Nakiri Senzaemon stood in place without moving, his gaze fixed firmly on his granddaughter.
He did not speak, did not help Erina make a choice, and did not interfere with his granddaughter.
Because this matter concerned Nakiri Erina's life.
As her grandfather, he could help Nakiri Erina make many choices, but he was not qualified to decide the course of her life, even if she was his granddaughter.
So he stood quietly in place, waiting for Nakiri Erina's decision.
Whether she chose to take a gamble or wait where she was, he could accept it.
Rowan also did not urge the girl before him and simply waited quietly.
After a long while, Nakiri Erina finally made up her mind.
Waiting was not her style. Rather than constantly suffering through a long wait, it would be better to make a clean decision.
"Please, Lord Rowan. Please help me remove the curse."
"Sure."
Rowan smiled. This choice suited him perfectly. He also wanted to use this curse to test who the person behind it was and why they had successively cursed Asuna and Nakiri Erina.
"Stand in front of me. No matter what you see, don't be afraid."
Rowan had Nakiri Erina come over, then decisively activated the power of the Shinigami.
The phantom of the Shinigami appeared behind Rowan, and an icy aura of death filled the entire private room.
In an instant, everyone inside the room felt as if they had fallen into an ice cave.
Nakiri Senzaemon considered himself someone who had seen the world, yet when he saw the Shinigami's phantom, he still lost his composure in a rare moment.
His legs trembled, goosebumps rose all over his body, and in just a few seconds, sweat soaked his clothes.
The aura of death was far too terrifying.
He felt as if he had already died a little.
Just looking at it gave him such a terrifying feeling. He truly could not imagine what kind of pressure his beloved granddaughter was enduring at this moment.
In reality, Nakiri Erina was indeed enduring unimaginable pressure.
Especially the instant the Shinigami reached out and grabbed her, her breathing stopped.
Her entire body seemed to have died.
A few seconds later, Nakiri Erina's soul was pulled out by the Shinigami.
The moment her soul left her body, Nakiri Erina saw the black-red aura wrapped around her.
This aura had been invisible before.
But when she switched into a soul state and looked through the vision of her soul, she could clearly see that black-red aura.
Immediately after, the Shinigami's other hand gently grabbed.
That black-red curse was caught in the Shinigami's hand.
This kind of death curse was completely restrained by Rowan's Shinigami power.
Logically speaking, Rowan should have used this thing as a springboard to search for the mastermind who had cast the curse.
But at that moment, a strange idea suddenly flashed through his mind.
Perhaps he could do this.
Rowan controlled the Shinigami to toy with the curse power. After thinking for a moment, he simultaneously activated the powers of the Hollow-Hollow Fruit and the Soul-Soul Fruit.
He anthropomorphized the curse power.
The curse power, which originally had no intelligence whatsoever, transformed with the help of the two Devil Fruits into a chibi little person and gained its own wisdom.
The Soul-Soul Fruit could freely handle human souls, allowing souls to reside in all kinds of objects and anthropomorphize them.
Objects that were anthropomorphized were called Homies.
And the Hollow-Hollow Fruit could create all kinds of ghosts.
When the powers of the two fruits combined, Rowan could freely create ghost Homies.
The curse power was only a small experiment by Rowan.
Fortunately, Rowan succeeded.
The curse power really was anthropomorphized and became a ghost Homie.
"Master."
After the Curse Homie was born, it bowed to Rowan.
Although this power did not come from Rowan, its wisdom and personality had been granted by Rowan, so naturally it had to call Rowan master.
"No need for formalities."
Rowan waved his hand casually.
"Tell me. Who cast this curse?"
The Curse Homie showed a somewhat troubled expression.
"I'm very sorry, Master. I also don't know who cast this curse."
"You don't know?"
Rowan was a little surprised.
The Curse Homie nodded.
"Master, my true body is actually a notebook. As long as someone's name is written in the book, the cursed person will die."
A notebook.
Write a name in it and the person dies?
Why did that setting sound so familiar?
Rowan's eyes flickered, and he suddenly thought of a possibility…
Could it be the Death Note?
Wait, no. That thing got stitched into this world too?
But this situation wasn't right.
If Rowan remembered correctly, people whose names were written in the Death Note were supposed to die of heart paralysis.
But Asuna had been killed by a yokai.
Nakiri Erina had fallen into a lake and drowned.
Neither had anything to do with heart paralysis.
Wait. Rowan suddenly remembered something. The Death Note actually had another setting.
The notebook could specify the method of death.
Being hit by a car, falling into the sea and drowning—as long as the method was physically possible, all of it could come true.
