This is the translation for the prologue of this Light Novel, which can be bought here.

I apologize for the lateness of this chapter, but I hope you enjoy this one!

Note: I don’t own this Light Novel, but the translation is my own and helped by my friend.

Contrary to my expectations, Reimu came back leisurely before the sun had set. The ofuda was in her hands, but when she saw my face, she showed a slightly apologetic face.

“Um, I’m sorry…” She said, bowing deeply – an action that was very unchildish. “I found it right away. You went easy on me because I’m like this, didn’t you?”

It was true that I showed some leniency, but I was sure that I made it harsh enough for Reimu. But it appears that Reimu was not the slightest bit fazed by it.

“How… exactly did you manage to find it?”

“Uh… how, you ask?” Reimu pursed her lips, showing a thinking gesture. “I was just strolling along without thinking about anything, when I suddenly felt an odd presence. Upon searching around that area, I found the ofuda stuck there. That’s pretty much it?”

I shook my head slightly towards the staring Reimu, affirming that I had not gone easy on her. I had not specified the method that she was to use. To begin with, it was not easy for one to settle on a particular method. Yet, Reimu had managed to overcome this challenge through sheer luck. I was reminded of the good luck that was supposedly possessed by the Hakurei shrine maiden. I had forgotten about it since I had never possessed anything of the sort, but it was possible that Reimu possessed an extraordinarily great amount of luck that was comparable to a god. If so, it was possible for such luck to be able to blow away any trivial difficulties. It was hard to think of Reimu as having good luck in her life thus far, but perhaps it was an ability that could only manifest in abnormal situations.

It was not a difficult task to confirm my suspicions. Just like my predecessor had been mean to me, all I had to do was to make a talisman so weak that it would be impossible to find, and ask Reimu to search throughout the forest for it once more. Reimu, who had been sent off in the morning, managed to find the talisman before noon, this time handing it over to me a little more happily. I was relieved that she did well, but as I praised her for her finesse, I found myself trembling with fear; Reimu’s success had not been a fluke, and her supernatural luck – or perhaps intuition – manifested itself without any significant conditions, naturally guiding her in the right direction.

Although I knew that Reimu possessed powers that far exceeded my imagination, my tiny vessel was narrowly defined, and as a result may have greatly suppressed Reimu’s abilities.

If that was the case, I may have unknowingly committed an act similar to the terrible things that the humans did to Reimu when she was young.

For that reason, I thought that it was necessary to find another method to test her.

—

The next day, I took out a set of exorcism tools – meant not for practice, but for the real deal – and handed them to Reimu. A spirit talisman imbued with a curse that only reacts to and tracks down Youkai power, as well as a purification rod made by processing the branch of a sacred tree. The former in particular could be said to be the basis of the Hakurei’s technique. As the Hakurei talisman was meant for casting exorcism arts, and thus contains enough power to wound a youkai considerably, its true value could only be displayed when a great number of them were linked together. When linked together in a formation, it would be possible to unleash more powerful arts, as well as form a strong defence by creating a barrier. Furthermore, that protection can quickly switch between defence and offense according to the caster’s will, the firm protective shield capable of being used as a spear to strike their enemies.

It was versatile enough that one might think that so long as they possessed this tool, there was no need for any other, but it has its drawbacks. The deployment time increased according to the size of the formation, and thus was not very suitable for use during emergencies – during such times, specially imbued talismans that could be deployed immediately were used to compensate. But that was a rather trivial problem, with the greatest issue being the fact that it was necessary to imbue multiple attributes into each talisman, meaning that it took a huge toll on one’s spiritual power. No matter how physically capable the spellcaster was, their limbs would feel as heavy as lead when handling this talisman, and would be quickly rendered immobile. It required an extraordinary amount of spiritual power, and thus could be thought of as a tool that was more or less exclusive to the Hakurei shrine maiden.

For that reason, the extreme lack of craftsmen that were capable of servicing such a tool also became a problem. It was natural for one to create their own tools, but on occasion there existed antiques that were beyond my capabilities. In such situations, the only solution was to rely on a professional craftsman, but at present there was only one person who I could consult. My predecessor came from a distinguished family and thus did not have any trouble dealing with such issues, but I was not able to obtain assistance with these things due to being born in an ordinary family. Perhaps they would have been willing to overlook that fact if I had simply bowed deeply and flattered them a bit, but I could not bring myself to do such a thing. After all, my past self was not someone who was mature enough to bow her head and offer gifts to someone who had mercilessly ridiculed her. Now that I think back on it, perhaps I should have done so, even if just a little. Because of my actions, Reimu’s options had been narrowed down greatly. Despite having even fewer allies than me due to being an outsider, I had almost none to provide her myself.

Reimu naturally did not seem to care about such a thing and instead tinkered about with the tool, and so long as she was not treated too badly, I did not plan on speaking up. I began with the usage of talismans, as it was necessary to teach her about the proper method of handling the tool as much as possible, and for that reason I began thinking about how to go about doing so, but that quickly became unnecessary. That was because I saw Reimu imbuing the tool with power and wielding it as if she was already familiar with it. The talismans floated around Reimu as if it were natural, falling to the ground when they were drained of power. Although there were bad habits mixed in due to being a self-taught method of usage, she became aware of them after I pointed them out a few times, and after going through a few quests that resembled those of a game, she was able to quickly grasp those characteristics.

