What Happened Four Years Ago

"Divine Lord..."

The woman in his memories, dressed in a pink kimono like a tree in full cherry blossom, bowed deeply to Xu Yanwu.

"My daughters, Sakura and Rin... I leave them in your care."

"Yae, the Blood Sacrifice in your village isn't real."

Though Xu Yanwu's voice was calm, a careful listener could still hear a faint tremble in it.

"I don't need your Blood Sacrifice, nor do I need you to offer up hearts. I don't need the lives of Miko to quell some god's anger... The other god you worship doesn't even exist..."

Two trails of tears now ran down Xu Yanwu's face, a face that had lost all expression along with his emotions.

"Yae, promise me. Leave..."

"You're already strong enough. Take up your Kite Bird and leave this village. The world is vast; there's nowhere you cannot go. No one in your village can stop you."

"You don't have to throw your life away because of those people's one-sided claims..."

The woman shook her head and smiled.

"Divine Lord, I truly have to thank you. You taught me so many things and told me so many stories..."

"But... I can't leave anymore."

The woman held out her hand. Though she was a soul, injuries sustained in reality would still manifest upon her soul.

And now, there was a horrifying, gruesome wound on her wrist.

"They poisoned me before. The tendons in my hands and feet have already been severed. The only reason I can still stand here is because I'm a soul."

"..."

Xu Yanwu fell silent. No one knew what he was thinking, but his expression was exceptionally grim.

"Divine Lord, although you always say you no longer have emotions," the woman said. She felt no sorrow over her own circumstances and continued smiling at Xu Yanwu. "I can always tell what you're thinking."

"...You once protected them."

"...You also did many things for them."

"You don't owe them anything. They owe you far too much... What right do they have to use you for a Blood Sacrifice? You should hate them... So why are you still smiling..."

Xu Yanwu's voice grew softer and softer, until it was nearly inaudible.

Xu Yanwu vaguely remembered how, many years ago, a little wild girl had run and skipped away from one of his avatars, rolled down a hillside, and crashed right into him.

And after that... she had begun learning swordsmanship from him.

He had no way to interact with reality now, and during all those years, she had been the only one who could keep him company...

He had watched her grow up, marry, and have daughters...

But now, those villagers wanted to offer her to him as a Blood Sacrifice for the absurd reason of calming the anger of him, a god?

"Divine Lord, please don't hate those villagers..."

The woman said, "Actually... they had no choice either. Without rain, the crops in the fields would wither and die. They could only do this in order to..."

"They don't understand, but don't you understand either?"

Xu Yanwu interrupted her. "That kind of Blood Sacrifice... is nothing more than a show! Blood Sacrifice... Do you know how many innocent girls' hearts those ignorant people have stuffed into my chest over these hundreds of years?!"

Xu Yanwu tore open his upper garment, revealing the horrifying hollow in his chest. From within that hollow came faint, hoarse howls, and the woman could even see black mist condensed into substance.

"They could have had wonderful lives. They could have found husbands they loved and lived happy, fulfilling lives... But what happened instead?!"

Xu Yanwu covered the hollow in his chest.

He said, "Their hearts were carved out and stuffed into my chest..."

"Their bodies were buried underground, quietly rotting away... Who do you think they would hate?"

"They would hate the injustice of me, this god. They would hate the people who forced them to become sacrifices... They would hate this mad world."

The woman fell silent. How could she not know that? But...

What could she do to stop it?

Xu Yanwu had originally wanted to continue, but when he saw the wounds on the woman's wrists, he opened his mouth and found himself unable to speak.

"...You, you're just a foolish girl!"

After remaining silent for a long while, Xu Yanwu finally flicked his sleeve and left the woman, leaving her alone in silence.

After a long time, the woman heard a sentence flung in from outside.

"What you said before... your daughters. I'll take care of them. At the very least, I'll do my best to make sure they don't walk your path."

Upon hearing those words, delight immediately appeared on the woman's face. She knelt on the ground and bowed deeply in the direction Xu Yanwu had left.

"Thank you, Divine Lord... I leave them... in your care."

----The next evening----

Inside Yae Shrine, two little girls around two years old slept soundly in one of the rooms.

Xu Yanwu sat beside the two little girls, looking at their sleeping faces.

"Sakura... Rin..."

Xu Yanwu pointed at the two little girls and slowly spoke their names.

"You two look so much like her."

"Unfortunately... today, she..."

A faint sigh echoed through the room, followed by a muttered voice.

"Perhaps... I should go see her one last time?"

At the village altar, the villagers were busy making preparations, while the woman had long since knelt in the center of the altar.

She did not resist, nor did she cry out. She simply knelt there.

"O Divine Lord, we offer our faith here. Please drive away demons and monsters for us, and bless our village with favorable winds and rain!"

Looking down at the villagers kneeling toward his body, which had been moved onto the altar, Xu Yanwu floated in the sky and felt only one thing... ridicule.

Yet he was powerless to stop any of it from happening.

When the person holding the knife approached the woman, she looked up into the sky—toward Xu Yanwu—and smiled.

Xu Yanwu only realized this after meeting her gaze.

At the very last moment of her life, she had truly seen Xu Yanwu's soul leave his body.

----Four years later----

"Divine Lord! Wake up!"

"Bad god! We're here already!"

"Hm?" Hearing the chattering on both sides of his ears, Xu Yanwu left his body in confusion and saw the two little girls, Yae Sakura and Yae Rin, gathered around him.

"Honestly, you keep ignoring us... All you do is sleep..." Yae Sakura complained, puffing out her cheeks.

"...I need to rest too, you know?"

"Divine Lord! You already promised to tell us about our mother today! You can't go back on your word!" Yae Rin said coquettishly.

Xu Yanwu looked at the hopeful eyes of the two girls. After thinking for a moment, he took one little girl's hand in each of his and began walking toward the place where they practiced swordsmanship as he started his story.

"That was a very long time ago... Back then, your mother... suddenly..."