The Yasha King’s Beloved (1)

A dull thud echoed through the spacious tatami room.

“You fool! That is not the kind of report I want to hear!”

“My apologies.”

The black-clad exorcist who had been struck across the cheek desperately apologized with his forehead pressed against the tatami. The man before him was Shiro.

“You spent half a year investigating, and all you managed to learn was that there wasn’t a single trace of Mei on that mountain? What do you think you’re doing? At least find her corpse—or even a piece of her body!”

The sight of him shouting with foam gathering at the corners of his mouth was nothing short of grotesque.

Rather than worrying about his missing daughter, he was demanding proof that she was dead.

The exorcists waiting in the room had gone pale. Sitting in seiza a short distance away and watching the scene, Io silently ground his back teeth together.

Half a year ago.

They had gone into a mountain overrun with Aberrations for the ceremony that was supposed to formally make Io an exorcist.

There, Io had encountered an oni. Terrifyingly powerful, it had attacked Sakuma and Mei, who had accompanied Io, and had even tried to take Io’s life.

Io had somehow tried to save the two of them, but he had been no match for it and barely escaped with his life.

When he gathered other exorcists and returned to the mountain, they found Sakuma collapsed near the entrance to the approach path. Although he had suffered no serious injuries, he had yet to regain consciousness and remained asleep in a local hospital.

Only Mei, who was believed to have failed to escape in time, still had not been found even after half a year.

That was the version of that day’s events that Io and his parents had fabricated.

(—Damn it.)

In truth, Io had been terrified by the oni’s power and fled alone. By the time he returned to the mountain with Shiro and several renowned exorcists, no one was there.

(—Where did she go?)

Io had assumed that, while Sakuma might be attacked, the oni would have no reason to bother with a powerless girl like Mei. He had been badly shaken. All he could do was stand there in the perfectly orderly place, as though nothing had happened, unable to answer Shiro as his father pressed him to explain what had occurred.

The natural conclusion was that Sakuma and Mei had been eaten by the oni. Yet that assumption was overturned in an unexpected way.

Sakuma was found collapsed at the foot of the mountain.

Once he woke up, they would be able to ask what had happened to Mei.

But Shiro made a decision that defied Io’s expectations.

“We will have Sakuma remain asleep.”

Shiro cast a sleeping spell on the unconscious Sakuma. It was a forbidden, immoral technique that was never meant to be used on people.

“We cannot allow the main household to learn that an oni appeared in a grove under our management, much less that Io’s ceremony ended in failure. He will remain asleep until everything has been dealt with.”

Io had no choice but to obey Shiro’s utterly selfish words. After all, Io had tormented Aberrations unrelated to his ceremony and had ended up luring the oni there as a result. Worse still, he had struck Sakuma. If any of that came to light, the main household would likely punish him in some way.

He absolutely had to avoid that.

“We still don’t know whether Mei is alive or dead, and we haven’t even identified the oni…”

Shiro clutched his head in frustration. His plan had likely been to uncover the identity of the oni that had appeared in the grove while keeping Sakuma asleep, then construct a story favorable to them.

“Io, is there anything else you remember?”

“…Nothing. Just what I reported at the beginning.”

Suppressing his irritation, Io recalled what had happened that day.

The black oni that had overwhelmed him. Io had been completely helpless. And the oni had barely used any of its strength.

For Io, who had always been praised as a genius, it had been his first defeat.

Just remembering how he had done nothing but tremble like an insect and run away filled him with such humiliation that he wanted to scream.

“That damn Mei. Is she alive? Is she dead? She really is nothing but trouble.”

Io raised one eyebrow slightly at Shiro’s words, spat out with disgust. He had already known it, but Shiro did not care about Mei in the slightest.

“Everything has gone to hell because Mei disappeared…!”

The sight of him stamping his feet and raging was so ridiculous that Io almost wanted to laugh.

“What happened to the Aberrations that escaped?”

The Aberrations they had captured to serve as practice targets for the exorcists had all vanished from the dojo several days after Mei disappeared.

Apparently, a flaw had developed in the barrier covering the dojo, allowing them to escape. There had also been a hole in the wall surrounding the estate, letting them slip outside without difficulty.