Even here, Reimu had no need for a teacher. She easily got the hang of things that I could only grasp after gritting my teeth and giving it my utmost effort, and was still improving. It seemed that she would be able to participate in Youkai Exterminations soon. While thinking of this, my heart gradually grew heavy; if Reimu continued to change like this, I might become incapable of stopping her even if I could warn her. If Reimu were to become cocky and do something irreversible while still under my care…

Yet, I could not bring myself to speak to Reimu about this. And if her performance were to deteriorate because of it, Yukari would surely take her away from me.

It was the next week, when a Youkai extermination request came by for the first time in a long while for me. The person who requested it was the son of a farmer who owned a large piece of land south of the village. He had lent his land to me and many other families to build their houses, was someone who was capable of showing consideration towards common folk, and knew very well about how much of a tomboy I was. He was also one of the few well-known people who were willing to support me.

He generally had a pale look on his face due to his weak stomach, wore a pair of thin glasses and always looked like he was staggering due to his tall back, yet now the color of his face was close to pure white, to the point where if someone told me that he was suffering from an incurable disease, I would have believed them.

When I bumped into him when I stepped outside after my noon practice, he was standing around hesitantly underneath the torii gate by himself, and when he saw my figure, he appeared to be quite troubled over whether or not he should call out to me. Despite that, from where I stood without running away, I could feel a sense of deep uncertainty coming from him. On top of the fact that he refused to speak about anything in my presence… it seemed like he was worried about the matter regarding Reimu.

“If you were wondering about that girl, she’s doing fine. I have plans to take her to the Youkai extermination in the near future. She’s quite childish, but if we’re talking about spiritual power, I could not possibly hope to match her in prowess.”

“Reimu, bring him to the living room. I’ll go make some tea.”

“No, no, Kiku-chan, there’s no need to go that far…”

“My name is not ‘Kiku’. Currently, I am the present generation of the Hakurei, Reimu*. You’ll have to call me that for at least another year.”

“But… no, nevermind. You’re right, I was just getting a little nervous…” He took a small breath and his expression tensed up. It seemed like he was ready to speak now. “The story might end up being a little long. And I’m also not confident that I’ll be able to tell it well.”

“I’m already used to hearing long stories.”

“I’m no longer a little girl who could not handle sitting still for more than five minutes. Though I believe you already know that.”

His expression did not appear to brighten up even after telling that joke. He seemed to be completely consumed by melancholy, and I muttered in my heart that this might be quite a terrible situation.

After taking two, three sips of tea that was served to him, he finally managed to calm down. I prepared myself to listen carefully to everything he was about to say. There are generally many unusual circumstances regarding incidents that are caused by Youkai, as it was easy for one’s prejudices to be mixed in.

“Take your time and read slowly. We have plenty of time.”

Therefore, there was a need to instruct him to not say anything in a hurry.

“The story is actually about his daughter.” Unlike the friendly attitude he had until now, he took on an extremely polite tone that seemed to reflect his understanding about my earlier request. “I’m sure you know her very well.”

He must be referring to the daughter two years below my age who greatly admired me. She behaved like a noble’s daughter and had some selfish tendencies, but was a good-natured child at heart. Recently, I had always been with Reimu and rarely returned home, and had only seen her from afar not long ago, but at that time there did not seem to be anything unusual about her.

“Since the year began, my daughter has been going out into the fields quite often.” I thought that it was a good thing, but he spoke quite bitterly about it – it must have been one of the root causes. “She was not what you would call a lazy bum – if anything she was a very energetic and active girl – but she had somewhat of a distaste for dirty work much like other adolescent girls. In fact, this year she seemed to be concerned about the state of the farm before the rice planting, and began to check on it on a regular basis. She had always worked hard on the rice planting, but there were signs this time. When other people stepped foot into a certain corner of the rice field, she would suddenly began to feel enraged. At first, she insisted on working by herself and stopped anyone else from entering, but after some patient persuasion, she decided it would be fine if only men entered. Everyone else was convinced that she was just at a somewhat difficult age, and I had also managed to grasp her daily routine. I felt like I needed to hurry with the planting, and once that was over, her temper tantrums had also settled down, so I decided not to think any deeper into it. I also convinced myself that my daughter was just at a difficult age. Then, a little while after that, um…”

He glanced over at Reimu, displaying a blatant gesture of hesitation. It seemed like it was something that he did not want a child to listen to. I shook my head, silently rejecting his request. I only had a little more than a year to be by Reimu’s side. Since that was the case, I figured that she should gain some experience in dealing with adult matters. I had actually wanted Reimu to be a little older before doing so, but there was no helping it.

He still seemed to be reluctant, but perhaps he felt something from seeing Reimu silently listening to his story. Still, he continued to speak facing in my direction and in a soft voice, trying his best not to let Reimu listen in.

