Volume 2 - CH 140

A portable shrine loaded with many rice sacks took a long time to reach the front gate of the castle.

The Oni carrying the portable shrine were drenched in sweat and breathed heavily.

Along the way, they had to rehydrate and change the carriers many times, and yet even the Oni seemed to be exhausted by the weight of the portable shrines.

However, the Oni who rarely have a chance to exert their full strength, looked refreshed and cheerful in spite of their exhaustion.

The Oni who were watching over the group were distributing drinks to the carriers, along with words of thanks for their hard work.

Among them, the only one who was keeping a cool face was Den, who continued to command the portable shrine.

Den was still raising his voice all the time.

Den got off the portable shrine, rubbing his throat, and seemed to be quenching his thirst by getting a glass of water and drinking it in one gulp.

The place where the portable shrine is now stopped is the South Gate.

There sat the portable shrine with a large drum on it that Reizen and the others were carrying.

Various drums of various sizes are lined up around it, and the Oni, dressed in happi coats, are standing in front of the drums holding bachi (sticks).

But perhaps due to the lack of light, it was too dark to distinguish anything more than that.

“Alright! Reizen-dono! I’ll take care of the rest!”

Den exerted his last ounce of strength and shouted out.

Then he clasped his hands together powerfully and concentrated his strength.

” 【Light】 “

Suddenly, a myriad of firefly-like lights appeared and headed simultaneously toward the portable shrine on which the drums were mounted.

Then, the lights around the portable shrine began to glow.

Apparently, there were lanterns hanging around the portable shrine, and they gradually began to light up.

At the very front were five Oni sitting in front of a small drum.

Behind them, a waist-high drum was placed on the ground.

There were eight Oni standing behind the drum.

Two of them faced each other and held their bachi to the drum on top of the portable shrine.

In the center, farthest to the rear, was an overly large drum, which was unoccupied.

It is even larger than the drum on the portable shrine.

But I was more interested in …….

“Why is Reizen up there?…”

For some reason, Reizen was standing on top of the portable shrine.

He was wearing the same happi coat and holding a bachi.

I guess he is completely eager to do it.

I wonder when he was practicing …… though.

I didn’t even hear the sound of drums when I was walking through the village. ……

Then Raiki came walking by.

He was dressed the same as the Oni who were playing the drums, and he had an unfitting happi (a headband) wrapped around his head.

“Thank you all for coming. I’m glad you’re enjoying yourselves. Now, on to the final act of the evening! The final performance of the evening will be the taiko drumming! The sound of the taiko drum, which plays out our true nature from the bottom of our hearts, is the most pleasant of all. The theme of the performance will be 【 Kaen-Ohka】 (Great Flame of Passion)! Everyone, be sure to remember our true nature!”

After that, Raiki stepped forward to the unoccupied drums.

He then lifted with both hands the extra-large bachi that lay at his feet.

“Oh, ……, the lord of the castle himself is going to strike.”

“Are you surprised?”

“That’s right. …… I was surprised. But, Uchikage, I just realized after it got light, why are there no young Oni here?”

With the lanterns on, I was able to get an idea of what was there and what kind of Oni were there, but the Oni standing in front of the drums were all old Oni.

The youngest would only be Reizen.

“Do you remember what Raiki-sama said earlier?”

“Hmm… about something like a true nature thing?”

“Yes. Only the old Oni know the true nature of Oni. If they don’t know that, they won’t let you hold the bachi. I still don’t know what that criteria is, so it will be a long time before I can perform. .…”

“I guess Uchikage has a long way to go.”

“Tsk…”

Only Oni knows the essence of such a thing.

I’m not an Oni, so I’m not supposed to understand this stuff, but I guess there’s something to it.

So why is Reizen over there …….

“I think he was just filling the quota ……”

” Understandable.”

Let’s just say, it’s something like that.

“Hisui. Is that an instrument?”

“Yes, it is. You might be surprised at how much noise it makes.”

I heard the voices of the Princess and Alena nearby.

I looked over and saw them standing right next to each other, holding hands and looking friendly. (Oooo, spicy)

They seemed to have noticed us and came trotting toward us.

“Huh? Hey, Uchikage. Don’t tell me you haven’t found the two of them since then?”

“Ugh…….”

“Ouren! They are all drums!”

“Ah, that’s right. Raiki seems to be playing the biggest one there.”

“Amazing. ……”

Alena is already looking forward to hearing how they will perform.

It’s like she was pretending to be so subtle about it.

“Hey! Hisui! When is it starting?”

“Fufu-. It’s already started, you know?”

“Eh!?”

That didn’t occur to me either.

When I focused on it, I saw that a faint but high-pitched drum was being thumped.

That’s a really small sound.

A small, flickering spark.

Sometimes the wind that blows into it makes the spark bigger.

