Chapter 40 Let’s Wreck the Seiryuusai Festival with Evil Dragon!
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
”As head of the clan, you’ve done well to fulfill your duty.”
At the mouth of the cave, lit only by the faint flicker of candlelight, Shiryuin Seiichi from the branch family was already waiting. A cloth mask marked with Miasma-warding sigils hid his face, and his whole body was wrapped in a protective suit like he was handling toxic waste. It was his way of saying, without words, that he saw me—the head of the main family—as something defiled. Contaminated. Unclean.
Even if he spoke politely, there wasn’t the slightest attempt to hide the disgust underneath. To them, someone who returned from the Underground Temple, a land soaked in deadly Miasma, was nothing more than walking filth.
”We’ll be purifying your body now. Please place your garments here.”
Seiichi gestured toward a basket, always stepping back when I stepped forward, and forward when I stepped back, keeping an exact distance between us like I was contagious. Around us stood other masked Shiryuin clan members, all waiting to perform the ritual purification to cleanse me before I could be allowed on the surface.
Living in the Underground Temple meant my body built up layers of Miasma; if I weren’t the head of the main family—someone born with extreme resistance to curses and Miasma—I would have dropped dead long ago.
They only wore those thin Miasma-warding cloth masks, nothing like Seiichi’s full-body gear. It was like he wanted to make sure I saw just how much he despised me. I scowled, but did as told, stripping down until nothing was left, placing every layer of clothing, even my shoes, into the basket.
Then I wrapped myself in the thin white robe they gave me—what you wore for cold-water ablution—ready to step into the sacred pool by the cave and wash the Miasma away.
”I know this must be exhausting, but please bear with us a while longer,” he said.
”Don’t worry about it. The Shiryuin Clan’s rites have to be followed exactly.”
The pool of sacred water burned like needles stabbing into every inch of my skin the instant I stepped in. They called it purification, but really it was torture—forcing the Miasma soaked into my body out through every pore, like heat bursting up and needles pricking from the inside out.
In modern terms, it was basically a full-body detox, and it hurt like hell. But this was the kind of pain you just had to take. Part of the ritual, part of the role.
Whoa… it’s actually turning black. Like ink bleeding out. How is it even possible for a human to survive being this contaminated…
Gasps rippled from the clan members lined around the pool. The sacred water was going pitch-black from the Miasma pouring off me. Not just what had built up in the Underground Temple—but the deeper corruption from being bound body and soul to Yaten.
I’d gained perfect immunity to Miasma by drinking Yaten’s milk, so this didn’t harm me, but if I’d walked around outside without purifying, I would’ve been spreading death with every breath.
By the time the pool—big as an elementary school gym—was completely black, the last of the poison had been forced out of me. I felt a bit bad for whoever had to clean this up. The surrounding trees were already withering, the ground around the pool cracking into dead earth. It would take years to restore this place. But that was someone else’s problem. I pushed the thought out of my head.
”This is… astonishing. Did nothing happen to your body or mind, Inji-sama?”
Seiichi actually stepped back, eyes wide like he was looking at a monster. I couldn’t even blame him. No normal human could survive that much Miasma and stay alive. It was proof that my body had been marked, reshaped, made to match the mate of the Evil Dragon Yaten—and proof of Yaten’s possessiveness, making sure no one else could ever touch me.
”I’ve adapted to Miasma. Honestly, being this soaked in it actually makes me feel better.”
”I… I see. As expected of Inji-sama, current head of the Shiryuin Clan.”
Pretty sure he meant “monster” under his breath. Not that he’s wrong.
Even without Yaten involved, anyone chosen as the head of the Shiryuin Clan was never quite… human. We were bred like racehorses, generation after generation, only for spiritual potential.
Our ancestors pulled in every kind of blood they could—famous spirit mediums, priests, even half-divine, half-yokai mixed-blood children—never caring if it diluted “human” blood as long as it made us stronger. “Chimera” probably fit us better than “human” by now.
That might be why I could even mate with Yaten, an Evil Dragon. So yeah, I could understand why the branch family feared us. It wasn’t hatred. It was instinct—a primal fear of something stronger than human. That’s what Seiichi felt, deep down.
