Yamiyo no Hotaru

Chapter 16

In most cases, although youkais are killed by exorcism experts, youkai are powerful beings by nature. No, even the exorcism experts were often beaten back in the old days.

Then, in this day and age, exorcists can slaughter without any danger unless it is against some big youkai or calamity youkai who attack with a set-up or concept attack. Still, they can slaughter them because they have concentrated their spiritual power through successive generations of powerful people, acquired more powerful unusual powers, and acquired the know-how of exterminating monsters at the cost of enormous sacrifices.

In the meantime, a stray sorcerer or a servant with only second- or third-grade equipment, who has not been trained for generations, can only win a one-on-one victory against a small youkai, or ten against a medium youkai, and even then, they have unparalleled power against a mere mortal who does not know how to fight. Of course, the warrior, who also have only fragile spiritual power, put all of their little spiritual power only into improving their physical ability, and they fight against the monsters by using armor like a lump of iron and weapons like blunt weapons, while the soldiers of the Imperial Court, who do not have even a small amount of spiritual power, can fight against most of the monsters by using a large number and concentration of explosive weapons and other flying weapons in large quantities

On the other hand, it would be suicidal, even reckless, to fight a group of youkai if there were only a few or a handful of humans. Although there are individual differences, even the strength of a small youkai is almost equal to that of a well-trained and armed common soldier.

Therefore, it was no surprise to find several dead gangsters scattered in a bar in a bad part of the new city at midnight.

"Hmm, it tastes a little greasy and sticky, but... well, this is what I expect from a place like this..."

The bar is not a large place, but it is crowded with many foxes who are biting and fighting over the lumps of meat in various parts of the bar. The only one, a charming five-tailed humanoid fox sitting on the table, takes a lick of blood stuck on her hand and expresses her opinion on the taste. Unlike peasants, town people, especially gangsters who stay in a place like this, seem to enjoy eating meat a lot, and the taste is not so good, not to mention the nutritional value. However, it was not a problem for them since the meal was only for a secondary purpose. The real purpose is...

"One, two, three, four, five and... six. That's a lot."

The youkai fox counts the survivors shivering in the corner of the bar and mulls it over. It was hard to believe that this was the same man who had just killed over a dozen people in less than a few seconds.

"Hmm, okay. I choose you."

"Huh...? Hgg—!?"

Before the chosen man can scream, a fox obeys her command and bites down on his throat, ripping it open. The man dies in agony, red froth spewing from his mouth and blood spurting from his throat.

The rest of the survivors scream. But no one outside notices the sound of their voices. After all, the bar has already been covered with sound-proofing youkai-jutsu.

"You're being too loud. Why don't you quiet down a bit, you monkeys."

For a brief moment, the female fox turns on her youkai energy with deadly force. With that, they gasp and some of them faint. This was a natural result considering that they were residents of the capital who had never faced youkai before.

"Well, well, is everything ready now? At this rate, we'll have a feast tomorrow."

With a spoon, the monster scooped up a piece of peach-colored "tender meat" from the