186 – Collapse – 1

The morning at the shrine was very early.

Although Gi-jun always opened his eyes like clockwork at six in the morning unless something happened, the shrine maidens surprisingly always woke up earlier than him and were sweeping the yard.

And Gi-jun had a disease where he felt like he had to do something whenever he saw people working.

“Is there anything you can’t eat for religious reasons?”

“No, not particularly…”

Murasaki, the purple-haired shrine maiden in charge of serving the Lumen party, tilted her head at the question directed at her but replied meekly.

“Then I’ll make lunch.”

“Ah, no. We can’t let a guest work…”

“Once you try it, you won’t say that.”

He suppressed his urge to conquer them with a patriotic set of bibimbap, bulgogi, samgyeopsal, and sundubu-jjigae, and served a safe choice of cream pasta instead, and the reaction was on a level that would put any decent mukbang review to shame.

“Why do all women love cream pasta?”

“That’s a huge prejudice, Jun.”

However, Tilla, who was the one saying that, had already inhaled her pasta cleanly.

“I also think it’s a prejudice, but I’ve never seen anyone who broke that stereotype so far.”

If one had to find the correct answer, it was probably not that all women liked it, but that cream pasta was the most safe choice among the many options.

Even if someone disliked cream pasta, they would likely eat tomato pasta, so once they went to eat pasta, the chance of clashing over preferences was reduced.

And the ultimate menu that transcended even such minor preference issues was rosé pasta.

Gi-jun was confident that if he made rosé pasta next to cream pasta, he would be able to win over all the shrine maidens.

“What an amazing person.”

“As expected of the Divine Spirit. There’s no way a human could make such heavenly food.”

“Instead of eating us, he made us delicious food. Gasp, could Lady Kurenai have lied to us just to monopolize a handsome man?”

“Who is doubting Lady Kurenai?!”

Just by making pasta once, Gi-jun had become such a popular star that Kurenai’s position was shaken.

As he was seriously contemplating whether to open a food stall in the middle of the village during lunch tomorrow, Tilla sighed and spoke so that only he could hear.

“I told you not to get too close…”

“But it would be too obvious if I just stayed on guard.”

“It’s not obvious.”

Tilla, who asserted this, turned her head.

Following her gaze, he saw Lora and Eun-shin completely buried among the shrine maidens.

“They are getting along so well, how could anything look obvious?”

“No, our kids weren’t originally the type to overflow with so much sociability.”

Gi-jun widened his eyes at the unimaginable sight.

At least Lora was understandable.

Even if their directions were different, she shared a sense of kinship with the shrine maidens in the sense that they were both priests serving a deity, so she had approached the combat-oriented shrine maidens who wielded katanas first and established a close relationship.

But Eun-shin was…

“What is he doing?”

“Apparently, Shin has a talent for spellcraft. I heard he’s learning the art of handling shikigami from the shrine maidens?”

“No way, really?”

Perhaps it was also because Eun-shin originally had a lot of interest in spellcraft.

Watching Eun-shin chatting happily with the shrine maidens and laughing without any worries made Gi-jun’s head hurt already.

—It would be cool to wipe out the shrine maidens using the skills he learned from them.

“It’s a development that seems likely to appear in the climax of a battle manga.”

While replying with a sigh to Lucy, who still only thought about killing the shrine maidens, Kurenai approached through the shrine maidens and bowed politely to him.

“Thank you for treating the children to a wonderful meal. They are children starved for change. If you don’t mind, could you arrange such a gathering at least once more during your stay here? I know it’s a shameless request…”

“As many times as you want is fine. Since you are preparing the ritual to help us, I should at least do this much.”

“I am overwhelmed. I can only offer my gratitude.”

Blushing, Kurenai bowed her head again and continued in a slightly lowered voice.

“The preparations for the ritual are proceeding without a hitch. If Lady Kore responds, we might be able to return you all to the outside of the barrier without any problems.”

“Right, that would be nice.”

“If you have any questions about the ritual, please let me know at any time. I will arrange a separate meeting.”

—Look at her, flirting like that.

Ignoring Lucy’s voice, he managed to respond to Kurenai.

Glaring at Kurenai as she turned around and left, seemingly satisfied with the conversation she had with him, Lucy spoke once more.

—Don’t you think she is a cruel woman? Once we leave, those shrine maidens will never be able to eat the cream pasta the contractor made again. Even if they get used to such luxury, it will only be more painful for them later.

“I appreciate you rating me so highly, but that’s a too malicious interpretation.”

Living without knowing cream pasta, and suffering while knowing and remembering its sweetness.

Opinions would differ from person to person, but Gi-jun thought the latter was definitely better.

If there was no change in living trapped inside this barrier anyway, would it not be better to build up even a few more happy memories rather than living without knowing anything?

—Don’t you plan on asking? If they would rather break the barrier, go out, and become NPCs.

“Being incorporated as a Letan isn’t something possible for everyone either. It requires talent. Though everyone here might be capable of it…”

Perhaps it was not such a simple problem.

He also thought there was no way they hadn’t considered being incorporated as Letans beforehand.

“Hyung! Look at this!”

