Ukiyo Town...
Continental hotel...
After conversing with Hagoromo Gitsune and calling a successful truce between them, Leo returned to the continental hotel.
He started moving towards his office cabin to announce it to everyone, especially those onmyoji who visited him earlier.
He walked towards the wall, and when he arrived near it, a door automatically opened, and Leo entered.
When he entered the cabin, he was greeted by the Nurarihyon, Wakana, Rikuo, Kejoro, Setsura, and the Onmyoji elders who visited him, along with the onmyoji who accompanied them.
While Yura was standing beside her brother, when Leo entered the cabin, all their eyes landed on him.
"____"
Feeling their gaze on him, Leo was stunned for a moment; he was just about to summon them so he could inform them what happened with Hagoromo Kitsune.
There was a few seconds of silence.
"Leo, you are here. Huh... I have made this for you myself."
The silence was broken by Mavis, who entered the cabin happily and showed Leo the plate full of bread omelettes she made for him.
"Sure, dear..."
Smooch~
With a nod, Leo took one of them, gave a little peck on Mavis' lips, and started eating.
"Oh... you guys are here too... please have some, I made it myself."
When her eyes landed on the others in the room, they lit up and she gave everyone in the room a wide smile, handing them one before placing the empty plate on the desk.
Cough~ cough~
"Leo-san, is it true that Hagoromo Gitsune killed my father?"
With a complicated look on his face, Rikuo asked Leo for an answer.
Today, he had overheard the conversation between his grandfather and one of the onmyoji elders and was stunned to hear that his father was killed by Hagoromo Gitsune.
He could clearly remember the young girl who stabbed his father to death and smiled at him coldly, without any emotion visible on her face.
Grit~
He couldn't help but grit his teeth in anger, hearing that Leo went to form a peace truce with the murderer who killed his father personally.
He wanted to know the answer himself, so he urged his grandfather and wanted to meet with Leo. Later, others tagged along with them.
When Wakana looked at Leo, she also had a complicated expression on her face; she didn't know what to feel about this.
Cough~
"You are right, Rikuo."
With an embarrassed cough, Leo nodded his head.
"Then why..."
Seeing Leo nod his head, Rikuo felt inexhaustible anger surging within him and was about to retort.
"Before getting angry, you guys need to know a big truth... and later judge for yourselves."
Before Rikuo could retort, he was cut short by Leo, who stated his reason that he wanted to reveal the truth to them.
"____"
Hearing him, Rikuo became silent and looked at Leo, waiting for an answer along with everyone else. Even Wakana was looking at Leo silently, waiting for him to say the truth.
Sigh~
With a sigh, Leo started to reveal everything to them.
While listening to Leo, their eyes widened in shock, and momentary fear took over as a single thought crossed their minds: what would happen if they didn't have Leo's backing?
"You remember your father's first wife, Yamabuki Otome, right..."
With a word, Leo's eyes darted around the room to see Wakana's reaction, and he saw she was listening attentively.
"She is Hagoromo Gitsune..."
When Leo completed his sentence, the whole room fell silent, and everyone from the Nura clan present in the cabin exclaimed in shock.
"____"
"____"
"____"
All of them were momentarily shocked; not even Nurarihyon was spared.
'That's why I always felt both Hagoromo Gitsune and Yamabuki Otome were similar. How did I miss such an obvious thing?'
With a frown, Nurarihyon started thinking about the past when he had a duel with Hagoromo Gitsune and felt she was somehow familiar but couldn't pinpoint it.
Sob~
"Why... why would she do that?"
Sob~
With words being choked while tears rolled down her eyes, Wakana asked Leo, sobbing.
She heard how much her husband loved his previous wife, who he believed to be dead, and sometimes she even felt jealous while he was mentioning his first wife to her, with deep love reflected in his eyes.
So she wanted to know why Yamabuki Otome wanted to kill her love and the person who loved her so much.
"That's a big story..."
Taking his seat calmly, Leo started explaining the truth behind Yamabuki Otome's disappearance and why she would kill Rihan Nurarihyon.
When Nurarihyon heard that Yamabuki Otome, who was a wandering spirit yokai, was the reincarnation of Hagoromo Gitsune, and how Jizo used her and manipulated her to believe that both Hagoromo Gitsune and Yamabuki Otome were different persons,
Leo also mentioned how Jizo erased Yamabuki Otome's memory 8 years ago when she visited Rihan Nurarihyon, her husband,
whose memory had also been manipulated to believe that Yamabuki Otome had died by Jizo when he somehow found a clue about Yamabuki Otome's whereabouts.
