"You said, you just saw a living woman tied with this red rope not long ago, and she was taken into the mountain lady's house?"

"Aba!"

The little old man nodded vigorously.

"And when did she leave the Mountain Lodge?"

"Abba whoop."

The little old man squatted on the ground and wrote and painted.

"After entering, it didn't take too long to leave on your own? Are you sure she came out on her own?"

「……」

Kamiyagawa had a general understanding of the human figure in front of him when he was still alive.

Then he thought for a moment, and with a wave of words, he severed the red rope of blue-gray flesh embedded in its wrist.

"I was taken to the mountain and left after a while. After less than a day, it appeared in the Pig King Cave quite far away from the mountain and turned into a human being. This does sound like a bit of a problem."

Kamiya bent down and picked up the small cut of the red rope that had been neatly cut and stained with blood.

「?? 大Husband、いつか大Husband になる,なんて思う日々を幾つ重ねた......"

At this time, his mobile phone rang suddenly.

The caller ID is [Nagatomo Genuine South].

"Hey?"

Kamiyagawa didn't think much about it before connecting the call.

"Kamiya-kun, I can dial your number!" On the other end of the phone, Xiao Pingtou's voice was slightly excited.

"Hmm...... You're trapped in another world now, and it's really not that easy to get through to me."

"That, your master, Lord Thor, he ......."

"I already know it. Master met with you and sent you to Shanma's territory. It's not that easy to bring you out, Master told you to wait."

"I'll wait. I mean, Kamiya-kun, I have something to tell you and Thor-sama." Nagasmo lowered his voice a little.

"You say, I'll tell you about it."

"It's about the mountain...... We met a girl who claimed to be Hasumi, and she said, ......"

Nagatomo Masao told the information he got from Hasumi on the phone.

Kamiyagawa also had an impression of the name "Hasumi".

He recently looked up a lot of information related to Ruzuki Station on the Internet, and he can confirm that the famous strange story of "Ruyue Train to Another World" was originally uploaded by a netizen who called himself "Hasumi" in the form of a live broadcast of his own experience.

However, is the "Lotus Fruit" they encountered reliable?

Kamiyagawa is skeptical.

"But...... That Lotus said that there was some kind of connection between the mountain lady and the pig king, and that every once in a while he would send two living people to the pig king's cave as a "sacrifice......

Kamiya held up the small piece of red rope he had just picked up in front of him.

The end of the blood-stained rope swayed gently in the wind.

"It's time to talk to Grandma Shan."

……

"Those people are moving, what are we going to do?"

"Just do it, right?"

"That, where's the little brother of Changyou?"

"Shhh......h He seems to have been in contact with that Thor-sama's apprentice in the human world just now."

"Look over there, he's back."

"Alright, be quiet, the sacrifice is about to begin."

A clearing behind the mountain house.

All the living people who have maintained a certain sanity in the dwelling are gathered here.

Today is the festival day of the mountain grandmother.

The mountain lady had no other requirements for the living people who lived in her place, and the only instruction was that every week, a sacrifice must be held.

All living people who remain sane must attend.

Among them, of course, there are five people who have been specially instructed by "Lord Thor" to focus on taking care of Changyou Zhengnan.

The grass and trees in this clearing are withered and black

Colored volcanic soil***.

In the center of the open space, there is a Fuji mound.

The so-called Fuji mound can be regarded as a large bonsai that restores the style of Mt. Fuji.

A mound mountain was built to resemble the upper part of Mt. Fuji, and the entire surface of the mountain was sprinkled with lava brought from Mt. Fuji to give the original appearance of Mt. Fuji.

In addition, a "mountain trail" will be set up on the "mountain" and a shrine will be set up at the "summit" to completely simulate the real Mt. Fuji.

The Fuji mound at the back of the mountain is about five meters high.

