Zenin Estate

"Why did you have to invite me just because the Zenin Estate's been renovated?"

On the road to the Zenin Estate's barrier, Kamo Michisada trailed behind the others, still looking somewhat shaken.

After yesterday's fiasco, he had developed a fear of the Zenin Estate.

Even now, that foul, pungent smell lingered in his nostrils. Even his burps stank.

"Maybe Jianxia picked out a room especially for you and wants you to stay a while?" Gojo Gen turned back and teased him.

Though Jianxia's sewage tactics still left him rattled too, he had at least defended himself with Limitless for a good while and hadn't actually swallowed much.

Compared with the others, who had drunk their fill, Gojo Gen felt incredibly lucky.

Shinji Zenin, walking at the head of the group, was also curious. Though he knew Jianxia's "Clumsy House" cursed technique could remodel large numbers of buildings in a short time, he didn't know why the other two clan heads had been invited along.

If all he had done was clean the place and redecorate, surely there was no need to invite so many people?

Seeming to notice the three clan heads' confusion, Uraume explained, "Lord Jianxia didn't just renovate the original estate last night. He also added many new buildings."

"I see. The Chief certainly is enthusiastic." Shinji nodded, but didn't give it much thought.

After all, even with a cursed technique's help, a single night shouldn't have been enough to change the estate's appearance all that much.

He assumed Jianxia had simply added a few inconsequential little houses. The Chief did sometimes enjoy doing things that left everyone baffled.

Like adding sewers to Hiraizumi.

The house where they had spent the night wasn't far from the barrier's entrance. After roughly five minutes, they entered the Zenin Estate.

Except for Megumi Zenin, everyone immediately slowed their breathing and took shallow breaths upon entering the barrier, afraid they might catch another whiff of that stench.

Yet the acrid smell never came. In its place was a faint, pleasant fragrance.

The shaded path that had once stood at the entrance was gone, replaced by a stone-paved road stretching into the distance.

At the end of the road stood a massive, old-fashioned gate, with stone-brick walls extending to either side and enclosing an enormous area.

Two cursed spirits with twisted faces and features scattered haphazardly across them stood quietly on either side of the gate, dressed in maid outfits.

When the group approached, the two maid-clad cursed spirits seemed to receive an order and bowed enthusiastically.

"Welcome home~ Masters~"

Their cracked, grating voices strained to squeeze out human speech, then the maid cursed spirits pushed the wooden gates open together.

Once they had finished, the maid cursed spirits returned to their posts, ready to obey the group's commands at any moment.

"..."

"..."

"..."

Silence.

A long silence.

The clan heads, Shinji Zenin included, felt decades of their lives flashing before their eyes, memories once blurred suddenly becoming clear again.

"Wow, how cute!" Megumi Zenin, however, was drawn to the cursed spirits' black-and-white maid outfits. She approached to examine them closely. "Uraume, did Jianxia make these clothes too?"

"I sewed them last night at Lord Jianxia's instruction. It was rather rushed, so they're still a little rough." Uraume stepped forward and stroked a cursed spirit's maid outfit while speaking.

Admittedly, by modern standards, those two maid outfits would indeed have counted as shoddy workmanship.

But as the saying went, Venus was beautiful because she lacked arms, and Hajime Kashimo embodied strength, solitude, and love because he lacked a domain.

Those wild-looking maid outfits, paired with cursed spirits that already looked nothing like humans, somehow possessed a peculiar beauty of their own.

Beyond the gate lay the same stone-paved road, with a fountain continuously spouting water in its center.

Countless carefully trimmed ornamental plants lined both sides of the road. Numerous cursed spirits bustled among them, maintaining order like industrious little bees.

Without exception, every one of those cursed spirits wore a roughly made maid outfit.

When they noticed Shinji's group entering the gate, the cursed spirits immediately put down their work and approached, forming two lines on either side of them.

