Chapter 204: Tamamo-no-Mae and the Celestial Fox
After that, Noah's life began to stabilize. While on the ship, his daily tasks mostly revolved around thinking about what to do upon reaching Japan. Under such circumstances, he discussed this issue with Mary. Initially, when the pressure was high, he thought about it almost every day. After a while, once he had considered everything he needed to, and before actually encountering any problems, he found himself much more relaxed than he had been in Rome City.
Every morning, he would get up, have a light meal, chat with others, and that would be it for the day.
In the evenings, he would either spend time with Manaka Sajyou or Morgan, or if neither was available, he could always go into his dreams to chat with Mary. But overall, Noah's life was just like that.
This continued until, at this pace, Noah and the others finally arrived in Japan.
"We're here."
As Noah contacted Little Kiara through communication, on the other end of the line, Little Kiara relayed Tamamo-no-Mae's message.
"I'm almost ready on my end as well. In that case, please have Mr. Blue Lancer come to the location I mentioned."
Tamamo-no-Mae was located within the Heian Capital.
But even earlier, she had been able to vaguely sense the situation outside the Great Bounded Field. Now, with Little Kiara's help, Tamamo-no-Mae, stabilized in her Four-Tails state, was able to gather even more information about the location outside.
Although this information wasn't visual or firsthand, based on the description, it wasn't difficult to pinpoint the exact location.
After hearing Tamamo-no-Mae's description, Noah first led his subordinates to land, then had Mary use her Clairvoyance to search for the location Tamamo-no-Mae mentioned.
After confirming that there were no traps at that location, Noah finally brought along hundreds of Ladies of the Lake, thousands of Enforcement Knights, as well as Morgan, Manaka Sajyou, Vivian, and Scáthach to head over.
As for Minamoto-no-Raikou, although Noah had brought her along, he kept her by his side most of the time, planning to release her only after everything was over.
Once Tamamo-no-Mae revealed the specific location, it wasn't difficult to determine where the Great Bounded Field was.
Although the Great Yata Barrier was indeed impressive in terms of concealment, once its location was locked down, Noah and the others wouldn't be completely unable to find it.
And when Noah finally located the Great Yata Barrier, he realized why he hadn't been able to find it for so long.
Although he had heard from Little Kiara that it was even possible to build a city inside, from the outside, the Great Yata Barrier didn't appear to cover a large area—at most, it was the size of a small (or large) village.
Under such circumstances, Noah had been searching based on the scale of the Heian Capital, so naturally, he couldn't find it at all.
"But now I've finally found it. So—let's begin the operation!"
Following Noah's command, the Ladies of the Lake nodded and dispersed around the Great Bounded Field.
Then Morgan, Vivian, Scáthach, and Manaka Sajyou each took charge of one direction, while the Enforcement Knights guarded the surroundings. Noah, relying on Mary's Clairvoyance, kept watch over the area. If any problems arose, he would rush over immediately and resolve them.
The arrangement of the external spell formulas was quick and not particularly difficult.
However, the setup of the core spell formula proceeded a bit slower, requiring Noah and his companions to prepare the materials themselves and handle the arrangement personally. Nevertheless, overall, everything was nearly completed within two days.
Noah then inserted one of his thirteen Holy Spears of the End into the core spell formula.
After that, Noah had no immediate intention of contacting Tamamo-no-Mae. Instead, he directly activated the spell formula on his end, planning to wait until he had seized control of the Great Bounded Field onto the Holy Lance before rushing into the barrier at the fastest speed to resolve the issue directly!
The core reason Noah did not inform Tamamo-no-Mae and Little Kiara was that he wanted the Heian Capital to enter a relatively stable state over the next few days.
He did not wish to see any unexpected incidents occurring within the Heian Capital during this period.
Thus, as long as the Heian Capital maintained its current state until Noah completed his tasks and the ownership of the Great Bounded Field fell into his hands, all problems would be resolved smoothly.
And indeed, the situation inside the Great Bounded Field was largely as he had imagined.
After informing Noah of the location of the Great Bounded Field, Tamamo-no-Mae noticed that Noah rarely initiated contact on his own.
Whenever she took the initiative to reach out, she would receive responses from Noah such as—"We are still searching for the location, and setting up the spell formula also takes time."
Tamamo-no-Mae was not particularly surprised by this.
After all, in her view, only a hundred Magus apprentices with Magic Circuits had gathered outside, and the number of Magi capable of using even a little Magecraft did not exceed ten.
Under such circumstances, waiting a few days—or even two months—was entirely normal.
So, just as Noah had anticipated, after completing the framework of the core spell formula, she settled down completely.
However, while she remained calm, others did not.
During this period, Tamamo-no-Mae had been hiding within the influence of a special spell formula she had set up using the Celestial Bone before its power had fully subsided.
But one day, while eating rice cakes with Little Kiara, she suddenly sensed that someone had breached the outermost layer of the spell formula!
In response, Tamamo-no-Mae pretended as if nothing had happened, sending Little Kiara to find others while setting up dozens of various barriers around the location. Only then did she head toward the intruder's position.
She was highly vigilant about the intruder's arrival.
In her view, the one who had come this time might very well be the Heavenly Fox's shrine maiden—but when she finally met the other party, Tamamo-no-Mae realized that it was not the Heavenly Fox's shrine maiden, but...
"To think the uninvited guest would be the Heavenly Fox herself—this truly took me by complete surprise."
Tamamo-no-Mae's voice remained unchanged, but her brows furrowed slightly.
Upon seeing her, the Heavenly Fox slowly spoke.
"I am the one... Although I had long sensed the presence of outsiders within the Heian Capital, I never imagined they had been hiding right under my nose, and that they would be..."
As she spoke, five crimson tails, seemingly formed of pure energy, materialized behind the Heavenly Fox.
Her aura surged dramatically.
Tamamo-no-Mae, observing this, paused briefly before breaking into a smile.
"So that's it, that's how it is... In that case, I can finally rest easy. I had been wondering—what on earth was I doing, feeling so stressed that I even started shedding fur."
"But now that I have truly sensed your power, I am at peace."
As she spoke, Tamamo-no-Mae's own power swelled, and four azure tails, also appearing as if woven from energy, emerged behind her.
As the Four-Tails, facing the five-tailed Heavenly Fox, she was not the least bit overwhelmed in terms of presence.
Then, Tamamo-no-Mae looked directly at the Heavenly Fox before her and spoke plainly.
"Though I have no idea what you truly are, the fact that you are not me alone brings me immense relief~"
"So... could you kindly leave my home now, mysterious fox lady?"