Arata Usuba. Thank you for looking after my cousin Miyo.”

“Usuba…?!”

“Yes.”

Immediately after Arata’s firm nod, the color visibly drained from Fuyu’s face.

“Why?”

Ever since the Usubas had become a familiar presence in her life, Miyo would forget that their name normally inspired fear. Dread and eeriness were the only things to associate with Gift-users who controlled and manipulated other people’s minds.

While it didn’t seem to sink in with her when Miyo brought the name up, Fuyu was unable to hide her discomposure while face-to-face with the impressive future head of the Usuba family.

“Well, as I said, I did not choose to be here. I’ve simply been dispatched here by Prince Takaihito… However, that is still no justification for thoughtlessly intruding into your home. Please accept my apologies.”

After hearing his exceedingly smooth and commendable apology, even Fuyu had her malice instantly drained out of her.

Eyes that had once considered him an intruder quickly turned into those of dumbfounded amazement.

“What… W-well, in the case—”

“Really? Oh, thank goodness, I’m glad you’ve forgiven me.”

“Huh?”

“Is something the matter?”

Fuyu hadn’t said a single word about forgiving Arata. However, she seemed unable to assert herself against the pressure of his smile and the way he’d forced her to accept his apology.

Even Fuyu was instantly won over. Miyo would expect nothing less from a negotiator working at a trading firm.

While Fuyu secretly admired his craft, Arata turned his gaze back at Miyo.

“So then. Do you have an excuse for using your Gift without permission?”

“…I don’t, I’m sorry.”

Though she didn’t regret what she had done, she wasn’t confident she could convince Arata of that if she explained.

Seeing Miyo slump her shoulders and stare in silence at her fingernails, Arata relaxed with a sigh.

“We can save the lecture for later. Our priority should be addressing

the situation at hand,” he said, turning his attention toward the man lying down on the bed.

“You want to save him, don’t you, Miyo?”

“I do.”

Arata smiled with reluctant resignation.

Now that Miyo thought about it, the guest Tadakiyo mentioned earlier must have been Arata. If that was the case, though, Tadakiyo was slow to return.

While these questions floated in her mind, Miyo instead focused on the conversation with Arata.

“I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if this man were to die here, either. I’ll assist you, Miyo, so prepare to use your power.”

“O-okay!”

She never thought he’d let her use her Gift, so she nodded furiously with surprise.

“You’re still going to keep this up?”

At Fuyu’s quiet grumble, Miyo turned to face her.

“I am.”

“Why?”

“…Mother-in-law.”

Fuyu misunderstood something about her. Miyo couldn’t guess exactly what it was, but there was a chance her words wouldn’t sincerely reach the woman.

Her hesitation lasted less than a second.

“Up until a little while ago, I had given up on everything.”

There was the slightest hint of desolation mixed in the sound of her voice.

She’d had nothing. Everything had been out of her reach. She’d even wished for a swift end for that terrible life of hers.

Without any hopes or dreams, she found peace of mind only when thinking about death. She’d wished to sink to hell rather than continue living. She’d yearned for her light to be snuffed out.

But.

“But Kiyoka gave me his heart. He filled me with warmth when I was totally empty inside…”

It was Kiyoka who’d watered her dried-out heart and filled it to the brim back then, when she’d lacked even the strength to pick up her broken, scattered pieces.

In a way, her entire being was composed of things she had received from Kiyoka. Giving up would mean throwing away the treasures Kiyoka had presented her with.

“Though I might be undesirable, though I might have an unimpressive background…I don’t want to lose sight of what I have now and what I can do now. I don’t want to give up.”

“Do you realize what sort of state you’re in right now?”

Using her still unfamiliar Gift had caused abnormalities in her body.

Intense vertigo and head pain. Miyo couldn’t summon much strength in her body, and her footing was unsteady. She felt a bit nauseous, too, and her cold sweat was unending.

To be honest, it was taking all she had to keep standing.

She was sure her complexion must’ve been similarly pale, enough to make even Fuyu worry about her.

“I…know.”

Miyo forced a smile as she spoke, prompting Fuyu to sink into silence.

“Miyo, what exactly happened to this man, and what sort of state is he in?”

“Oh, yes… This is all just what I was told, but…”

The village nearby had been attacked by a fiend, which had bitten the man in the process.

She tried explaining everything, but with only a passing knowledge of the circumstances, Miyo wasn’t able to provide any answers to Arata’s detailed questions.

However, Fuyu also didn’t have a full grasp of the situation, and neither Tadakiyo nor Kiyoka was there. All they could do was manage with the fragmented information they had.

