Every sound ceased.
Every single noise in the cursed land of Yashiori Island turned mute.
The insects fell silent; the wind seemed to slow to a static hush.
Only the sound of thunder remained throughout the island.
The effect imposed by the Tatarigami--the constant thunderstorm--was the only thing left to make noise.
Watatsumi soldiers stiffened.
At this moment, the entirety of the island was in the hands of a single yokai.
A barrier had been cast, encasing Yashiori Island like a dome--not that any of the soldiers were even aware it encompassed the entire island.
They had suddenly felt the sky darken a shade, then heard a continuous high-pitched ringing in their ears. A second later, thunder so loud it disturbed every being on the island.
It was as if it had struck right beside their ears.
Some of them thought it was the Shogun.
After all, someone who could produce thunder so powerful could only be the god of Inazuma herself.
Such thoughts carried a sense of doom with them.
Though they often disregarded the possibility of the Shogun herself interfering, the idea that she would actually descend was a terrifying notion.
Then came the present.
The General announced throughout the island that all Orobashi cultists and those responsible for the release of the Tatarigami were to surrender.
And if they failed to do so, Watatsumi would be considered a foreign land, an independent territory detached from Inazuma.
From the words murmured by their supreme leader, Sangonomiya Kokomi--although it was but a murmur, it was heard by every single soldier and officer in the vicinity because of the absolute silence in the atmosphere:
"If Watatsumi harbors cultists who released Tatarigami, they are complicit…"
"Complicit groups are considered enemies of the state…"
"If they are enemies of the state, they lose Inazuman status…"
The civil war that the Shogunate and Watatsumi forces had been fighting would be resolved.
It would cease to be a civil war--something that made even some Shogunate soldiers hesitate, as in their minds, they were still fighting fellow Inazumans.
Some people thought along the lines of: Though we have different views and opinions, we are all still inhabitants of Inazuma.
That moral barrier would crumble to pieces, and the measly forces of Watatsumi would be destroyed by the full might of the Shogunate.
It would be easy to paint the Watatsumi as the absolute villains.
It was clear that the Orobashi cultists were behind the release of the Tatarigami. Those madmen who had infiltrated the Watatsumi forces had been an issue they'd been trying to resolve.
The Tengu General's demand should be easy to fulfill.
However, the Watatsumi forces had not yet identified the Orobashi cultists infiltrating their ranks, leaving them unable to comply.
Suddenly, the sounds of lightning striking came one by one.
Of course, they couldn't see where it struck.
They did not move. They were all waiting for their leader's judgment.
Even though in the case that they said something absurd here, it would not affect the Tengu General's decision--after all, they didn't represent the entire army.
They remained silent.
Because they were genuinely afraid of that demon in the sky.
Everyone could feel the lightning strikes getting closer. Some among them even heard a faint scream after one struck.
Every Watatsumi soldier restrained their own comrades to keep them from doing anything reckless.
They were in the presence of the Shogun's right hand.
The Tengu that Almost Became Divine.
That was the reputation Kujou Sara held among the Watatsumi soldiers, based solely on their impression of her during their first encounter in the war.
Some were restraining reckless comrades who were about to do something that could make the Tengu General strike them with lightning.
"QUIT SQUIRMING…!"
"Mhm--!"
"I SAID QUI--"
Suddenly, the soldier's hold on his comrade's mouth slipped.
"Mhm--otherfucker, your hand smells like the rations from the day before!" The bound soldier yelled. "You dirty, unhygienic, gutter-sipping fuck! And you put that hand on my face?!"
"…Is that why you're squirm--"
The soldier didn't manage to finish his sentence before a punch to his chest came his way.
He wheezed for some time.
However, that didn't concern Kujou Sara now, did it?
One by one, she was analyzing the reactions, responses, and intentions of every intelligent life on the island inside the barrier.
Usually, she shouldn't be able to perform such feats. But with Dantalion's assistance--Kujou Sara transferred the burden to Dantalion while she analyzed the information through him--she managed something that someone on the same sphere shouldn't be able to.
