Under the unchanging night sky, Kenji Yamamoto opened his eyes.
Over the past four days, thanks to Yamamoto Kenji's tireless efforts and the strategic hints provided by the Sakura Kingdom's think tank, he successfully avoided many deadly work traps and finally figured out the patterns of the internal roads of the Ōeyama Royal Palace. Most of the time, the Oni Servant was unable to travel to certain areas, but with the help of notes left by kind people inside the palace, he gradually figured out the specific methods.
As for who wrote these notes, Kenji Yamamoto had no clue, and could only guess that they were left by some kind of plant-based spirit while he was working as a ghost servant.
After all, green liquid immediately brings to mind the sap of herbal plants.
But none of that matters now; he'll be able to leave soon. Kenji Yamamoto had made a deal with Nurarihyon: Nurarihyon would handle things outside, while he assassinated Shuten-dōji.
By then, the Ghost King will be dead, and the Ghost Realm will surely be in chaos, allowing the Slippery Ghost to step in and regain control of the situation.
As for how to bring the hundred demons back to the human world, the Nurarihyon at that time winked furtively at Kenji Yamamoto and said calmly, "I have my own way of contacting the human world. However, after the chaos in the demon world, I was controlled by that person from Mount Oe, which caused the Onmyoji at that time to give up on me."
"I heard from the cat that several hundred years have passed now. Would those Onmyoji still be willing to release the Hundred Demons?"
Kenji Yamamoto does not fully trust the indigenous people.
These indigenous people have their own plans and their own lives, but even among indigenous people, there are obvious differences in intelligence. Yamamoto Kenji put himself in their shoes and thought that if he were the Onmyoji of this world, he would never easily let the demons out, provided that he already had a safe place to control them.
The ghost realm is essentially a natural prison, which can strictly control the ghosts inside from leaving.
Although this behavior will inevitably lead to the growing resentment of the demons towards humans, and cannot completely eliminate the possibility of new demons emerging from the outside world, it is better to keep them locked up for the time being.
These ghosts, though they eat and sleep, are very difficult to kill.
Letting it out will only make things more complicated.
In response to Kenji Yamamoto's questioning, Nurarihyon stroked his white beard meaningfully: "Young brat, you may have misunderstood something. The demon realm was created by the original powerful Onmyoji with the help of a celestial deity, which doesn't mean that humans themselves have that ability—they don't have that ability, understand?"
"You mean... there's a price to pay?"
Kenji Yamamoto immediately thought of the humans who had "accidentally fallen in" and began to maliciously speculate whether they were sacrifices offered by Onmyoji to maintain the demon realm.
The elusive spirit seemed to see through his thoughts and shook his head: "No, no. As a parallel world subordinate to the human world, the demon realm does indeed have humans constantly falling in, improving everyone's diet and life. However, these are just accidents and not intentional actions by the Onmyoji."
He paused for a moment: "Young man, let me ask you this: if you were a leader, and your prisons held countless vicious criminals, would you need to spend time and effort guarding them?"
“Of course.” Kenji Yamamoto felt that this question was not entirely the same as the question about the demon realm.
"Therefore, humans need to constantly maintain the existence of the ghost realm, which means that in addition to normal life, humans also need to spend money to keep the ghost realm running. At the beginning of the ghost realm, it did solve the problem of humans being attacked by ghosts and monsters. However, in the long run, it has become a situation where humans need to spend resources to support a group of ghosts and monsters. They dare not give up the ghost realm plan, but they are also troubled by the excessive consumption of resources to maintain the ghost realm. Over the past few hundred years, they have long forgotten how terrifying the ghosts are. They only hope more than before that humans and ghosts can live in harmony and end the life of relying on the ghost realm to imprison the ghosts."
The genie raised his teacup, tilted his head back and drank it all in one gulp, then continued, "At this time, if a yokai who can be close to humans and also control the demon realm appears, do you think humans would be willing to agree to let the demon realm return to the human world?"
“But you also need living space,” Kenji Yamamoto retorted.
"So, a little devil is just a little devil. He has no idea how terrible the human world was before the birth of the ghost realm." Kenji Yamamoto shook his head and said, "The great god from beyond the heavens turned many countries of the spirit sphere into forbidden zones. After He left, these areas were left with only a polluted wasteland. Ghosts and monsters do not have such strong environmental needs."
He patted the table, and the oil lamp on the table lit up instantly, revealing two small insects wriggling inside.
“We’ve lived in this place for so long, so we won’t have many complaints at first after we get out. After all, freedom is much more comfortable than a bunch of ghosts huddled in this small place. As for what happens later, we’ll talk about it later.” The Slippery Ghost sighed. “Initially, the Ghost Realm was one person per household, but as the number of ghosts increased, some kind-hearted or banded-together monsters started to accept roommates.”
"In short, if you can truly resolve the matter of that king residing in Mount Ooe, as you claim, I am willing to risk my life to accompany you."
The slippery ghost slammed the teacup heavily onto the table.
I hope you can do what you say you will do.
Returning to the present, Kenji Yamamoto pursed his lips and stepped into a small path marked with a wine cellar sign. Since a chosen one was hiding here, this place must be off-limits to royal officials.
This path is usually imperceptible, but now that it appears before us, it seems as if it was always meant to be here, never having moved. At the end of the path is a staircase, half above ground and half buried underground, which appears to have no bottom at all.
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