foreigner's journey

Chapter 496 Black Witch

The stairs are long and steep.

The more you climb up, the more you can feel the moisture of the clouds and mist. Coupled with the looming black witches in the surrounding forest, Heather really has a feeling of being in the "place where the gods gather".

Climbing up the steps, although Heather could climb to the top of the mountain in an instant with his foot strength, he slowed down his steps to the rhythm of ordinary people, fully enjoying the joy brought by the 'journey'.

Approaching the top of the mountain, the frequency of appearance of the surrounding black witches also began to slow down.

After climbing about thousands of steps, I could finally see the dawn above my head, and the mist also faded.

You can already see the end of the stairs, where there stands a huge stone torii gate that is two circles larger than the torii gate on the way up the stairs, which is very magnificent.

"Good morning."

Suddenly, an unusually indifferent voice came from the front. A tall woman was holding a broom and wearing a black priestess costume. She was standing directly under the huge torii gate at the end of the stairs, overlooking Heather.

I can't tell the exact age, but she is a little young, with a majestic bearing.The thick black long hair almost reached the hips, and was divided into two strands. The corners of the eyes on both sides were painted with red eye shadow. His appearance was not stunning but very attractive.One can tell that it is the leader here, because the design of the miko's costume is slightly different from other black witches, and it is more majestic.

"Good morning."

Heather put her hands on the front of the hat and pressed down slightly.

"On the way here, your Excellency should already know about Santu Shrine's exclusiveness towards 'men' and 'samurai'? Out of courtesy, I still want to ask—are you going the wrong way?"

The woman didn't turn her body sideways to let Heather go on. Although she didn't have a samurai sword on her waist, the way she held a broom showed that she was a rare swordsman.

The attitude of rejecting people thousands of miles away.

"Tsuruga camouflage, it's you I'm looking for."

Heather didn't intend to turn around and leave at all, she raised her head and said with a smile.Um?Unexpectedly good figure ah.

The leader of the black witch named Tsuruga Camouflage glanced at the tattered knife on Heather's right waist, and stopped at the empty right arm for a second before looking back at Heather's dew-stained coat. Bamboo hat:

"I'm sorry, it's Your Excellency [Sekiro]."

She bowed slightly, then turned sideways and stretched out her hand towards the shrine: "Please follow me."

Saying that, she took the lead in walking towards the shrine inside the torii gate.

Heather rubbed her chin, her name is quite loud and useful?It seems that no matter which world people are, they like the idea of ​​"a righteous knight with high martial arts skills".

Walking into the shrine with the Tsuruga camouflage, what you see is a magnificent shrine that is no less than a thousand steps and a huge torii gate. It is a beautifully maintained building. (Note 1)

Along the way, you can see many black witches. They are either cleaning the courtyard of the temple with tools, or they are carrying light and heavy sundries.

Seeing Heather walking behind the Tsuruga camouflage, they all stopped and stared at Heather motionlessly.

If separated by such a large piece of talisman paper, it can be regarded as "staring".

"So, the famous 'Sekiro', what's the use of coming to my little Santu Shrine?"

In the main hall, the two sat on the polished dark brown floor, their demeanor was similarly lazy, and neither of them maintained the 'sit upright' in Japanese etiquette.There was a large bottle of sake and a bowl in front of the Tsuruga camouflage, and he poured the wine for himself and asked without raising his head:

"We still have a little bit of self-preservation power. For the time being, there are no bandits or robbers who don't have eyesight to come here to make troubles. I think we don't need Mr. Sekiro to show his heroic appearance."

Heather looked at the empty floor in front of her, and couldn't help curling her lips: "...You guys can be regarded as a 'little bit' of self-protection? I'm curious, how about you [former bandit]?" She will come to be the head priestess of the Sanzu Shrine."

"...Do you understand clearly?" Tsuruga Camouflage's hand holding the wine bowl froze for a moment: "I thought that I and this Santu Shrine were not even 'famous' in Izumo."

