I'm not a part of this place!　
　Abominable.
　Without hiding the hatred swirling in her heart, the girl spat.

''What, I was a princess maiden!　You're an outsider who doesn't even have samurai blood in your veins!

　At the height of his frustration, he lifted the empty plate with the Japanese sweets on it and tried to throw it away--and then he was going to throw it away.

"...　Oh, no, you shouldn't.

　--after a quick stop to his hand, he slowly returns it to the desk.

'A warrior's tip number three: a warrior should be an example to his people.

　It was not an act of a warrior to angrily destroy the pottery that the people had presented to him.
　When I think of that, the barely remaining restraint in my mind kicks in.
　But even after I calmed down, the rage in my heart was still there.

''To let that woman take charge of the Great Festival, she's a mother too!　They don't know what they're doing, and they don't know--

　The girl tucked up her beautiful black hair as beautiful as lacquer.
　To the holly yozora, the teachings of the warrior family are absolute. All those who do not follow them are evil.

''We're running out of time, aren't we?

　There are only two days left until the big festival.
　She has been trying to somehow gain the title of princess miko, but it's no good.
　Yozora's ability, which has completed the entire training process of a miko, is one step inferior to that of a hiyuki, but it's no better than that of successive princess maidens.

　And yet, there is a reason why that woman with no preparation is chosen and Yozora is not.
　It's because my mother doesn't want it.
　No matter how clever she may be to the superiors of the Shinto religion, if her mother, who is the deputy head of the holly, opposes her, Yozora can't become a princess priestess.

'--Foolish--'

　The big festival the day after tomorrow will surely fail.
　If it went well, the hateful woman would not be safe.
　That in Yozora was an intuition, but it was also a conviction.

(I don't really care what happens to him. But this is the fate of the warrior family.

　It's not just a matter of time before you get to the point where you'll be able to see the true nature of the miko.
　It's not just a matter of time before you'll be able to get your hands on a new one.
　But if you have magical qualities, you can endure such things, and you will naturally develop a tolerance for pain. Most priestesses with only a poor mind can't endure the training, but still, such things are only a minor issue.

　What a princess miko really needs is

You said you were ready.

　The teachings of the warrior family are not wrong.
　A nation of harmony requires the blood spilled by a warrior family.
　A determination of blood, not wavering, not wavering, not wavering, and giving it all away.






◇






Ew!

　A strange voice spilled out of my mouth in surprise beyond my imagination.

'Oh, welcome back,'

　When I returned to my room after my daily meditation, she was there, as she should be.
　Her gesture of laying down her small body and stretching out her legs and pattering them in a relaxed manner as if this was her room.

'Ta, I'm back, not!　Why are you here!
　The sunshine said that unintentionally in a strong verbal tone.

''Huh........no, it was.......?

　Then, Shtel's face, which was in relaxation mode, changes to sadness.

The first thing that comes to mind is the fact that it's not...

Really?

　There's no way to resist Shtel's crying face, and Hyuki is forced to welcome Shtel's visit again.

(Security.........needs to be improved, I guess.........)

'Well, um, so what are you doing here today, Shtel?'

　That's what Hinoki asked.

My mom told me!　I said, "It's time for a festival, so let's do it right.　So, hey, let's go out with Stell.

　Shtel said such recklessness with a big smile.
　She had great expectations and her sparkling eyes were dazzling.
　However, Hyuki wasn't going to be able to meet such expectations of Shtel.

''I'm sorry, I'm not sure I can do that...''

'What!　Why!

　In normal times, she might be able to go out, but right now she's in the middle of a festival.
　Naturally, many people know Hyuki's face. If you go out, there will be a huge commotion, and the people around you will never give you permission to go out.
　Now that the big festival is coming up, it's no exaggeration to say that this body is the most important thing in the land of harmony, so there's no way he can go out.

''I'm so sorry!　I think we can go out together after the festival, so for now--

　--Give it up.

　Hyuki said.
　Most of all, though, what happened to me after the Great Festival, Hyukki had no idea what happened to me.
　Hearing Hyuki's voice, which seemed to have been squeezed out of the depths of his throat, Shtel was silent.

(Did I get depressed.............

　But as soon as I looked into her eyes, I realized that was a mistake.
　She seemed somewhat anxious, looking at the hiyuki with wavering eyes, as if to say she was worried.

''-- Isn't it hard?''

"--!

　It wasn't.
　It was as if she thought she was being selfish as a child, but the words she uttered were different.

　A breath of anguish, like an unvoiced scream, came inexplicably to me.
　Pish.
　I feel as if a crack has been carved deep into my heart.

"What are you...

　I'm telling you.
　I tried to say that, but I couldn't.

It's the sad thing about not being able to do what you want to do, isn't it?

　I was shaken by a small tone that seemed to tell me to stay strong.
　I felt as if the ice in my heart, which I had been trying so hard to freeze to be strong, had broken off.





◆







　There was a small village there, which has been derided as the countryside in Xatsu.
　The village, which had no hot springs, was a place where people had built their lives on the bounty of the cool stream and the mountains, where demonic beasts sometimes haunt.
　The place that was called Mizuha Village was the hometown of Okumura Hyuki, a place that no longer existed.

　I don't have many memories of my small days there.
　My mother, who gave me all the love I could hold, and my father, who had shunned the hiyuki.
　My father, who worked as a deputy in Mizuha, was a big man in the small village.

