(TL Note: Who the heck cares about you? You crazy old hag! <(ꐦㅍ _ㅍ)>)
The old woman gazed at the villagers who stood with her, a faint, barely perceptible smile flickering across her face.
Yes... that's right. We must drive out that interloper; only the Fox Spirit is the rightful ruler of Yae Village...
The lineage of the Fox Spirit has been woven into the tapestry of Yae Village's history for centuries. For hundreds of years... the villagers have continually honored the Fox Spirit. In the old woman's eyes, it was precisely because of the Fox Spirit that the village had endured until now.
But... a few years ago, that outsider suddenly appeared in the village. This interloper wielded the power of ice, and while they might have been a genuine divine being, they were undoubtedly a malevolent deity.
They disrupted the rituals dedicated to the Fox Spirit, a sin deserving of ten thousand deaths...
Indeed! The old woman was a fervent believer in the Fox Spirit, whom Yae Village revered. In her heart, the Fox Spirit was the one true Godly Being.
Throughout her life, she had steadfastly worshipped the mighty one known as the Fox Spirit.
Naturally, there was another reason for her devotion... A reason etched in her past, when she was young, and her younger sister... became the offering of that fateful year.
She watched her sister's death, as powerless as Yae Sakura had been. She knelt and begged the other villagers and even her own father, but... it was useless.
Escape... there was no escape.
In the end, she could only look on helplessly as the then-shrine master of Yae Shrine killed her sister with a single stroke.
In that moment, the young old woman began to foster hatred in her heart. She hated... hated everyone in the village, hated those who had stood by and done nothing, hated the Priest who had taken her sister's life.
But hate was powerless to change anything; time marched on as it always had.
Yet... though she hated the villagers, she never hated their Fox God.
Not many years after her sister's death, another sacrifice ritual began. As she watched another village girl die on the altar, something remarkable happened:
She felt not sorrow, but joy; not anguish, but exhilaration!
Of course! How could only her sister be chosen for sacrifice? What right did they have to single out her sister alone? Since she could not change the past, then let them all share in the fate of her and her sister now.
From that moment on, she became a staunch believer in the Fox God, never missing a sacrifice ritual.
As she watched girl after girl be sacrificed to the Fox God, her faith only grew stronger. It was no coincidence either—in the years following, prayers would be offered without fail, and the resulting harvests would bless the village with bumper crops year after year.
This convinced the entire village of Yae that the Fox God truly existed, from the very depths of their souls.
But... it wasn't enough. The death of other maidens brought her great pleasure, but... why was the family of the priest, who had killed so many, still perfectly fine?
Didn't the priest's family have two girls who met the criteria? But there had never been an opportunity, after all, the priest was different from ordinary villagers.
But then, a few years ago, when Yae Rin became the sacrifice, the chance finally came...
There had been a drought that year, and the maiden sacrificed months earlier had clearly not been effective.
During a meeting the priest called with the villagers, the old lady proposed using a miko to rectify the previous sacrifice, where the maiden was not a virgin.
Yes, at that meeting, the "scheming"... old lady thoughtfully gazing at Yae Sakura was none other than this old lady.
In truth... the old lady had hoped for Yae Sakura... the exceptional apprentice miko to be the sacrifice. But that clearly wasn't possible.
Yae Sakura was to be the successor of the shrine, so they could only settle for the frail and sickly Yae Rin.
But... just as the ritual sacrifice with Yae Rin as the offering was about to be completed, this outsider... dared to intervene.
Moreover, since this outsider wielded the power of ice, mortals stood no chance against her. Thus... the villagers, including the old woman, had no choice but to submit.
However, this only intensified the old woman's resentment towards Serenade, who had so abruptly halted the ritual.
Why... why...
Why didn't you appear to stop the sacrifice when it was my sister's turn?
Now that this invalid girl is being offered, you rush to save her?
However, due to the Serenade's mystical power, this resentment could only be buried deep within her heart.
Years passed, and the old woman realized something: this outsider... seemed not as insurmountable as she had imagined.
The newcomer had never mistreated the villagers...
If they united to drive her out, it might not be impossible.
The village had enough with their Kitsune; they didn't need an external Evil God...
The old woman's mindset was twisted, truly incomprehensible...
But in truth, it was also a very common human psychology: Why should I be the only one who suffers? By what right is my sister the only one to have died? Everyone should share my sorrow, experience my pain together. And if someone suffers even more than me, then I'd even be "lucky" in comparison.
As for the appearance of the man-eating monsters, it was clearly the anger of the Great fox god.
If they expelled the Evil God and reorganized a large-scale sacrifice, the fox god would surely calm his wrath and once again bless the village.
However, not all villagers agreed with the old woman's perspective.
Especially some of the younger generation outright rejected her views.
"Drive away the Frost God? We're just mere mortals... Having the Frost God reside in our village is our good fortune. Driving it away would anger the spiritual beings.
Who among us mortals could bear the wrath of the gods?"
A young man, nearly twenty years of age, noticed that some villagers were supporting the idea of banishing the deity and reorganizing the rituals. He immediately voiced his concerns.
During that incident, he had witnessed firsthand how Serenade, with a mere wave of her hand, sealed the altar in ice.
If the gods were to become truly enraged, he pondered, wouldn't our entire village be encased in frozen ice?
"Fear not, the fox god will protect us," the old woman swiftly countered the young man's words.
"Wouldn't the fox god have driven away the Frost God if it truly possessed such power? The Frost God interrupted the fox god's rituals, and even now, it resides in the shrine meant for the fox god. It's clear... the fox god is no match for the Frost God."
The young man dared not agree with the old woman's assertion.
Indeed... as the surrounding villagers contemplated her words, they found themselves thinking, How true.
If the fox spirit were truly formidable, after all these years, how could this interloper still remain in our village?
And if they were to drive it away, the anger of the gods would be far too great for mere mortals like themselves to bear.