Riding her new mount, the little donkey, Miketsu leisurely made her way towards Heian-kyo. She effortlessly reached Rajomon and went straight through Suzaku Avenue, and upon arriving in front of the Greater Imperial Palace, she tied her donkey in the stable reserved for officials. The overall speed was much faster, and it was more energy-saving. Miketsu was very satisfied.
Miketsu's purpose in coming to the Onmyoryo this time was the same as before: to search for new Deity-Summoning Arts. Having set her goal, she skillfully made her way to the Archives Bureau's library. She spent the entire morning immersed in it, but her gains were not significant.
After searching all morning, Miketsu found no usable Deity-Summoning Arts, which left her somewhat disappointed. Not only that, but she also discovered a problem: she had almost finished reading all the spell books for Junior Assistants, and soon she would have no more books to read.
This surprised Miketsu. When she first saw the sheer volume of books in the library, she thought it would take a long time to go through them all and that she would gain many spells. But she was wrong. Although there seemed to be many books, not all of them were spell books. There were also many books on astronomy, calendrical science, arithmetic, history, natural history, and so on. Spells were only a part of it.
Spell books were a portion of the collection, and Deity-Summoning Spells were a portion of the spell books. The proportion of Deity-Summoning Spells that Miketsu could actually use was even smaller.
Since Miketsu was only looking for spells she needed and not actually reading the books, she always quickly skimmed through them page by page, copying down anything useful. Thus, the time it took her to finish a book was very short.
And so, while these books seemed numerous, very few were actually useful to Miketsu. Combined with her quick reading speed, she soon had nothing left to read.
This is troublesome...
Seeing the current situation, Miketsu pressed her hand to her forehead. Now, she had no choice but to seriously consider the matter of promotion. If she became a Senior Assistant Onmyoji, she would have a whole new pile of books to read.
Originally, Miketsu had only intended to be a 'lazy' Onmyoji in the Onmyoryo, letting promotion happen entirely by chance. But given the current circumstances, she would have to put in a little effort.
It seems I'll have to take on some missions. Coincidentally, I spent a lot of money buying the donkey, so a round of missions can help me recover some funds.
Having made her decision, Miketsu headed straight for the Subjugation Bureau. Upon arriving at Bumingtang, she witnessed a peculiar scene.
In front of a counter in Bumingtang, a large number of talented individuals were gathered. They were noisily pushing and shoving, seemingly eager to display something. Miketsu, bewildered by the sight, wondered what they were doing.
Just then, a hand patted Miketsu's shoulder. Miketsu turned around and saw a familiar figure.
"Yuzu..."
"Ashiya Doman... How many times have I told you not to call me that in front of people?" Yura, with a headscarf wrapped around her head, said irritably to Miketsu.
"Uh, sorry, Doman. Anyway, where were you a few days ago? I waited for you at our agreed spot, but you didn't show up?" Miketsu said, feigning ignorance, feeling it was better if she brought up the topic herself.
"Eh, well... it's a long story. I took on a mission..."
What followed was a story Yura specifically made up for Miketsu. It was roughly about a seemingly ordinary mission where she encountered a powerful enemy, and ultimately triumphed by helping a swordsmith forge a miraculous weapon to slay the yokai. The plot was decent, and the basic logic was sound. The yokai in the story was clearly based on a leopard cat yokai. However, there were a few minor inconsistencies, and the narration was a bit dry, lacking rhetorical flourishes or metaphors to embellish it.
After listening to Yura's story, Miketsu nodded. She then mentally gave the story a 6.8 out of 10, which was a passing score.
"Phew... so that's pretty much what happened." Yura said with a sigh after finishing her fabricated story.
"Oh, I see. I understand."
"Huh? You just believed it?" Seeing that Miketsu didn't ask a single question about her made-up story, Yura said, somewhat surprised.
"Yes, I believed it. Is there a problem?" Miketsu replied, thinking to herself, 'I could even help you add more details to this story.'
Seeing that Miketsu believed her fabricated story without the slightest doubt, Yura breathed a sigh of relief. At the same time, she secretly praised herself for her talent in storytelling. Perhaps in the future, she could even write novels as a hobby. 'The Great Onmyoji Ashiya Doman' or 'Onmyo Monogatari' or something similar, it would definitely be much better than those courtly tales that only focused on romance.
"By the way, I'm looking for suitable missions to take on. Do you have any recommendations?" Since she had run into Yura, Miketsu asked directly. After all, Yura was more familiar with the place, so getting a recommendation from her was better than searching through each plaque herself.
"Oh, this... there's a suitable one right here. Come with me."
Interrupted from her thoughts of starting a new novel by Miketsu's words, Yura thought for a moment, then led Miketsu to a wall beside a wooden rack hung with mission ema. On this wall, a notice written in black characters on white paper was posted, and many people were currently looking at it.
"This thing was posted just this morning. It's not a request initiated by the public, but a mission announced by the Onmyoryo itself. And it requires more than one person, so they didn't write it on an ema but posted a direct notice." Yura said, standing beside Miketsu.
"A mission directly issued by the Onmyoryo? Interesting..." Miketsu said thoughtfully after hearing Yura's words. "Generally, couldn't the Onmyoryo handle any problems themselves? Why would they specifically issue missions to these 'half-baked' external practitioners in Bumingtang? Could it be that the bureau was short-staffed and hiring temporary workers?"
With various questions in mind, Miketsu looked at the notice. She found that it was a guard mission, requiring a long journey to a mountain castle for guard duty. The duration was two days, and once completed, they could return on their own. The mission offered a great deal of money and merit, and it was recruiting more than ten people simultaneously. If multiple people applied together, the missions would be assigned based on seniority, which likely referred to the number and difficulty of completed missions.
"Has the Onmyoryo ever issued missions like this before?" Miketsu asked Yura, curious.
"I don't know. It's my first time seeing something like this here too. But regardless, the mission rewards are excellent. You should take it quickly; with your status as a formal Onmyoji, they'll let you pass directly." Yura shrugged and spread her hands as she spoke. Miketsu found her tone a bit strange.
"Then aren't you going?"
"Uh... well, I have something to do in a couple of days, so I can't go..." Yura continued, looking a little hesitant, which left Miketsu feeling a bit puzzled.
Rate on N.U.