When everyone in the room heard about Jizo's ability to manipulate memories to his heart's content, it made them sweat.
Gulp~
They all instinctively gulped and started to feel that even some of their memories might have been manipulated.
'No wonder I can't come to a definite conclusion about the similarities between Hagoromo Gitsune and Yamabuki Otome.'
Clenching his hands tightly, Nurarihyon narrowed his eyes while he was in deep thought.
Leo explained that when Yamabuki Otome killed Rihan in her manipulated state and recovered her memory, it was already too late.
Due to the extreme emotional turmoil caused by killing her love, her emotions suddenly came to a halt, and she subconsciously buried her memory of Yamabuki Otome deep within her.
Her only goal was to give birth to her son Seimei. Jizo wanted to achieve this and manipulated her to this point to achieve his master's goal of finally becoming the perfect existence.
Crack~
Thud~
"Leave me, old man... I want to kill that fucker who ruined all our lives."
Rikuo stood up in anger and was about to storm out of the cabin and go to Kyoto to kill Jizo, who caused all this.
"Patience, Rikuo... Patience... He will pay for what he did. I won't give him an easy death, believe me. But now you need to be patient."
Nurarihyon, who was finally healed by the potion from the witch sisters, was once again able to gain his power back, which he lost due to his permanent injury.
Even though he wanted to rush to Kyoto and end Jizo's life with his hand, he was holding back because he knew his actions might complicate things further.
So, gritting his teeth, he was trying his best to calm down himself and his grandson. Kejoro, Setsura, and the other Nura clan yokai were not in a better condition.
They too wanted to follow Rikuo and deal with the damn yokai who played with their clan like pawns in his chess game.
Nudge~
"____"
Nudge~
Leo, seeing Wakana who was crying, wanted to comfort her. Just when he was thinking about it, he felt a nudge behind his back. When he turned, he saw Mavis signalling him to go.
Nodding his head, Leo got up from his place and went to Wakana, placing his hands on her shoulder to comfort her.
"____"
Suddenly, Wakana hugged him and started crying out all her grievances while Leo silently hugged her, giving her his shoulder to cry on.
"I feel sorry for her... Leo... can you do something for me?"
After crying for more than ten minutes, Wakana lifted her head looked into Leo's eyes and asked him.
Hearing her, Leo nodded his head without breaking eye contact.
Sniff~
"Leo, save her... Rihan loved her so much. His soul will rest in peace when Yamabuki-sa is free."
With a little sniff, Wakana requested Leo and stated her reason that she wanted Rihan's soul to rest in peace.
Cough~ cough~
Both came back to reality when Rikuo coughed awkwardly, with black lines on his face.
Seeing the eyes on them, both of them separated from the hug, and Leo, with clear embarrassment, started to explain his plan.
The onmyoji elders nodded their heads and exited the room.
Kyoto...
In Kyoto, all the Onmyoji squads that had been deployed received orders from the higher officials to withdraw from the guardian pillars.
They also received an additional order not to engage in any battle with the Kyoto Yokai and to return to base as soon as possible.
Even though all of them were stunned and confused, they could see that something very big was going to happen in Kyoto.
So, they followed the orders, withdrew from the guardian pillars, and returned to base.
Kyokotsu, who was hiding her presence to scout the situation on the onmyoji side, was stunned and immediately left to report to Hagoromo Gitsune.
When Hagoromo Gitsune received the news from Kyokotsu, she confirmed that Leo had kept his word and ordered her forces to destroy the four guardian pillars.
Even though, for some reason, Jizo felt something was wrong when Hagoromo Gitsune accelerated the plan too soon.
He kept his silence since it was good news for him.
What makes him feel helpless is that he is not able to manipulate Hagoromo Gitsune's memory for some reason, and she becomes very cold towards him.
She even sent Kyokotsu for scouting instead of him, which he would usually do, making him feel like something had changed within Hagoromo Kitsune.
The army of Kyoto yokai marched towards the guardian pillars, following their supreme commander's lead.
Ukiyo Town...
Continental Hotel...
Leo ordered everyone to get ready as they were going to travel to Kyoto.
When the Yokai from the Continental Hotel received the news, they were very happy. It had been three years since they had been summoned to fight in a war.
After everyone gathered, Leo ordered them to move towards Kyoto.
The continental army boarded many Yokai battleships and started flying towards Kyoto enthusiastically. They were going to fight after a long wait of three years.
This meant they were going to earn a lot of credits, which would make them rich.
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(Author's POV)
Thanks for reading the chapter!
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