CH 242

Chapter 242 – Partial Destruction

“I’m going to pull these followers you went through all the trouble of gathering over to my side. Even still, you won’t punish me?” (Kagaya)

“Those who have gathered here are not my slaves. Besides, if they leave here of their own volition, that is the same as leaving the nest.” (Sayuri)

“….Sayuri-san, you are too naive. I doubt that you will live long in this world.” (Kagaya)

I thought so too. Well, when it came to that, Aoyama would probably just cover for her again.

Hearing that the person she loved so dearly was being insulted, Aoyama directed a piercing gaze at Kagaya.

Kagaya slowly lowered her gun and exchanged a look with the other followers. As if reading her intentions, they began to arrange their belongings.

“I will ask you one more time. Are you really sure you won’t follow me?” (Kagaya)

Those words were directed at me. It was amazing to me that she could still attempt to persuade me after she had threatened to kill me so many times.

“Unfortunately, there will be no such connection between us.” (Torimoto)

I thought she would try to kill me here, but she simply lowered her gun and let out an exaggerated sigh. She seemed to have judged that if she tried to kill me here, Sayuri and the others wouldn’t stand by quietly. It was probably a mistake for her to have deliberately fired a shot to scare me.

With this many followers on her side, it would have been more efficient for her to capture me and threaten me with knives. She kind of shot herself in the foot with that one. Well, in my heart, I simply said ‘serves you right’.

After that, Kagaya and some of the followers left the church in several cars. I quietly watched them leave with Sayuri and the others.

“Are you really sure about this? More than half of them just left, you know?” (Torimoto)

There were some followers who had made preparations to leave at any time and immediately gathered at the cars and left with them after noticing the movements of Kagaya and the others.

“Torimoto-san… I think this is fine. They made this decision of their own accord.” (Sayuri)

“But most of the people who left were from the hunting faction. We’re a bit shaky in terms of our combat power now.” (Aoyama)

Kagaya was the first to leave, but it was easy to guess that she would gradually draw in allies. After the ones who were primarily in charge of fighting left, the combat power of the religious order would experience a sudden drop.

Now, they were in a situation where they would be at a severe disadvantage if they were ever to get into any conflicts with organizations like the Hosen Group.

“We don’t need anyone who refuses to believe in Founder-sama. This may have been a good opportunity for us to drain out all the bad blood.” (Aoyama)

“Kanade-chan, that’s going a bit too far.” (Sayuri)

Aoyama spoke harshly as she watched Kagaya and the followers leave, unable to suppress her anger. But Sayuri calmly rebuked her.

“But what now? If we continue to hunt men, we will have to deal with all sorts of problems, like our combat power, won’t we?” (Sayuri)

If they sent out people who weren’t accustomed to fighting, there was a high likelihood that they would get killed. Plus, most of the people remaining now weren’t the fighting type.

They hated men. But now, there weren’t many who wanted to kill all of them from the bottom of their hearts. After all, most of them had left along with Kagaya.

The ones who remained now were those who weren’t comfortable around men or wanted peace and felt more at ease alongside other women. In other words, they originally were of the moderate and gentle type. It would be difficult for them to take up weapons and start hunting men.

“I’m fine with that. It was Kagaya who started the hunting of men in the first place.” (Aoyama)

Aoyama revealed a sour smile.

“Eh? It wasn’t Sayuri-san herself who issued the order to hunt men?” (Torimoto)

“Sayuri-onee—er, Founder-sama was just responding to the wishes of the followers. Although, I do also think that this world would be better without men.” (Aoyama)

I understood that very well from our confidential talk last time. Aoyama felt that there was no worth in men, who had hurt Sayuri in the past.

“But in some respects, I’m glad it turned out this way. Some of the followers didn’t agree with the hunting of men.” (Sayuri)

Well, an organization like this couldn’t be completely unified. Unless you brainwashed everyone, it was impossible for them all to hold the same belief or ideology.

Some of them might have been pretending to hate men and putting on an act to blend in with the others around them.

“So when you told Otaka-san at the meeting that you refused to stop hunting men, was that out of consideration for the feelings of Kagaya-san and the others?” (Torimoto)

“…That was because I couldn’t let the followers start fighting amongst themselves at that moment. Besides, I had already made up my mind at the time, and I couldn’t let myself be pushed around.” (Sayuri)

“So you won’t be hunting men in the future?” (Torimoto)

“If most of the followers want peace, that is the only thing I will strive towards.” (Sayuri)

…Does this person even have a will of her own? She always left things to other people to decide. That was no different from being dead while still alive.

…Ah, I see. I guess I had misunderstood her all this time.

…She had already died at that time, when Yaichi-san and her children were killed. That was when her heart died. That was why she had no will of her own.

But she couldn’t just die, and as long as there were still people who depended on her, she wanted to keep on devoting herself to them. She believed that this was the only value that she had left.

Thinking about it, what Kagaya did was a clear act of betrayal. It was normal to be angry, and, as the head of the organization, she should punish her.

However, Sayuri didn’t let her emotions run rampant, and she simply watched quietly as Kagaya and the other followers left.

Sayuri said that they were just ‘leaving the nest’… but it was nothing of that sort. Sayuri was just incapable of speaking out or acting on her feelings anymore.

Maybe she really did want to. Perhaps she really did want to be angry at the betrayal.

But most likely, her heart was already shattered, and she wasn’t able to feel proper emotions.

…It’s tragic, people breaking…