"The shrine is completely different from before!"
Standing before the shrine, she looked at the place, which was who knew how many times larger than it had been fifty years ago. Now, it finally looked like a proper shrine.
Thinking back to the old shrine, calling it a shrine had been a stretch—it had barely differed from an ordinary residence. Now, it had three torii gates, a long shimenawa rope around its perimeter, and countless ema prayer plaques hanging in the courtyard.
"Yeah! More than fifty years have passed. The shrine has been renovated several times, especially twenty years ago, when it was completely destroyed!"
Replying to Yae Sakura, Kaede tugged on the row of wind chimes beside her. The lovely chimes swayed and produced a clear, pleasant melody.
"Twenty years ago?"
"That was when my sister was ambushed!"
At that, Kaede's face immediately darkened. Even now, they had not found that damned onmyoji.
"...For the next hundred years, I won't leave again. Whatever happens, we'll face it together!" Yae Sakura did not know how to comfort her. Not having been there during the hardest time made her feel deeply guilty as well.
"A hundred years? Sister Sakura, you mean... you won't leave for the next hundred years?!"
Kaede, whose face had just been dark, immediately looked at Yae Sakura with a joyful smile. Her sister had told her... her master, Yae Sakura, could not stay in one place for long. She had thought that even this reunion would only let them be together for a year or two at most. She had never expected Yae Sakura to say a hundred years!
A hundred years!
People in this era could not even live to be a hundred.
Although Kaede had already lived for nearly sixty years, she had watched generation