"You know, and yet you still..."
"It is precisely because I know that I cannot leave."
Raiden Ei gently pulled her hand from Miko's grasp and instead patted Miko's shoulder softly.
"I am the Electro Archon of Inazuma. If I flee, what will happen to Inazuma?"
"But you can't win!" Miko's tears finally fell. "You'll die! Ei! If you die, Inazuma is finished anyway! Come with me, we'll find another way, go to Morax, go to Barbatos, there's always a way! Don't stay here and wait for death!"
Seeing her cry, Raiden Ei's cold expression seemed to Melt for a moment.
She raised her hand and, using her thumb, somewhat clumsily wiped away the tears on Miko's face.
"Don't cry, Miko."
"Some things aren't a matter of whether one can win."
"But rather, they must be done."
"I cannot flee."
"Behind me are the myriad lights of Inazuma's homes."
Her gaze passed over the weeping Yae Miko and the grief-stricken Kujou Sara, as if piercing through the thick walls of Tenshukaku to see the mountains and rivers of Inazuma—a land she might not have truly understood, yet was still determined to protect.
"I am not a qualified deity."
"I have let my subjects suffer greatly."
"But at least in this moment, let me fulfill my final duty with this blade in my hand."
"I shall live or die with Inazuma."
Yae Miko stared at her blankly, looking at this face that hadn't changed in five hundred years, yet now seemed so incredibly unfamiliar.
This stubborn martial artist!
This world-class idiot!
"Ugh..."
Yae Miko covered her mouth to keep from crying out loud, her shoulders trembling violently.
Kujou Sara was already streaming with tears, kowtowing heavily on the ground, her forehead hitting the floor with a dull thud.
A tragic silence filled the hall.
Raiden Ei lowered her head again and continued to wipe the blade.
"Scrape... scrape..."
The sound was mournful, as if she were playing a requiem for her own journey toward the end... "Boss! We're here! Tenshukaku is right ahead!"
Arataki Itto's loud voice, tinged with a sense of seeking credit, rang out.
It shattered the suffocating sorrow within Tenshukaku.
"A-ra-ta-ki! It-to!!!!"
Kujou Sara's voice trembled with extreme anger and humiliation; her fingers tightly gripped the bow's riser, her knuckles turning white.
She had never wanted to pin an arrow into that white-haired oni's head more than at this moment!
This was Tenshukaku!
The supreme core of Inazuma!
To have it breached by a street thug leading outsiders straight through the gates like a tour guide visiting a scenic spot?!
What a humiliation! If she didn't kill this scoundrel, Kujou Sara swore she wasn't a Tengu!
"Enough, Sara."
Raiden Ei's voice sounded calmly, cutting through Kujou Sara's almost explosive killing intent.
"If he chose to betray, he must feel that something is wrong with Inazuma."
"And this... is my fault."
She raised her purple eyes; there was no anger toward the traitor in them, only a deep, almost transparent loneliness.
Kujou Sara shuddered: "Almighty Shogun! How could you be at fault?!"
"You have always been protecting Inazuma, you have slain countless evil gods..."
"It is not enough."
Raiden Ei interrupted her, a trace of imperceptible exhaustion in her tone:
"I am a god of the mortal world."
"If the subjects suffer, it is a failure of duty."
Kujou Sara opened her mouth, but could say nothing.
What could she say?
Should she tell the Shogun that it's fine for the people of Inazuma to suffer a little?
Should she say that her status is so noble that she doesn't need to care about such trivial matters at all?
She couldn't say it.
She could only kowtow heavily, her forehead pressed against the cold floor as large tears fell.
Meanwhile, Yae Miko was already crying so hard she was nearly out of breath.
-------------------------
If you enjoy this story, you can read 70+ advanced chapters on Patreon!
Webnovel will keep getting 1 new chapter every day but Patreon readers can stay far ahead.
Maybe it's not a big deal now… maybe it will be later.
[email protected]/Greyhounds
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"