Settling the Matter

"I require the Saezuri as well as the method to properly use it. In return, I will save both this village and the neighboring Hacho Village and put them both under my protection, that they may never be attacked in the future." Shiki made his offer.

"Shouldn't you help us out of principle for partly responsible for our predicament" One the people claimed.

"This again? Fine, I'll take your little brats away save them out of the goodness of my heart if you refuse my help, so they don't die with entitled idiots like you and promise to treat them well alright?" Shiki extended an olive branch.

'That's a relief already . . .' Dokku thought. 'At least the children would be safe.'

'Maybe there's some good in this fellow after all . . .' Shiseru considered.

Meanwhile, Shiki was thinking to himself.

'Their loyalty is assured when trainthem properly from childhood.'

Doing things out of the goodness of his heart was a rarity so rare that these people would find it near impossible to experience. Then again, even if he took the children to train them, they would still have better lives than under their soon to be criminal overlords.

Short ones though. Shiki didn't like to resort to mass murder but if the criminals took over he wouldn't hesitate to nuke the village just because of the few civilians that might still be alive.

Whatever the case, it was what for the village representatives to make their decision.

"I'm willing to pay that price so long as the Ama no Hoko is never used for evil." Dokku declared.

"That's fine be me." Shiki replied.

'What you consider evil and what consider evil are two very different things thought and I'll certainly be using my definition . . .' He cunningly thought.

"Produce the good then." Shiki requested.

"I . . . only have part of them . . ." Dokku confessed.

"So . . . You're offering to pay for my help with something you don't have?" Shiki asked with sarcasm dripping from his voice.

'I guess former village head traitor must have the rest . . .' He deduced.

'I'll have to find him and get the stuff from the old bastard before I blow the scum to kingdom come.' He mentally decided.

"The other parts are held by the villainous former village head of Hacho Village, Disonasu." Dokku revealed, speaking through gritted teeth.

"I see." Shiki responded.

'Just like I deduced then . . .' He thought.

"Give me what you have and tell me the way to use. I'll take the rest from Disonasu and take care of the criminals while I'm at it." Shiki said.

"Payment is after the job is done!" One of the people that were against getting Shiki's help form the beginning slammed his palm onto the table.

"Payment is when I say it is, or I'll just take everything I want and annihilate this entire area, wiping out both you and the bandits, leaving it nice and clean for me and my people, get it?" Tired of dealing with the self righteous idiots, Shiki promptly put them in their place with a very real threat.

Following that, it all went smoothly. Dokku took Shiki to where his pieces of the Saezuri were kept. Apparently, when the bandits attacked, the former village head of Toniko gave him some of the pieces so that the traitorous village head of Hacho, Disonasu would not be able to claim them all.

Unfortunately, being a prime target of Disonasu, the village head was killed in the first battle as the pieces of the Saezuri including the main body of the tool were taken.

The Saezuri had a main body and several rods. It was an instrument that could produce certain sounds to control the Ama no Hoko but only if the user knew the correct sequences.

After Shiki received the rods that Dokku had gotten from the former village head, the then headed to find the grave of the old man. Since apparently, they had managed to recover the body through not without sacrifices.

It was foolish in Shiki's mind to sacrifice living people for a dead body but it was not his place to question how the fools wished to throw away their lives.

He summoned the soul of the old man and extracted the proper way to use the Saezuri and all the ways the Ama no Hoko could be utilized before sending the old soul back to the Pure Land of the Afterlife.

'Now, all there is to do is find Disonasu, take his stuff and kill all the bandits.' Shiki thought to himself before setting out to do just that.

Finding the old man was rather easy. At first, Shiki thought he would be in the commander's tent for the sieging forces but he couldn't be any more wrong.

The old bastard was simply enjoying his time in the Hacho Village while the grunts did his work for him.

'Maybe the criminal Mugetsu pushed out of their territory didn't come here by chance but by this old bastard's instigation. If so, I suppose I should than him from giving me such a great opportunity to take over.' Shiki thought to himself

He didn't even bother to start a conversation and just sneaked up on Disonasu and ripped out his soul with Ningendo. He extracted all the info he needed, got the rest of the Saezuri and got out without any issue.

'Now, the question is how to take all of them down, the most efficiently and with as little damage to the village infrastructure as possible . . . Let's do it like this . . .'

"Sage Art: Sealing Jutsu: Adamantine Hydra Seal'

From Shiki, countless golden snake headed chains sprouted and, guided by his White Eye of the Kagura, seeked out every single criminal. As soon as they bit on the snake's mouth would suck them in and seal them.

'This way I can get them intact and then feed them to the Box of Ultimate Bliss.' Shiki praised himself for his sudden flash of inspiration.

The people of Hacho Village could only prostrate at the figure in the sky, worshiping him like a saviour god shrouded in holy golden chains to punish the sinner that assaulted their town.

This was then repeated for the sieging party at the Tonika Village and the reaction as nearly the same. Even the people arguing against Shiki before now thought their previous behaviour as a sacrilegious action against such a powerful and divine being.

And so, while simply conveniently capturing people to give to the Box of Ultimate Bliss, and fulfilling his end of the bargain he had previously made, Shiki unwittingly created a fanatical cult to worship him.

Once all was taken care off, Shiki decided to just settle things with the representatives of the population and start building Mugetsu's infrastructure in this place before attempting to do anything with the Ama no Hoko.

"Thank four gracious help help Reaper-sama!" They all sai as they reverently bowed.

The power they had seen did not belong to a shinobi, not to a mortal man. In their small minds, only a divine being, a god could wield such power.

'Might as well go along with it I guess . . .' Shiki thought to himself.

Dokku seemed to be well respected by everyone so he put him in charge of civil matters with Mugetsu automata aiding in construction.

Shiseru, the previous head of security was in charge of military matters with battle automata and Death Soldiers from the Box of Ultimate Bliss to command.

In addition to this, Shiki set up minor enhancements for all of his "believers" which they took as his "blessing", giving Shiseru who was to be the main guard of the village the full enhancement package and assigning someone to train her to use chakra.

She was quite the capable warrior, being able to fight shinobi without the ability to mould chakra so Shiki was actually looking forward to the results.

Hacho Village would become a nice sprawling city were most citizens would live while Tonika Village would turn into a military installation for the study of the Ama no Hoko and the training of you believers into a military force.

The last one being a suggestion made by Shiseru when the children of the village all came to her wanting to fight for their "god" so that their villages never suffered again. The woman then brought this up to Shiki and he accepted it since he saw no harm in it.

And so, the unexpected incident was taken care of beautifully with unforeseen benefits as well. With the time Shiki had taken to set all of the necessary bases for the future development of the two locations, about a week had passed already.

As such, Shiki thought it was about time to see Nagato about his answer . . .

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P.a.t.r.e.o.n is officially up!

The link is: https://www.p.a.t.r.e.o.n.com/lusoba without the extra dots of course.

You'll get to read up to FOUR week ahead, a full month, but I'll still post here.

There's also my other novel Archon of DanMachi, do check it out!

I would greatly appreciate any support since this is going to be my breadwinner.