LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 52
“Shorter than I thought.”
Jinseong said this while looking at the elder who was pleading with him.
The elder had succumbed to pleasure faster than anticipated.
What was the reason for that?
Could it be due to the synergy effect of Jinseong’s ‘Blessing’ and ghost contact spells of defilement?
Or was it just that the elder’s mental state was completely messed up?
It could be either one, or perhaps even both.
In any case, the elder easily gave in to Jinseong and pledged to be his loyal backing. Moreover, everyone else who had experienced ghost contact also promised to support Jinseong and help his shrine to the best of their abilities.
Wasn’t that quite a good thing?
The power holders were happy to gain pleasure, Jinseong was glad to receive help, and Kenji and Rise had a chance to significantly boost their money, influence, and public recognition under the power holders’ protection. No one faced losses, and everyone was content—what could be better than that?
Instead, he had to seal the water ghosts back into Nendoroids and restrict their activities to only that form, but given how much he was gaining, he could do that gladly.
However, there was one exception.
“Uh, Next Shinto Priest. Something feels off. I see strange, strange things with my eyes.”
The politician who performed the necromancy ritual was the one who faced an issue.
The politician’s previously normal eyes had changed after the necromancy ritual.
Found shivering in a dark bathroom, as if he had come out of a refrigerator, the politician was half out of his mind and needed to warm up for quite a while before he could regain his senses.
Fortunately, even though he had been in cold water for a long time, he didn’t suffer from frostbite, nor did he face any harm from the water ghosts. The water ghosts regarded the politician as possessed, and given that they had plenty of prey to choose from, there was no reason for them to disturb the one already claimed. Thus, he survived without issue.
Instead, his eyes had taken on a bluish hue as if he were wearing lenses. What’s more, that light flickered in and out like a performer hiding a card trick, glimmering with bizarre and horrific images each time it appeared.
Spirit Vision.
He had obtained eyes that allowed him to see those who had neither become evil spirits nor malignant ghosts.
The politician had gained the legendary Spirit Vision capable of seeing souls and hunks of the spiritual realm. And not just any Spirit Vision, but one imbued with a touch of the power of destruction.
Jinseong carefully examined the distressed politician.
“Let’s see. The eyes have turned into Spirit Vision, and your voice and breath sound odd. It seems your lungs might have been slightly damaged.”
Jinseong splashed a bit of water at the politician.
“Ow, it’s cold!”
But the politician showed no symptoms even after being splashed.
“So you didn’t develop a water allergy. Lucky you.”
The necromancy ritual—a ritual that had spread through the internet—and for him to pay such a relatively light price was simply a stroke of luck.
When Jinseong had tried that ritual in the past, he suffered from lung edema to the point of needing surgery and also endured a brain hemorrhage that caused him significant distress. Moreover, after performing the necromancy, he was already in a weakened state from various costs, leading to lingering aftereffects, including inflammation of the lungs.
But even this was considered a lucky scenario.
Some necromancers had undergone the ritual only to end up with water allergies.
Those necromancers reportedly developed rashes just from any moisture touching their skin. In the end, they got injured in battle, bled, and succumbed to a fatal mix of anaphylaxis and hemorrhagic shock.
“You’ve got some good fortune.”
Saying this, Jinseong proceeded to explain the happenings to the politician regarding his body.
Of course, he didn’t directly cite the cost of the ritual; he twisted the words a bit.
“You see, you wanted to experience those lowly pleasures. You wished to rise above those masked power holders who wield absolute power, standing tall while watching them plummet into ruin. You wanted to comfort yourself with the belief that you were better than them, much better, right?”
“Yes. That… is correct.”
“Your wish has been granted. Look. Those whom you dismissed in your heart due to lack of experience have turned into ghosts with swollen bodies, drowning in misery due to their excessive indulgence in water. The elder whom you revered is now wishing to merge himself with the water ghosts of his own accord. And amidst all this, only you—only you—heard their disgraceful spectacle with your ears, without being possessed.”
