Becoming a god in a low-key way in the supernatural world

At 10 p.m., Kotekawa Kami slung his bag and sword pouch over his shoulder, took a deep breath, and maximized the power of "Nightmare" before quietly leaving the house.

In the darkness, the gaze fixed on his home remained unchanged.

He glanced at it, then looked away and hurried toward the location written on the letter.

The night was dark, and there were few pedestrians and vehicles on the road, a stark contrast to the bustling daytime. At this moment, it felt like returning to the village.

He went to the station, didn't buy a ticket, and walked directly through the station hall, which was heavily guarded by special agents, into the carriage. He sat in an empty seat and thought to himself once again that it was time to get a driver's license or buy a bicycle. Relying on his own two feet every time he went out was really exhausting.

Take this time for example, the place the other party asked him to meet was on the outskirts of the North Ward, near Saitama Prefecture, which was really far from his home.

Soon the tram started moving, and in each carriage, fully armed special agents patrolled back and forth, but they ignored him as if he were invisible.

After gazing at the night view outside the window for a while, Kotekawa Kami got up and got off the train when it arrived at the station.

He continued to use [Nightmare] to cover himself, especially at the exit of the station. Facing an opponent of unknown strength, he could not be too cautious.

He was a swordsman with an indomitable spirit, but he wasn't a fool who would recklessly rush into a trap even knowing it might be one.

Twenty minutes later, he arrived at the place where they were supposed to meet in the letter. It was a rare open space, hidden among several factories.

This open space wasn't ideal for hiding, and maintaining [Nightmare] was also quite mentally taxing. He glanced around briefly and then strode to the other side.

Although it's not even eleven o'clock yet, the other party must be watching this place from somewhere, and there's a high probability that if they don't see him, they probably won't show up.

No matter how thorough the other party's plan was, they still couldn't have imagined that he could not only swagger around like this, but also use his sense of smell to track them.

Although it often smells quite unpleasant, its practicality cannot be denied.

Kotekawa Kami tried to detect the stench he had smelled on the envelope that afternoon, but after walking around the area, his nose found nothing. He checked the address again, checked it on his phone, and after confirming that it was correct, he thought for a moment and expanded the search area, starting to sniff out the nearby streets.

Finally, as he passed a "talent dispatch agency," he caught a whiff of a familiar, foul stench.

He stopped and looked up at the two-story building in front of him, which was not lit, and the infrared camera facing the road.

"Is this the place?" The Nightmare Domain opened, enveloping the building. He stepped closer and sniffed it again.

The stench in the air was faint, almost imperceptible, and rather strange.

Kotekawa Kami circled the building, eventually following a lead back to the open space where he had been, where he discovered several rather well-hidden security cameras.

"That should be it!" He made up his mind, turned back, turned off the power, threw it into his bag, then found an angle, and with a sudden leap, grabbed a half-open window on the second floor and jumped in.

He was so used to jumping out of windows that he couldn't be more familiar with it.

The room was unusually dark, without a single ray of light. In addition to the unique stench of the cannibalistic sauce, there was also a nauseating stench of decay in the air.

Kotekawa Kami felt nauseous instantly and stopped sniffing around. He took out a gas mask from his bag, then a longsword from his sword pouch. Relying on the power of [Nightmare], he turned on his flashlight and shone it into the house.

This is an office, with rows of desks arranged in a U-shape around the room, and blank papers scattered all over the desks and the floor.

Suddenly, he lowered his head slightly and used his foot to move the white paper on the ground, revealing a layer of dark brown substance on the floor beneath.

It was dried bloodstains.

“Someone died right here where I am standing now…” Kotekawa Kami suddenly realized, and a chill ran through him. He looked up abruptly and saw a middle-aged man named Hyou-chan with a broken chest and covered in blood staring straight at him.

The flashlight beam pierced through its illusory body and shone on the wall behind it.

His pupils contracted, and he almost drew his longsword.

The man and the ghost stared at each other silently. He calmed himself down and stepped aside to make way for them.

As expected, the ghost wasn't looking at him, but at the window behind him.

Kotegawa Kami stood beside it, watched it quietly for a while, and then walked towards the door.

The outdoor surveillance cameras are either on the first floor or in the basement.

However, just as he was about to open the door, he heard very faint footsteps on the stairs downstairs.

He immediately turned off his flashlight, took a few steps back, stood to one side, and turned his gaze to the wall next to him.

A faint light shone through the crack in the door, and the door was slowly pushed open.

The person outside hid behind the light, his gaze sweeping coldly around the room. Finding nothing amiss, he closed the door again and left.

Kotekawa Kami snapped out of his daze, his face tense. Just a moment ago, he had almost lost control of his emotions.

Was that person standing at the door just now? And a bald-headed monk at that?

Hmm, he should be a senior monk, not a bald man, because he has ordination scars on his head.

Why is there a monk here?

His thoughts were a little confused. No matter how much he had thought about it before coming, he never expected to see a monk.

"Could it be that a high-ranking monk is trying to mediate this matter? But why? If it really is the Demon Princess, why don't they subdue it?" He stood there in silence for a while, then stepped out of the door and went downstairs.

Just as the senior monk carrying the small lantern reached the top of the stairs, Kotegawa Kami stepped forward and followed him down.

The stench on the first floor was stronger than upstairs. It was strong enough to be smelled even without using one's sense of smell. At the same time, there was a strong aroma of tea in the air, just like the smell in the letter I sent him that afternoon.

