Temple Girl
Chapter 23 Concern

On the night after Chiharu departed, the situation of the temple was so lonely and very peaceful. The boy was now beside his mother, staring at the old woman with wrinkles filling his face. His hair was bleaching pitifully with both eyes closed, the boy just stared without doing anything.

Because the night was so quiet, the atmosphere somehow felt so tense. The atmosphere felt so heavy that the boy did not know why, yet he was forced to be vigilant. The gentle touch on his shoulder made the boy flinch excessively, he turned his head quickly and the golden eyeball stared at him sharply.

Trying to calm his heart, the boy put on a typical innocent face of a child. Said that he knew nothing, then grimaced as the grip on his shoulder tightened. As if wanting to smash his little bones, a small screech begged for forgiveness.

"Tuan—akhh—sick once. Please, stop!" the boy continued to move his body, trying and hoping that the grip could be detached from him.

Long Gin looked at the boy, a grin appearing in his face. The nails extend from its long fingers, the fangs are removed by it. The huge dangling tail Gin deliberately showed to show his power, his gaze glistening with rage. Scrambling withstood the power to not directly destroy that small existence.

"You might be able to fool the stupid girl, but I'm not." her voice was dragged heavy, intimidating anyone and making the atmosphere even more creepy. Like a god of death waiting for the moment that life is released.

The boy's expression changed completely, he was frightened instead of playing. His blood was sucked from his face, until it turned white. His body trembled violently at the sight of the creature before him, it was not human. A sense of wanting to run immediately surfaced in his mind, trying to break free. But the more he tried, the grip on his shoulders became more tight.

The boy's screams hardened as Gin's fingernails seeped into his skin, "I beg you to let me go.— I didn't mean to do it," the boy rattled there as death began to approach him.

Gin, who was already indifferent to anything, stretched out his arm. The demon's long fingers grabbed the small, fragile neck and broke it easily, grasping it tightly until Jing's voice was swallowed. And the boy's soul detached from his body, leaving himself accompanied by the boy's last breath.

The boy died horribly.

***

A crushing blow on Chiharu's nape made her breath stop and faint, the girl was unconscious when someone hit her. Taking the girl to a place she knew nothing about Chiharu, tying her with rusty chains and leaving her in that dark room.

Chiharu blinked both of her eyeballs, shocked as dark dragged her net. Unable to see the light of the goods in the slightest, dizzy ambushed his head until he grimaced. Then it was realized that the girl could not move, as the chains grasped her.

The girl tried to collect memory pieces on her body, splattered until she was confused. Chiharu felt very uncomfortable in that place, she could hear the squeaks of small animals. The floor with high humidity was also, making the girl think all kinds of disgusting living things that are there.

His throat felt dry, I don't know how long he's been locked up here Chiharu can't be sure because there's no light here, so closed and it seems soundproof. The girl did not expect that she would be caught immediately while carrying out this stupid plan, as if it had been planned by someone.

Chiharu sighed realizing the fact that she had been framed, most likely the culprit was the boy. Realizing everything from the beginning that the girl had done senseless stupid things, but it was all fine if the girl managed to destroy this human trade to its roots. Being stupid yet saving the crowd, Chiharu willingly.

His daydream is interrupted when a white-blossomed man approaches Chiharu, his adult eyeballs seem to glow amidst the darkness that swallows Chiharu. It was so beautiful that the girl did not blink her eyes in fascination. Just this time, he was so pleased with the arrival of the demon that kept trying to commit murder on him.

Gin looked at the girl in front of him, his golden eyeballs mocking Chiharu as if saying 'look at this stupidity you did.' The man lowered his head, aligning his face with the girl who now looked so bad. It is worse when Chiharu brags to do her stupidity, wondering why the girl is so incessant to do these impossible things.

Chiharu chuckled softly, feeling funny when she heard the man who said it—the man who desperately wanted his life to be lost, the same man who kept on carrying out assassination attempts on her. "Sounds funny when the creature that most wanted to kill me says it."

Then their conversation was interrupted when a light was seen at the end, wide open and showing large figures across the girl. Approaching him then looking at himself as if he was not human, Gin? I don't know how quickly the creature wasn't there. Disappear, leaving the miserable Chiharu.

Someone among the great bodies appeared, grinning widely with disgusting yellowish teeth. His face and hair were greasy, and the smell of tobacco emanated from him. He looked at Chiharu, thought for a moment and said with a foul breath coming out. "This girl will be expensive, asked the Emperor if he wanted to take her. If it refuses, let it be sold through human trafficking tomorrow."

Chiharu's gaze was directed at the men there, her dry lips were so hard to use. "What does this have to do with the Emperor?" ask the girl weakly, waiting for an answer to get a bright spot.

With all the attention on him, the man laughed. As if Chiharu's question was so funny, "You know nothing will change in your fate? But all right, 'cause I'm feeling good, I'll let you know.

The dark secret of this country, that the human trafficking that is rife lately is the work of the Emperor himself. He's behind all this, so who can stop this business."

The men left feeling happy, leaving Chiharu who was silent with all thoughts raging in her head. Feeling the darkness dragging his senses, dulling his thinking senses and smashing him into a pit of despair. He did not think about the possibility, the possibility that the Emperor himself was behind such a great crime as human trafficking.

"Indeed, that's how the world works, you won't be able to exterminate it as hard as you can." Gin shows himself again, dragging Chiharu to reality again.

Chiharu's gaze was so desperate, "you must be impatient waiting for me to be sold, living a miserable life until it might be killed. And in the end you're free, aren't you?" raved with the darkest words Chiharu had ever uttered.

The demon felt so angry when he heard the girl's words, gripped his fingers until it turned white. "Don't you know that the boy you brought yesterday was the culprit of how you're stuck here now?!

Don't you know that those bums conspired to trap you, stop being this clumsy. You idiot!" just this time it feels like the demon looks so angry, although usually he always shows his fangs and nails on Chiharu— recently it feels like the creature is heard mengawtirkan?

"I know!" the girl raised her voice, not caring how burnt her throat was at that moment. "I know, but I made it here. I managed to find the kidnappers' base."

Oddity rang out from Chiharu's interlocutor, mocking him. Then the height of Gin's towering body seemed to rebuke Chiharu, making the girl increasingly feel small, helpless, and desperate. "You can't do anything now either."

And the man left, leaving Chiharu in a solitude that was swallowing him even more. The girl can not say anything more, she really stuck—even moving one finger was so difficult. Wondering if he would go back to wasting the life that Master Qi had given him, though Chiharu only wants to save people with the same fate as the kidnapping victim when Chiharu to the village at that time.

Faced with an abyss jutting inward without finding a solution, how was he able to resist an Emperor? someone who was so powerful when Chiharu still had so many flaws, was vulnerable with death. Gin was right, he shouldn't have done something this futile. The man must be partying waiting for his death, realizing something sad that at Chiharu's death he was alone.

Completely alone, a single tear drop managed to descend on Chiharu's cheek. "Master Qi, I miss you." he murmured softly in the dark pit that was drowning him even more...

To Be Continued