“If any of them attack people, it will be a disaster!”

Shiro’s concern was that the escaped Aberrations might have grown hostile from their resentment toward humans and begun attacking them. If incidents involving Aberrations increased near the West Suo estate, it would become a stain on the family’s reputation.

“We investigated and confirmed that they entered the mountain. But they were all weak Aberrations, so once they entered that area, there was no practical way to search for them…”

“Useless fools!!”

The room trembled from his renewed roar.

“You can’t even find my daughter, let alone a pack of weaklings. And you still call yourselves exorcists!”

(—Searching for missing people isn’t an exorcist’s job in the first place.)

The exorcists being berated likely felt the same way. They looked at the shouting Shiro with eyes tinged with disbelief and resentment. Their dissatisfaction was obvious.

At Shiro’s orders, they had combed that mountain at least once every three days for the past six months. Yet they had not found so much as a single strand of Mei’s hair.

“Damn it… The inspection from the main household will be here soon.”

Anxiety crept into Shiro’s voice.

There was a reason he had been so desperate to have them find Mei.

“Who leaked the matter about Sakuma to the main household? I kept it hidden…!”

Sakuma had originally belonged to the main household. After learning that he had remained unconscious for half a year, the main household sent notice that representatives would be coming to West Suo.

If that led to the truth coming out—that Mei had gone missing, and that they had encountered an oni only to let it escape—there was no telling what kind of penalty they might face.

To keep everything hidden, Shiro wanted to find Mei and make sure their stories matched.

“Perhaps the young lady was eaten by the oni after all.”

Unable to bear it any longer, one of the younger exorcists spoke up. It was obvious he wanted to argue that they should stop wasting their time.

“Let’s say she died from an illness or an accident. If we do, even the main household would—”

“My sister isn’t dead.”

Io cut off the exorcist’s words.

“Why do you think that?! It’s already been half a year! There’s no way she could still be safe!”

“Have you forgotten about my sister’s power?”

“…!”

The atmosphere in the room changed instantly.

“There’s no way an Aberration wouldn’t notice her power. She must have been captured and put to use. I’m sure she’s being held on the other side.”

“Io, you…”

“You know it too, Father. My sister’s power is useless to us, but to them, it’s far too convenient. I’m sure they’ve been working her to the bone all this time.”

Apparently able to imagine it, the exorcists exchanged glances and began whispering to one another in hushed voices. They were likely weighing how plausible Io’s theory was.

A special power that healed only Aberrations. An ability utterly unfitting for an exorcist.

Because of it, Mei had always been looked down on as useless and mistreated.

(—For some reason, the oni never seemed like it intended to harm her.)

For a while after the incident, Io’s memories had been blurred by fear and excitement, but they had gradually become clearer as time passed.

Back then, Io and Sakuma had suffered beneath the pressure emitted by the oni. Yet Mei, who should have possessed no resistance whatsoever, had merely seemed confused and had shown no signs of suffering.

In other words, the oni had not regarded Mei as a target.

More importantly, when Io looked back one final time as he fled, the oni had inexplicably been staring at Mei.

Its expression was completely different from the one it had worn while glaring at Io. Io had seen those terrifyingly beautiful lips soften ever so slightly.

(—I’ll never forgive it.)

That oni had noticed Mei’s power. It must have decided to exploit her and taken her away.

“I’ll go back to the mountain myself. I’m sure I can find my sister.”

It was not as though Io had spent the past six months doing nothing.

If Mei was no longer on that mountain, then there was a strong possibility she had been taken into the Otherworld. In that case, all he had to do was bring her back.

“But how?”

“Did you forget I’m a genius? Rescuing my sister from the other side will be easy.”

In truth, he had been researching it all along. Creating a path connected to the Otherworld required an enormous array of magical formulas. After six months, he had finally completed everything he needed.

“Once I bring my sister back safely, the oni will probably come chasing after her again. Then all of us will strike it down together. If we defeat an oni, the name of West Suo will become famous not just within the main household, but throughout the entire country.”

Surprise appeared on the exorcists’ faces, mixed with a faint trace of expectation.