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Last Embryo Volume 8 Chapter 4 Part 4

Next, while he shook off the kids from himself with a single kick while screaming 「Outta the way, brats!」, Sakamaki Izayoi went to the kitchen where we dropped off the curry roux, and then we were on our way to the reception room.

Why was I making my way towards the reception room so willingly? Because with my imagination running full throttle from what the kids were saying, I was looking forward to meeting this 「Super-Duper Beauty」. As for Tatsuya’s whereabouts, we’ll have plenty of time to look into it after that.

However, when I was standing in front of the reception room’s entrance half in anticipation and half in ridicule, I suddenly began second guessing myself.

I should have asked Sakamaki Izayoi about Tatsuya before coming to the reception room and then rush to help him immediately after getting my answers. But now as I was just standing there without entering the reception room itself, I couldn’t stop the nausea and trembling that overtook my body.

For the second time in my life, the chills of death caused dizziness in my brain, developing further into vertigo.

I shouldn’t have come to a place like this after all.

The door of the reception room should not be opened, my intuition was telling me. Even if I would have to bear being weighted down by all of the boys and girls in the facility clinging onto me, I should go and run away right now.

Without noticing any of my inner struggles, Sakamaki Izayoi opened the door and stood in front of the second monster.

* * *

When Sakamaki Izayoi opened the door, two adult women were sitting in front of us.

One is a woman with short blond hair and a friendly smile. When she heard the sound of the door being opened, she turned towards us and waved her hand at us.

Sakamaki Izayoi responded to the woman’s greeting by making a face that looked like it couldn’t be more troublesome for him.

「Oi, Canaria. Weren’t you supposed to be discharged from the hospital next week? Or have you ran away behind the doctor’s backs again?」

「What can I say, I love my home so much that I left the hospital early. Did you get the director’s permission this time?」

「Of course, you idiot. And let me just tell you this: if you fall down next time, I won’t carry you.」
Sakamaki Izayoi spoke such blunt words to the woman while putting his hand on his waist.

It was quite a rude thing to say to a superior, but the woman whom he called Canaria didn’t even look uncomfortable. She just grinned and shrugged her shoulders.

I guess this is just how the relationship between these two is.

Sakamaki Izayoi was still trying to say something, but he noticed the presence of another woman and shifted his gaze onto her instead.

「.……..So, are you the rimored old man Ushimatsu’s legal wife?」

「Indeed I am. And I take it you must be Izayoi boy?」

A black-haired beauty wearing a coat with a flashy butterfly pattern said to him as she played with an unlit smoke pipe in her fingers. My guess was that she must be the woman whom the kids were telling Izayoi about.

The beautiful body line from her shoulders to her chest is really glamorous, and a normal high school student would definitely have trouble meeting her gaze or not knowing where he should look in order not to insult her.

Judging from her Kansai dialect pronunciation, which has a slightly strange intonation, she was probably born and raised here in Japan… is what I thought, but it doesn’t seem like it. Perhaps the Japanese that she learned was picked up from someone speaking with the Kansai dialect.

Her smile has a strong friendly tone, but in the depths of her eyes you could see that she was trying to appraise Izayoi from top to bottom.

「Hmm… I’ve never heard old man Ushimatsu ever mentioning that he was actually married….」

「I am going to stop you right here before you say something that could be taken as extremely bigoted. We are properly registered as a married couple, but it was his wish to not make that fact public. Do you know why?」

「Well, I don’t, but what I do know is that he must have a very good reason for not wanting to make the fact that he actually has a wife public….」

「That’s enough, Izayoi-kun.」

Canaria stopped Sakamaki Izayoi from speaking any further while laughing with a giggle.
Izayoi simply shrugged his shoulders and ended the conversation there.

「Well, whatever. Old man Ushimatsu is the biggest investor in the Canaria Family Home, so I’ll welcome you here for today.」

「Yes, I do like it when people are honest with themselves. Well, I just came here today to show my face to the kids, so as soon as I’ve had a cup of tea… Hmm?」

When Ushimatsu-san suddenly looked at me and tilted her head curiously.

「…And what might have happened to you, boy? Why is your face so pale?」

「………………!」

She was looking at me worriedly, but in the end I inadvertently turned my eyes away from her, but not because I was looking at her body in an inappropriate way. In fact, it wasn’t Ushimatsu-san’s face or body that I was looking straight at. All I was staring at was the thing above her head that shouldn’t exist.

I was wondering if Sakamaki Izayoi noticed that thing as well, but nothing in his current behavior seemed to be indicating that he did. Or could it be that he was actually the same kind of being as her, seeing how he possessed the kind of strength that was clearly abnormal?

Even at my parents’ house, I’ve never seen a metamorphosis of a spirit up to this point. Or rather, it’s impossible for something like this to manifest in this world. Ordinary people shouldn’t be able to breathe the same air as that thing.

With cold sweat running down my body and all of my teeth trembling audibly, I looked over at the thing above Ushimatsu-san’s head one more time.

The horns that peeked out through Ushimatsu-san’s lustrous hair were unmistakaably the horns of a devil.

(I can’t believe it…! Even compared to the demon who protects my family, the Divinity of this one right here is probably three digits, or maybe even less!)

My family – The Tsuchimikado family – is an old family of onmyouji.

Even after the government closed the 「Bureau of Onmyou」in the second year of the Meiji era, the Bureau itself has continued to work as a state-approved secret onmyoji organization, assuming a role that revolved mainly around detecting and warning the government and its officials about major disasters in advance.

However, the Tsuchimikado family does not have as much power as the onmyouji immortalized in legends that are out in the world, and they are only given work to the extent of performing a memorial prayer service once a year as a traditional event.

Or at least it was like that until my sister and I were born.

「Boy, could it be… could it be that you can actually see my horns?」

In that instant, it was as if all the words have been stuck in throat and refused to leave it.

I can only say that it was a miracle that I was able to resist and not out myself with it any sooner.

Ushimatsu-san showed the gesture as if she was touching her bangs, but in reality, she is actually touching her horns.

If I answered that I could see them, I do not know what I would have to face.

When I was desperately resisting my welling urge to panic, a woman named Canaria immediately cut in between us and clapped her hands loudly with a *Pan!* sound.

「That’s right, Izayoi-kun. If you don’t mind, can I ask you to give Ushimatsu-san a tour guide of Canaria Family Home?

「Huh? Why me?」

「Please, just do it. It seems that Ushimatsu-san’s clothes were too stimulating for that boy. She seems to have come specifically to see Izayoi-kun, so give her that much of a courtesy.」

A woman named Canaria put her hands together and winked cutely.

Sakamaki Izayoi then left the room with Ushimatsu-san, albeit reluctantly.

At that time, when she was walking past me, Ushimatsu-san whispered in my ear:

「 I’m going to take those delicious eyeballs of yours one day.」

Cold sweat and greasy sweat overflowed from my whole body at that moment. I am honestly surprised that I didn’t faint on the spot there.

I desperately resisted the fear that stirred my guts, and at the same time as the door closed behind me, I could finally fall onto my knees in peace.