Ren retraced his steps to the prayer room where he had left Reiko. To his surprise, upon entering the chamber again, he saw her on her knees, scrubbing the floor alongside the girl. This view momentarily made him hesitate, but then he approached them.

"Do you have a rag, so I can help as well?" he asked.

"In one of the buckets," the girl said.

Ren first placed his bag in a corner and then looked in the direction she had pointed. There he found three wooden buckets with water. Two were still clean, but one was filled with murky, dirty liquid. At the bottom of one of the two, he found a rag. He took it out, twisted it to squeeze out excess water, and began helping them. The steady sounds of scrubbing filled the room.

At first, they worked in silence, but soon Ren found himself glancing at the girl from time to time. Her clothes were different from those of the clan - a simple, grey, slightly dirty, and worn kimono. Judging by her appearance, she seemed to be around twelve years old. Her sun-kissed skin suggested that she spent a lot of time outside. Blisters and scratches on her hands indicated that hard work was nothing new to her.

"What's your name?" Ren asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

"I'm Sora Fukuda," she replied briefly.

Ren was struck by the fact that it was the first time he had heard a surname that didn't belong to one of the six clans. It sounded a bit unusual, and it was a clear indication that she was a peasant.

"I thought only women from the clan could become shinshoku," Ren pointed out.

"When you become a miko, you receive the clan name," Reiko explained. "Regardless of where you came from."

Ren was tempted to ask whether she was born in the clan or was an outsider like Sora, but he held his tongue. ‘If she wanted to tell me, she would. I shouldn't ask uncomfortable questions,’ he reminded himself.

"So... What made you decide to become shinshoku?" Ren asked while glancing at Sora once again without interrupting his scrubbing.

The girl didn't answer immediately, but during a break to wash the piece of cloth in the bucket and then dry it by squeezing the water out, she responded, "I didn't have much of a choice. It was either this or starvation." After that, she resumed her work.

"You don't have a family to take care of you?" Ren continued asking.

"Mother and father died," Sora replied tersely. Her tone indicated she didn't want to discuss it further.

"Oh... I'm sorry," Ren quickly averted his gaze, focusing on the work.

"Ren was adopted," Reiko suddenly revealed, causing both of them to pause and look at her. She didn't appear to mind their attention and continued scrubbing. "He had an accident, lost most of his memories, and then was adopted into the clan by a man named Satoru."

"How do you know that?" Ren asked, not hiding his surprise. He wasn't upset, as the story was fictional anyway, but rather curious about how she had found out since he hadn't told her anything.

"Hiroshi told me," she replied.

Then a moment of silence fell upon the chamber.

"My family got sick," Sora revealed as she resumed working. Clearly, Reiko's revelation had an impact on her. "I tried to take care of them, but they didn't make it. We couldn't afford medicine, and there was very little food since only I was working. Nobody helped... They died in two weeks. Sometimes I wish that the disease would..." She paused, realizing she had shared too much. After a moment, she continued, "Uncle took me in. He cared for me for a while. Two years... But as my body started to change, he became more interested in me. I knew something was going on, but I failed to react until it was too late. He was a bad man. He tried to..." Her voice faltered, and she fell silent.

"You don't have to tell us if you don't want to," Reiko reassured her.

After a moment, Sora resumed speaking. "I hit him in the head and ran away before anything happened, but living alone was hard, so I packed everything I had and came here. They accepted me, gave me food, shelter, and even started to teach me. All I have to do in exchange is to clean... I'll become a shinshoku, and then I won't have to worry about food at all," she concluded only to focus completely on the work.

The room fell silent until they finished scrubbing the floor, and then they all tossed the dirty rags into the bucket.

"The saishu said you will show me where I can stay for the night," Ren said to Reiko.

"I did," the voice of the elderly lady reached their ears. She was inside the chamber, looking at them from a few steps away. "But I believe you two should wash before you go to rest. You got dirty doing all this cleaning, and you deserve a hot bath," she said, then sighed heavily. "I am very thankful for your help with this young one. We are very short on hands this year. Our poor Sora has to do most of the cleaning by herself. I would help, but my knees and hands are not what they used to be. You deserve a reward for what you did."

"Thank you," Ren said. "I'm happy to help, as I will be receiving your help as well."

"You have a good heart, young man," she smiled at him. "Reiko, show him where the hot springs are. Both he and you deserve to relax," she smiled, and then left the chamber.

Sora followed her, while Reiko chose a different path. She let Ren lead without a word. He noticed that she had something on her mind and decided to stay quiet, allowing her to deal with whatever was occupying her thoughts.

Stolen novel; please report.

They crossed several corridors until they completely left the wooden part of the complex and reached tunnels that led inside the mountain itself. There were surprisingly many of them, going quite deep. Since there was no electricity, the paper lanterns were the only source of light. Ren immediately wondered about the means by which they were kept lit, as there were simply too many of them.

They stopped before two wooden doors, each adorned with different symbols, but Ren couldn't recognize them.

"Here," Reiko opened one of the doors, revealing a spacious, warm room entirely covered in wood. Benches for sitting and cabinets filled with grey towels adorned the room. On the opposite side, there was another door, likely leading to the springs. Light emanated from lanterns hanging beneath the ceiling, casting a stronger and more pleasant glow.

"You can leave your belongings in one of the cabinets on the left. The ones on the right are for dirty clothes. If you leave your kimono there, it will be brought to you after it's washed," she explained.

"Thank you," he replied and entered the room. Reiko closed the door behind him but didn't move, her gaze fixed on the piece of wood that was now separating them.