“None of that really helps us here, does it?”

“…I’m sorry.”

Miyo was ashamed of her own inadequacy.

If only she had asked Kiyoka to tell her more. If only she’d had a better command of her Gift, if she’d been a reliable Gift-user… Miyo couldn’t stop these thoughts from running through her head.

Arata flashed a gentle smile and stoutly propped up Miyo’s shoulders.

“There’s nothing to apologize for. Keeping things secret is part of his job, and I understand Commander Kudou’s desire to keep you from being involved in any unnecessary danger.”

“I know.”

“That being said,” Arata continued after seeing Miyo nod.

“I agree that this man doesn’t bear the telltale signs of a fiend attack. Having your soul taken would turn the body into an empty husk. If anything, this looks like—”

After exiting the mansion, Kiyoka immediately ran toward the deserted shack.

As he passed through the village on the way, it looked to indeed be in chaos. Men were unconscious, just like the one back in the villa. The relatives standing around them all looked anxious.

This really isn’t good.

Kiyoka surmised that their symptoms were slightly different from those of a fiend bite.

It was likely that they had been possessed, not had their souls devoured. But this wasn’t complete possession. If that had been the case, the fiend would have completely taken over all of its victims’ bodies by now.

If I had to describe it, it’s like the fiend forced a portion of itself inside them…

Grotesqueries were also living things. Kiyoka had no choice but to remove those that harmed humans, but their lives weren’t to be indiscriminately tinkered with. Nevertheless.

The Gifted Communion, or whatever they’re called, have done just that.

They’d minutely divided up parts of the fiend’s soul or taken its blood and flesh, then imbedded them in people to induce a partially possessed state.

The men had lost consciousness because their bodies were rejecting that foreign presence.

Kiyoka speculated this based on his examination of the man he’d captured.

He could sense the presence of a fiend inside the captive’s body.

But why would they do this?

While he was thinking things over, he had managed to get pretty close to the ruined shack.

“I’d ask you not to come any closer.”

All of a sudden, he heard a low voice come from out in front. Crunching over the fallen leaves as they came into view was yet another figure in a black cloak.

Kiyoka, of course, knew someone was here, so he wasn’t surprised. He arched his brow slightly.

“I see, so you’re the one leading the Gifted Communion here?”

“Well now… What would make you say that?”

Kiyoka’s guess had been correct.

While quietly preparing himself for combat, he answered the question.

“You’re different from the man I captured before. You’re a true Gift-user.”

Judging from the figure’s physique and voice, he was male. He was also surrounded with the unique signs of the Gift, familiar to Kiyoka.

He wasn’t some kind of imitation Gift-user, like the man Kiyoka had captured.

“You’re quite sharp. I’d expect nothing less of Kiyoka Kudou, commander of the Special Anti-Grotesquerie Unit.”

“You know everything about me, then?”

Kiyoka had expected as much. It was only natural given how much he had been snooping around the outskirts of the villa.

The cloaked man held out one of his hands. Suddenly, the ground started to thicken with mud. This was his supernatural power.

“I’d like to make a deal with you, Commander, if possible.”

“No thanks.”

Kiyoka needed to capture this man and make him spill everything he knew about the Gifted Communion and the incident at hand.

The moment the man quietly murmured, “That’s a pity,” the muddy ground gained even more moisture. The earth was transforming into a swamp.

Manipulating the ground…no, he’s manipulating water.

At this rate, Kiyoka’s feet would get stuck. He instantly used telekinetic power to manipulate the earth. Kiyoka’s Gift was far and away the more powerful of the two; he had always been in control of the situation.

With a short exhale of breath, the stretch of muddy earth crackled loudly as it froze over.

“Manipulating fire, making thunder strike at will… and you can even freeze water, too?

Hah-hah

, looks like there’s no way for me to win. You aren’t the head of the Kudou family for nothing.”

“If you belong to a family with a Gift, you should know what it means to try laying a hand on us.”

Though Kiyoka’s declaration could be seen as arrogant, he was simply telling the truth.

The Kudou family’s position above other Gift-users came from their strength. There wasn’t anyone capable of threatening the head of the family, and if you made them into an enemy, your defeat was guaranteed.

The only ones with any chance against them were the Gift-users of the Usuba family, which was precisely why the Saimoris had previously tried to get their hands on Miyo for her Usuba lineage. The Kudous were simply that dominant.

“I’m very aware of that, of course. But this is the will of the Founder.”

“Founder?”

He must have been referring to the person who’d started the Gifted

Communion. That meant this man in front of him was also just a single member of the larger group, working under the directions of someone else.

