As his consciousness awoke from the darkness, Gu Yu immediately sprang up from the tatami in a kip-up.
"Whew, I don't know how long it's been, but..."
Gu Yu immediately looked at the back of his right hand and slowly exhaled.
"—Looks like I won the bet."
Although the Rider Emblem on the back of Gu Yu's right hand had grown considerably less distinct, it still retained its power.
"My combat abilities are still here. That makes everything afterward much easier."
Looking at the surroundings, which resembled an ancient village, Gu Yu knew that he had entered Yae Sakura's inner world.
In the original story, Theresa had obtained the stigmata created by Yae Sakura's Herrscher Core, causing Hiyorimar to drag her into Yae Sakura's inner world.
Five hundred years ago, Yae Sakura, then the shrine maiden of Yae Village, had sealed away her heart because of everything she had experienced.
In the days that followed, Yae Sakura had been sealed together with Hiyorimar in Yae Village because of Hiyorimar's sins.
Even after five hundred years, Hiyorimar, the Corrosion Herrscher, and Yae Sakura, who coexisted with it, showed no signs of fading away.
According to the original story, Yae Sakura should have suppressed Hiyorimar, leaving Hiyorimar able only to ambush Theresa through the Herrscher Core stigmata Yae Sakura had sent out.
But now that Hiyorimar had suppressed Yae Sakura's consciousness, Gu Yu found it rather hard to understand.
That damn fox had once been afraid even of a Pseudo Herrscher like Yuno, so why did it now dare to boldly approach several Herrschers?
Something was wrong. This was far too wrong.
Rolling his wrists, Gu Yu looked out the window.
Outside, the blazing sun hung high in the sky, casting down blinding sunlight.
The ground before Gu Yu was utterly parched, without the slightest trace of moisture.
"Mm, the simulation is indeed quite good. Even the weather has been reproduced perfectly."
After confirming the weather, Gu Yu walked toward the room where noisy voices were coming from.
"Lady Shrine Maiden, casually bringing an unfamiliar man home is simply shameless!"
"The gods may very well fly into a rage because of this!"
"An outsider! That outsider must be killed!"
"What a pity. If that outsider were a woman, wouldn't this year's offering be settled?"
Listening to the voices in the noisy room, Gu Yu inexplicably began to feel irritated.
To be honest, he understood why these ignorant villagers would think that way.
In that era, when scientific knowledge had not yet become widespread, it was entirely normal for people in the Far East to worship all kinds of strange gods.
After all, in a place like Yae Village, insufficient rainfall naturally meant poor harvests.
For a period before Yae Sakura was sealed, drought in Yae Village had caused an average of two or three villagers to starve to death every day.
The village had only a few hundred people. Losing eighteen people in a week... if Gu Yu had lived in ancient times under such ignorant conditions, he would have gone mad too.
Under such circumstances, if the god Hiyorimar impersonated could bring rain, then in the villagers' eyes, it was naturally a lofty god.
But now, when Gu Yu personally faced this group of foolish villagers, he realized something.
Understanding was one thing.
Accepting it after understanding was another.
"I mean... I'm right next door."
With a swish, Gu Yu pulled open the paper door and swept his cold gaze over the utterly shocked villagers before asking indifferently.
"I'm right next door, and you're discussing how to kill me. Isn't that a bit much?"
"Why did you come out?!"
Seeing Gu Yu boldly appear before the enraged villagers, Yae Sakura completely panicked.
After her younger sister Yae Rin died, Yae Sakura had sealed away her heart and carried out the ritual several times already.
Every time she "sacrificed" a girl from the village, Yae Sakura's heart suffered immensely.
Though her hands had already been stained with blood, she had not yet abandoned the last shred of her conscience. When she saw an unconscious passerby outside, she still brought him home.
That was why Yae Sakura did not want to see the innocent passerby she had just saved die at the hands of the villagers because of their momentary rage.
After crying out those words, Yae Sakura immediately steadied herself and spoke to the villagers present.
"Please calm down, everyone. Whether this gentleman has anything to do with the recent disturbances still requires investigation."
"Investigation my ass!"
Hearing Yae Sakura's explanation, one villager immediately stood up, pointed at Gu Yu, and shouted angrily.
"Isn't the shrine maiden's duty to protect the villagers? Shrine Maiden, kill this outsider!"
"Kill him!"
"That's right, kill him!"
"That demon bear must have been his doing too! Kill him!"
Seeing the agitated villagers, Yae Sakura instantly did not know what to do.
After personally burying her sister Rin...
—Was she now going to kill even an innocent outsider?
"Ugh, you people talk too much."
Looking at these "villagers," Gu Yu mobilized Honkai Energy and directly manifested his weapon, the Card Holder Sword, switching it into gun mode.
He was not Theresa, who had lost her stigmata and become unable to fight. There was absolutely no need for him to wait for outside rescue.
The method for breaking this place was actually very simple...
—He only needed to smash Hiyorimar away, and every problem would be solved.
"A bunch of fakes. Do you really think yapping enough will make me panic?"
Then, he aimed the gun at the ceiling and pulled the trigger.
Countless light bullets erupted from the muzzle, blasting away the entire ceiling of Yae Sakura's home on the spot.
The villagers, who had just been so vicious, all froze when they saw this.
"Ah, sorry. This should finally let everyone quiet down a little, right?"
"Though come to think of it, calling you all 'everyone' doesn't seem very appropriate. After all, only three people here have consciousness."
After aiming the gun at Yae Sakura's father, the Yae God Lord, Gu Yu sneered.
"How much longer are you planning to keep pretending, Lord of the Shrine?"
"Do I have to shove this sword straight into your face before you show your true form, Hiyorimar?"
PS2: I only found out from the comments... um, I swear I wasn't planning to bully Theresa when I wrote Yuno's chapter, but I recently dug out the manga and read it again.
Theresa, you're an S-rank Valkyrie, right...?
Why did you get instantly defeated fighting a Pseudo Herrscher...?
Why did you dare to be careless again when you fought her after taking a loss once...?
Why did you still go down in a single exchange the second time...?
You're an S-rank Valkyrie, right?
This isn't meant to bully Theresa. Realistically, even a veteran fighter in her forties, no matter how careless or weak she was, would not be completely unguarded when facing an enemy.
Rather than Theresa being too airheaded in this part of the manga, it was more that the writers just wanted to save themselves some trouble.
Ah, Theresa needs to meet Yae Sakura. How does she do that? She gets beaten up.
How does she get beaten up...? Ah, just draw something random. She gets instantly defeated, that's all.
Fine, I won't say anything more.
PS3: As usual, asking for votes. By the way, after finishing this chapter, I actually noticed a reader who thought I couldn't finish writing the chapter on the last day today. As for such remarks, personally, I have to say...
You were right, sob sob sob. I'm an idiot. If I hadn't said that, why would I be staying up late writing now? Damn it, damn it, damn it.
PS4: I rarely curse, but every last developer of rogue software should be sent off to eat pork cutlet rice. These bastards are seriously disgusting.
Before you continue