"And the stone bridge. I heard that the pool was originally a small stream, but then it became a deep pool. The small stream flows from the other side of the sea, and there are monsters from the sea who follow the stream here, and those who like the scenery on the mountain come directly to live in the pool......"

Qiao Xi kept smiling and holding the teacup and listening to Mr. Sato tell some monster anecdotes that were widely circulated in the human world, until he talked about the stone bridge over there, and Qiao Xi suddenly interrupted him.

"Are there any monsters in the pool under that stone bridge?"

Mr. Sato said a lot, and his mouth was dry, and he saw that Qiao Xi had been listening with a smile, and he didn't have any special expression, thinking that he was worthy of being a noble young master, and this quiet ability was something that these people would never learn.

At this time, Qiao Xi finally had a look of surprise on his face, and asked again, and Sato Ken slapped his thigh excitedly at the moment.

"Of course there is!"

In the pool is a man-eating fish demon - a legend that has been passed down in this town for a long time.

The yokai of this era are not very active compared to the Heian period, and occasionally some of them appear in this life, and it is easy to make waves.

This is how the story of the fish demon under the stone bridge was told.

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About 200 years ago...... Maybe it was more than a hundred years ago, but in short, many years ago, the story happened when the deep pool was not a deep pool.

There is a stream that flows down from the top of the hill and feeds several villages below.

In order to make it easier to walk, people built bridges over the stream, and at first they cut down tall trees and put them on the bank, which made it a little unstable to walk, but it was stronger than when there was no time.

After a long time, there were many people walking, and this single-plank bridge was very inconvenient, so some people proposed to build a larger bridge.

The larger bridge is easy to walk, but it is not easy to build at all, and there are many procedures from beginning to end, first of all, it is necessary to lay a solid foundation.

On the day of the start of construction, a terrible fish demon appeared in the stream and ate the people who were working on the water at that time.

At first, the people of the village only saw the stream flowing down from the mountain inexplicably dyed red, and then they looked at the mountain from a distance, and saw a huge fishtail on the mountainside, and when it slapped in the air, rows of trees fell, and the rumbling sound was incessant, and the dust that rose almost blocked the whole mountain.

After the tremors, the water flow at the foot of the mountain gradually decreases until it disappears.

The people in the village were scared and helpless.

They had been living on the water flowing down from the mountains for generations, and when the water suddenly broke off, it was okay for a short time, but after a long time, not to mention that there was no water in the fields, it became tricky to eat and drink.

Several villages gathered together to discuss it, and invited an onmyoji and a few brave villagers to go up the mountain to take a look.

At this look, I found that the original stream was broken on the mountainside, converging into a deep pool, the pool water looked deep and black, and at a glance, I saw a hideous huge fishtail sweeping from the water, and several people were so frightened that they immediately ran down the mountain.

The Onmyoji is also a half-- the people in the village are relatively simple, and when they see the charm he makes shine, they think he is a powerful Onmyoji - of course, there are really powerful Onmyoji, and they can't afford to invite such a reason.

In short, it was this half-hung onmyoji who saw the fishtail from a distance, and was scared faster than the villagers at the moment.

Everyone ran out in a panic where to catch the right direction, and when they felt safe after running for a while, they turned around and found that more than a dozen people had scattered.

In the end, only three or two of them managed to return to the foot of the mountain, and even the onmyoji folded on the mountain.

In this way, the fish demon by the stone bridge established its legendary status.

It's been like this for many years, until a few years ago, that is, not long after Qiao Xi returned to Fengyue Shrine, the fish demon under the stone bridge didn't know whether to leave or how, in short, there was no more evil for more than half a year, and the people in the village discussed it, and repaired the half-finished stone bridge many years ago for the convenience of travel.

In the years since, Ishibashi has been uneventful.

———————————————

"Maybe it was when the bridge was being built that the dragon turned over, and those people were frightened and misunderstood."

After listening to Sato Ken talk about the origin of the Ishibashi Fish Demon, Qiao Xi didn't know why, and his heart tightened unconsciously, but on the face, he still made a guess.

Sato Ken waved his hand, and said mysteriously: "No, no, no, it's definitely not the earth dragon turning over!" After that, the people who went up the mountain every month would disappear, but it was real, they were all eaten by the hateful fish demon! ”

"That doesn't mean that the fish demon is doing evil, maybe there are other monsters on the mountain."

Qiao Xi subconsciously retorted.

This made Sato Ken look at him in some surprise.

Qiao Xi has always been peaceful, and when talking to people, he rarely has such a direct refutation or even some-for-tat reaction.

It wasn't until he met Ken Sato's eyes that Qiao Xi blinked that he realized that his emotions seemed to be a little intense.

He shook the teacup in his hand vigorously, lowered his eyelashes to avoid Sato Ken's surprised and puzzled gaze, the corners of his lips curved, and said, "Xiaosheng is just a little curious." It's rare to see such a clear and unambiguous monster story as a circulating plot. ”

Kenko Sato glanced at him suspiciously, didn't see anything, and didn't dare to look more, so he touched the beard on his lips and laughed.

"That's right, it's just some monster anecdotes, I don't know if it's true or not—I've never seen any monsters on the stone bridge anyway."

He laughed a few times, and finally felt that the atmosphere was a little weird, so he didn't stay long and said goodbye to Qiao Xi.

————————————————

Qiao Xi sat on the corridor with a teacup, and the remaining half of the water in the cup was already cold.

The yard is very quiet, only the wind gently blows through the leaves and the rustling sound, and the little monsters who are playing and playing on weekdays don't know where they have gone at the moment, which makes the whole yard become more and more quiet, gradually, it seems that even the wind has stopped.

- The silence in the courtyard made Qiao Xi can't help but palpitate.

The sun tilted from directly above until it fell into the low wall next to it, and disappeared, only the orange-red clouds proved that it had not completely disappeared.

As soon as Sa Dou pushed the door in, he saw Qiao Xi sitting under the porch with a teacup and his eyes down, because he was slightly bowing his head, his long hair hung down and cast a shadow on his face, and the staggered light and shadow made his expression a little unclear.

“…… My lord? ”

Sadou paused, turned around and closed the door, and called him softly.

Qiao Xi's fingers moved, raised his head slightly, the hair in his ears fell on his shoulders with his movements, he smiled at Sa Dou, and then put the teacup in his hand beside him, his eyes calm.

"Sass...... Who is it? ”