"Oh my~ Isn't this my old friend the Tengu beggar~ What are you crawling around down there all alone for? Hurry up and come sit beside me!"
"Eek!"
Hearing Mitsuba's laughing voice from afar, Hantengu immediately shuddered, scrambling on hands and feet to roll and crawl into a corner, curling up into a ball and trembling.
"No! Don't come over! Miss Mitsuba, please don't come over!"
That's right, this Hantengu was precisely the "Tengu beggar" Mitsuba had met in that small town nearly a hundred years ago.
Back then, after Keizo's family was poisoned, the Tengu beggar—as the sole eyewitness—was arrested and severely beaten by the bribed constables from the magistrate's office, then expelled from the town.
After that, he wandered and begged from town to town for decades, until in his old age he happened to encounter Muzan who was traveling outside. He was transformed into a demon, eventually rose to Upper Rank Four, and was given the name "Hantengu."
But even after becoming a demon, this person failed to change his human habits of lying and his timid, fearful personality.
Clearly Upper Rank Four, yet always looking terrified of everyone he met.
Especially toward this "old friend" he had known for so long—he treated her like a plague god...
"Really, Little Tengu, if you keep acting like this, you're really embarrassing us Upper Rank demons..."
Watching from afar at Hantengu curled up in the corner howling nonstop, Mitsuba sighed with her mouth while her face wore a smiling expression.
Yes, she was wicked. She just loved watching Hantengu's half-dead-from-fright appearance.
In fact, if he wasn't scared enough every time, she would deliberately do something to frighten him a couple more times.
There was no helping it—teasing this coward was really too much fun.
Zheng!
With another sound of the biwa, the fifth figure entered the Infinity Castle tonight.
It was Akaza, Upper Rank Three.
With some bloodstains still on his fists, he first stared blankly at the suddenly changed surroundings, then clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction before finding a corner to sit cross-legged alone, just like Hantengu.
Clearly, Akaza had been in the middle of boxing when he was suddenly transported here.
Having his sparring abruptly interrupted made him very unhappy.
"Hakuji, you didn't hurt anyone, right?"
From afar, Mitsuba's voice drifted over leisurely.
"No! Just beat up a few people until their skin broke, that's all!"
"That's good. Good children shouldn't tell lies, okay?"
"Annoying woman! Don't always treat me like a child!"
Akaza shouted back without turning his head, his tone very dissatisfied.
All the demons present had long grown accustomed to this exchange between the two, as it had been like this for years.
Who among the Upper Rank demons didn't know that Miss Mitsuba was Lord Akaza's "guardian"?
Even Hantengu, curled up in another corner, was secretly looking at Akaza's face filled with displeasure and snickering softly.
[Lord Akaza, who considers himself an "iron-blooded man," being treated like a yellow-haired child by Miss Mitsuba whether he's human or demon—how truly amusing, hehehe...]
Nakime, sitting on the high platform, also suppressed her laughter as she strummed the biwa in her arms once more.
Zheng!
Another biwa sound, and this time, a jar jumped in.
To be precise, it was a fish-man growing out of a jar, hopping and bouncing his way in.
"Oh my, it seems all the lords are here? Then it appears the one killed by the Demon Slayers this time was Upper Rank Six, who ranks after me?"
Upper Rank Five—Gyokko.
Even among all the demons Mitsuba had seen in the past, Gyokko's appearance was uniquely distinctive.
His lower body was connected to a jar, entirely white and covered with fish scales.
His two mouths grew where his eyes should be, while his eyes grew on his forehead and where his mouth should be.
Several baby-like small arms also grew on both sides of his head, normally swaying up and down with his movements—extremely bizarre.
Gyokko's Blood Demon Arts were mostly related to that jar of his.
Not only could he freely teleport and shuttle between the jars he created, but during battle, that seemingly small jar of his could release numerous demonized fish of various types, causing different attack effects on Demon Slayers.
Additionally, Mitsuba had even heard that Gyokko's hands could turn anything he touched—whether living or dead—into fish one by one...
In short, very bizarre.
And even more bizarre was that this person, for some unknown reason, possessed an extraordinary worship of Lord Muzan.
To what extent did he worship him?
Roughly to the extent that even if Lord Muzan twisted his head off to kick like a ball, he would blush and shout "Lord Muzan kicked so well," "Lord Muzan's movements are so cool"...
This was truly bizarre.
To the point that Mitsuba normally didn't want to have too much interaction with this mentally abnormal companion.
Of course, among the entire Upper Rank group, she wasn't the only one with similar thoughts...
"Huh? Why isn't anyone speaking? Could it be that the one killed wasn't Upper Rank Six?"
Zheng!
In this sudden awkward silence, Nakime simply and silently strummed the biwa one last time.
As the biwa sound fell, the child-like Muzan appeared above the high building.
[It seems Lord Muzan has been playing the role of someone's son recently...]
After nearly a hundred years, apart from being somewhat younger, Muzan's appearance hadn't changed much—only his brows were filled with suppressed anger.
"We greet Lord Muzan."
With the Demon King's appearance, from Kokushibo sitting alone in the room below, to Mitsuba swinging her legs on the railing, all the demons in the Infinity Castle simultaneously bowed their heads and respectfully performed a salute.
However, facing the demons' greetings, Muzan remained silent.
But Mitsuba knew very well that this silence at the moment was merely the calm before the storm.
After all, everyone present knew in their hearts that Upper Rank meetings were essentially for Lord Muzan to vent his temper—and they had long grown accustomed to it...
"Why..."
As expected, after remaining silent for only a short while, Muzan spoke slowly in a deep voice completely mismatched with his physique.
"Why, after so many years have passed, are Upper Rank demons still being slain?
Why, after receiving so much of my blood, can you still not defeat mere humans?"
"Eek—"
Sensing the anger about to burst forth from Muzan's words, below, Hantengu—who was practically pressed against the ground—was nearly unable to suppress his scream.
"Lord Muzan."
At this moment, perhaps Mitsuba needed to step out to ease the atmosphere.
Thus, she immediately raised her hand and smilingly proposed:
"May I ask which Demon Slayers killed Upper Rank Six? How about you simply let me go handle them?"
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