His expression still hidden beneath his hood, the man spread both of his arms out wide.

“The Gift is a wonderful power. Yet now it runs the risk of being exterminated by ‘science’ and other drivel. Even someone like you, Commander, who stands high above all Gift-users, must be anxious about the present situation, yes?”

“…That’s fair. I figured it wouldn’t be too unreasonable to see some Gift-users with your line of thinking start to pop up.”

The Gift was an outstanding ability. It was even fair to say that Gift-users were practically a more-advanced form of human being.

But no matter how far their powers took them, Gift-users could never transcend their human frames, their physical bodies. Even if one haughtily insisted that they were superior to others because they had supernatural powers, they could never hope to be anything more than human as long as they had the body of one.

If Gift-users were slowly beginning to fade away, that, too, may have been the laws of nature at work.

“The Founder is trying to create a whole new world. One where every human is given the chance to receive supernatural abilities.”

Kiyoka thought it preposterous.

Was that truly a world of equality? No, even that society would simply give rise to some new form of injustice. It was tenuous logic.

“That’s why we are taking out first step toward our ideal world here in this village. Everything is just as the Founder envisaged.”

“By getting innocent people involved?”

“…When trying to effect major change, a few sacrifices are unavoidable. It must’ve been much the same during the Restoration.”

True or not, Kiyoka couldn’t sanction that type of thinking.

At this point, it was evident the Gifted Communion was using the village and the villagers to try and get closer to this “ideal world” nonsense. This “Founder” had turned the community into a test site.

“Kiyoka Kudou. If you fear for the future of Gift-users, you should join our order. Accept the teachings of our Founder, Naoshi Usui.”

It was a name Kiyoka had never heard before. In all likelihood, he was a Gift-user, but he had no memory of that particular family.

He made a mental note of the name to ensure he didn’t forget.

Then Kiyoka brought a forceful end to the unpleasant conversation at hand.

“Bringing harm to the Empire while in possession of a Gift is a grave transgression. Are you prepared to face justice?”

“Hmph. You are incompatible with our vision, just as the Founder said. However, you’ve been informed of his teachings… I have safely carried out my role. Time to make my retreat.”

The Gift-user man lightly brought his hand up, and an indescribably uncomfortable presence began to close in.

A sound like a rumbling earthquake echoed with its every step. Letting out an ear-piercing war cry and closing in on Kiyoka was an enormous figure wrapped in a cloak—a fiend.

No, that wasn’t it.

This is just a person that a fiend has fully possessed.

This was the truth behind the fiend sightings.

Two thick milky white horns grew out from their forehead, and their fangs flickered in and out of view inside their mouth. Their body was so large it was easy to believe otherwise, but they were unmistakably human. Nevertheless, their eyes were totally unfocused, and Kiyoka could tell that they were no longer in their right mind.

The fiend fragments that were possessing the men of the village must have come from this original fiend. The Gifted Communion had forcibly implanted them with its power.

“This is what our research taught us,” said the cloaked Gift-user. “That there is a use for Grotesqueries. Whether it’s their power, their souls, or their bodies…if you take any part of them and force it into a person, you can awaken them to their Gift! Now, go! Let all fools who refuse to understand our teachings know their place!”

The fiend loosed a bestial roar, an unpleasant sound of gnashing teeth that made Kiyoka want to cover his ears.

The colossal figure, under the complete possession of the fiend, charged toward Kiyoka with frightening speed, mowing down the surrounding trees as it went. It seemed to have lost all trace of its former human reasoning.

Kiyoka nimbly dodged the fiend’s massive body as it closed in and used his telekinesis to freeze it in place. Yet the power of his opponent was so tremendous that it threatened to break free of Kiyoka’s Gift with its brute strength.

I guess I can’t expect things to go as easily as they did against another Gift-user.

He increased the power behind his Gift. Then he lifted the giant figure into midair and threw it violently into a nearby tree.

The tree broke with a dull crack, and after falling down onto the ground, the fiend’s body stopped moving.

That man… Must’ve run away.

It appeared he had set the fiend-possessed man on Kiyoka while he quickly made his getaway.

Kiyoka let out a sigh and approached the enormous figure to stick an evil-sealing paper charm on it.

This would seal the fiend’s power away for the time being. It wouldn’t take long for the men possessed by pieces of the fiend’s body to come back to their senses.

Kiyoka stood up to return to the villa.

Meanwhile, on the side of the road that stretched from the village to the Kudou villa, Tadakiyo stood face-to-face with several cloaked figures.

