Well, in any case, having received a full explanation of the situation, Mōha chose his words carefully and said:
"So it means: 'Mani-hime came chasing after Yasutaka, who left on a warrior's pilgrimage to become a man worthy of her hand'? Is that right?"
"Exactly right, sir. Though this old woman thinks that even if he trained his whole life through, he'd never be worthy of matching with Mani-hime, that treasure among humankind."
"Don't just slip an insult in there like that!"
"Eh? What's that? 'Exactly right,' you say? Ha ha ha! Seems the cockroach has finally come to understand himself."
"I didn't say that! Quit pretending you're hard of hearing!"
Yasutaka snapped back at Granny Moon, who tossed out her poison so casually.
Mani-hime said gently:
"I don't mind any of that at all... I was going to tell him that just having Tacchan around makes me happy, but he'd already left, so I came chasing after him instead ♪"
She said this while sticking out just the tip of her tongue.
She said it so lightly, but it was an outrageous thing to have done.
Travel in this world was no simple matter.
It was also a fearsome world where monsters ran rampant.
Two women traveling alone was not something to be done so easily.
Mōha asked, looking puzzled:
"Still, wasn't traveling as two women alone difficult? There are plenty of bandits and highwaymen about, and with monsters and demons running loose across the land, it's remarkable you made it all this way."
"That much can be managed well enough, sir. Princess, if you would summon your shikigami."
"All right."
At Granny Moon's word, Mani-hime drew a single talisman from within her robes.
"Come forth, Medea!"
Fwooosh...
A shikigami emerged from within the talisman!
To look at her, she seemed a beautiful woman with black hair, unclothed.
But her lower half was that of a spider, eight legs writhing and skittering beneath her.
Through the onmyō arts practiced by onmyōji, they employed composite spirits called shikigami to accomplish all manner of things.
The one Mani-hime called Medea was one such shikigami.
"Since the princess serves as the shrine maiden of Lord Chūō Gaisetsu, the Insect King, she can wield the onmyō arts just as you see. She's not nearly as weak as she looks. Well, being a shrine maiden, the prayer arts are properly her calling, but the princess is said to be a genius among geniuses, so something like this is child's play for her."
"Ah, I see. So that's why she wears the shrine maiden's robes."
Mōha nodded, satisfied by Granny Moon's explanation.
In this world, many gods existed, and naturally, each god had shrine maidens of their own.
Praying to a god to work miracles was called the prayer arts, and since Mani-hime was a shrine maiden, that was properly her true calling.
But in this world, depending on which god one served, other arts could be learned as well.
Among these, the onmyō arts could only be wielded by the followers of two gods and their kin: Chūō Gaisetsu, the Insect King, god of the Insect-folk, and Shinō Reiju, the Forest King, god of the Forest-folk.
In other words, Mani-hime held the hybrid position of both shrine maiden and onmyōji.
Granny Moon spoke up, continuing the thread:
"This old body has been a Noh Master since long ago, you know. So long as I have this mask, honed and refined over all these years, I won't be losing so easily."
So saying, Granny Moon drew out from within her robes a rabbit mask set with a crystal at its brow.
A Noh Master was one who donned a 'mask' to transform and do battle.
Their strength lay in the fact that modifying a mask allowed for all manner of transformations, while their weakness was that one could only transform into as many forms as one possessed masks for.
Still, by switching masks one could wield ever-shifting power, and handled skillfully, that made for a fearsome strength indeed.
As they talked on, Mani-hime clapped her hands together.
"Well then, now that we've finished talking, let's go home, Tacchan!"
She rose to her feet as she said this, but Yasutaka hurriedly cut in:
"W-w-w-wait a second! Um... I've still got jobs I've already taken on that I need to see through properly! And I've got to clear out of my apartment too! Just give me a little more time!"
"Ehh? We don't need any of that, do we?"
Mani-hime puffed out her cheeks just slightly at Yasutaka's desperate attempt to stall, but Granny Moon spoke up as if offering counsel:
"Princess. Even a cockroach like this one must see his obligations through properly. Since this hopeless cockroach has things he must attend to, let us leave him be and go home ahead of him to wait."
"H-hold on, we're not going home, are we? Don't just casually steer this toward going home, Granny Moon."
"Is that so."
Granny Moon pretended to scold him while nudging things toward going home, and Mani-hime breezed right past it without a second thought.
Sensing that some kind of squabble was about to break out, Yasutaka quietly rose to his feet.
"Well, that's how it is, so I'm off to see to my—" "I'm coming with you." "...Right. Of course you are."
With that single word from Mani-hime, it was settled: Yasutaka would be handling his job with her in tow.