Being killed by a yokai was a little strange, but if it was the Death Note, perhaps it really could be realized.
After all, that thing really could interfere with causality.
In other words, the deaths of Asuna and Nakiri Erina had both been carefully designed.
"I understand. Where is your true body now?"
Rowan asked curiously.
The Curse Homie said, "Does Master want to go now? I can take you there."
Rowan shook his head and did not act immediately.
"Wait a moment. Let me handle things here first."
He placed the Curse Homie on his shoulder, then stuffed Nakiri Erina's soul back into her body.
"I've taken away the curse power. You saw it too. This thing's true body is actually a small notebook. Anyone whose name is written in it will die."
"And the method of death can be designed."
After seeing what had happened inside the private room, Nakiri Senzaemon was utterly shaken, dumbstruck and speechless.
He truly could not imagine that something as abstract as a curse could actually be anthropomorphized.
The great power Rowan displayed surpassed ordinary imagination. It was simply unbelievable.
But what shocked him even more was that the thing that had cursed his beloved granddaughter was not a person, but a little notebook that killed whoever had their name written in it.
It could even personally design the method of death.
Was there really such an inconceivable cursed tool in the world?
Nakiri Senzaemon could not help shuddering. Didn't this mean that whoever controlled this notebook, if they wished, could kill anyone?
Even himself included.
This made Nakiri Senzaemon deeply uneasy. His hands and feet turned cold as he could not help asking, "Sir, who exactly created this notebook? How can it possess such an unbelievable ability?"
"I don't know."
Rowan shook his head and said, "I'll have to see the notebook before I can say. But if nothing unexpected happened, this thing should have been created by a god of death."
"A god of death?"
Nakiri Senzaemon's heart stirred, and he looked deeply at Rowan.
Because not long ago, he had also seen a Shinigami.
Rowan knew what he was thinking and decisively waved his hand.
"Don't look at me. It has nothing to do with me. I don't have this thing, and I've never created anything like it."
Nakiri Senzaemon swallowed and ultimately chose to believe him.
Even if he didn't believe him, there was nothing he could do. He couldn't beat Rowan.
So he wisely changed the subject.
"Now that you have taken away the curse, is Erina safe?"
Hearing this, Nakiri Erina looked eagerly at Rowan, her fingers unconsciously playing with the corner of her clothes.
This concerned life and death. How could she possibly stay calm?
Seeing this, Rowan smiled faintly. In the end, Nakiri Erina was still only a high school student. It was unavoidable for her to feel nervous and lose composure in the face of life and death.
"Don't worry."
Rowan pointed at the Curse Homie sitting on his shoulder.
"I've already taken away the curse wrapped around her. Unless something unexpected happens, the curse should no longer affect her."
Hearing this, Nakiri Erina let out a heavy sigh of relief, her chest rising and falling violently.
"Thank you, Lord Rowan."
Nakiri Erina looked at Rowan with bright eyes and a serious expression.
"I owe you my life, Lord Rowan. In the future, if you have any instructions, as long as I can do it, I will do everything in my power."
Rowan chuckled softly.
"Now that you mention it, there really is something I need your help with."
As he spoke, he activated the power of the Pocket-Pocket Fruit and took several huge pieces of meat out of his pocket.
"Help me handle this meat and make a few top-quality meat dishes. You should be able to do that, right?"
Nakiri Erina had originally thought it would be something serious, and her heart had been tense. Seeing that Rowan only wanted her to handle these pieces of meat, she immediately relaxed.
This was her specialty.
She decisively agreed and patted her chest.
"Don't worry, Lord Rowan. Leave it to me. I will put in one hundred and twenty percent effort and absolutely won't disappoint you."
Rowan gave a hum and said, "How about this? Give part of the meat to Gin Dojima to handle. I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of sparks his cooking skill and this meat can create."
Nakiri Erina nodded, opened the door, and called the manager in. She asked the manager to find several waiters and send all the meat to the kitchen, with half of it given to Gin Dojima.
When Gin Dojima saw the meat, he was left dumbstruck.
The meat was firm, its texture delicate, glossy, and bright. It was simply too beautiful.
One look was enough to tell that this meat was top grade. Compared to it, A5-grade wagyu paled immediately, and the difference was obvious.
No wonder they called A5-grade wagyu cheap meat. So the other side really did have something good.
No wonder they were Nakiri Erina's honored guests.
No wonder the Director had personally come to the resort. So it was for this meat.
If they could truly import this meat, Totsuki Resort's business would absolutely climb to another level.
At the same time, Nakiri Senzaemon, completely unaware that Gin Dojima had misunderstood him, was thinking about a question Rowan had just asked.
~~~
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