Due to some concern about the flow of time, Nagami logged off entirely after explaining things to the heiress Kiana and getting her assurance that she'd explain on his behalf.
His departure from the chat group—complete disconnection—was precisely what allowed Higokumaru to subtly adjust the time flow within the stigma space.
Perhaps it made that choice to avoid external disturbances that might've caused Nagami to lose patience and forcibly disrupt the stigma space altogether.
That said, the best it could do was push the ratio to about 3:1—not even close to several times faster.
Whether it was blocking Yae Sakura's memories of Kallen within the stigma space or altering the internal flow of time that reflected its host's mental state—those should've been well beyond Higokumaru's capabilities.
If it truly could do such things so easily, then there would've been no reason to wait until now.
It could've just corrupted Yae Sakura long ago.
Nagami had no idea how deeply yesterday's events had shaken the pure shrine maiden.
To him, it was hard to even define what had happened.
But to a shrine maiden from 500 years ago, with conservative values and traditional beliefs, what happened was likely seen as a loss of her chastity.
The fault didn't lie with Nagami, and in fact, the emotional impact of his newest "XP system" overwhelmed any lingering resentment she might've had.
Because of that—and because of her own perspective—Yae Sakura didn't seem to hold any particularly negative feelings toward Nagami.
Back in the stigma space, however, the furious and mentally unstable shrine maiden stormed up to Higokumaru, sakura-blade in hand, and began hacking away in a frenzy of rage and catharsis.
Caught completely off guard, Higokumaru found itself eating several massive attacks from the Reverse Priestess and was left utterly bewildered—and even a little wronged.
They'd been enemies for centuries, true, but in all those years, it had been the only one by her side.
Their relationship wasn't as terrible as one might think.
Yae Sakura had always treated it coldly, but she'd never flown into a full-on "Sakura Bloom" combo with her blade before.
Unwilling to take a loss, Higokumaru seized the opportunity presented by her seemingly irrational state and launched a mental corruption attack.
It succeeded, reaching deeper into the recesses of her mind than ever before.
That's what allowed it to block her cognition and adjust the internal structure of the stigma space according to her heart.
Of course, Nagami couldn't possibly imagine such a reason.
When Nagami opened his eyes from deep meditation, the sight before him took him by surprise.
Everything around him looked like shattered glass—fractured, glimmering mirror shards splitting apart at high speed—before reassembling into perfect scenes again in the blink of an eye.
"...Time jump?"
Nagami had already spent a week inside the stigma space, and admittedly, it was starting to wear on his patience.
Maybe Higokumaru sensed his irritation and just hit "Next Episode" for him.
His six-pointed star-shaped pupils radiated a pure violet light.
Gazing through the outer shell of the stigma, Nagami saw the silent, lightless sea of endless darkness behind it.
He slowly reached out his hand.
The power of a Herrscher surged from within him, sending soft blue ripples through space.
As the master of this stigma, using his Herrscher abilities to control it allowed him to do things like this.
"Stop."
With a swipe of his right hand, it was as if a giant iron rod had been jammed into the gears of a speeding machine.
The whole space ground to a halt.
The fragmented images reassembled once more, and a blinding light burst forth, making Nagami squint slightly.
When he opened his eyes again, he saw a gravestone standing not far away—and kneeling before it, a shrine maiden muttering softly to herself.
"...Yae Rin?"
Upon reading the name etched into the tombstone, Nagami's eyes widened just a bit.
He wasn't far from the shrine maiden, and could hear her words clearly.
She was talking about things that had happened recently.
Like how the village was facing another water shortage, and she was being asked to help draw water from distant springs.
Then there was the rise in monster activity—creatures that had not only started attacking villagers but occasionally grouped up to assault the village directly.
Some villagers had begun whispering that the gods were angry.
They urged the shrine maiden to offer new sacrifices in hopes of winning back divine protection and restoring peace to Yae Village.
At first, it was only one or two people, but recently—perhaps because of ruined harvests—more and more villagers had begun complaining at the shrine.
There was no way Higokumaru could have fabricated this scenario while accelerating time and simultaneously manipulating the villagers' actions.
That meant these developments were entirely real—an organic, unforced consequence of the villagers' own choices.