The shrine on the top of the mountain is actually the shrine of the mountain grandmother. The nominations are-

[Asama Okami Daigosho from God]

"The mountain gods have mercy, great grace, so that the plague will quickly retreat, the atmosphere of chasing demons will be hidden, and the people will never forget......

A few people in the crowd of worshippers seemed to be experienced in this matter and took the lead in reciting the prayers.

Nagatomo Masao and others looked at each other and chose to learn from each other.

And for some reason, they learn the ritual very quickly.

After a short period of participation, the process of the sacrifice seemed to be planted in their minds, and it seemed natural to do it.

A large group of students chanted non-stop as they paced back and forth around Fuji Tsuka, climbing up and down, and worshipping.

The way of sacrifice is simple and quaint, but it is surprisingly solemn.

Shan Mu was not at the sacrificial site at this time.

At the top of Fuji Mound, in the small shrine, the bell of the rope swayed and the red door opened to the sound of chanting scriptures.

It was dark behind the door, and it was impossible to see what was there, but it seemed to draw some kind of strength from the people who were sacrificing......

Deep in the mountains and forests on both sides of the clearing, Rabbit Pill, members of the hearse group, and a little old man lurked outside their bodies watching.

They didn't interfere with the ceremony, and kept watching.

……

When Kamiyagawa, who was dressed in a "Oni no Leather Coat" and held an unsheathed character in his hand, arrived at the Yamagu Residence, the living people were still performing sacrifices in the open space behind the house.

There are only those who have too many broken souls in the dwelling.

They were still slumped in the aisles like mud, stupid and numb.

Because of his subordinates, Kamiya was aware of the ongoing sacrifices.

But he didn't care about the fact that the mountain grandmother was forced to obtain faith from the living people who were stranded in the mountain grandmother's residence.

Kamiyagawa went straight through the corridor on the first floor and arrived at Yamama's kitchen.

The heavy door opens automatically.

The hoarse and ugly voice of the mountain grandmother sounded from inside: "My lord, you can make the old woman and I wait for a long time."

Kamiyagawa walked straight into the kitchen with a text in his hand, and saw the mountain grandmother, who was as fat as Roshan, sitting in front of the stove in the kitchen, staring at the fire with a pair of small eyes.

The smell of burnt barbecue keeps coming from the inside of the stove.

"My lord, the barbecue is about to be baked, would you like to try it together?" Shan Ma turned her head and grinned, revealing a mouth full of yellow teeth.

"No need."

"That's a shame."

"I have killed the King of Pig Pipes."

"I know. The strength and means of the adults are indeed extremely strong, and the old woman and I are fulfilling my promise to take the initiative to shelter the living in the residence."

Grandma Shan's words were particularly frank, and she used a bloody stove hook to hook the charred black barbecue in the stove as she spoke.

There was an agreement between Kamiyagawa and Yamama.

That verbal contract, even in the form of a side quest, is reflected in the text of "Strange Tales of Things"-

[The mountain lady in Aokigahara is willing to protect the living in your residence as much as possible, and on the other hand, you must kill the pig pipe king in the Pig King's cave in the north for her.] ]

After the Pig King is killed, this quest is also shown to be completed.

Kamiyagawa doesn't know how "Strange Tales of Things" was loaded into his mobile phone, but judging from his nearly a year's growth experience.

This is the digitization of the world, and the special system presented in the form of a game is very high, and even a god like Takamagahara can be used as a reward.

At the point of side quests, it is impossible for the mountain to deceive the system.

In other words, she really intends to protect the living people in the residence as much as possible.

There is a system to endorse the mountain grandmother, which is also an important reason why Kamiyagawa did not choose to evacuate Nagatomo Masao and others directly from the mountain grandmother's residence, and was willing to come over to talk to the mountain grandmother.