　But he was not that involved with my father.
　He and his mother had been given a small house and lived separately from his father, so it was difficult for Hyuki to consider his father as his immediate family, and he understood at a very young age that his father must be estranged from him and his mother.

　The reason for this was probably the magical power and appearance that Hyuki possessed.
　It seems that my mother's old ancestors had demons in their family, and this influence was strongly evident in Hyuki. In a phenomenon called ancestral regression, the fading factor of the demon race suddenly became apparent.
　Because of this, both my mother and myself were driven out of our father's original home.
　The hijuki was aware of this, but she didn't understand until her father's true intentions.

　Once a year.
　Once a year on her birthday, her father would always come to see her.
　He always came to see her with all the food and gifts he could carry.
　And

Congratulations.

　I said sardonically as I left.
　It was only in that day, in that moment, that he could truly consider such a father, who was supposed to be his blood family, but who seemed to be a stranger somehow, that he was his father from the bottom of his heart.


　He had just celebrated his seventh birthday on the day of the destruction when a violent, side-swiping downpour struck Mizuha, riding a wild storm.
　The thunderclap flickered repeatedly and the roar shook his ears.
　Helplessly scared, she just squeezed her mother's hand and prayed to the gods of the sky to hurry up and end it.

　But the heaviest rain ever swallowed the small village of Mizuha.
　An eerie rumbling of the earth, like the footsteps of an earth dragon.
　It got louder and louder and louder, and then came the all-consuming disaster.

　It was a landslide.
　The earth and sand rushed into the village, ripping down and burying the houses.
　The river was overflowing and muddy and there was no way to evacuate.

　My mother and I were holding hands and running to get away when we saw a huge, huge wave in front of us.
　The earth-colored wave made a wild sound and should have swallowed me and my mother unceremoniously.
　But

What--!

Hey...

　A figure popped up.
　A strange person that I couldn't tell if it was really my immediate family or if it was really my family.
　When my mother met my eyes with the person, she instantly communicated with him or her and threw me towards him or her.

　At the moment when I would have been caught in the dirt and sand myself - when she saw me settle into that person's hands, my mother had a relieved look on her face and smiled.
　The smile on her face was the last thing I saw of my mother.

　She was running with a devilish look on her face, as if she were fighting against an oncoming mudslide.
　He held me in his two hands as if he were holding a treasure.
　He ran, jumped, ran again, and was finally carried away by the waves - and yet he still held me, hugged me, and protected me with his whole body.

　I saw the look on his face.
　I finally realized.

'Oh, Mr.,'

　That he was my father.
　Holding me in his arms and catching all the earth and sand on his back, he was still smiling hard, covered in blood, until the very last moment.





◆





　Only a few dozen people survived the village of Mizha.
　The small village, with a population of about 1,000, was swallowed up by a natural disaster and dared to be destroyed.
　It was a small tragedy, lying everywhere.

　With the help of the Kusatsu people who rushed to her rescue, she survived.
　Her mother and father had saved her life.
　More than anything else, it made him realize that his life was irreplaceable.
　That's why he desperately sought for it.
　A way for Hyuki, a young child who has lost her parents, to survive.

　After being placed in a Shinto orphanage, he spent his time desperately training and studying.
　It's a tough world for an orphan to live fully.
　Nevertheless, Hyuki struggled, fought and fought hard to survive.
　And then that person appeared in front of her.

'So you're Mr. Hyuki--I'm sorry to be so abrupt, but will you be my daughter?'

　Konoha, the acting lord of holly, the great lord who rules over Kusatsu, has come to see Hyuki.
　He said that he wanted to make the hiyuki, who was only an orphan, his daughter.
　I couldn't believe it, and I was almost skeptical as to what kind of agenda she had behind it.
　But she told everything to Hyuki with great care.

'I've heard that your magic and spiritual qualities are outstanding. With all due respect, I have had the opportunity to do a little research into your past, and I see that you were the daughter of Okumura. In fact, your father did his best to hide this fact so that your existence was not made public until you were placed in his care as an orphan.

　When her father died, Hyuki discovered her father's love for her.
　She realized now that the overwhelmingly brilliant Hyuki, who was only the daughter of a small village deputy, had been hidden from her existence to prevent her from being used by a great lord like Konoha and his divine superiors.

''I want you to be my daughter and become a princess maiden. I'm sure your father wouldn't want that, but if you become my daughter, I promise you a future free of charge.

　And I, a poor orphan with no backing, made a pact with her.
　To live.
　Just for that reason alone.






◇





　If she fulfills her mission as a princess priestess, she will be able to live her life without any problems.
　I've been able to live without food, clothing and shelter, or rather, I've been able to live in the lap of luxury because I became a daughter of holly.
　That's why I'm happy.
　I've been trying to convince myself that I'm happy.

　But.

Isn't it painful?

　With that one word.

　With that one word that seemed to see through everything about the hijinks.

　Easily, the dam broke.

　It's painful.

　It's sad.

　My real family was nowhere to be found.

　The mission of the princess maiden was a heavy one.

　The practices of the warrior family make me squirm.

　More, more, more, more, more.

　I wanted to live with my mother and my father.

　All I ever wanted to do was...

　What Hyuki really wanted was

　They are nowhere to be found.

　She met an unidentified child, invited him in and played with him because she was lonely.
　He was helpless and lonely because he had lost his family, so he was jealous and dazzled by Shtel, who rushed in to play with him without any backwardness.

'It's a big deal!

　Shtel said brightly as he pierced through Hyuki's chest.

'My mom gave me a secret weapon, so it's okay, onee-chan!