His laughter grew louder and more heartfelt.
He had clearly made no other movement, yet it seemed as though he had shed the final shackle binding him.
Sakata Kintoki had once been filled with questions in his youth, but over the long years, every one of them had found an answer.
"Let's go!" The Oni King braced both hands on his axe-halberd, his gaze passing over Hebe's head. "I can tell that you also have doubts. The answers are at the mountaintop."
A smile lingered at the corners of his mouth as he gently closed his eyes, as though taking a midday nap after becoming too exhausted.
Hebe silently brushed past him.
She could see it clearly. Sakata Kintoki's lifespan had reached its limit.
—As the last pure-blooded oni in the world, every time Otogiyama connected with reality, it hastened Sakata Kintoki's final day.
In other words, even without that exhilarating battle, Sakata Kintoki would not have lived more than a few months.
This was not an illness that any medical art could cure.
What was more, Hebe could read the unspoken meaning in the Oni King's expression.
—The Oni King did not want Hebe to treat him.
Hebe chose to respect Sakata Kintoki.
She even felt shaken from the bottom of her heart.
"Saga left me an immensely important clue over a thousand years; Sakata Kintoki transcended the shackles of oni blood over a thousand years and became someone truly free; meanwhile, the tanuki clan that made a contract with me has been scheming to bring it all to an end..."
Along the path blooming with mountain flowers, Hebe climbed step by step.
She realized that time could change many things, and that not everyone would necessarily accept the future she had planned long ago.
They were not chess