21st Century Necromancer

For Chen Yu, academic conferences were utterly unremarkable. After all, these kinds of events were mostly dominated by old men giving lectures, and as a young member of the academic community, he rarely had the opportunity to speak, and what these old men discussed hardly captivated him.

Although Chen Yu was now a full professor at the Tokyo University Medical School Hospital, wasn't everyone attending these conferences a professor too?

To these grandpas with white hair, seniority was a significant matter. That someone as young as Chen Yu, barely in his thirties, was ranked alongside them, had already caused some bitterness. If Chen Yu were to outshine them in any way, that would indeed be offensive.

Chen Yu didn't need to curry favor or show off in front of these elders. With research accomplishments worthy of the Nobel Prize, they may begrudge his presence but wouldn't act against him. Why bother offending them for no reason?

Rather than wasting time on such trivial matters, it was better to properly plan for the evening banquet. Compared to these old men, Miketsu no Kami was genuinely a being whom one could not afford to offend.

With the conference finally over, Chen Yu politely declined the dinner arranged by the organizing committee and quickly returned to the hotel, where he opened the Necromantic Space and brought over Hiromi Jounouchi, who had been waiting for a long time.

"Mr. Chen Yu, do you think this outfit might not be quite appropriate? Given that the Inari God is a deity of Japan, shouldn't I perhaps wear a kimono instead?" Hiromi Jounouchi looked at herself in the mirror of the room, inspecting her evening dress with some uncertainty and asking Chen Yu for his opinion.

In Hiromi Jounouchi's view, since the Inari God was a traditional Japanese deity, their banquet would surely be a very traditional Japanese-style one. Her wearing a Western evening gown did not seem to match the setting.

"No need to worry too much. It's not ancient times now; wearing an evening dress is not considered impolite," Chen Yu, who was adjusting his suit, said nonchalantly to Hiromi Jounouchi, "If you have the strength to make the deities respect you, then it doesn't matter what you wear. But if you lack the strength to even catch a deity's eye, no matter how grand or deity-pleasing your attire is, you're nothing more than a slightly prettier ant."

"Right, you have a point," Hiromi Jounouchi agreed upon reflecting on Chen Yu's words. She stopped fussing over what to wear and instead focused on adjusting her clothes and accessories to look as beautiful as possible.

Once the two were nearly ready, and Chen Yu sensed Suzuhime's presence at the hotel entrance, they left the room together.

Upon reaching the hotel entrance, they saw a very classic Japanese palanquin, and Suzuhime, now in Tang Garment attire, was standing respectfully next to the ox pulling the palanquin.

The palanquin was surrounded by a faint mist, seemingly invisible to the ordinary people around, who went about their business as if the palanquin, while stylistically fitting for Kyoto, wasn't there at all.

Chen Yu and Hiromi Jounouchi could tell that the faint mist was a spell meant to confuse the senses of ordinary people—an inconspicuous yet highly effective one.

"Mr. Chen Yu, Madam Jounouchi, please get in," Suzuhime invited, lifting the curtain of the palanquin and gesturing for them to enter.

Chen Yu and Hiromi Jounouchi boarded the palanquin, and after Suzuhime lowered the curtain, she too took her place on the carriage pole, and the journey began shortly thereafter.

Through the window, Hiromi Jounouchi could still see the Kyoto streets blanketed in the thin mist. She felt as though she had traveled through time, returning to ancient days as a noble lady, walking the streets of the old Kyoto.

The sense of being in a dreamlike illusion made Hiromi Jounouchi feel the evening gown she wore was out of place, so she said to Chen Yu, "Mr. Chen Yu, I'd like to change into a kimono. I'm afraid sitting on my knees will be quite troublesome with an evening gown."

"...Hmm, then go back to Necromancy Space to change your clothes," Chen Yu glanced at the long skirt of Hiromi Jounouchi's evening dress trailing behind her because of her sitting position and, after thinking it over, nodded in agreement to her suggestion.

With Chen Yu's consent, Hiromi Jounouchi opened up the space and returned to the dressing room inside the Necromancy Space Castle, quickly switching from her evening gown to a kimono, also altering her hair accessories and hairstyle accordingly.

Luckily, the dressing room inside the Necromancy Space Castle was already equipped with kimonos, which allowed Hiromi Jounouchi to change quickly. By the time the royal carriage arrived at the Thousand Torii Gates of Inari Taisha, she had already changed and was back in the carriage.

"Thank goodness, I was worried I wouldn't make it in time!" Seeing that the royal carriage had only just arrived at Inari Taisha, Hiromi Jounouchi breathed a small sigh of relief.

Compared to merely slipping on an evening gown, putting on a kimono was indeed much more troublesome, which made her quite concerned about not making it to the banquet in time.

"Even if you didn't make it on time, Hiromi, I would have bought you some time," Chen Yu cracked a joke to Hiromi Jounouchi.

Just as Hiromi Jounouchi hurried back, the royal carriage began to move toward the Thousand Torii Gates.

The Thousand Torii Gates were not a smooth straight path but a winding stone path built up the hillside, full of steps. In theory, the royal carriage couldn't traverse it, but as the ox-drawn carriage entered the Thousand Torii Gates, they suddenly changed; the winding stone path instantly became a straight thoroughfare.

As the royal carriage passed through this straight path, the scenery before them also changed.

Surprised at the completely different scenery from her memory of Inari Taisha and the gradually brightening daylight outside the carriage, Hiromi Jounouchi asked, "Where is this place?"

"If I'm not mistaken, this is the Divine domain of the Inari God," Chen Yu said, looking at the gradually brightening landscape outside the carriage, his expression extremely solemn.

As the royal carriage entered Inari God's Divine domain, Chen Yu had already felt the suppression of this space upon him.

This was not because the Inari God wished to do anything to Chen Yu, but rather an inherent suppression exerted by the Divine domain on outsiders. Even deities whose strength exceeded the Inari God would still be suppressed upon entering their Divine domain, with the stronger entities experiencing greater suppression.

For Hiromi Jounouchi, who possessed merely Legendary strength, this suppression was almost negligible; she could hardly feel her power being constrained.

After slightly adjusting his state, Chen Yu got off the now-stopped royal carriage with Hiromi Jounouchi and, led by Suzuhime, entered the Jingu at the heart of the Divine domain.