Reisen Riou sat quietly in the Kamisato Estate's guest room, every detail meticulously arranged by servants, yet subtly radiating the host's refined elegance.
"A man of grace, no wonder he's tight with Yurekusai," Reisen Riou chuckled.
His smile faded as he mulled over Mount Yougou's youkai.
He couldn't wrap his head around why, with the clans in such dire straits, Mount Yougou was still called a "youkai paradise."
From the old Oni and Tengu, it was clear they bought into the label. They endorsed it even as most of their kin joined the Shogunate, leaving their communities struggling.
That hinted at how grim youkai life once was.
This poverty and hardship? Apparently paradise-level now.
Then there were the Oni and Tengu kids' ravenous appetites.
"Young folks leaving is manageable," Reisen Riou mused. "But if they all returned, food would run dry. They get that, which is good, but they miss that fields need hands too. With Oni strength, just three or four adults per village, or three to five per Tengu family, could work with elders and kids to max out the land. Problem solved."
"Too bad my voice carries no weight. I'll do my part—draft a proposal for Lady Yae."
"Shiro, I'm looking out for you kids," Reisen Riou muttered, pulling out paper. His fingers sparked with Electro, etching words via current.
No blood letter here—just a draft of his thoughts. He reviewed it, nodded, satisfied. Back at the shrine, he'd polish it carefully.
Glancing at the oil lamp, he sighed. "Youkai perk: night vision so good, I forgot to light it."
Next morning, Reisen Riou woke to find Yurekusai and Lord Kamisato sipping tea, deep in lively chat.
They exchanged courtesies, talked a bit, then Kamisato saw them off with tea. Reisen Riou and Yurekusai apologized and left.
They might be free, but Kamisato was swamped. With the Sacred Sakura Grand Purification looming and Seirai Island's sealing rites needing reinforcement, the Kanjou Commission's workload was crushing.
They paused to play with the great tanuki youkai Hakushin. Tanuki illusions were fun—leaves morphed into gourmet dishes, mimicking tasted foods' flavors.
Tasty, but not filling. They chomped Violetgrass Melons to sate hunger.
Behind Chinju Forest lay the Grand Narukami Shrine's domain. The forest even had a shrine department liaising with tanuki, Inazuma's most widespread guardian youkai, present in many villages and towns.
Back at the Grand Narukami Shrine, Yae Miko was absent, handling Sacred Sakura Grand Purification prep.
Reisen Riou hit the library, grabbing ink, brush, paper, and stone to pen his proposal.
With that done and nothing else pressing, he dove into books.
His data processing was lightning-fast, phone-spirit style—eidetic memory. Journals, travelogues, and histories? One glance to memorize, a second or two for gist, three or four for deeper insight.
Only spells or martial techniques needed slow pondering.
Last time here, training schedules (daily classes, heavy practice) limited his reading. Now, with no oversight, he could gorge on knowledge.
The Grand Narukami Shrine's library, Inazuma's second-largest, housed a vast collection.
Books ranged from Eternal Faith and Demon God Miscellany to Legend of the Geo Archon and Tale of the Great Mercy Tree King—god lore galore.
Academic reports included Red King's Law Study, Flower God's Dance and Elemental Guidance, and Mondstadt Faith Research.
Practical tomes like Forging Notes, Li's Cookbook, and Brewing Processes offered niche expertise.
The collection was a mess, poorly organized.
Save for Eternal Faith—Narukami propaganda—most books and documents were shabbily maintained.
Sumeru scholars, though, deserved props. They traveled far and wrote prolifically, producing most of the library's content, with a smattering from other Archon nations.
Sumeru papers were top-quality, followed by practical guides like Forging Notes by a disciple of Raiden Ei.
Lowest value? The abundant, chaotic poetry and prose collections.
Biographies outranked them.
Barring some sycophantic, rumor-heavy poetry anthologies, Reisen Riou planned to skim everything. Errors abounded, and many sources clashed.
Conflicting claims often had heaps of evidence, leaving Reisen Riou stumped on truth versus fiction.
Both sides sounded convincing—probably why academic factions formed.
Reisen Riou didn't care for factions.
He stayed a neutral observer, logging data without joining the fray.
The library lacked exclusive spell or ritual texts—those were guarded secrets.
But biographies, especially autobiographies, often flaunted minor self-made spells or rites to flex scholarly clout.
In Yurekusai's Six Fox Tales, Reisen Riou found an evil-spirit summoning array.
"…"
So, Mr. Refined Scholar loves showing off too.
Reisen Riou, stone-faced, finished the book, filtering out most fluff, keeping only the summoning spell's chants and principles.
It included mechanics, likely Yurekusai's invention. Pretty talented guy.
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