On the other side, Ren didn't waste any time. He stowed his bag in one of the cabinets and then removed his clothing, placing it all in the other cabinet for washing. The journey had been long, and he had sweated a lot during the floor scrubbing, so his clothes needed cleaning. Wrapping a large towel around his waist, he headed for the door on the opposite side of the room. Pushing it open, he found himself in an uneven cave with a steaming water pool in the center. A faint but peculiar smell filled the air. Once again, paper lanterns provided the light, allowing him to see everything clearly.

Ren placed the towel on a nearby stone within arm's reach of the water and then slowly entered the pool. The water was quite hot, but as he grew accustomed to the warmth, he eased deeper, immediately feeling relaxation wash over him. It was a much-needed respite after the long journey.

His thoughts began to drift to the conversation with the old lady. Although she had mentioned that taming the ghost might be impossible, Ren felt strongly that it was the right path. He wasn't sure if this feeling had arisen due to the relaxation after the exhaustion or if it was a genuine intuition.

However, his musings were abruptly interrupted by a noise from behind. As he turned to see the source of the sound, he saw Reiko walking entirely naked toward the water. She was covered only by a single blanket, which she held in front of herself, occasionally revealing glimpses of her wide hips and side, causing Ren's growing arousal.

Without a word, she entered the pond in the center of the cave, descending deeper, and deeper, her towel inevitably becoming soaked. Once she reached the same underwater stone shelf Ren was sitting on, which seemed to encircle the entire pond, she sat down and nonchalantly tossed the drenched towel aside, as if everything was entirely ordinary.

Ren was taken aback, watching the scene with an open mouth and a growing erection.

As she noticed his reaction, she smiled at him, and he immediately averted his eyes.

‘I can’t cheat on Mirai,’ he nagged himself.

„W-what are you doing here? Isn’t there a women’s section?” he asked after a moment needed for him to gather his thoughts.

„I came to thank you,” she confessed bluntly. „You didn’t have to help us clean, and yet you did. I never met anybody like you,” she said as her gaze dropped, sticking to the water. Her cheeks got visibly red. „I never met a man like you. You know… I have been a saiin for a few years now, and I met many men during this time. Usually, they would come to get rid of some irritating spirit, or a ghost of a relative who was bugging them. Each time they would run away as the ghost or spirit appeared, and I always had to deal with them alone. I thought this would be the same case with the Hearteater, but you didn’t run. You saved me… I will never forget that.”

‘Fuck! Is she about to...’ Ren’s mind started racing as panic took over. ‘I need to change the topic! I can’t do this to Mirai!’

„Uhm… W- Why did you help her? The girl, I mean?” he asked the first question that came to his mind.

„Sora? Because… I was like her. I… I...” The way she wanted to say it, but couldn’t was a clear indicator for Ren that whatever it was, she probably never spoke about it to anyone. „My mother died from a blood disease. I was never close with my father but… I… He… He just told me we aren’t family anymore, and he left. I tried to survive on my own. I helped on the farmlands, and I worked everywhere I could, but for adults, it's easy to abuse a child. Sometimes I wouldn’t get paid for my work, and this made me understand the value of money very well. One day I saw a saiin who came to the village to get rid of a ghost. She was respected and paid handsomely for her work. When I learned about this, I chased after her and begged her to take me in. She agreed, so I went with her to the temple in the mountains. Work here was hard… But at least I knew I would be paid for it. With food, shelter, and with teachings. I understand the struggle. Back then, it was hard for me too, but I had other girls like me who worked too. Sora… She is doing everything alone. I just couldn’t watch it… I had to help her, but I never expected you would join us.”

As she finished telling the story her gaze raised, meeting Ren’s who observed her as she told her tale. Their eyes met, and he smiled at her.

„You are a good friend, so I was happy to help you,” he said.

„I know what you are doing,” she suddenly pointed out. „And I’m fed up with it… You are trying to make me forget why I came here in the first place. I said it before, I want to thank you. So I will thank you,” she said getting up.

Her nice, big, and round breast popped out of the water, drying quickly in the open air, soon making the droplets formulate on her skin, which slid away, through her relatively flat stomach, until they rejoined the body of water they were taken from.

Boldly, she marched straight to him, watching his dropped jaw. Ren was unable to respond to what was happening. His mind was completely blank, so he didn’t resist at all when she spread her legs to sit on his lap, pressing her majestic chest against his. She slowly put her arms around his neck, and her face got so close, that their foreheads touched.

They both could feel each other's warm, heavy breaths. His erection was imminent, and soon Reiko felt his member poking her underwater.

The combination of the hot water, her presence, and exhaustion from the long day all accumulated, making Ren feel dizzy. This rendered him unable to say anything, although he desperately wanted to protest, as Mirai was wandering on his mind.

„I want you,” Reiko whispered to him. „I wanted you from that day, in the cemetary. But I couldn’t make up my mind about this, so I stayed silent, letting another woman snatch you in front of my nose. Now I made up my mind. I want you.” She said before moving her lips closer to plant a kiss on his mouth.

Panicking completely, he turned his face away. „I-I can’t,” he responded panting heavily.

The words shocked her, but she knew that there was something more going on, as his lips were saying no, but the body was screaming yes.

„Why?” she whispered the question.

„B-because… I can’t do this to Mirai… Reiko, you are amazing, beautiful, very…,” he paused thinking about the correct word to use, „desirable. But I can’t just cheat on my wife. I can’t do that to her.”

„What if I was your wife too?” she asked, without any hesitation.

This forced Ren to look back at her. His mouth was open, and he simply was stunned, unable to say a thing.

His reaction made her smile. Then she got up from his lap, and headed straight out of the cave, leaving him emotionally exhausted after the rollercoaster he just went through.