Yamiyo no Hotaru

Chapter 1

It was the night of the full moon. The big blue-white round moon was shining faintly on the snow-covered mountains of the northern country covered with forests.

"..."

Numerous shadows emerged from the dense forest. They stand in masked figures dressed in special black clothes that have been carefully washed and clean of odors.

One of them was me (ore).

"..."

We exchange information with each other by hand signals. And then... the black shadows all scatter at once. Sprinting. Through the darkness of night.

That's right, we're black shadows running through the forest. We didn't speak. We were silent, not making a sound with our footsteps, not even breathing hard by using a special breathing technique. But we were running through the unpaved path as if we were top athletes.

"...!"

However, one of our companions in the lead noticed something and signaled with a hand signal. At the same time, we stopped running and hid in the shadows. And then we peek out from the shadows of the trees. From there, we see something huge.

"..."

Of course, I hide in the shadow of a big tree and slowly peer into the shadow of 'it'. At the same time, I gasp.

After all, the moonlight reveals its figure. Its total length could be ten meters. It was a huge wolf covered in silvery white fur, which roared.

...Obviously, it was not a creature of nature. No matter how I look at it, there is no way a wolf could have grown to this size on Earth. No, that's not the point. I didn't need to bother with such logic to know. Because at first glance... it was something unworldly to me.

After all, it was visible to me. A black ghastly light flooded out of its body. Did those foreigners (Gaijin) call it a 'specter (Youki/妖気)'? To wear such an ominous, nauseating presence meant that the creature before us was not a mere creature, but a being out of the world's order... a 'youkai'.

 And...

(Damn!!! It's different from the original information...! No matter how you look at it, it's not a medium youkai! It's a great youkai!)

I resist the urge to click my tongue at the clumsy work of those hiding in the dark. Because the moment I click my tongue, that youkai will surely sense our location and attack us. Although the distance between us and the target may be 30 meters, the "Great Youkai" will certainly hear the sound from that distance. Their five senses were out of the range of us humans, or even wild beasts.

"..."

I touch the charm around my neck. I knew that it had no magical effect because I had checked it just in case. But since it was given to me by that power gorilla princess who had nothing but mines, I couldn't help not wearing it... Though it was annoying, I might as well have asked for a really effective charm.

(Bad luck... or maybe it was a set-up...?)

That's a possibility. After all, it's that d*mn family. It's not surprising from what they have done to the main character in the original story. Even the main character with a good family was treated like that. And if it were me, a man of low status, I'd be treated like this...

(If that's the case, I feel bad for my friends)

It is not that there is a special friendship among the servants who accompany me. Because as seen in the original story, we servants are trained to kill our hearts and fight cold-heartedly, like machines. Even if we are not set up, we do not know many people because we are worn out. In fact, only one in three of my acquaintances is still alive today.