I don’t know if it’s because of the upcoming sacrifice, but the weather today is very cool, and there are faint dark clouds gathering in the sky.
"The great Fox God must have felt our sincerity!"
"After a successful sacrifice, the great Fox God will definitely send down the divine water!"
Yae Ji held Yae Sakura's little hand, and the brother and sister walked past the villagers.
"Lord Ji!"
"Sakura-sama!"
Because it is a formal occasion, everyone uses relatively formal titles, which are not as casual as usual.
This was Sakura's first time to attend a sacrificial ceremony. When she saw that the usually amiable villagers had become extremely serious, she could only keep a straight face. In fact, she was very unaccustomed to such occasions, and was even a little scared. Her petite body was slightly
Wu Zha curled up a little. Even though her brother was holding her hand, the little girl was still half a body behind so that she would not look so obvious.
The rituals in the village are far from being as complicated as the national level. People just wear black clothes and fox masks. As a candidate miko, Yae Sakura wears a miko costume.
On the altar, a little girl was kneeling on it, her little head lowered, her two little hands tightly folded together and placed on her chest.
There are still a few drops of water on the floor.
The deity of Yae Shrine appeared first, and the old woman with gray hair and stooped body praised the fox god who protects the village.
The process was very simple, Yaeji silently put on the fox mask.
Through the slits in the mask, the field of view is extremely limited, as if the entire world is distorted in front of my eyes.
The area around the altar was completely quiet. The girl kneeling on the ground was trembling slightly, and more and more water was dripping on the ground. Yae Ji seemed to have thought of something, and looked around among the villagers with a fox mask on.
Daisuke didn't come!
Perhaps he is still being held in a warehouse in the village.
"Now! Offer the sacrifice to the great Fox God!"
Looking at his father wearing a fox mask and holding a sharp knife on the altar, Yaeji felt chills. He could not imagine that he would become like that in the future.
Does it seem worth sacrificing one's life for the continuation of a village?
Can
"Boom~"
The clouds in the sky became even darker. First, an electric snake struck out in the distance, making the samurai sword prepared for sacrifice look even colder. Then, there was thunder again, as if a god was coming.
The villagers wearing fox masks knelt down one after another. Although their faces could not be seen, Yaeji knew that they must be very fanatical!
The parents of the girl who was being sacrificed were kneeling in the first row outside the altar. The two of them seemed to be possessed, saying these messy words, but their heads were smashed to the ground again and again to show their love to the gods.
humble.
"Bah!——"
Apart from the electric snake, there are no other signs at all!
The man in black on the altar raised the knife and dropped it. The hot blood sprayed from Liang's body sputtered into a half-moon shape. The scarlet that slipped from the knife gradually gathered into a point at the tip of the knife and gradually dripped.
Yae Ji covered Yae Sakura's eyes, and he lowered his head silently, no longer looking at the girl who went to "worship the gods".
Yae Ji felt that Sakura's body was trembling, and her little hands were gradually losing warmth, as if the dead body lying on the stage was hers.
He pulled Sakura's shoulders over, hugged the little girl into his arms, and patted her back gently.
"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, my brother will take care of this for you in the future."
Although Yaeji said this, he also knew that the sacrifices in the village were generally presided over by the god, but the communication with the gods and the offering of sacrifices to the gods were performed by the witches.
So from now on, Sakura is the only one who will have innocent people's blood on her hands.
Even if he wanted to change his approach, the village would never allow him to break the ancestral precepts. The reason why this generation of Eighth God Lord did this on his own was entirely because the previous shrine maiden had already died in battle and the candidate shrine maiden was too young.
"Foolishness! What foolishness!"
This sentence suddenly appeared in Yaeji's mind, just like when he first met Sakura Fukiyuki.
He could swear that he didn't come up with these at all! Before this, he didn't even know what the words "fancy" and "ignorance" meant!
The strong wind blew, and the bright red blood drops on the blade fell faster. The villagers did not feel the chill, but instead worshiped the gods more fervently.
Electric snakes and thunders appeared one after another, and the dark clouds in the sky became thicker and thicker. It looked like sweet rain would fall at any time.
But
The thunder in the sky became more and more muffled and distant. Some villagers raised their heads in confusion and looked at the sky.
The dark clouds that had gathered together quickly dispersed, and in a blink of an eye, dawn broke, and a ray of light accidentally shone into the village.
Then, the sun in the sky began to exert its power, and a mysterious force dispersed the clouds in the sky. There was a trend of cloudless skies and a scorching sun shining brightly.
as expected.
The wind stopped, the clouds disappeared, and the thunder disappeared.
There was silence around the altar.
They didn't send a flood and pray to the gods to disperse the dark clouds. Instead, they wanted to pray to the gods to control the rain and provide irrigation to save the village because of the severe drought.
what is happening?
Even Yaeji was dumbfounded.
According to the records of the Yae Clan, even if there was no rain when the sacrifices were made, dark clouds would gather and the sky would begin to turn cloudy. Then a burst of heavy rain would come to restore life, and then the dark clouds would dissipate.
Not to mention the thunder was loud but the raindrops were light, not even a drop of rain fell! The sun was shining brightly and the temperature soared!
Yaeji, who was standing aside, took off his mask and found that the old woman under the altar had an extremely ugly face, as if she had swallowed a blowfly alive!
"She must know something!"
Yae Ji stared at the old woman. The old woman seemed to feel the gaze and looked at Yae Ji, then looked away with a guilty conscience.
Looking further down, the couple who were kneeling in the first row also took off their masks, their faces full of panic, as if they were overly frightened. Someone next to them accidentally touched them, and their reactions were extremely strong.
"It's not me, it's not me, it's not me! She wanted Ryo to serve the gods!"
The woman had an emotional breakdown and her nonsense contained many confusing messages.
Yaeji patted Sakura on the shoulder, and Sakura, who was hiding in his arms, timidly opened her eyes and looked at everything that happened in front of her in confusion.
"Be good, wait for me here."
"Um."
Yae Ji squeezed through the crowd, and everyone had panicked expressions on their faces.
"Have we angered the gods?"
"Didn't Daisuke say yesterday that he and Ryo were consummated as husband and wife? Later, he asked his mother-in-law to come for appraisal."
When the young man saw everyone looking at him, his voice became lower and lower.
"Is Ryo a pure girl?!"
"Mother-in-law! You should say something!"
"I can't make any mistakes in my assessment!" The old woman looked gloomy, "There must have been a mistake last night!"
The eyes of the old woman and Yaeji met, and then they quickly looked away.