Chapter 3: An Unbelievable Sight

During the long life of sealing, he had, unwillingly, grown accustomed to waiting.

Before he knew it, the other side of the crack was faintly shining.
A view with bright colors—too long to simply call it “after a long time.”

He leapt forward to peer through it and doubted his own eyes.

Those who walked along the corridors of the house.
Those who went out into the garden to train.
A child running about.

Many entered his field of vision, and then left it.
Every one of them bore wings.

“…Tengu…”

At the utterly unexpected sight, the words slipped out before he knew it.
When had it last been that he had let his voice betray his surprise?

But such things no longer mattered.

In his memory, what had been sealed was a human village.
Yet what he saw from here were Tengu.
There was not a single human.

Could it be—the humans were wiped out?

From those utterly wicked brutes, nothing would be surprising.
To annihilate humans and seize their land—an unforgivable act of savagery.

Crack.

That sound reached his ears again.
He felt the blood drain from his face—even though no blood flowed within him.

He must avenge the villagers.
But immediately after being unsealed, he will not be at his full strength.
He must regain his power, gather it, and make every preparation—so that next time he will not fall to underhanded tricks.

Not now! Wait! Don’t unravel!

The seal he had long resented had, at this moment, become the wall that protected him.
What irony.

Bracing his hands against both sides of the crack, he put his strength into trying to close it.
Something that had not changed no matter how he struck it would not change by this, either.

My life—and the villagers’ unfulfilled grievances—are at stake. I cannot simply stand by and watch.

He tried one thing after another, and before he knew it, the glow had faded.
Yet a single thought rose within him.
Could it be that now is the best chance?

He brought his face close to the crack and looked outside.
Just as he had thought—no one.

Even if someone was there, he could slip away in this darkness.
He could not abandon this once-in-a-lifetime chance.

Having lost his body, fatigue meant nothing to him.
He would struggle as much as it took.