Night, a pitch-black night. When the sun sets, darkness completely descends upon this world. The bright and clear moon that should have appeared in the sky did not show up. From the beginning, Fujino had no intention of creating a moon. After all, the moon was destined to be created by someone in the future. Since the existence of the moon was already predetermined, Fujino naturally didn't waste time creating one.
The dark night was very unfriendly to the humans of this era. Although the presence of fire could dispel darkness and bring light, humans of this era did not dare to light fires in the pitch-black night.
In a dark night, the sudden appearance of a bright fire—what did that mean? A conspicuous beacon, exposing their village clearly to the sight of those terrifying yokai. Then, those terrifying yokai would sweep in following the flames and hunt humans to their heart's content. Humans of this era lived in a near-constant atmosphere of tension.
Buzhou Mountain was different from the pitch-black scenes elsewhere. Around the trees near Buzhou Mountain floated many colorful specks of light, emitting a faint glow. One might not be enough, but when hundreds, thousands, or even tens or hundreds of thousands of light specks emitted their faint glow together, the darkness was completely dispelled. The surroundings of Buzhou Mountain were a colorful, beautiful sight.
On Buzhou Mountain, Fujino, Dragon Rain, and Pure Fox were having a barbecue. The sizzling meat on the wire rack emitted an inviting aroma. Fujino skillfully brushed on the sauce and sprinkled on cumin and chili powder. She took a plate prepared nearby and placed the grilled meat on it. The first serving of barbecue was thus completed.
The high-quality grilled meat, aided by the secret sauce, emitted an alluring fragrance. Dragon Rain and Pure Fox felt their mouths constantly watering under this tempting scent, wishing they could pick up the meat right now and take a big bite.
"Alright, no need for that. Eat up," Fujino said with a smile, handing the plate full of grilled meat to the two of them.
The two didn't hesitate at all. Dragon Rain directly picked up two skewers of meat with both hands, one in each, and began to eat heartily. Because of her body, Pure Fox could only hold a skewer in her mouth and use her sharp teeth to tear at the meat.
"Delicious~" Dragon Rain looked satisfied. With every bite, the juices contained in the meat exploded in her mouth, the explosive impact on her taste buds constantly stimulating her tongue. Her whole being was satisfied by this grilled meat.
"Eat more if you like it." Fujino smiled and used a tissue to wipe the chili powder from the corner of Dragon Rain's mouth. The latter's face turned red at a visible speed. The smile on Fujino's face grew even wider as she said softly, "I'll go make some more."
"Fujino, I want some too!" Pure Fox said quickly. Seeing Fujino's action of wiping Dragon Rain's mouth just now, Pure Fox felt a pang of annoyance, feeling that Dragon Rain had done it on purpose.
"Okay." Fujino stroked Pure Fox's little head and smiled. "There's plenty more, it's fine."
Fujino's words had a double meaning, and Pure Fox didn't fail to catch it. Her dislike for Dragon Rain grew even more. While Fujino's back was turned to get more meat skewers, her pale gold eyes glared fiercely at Dragon Rain. Dragon Rain, not to be outdone, glared back. For a time, the two were locked in a stalemate, staring each other down, only quickly returning to normal when Fujino turned back. Both ate the grilled meat vigorously, as if they were treating the meat in their mouths like the other person.
Fujino sighed almost imperceptibly. It seemed the relationship between the two wouldn't improve anytime soon. She really was a person with heavy sins...
The next day, as the sun just rose, the tools used for last night's barbecue were still laid out outside the villa, with the bamboo skewers used for the meat tossed randomly on the ground.
Inside the villa, Fujino sat in a chair, her face overflowing with tenderness.
Before her was a peaceful scene. Dragon Rain's eyes were closed serenely, her golden hair, a bit messy from sleep, was spread across her back, and in her arms, she tightly held a little fox—Pure Fox.
Looking at this scene, it was truly hard to imagine that these two, who usually didn't get along, could have such a warm moment, even if the two of them were unaware of it.
Standing up, Fujino walked quietly to the dragon and the fox, tucked the kicked-around blanket back over them, and leaned down to place a kiss on each of their foreheads.
"It's time to get down to business," Fujino whispered. Instead of walking out, she used Heavenly Movement to appear outside. With a wave of her hand toward the unorganized barbecue grill, it vanished instantly along with the bamboo skewers on the ground. Looking at the tidy ground, Fujino nodded in satisfaction, and then her figure vanished once more as she left Buzhou Mountain.
Inside the small bamboo hut, Eirin gazed intently at the book in her hands, greedily absorbing everything recorded within.
Eirin had obtained this book from the great mountain surrounded by mist. Originally, Eirin, who had lost her way inside and couldn't find her bearings, thought she was at a dead end. However, when all hope seemed lost, she accidentally stumbled into a paradise deep within the mist while searching for a way out.
In that paradise, Eirin found something she could never have imagined—an inheritance!
It was the medical orthodoxy written by the Creator of this world, along with a vast amount of spells and archery knowledge that Eirin had never heard of before.
Eirin was beyond shocked at that time. It was her first time hearing that the world she lived in was actually created by a single person, and that she herself was just one of the lives that person had created at will. The entire world was merely her possession. But what surprised Eirin the most was that the Creator was actually a woman—a woman so beautiful it was hard to look at her directly.
That day, for the first time, a sense of reverence grew in Eirin's heart. She sighed with longing, yearning to meet her. For this reason, Eirin followed the records written on a stone tablet, took the Creator as her master, and received the inheritance left in this paradise. Through the inheritance, Eirin learned that she was the Creator's second disciple and that she had a senior sister currently training in another world. She also learned her master's name—Asagami Fujino!
In order to find traces of her master, Eirin left the mountain, returned to her village, and finished treating the patients there. Under the cover of night, she left the village where she had lived for many years alone and silent. With the power granted by the inheritance, Eirin possessed the ability to travel freely through the mist. Thus, she made her home in the paradise where she found the inheritance, painstakingly studying all the knowledge within, solely to one day follow in her master's footsteps.
On the other side, Fujino appeared before a massive fireball. To be more precise, the giant fireball before her was named the Sun!
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