“My daughter quietly snuck outside during the night. I came to learn of it indirectly from a servant, and being a father who knew what that entailed I was quite surprised by this. When I gently brought it up to my wife, she had a surprised look on her face at first, but said that if there were no problems after confirming his identity, I should just leave the two of them be. Indeed, during my adolescent days I would also, uh, ‘go on a night walk’ and rush to my beloved’s place. Nowadays such a custom was starting to die out, but I had nothing to say if they shared mutual feelings and consent. I paid someone who was good with this kind of job and asked him to follow behind my daughter the next time she snuck outside, lurk around the area until the deed was over and after she returned home, to tail the man and figure out his identity. My daughter snuck out once again that night, so I thought that would be the last day I would have to worry about her. However, the next day, the man who followed after my daughter came back to report to me with a pale look on his face, and said that the person who had been seeing my daughter was a Youkai.”

His voice grew fainter as he spoke, until he could not utter another word. He shakily gulped down the rest of his slightly cold tea and took a small breath.

“My daughter entered the field, then suddenly laid down on her back. After that, the mud formed into the shape of a human and stood up, then wrapped itself around her. It was as if… the field was mingling together with her, was what he said.”

I ended up imaging what that scene would have looked like, and I was terrified by it because she was a good friend of mine. I also now understood why he decided not to rely on the exorcists in the town and instead came all the way to the Hakurei shrine. There was no way he could speak to others about something like this. If I were in his shoes, I would have done the same. If it became known that she had been violated by a Youkai, no one would want to take her as a bride, no matter what kind of family she came from.

“I… understand the situation. Um… sorry for asking bluntly, but did you see any signs of something possibly dwelling inside of her? Like her menstruation cycle stopping, having sudden feelings of nausea or developing a liking for sour-tasting things?”

“No, no such things… So what you’re saying is, she’ll become like that if I leave her be? Kiku-cha… do you perhaps already know of the culprit’s true identity?”

“No, it’s still not entirely clear, which is why I would like to ask you a few more questions. Would you be willing to answer them? I’ve already confirmed the extremely delicate parts, so I don’t think I’ll be deepening your anxiety any further.”

“It’s fine, it’s for the sake of my daughter after all. Please ask me about anything you need to know.”

If you were willing to do anything for your daughter, then rather than visiting me – who has a reputation of having started to decline in power – in secret, you should have steeled yourself to take the hit to your family name and done everything you could.

I sipped about half of my cold cup of tea and calmed my feelings. Getting worked up emotionally even when I was careful about it was one of my bad habits.

“It’s about the history of the rice field. I’ve heard that in the past, that patch of land belonged to another house…”

“Yes, that was the case,” His face contorted in disgust as he spoke. “Not long after the war, we experienced a severe famine that lasted for years. No matter what we sowed, only flowers bloomed, and they never bore fruit. The people stripped the bark from trees and dug up the soil for earthworms or centipedes to eat, and once even those were gone, they were left with no food. The hearts of the people were in chaos, but the owners of the former mansion and the land did not provide them with any food despite not knowing how long the famine would continue for, and on the other hand seemed to be living as extravagantly as possible. When everyone’s anger had boiled over, my father took the initiative to persuade the influential people within the village, convincing them with direct appeals, and that seemed to have prevented any blood from spilling.”

He seemed to imply that the discussion had solved everything. However, everything seemed too good to be true, and so I could not bring myself to believe him. I also did not believe that these people, who were only concerned about themselves, would obediently hand over their land and position like that.

I nodded vaguely, then asked him one more question.

“At that time, were there any people who were killed on the field?”

“Are you perhaps doubting the story I’ve just told you?”

“I am not doubting your father’s achievements. It’s just that a severe famine will distort the hearts of even the most virtuous of people. I can hardly say that not a single drop of blood was spilled.”

I was prepared to sour the mood, but he shook his head after a moment of contemplation.

“You might be able to figure it out if you looked at the records of that time. However, that depends on whether my father will be willing to let you see them…”

“In my opinion, the Youkai that had abducted your daughter is called the ‘Dorotabō’,” I bluntly stated in response to his hesitation. “An amalgamation of the grudges born from the rice field and blood, and haunts the land. It then claims ownership of it. As it was born through blood, it will try to pass that blood on. Farming work isn’t something that can’t be accomplished without a lot of workers, after all.”

“You talk of blood, but my house was entrusted with the land with confidence.”

“You could also say that it was entrusted to your house due to their initiative in spilling blood.”

If there was nothing wrong with his claim, then it seemed strange for his father to refrain from showing the past records freely. As I thought, there was no choice but for me to visit the father for more information, and check if there had been a history of bloodshed. I planned to push through by saying that it was for the sake of his granddaughter if it came to that.

“I will be visiting you tomorrow. As for your daughter, try your best to give her as much attention as possible, even if only for today. And do not enter the field under any circumstances. It was nice meeting you.”

After saying that, he gave a meek nod and left the same way he came, staggering about like a sick person.

*While Kiku’s shrine maiden name is also read as Reimu, it is written in kanji (令武), while Reimu’s name is written in hiragana (れいむ).

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