NOVEL WEB Chapter 29
How can I safely blend in?
How can I completely escape from the line of suspicion?
Where can one find a perfect safe zone from watchful eyes all over Japan?
What could the answer be?
“Hiding one’s appearance is a low tactic; disguising oneself is a significant task.”
Jinseong decided to utilize the characteristics of the Japanese people.
Japan is a country where remnants of class still linger even in modern times.
A clear and formidable wall of class.
This is indicative of a nation that hasn’t properly transitioned to democracy; countries like the UK and Japan are prime examples. While the UK doesn’t legally define it, it uses education as a wall to maintain various classes and powers, whereas Japan defines class limits through surnames, creating a ceiling of hierarchy and power.
A prime example is politicians.
In Japan, politicians inherit their positions through generations in a democratic society.
The reason is that their surnames and amassed local power make people perceive it as “natural for them to possess power.”
Moreover, for a long time, it has been regarded as normal to yield to the strong. Consequently, it’s deemed natural to succumb to those who appear to be in power, treating them as the foundation and pillars sustaining that power.
“What a strange country.”
Such a solidified class does not change, even if the superiority of power shifts. Just as the samurai class of the past could not easily challenge the authority of the imperial court and the emperor, a fixed class becomes another form of power—an intangible force.
In modern times, classes have disappeared, and the emperor has been downgraded from a living deity to a human. Special abilities, which were another cause of rigid class structure, have been released to the people in the information age.
Yet, the invisible class remains.
Those who run restaurants must inherit them.
Warriors must pass down their martial arts through generations.
Artisans must transmit their skills to successors.
This is the inheritance of techniques through generations.
Family business.
Power holders have stymied the social ascent of ordinary people under the name of family business, while under the guise of artisan spirit, they’ve turned the uninformed into mere tools for themselves. And illusions have easily infiltrated the Japanese mindset, becoming common sense.
Politicians naturally pass their regions down to their children.
This is common sense.
Professors pass their positions to their children.
This is common sense.
To rise in status, the family itself must be exceptional.
This is common sense.
Thus, the class has solidified, and the Japanese have accepted it.
What Jinseong seeks to utilize is precisely that power of class.
Suppressing with authority.
Preventing questions from arising through power.
How delightful that is!
Hiding or disguising oneself requires one’s own effort to avoid being caught.
But when one gains power, others put in the effort.
Beyond gaining freedom of movement, it alters one’s very mindset.
And here, another question arises.
So, how does one gain the power of class?
“When you gain the heart, everything will be resolved.”
Only the heart.
The heart alone will be the answer.
If one earnestly asks and shares hearts, could there possibly be anything impossible?
“ॐ-”
The shrine is calm.
This calmness is distinctly different from that of a temple; it carries a comfort that envelops one within the embrace of a deity. It stirs a feeling that lightly touches the memories of an embryo submerged in amniotic fluid, causing even birds to perch but refrain from screeching, while visitors come to pray with a sense of reverence that compels them to leave quietly.
Yet for Rise, this tranquility was exasperating.
“Sigh…”
Saigo Rise found everything to be tiring.
The empty shrine.
The excessively high steps that drained her energy with every climb.
Her father’s nagging to uphold the family business.
And even the shamaness outfit she was wearing.
With a deep sigh, she dropped her load and sat on the steps.
“It feels like a collar tightening around me.”
A life laid down on tracks.
She thought of her life that way.
Born in a shrine, educated as a shamaness, destined to serve the deity for life.
At least if she could be a shrine priest, she might feel motivated, but that wasn’t an option.
A shamaness cannot become a priest.
Priests are reserved for men brought in as husbands from outside, faces and names unknown to her.
“So tiresome…”
Yet, even as she recognized that being a shamaness made her life dull, she wasn’t ready to easily cast it aside. No, perhaps it was more accurate to say she couldn’t.
The collar surely choked her life, but at the same time, the name tag attached to it served as a protective barrier that kept her safe from outside pressures.
What she wore and the fine food she ate came from the shrine’s wealth, the favor she received in the community stemmed from the shrine’s prestige, and the respect she garnered wherever she went was simply because she was the shamaness of a well-known shrine.
What would remain if she cast that away?
She wasn’t as intelligent as Airi, who went to Waseda University. She didn’t have the overflowing talent like Mahiro to pursue a career in entertainment. She wasn’t skilled in martial arts like Shiori, nor could she study abroad like Lena who excelled in magic.
Nothing.
What made her special was solely that she was the daughter of the shrine, a shamaness. If she shed that identity, she’d be no different from the citizens scattered about, or rather… even worse than them.
“I wanted to experience some escapism at least…”
That’s why she felt the need for memories in her life, which was predetermined to follow set tracks. Though she had to maintain her purity and couldn’t afford to fool around, she wanted to at least experience a sweet, innocent love like those in books or dramas.
“If not for that ruffian…”
But that small wish went awry from the start.
