Chapter 516 - 516: The Big Yōkai Emerge

The Son of Heaven's procession had arrived, and Kian got up to leave.

"Well, Hei, good luck."

Hei nodded.

"Thank you."

Kian ran to the bushes by the roadside and found a spot to hide so he could watch whether Hei would succeed.

If Kian were the Son of Heaven, he'd definitely take Hei on. With a build like that, he'd make a fine honour guard if nothing else.

Hei adjusted his armour, his eyes burning as he watched the procession draw closer.

The mounted samurai at the head of the procession saw someone up ahead, and a few riders galloped over.

The lead rider shouted, "Who goes there! The Son of Heaven is on procession. Clear the way at once!"

Hei prostrated himself, pressing his head to the ground.

"I am Minamoto no Hei, a samurai of the countryside. Day and night I train in arms and cultivate myself, wishing only to enter the service of the Son of Heaven."

One of the riders went back to the Son of Heaven's great palanquin to report.

Someone drew aside the palanquin's gauze curtain, and a man with a face painted chalk-white leaned out.

He took a bite of the apple in his hand and muttered:

"Another one who wants to join Our service? Ugh, so annoying!"

The rider bowed his head and reported.

"Son of Heaven, the man's bearing is proper, his armour and swords are worn with great care, and he is exceptionally tall. I doubt he's an ordinary rōnin."

The Son of Heaven asked, "Is he a noble?"

The rider rode back to Hei and asked:

"The Son of Heaven asks: are you a noble?"

Hei said, "My lord, I'm only a rōnin. But one of my ancestors rose to the rank of great general."

The rider returned to the Son of Heaven and reported:

"My lord, the man claims an ancestor of his rose to great general."

The Son of Heaven thought about it.

"An ancestor who rose to great general, and now the descendants have fallen to rōnin. Yes, We recall."

The rider asked, "Son of Heaven, will you see him?"

The Son of Heaven took a few savage bites of his apple and hurled the half-eaten apple at the rider's helmet.

"See him? Like hell. A fallen noble isn't a noble. Why would We see him?

"Besides, We already have a great general. What do We want with some other great general's descendant?"

The rider said, "Yes, my lord," and spurred his horse back to Hei.

"The Son of Heaven will not see you. Out of the way!"

Hei was stunned.

"M... my lord, please..."

Thwip!

An arrow landed at Hei's feet. The rider had an arrow nocked, its tip aimed at Hei.

"Final warning! Get out of the way!"

There was nothing for it. Hei got up, stepped off the main road, and withdrew into the fields nearby.

The procession went on, the Son of Heaven's column rumbling down the road. Hei watched from a distance until the very tail of the procession disappeared.

Hei started back home, his straight back bent a little now.

As he passed a clump of grass, Kian popped out of it.

"Guess your luck wasn't great?"

Hei gave a bitter smile.

"Not everyone is fortunate enough to have the Son of Heaven look down on them. It's only natural."

Kian fell into step beside Hei and asked, "So what are you going to do now?"

Hei said, "Keep honing my martial arts and wait for the next time the Son of Heaven looks down."

Kian thought it over and made him an offer.

"Hei, I'm a noble in a foreign land. I serve a great lord, and I have ten thousand armoured men under my command. If you're willing, you can come with me."

Hei looked at Kian in astonishment. Ten thousand armoured men? That was more samurai than some entire domains had!

But after hesitating, he still shook his head.

"Forgive me, sir. I am a subject of the Son of Heaven. I can only be loyal to the Son of Heaven, and I cannot serve a foreign domain."

Then he said:

"But if you don't find him beneath you, sir, you could take my son Tarō onto your staff."

Kian thought about Tarō's huge build: 1.9 metres at sixteen, and as an adult he'd be at least as tall as his father, 2.2 metres.

The giant gene in this family was dominant. Their bone and muscle density weren't up to Astartes standards, but they could just about pass as Astartes, Junior Edition.

"Deal! When I can leave, I'll definitely take Tarō with me."

The audience Hei had longed for had failed, and he was a little down for a while. But within a few days he'd bounced back and returned to his daily routine.

The weather grew colder and colder. Some kind of disturbance rippled through the Warp, and the monsters hidden in the corners of this planet woke early.

The Mulberry Leaf Domain lay a hundred and fifty kilometres north of Kyoto. This year, as soon as the cold set in, the Big Yōkai came out to wreak havoc.

At first, only a few remote villages were attacked by a handful of Big Yōkai. But as time went on, their numbers exploded!

Whole swaths of small villages were massacred. Gnawed human bones lay everywhere.

The daimyō of the Mulberry Leaf Domain sent out his samurai corps, more than two thousand strong, to hunt down the Big Yōkai.

And they ran into the biggest Big Yōkai in recorded history.

It was a Big Yōkai six metres tall, with blood-red skin, its whole body knotted with muscle that no blade or spear could pierce.

A casual swipe of its hand could kill several samurai, while the samurai's swords and spears couldn't break its skin.

Worse still, this Big Yōkai was intelligent, and it could unite the other Big Yōkai!

Big Yōkai usually acted alone. They were huge and strong, but militia and samurai working together could pin them down with a forest of spears.

But once this super Big Yōkai appeared, the others gathered together in packs, and humans armed only with cold steel had no way to fight a pack of Big Yōkai!

The Mulberry Leaf Domain's two thousand samurai were wiped out in a single day. Then the Big Yōkai sat down to eat right there on the battlefield, gnawing on the samurai's bodies until corpses lay strewn across the land.

The six-metre Big Yōkai also gave an order for the others to take up the weapons and armour the samurai had left behind, and that sent their fighting power soaring.

Then the six-metre Big Yōkai bit off a noble's nose and ears and sent him back to the Mulberry Leaf Domain to spread fear.

It worked. The two-thousand-strong samurai corps had been the Mulberry Leaf Domain's elite force. With it gone, the domain had almost no means of resisting.

As panic gripped the Mulberry Leaf Domain, the six-metre Big Yōkai led its army of Big Yōkai to attack Mulberry Leaf Castle-town.

There were 150,000 people inside Mulberry Leaf Castle-town, surrounded by thick walls with only two gates.

The Big Yōkai army blocked both gates, broke into the town in a single day, and went straight in for an all-you-can-eat buffet.

The 150,000 people were devoured. Corpses lay everywhere, and the bones were piled into mountains.

Two Big Yōkai carried the daimyō of the Mulberry Leaf Domain before the six-metre Big Yōkai.

The daimyō had been driven mad with terror. Moments earlier, the Big Yōkai had stormed his castle, killed his guards, and then eaten his wife and son in front of him.

"Ahh... ahh... ahh..."

The daimyō had lost his mind. Staring up at the six-metre Big Yōkai, he could only babble helplessly.

The six-metre Big Yōkai's enormous hand closed around the daimyō and brought him up to its face.

"Heh heh heh."

It smiled at the daimyō, and the stench of blood from its huge mouth blasted across his face.

"I smell fear. Sweet, fragrant fear. Truly delicious.

"But I can't eat you yet, because fear breeds more fear. I want you to go to Kyoto and breed more fear there~"

Then the six-metre Big Yōkai bit off the daimyō's nose and ears and tossed him outside the town walls.

☆☆☆

-> 20 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!

-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Inkshaper

(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)

If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you