Chapter 107: The Joy of Liberation for Rin
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 107: The Joy of Liberation for Rin
A single ray of sunlight fell upon the gloomy city.
Holes opened up in the ceiling of clouds, and the tattered dark clouds, unable to hold their form, dissipated.
The darkness scattered.
The sun rose over Vestia.
Not the artificial sun Rin had created with her magic, but the real sun.
Beneath the warm, shining sun, the city was peaceful, as if nothing had happened, with only the traces of something having surged from the ground remaining.
Nowhere were there any signs of the yokai.
The lesser yokai had burned away in the sunlight without a trace, while the higher-ranking yokai who had endured it were slaughtered mercilessly as they floundered in illusions.
Only a handful of the most powerful yokai, the leaders, managed to escape through the Spirit Gates with their lives barely intact.
The other yokai had learned a harsh lesson about the true meaning of a being who could challenge the heavens—the Gumiho, who had once reigned at their apex.
She was on a different level.
A different dimension.
An untouchable, overwhelming power.
Even the greatest yokai were no match for a gumiho who could toy with fate as if it were a plaything.
Only Rin stood tall beneath the sky.
It's all over.
Karami thought, looking up at the cleared sky.
The Night Parade of a Hundred Demons had passed.
No one had come to harm because of the gumiho.
Now, being with Rin no longer meant a twisted fate or misfortune. Having vanquished even the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons, Rin had gained the power to overcome any adversity.
This also meant the conditions for Rin's complete liberation had been met.
In Rin's story, "the heavens" was not a tangible enemy but an abstract concept. It could be interpreted as a god, but in this case, it was fate.
Fate is a great net woven from invisible threads. No matter how you try to escape, the threads catch on your fingertips, pulling other threads, entangling your body until you cannot break free.
In the end, you resign yourself to it, calling it destiny.
Misfortune is also a part of this irresistible force. Like a stray ember swept up by the wind that grows into a great blaze, misfortune arrives without warning and burns everything away.
In the face of a natural disaster, any human effort is but a tiny ripple.
The Calamity Fox, who brings disaster.
The pink fox, who brings misfortune.
The gumiho, who twists fate.
The condition for liberation was for Rin, who embraced all the world's ills, to overcome them without giving up. Her growing number of tails was proof of her will made manifest.
Let's see... Shall I wrap things up now?
There would be no problem in liberating Rin right away, but as her master, there was one more thing he wanted to do for her.
*
The day after the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons.
The yokai were gone, but the city's disarray remained. Amidst the confusion, posters bearing the royal seal—the lion insignia—were put up on bulletin boards throughout the city.
A dog beastkin named Poppy, with striking white hair and pink pigtails, ran around spreading newspapers.
The headlines decorating the front page of the newspapers and the bulletin boards read:
-The Gumiho, Hero Who Saved Vestia from the Yokai-
"What? The gumiho saved Vestia? What is this nonsense?"
"Isn't this fabricated?"
"But it says Princess Hilde and Yuhwa of the Celestial Pavilion are actively endorsing her!"
That Hilde.
That troublemaker was taking the gumiho's side.
Hilde, who had brought soldiers to capture the gumiho, had done a complete 180, causing confusion. The impact was even greater because Hilde was considered the next in line to the throne, set to succeed the old and ailing Lion King.
Furthermore, the Celestial Pavilion, Vestia's largest merchant group, was also protecting her. Those heartless profiteers were siding with the gumiho.
The citizens couldn't help but be astonished.
It was all a scheme orchestrated by Karami.
Of course, he hadn't lied.
It was true that Rin had saved Vestia.
Even if she was also the reason it happened in the first place.
Of course, having famous figures on her side wasn't enough. The most important factor in changing the atmosphere was public opinion.
The cat people mixed in the crowd began to wag their tongues.
"Actually, I saw the gumiho fighting yesterday, meow. She stuck a spear of fire into a dokkaebi the size of a house, and it couldn't even move, meow."
"Ghosts were breaking into my house, nya, but then there was a flash of light and they just melted away! I was wondering why, and it turns out it was thanks to the gumiho, nya!"
The battle of the Night Parade had taken place across the entire city, so there were bound to be many eyewitness accounts.
The gumiho had fought for them.
Since the gumiho was so infamous, few believed it easily, but it was enough to plant the seed of doubt—Could it be?—in their minds.
No more misfortune would befall them, so as time passed, people would begin to see Rin differently.
Looking down from the Celestial Pavilion at the strange atmosphere on the street, Karami smiled with satisfaction.
"What do you think? With this, won't you be able to walk the streets with your head held high?"
"No matter what anyone says to Rin, Rin will win now, right?"
"Let's learn to solve things with our heads and our words, not with force, like a proper fox."
As he said that, something occurred to Karami.
"Solving things with heads and words... I suppose you could say foxes and slave traders are similar in that respect."
"Mm..."
It was nothing much, but Rin was happy even about such a trivial thing as being similar to her master.