Heather laughed, leaned forward and took the whole bottle of wine from the camouflage, bit the cork and spit it out on the floor carefully wiped by the black witches, then picked up the bottle and drank it After taking a few gulps, he took a sigh of relief and put down the wine bottle and wiped the corners of his mouth casually with the old mended cuff:
"The alcohol content is a bit low, but it's still a good wine... [Tsuga Camouflage] is indeed not very well-known, but [Thousand Swords · Shovel] is not necessarily so."

Tsuruga camouflage was still sipping wine with a wine bowl, but his eyes on Heather became sharper.

"Oh, don't look at me with that look, it's scary."

Heather waved her hand:

"When I went up the mountain, I noticed that the black witches were wearing the same style of swords around their waists. Is that [Thousand Swords]? I think you have a thousand witches here, but I can't tell."

Although the shrine is big, it doesn't look like it can accommodate a thousand shrine maidens.

"There are only fifty witches left on the mountain. After all, it is an armed shrine, so the security of the lower realm is also one of the tasks. If they are all placed in the shrine on the top of the mountain, it will overwhelm the place."

Tsuruga Camouflage put down the wine bowl, and the bottom of the bowl collided with the floor to make a crisp sound:

"There are no priests here. Although it is a shrine, it is only in form."

I don't know when, more than a dozen black witches quietly appeared in the hall. They still maintained a quiet posture, but the appearance of wearing a thousand knives around their waists did not seem to be 'no hostility'.

The Tsuruga camouflage did not order the witches to attack, nor did they retreat, but stared at Heather's big hat with sharp eyes:
"Your Excellency Sekiro, I have heard about your deeds. You are a rare hero, a knight, and a top swordsman. Because of this, I can also understand the deadly sword produced by Shikizaki Jizhizhidao against swordsmen Poison. I want to ask, are you here to grab the knife?"

As expected of the leader of the Armed Shrine, he was straightforward, and he had the aura to kill Heather on the spot if he disagreed with him.

Even if the opponent is 'Sekiro' who is known as one of the best martial arts in the country, Tsuruga camouflage has absolute confidence in taking him down.This is the confidence brought by [Thousand Swords·Sho], one of Shikizaki Jiji's twelve completed variant knives.

Heather sighed, took off the big hat, and showed her face:

"It's so ugly... I'm not here to grab the knife, don't treat me like a robber."

When Heather's face, which was not covered by glasses, appeared in front of everyone, the quiet black witches obviously made a slight commotion, as if their minds had been greatly shocked.

The Tsuruga camouflage was hit by Heather's face on the front, and the originally sharp eyes were shaken and flustered involuntarily.

At this time, she could finally understand why the legends about "Sekiro" are always accompanied by the episode where the rescued girl Huaichun sheds tears and ends up sad. With such a face, which woman can bear it!

It can no longer be called 'juvenile and handsome'. Heather's appearance at this time is about thirty to thirty-five years old, with an unshaven chin, slightly curly black hair combed back casually, and a few strokes of black hair from the forehead. The front and ears hang down, and the rest are scattered on the shoulders. There is a faint smile on the indescribably handsome face.

It can be called the best portrayal of words such as "prodigal son" and "knight".

This is also another usage of the foreigner's tinder that he only knew after contacting the little prince—to adjust his age and appearance.Sometimes Outlanders stay in a world for decades, and that's when Outlander Tinder is needed to adjust their appearance so they don't come under suspicion.

Of course, Heather just made this adjustment for fun.

He casually threw the hat at those black witches, and the witches caught the hat in a daze, their minds fluttering.

With her elbows on her knees, Heather sat lazily on the floor, looking at the Tsuruga camouflage:

"Dunhe Camouflage, I know what you are holding [Thousand Swords·Cao] for, and I can help you relieve this trouble."

The Tsuruga camouflage took a deep breath to calm down, and the original lazy sitting posture became a straight sitting: "Oh? Let alone your strong self-confidence in the face of 'Thousand Swords', let's talk about it, my What is the trouble?"

"You will distribute 【Thousand Swords · Shattering】to these thousand black witches..."

Heather laughed:

"Is it to heal their heartache with knife poison?"

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Note 1: The so-called Quanxianzao is an architectural style that connects stone houses and worship halls, also known as Badongzao.

　Thank you for the rewards that burn in nothingness!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)