The high pitched drums create the foundation, and the big drums in the background represent the breeze.

I wondered if the occasional clicking represented the sound of the blazing flint.

I could hear it from time to time, signaling to me that a spark was being made elsewhere as well.

Yet the sound is pleasant.

I would say that what is being represented now is a domestic safe fire in the household.

Each and every home has a spark smoldering in every one of them.

At one point, however, the tune changes all at once.

The drums that represented the small sparks of fire continued to beat, but the next moment, the drums behind them began to play a loud sound that seemed to shake the earth.

The sound was wild and frantic, echoing deep within my body.

My heart beats faster, but I can feel that even my heart is trembling.

” 【Thunder Noise】 “

Do-do-do-do-on!

The sound echoed throughout the place as if a thunderbolt had struck.

However, the tune of the taiko drums changed drastically in response to the thunderous sound.

Finally, the portable shrine on which Reizen and the others were seated made a move.

The big drums were being violently beaten against the big bachi.

What a hazardous situation.

The explosion sound spread around the area.

The drums, which were the sparks were already stopped, and everything began to be expressed as a unified fire.

The high pitched drums stopped expressing the flames and started expressing the trees and wood burning and crackling.

The earth-shaking sound was not enough to describe the fire.

A wild explosion that almost splits the earth begins to dominate the place.

Great flame of fire.

The character for “火,” which means a flame that burns up a little.

Even such a flame becomes dangerous when it gathers.

And it becomes a big …… big enermous fire.

So at last Raiki made his move.

The bachi is raised high in the sky and swung down.

The sound of the explosion was so loud that I thought my eardrums would burst.

I thought my eardrums would burst, but the sound hit me deep inside.

I looked around me.

Everyone was slightly shaken by the force of the sound.

This is the sound that reveals the true nature of the Oni.

Indeed, the sound of being slammed into the depths of one’s body feels strangely powerful.

I found myself listening to the performance with sweaty hands.

The Oni seemed to be the same way, listening to the performance with a thin smile on their faces while being overwhelmed by it.

Then I looked at Alena, who was most excited…….

She was watching the performance with a sparkle in her eyes.

Her mouth was still agape with amazement.

She seemed to be pressured by the sound that was hitting her deep inside, but she was holding her chest with one hand and trying to listen to it thoroughly.

Then the earth-shattering sound rang out again.

The blaze still seemed to be gaining momentum, and the drummers were trying their best to express the intensity of its power.

The Oni were already beating the beat of the drums, not just hitting the drums, but beating the drums to the beat.

Raiki once let out a loud shout.

The earth-shattering sound of the drums pierces through my body again in time.

The tune has hardly changed since the music became more intense.

Then the Oni, who had been beating the small drums, began to make their move.

Once they seemed to hide behind the portable shrine on which Reizen was standing, they came out with a drum on their shoulders, about the size of a small pack of drums.

Carrying it, they beat the drums as they walked.

A series of sounds rang out, and the tune the drum played was completely different from that of the larger drums.

I wondered, what is that?

I tried hard to hear what it was expressing, but I still couldn’t quite understand.

The blaze, on the other hand, did not lose its momentum.

Now that the sound of burning trees was gone, it seemed that the intensity of the flames alone was being expressed.

Then the tune of the sound played by the Oni carrying drums changed drastically.

They had been playing in a disjointed and irregular manner until a few minutes ago, but they began to beat in unison in the same pattern.

And then, as if enraged by this, another explosion of sound pierced through their bodies and rang out.

It was like a fight between music and sound.

The intensity of the sound was far more intense than the previous ones.

The rumbling is supposed to be a sound.

But I couldn’t help but stomp my feet.

Then I finally understood what the drums were expressing.

It was the extinguishing flames.

The flames are now fighting the extinguisher.

The tune changed to one that repeatedly repeated pushing back and being pushed back.

But then, the drumming of Raiki’s drum strengthens the momentum of the flames.

The extinguishers dance and walk around the fire, determined not to be defeated by it.

The tune is constantly unchanged.

If you understand what the sound is expressing, you can see the dramatic story within the song.

We always use flames without thinking about it.

If handled correctly, it is a major presence that constantly supports our lives.

However, if it is handled incorrectly, it can become a ferocious enemy that takes away our lives.

One mistake and the flame has sublimated into a huge fire.

That great fire consumes other sparks and further increases its intensity.

Then the appearance of the fire suppressor.

The firefighters, in an attempt to stop the flames from spreading, destroyed the buildings.

Perhaps it is too late to stop the fire.

Gradually, the drums representing the fire suppression become quieter, and the drums representing the big fire increase in intensity.

Finally, there were no more fire suppressors, and what remained was the big fire.

It has sublimated into a roaring fire.

Finally, after one loud, triumphant roar, the fire suddenly disappeared, as if it had done its job.

The taiko performance came to an end.