With her heart set, she dressed beautifully and ventured into town, only to fall prey to some thug.
The man, appearing to be a warrior, tried to coax her with violent and coercive methods, attempting to lead her to a hotel. When she refused, he relentlessly pursued her, acting like a full-blown stalker, closing in as the night drew closer and she had to return to the shrine.
So she was left with no choice but to reveal her divine power and disclose her identity.
It wasn’t just that the warrior was too persistent; it was growing darker, and he was becoming increasingly violent and coercive.
The feeling of crisis pressed upon her, inducing a sense that if she didn’t reveal her identity, something terrible might happen.
However, wanting to resolve the matter quietly, she only aimed to reveal her identity just to send the warrior away peacefully…
But the warrior was far more foolish and dense than she had anticipated.
He didn’t properly sense the divine power she was emitting, dismissing her revelation as a lie meant to drive him off.
So she had no choice but to seek help from those around her.
Naturally, her father was enraged. He firmly protested against the warrior’s sect, Yatadoarangkryu, asserting the need for punishment.
Thanks to the powerful authority stemming from being a prominent local figure and from the shrine’s rich history, revenge was swiftly executed, leading the warrior, who had troubled Rise, to flee the region and be dispatched to Korea.
However, since that incident, she could no longer dream of escapism. Whenever she stepped out, a guard would always accompany her, and whenever she wanted to do something like in a drama, she was prevented from doing so for the sake of maintaining decorum. Luckily, because of her strong will, she could still enjoy watching dramas and movies as much as she wanted, but that was it.
“Ugh…”
Once again, she felt the collar tightening around her, making her breath hitch, and she stood up.
A collar choking her.
But a collar she couldn’t take off.
Perhaps for life…
“No.”
She vigorously shook her head to dispel the increasingly negative thoughts. Then, she turned and walked back up the very high steps towards the shrine. Thankfully, perhaps due to the brief rest, she ascended with relative ease, passing through the red-painted torii.
As she crossed the boundary separating the secular world and the divine ground, the calm divine power she was used to welcomed her…
“Eh?”
It didn’t welcome her.
The divine power she should be feeling upon crossing the torii, which should have flowed to invigorate her, was nowhere to be sensed.
“Is the deity sleeping?”
Rise walked along the usual path towards the main hall, somewhat puzzled. It was meant for offering the gifts she had gathered from the village.
“Are you the shamaness here?”
There, she spotted a strange man.
“Yes?”
He was a large man, towering over her by a head. But despite his height, his body was slender, and the well-tailored suit clung to him like a second skin.
Rise couldn’t shake the thought that the man resembled a rabbit.
“The shrine priest told me to wait here, saying no one should be allowed in. In the meantime, he asked you to organize the ema in the divine storehouse.”
The rabbit-like man spoke respectfully.
“Is my father holding a rite?”
She didn’t doubt the man’s words too much.
It was not uncommon for her father to perform a rite to pacify a deity if someone angered it. She rationalized that the odd feeling of the divine presence when passing through the torii was due to the deity being upset or sulking about something.
“Very well. I understand. Were you waiting to convey that message?”
“Yes, indeed. But please, don’t feel burdened. I haven’t waited long.”
“Still, I feel terribly sorry for wasting your time…”
“No, not at all. I’m just honored to be of any help to the shrine in this manner.”
Rise felt a curiosity toward the man.
Perhaps stemming from her desire for escapism, it was an interest piqued by a man who appeared a little different from the usual faces she encountered. Especially the impression of the rabbit-like man made her think that engaging with him briefly would not cause any problems.
Thus, she might have been slow in realizing.
The man’s impression.
His harmless face resembling a rabbit.
His overly polite demeanor.
The unnaturally safe aura radiating from him.
All of these delayed her judgment.
“Divine storehouse?”
It was only after Rise turned her back to the man and took a few steps that she sensed something was off.
Slowly, she turned back to face him. The man stood in place with that still harmless-looking face, staring at her, and she asked him.
“What exactly did the shrine priest say?”
“He requested some organization in the divine storehouse.”
Her father was a very strict man.
At the same time, he represented the epitome of what a shrine priest should be and believed more than anyone that “names carry power.” That conviction meant she couldn’t even call her friends by nicknames.
Did the shrine priest really request her to organize the ema?
“…Our shrine keeps the ema in the ema hall?”
“Oh, is that so? I merely conveyed what I heard…”
The man scratched his head, looking innocent.
Yet, Rise was not swayed by that demeanor.
“There’s no way my father would say that.”
He was a person who loathed naming things carelessly. There’s no way he would misrefer to the shrine’s buildings.
Rise took a cautious step back, raising her divine power. However, she sensed something was amiss, and her divine energy wouldn’t manifest, leaving her bewildered, alternating her gaze between the main hall and the man.
“Why? What isn’t right?”
To Rise, the man still appeared as a rabbit.
But now… he no longer seemed harmless.