Tall, short, thin, fat... these cursed spirits varied in shape and ability, but now they all strained their voices to utter the same words in unison:

"Welcome home~ Masters~"

Kamo Michisada took a deep breath and looked up at the sky. He felt his life had reached its end.

Gojo Gen thought he had been dragged inside Limitless.

Shinji Zenin felt as though a wheel had appeared above his head and completed a turn.

"Oh, you're here!" Just then, Jianxia appeared, having changed back into the same outfit as Shinjuku Megumi. "Well? The maid cursed spirits aren't bad, right?"

With that, Jianxia casually put an arm around a nearby cursed spirit. The cursed spirit bared a mouthful of large yellow teeth, seeming delighted.

"Cleaning the whole house was too much trouble, so I just remodeled what was already there-look, that's the old house."

Following Jianxia's pointing finger, they saw a gigantic five-story building. Its footprint alone was about the same size as the former main building of the Zenin Estate.

Ancient aristocratic compounds occupied vast areas not only to display their owners' status, but also because construction methods were underdeveloped, making tall buildings difficult to maintain effectively.

But with the "Clumsy House" cursed technique, the villa had been formed as a single piece, and once its materials had been reinforced, structural strength was hardly a concern.

Precisely because his cursed technique was so convenient, Jianxia had made every floor of the five-story villa as large as a soccer field-a full 7,140 square meters.

That figure alone might have been hard to picture, but what if each floor could fit a four-hundred-meter running track? That made its enormous size immediately apparent.

Even Bolt would need over forty seconds to run it.

With enough raw materials, Jianxia could easily build plane-proof World Trade Center Twin Towers.

As natives of the Heian era, the clan heads had seen tall buildings before, but those had mostly been Buddhist pagodas.

This was truly the first time any of them, including Kamo Michisada from Heian-kyo, had seen a residence built so tall.

Jianxia led them inside the estate and explained how he had assigned each floor its function.

The public areas consisted of a main hall on the first floor, reception rooms on the second, and dining rooms on the third. Essentially any activity involving guests or visitors could take place in those areas.

The fourth and fifth floors served as living quarters and bathing facilities respectively, reserved for the Zenin family. Jianxia had packed them with every amenity he could think of.

These included, but were not limited to, a study and tearoom on the fourth floor, and a swimming pool, sauna, and showers on the fifth.

More importantly, Jianxia had built toilets on every floor and connected them to Hiraizumi's sewer pipes.

In other words, Jianxia, who had transmigrated from the modern world, could finally live a familiar life.

Counting the riding grounds and training hall behind the villa, as well as the many spare little houses Jianxia had built, the Zenin Estate had undergone a complete upgrade. Calling it a sprawling manor would have been no exaggeration.

That was why Jianxia had assigned cursed spirits to maintain it. Otherwise, managing it all would have been impossible.

After touring the place, everyone eventually returned to the villa's first-floor hall.

"What do you think of my design?" Jianxia sat on the sofa and looked at the others with complete confidence.

"Breathtaking, Chief. I never imagined buildings could be arranged this way." Shinji's admiration was heartfelt. "Once again, I thank you on behalf of the Zenin ancestors."

"It's nothing. We're all family." Jianxia waved a hand, then looked at Gojo Gen. "What do you think, Clan Head Gojo?"

Gojo Gen considered it before saying, "It's truly astonishing. I'm tempted to commission you to rebuild the Gojo Estate..."

Before he could finish, however, Jianxia raised a hand to stop him, a gleam of satisfaction flashing in his eyes as his plan fell into place.

"Didn't you promise to grant me a request earlier, Clan Head Gojo? I happen to have an idea."

"Why not bring your clan to settle in Hiraizumi? I'll build the Gojo Clan Manor to the same specifications as the Zenin Estate."

Then Jianxia turned to Kamo Michisada, who had remained silent beside them.

"Please consider this proposal as well, Clan Head Kamo. I'll build the Kamo Clan Ancestral Lands too."

Kamo Michisada froze for a moment, then pointed at himself.

I have to move too?