"You're back? How did it go?" When Theresa returned to their room, Shun was quietly sitting beside the bedding. There was truly no entertainment at all in this ancient era.
If they were in Heian-kyo in the Far East, there might still be some nightlife, but Yae Village was completely a remote countryside with no villages ahead or behind.
Theresa shook her head dejectedly: "As soon as I mentioned the tombstone, her state clearly became off, so I didn't continue staying."
"As expected, it's not easy to ask about." Shun wasn't too disappointed by Theresa's failure. He had already expected it in his heart—Theresa most likely wouldn't be able to ask anything.
He then observed the surroundings and didn't notice anyone monitoring them. However, after all, in this space, all living people except him, Theresa, and Yae Sakura were Higanbana's puppets. They couldn't let their guard down against having ears on the other side of the wall.
"Sleep." Shun blew out the oil lamp placed on the tatami. The room instantly fell into darkness. Shun grabbed Theresa and stuffed her into the bedding.
"Eh, eh, so fast?" Theresa was still a bit slow to react, but the blush on her face hidden in the darkness still betrayed her current mood.
"Shh." Shun breathed extremely softly into Theresa's ear, signaling her to quiet down.
"Shun, Shun… you seem to be poking me…" Theresa felt something pressing against her lower abdomen that felt very uncomfortable. Could it be…
"That's the hilt of the sword. What are you thinking! If you don't believe me, touch it?"
"Oh… oh." Theresa touched the thing pressing against her. The cool touch was indeed that of a sword hilt. She responded with a disappointed sound.
"Alright, don't interrupt randomly from now on. Listen to me." Shun's voice became obviously serious.
"First… you need to understand who our enemy is this time. Our enemy this time is the Twelfth Herrscher who nailed the coffin shut on the Previous Era—the Herrscher of Corruption."
"A Herrscher from the Previous Era?!" Although very shocked, Theresa still forced herself not to make any sound.
"How did a Herrscher from the Previous Era come to be our enemy fifty thousand years later?" It was like playing a game and starting New Game+, only for a late-game boss from New Game to suddenly appear shortly after the start and instantly kill you.
"Because the main body of the Herrscher of Corruption is a super virus. The Previous Era only trapped her and set up a program to automatically turn her into a Divine Key after her resentment dissipated."
"And the carrier containing the Herrscher of Corruption—a black box—was used by Schicksal five hundred years ago to research Honkai energy weapons and conduct human experiments. It was taken away by the Saint Kallen and fled eastward."
"After a series of twists and turns, Kallen encountered Yae Sakura, the miko of Yae Shrine. The two developed deep feelings for each other. However, because Yae Sakura was bewitched and eroded by the Herrscher of Corruption in the black box, she massacred the entire Yae Village."
"Finally, in grief, Kallen sealed Yae Sakura and the black box. She herself was captured by the Valkyrie troops sent by Schicksal while heavily injured. The rest of the story should be in Schicksal's textbooks, right?"
Theresa nodded and recounted what she knew afterward: "Kallen, who returned to Schicksal, was sentenced to death. While being escorted to the execution ground, the Honkai beasts imprisoned by Schicksal escaped. In order to protect the civilians, the Saint Kallen died under the claws of the Honkai beasts."
"Mm, more or less." Shun nodded. No matter what, Otto couldn't possibly tell the world that those Honkai beasts were released by him to raid the execution ground and save Kallen. Although he himself didn't care about being cursed, since it concerned Kallen, he could only conceal it.
"However, these are only the surface level. What I'm going to tell you next is a secret known by no more than the fingers on one hand in the entire world. In fact, in this world, only I know the complete story."
"To make you understand our enemy, this is something I must tell you, so that if any accidents occur, it will be convenient for you to judge for yourself."
"The story I'm about to tell is the story of a pair of sisters from the Previous Era…"
"The two sisters originally came from a family of shrine priests in the Far East who managed a shrine. Unfortunately, the family declined, and their father and mother passed away one after another, leaving the older sister to bear the responsibility of raising her younger sister."
"Relying on her outstanding inherited swordsmanship, the older sister joined the largest anti-Honkai organization of the Previous Era—Fire Moth's subordinate assassin organization, Poison Chrysalis. She chose to dirty her own hands to raise her younger sister."