Kotegawa Kami confirmed that a high-ranking monk was involved in this matter.

"Could it be that the important figure that Boss Shuiyue mentioned the Ghost Princess has allied herself with is not a ghost, but a human?"

His brows furrowed tightly as he followed the monk into the basement.

The basement was lit by dim lights, and several surveillance cameras were mounted on the wall.

Three elderly monks sat cross-legged in the middle of the basement, surrounding a middle-aged monk, and were silently chanting Buddhist scriptures.

The middle-aged monk exuded a tangible black mist, and his eyes were pitch black, radiating an incomparably chilling evil.

Kami Kotekawa was still baffled, filled with doubt and uncertainty. Could it be that the great monk was possessed by a demon princess? This sounded so fantastical!

Can monks be possessed?

What are they doing now? Are they helping to suppress the demon princess on his body?

The monk who had just gone upstairs to patrol put down his lamp, walked to the group, clasped his hands together, and said softly, "Nothing unusual."

Contrary to what Kamiko Kotekawa had imagined, the middle-aged monk surrounded in the middle slightly turned his head, looked at the monk whose expression was obviously tense, and calmly asked, "Have our guests arrived?"

"We haven't received a reply from them yet."

A silence fell over the air. Kotekawa Kami, standing a short distance away, watched quietly. He would soon find out what was going on.

Sitting cross-legged in the middle, the obviously abnormal monk pondered, "Let's wait and see. If they don't come tonight, we'll think of another way."

“We can’t delay…” The old monk next to him sighed, “The Ghost Princess is too powerful. If we don’t let her settle this grudge soon, she will break free sooner or later and wreak havoc on the world again.”

The two monks beside him chanted a Buddhist prayer in unison, and then began reciting scriptures.

Kami Kotegawa, standing nearby, was even more astonished.

Did they really capture Oni-hime? Then why didn't the Special Department know anything about it? And this doesn't seem to be the same thing as what Boss Mizuki said.

Boss Shuiyue said that the Ghost Princess has found a stronger backer, and even the divine messengers who chased after her were killed and seriously injured... This kind of thing doesn't seem like something a monk could do.

Was Shuiyue lying to him? But that shouldn't be the case. She herself said she was a member of the Inari Shrine—no, a fox spirit of the Inari Shrine—she wouldn't dare lie…

"Is there something wrong with these monks?"

Kotegawa Kami pondered and observed carefully.

Except for the monk in the middle, all the other monks had a compassionate and worried look on their faces.

That doesn't seem to make any problem.

He was completely confused. After thinking it over, he decided to be cautious and wait and see.

The fact that the other party secretly invited him to such a secluded place, monitored him with cameras, and even had surveillance around his home suggests that such a cautious approach is quite unusual.

A dozen minutes later, the monk next to him went upstairs again with a lantern to patrol, just like before. When he returned, he put down the lantern, put his hands together, and said, "Nothing unusual."

The monk in the middle asked again, "Have our guests arrived?"

The old monk beside him sighed, his face full of worry: "We can't delay any longer."

……

Everything that happened and was said was not exactly the same as it had been a dozen minutes earlier, but rather completely identical.

Another ten minutes or so passed, and it was past 11 p.m. The five monks repeated everything from before.

Kotegawa Kami stared at them for a while, a chill creeping into his heart.

Something's wrong! These monks are definitely suspicious!

Putting everything else aside, just the fact that their words and actions are repeated over and over again like a videotape speaks volumes!

"Could it be that they guessed I had the means to conceal myself, so they did this on purpose to lure me out?" Kotekawa Kami thought to himself, his eyes shifting uncertainly. At that moment, his heart suddenly skipped a beat, and he remembered a certain possibility. Maintaining "Nightmare", he turned around and left without hesitation, leaping out of the second-floor window and running towards a deserted place.

He took his phone out of his bag, turned it on, quickly found Shirakawa Kurumi's phone number, and kept shouting in his heart, "Answer the phone!"

……

At this moment, at the entrance of Hakuba Shrine, Shirakawa Kurumi and Mikazuki Haruka looked at the three handsome monks standing outside the door with their hands clasped together and smiles on their faces, their expressions full of doubt.

"Did Kotegawa send you to pick us up to see him?" Shirakawa Kurumi asked, frowning.

The three monks nodded silently.

Kurumi Shirakawa didn't believe it: "Then why doesn't he call himself?"

A monk bowed slightly: "Kou Tegawa-kun is seriously injured and on the verge of death. We came here on the orders of the great monk Mokichi."

"He's seriously injured?" Mikazuki Haruka subconsciously took a step, and the eyes of the three people outside moved at the same time.

But then, Mikazuki Haruka was pulled back by Shirakawa Kurumi.

The monks outside changed their expressions for a moment, but quickly regained their composure.

"Don't worry, something's not right." Shirakawa Kurumi gently comforted her, then pulled Mikazuki Seisakusou a few steps back. Amidst the subtle expressions of the monks, she asked, "Which temple are you from? It's getting late, why don't we go see him tomorrow?"

The three monks shook their heads in unison: "Kou Tegawa-kun may not make it to tomorrow."

"Really?" Shirakawa Kurumi didn't believe that Kotekawa would hang up so easily. She took out her phone and dialed Kotekawa Shinmi's number, but soon, the phone rang with a message that it was turned off.

A slight unease settled over her; she was becoming somewhat uncertain.

Could it be that something really happened to this kid?

Mikazuki Seisakusou watched her with extreme tension.