”Has the list of Seiryuusai attendees changed since last time I checked?” I asked.
”About thirty more have joined. As usual, foreign dignitaries from all over will attend. The clan’s prestige is certain to impress.”
”Good. Make sure all preparations finish smoothly.”
”Understood, Inji-sama.”
After a thousand years of tradition, the sequence never changed. Once my purification ended, the real work began: memorizing the faces and names of every attendee. Forgetting a guest’s name was the ultimate sin for the host. Hundreds of them—names, faces, family lines, even their personalities—I had to have it all down cold.
”If my old room’s still there, I’ll use it to prepare.”
The Shiryuin estate was enormous, home to over five hundred people if you counted main and branch families. To protect the bloodline, they always had spares—kids bred as insurance in case the current head died.
My own siblings, hidden from the official family register, already numbered forty-seven. Besides sealing the Evil Dragon, part of my duty was to eventually father countless children with spiritually gifted women, just to keep the bloodline strong.
Yeah. Even sisters, if no problem arose. From a distance, our clan was terrifying. A thousand years of customs had twisted us until this was normal.
I really don’t wanna see them… my sisters look at me like I’m just a stud horse, and if Yaten finds out, she’ll go on a murder curse rampage…
It wasn’t that we hated each other. It was just… complicated. My siblings were completely steeped in the clan’s way of thinking. They were proud to be descendants of the nation’s guardians. They’d die without hesitation to protect the clan’s honor, putting the family above themselves. They truly believed the best way to preserve our superior bloodline was to produce children only among ourselves.
To them, bringing in “lowborn” blood from outside was unthinkable. Incest wasn’t taboo here—it was just expected. Even kids born from it were treated as normal. It was eugenics taken to its extreme. Falling in love was one thing, but making kids with your siblings just for the sake of the clan’s glory… it was horrifying.
”Did the family grow while I was in the Underground Temple?” I asked.
”About five more. Two sets of twins and a set of triplets. You now have twelve nieces and nephews, Inji-sama.”
I don’t want any part of this. No contact. Ever.
The Shiryuin Clan had always been traditional, but this level of moral collapse was new. It started when advances in genetic engineering found a way to remove the dangers of inbreeding. My oldest sister, Shiryuin Mikoto, had been the one to prove it worked—by bearing children with our brothers. Brilliant, but impossible to reveal in modern Japan. So they did it quietly.
They were doing it constantly now. If I didn’t destroy the clan during this Seiryuusai, this nightmare would spread even deeper into the bloodline. Even Seiichi, normally scheming behind his polite mask, looked genuinely disturbed. Clearly, while I was away, incest had stopped being taboo here altogether.
”Make sure none of my family are allowed near my room,” I said flatly.
In that instant, Seiichi and I were perfectly in sync. Our eyes met through his mask, and we both nodded. He’d keep them away. Once I severed the clan’s traditions for good, I planned to cut ties with them forever. After that, they could go rot or breed themselves into extinction for all I cared.
But not around Sakuya or Uigetsu. I’d make sure of that. They didn’t deserve this poison anywhere near them.
Soon, the Shiryuin estate came into view beyond the sacred grove. The place was absurdly huge.
”To honor your service, the entire clan has gathered to welcome you home, Inji-sama.”
Thousands of lanterns lined the gates, each one carried by a blood relative. Even distant cousins had come from all over Japan to see the savior of the nation return. The roar of the crowd was so loud it shook the ground, even from here, where the people looked like tiny dots swarming the gate.
These people didn’t know how twisted the main and branch families’ relationship really was. To them, I was a hero—a messiah who kept the Evil Dragon sealed. I kept walking toward them because I had to.
”…May this be the last time they ever welcome me like this,” I muttered.
”Did you say something, Inji-sama?” Seiichi asked.
”It’s nothing. Just talking to myself.”
And with my mutter lost under the roar of the crowd, I drew in a quiet breath and stepped toward the gates of the estate, ready to finally walk back into the place I hadn’t seen in a year—ready to break a thousand years of Shiryuin tradition to pieces.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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