"In this way, the two sisters supported each other as they grew up. The older sister became the strongest assassin in Poison Chrysalis. Later, she became a member of the first MANTIS squad and even survived the tragic Incident of Binding, becoming one of the Thirteen Flame-Chasers—the Flame-Chaser of Setsuna. Her younger sister also grew up healthily under her careful protection."
"It seemed everything was heading in the right direction. If nothing unexpected happened, even if the Previous Era's struggle against Honkai failed, with her older sister's status, she could still obtain a ticket to the cryosleep chambers and come to this era. But good luck never favors one person forever."
"A sorrowful piece of news arrived, shattering the peaceful life of the two sisters. Her younger sister was actually detected to have a Herrscher reaction. Although no Herrscher characteristics or desire to destroy the world were found on the younger sister, the test results could not be faked. No matter how it was checked, the result was the same."
"Although the younger sister had no desire to destroy humanity, for safety's sake, Dr. MEI, the leader of Fire Moth at the time, immediately ordered the younger sister to be temporarily detained and arranged for Kevin, the strongest warrior among the Thirteen Flame-Chasers, to act as her guard. But honestly, it would have been better to let the most irritable one among the Thirteen Flame-Chasers guard her."
"Moreover, aside from a certain child, anyone else would have been more suitable than Kevin for guarding! But that's a story for later. Let's get back to the main topic."
"This was not only to protect the younger sister but also to immediately eliminate the threat if the younger sister showed any desire to destroy humanity."
"Unfortunately, at that time, the older sister was carrying out a mission in another base city. If she had been there, as a Flame-Chaser famous for her speed, and with a few comrades who supported her, perhaps her younger sister could have avoided the fate of detention?"
"Just as the older sister learned of this news and rushed at full speed to the prison where her younger sister was detained, she was blocked by Kevin, the strongest warrior of the Previous Era. By the time she used special means to bypass Kevin's blockade, tragedy had already quietly occurred."
"The soldiers who were also responsible for guarding the younger sister, out of fear of Herrschers, actually joined with their comrades to torture and kill the younger sister, who had no power to resist. When the older sister arrived, she only saw her younger sister's gradually cooling corpse and warm blood in the cell."
"Seeing the corpse of her only remaining family—the driving force for her to keep living—the older sister's mental defenses instantly collapsed. She had survived Poison Chrysalis's cruel system, survived the MANTIS experiments where ten thousand died with none surviving, and survived the tragic Incident of Binding—all for her younger sister."
"And now, her younger sister's corpse appeared before her. As the older sister, she had failed to protect her younger sister, making her feel like an utter failure. She had lost the motivation to keep living."
"Soon after, Kevin also rushed back. Seeing the younger sister's corpse, he fell into self-blame. His original intention was to stop the older sister from getting too agitated, but it seemed his dereliction of duty had led to the younger sister's death."
"But there was no time for grief. Dr. MEI's communication came again. Another Herrscher reaction from the Twelfth Herrscher had appeared on the base's periphery. She had already breached the base's firewall, taken control of all electronic equipment and mechs, and allowed a large number of Honkai beasts to pour into the base. At the same time, the nuclear arsenal had been compromised. Countless falling stars rained down on the three remaining cities of the Previous Era, becoming the final straw that crushed the dying camel that was the Previous Era."
"It turned out that the true form of the Twelfth Herrscher was a super virus. She could easily control any electronic equipment. She was originally a demon imprisoned in a cage to destroy humanity, but humanity's own evil had destroyed the cage holding her and released her. Now she was a vengeful ghost seeking revenge on humanity."
"The conversation between Kevin and Dr. MEI was overheard by the older sister nearby. Upon learning that her younger sister might still be alive, she immediately rushed to the front line against the Herrscher. In the end, at the cost of her own death, she caused obvious chaos in the Twelfth Herrscher, allowing Fire Moth to finally capture her."
"In the very end, the older sister lay among endless metal ruins, like a lone flower on the wasteland. When she learned from Kevin that the Herrscher had shown unexplained chaos in the final moment, she smiled with relief."
"She said: She accompanied her younger sister until the very end. Even in the last moment, she was still her younger sister. She had upheld her pride as an older sister."
"Finally, she requested that Kevin take her and her younger sister back to their hometown and find a place where cherry blossoms were blooming. Kevin agreed. He brought their remains back to their hometown, but what he saw was only barren wasteland. He stood on a ruined plaza, unable to see a single cherry blossom…"
Hearing this, Theresa was already in tears, sobbing uncontrollably. She herself was a very sentimental person, not to mention that this story was a complete tragedy from beginning to end.