No--it would be more accurate to say Dantalion was the one gathering the information, filtering all intelligent life, and streaming the processed information to Kujou Sara.
However, was it right for her to trust that Dantalion wouldn't tamper with the information being scanned?
That, Sara, couldn't know for sure.
She had no way to be certain of it.
Still, she was sure that Dantalion would not do something stupid to disrupt or delay their cooperation, as was said before.
If she someday found out that Dantalion had actually done so, then she'd have an excuse to do absolutely nothing he asked of her from that point on.
---
Meanwhile, on the now-abandoned Higi Village, Atsuko stood with binoculars in hand, watching the General floating high above.
She had just witnessed the threat Kujou Sara had presented to the entirety of Watatsumi.
"I-is that for real?"
"For real real."
Dantalion couldn't help but smile.
For real, I am already hated as is by the eggplant. No need to let her know of this.
***
"Why didn't you wear the one I gifted you?"
Pauline asked the six-foot, muscular woman, Liliane.
-=-
[Loudly Screaming Twig] : Is it not only worn on occasion…?
-=-
Liliane wasn't sure of her answer, but that was the best she could give.
Pauline pursed her lips, thinking fast. She knew Liliane well enough to understand that a simple nudge wouldn't be enough. She'd have to push.
"Clothes like that wear out faster if you just leave them shut away," Pauline tried, her tone half-lecturing.
-=-
[Loudly Screaming Twig] : I'm not stupid. I know it's not like that.
-=-
The reply hit harder than Pauline expected, deflating her confidence a little.
"…Then tomorrow. You'll wear it tomorrow, right?"
Her internal thoughts were: THAT'S AN EXPENSIVE AMOU--
The usual.
-=-
[Loudly Screaming Twig] : I will wear it tomorrow.
-=-
Liliane glanced at Pauline from the corner of her eye. Pauline spent a lot of money on it… The least I can do is give her the satisfaction of seeing it put to use.
-=-
[Loudly Screaming Twig] : Is there a quest you have not done yet?
-=-
"Well… There were some I had been ignoring." Lepine-Pauline scrolled through the quest panel on her System Panel.
Yes, SCROLLED.
Pauline had been ignoring quests that might require any combat.
Whenever she saw that a quest didn't help her current situation, she would not do it and would just pretend she didn't see it.
Though the system gave an equal ratio of non-combat to combat quests, it didn't mean she'd accept all non-combat quests.
So everything just piled up.
Unless the quest was mandatory--lest she lose access to the system panel--she would not do it if she didn't want to.
Liliane saw how much Pauline had to scroll down just to get to the bottom, to the oldest undone quest.
Fortunately, it seemed the very bottom wasn't the 'Find out all the item's attributes without external help' quest. If it were--in an alternate world where Pauline hadn't even completed that--Liliane wasn't sure what kind of expression she would need to convey her point across.
"That's all."
-=-
[Loudly Screaming Twig] : …I will help you complete them… At least I will guarantee your safety.
-=-
Liliane hesitated for a bit.
-=-
[Loudly Screaming Twig] : …But most of these are about toning your body
-=-
"Yep, unfortunately, I couldn't do them because of the lack of time--"
But then, the system in front of them slapped down Pauline's excuses.
===
**System Panel: Answer--**
**The individual Lepine-Pauline's current occupation is jobless. In her words, 'Freelancer'.**
===
Pauline's face darkened at that, and the System Panel used a red tint, too--just to thwart her excuse.
Still, as everything in the world still had hope, it seemed she'd been graced with some today.
-=-
[Loudly Screaming Twig] : What is a 'Freelancer'?
-=-
'Liliane doesn't know about--' Pauline's thoughts started running at high speed, her thinking speed becoming something that could only be categorized among veteran mages. SHE WAS USING HER MIND AT 120% POTENTIAL!
She could salvage her reputation!
However, how could the most fair and just system panel allow such misguiding of the uninformed?
===
**System Panel: Answer--**
**Beggars.**
===
The system knew that Liliane mostly understood the meaning of the sentence shown earlier. She was just asking for specifics out of curiosity.