Just as Gi-jun’s thoughts were about to idle meaninglessly, Eun-shin called him at the perfect moment.

When he turned his gaze, he saw Eun-shin copying the hand movements of the shrine maiden beside him, who somehow looked very familiar.

“Shikigami Arts…!”

The moment Eun-shin focused his energy, a small paper doll rose from the floor.

As Eun-shin frowned and concentrated, it scurried across the floor and ran toward Gi-jun.

Although even this much was amazing, it seemed there was still something left, so as he quietly watched, Eun-shin suddenly shouted “Ha!” and made a different hand gesture.

At that moment, the positions of the paper doll and Eun-shin swapped.

“How is it!”

“Wait.”

Watching Eun-shin, who had appeared before his eyes in an instant, Gi-jun blinked his eyes blankly.

“What is this, a substitution technique?”

“Praise me, Hyung!”

“Well done, Shin!”

Then, the fellow grinned and activated the technique, swapping places with the shikigami once again.

He knew Eun-shin was highly talented, but he hadn’t expected him to handle shikigami this quickly.

Just with what he had shown now, endless application methods came to mind, and he wondered what would happen if he developed it further.

He checked the shrine maidens’ reactions in case it wasn’t a big deal, but it didn’t seem so, as they were all staring with wide, surprised eyes.

“He must be good at Onmyodo because he’s the Divine Spirit’s subordinate!”

“Even so, in just a few days.”

“Couldn’t he even become a priest?”

“Then who should we marry him to? Renka, perhaps?”

“Oh, please!”

It felt like if he left them alone, Eun-shin’s future would be decided without Gi-jun even knowing.

Seeing Eun-shin wearing a strange expression as if he didn’t entirely hate receiving attention, Gi-jun’s heart became even more frustrated.

“Tilla, it seems the person we should be worried about wasn’t me, but someone else.”

“There’s nothing I can do about Shin. You, the party leader Jun, have to control him.”

“You’re strict about these things.”

Gi-jun, who was looking at Eun-shin with a sigh, soon realized.

The shrine maiden currently teaching Eun-shin the technique was Renka, the girl who had peeped on Gi-jun and Tilla flirting last time.

Having had little aversion toward outsiders from the beginning, she was still teaching Eun-shin the most enthusiastically among the shrine maidens… and somehow, she was creating a pretty good atmosphere with him.

“……Oh, the vibe is unusual.”

“There is also a way to take only that girl out with us.”

“Tilla, your ideas are too scary.”

Paradise, my ass; a vacation, my foot.

There were so many things to worry about, so how could he possibly rest?

Thinking that his sighs had somehow increased since coming here, Gi-jun… quietly asked Lucy.

“Can I learn that shikigami art too, by any chance? Isn’t it related to spiritual power?”

—I wondered why the contractor was staying so quiet.

Lucy snorted.

—It’s a different branch from spiritual power. In the first place, if they had spiritual power, would all the shrine maidens have recognized me? And what about Eun-shin?

“Tsk, as expected?”

—Rather, it is basically a technique that manipulates mana close to shadow, that is, Yin. That is probably why it matches Eun-shin so well. As I mentioned before when talking about the contract with the evil spirit, the contractor’s current affinity is endlessly biased toward light, so your compatibility with that technique won’t be good, and there is nothing to gain from learning it.

“But there’s a saying about the harmony of Yin and Yang.”

—Ah, the field the contractor knows the least about, right?

He was hit so hard that he couldn’t even breathe.

* * *

Time passed quickly.

While for Gi-jun and Tilla it was merely a time of sparring with each other to improve their skills and train, including their ability to control fire, for Lora and Eun-shin, it was a more valuable time than anything else.

This was because Lora had learned and mastered several secret techniques from the shrine maidens who had wielded katanas for hundreds of years, and Eun-shin had learned the shikigami arts that matched his affinity, dramatically improving his combat abilities.

It was to the point where even Gi-jun thought that this alone made being dragged into the barrier worthwhile.

However, they didn’t learn anything particularly new about the method of escaping the barrier.

They had only become certain that they could not escape the barrier by ordinary means of leaving for the outside, and they could not find out in detail about the Holy Relic that was clearly located inside the shrine.

At least, since Gi-jun was steadily pouring his mana and spiritual power into his own Holy Relic, it was certain that a decision would be reached one way or another by the time the month Kurenai mentioned had passed.

As for the changes among the shrine maidens, they had eventually stopped searching for the shrine maiden named Sakura.

The shrine maiden named Renka clung to Eun-shin quite actively, and although Eun-shin thought of Ji-hye, he could not boldly shake her off since it was his first time experiencing such a thing in his life, making him the target of teasing from the other shrine maidens.

The shrine maidens, who had become addicted to the pasta Gi-jun made, tried to clumsily imitate it, resulting in a completely different kind of bibim-guksu, but since it was delicious in its own way, everyone enjoyed it…

“We are ready to perform the ritual.”

Like that, a month passed in the blink of an eye.

Not long after Gi-jun had completely repaired the Holy Relic.

Kurenai, dressed in more ornate attire than usual, appeared and bowed politely as she spoke.

“Lady Kore is calling. I believe we can send you all outside.”