"This is the full story of this pair of sisters. The protagonists of this story, this pair of sisters—the older sister's name is Sakura, and the younger sister's name is Rin."
"Eh… Sakura, and Rin?" Theresa suddenly felt something was off. Sakura and Rin? Yae Sakura, Yae Rin… Could there be such a coincidence in this world?
She wanted to ask Shun, but Shun continued without pause to tell another story.
"Mm, this story is also about a pair of sisters. But this time I won't keep you in suspense. The older sister in this story is named Yae Sakura, and the younger sister is named Yae Rin."
Theresa suddenly had a bad premonition. The tombstone of the younger sister in Shun's story—she had seen it not long ago.
"This story takes place much closer to the present than the previous one—only a mere five hundred years. The story took place in Shinano Province in the Far East, in a village called Yae Village."
"In a family of shrine priests surnamed Yae, a pair of sisters was born: Yae Sakura and Yae Rin. Unlike her older sister who had shown outstanding talent from a young age, the younger sister had been frail and sickly since childhood. She could only go outside freely for a few days throughout the year. Even in spring, when she wanted to go out to see the cherry blossoms she loved most, she couldn't leave the house for fear of pollen."
"Fortunately, the older sister cherished her younger sister very much, making the younger sister feel that no matter how hard life was, as long as she had her older sister, she could grit her teeth and endure."
"Until one year, the village had not seen rain for a long time. According to tradition, the village had to sacrifice a girl to the gods to beg for rain."
"Because in the past, when there was no rain, they had always sacrificed daughters of other villagers, which had long caused dissatisfaction among the villagers. So this time, they decided to sacrifice Yae Rin, who had been frail and sickly since childhood and was not expected to achieve much, to the gods."
"Upon learning of this, Sakura planned to flee the village with her younger sister. Even if there were only the two of them, as long as they had each other, they could live happily. But when she saw her younger sister again, the shrine priest who was their father had already severed the younger sister's leg tendons."
"Unable to resist the village, she was carried to the altar. As a miko, she personally killed her own younger sister. Coincidentally, the moment she stabbed the knife into her younger sister's chest, the sky that had not rained for so long suddenly began to pour. To the ignorant villagers, this must mean the gods greatly favored Rin as a sacrifice."
"But as someone from a family of shrine priests, Sakura knew there were no gods in this world. She couldn't help but think: If only I had persisted a little longer, struggled a little longer, and waited for the rain to fall—would Rin not have died?"
"Unfortunately, there is no medicine for regret in this world. Rin died, killed by Sakura's hand. Yae Village also received the long-awaited rain, and the shrine priest used this 'miracle' to consolidate his position."
"No one cared about Sakura crying while holding her younger sister's corpse in the heavy rain. The seed of hatred was planted at that moment and would bloom into a bewitching flower of blood a few years later."
"Time passed. A few years later, Sakura had become an outstanding miko. One day, while washing clothes by a stream near the village, she saw a white-haired woman wearing a nun outfit, covered in many injuries, floating down the stream. From then on, the wheel of fate began to turn."
"Oh, worth mentioning, the older sister Yae Sakura looks almost identical to Sakura, and the younger sister Rin also looks the same as Rin."
After listening to this story, Theresa's eyes became even more red and swollen. She hadn't expected such a past to have happened.
Now she finally knew who their enemy was. At the same time, she also seemed to understand the complex relationship between Yae Sakura and the Herrscher of Corruption.
A vengeful ghost who had lost her older sister and had been adrift in resentment for fifty thousand years, and an older sister forced to personally kill her own younger sister and living every day in regret.
No wonder Shun had said that in this world, the only ones they could trust were each other. Under this ambiguous relationship, who knew when Sakura might betray and backstab them.
Even if she was a good person now, who could say she wouldn't swing her blade for her own "younger sister."
In fact, by now, Yae Sakura and Rin had already been playing the game of sisters in this space for five hundred years. The two were very much like the people each other loved most. It was precisely because of this that an ordinary person like Yae Sakura could resist the Herrscher's erosion for five hundred years.
Unfortunately, with the arrival of Shun and Theresa, this peace and the endless repeating cycle were probably about to be broken.