Thus, the system panel gave out the purest, fundamental, ultimate answer.
---
The next day, 10 AM.
Liliane was pushing Pauline in a wheelchair as they entered a restaurant.
Pauline, early in the morning at the crack of dawn, had been dragged out of bed by Liliane and dressed in an attire suited for running.
Liliane had destroyed Lepine-Pauline's body completely to the point that Pauline's usual enthusiasm was absent afterward.
At first, Liliane had just wanted to cook something she usually ate, but Pauline had been whining about wanting to eat at a certain place.
Right now, Pauline looked like a certain physicist.
She was now also talking through the chat group just like Liliane. So if observed by someone besides themselves, their walk was extremely quiet, with no one making noise besides the rolling of the wheelchair.
Though now that she had time to properly observe Liliane in silence—at least outwardly—Lepine-Pauline noticed that since the start of her torture, Liliane had helped quite a lot of strangers. It was much more noticeable now that she was unable to make any sudden movements.
As long as it did not inconvenience what Liliane was currently doing, that is.
For example, as Liliane was pushing her earlier on the way to the restaurant, the pace of the wheelchair wheels had neither decreased nor increased. While helping strangers—anyone who seemed to be physically having trouble--Liliane made sure that helping them didn't interfere with her initial course of action.
They happened to encounter a pickpocket earlier, and Liliane was occupied pushing the wheelchair. Pauline wasn't sure exactly how it had happened, but when Liliane looked over, the stranger who was about to be pickpocketed instantly seemed terrified, which resulted in the stranger looking around aggressively to find out what caused such instinct.
Thus avoiding a pickpocket early in the morning.
Such happenings were pretty common in Fontaine. As there were many tourists, there were also many immigrants and bum locals who took advantage of the situation.
However, why do it early in the morning?
Of course, one would do it at a time everyone least expected it.
It was also the reason why the cycle of patrolling gardes was tight.
'…I would probably have to do this tomorrow too--please, end my suffering…'
Pauline suddenly lamented.
It seemed that the matters earlier weren't important to her.
Pauline looked at the chat group, reading [I hump on Metals]'s message.
She had inquired if the quest would usually give out something that would help her recover faster, as she had seen no text in her quest about receiving such a thing.
There was nothing wrong with knowing more.
But as she read [I hump on Metals]'s reply in the chat group, it seemed that only hers didn't have it.
[I hump on Metals] stated that whenever he triggered a quest that strained his body to a point that required several days of recovery, the system would usually reward something to help him recover faster, depending on the strain.
[Lost in the Glory of Holes] agreed with what [I hump on Metals] had said.
Pauline had actually asked Liliane the same question even before she asked [I hump on Metals].
Neither their answers satisfied her.
'End me…'
In Liliane's case, there was no such quest for her.
Pauline even checked Liliane's quest panel, and there was indeed no quest history related to her physique.
Liliane answered that it was probably because she already possessed a developed body and that she was already building her body even before she obtained the System Panel.
It was, after all, the only thing she knew to get strong without the help of a vision and for free.
'…End this suffering…'
***
"At least she found 'em disgusting cultiggers?"
Looking at a group of people, feet and hands bound together on a slab, Dantalion said. He and Atsuko sat beside each other.
They had watched Kujou Sara threaten a whole island with annihilation if they did not give her what she wanted.
It is a shame she wouldn't actually go through with it, though.
He wondered what would happen to this world if such a big change appeared.
Would it reset to where the changes had yet appeared?
These kinds of things were mere fiction back where he was from, so when such questions arose, they almost always piqued his interest.
Kujou Sara seemed to be initiating a conversation with Watatsumi's leader.
"So, Atsuko." Dantalion addressed Atsuko as he reclined on his foldable chair. "Compared to that demon right now, do you think that I am more likable?"
Meanwhile, on Kujou Sara's side, her conversation with the Watatsumi leader proceeded in a very civilized manner.
Unlike Sara's violent approach earlier, her tone when talking to Sangonomiya Kokomi was calm, almost lax.
Of course, she remained within the formal scope of dealing with the other party.
*-End of Chapter-*