Shinomiya Unkō Wanted to Overtake on the Inside / I Made a Pact with the Deity, and the Deity Told Me to Go All In

Kira Yoshikage pointed toward Sakurajima Mai beside him.

Sakurajima Mai froze for a moment, then hesitantly pointed at herself:

"Eh? Me?"

"Yes."

Kira Yoshikage nodded as though it were only natural:

"You're her miko."

Sakurajima Mai's body trembled slightly.

Chapter 51: Shinomiya Unkō Wanted to Overtake on the Inside

Shuchiin Academy, the chairman's office.

Shinomiya Unkō sat in the chairman's seat. His expression was as calm as still water, but inwardly, he was delighted.

In truth, there was not much at Shuchiin Academy that required the chairman to handle personally. Even so, he came to Shuchiin Academy every day, sat in the chairman's seat, and pretended to deal with various matters.

He wanted to demonstrate how seriously he took the position and do everything he could to hold on to it.

There was only one reason.

If the Shinomiya Family was a towering tree with luxuriant branches and leaves, then Shuchiin Academy was that tree's root system!

Three hundred years ago, Shuchiin Academy had been founded by the Edo Shogunate.

Its purpose had been to educate and train the members of noble and samurai families, contributing to the Edo Shogunate.

But as the Tokugawa Family declined, control of the school gradually shifted from the Tokugawa Family into the hands of the Shinomiya Family.

In the eyes of ordinary people, Shuchiin Academy was merely a prestigious school with a long history. To the Shinomiya Family, however, it was more than a school—it was a network of connections spread throughout Japan!

The reason was simple: the students of the Pure Academy were all born into wealthy, prestigious families, and would inevitably become talents who carried the fate of the nation on their shoulders.

For example—

Of the fifteen cabinet ministers in the current government, eight, including the incumbent prime minister, had graduated from Shuchiin Academy!

And the current VIP students of Shuchiin Academy likewise included elites from every field:

Dragon Ball Tao, the daughter of the leader of the Dragon Ball Group, Japan's largest nationwide criminal organization.

Kashiwagi Nagisa, the granddaughter of the chairman of Keidanren and the daughter of the direct heir to the Kashiwagi Zaibatsu.

Atenbo Yume, the granddaughter of a first-rank Jokai of the religious corporation Jinja Honcho—

Jinja Honcho was Japan's largest Shinto religious organization. Of the approximately eighty-two thousand shrines throughout Japan, more than seventy-nine thousand belonged to Jinja Honcho.

Jokai was the highest rank among Shinto clergy in Japan. Only those who had made enormous contributions to Shinto could receive this title.

Below Jokai was Meikai. Those of this rank could already serve as the Guangsi of major beppyō shrines—in other words, the highest-ranking clergy at a shrine.

It was no exaggeration to say that Atenbo Yume's grandfather was one of the leading figures in Japanese Shintoism.

Besides them, the current VIPs also included the son of the Chief of Staff, the highest-ranking officer in the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force; the son of the Superintendent General, the highest-ranking official in the Metropolitan Police Department; and the second prince of the Garuda Alasum Kingdom!

Business, commerce, religion, the military, the police, and foreign powers—the VIP members of Shuchiin Academy came from every industry and were almost destined to influence every aspect of Japanese society.

Once these people graduated, they would all become part of Shinomiya Kaguya's network.

And just like Shinomiya Kaguya, every member of the Shinomiya Family was the same.

Shinomiya Kōkō was like this, and Shinomiya Unkō was like this as well. Both of them had studied at Shuchiin Academy.

The connections they had built while attending school had now become important bargaining chips in their competition for the position of family head.

If the Pure Academy was already like this, the Mixed Academy naturally could not be too bad either.

Although the students of the Mixed Academy came from ordinary backgrounds, after graduating from Shuchiin Academy, they still had the opportunity to be absorbed and recruited by students of the Pure Academy, becoming their trusted subordinates and leaping across the social classes to truly make something of themselves!

It was precisely because of Shuchiin Academy's special nature that the position of chairman was so important.

For the past hundred years, the chairman had usually been the current head of the Shinomiya Family or the heir apparent.

Before this, Shinomiya Kōkō had held the position, and he had indeed been the most likely candidate to inherit the position of family head.

But now, the chairman was Shinomiya Unkō!

Shinomiya Unkō naturally was not arrogant enough to believe that becoming chairman meant he could securely inherit the position of family head. After all, even Shinomiya Kōkō had been stripped of his position as chairman by Shinomiya Gan'an. What did Shinomiya Unkō count for?

Even so, serving as chairman still offered Shinomiya Unkō tremendous advantages.

Therefore, even when he had nothing to do, Shinomiya Unkō still sat in this office on time every day. It was not because he had too much free time, but because he hoped to do everything possible to hold on to the position.

Reality, however, was often disappointing.

Although Shinomiya Kōkō's livid expression gave Shinomiya Unkō considerable pleasure, he was not actually that relaxed inside.

Shuchiin Academy's facilities and administration were already sufficiently complete that it could operate perfectly well without the chairman's interference. But that also meant Shinomiya Unkō's position could be replaced at any time. Even if Shinomiya Kōkō had no chance of returning to the position in the short term, the Shinomiya Family had more than just two sons.

Shinomiya Kōkō's younger brother, Shinomiya Seiryū, had also set his sights on the position of chairman long ago. If Shinomiya Unkō made even the slightest mistake, he could be replaced by Shinomiya Seiryū, who had been watching him all along.

