The Yasha King’s Beloved (7)

In a clearing halfway up the mountain, Io sat before an altar where a fire had been kindled. The sky was dyed crimson, and night would soon fall.

Several young exorcists sat behind Io in the same manner. They could not be seen from here, but the exorcists of West Suo were lying in wait throughout the surrounding woods.

A tension so intense it seemed to scorch the skin hung over the entire area.

A dense aura of Aberrations drifted from the rift into the Otherworld that they had created to bring Mei back. Beyond it, there were probably terrifying Aberrations unlike anything Io and the others had ever faced before.

Fighting desperately against the sensation that he would lose consciousness if he let his guard down for even a moment, Io clenched his back teeth.

(—I’ll never forgive this.)

When Mei had been brought back through their art, she had been wearing beautiful clothes unlike anything he had ever seen before. And that was not all. Her hair and skin had gleamed without the slightest sign of damage.

The face that had always seemed frozen in fear had become so calm that she looked like an entirely different person. She had even been beautiful.

Io had realized it immediately. Mei had been loved by an oni over there. She must have been kept far away from pain and sorrow, protected and treasured.

(—I will never accept that.)

Mei had to be a miserable woman. More pitiful and unhappy than anyone else, always crying. Io alone was supposed to be the one who stayed by her side.

(—I won’t let some mere oni steal her from me.)

What burned fiercely in Io’s heart was jealousy and rage. The oni was trying to take Mei away from him. No matter what it took, Io had to eliminate him.

“Io-dono. Are we really going through with this…?”

One of the young exorcists waiting behind him spoke in a voice tinged with fear.

Suppressing his irritation at having his concentration nearly broken, Io turned around. He fixed his gaze on the exorcist who had spoken and the others around him, then forced himself to answer calmly.

“If we don’t do this now, he’ll only attack us eventually.”

“But… our opponent is an oni.”

(—Cowards.)

Swallowing his urge to spit the word at them, Io gave them a gentle smile.

If they became frightened and fled now, everything would be ruined. He had prepared for this far too carefully. He absolutely could not allow it to fail.

“That’s exactly why we have to do it. We don’t need to defeat him completely. We only need to make him never want to come here again. If we cut off one of his arms, for example, I’m sure he’ll understand.”

Then the oni would never approach Mei again, and Io would earn the distinction of being the man who had severed an oni’s arm.

Even the main household, which probably still regarded Io as nothing more than the heir to a branch family, would no longer be able to ignore his existence.

As luck would have it, someone from the main household was coming. There was no reason to let this opportunity slip away.

Then West Suo would effectively belong to Io.

And at the same time, Mei would belong to Io as well.

(—Wait for me, Sis. I’m the only one who can truly save you.)

Desperately suppressing the corners of his mouth as they threatened to curl upward, Io slowly looked over the exorcists’ faces one by one.

“I’m counting on all of you.”

The sight of their eager expressions was so ridiculous that he could hardly stand it. They had hardly any talent, yet because they could use a little power, they had gotten full of themselves and treated Mei cruelly. Now those same people desperately fawned over Io, and the feeling was exhilarating.

“Leave it to us.”

“I will. I’m counting on you.”

(—As stepping stones toward my future.)

“So this is where Mei disappeared?”

“Yes.”

Kyo had led Ryoga to the woods spreading behind the residence. Sure enough, faint but unmistakable traces of a power different from that of Aberrations lingered heavily in the area.

Perhaps because of the distortion caused when the two worlds overlapped, the air felt thin and unpleasant.

“There are definitely traces of a rift having formed here… but something is strange.”

A rift could not be erased so easily. Repairing one was even more difficult than creating it. Not even a full day had passed since Mei had been taken away, so could someone truly erase it this completely?

(—Is the caster really that skilled? Even so, something doesn’t feel right.)

Unable to put the feeling clearly into words but certain that something was wrong, Ryoga furrowed his brow.

“Shall we go through from here?”

“No. We’ll use another place…”

Ryoga turned on his heel, intending to leave the area for the moment.

That was when it happened.

A soft, gentle fragrance brushed against his nose.

“Mei!?”

“Princess!”

Gen and Kyo seemed to have noticed it as well. They jerked their heads up and looked around.

“Master, just now, I sensed the Princess—”

“Yeah.”

She felt as though she were right beside him, yet he could not see her. He wanted to rush to her and pull her into his arms immediately.

Impatience and unease made the very core of his head prickle.

“Master!”

At Gen’s shout, Ryoga turned his gaze and saw that a rift just large enough for him to pass through had appeared in a spot where there had been nothing only moments before.

Beyond it glowed red, making it impossible to see what lay on the other side. But he knew without a doubt that Mei was beyond it.

As Ryoga took a step forward, Kyo hurriedly stopped him.

“You mustn’t. That’s a trap.”

“I know.”

“Then—!”

Ryoga shoved Kyo aside as he desperately tried to stop him.

“I don’t want to regret anything ever again.”

He had sworn it. He would never make Mei sad again. He would never allow her to go somewhere she would suffer. He would keep her beside him forever and cherish her.

Even if it meant having his arm torn off, he could not turn back.

“You stay here. Do not follow me under any circumstances.”

“But…!”

Ignoring the continued protest, Ryoga reached toward the rift. With a sudden sensation of being sucked in, his body was dragged toward the other side.

The instant his body passed through the rift, he felt a massive amount of his power being stripped away. His consciousness nearly wavered, but his desire to make sure Mei was there kept his eyes focused.

“Guh…!”

His field of vision suddenly opened up. The ground beneath the foot he stepped forward with was muddy.

The air was warm, damp, and filled with a foul stench.

He immediately knew that he was in the human world.

“Hey. Long time no see.”

A lanky human man stood before him. He looked somehow too young to be called an adult, and his face was familiar.

Behind him, several exorcists sat as though guarding the fire on the altar, glaring at Ryoga.

And that was not all. He could sense many more presences in the surrounding woods.

(—I see.)

The trap was so blatantly obvious that Ryoga could not even laugh at it.

He focused his senses and searched, but there was no trace of Mei anywhere. Yet just before coming here, he had unquestionably sensed her. Perhaps reading Ryoga’s thoughts, the man before him gave a low laugh.

“Too bad, but my sister isn’t here.”

The word sister sent a ripple through Ryoga’s heart.

He was the one who had struck Mei that night before fleeing.

(—So this is Mei’s younger brother. Io, if I remember correctly.)

Something far hotter than mere murderous intent churned in his gut. Whenever Mei had spoken about the life she had endured until now, she had never once blamed her younger brother, Io. She had only trembled sadly and murmured that they were siblings.

Even that night, she had bowed her head and begged Ryoga to spare Io.

“I let my guard down that night, but it won’t happen again. You’d better prepare yourself.”

The eyes glaring at Ryoga held unmistakable hostility. It was fundamentally different from the hostility an exorcist directed toward an Aberration. This was a more primal hatred.

“You’re going to give up on my sister… I’ll never hand her over.”

At the low, growling voice, Ryoga immediately understood.

This man desired Mei with an intensity equal to his own. But he could also see that the feeling was horribly twisted and ugly.

“Mei is not an object. Where she chooses to live is for her to decide.”

When Ryoga stated it plainly, Io’s eyes widened in shock. A moment later, his entire body began trembling in small spasms, and his gaze sharpened.

“…So that’s how you bewitched my sister, you damned oni.”