“Sheesh…”

He had gone outside to check after sensing someone approaching the mansion and been met with a gaggle of uninvited guests.

Although he had complied with his son’s request to protect the villa, this was his first time on the battlefield in a while, so he couldn’t help feeling anxious about his body no longer being up to the task.

There were three figures facing him, each clad in an abnormal aura.

“I take it you’re those imitation Gift-users Kiyoka mentioned, then?”

Artificially produced Gift-users. Such research wasn’t completely absent from the annals of Gift-user history.

But Gifts were far too powerful for the average human body to handle. Tadakiyo was painfully aware of this; after all, he had dealt with his body failing him from the moment he was born because of his Gift.

“Gift-users have always been nothing more than normal humans who gained powers from heaven.”

Trying to manipulate that power at will was a gross display of conceit.

People deliberately generating Gift-users. No matter how confident they were that they could succeed, their efforts would always end in failure.

“Now then, what exactly are you all after? Trying to free your comrade? Or attacking our home…?”

Not a single one of them answered Tadakiyo’s question.

Time ticked away as both parties impatiently stared each other down.

The first to break the deadlock was the cloaked group of three. They simultaneously raised their hands up in the air, and a small tornado manifested, sucking in more dirt and leaves, along with their Gift-summoned fire, to quickly grow into a maelstrom.

Tadakiyo’s eyes lit up at the sight.

“Incredible. A well-executed trick. But you’re stupid if you think that will be enough to take care of me.”

For the first time in a long time, he was tasting the euphoria of the battlefield. It bubbled up inside him as a huge grin stretched across his face.

How truly na

ï

ve of them to think they’d be able to strike down the Kudous just by getting their hands on a Gift. That was never going to happen.

The maelstrom the three imitation Gift-users had summoned headed for Tadakiyo.

At this rate, he wasn’t going to survive a direct hit from the vortex. The dirt and tree branches would tear his skin open, the flames would burn him up, and the sharp swirling winds would slice his body to pieces.

Fully cognizant of all this, Tadakiyo blocked the vortex head on.

Yeah. It’s not so bad getting a chance to fight every once in a while.

He’d relinquished the head of the family position to Kiyoka almost immediately after his son had graduated from university. Tadakiyo had spent the rest of his days here living a life of retirement. At the time, his body had been at its limits, so there were no other options available, but it had felt quite disappointing to retreat from the front lines.

Without even lifting a finger, he made the whirlwind disappear in an instant.

“This child’s play is never going to be enough to deal with me. Go polish those skills of yours, then try again.”

Speaking as gently as possible, Tadakiyo then activated his Gift.

He sent subtly crackling electricity along the ground, which caught the three cloaked figures. Helpless against the electrocution, they collapsed on the spot and went totally motionless.

“Would’ve liked to face off against someone that could put up a bit more of a fight.”

He was dejected—these three had barely served as a warm-up.

If this was who he was up against, Tadakiyo thought, perhaps he should’ve handled them all before Kiyoka even came out here on his mission.

“Ah well. It is what it is.”

Muttering to himself, he examined the three adherents of the Gifted Communion.

When he took off their cloaks, he found that two of the three were women. One looked right around twenty years old, while the other was in her forties. The remaining man looked young, around twenty himself.

“None of them have any physical traits in common. Nothing really

stands out about their age spread, either… If this group features a wide range of people, that’s going to be quite the problem.”

When he looked closer, a small vial with a trace amount of bright red liquid came falling out of the forty-year-old adherent’s breast pocket.

There was no mistaking it—fiend’s blood.

Tadakiyo reflexively winced at the vial.

“It may not be right for me to say this, given all the Grotesqueries I’ve wiped out in my day, but…they’re up to some real nasty stuff.”

Toying with life not for their own survival but to satisfy a lust for supernatural power. That wasn’t a particularly pleasant thing to think about.

But it was a windfall that the attackers had left him with some evidence.

Hopefully, the events in the village could lead to the whole Gifted Communion being rounded up and arrested. If that wasn’t the case, they were going to prove to be a troublesome group.

Tadakiyo put the vial away in his breast pocket and pondered over things…but gave up midthought.

This doesn’t have anything to do with me anymore.

He had retired. Tadakiyo could leave everything up to Kiyoka.

While he may have been his son, he still genuinely felt Kiyoka had grown into a splendid man. His body wasn’t weak like Tadakiyo’s, and he was a powerful Gift-user.

His only worry had been that no matter how much time passed, he refused to get married, but that, too, would be resolved before long.

“I’m one lucky father…

koff

. ”

Wheezing slightly, Tadakiyo got to work tying up the three followers.