Thus, although Shinomiya Unkō wanted to accomplish something to secure his position, he still did nothing—

He would rather do nothing than make a mistake.

Doing nothing would at most make his position unstable. But if he made a mistake, he would definitely be stripped of everything, just like Shinomiya Kōkō!

That was why Shinomiya Unkō was so conflicted.

On one hand, he wanted to accomplish something so the Shinomiya Family could not easily replace him as chairman.

On the other hand, he was afraid of making a mistake and being driven from the position.

Ultimately, all of this was because he was not confident he could produce an answer sheet that would satisfy Shinomiya Gan'an.

But now, that answer had come knocking on his door.

In front of Shinomiya Unkō, a girl with a Hime cut held up a sheet of white paper and pointed it at him.

But Shinomiya Unkō could not see Koyuki. From his perspective, he could only see a sheet of white paper floating in midair, with a line of graceful writing in black ink—

"Shinomiya Unkō, my master wishes to make a deal with you."

"What deal?"

Shinomiya Unkō remained calm, despite his heavy mood.

It was clearly daytime, yet the room was so dark that not a trace of light could be seen. Through the glass, he could see only a blur of chaos.

His phone could not be used, and his computer remained black.

Even the emergency button hidden beneath his desk had no response.

The entire room seemed to have been dragged into another dimension, completely cut off from the outside world.

And in such circumstances, a sheet of paper had appeared out of thin air, floated in front of him, and announced that it wanted to make a deal.

Who would not panic in such a situation?

Koyuki lowered the paper and wrote a line on the notebook in front of Shinomiya Unkō—

"Build a shrine for me at Shuchiin Academy."

"A shrine?"

Shinomiya Unkō raised an eyebrow.

For him, building a shrine was not particularly difficult. The problem was the location—

Shuchiin Academy.

Why specifically build a shrine inside Shuchiin Academy?

Shinomiya Unkō remained silent for a long time before slowly speaking:

"I need to discuss this with my father."

He could not make the decision, nor did he want to agree to the deal so quickly—

Making a deal with an unidentified creature that was possibly a ghost was by no means a wise choice.

Another line appeared on the notebook:

"This will not harm you. I need a shrine to provide offerings, while the Shinomiya Family has just lost its deity. You urgently need a new deity to provide protection."

Shinomiya Unkō's expression shifted slightly. He asked casually:

"A deity? What deity?"

Shinomiya Unkō's emotions surged. He realized that he had found the reason Shinomiya Kōkō had been stripped of everything—the same reason that had brought Shinomiya Kōkō down could perhaps also allow him to firmly secure this position!

Chapter 52: I Made a Pact with the Deity, and the Deity Told Me to Go All In

Shinomiya Unkō spoke in a low voice:

"I can cooperate with you, but I want you to tell me exactly what is going on!"

He knew this might anger the other party, but he could not agree blindly simply because the other party had made a demand.

He needed to know the reason!

A deity.

The word was not unfamiliar to Shinomiya Unkō.

Shinto culture was widespread in Japan. There were more than eighty thousand shrines across the country, averaging one shrine for every fifteen hundred people. Among these shrines, those governed by Jinja Honcho were called beppyō shrines, while the others were independent shrines.

And if all the small shrines scattered throughout the country were included, Japan probably had at least three hundred thousand shrines!

To Shinomiya Unkō, who had received a modern elite education, deities were nothing more than feudal superstition. Likewise, the ghosts, Evil Spirits, and monsters associated with deities did not exist either—science had told him so.

However, what he was experiencing now clearly could not be explained by science. This was a genuine supernatural phenomenon!

And now, the existence that had caused all these supernatural phenomena had directly told him that it wanted to create a deity.

Personally, Shinomiya Unkō was tempted by the proposal—

Mainly because if he was not tempted, he might never be able to leave this room.

But even at a time like this, even in the face of death at such close range, Shinomiya Unkō still put the Shinomiya Family's motto into practice through his actions:

He did not do anything that offered no benefit!

"Will he agree?"

Shinomiya Unkō stared tensely at the notebook before him. No new writing had appeared on it for a long time.

Was the other party hesitating? Or had it already lost patience and no longer wanted any contact with him?

Shinomiya Unkō felt somewhat regretful. Should he have agreed first and asked questions afterward?

What Shinomiya Unkō did not know was that while he was regretting his decision, Koyuki was waiting for Kira Yoshikage's instructions.

She was not a shikigami, and Kira Yoshikage was not an Onmyoji. The two of them could not communicate over a distance.

Therefore, everything had to pass through an intermediary—

And that intermediary was Sakurajima Mai.

Sakurajima Mai, who could not be observed by anyone, was also a "ghost."

Sakurajima Mai entered the room and silently handed her phone to Koyuki. There was only one brief line on the screen:

"Tell him."

Koyuki received the instruction. After thinking for a moment, she picked up the pen and wrote down what she had witnessed from her perspective:

"The Shinomiya Family secretly worshiped a deity beneath the Swamp at Shuchiin Academy. In exchange, the Shinomiya Family had to offer a human with Spiritual Sight as a sacrifice to that deity every year."

"It was precisely through that deity's protection that the Shinomiya Family was able to grow and prosper over the past several centuries."

"But one month ago, my master killed that deity."

"One month ago?"

Shinomiya Unkō's expression shifted slightly. Shinomiya Kōkō had been stripped of everything one month ago!

At Shuchiin Academy's opening ceremony one month earlier, the students of the Pure Academy had routinely cleaned out the Swamp. That might have been the sacrificial ritual the other party had mentioned.