Chapter 9: That Shapeshifter, Collecting Clues

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In the middle of the day, people in the streets of Karatsu City caught sight of a tengu with raven-black wings fly over the city with a doll-like beauty in its arms.

Those who saw it were spooked and began to panic while those who only heard about it scoffed and said that anyone who claimed to have seen such a thing in broad daylight must have drank too much the night before.

Yoka preferred shifting into the form of a prehistoric golden eagle when she had to run long-distance errands in the daytime to avoid causing chaos among the ordinary people, but this time, there was no other way.

The young mistress was travelling with her and she insisted on getting there as fast as possible. So Yoka chose to shift into a tengu she had once devoured because it was annoying.

They headed towards Kyuragi Village, a small sprawling settlement along the banks of the Kyuragi River.

This village sat on the southern edge of Karatsu Domain, near a border checkpoint guarded by local samurai and inspectors who would check the identification papers of those travelling in and out of the domain.

Yin ordered Yoka to land in the courtyard of this checkpoint tower.

A samurai guard came running and was startled to see that the doll-like girl who was held captive in the arms of the winged creature now accompanied by a plain-faced maid with her head lowered.

His mouth opened and closed like one of Yuzuru’s broken inventions.

[Read the full story at novelconbini.com!]