"Nothing had been discovered, but Princess Ying Ji wasn't lying!" Crimson Crow's Wing said with absolute certainty.
"It seemed... something really had happened..."
Mei began carefully observing the surroundings again and found that there was indeed a small problem. Nothing else seemed unusual.
Until...
"This... Demon God statue..."
Mei looked at the Demon God statue before her. There was nothing visibly wrong with it, but... the look in its chest had changed.
It seemed even more malicious.
Mei gripped the Lightning Blade and walked up to the statue.
She lightly tapped the statue with the Lightning Blade, but there was no strange reaction.
"Yōki, roughly describe the nightmares you had," Mei said, standing before the Demon God statue as she turned to Yōki.
If there was a problem, and it had not come from outside, then it could only be something inside. And within this temple, only this statue seemed even slightly suspicious.
"Yes... I had three nightmares in a row. During the first two, I seemed to realize that I was dreaming, but no matter what I did, I couldn't wake up. Until the third one."
"In the first nightmare, I didn't know where I was. But in the dream, I heard children laughing next door. They laughed more and more happily, and the laughter grew louder and louder, so I curiously got up to take a look.
"But when I pushed open the neighboring door, the sight inside terrified me senseless. A woman with long disheveled hair, bulging eyes, fangs, and a long horn growing from her forehead kept cackling. In her hand, she kept tossing a child's head around like a ball. Blood sprayed from the child's hollow torso, staining the bed and floor red."
"In the second nightmare... I seemed to have become some prince's consort,