"I can't help but be surprised again and again. To think you would truly save the gumiho from her misfortune."
Yuhwa, seated at the round table, let out a hollow laugh as she watched the two of them.
The ambition Karami had declared when he had come to see her that day came back to her vividly, along with the look in his eyes.
-Rather than follow the unseen will of the heavens, isn't it a hundred times wiser to care for the pitiful child right in front of me?
-In the end, countless innocents will suffer. Are you not concerned about the harm they will face?
-Then I'll just have to raise her well so that doesn't happen. I've raised a few before, and I know how to create a world where no one gets hurt.
She had thought it the arrogance of a reckless youth, but he had ultimately kept his word.
And yet, for someone who cried out for a world where no one gets hurt, he didn't hesitate to burn his own body as fuel.
"What a reckless and foolish man."
"This girl agrees completely."
"But that must be why he can defy the Mandate of Heaven."
"..."
Heukbi, sitting with Yuhwa, stroked her teacup.
Both Yuhwa and Heukbi had foreseen Karami's death, or his downfall. The Mandate of Heaven was something no mere mortal could resist. It was a command from the heavens, fate itself, life itself.
How could they not be astonished that this man, weaker than anyone, had overcome it with his own will?
Moreover, despite having a gumiho who could hold the world in her palm as his slave, he did not use her to satisfy his own selfish desires.
If the gumiho had fallen into someone else's hands...
No, that was a meaningless hypothetical.
If it hadn't been Karami, the gumiho would never have escaped her fate in the first place.
Was this, too, fate?
Or was it the result of a human's choice?
No matter how much she pondered it, Heukbi could not give a definite answer.
"Whatever it is, isn't it a fine sight?"
"Well..."
"She may be mischievous like a gumiho, but she is not a bad child by nature. I think if you talk with Rin, you two could become friends."
"I will consider it."
Just as Yuhwa and Heukbi were chatting quietly, Karami and Rin approached them.
"Is there something you wish to say?"
"I came to thank you for everything."
"What have I done? It was all your doing. It seems you're planning to leave Vestia."
"My business here is finished."
There was no longer any reason to stay in Vestia.
At the mention of leaving Vestia, Rin's interest was piqued.
"Master, where are we going?"
"No, Rin. Only I am going."
"Huh?"
Rin tilted her head, not understanding his words.
Karami smiled gently and clapped his hands.
Clap.
The shackles bound to Rin's soul were released in time with the sound.
"You've worked hard until now."
[[The Fox Who Brings Misfortune] has been liberated.]
*
Immediately after defeating the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons, Rin felt a sense of freedom that others could not comprehend.
The sensation that the fate trying to make her miserable had been severed. She felt a sense of relief, as if a sticky spiderweb that had bound her body had fallen away.
She would no longer endanger her master. She could now proudly stand by Karami's side.
How sorry she had felt all this time.
Whenever something bad happened to Karami, she felt like a sinner, unable to lift her head.
But not anymore.
Her hardships were over, and happiness was about to begin.
Or so it should have been.
"Huh? Huh?"
Rin reflexively patted herself down.
The shackles... the shackles were broken.
The bond connecting her to Karami, which not even death could sever, was gone.
"M-Master? What did you just do...?"
"Do you remember what I've told you time and again? That being a slave is not a good thing. The time has come, so I'm giving you your freedom."
"W-What are you talking about, Master? Did Rin do something wrong again?"
Karami's farewell notice, that he was leaving her behind, had been delivered. The shackles of subjugation were undone. And yet Karami, the one who had dropped this bombshell, just stood there smiling brightly.
"Haha, it's not like that. I told you I'd free you from your misfortune, didn't I? So I have to free you from your slave status, too. I'm giving you true freedom."
"B-But Rin is fine with it! Rin likes being Master's slave!"
"Now, now, that's a terrible thing to say. You can't go around saying things like that, Rin. And since you're not a slave anymore, you don't need to call me Master. We're equals now, so you can call me Karami."
Karami, not Master.
The change in address felt nothing but awkward to Rin. She was struck by the sensation that an invisible wall had been erected between her and Karami.
"Ahh! Freedom! Liberation! Don't those words sound wonderful?"
Unaware of her feelings, Karami was ecstatic.
While he had to liberate Rin anyway, from Karami's perspective as a modern person from Earth, he was simply doing the right thing.
Liberating beastkin slaves is abandonment?
They have pet-like characteristics?
That's a case-by-case thing.
Just look at Hilde. Isn't she screaming to be set free?
Rin had been a slave since she was a little girl who couldn't even speak, and because she had grown so accustomed to a life of slavery, she simply lacked the capacity to judge right from wrong.
Of course, it wasn't Karami's role to teach her the merits of freedom. He was a slave trader. He only taught slaves. He had to leave to save another pitiful slave.
Instead, the good people around her would teach Rin how wonderful freedom was.
Surely, Rin would come to realize it too.
"From now on, you don't need permission from someone like me. You can eat what you want to eat, and do what you want to do. You're free, Rin!"