"You say shelter, is that how you shelter?" Kamiyagawa took out the small piece of red rope stained with blood and threw it to the mountain grandmother, and his tone was unpleasant, "As far as I know, the living person who carried this red rope was brought into the mountain grandmother's residence by you before I killed the pig sashi king. And now, she's turned into a human near the Pig King's Cave, is there nothing to explain about it?"

"Huhu-it seems that some underestimating adults have planted eyeliner near my residence, and such a small thing can be noticed by them."

"I'm not here to hear you praise my men."

Speaking of which, Grandma Shan's attitude is still very calm, and she is still in the mood to take a big handful of greasy and burnt barbecue meat with her stubby hands, stuff it into her mouth, and say while eating with her mouth full of oil:

"Woman, I'm really protecting those who are alive, right. To tell you the truth, there is a pact between me and the King of Pigs."

Kamiyagawa didn't answer.

The facial expression covered by the leather coat is slightly darker.

It seems that the information that Nagatomo got from the girl who called herself "Hasumi" was right.

"I have agreed with the King of Pigs that we will not invade each other, that it will not set foot in my mountain dwelling, and that I will not go to its caves. Those living people scattered and lost in the sea of trees, I can take them away when I meet them, and they can eat them when they meet them, without interfering with each other."

"The only condition is that every year I will choose two living people from among the living people who remain in my dwelling, and who have not lost too much sanity, and who are enough for the King of Pigs to eat several times."

"As long as two a year, you can ensure that the other people who stay in the mountain house are safe and sound. Don't you think this is a good deal, my lord? You could interpret this as my offer to the pig king with a slight concession, but it's only symbolic."

"After all, the Pig King doesn't really want to fight me, and I don't want to fight him. If we fight, we will only lose both. How nice it would be to stay on both sides of the sea of trees in peace."

Yama doesn't seem to be reluctant to talk about the "content of the transaction" between her and the King of Pig Pipes.

And Kamiyagawa was silent when he heard this.

He didn't expect that the transaction between the pig king and the mountain grandmother would be like this.

"Huhu-" Yama swallowed the greasy barbecue in her mouth and grinned again, "Your Excellency looks surprised. I thought you would say that I don't have the right to decide who lives or dies in my dwelling."

"But actually, I don't think so? After all, if I hadn't made a peace treaty with the Pig King, and instead chose to go to war with it, there would never have been so many living people in the mountain basking house. Even, if the Pig King breaks through the mountain dwelling, Huhu-My lord, when you come to Aokigahara, there will only be a handful of living people you can see."

"I protected them, and I saved most people's lives."

Kamiyagawa didn't reply, but unconsciously rubbed the hilt of a word with his fingertips.

"So the day before I defeated the King of Pigs, you sent a living person to the King of Pigs?"

"Because the time I agreed with the Pig King has arrived. I'm not sure about my wife, but you're going to win against the King of Pigs, right?"

Sacrificing a small number of people for the survival of the majority sounds like the classic "tram problem".

The "tram problem" is unsolvable even in the real world.

Whatever you do, you will be subject to a certain degree of "moral judgment."

In the world where there is no morality to speak of, it is even more impossible for Kamiya to use this to enforce justice to the mountain basking in this way.

"But you chose to let most of them survive just to gain faith from them."

Kamiyagawa finally

Still, he let go of the hand that was holding on the hilt of a word knife.

"That's right!"

Grandma Shan nodded, the fat on her body shook, and a strange light flashed in the pair of small eyes that were almost covered by the horizontal flesh on her face:

"I never said that I was noble to those who lived. They were profitable for me, so I chose to let most of them live. And I don't care too much about the lives of individual living people, so I can make peace with the Pig King. I don't want to really fight and die with that wild boar for a few people. My wife, I'm a weird thing in the final analysis. My lord, ordinary strange talk will not be as profound as you, and they are all about eating people."

In a sense, Shan Mu is indeed a neutral in the inner world.

Even chaotic neutrality is neutrality.

Kamiyagawa: "Why did you kill the Pig Pipe King?"