"Tch. The range of human behavior is really something else…"
Nagami couldn't help but comment, thinking back to the defiant souls inside the core of the First Herrscher—those who resisted the will of Honkai—and comparing them to these ignorant, superstitious villagers.
The shrine maiden, who had just finished talking to her sister, slowly stood up and began walking in Nagami's direction.
Nagami put on a gentle smile, intending to greet Yae Sakura, but the moment he lifted his hand, it froze mid-air at the sound of her soft, tender voice.
"Nagami, let's go home~"
Replacing the trace of sorrow on her face with a warm smile, Yae Sakura gently slipped her delicate, jade-like arms around Nagami's.
The smooth, springy sensation against his arm caused a visible change in his expression—but not one of pleasure.
More like… stunned confusion.
What the hell?!
Higokumaru, what did you do?!
Is this some kind of apology gift? A bribe to make sure I don't beat you too hard later?
Nagami frowned, clearly troubled, as he looked at the shrine maiden clinging to his arm like a lovestruck girl.
This was 500 years ago in the Far East, after all—not the more open-minded modern era.
And to call someone by their name—without even adding an honorific like -kun?
You didn't need a translator to know what that implied.
"Ya... ahem, Sakura…"
The sudden sharp glint in her eyes made Nagami swallow the rest of his sentence and quickly switch to the more familiar tone she apparently preferred.
But what really baffled him was this: even if time had jumped within the stigma space, judging from what Sakura had said at Yae Rin's grave and the changes in the surroundings, at most, only two months had passed.
Under normal circumstances, how the hell could her affection have escalated this fast?
His gaze shifted slightly until it landed on the hand that was clasping his—and a look of suspicion began to creep into his eyes.
Something feels seriously off.
"Um, Sakura… do you still remember the day we first met?"
"How could I ever forget~"
Her soft, pale hand tightened around his, her palm warm and slightly trembling.
She exhaled gently, like someone recalling a close brush with tragedy—but quickly regained her composure and continued with a calm smile.
"Back then, you were so badly hurt. If I hadn't happened to be washing up by the river… I can't even imagine what would've happened."
"But thank goodness, you were okay~"
She placed a hand over her chest as she spoke, her voice gentle and soothing.
Her gaze—moist and glimmering like water—locked onto Nagami's.
'Wait a damn second.'
'Am I… Kallen now?'
Just from that one line, Nagami, who had a pretty strong memory of the Sakura Samsara storyline, immediately figured out what Higokumaru had done.
The grip around his arm tightened slightly, and Yae Sakura naturally rested her head against his shoulder, a serene smile blooming on her otherwise simple, beautiful face.
'This little—'
'Higokumaru…'
'I can feel your sincerity in surrender. I won't make your death too painful.'
(Just kidding~)
Sure, having a gorgeous girl—fair-skinned, long-legged, slim-waisted, full-chested and all—snuggle up to you with affection in her eyes is objectively nice.
But knowing that he was possibly walking straight into Kallen's tragic script? That totally killed the mood for Nagami.
Especially since in at least one timeline, Yae Sakura had gone full yandere—turning Kallen into a custom-made doll just so she could keep her by her side forever.
Thankfully, for now, this particular "Sakura" hadn't gone that far.
The girl leaned against the boy's shoulder as they quietly walked beneath a rain of falling cherry blossoms.
The amber hues of the sunset painted her calm face a warm red, and the last rays of daylight glowed gently in her bright, expressive eyes.
Their fingers interlocked, white and delicate, palm against palm.
Nagami walked up the stone steps of the shrine beside her, their path littered with petals.
"Sakura, come here for a second. I need to speak with you."
A cold, emotionless voice rang out.
From around the corner emerged the shrine head priest of the Yae clan—his face pale and stiff.
He greeted Nagami with a twisted smile, then turned to Sakura with an icy glare.
"Understood."
Yae Sakura replied respectfully, albeit reluctantly letting go of Nagami's hand as she followed the head priest into the shrine.
"So… Kallen's arc is done. Guess now we're switching to Yae Rin's script?"
Watching her walk away, Nagami nodded thoughtfully to himself.
———————————————————————
Daily Uploads!
Unlock bonus chapters by reaching specific milestones with [Power Stone] votes!
Go to p-atreon.com/InsomniaTL to access more than 50 advanced chapters.