Kanae froze for a moment, then covered her mouth and chuckled, her laughter as clear as silver bells.
"Rokuya, are you saying I'm pretty?" She tilted her head, her bright, dewy eyes fixed on him.
Her gaze made Rokuya feel guilty, and he turned away to look at the weeds beside the road. "I was just analyzing things! Ahem, anyway, stay close to me once we reach town. There's something very wrong with the air here."
Rokuya was not lying.
As they drew closer to the so-called Paradise Cult town, Rokuya could sense something besides the summer heat in the air: an extremely faint yet nauseatingly sweet, bloody smell. This instinctive response to the scent of demons had been honed by killing hundreds of them. Ordinary people could not smell it, but to his senses, the town ahead, shrouded in the evening afterglow, resembled an abyssal maw, its bloody jaws gaping as it waited for prey.
This feeling was more than ten times stronger than what he had felt facing that century-old snake demon on Hachijo Island!
The two finally entered the town's streets.
The moment they entered, a strange sense of contrast struck them.
Despite being a remote town, its streets were paved with smooth blue stone slabs. The houses on either side were exceptionally well maintained, some even luxurious. An endless stream of pedestrians filled the streets, every face brimming with an extraordinarily strange, almost sickly smile of happiness.
No one was rushing about to make a living, and no one was arguing. Everyone smiled as they greeted one another, discussing "the cult leader's grace" and "salvation in paradise."
"See that?" Rokuya leaned close to Kanae's ear and spoke in a voice only the two of them could hear. "There's a strange, hallucinogenic fragrance in the air here.