The whole venue went dead silent.
The golden tiger, whose claws had been capable of tearing through cattle and horses moments ago, now dangled helplessly in mid-air like an orange cat being scruffed by fate, its limbs pawing uselessly at nothing, a whimper working up from somewhere deep in its throat.
Shin's fingers — capable of crushing coal into diamonds — were sunk deep into the tiger's thick hide and muscle.
He hadn't snapped its neck outright. That wasn't sentimentality.
[System Message: Non-human trait detected — Eight Immortals' Beast (fragment): Golden Tiger]
[This non-human trait is a baseline deviation. It is one of the fundamental laws governing this world's operation. If the executor restores this being's sanity, 500 points will be awarded.]
It was because the moment he'd come into contact with the beast, the group chat had fired off a system notification flagging the tiger's unusual nature.
More tellingly, he could sense it through direct contact — from the tiger's crimson, lifeless eyes, there wafted the same sense of profound wrongness he'd felt from the controlled citizens. The tiger, too, had lost its mind.
Even the animals got hit…
Shin stared into those blood-red, vacant eyes.
Identical to the Japanese civilians thronging toward Heian-kyo in frenzied reverence.
Taking the heaven-has-mercy principle into account — and the fact that the tiger hadn't actually hurt anyone yet — Shin grabbed it by the scruff and held it there.
But the situation wasn't over yet.
Sniff…
A small, stifled sob came from near his feet.
He looked down. The black-haired girl was still on the ground, her pretty face bloodless with shock, her small body trembling. But her eyes — young as they were — held a thread of stubborn, unflinching determination.
Something about that look nagged at the back of Shin's mind with a strange familiarity.
"Fujiwara no Mokou?"
That's odd. With how little regard Mokou's father actually had for her, she shouldn't have been brought along on a trip like this. So why…
Shin's unease deepened. In ancient times, it was already unusual for a nobleman to drag his young daughter along to something like this. But now, looking around, it wasn't just Prince Kuramochi — every other noble and their entire household had come.
The strangeness just kept adding up. It was almost as if the "Kaguya-hime" up in that pavilion had deliberately gathered the population into Heian-kyo.
"It's alright, little one. Go find your father."
Shin didn't bother with the nobles and samurai around him who were standing with their mouths hanging open, staring at the sight of him casually restraining a tiger with one hand.
He gave her a gentle pat on the head. Ripple energy rolled out from his palm like warm water, washing over the girl — dispersing the shock that could have damaged a young child's mind.
The tiger got tossed back into its cage. The sheer force of the throw made the iron bars ring like a bell.
The beast landed and didn't even dare roar — it just curled in the corner and shook.
"My god — the strength of this man—"
"He subdued the tiger with his bare hands — is he some warrior sent by the gods?!"
A wave of astonishment rippled through the crowd.
And then, cutting through all of it, came a laugh from the top of the pavilion.
"Pfft — hahaha…"
The laugh was soft, but it landed in Shin's ears with perfect precision through all the noise.
That was it — the "Kaguya-hime" on the platform had laughed. And Shin felt her gaze settle on him.
If the Kaguya in the group was a homebody with a hint of useless-NEET energy, then the owner of this laugh was something else entirely — the Goddess of the Moon herself, looking down from the heights of a silver sky across ten thousand years of the mortal world.
She was ten times more "Kaguya" than Kaguya. Shin was even starting to wonder if the one in the group was the impersonator.
Clap. Clap.
"Splendid. Truly splendid."
The silhouette behind the curtains shifted.
Two clear handclaps rang out — in a voice more melodious and magnetic than even the Great Witch's, warm and unabashedly pleased.
"You there. You have the strength to subdue a tiger, and yet you chose to show mercy to the weak… Would you care to come up and speak with me?"
The speech patterns, even the characteristic turn of phrase — identical to a certain NEET princess. Hearing it from this source made Shin distinctly uneasy.
He was close to convinced that Kaguya had somehow slipped out of her bamboo already and was just messing with them all for fun.
Though Shin, who had been coerced by the Great Witch into playing along with plenty of her own schemes, wasn't exactly in a position to complain.
[Spreading Witch Factors (temp account)]: @Moon Princess — Your Highness, are you sure this isn't you?
[Spreading Witch Factors (temp account)]: You haven't already escaped and decided to put on a little show for us, have you? Very warm welcome, received, thank you.
[Moon Princess]: Excuse me, do I look like someone with the energy for that?! I'm still sitting here waiting for you to come and get me out!
[Moon Princess]: [photo]
The photo was of the interior of the bamboo — a wall of green and black. Clearly nothing to do with whoever was behind that curtain on the platform.
[Moon Princess]: But I'll be honest — fake or not, whoever this person is, they've got the manner and speech down perfectly. I acknowledge the craftsmanship. Respect.
She needs your approval? Shin thought, looking back up at the platform with growing suspicion toward the group chat Kaguya.
Meanwhile, the "Kaguya-hime's" invitation sent a shockwave through the crowd.
Those nobles who'd been barely keeping their composure now turned to stare at Shin with eyes green with envy.
They'd bankrupted themselves, brought treasures beyond price, and gotten not a single word out of the beauty. And this nobody ronin had earned an audience by brute force?
Of course, Shin had a creeping feeling the woman up there had noticed him long before this, and was using the tiger incident as a convenient excuse to call him up.
He narrowed his eyes, surveying the brightly-lit pavilion.
Strange as the situation was on every level, he had no reason to back down.
As an Ultimate Being — if he was scared of this — he might as well go back to the Witch's Island and spend the rest of his days giving the Great Witch foot massages.
"Since Kaguya-hime has extended her invitation, it would be the height of rudeness to refuse."
He palmed a [Rift Talisman] and kept it quietly in his grip.
He wasn't worried about Melusine — Melusine's combat power at baseline could flatten a country, and after releasing her True Name there was nothing that could stand against her. What was there to worry about for someone of that caliber?
Under the scorching glares boring into his back, Shin climbed the stairs of the gold and silver pavilion, one step at a time.
The air inside was heavier than it had been outside. The fragrance here was overwhelming — it wasn't a physical thing but rather the manifestation in the physical realm of that "beauty approaching the Tao." Any ordinary mortal who walked in here would have had every corner of their brain filled with those three characters — Kaguya-hime — like a fog far worse than being bewitched by the Grace of Miquella.
He reached the top floor quickly enough.
The moon was falling like water across the floorboards up here. There was no crowd noise — just the silence.
And then — the moment Shin arrived and took in the scene —
His expression shattered.
"Lancelot?!"
To be continued…
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