Honkai Impact 3rd, But I'm Ren Amamiya!

Ren had speculated on various reactions these cognitive villagers might have upon seeing him. The more intense and genuine their reaction to him, the intruder, the more likely they were closely related to the Palace Ruler’s identity.

However, he had never imagined that this group of Yae Village residents gathered around Yae Sakura would show such utter terror upon seeing him. It was as if they were facing a natural disaster or a ferocious beast, their lives hanging by a thread.

Each villager’s reaction was exceptionally real, incredibly lifelike. You couldn’t tell at all that they were merely virtual constructs created from the Palace Ruler’s memories. They seemed entirely like real people.

And amidst their terror, the panicked words shouted by these villagers also caught Ren’s attention. In fact, more than their panicked expressions, Ren was interested in the information contained within their words.

"Such an extreme stress reaction to someone wearing a bird-beak mask? So, you’ve already seen another person wearing a bird-beak mask before me, haven’t you...? The guy wearing the black bird-beak mask."

Ren narrowed his eyes slightly. From the terrified, trembling reactions of the Yae Village villagers, he once again confirmed the reality that Akechi Goro was also present in this Palace.

"S-So you really are working together!!"

"Yae Sakura, what are you standing there for?! Hurry up and drive out those despicable outsiders!"

"We raised you for so long! Now’s the time for you to be useful! Go fight them already!!"

Hearing Ren’s words, the villagers, already trembling with fear, instantly concluded that Ren must indeed be allied with that terrifying black bird-beak mask person from before.

Both were outsiders who had suddenly appeared in Yae Village around the same time. Both wore strange attire and suspicious bird-beak masks (albeit different colors) concealing their faces. Ren even spoke as if he knew the black bird-beak mask guy. It would be stranger if the villagers didn’t assume they were accomplices.

In the villagers’ eyes, Ren’s presence seemed even more terrifying, more fear-inducing, than ten thousand demon beasts. The village chief frantically jabbed his cane into the ground, his face flushed red, veins popping on his forehead, as he yelled himself hoarse, repeatedly ordering Yae Sakura to attack Ren immediately and expel them from Yae Village.

"...Please excuse the unsightly scene. Sakura had intended to properly host you both at the shrine on the rear mountain, but I didn’t expect you to see Sakura in such a state."

Amidst the villagers’ furious and fearful denunciations, Yae Sakura didn’t immediately draw her blade against Ren and Hare. Instead, she gently lifted her fair face, offering them a soft smile tinged with apology and sorrow.

"Once Sakura deals with the current matter, I will certainly make time to properly host you both... By the way, did you seek Sakura out because you require Sakura’s assistance with something important?"

This time, Ren was absolutely certain he hadn’t misseen it. As she lifted her face towards him, Yae Sakura very subtly, almost imperceptibly, allowed a pleased smile to flicker at the corner of her lips.

Yae Sakura is doing this deliberately. She was intentionally showing familiarity towards Ren, whom she had only met once.

To emphasize their supposed closeness, she even pointedly switched from using the formal "Inoshita" [a humble self-referral, like ’This one’] to referring to herself by her name, "Sakura."

The relationship between Yae Sakura and the villagers was far more twisted than it appeared on the surface. It wasn’t merely a simple guardian-and-protected dynamic. Although Yae Sakura fulfilled her duty as the village’s guardian miko, she also harbored a desire for revenge against the villagers within her heart.

However, some condition seemed to restrain her, preventing her from using her exceptional martial prowess to simply draw her sword against the villagers cursing her and settle all grievances physically.

"Wh-What?! Yae Sakura, you’re actually colluding with those two outsiders?!"

"Why are you just standing there?! Hurry up and cut them down! Have you truly betrayed the village, Yae Sakura?!"

"Please, I beg you! I apologize to you, Yae Sakura! Just hurry up and get rid of them!!"

Seeing Yae Sakura act friendly and familiar towards Ren, the villagers who had been counting on her to defeat him underwent a rapid-fire transformation of expressions, like a magic trick. Along with their bossy attitudes, their previously high-and-mighty, commanding tone also vanished.

Yae Sakura, who they had treated like a thoughtless tool they could order around at will, now seemed to be secretly conspiring with the controller of the demon beasts and was even warmly inviting the white bird-beak-masked Ren to her shrine for a chat.

The collapse of their assumed last line of defense instantly shattered the villagers’ composure. They completely abandoned their previous arrogance, some even falling to their knees, trying to appeal to emotion and reason, desperately begging Yae Sakura to save their lives.

Yet, Yae Sakura remained utterly unmoved, as if she hadn’t heard the villagers’ pleas at all. She simply stared quietly at Ren’s dark figure with her beautiful blue eyes.

This somewhat chilling display from Yae Sakura further confirmed Ren’s suspicions about the intense distortion within her heart, strengthening his conviction that she was indeed the Palace Ruler.

Good thing I’m a Persona user, otherwise I’d definitely be sweating bullets right now...

Honestly, after realizing something was off about Yae Sakura, her calm, gentle gaze had started to feel increasingly creepy, like the ghost of a woman dead for five hundred years was staring right at him.

Thankfully, Ren wasn’t some helpless ordinary person who had stumbled into this place; he was a Persona user who had awakened his power. With firepower backing him up, his fear immediately diminished significantly.

"You don’t need to specifically make time. Because what I need your help with, and what you need to deal with next, are actually the same thing—"

Ren temporarily suppressed the chaotic thoughts swirling in his mind. He reached out a hand towards Yae Sakura ahead, his red glove pointing towards her slightly bewildered face. He slowly stated his request to the sakura-haired miko.

"————Let’s hunt down that evil black bird-beak mask guy together!"

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