“Indeed. I heard sounds from outside the bathroom….”
“And one more thing. You now possess a power they lacked and will continue to lack in the future. Your eyes are the evidence.”
“These eyes?”
Jinseong spoke to the politician gazing intently at him.
“Those eyes are called Spirit Vision, a gift reserved for the chosen few. I saw talent in you and bestowed it upon you. Now, you can see souls and feel what others cannot perceive. Yes, in other words, your standing as a human has exceeded that of others. How does that feel? Satisfactory?”
Despite the chaos, the politician was able to grasp the significance of having elevated standing and superiority. As he thought about it, he began to see what had formed in his eyes not as a ‘strange phenomenon,’ but as a ‘blessed phenomenon.’
The turmoil in the politician’s heart subsided, and upon hearing Jinseong’s words about being chosen, his position was filled instead with ‘lowly pleasure.’ The evidence was evident as he felt an involuntary rigidity rising without the need to see sexual intercourse or any erotic scenes.
And Jinseong simply observed that scene quietly.
‘A reaction of righteous energy; if I leave this be, he’ll likely aim to drag me down as well.’
But for now, he still held value.
He thought this while leaving the politician behind and stepping outside.
Now that he had the support of power, it was time to enjoy the festival.
* * *
“Stop talking nonsense!”
A loud voice echoed from a shrine in Tottori Prefecture.
The one shouting was a woman dressed in shaman attire.
With fox-like eyes glaring, she was raising her voice at the other end of the phone.
“There’s only two days left until the festival! And you’re telling me you’re sending a new person?! Plus, what’s with the cargo loaded on the truck? And why did you change the fireworks we planned for the festival?! What is going on here?!”
[ Mr. Kishimoto, I’m truly sorry but there was nothing I could do. Can’t you understand? ]
“Nothing you could do?! Is that something a mayor should say?! Fine, I’ll grant you that—but could you at least drop a hint? Doing this just two days prior is absolutely absurd!”
[ Well, the thing is…. I received sudden contact as well, so I had no choice. ]
“Sudden? Sudden?! Do you have any idea how much cargo is here at the shrine right now?! This won’t get ready in a day! We’re talking at least weeks unless we toss money around like confetti! I thought we had a great relationship starting from previous generations, and now you reward that trust by stabbing me in the back?!”
[ Ah… ]
Kishimoto, the shaman, was expressing her fury without holding back. Meanwhile, workers were continuously hauling cargo behind her, which was, as she described, of enormous scale.
Lumber of unknown use was stacked neatly in the back, firewood already piled to a height exceeding two meters. Moreover, the foodstuffs seemed suspiciously abundant, as if they had cleared out an entire warehouse, and mysterious items marked with caution were dominating not only the shrine’s storage but also found their place sealed in drums and metal boxes.
[ I will apologize later. But since it’s come to this, please handle things well, calm your anger, and make sure to treat our distinguished guests well. They have been sent by someone above me, so don’t let anything disrespectful happen. Never. I trust someone as astute as you, Kishimoto. ]
The mayor, who couldn’t hold back any longer while responding to Kishimoto’s flare-up, blurted out his piece and then abruptly hung up the phone.
“Hello? Hello…! Ha!”
Cut off suddenly, she could only stew in the leftover anger without any outlet for it.
She nearly hurled her smartphone to the ground, realizing that doing so would only hurt herself. Instead, she let out a long sigh and leaned against a nearby pillar.
“What on earth is happening….”
Her thoughts were a jumble.
She couldn’t comprehend the current situation at all.
She vacantly observed the workers moving boxes with fervor.
‘If they can issue orders to a mayor, that means a significant politician is involved. It’s not a festival at Ise Shrine, and for a mere festival in Tottori, what could possibly warrant this level of disruption…?’
“Hmm?”
As she was drifting into contemplation, her eyes caught two figures approaching the shrine.
One man.
One woman.
The man was someone she had never seen before, but the woman was someone she knew well.
“Rise?”