"Whew—because the boar is getting more and more greedy, and it wants to increase the number of births I give it each year. If I let it once, there will be a second, a third time later. Over time, there will not be too many living people left in the mountain basking house. Now that I have the opportunity to borrow your hand to get rid of the King Pig, I naturally want to give it a try."

"The abacus is good. Even if I didn't kill the King Pig and only seriously injured him, you can go to the King Pig Cave to pick peaches later. Directly reap the benefits of the fisherman, and become the most powerful strange story in the sea of trees."

"Whew."

Grandma Shan grinned with yellow teeth, not admitting or denying it.

Kamiyagawa didn't go into the topic, but changed the question and continued to ask, "Why are you so attached to your faith?"

"That's a strange thing my lord said. If I want to strengthen my tiny Godhead, I can't do it without faith. Oh, but you say attachment...... Aokigahara Jukai may be a little different from where you're used to staying. It has fallen here, and after having a certain godhead, it is easy to become an evil god without faith as an anchor. Now that you have gotten rid of the King of Pigs, you must have seen it."

"Jukai has fallen? Because the former mountain god was it? It seems that when we first met, you really hid a lot of information from me."

"Huhu-like you didn't trust me at the time, I can't trust you completely as soon as we meet, right? And even if I didn't say it, don't you already know this yourself, my lord?"

"Huh." Kamiyagawa sneered, "So is trust established between us now? Tell me, is there an area like a source for the fall of the sea of trees? Where is the one?"

"What adults have to do is something I admire, even if I can't guess why you're doing it." Grandma Shan's small eyes flickered, "But since you can deal with the Pig King unscathed, it may not be difficult for you to explore the source of the fall."

"Just tell me where it is."

"At Mt. Fuji Pass, my lord." Grandma Shan said with a smile.

Fuji Pass.

Aokigahara's map is very large, and it does include Mt. Fuji in the Satomi world.

And Kamiya River has not yet tried to climb it.

If the source of Jukai's fall was in the crater, then it is likely that Hikoyama was also there.

Kamiyagawa: "One more thing. You know, one of the purposes of my coming to Aokigahara was to get out the living people who were trapped here. If you want their faith, you should try to stop me, right?"

"How's that, my lord. If you can get them out, just do it. There is no conflict of interest between us, and if we return to the world that belongs to them, those living people will still worship me. It would be even better if their actions could infect more people."

"Oh?"

The mountain grandmother seems to have an ability.

It can drive the sane existence to a certain extent, or she can plant some shallow consciousness in the mind of such a subject.

Let them instinctively do something that is not too resistant.

Sending the living to the pig king is done in this way.

Shan Ma doesn't need to follow.

Kamiyagawa also knows a little bit about this.

After all, the little old man reported that the housewife with the red rope had left the mountain house by herself.

After confirming this, Kamiyagawa did not stay in the mountain grandmother's kitchen any longer.

Just kick the door and leave.

"If you don't stay a little longer, don't you really eat barbecue? Whew—"

"No need."

Between him and Grandma Shan, there is nothing to say for the time being.

Next, Kamiyagawa plans to take a break and try to make his way to Mt. Fuji in the Sato World.

Nagatomo Masao and the others can only be temporarily placed here in Shanmao.

The [Aokigahara] map has been pushed to the present, and the main quest has progressed.

But the branch line of [Ruzuki Station] doesn't have a good idea yet.

At present, the only speculation is that the mysterious girl who called herself "Hasumi" that Changyou and they met might have any clues on her.

Regarding Hasumi, Kamiyagawa explained to Xiao Pingtou when he called just now, and if he meets her again, he must pay more attention.

And also through the anger with the little brothers who are watching outside the mountain house, focusing on this girl, if she appears in the mountain house again, report it as soon as possible.

And he himself is going to push the main line first.

"I hope that in the process of doing the main story, I can get a clue about what branch lines I have."