Kiyohiko muttered under his breath as he hauled the food box into the room and kicked the door shut behind him.
The instant he lifted the lid, a rich aroma carrying the distinctive scent of iron exploded throughout the cramped room.
Inside was a huge earthenware pot filled with dark-red pig-blood soup.
Although it had already cooled slightly, to a demon’s sense of smell, it was like a spring appearing before a traveler dying of thirst in the desert.
Kiyohiko completely forgot about table manners.
He picked up the pot, which was wider than his face, tilted his head back, and began devouring its contents.
“Gulp… Gulp… Gulp…”
The dark-red liquid flowed down his throat and into his stomach, soothing much of his hunger.
“I’m alive again!”
In less than a minute, he had licked up even the final drop of soup.
Without the slightest concern for his appearance, Kiyohiko collapsed onto the bed.
It was not especially soft, but at least it had been padded with cotton.
He contentedly patted his now slightly rounded stomach and released a long sigh.
Now that his physical needs had been satisfied, his brain finally had enough room to begin functioning again.
With both hands behind his head, he stared at the wooden patterns on the ceiling.
His thoughts uncontrollably drifted back to what had happened in the examination room.
“Speaking of which… What exactly is Shinobu Kocho’s problem?”
He furrowed his brow, unable to make sense of it.
“One moment, she was being surprisingly gentle and looking at me as though she were thinking, ‘You really are a good person.’ I was already preparing myself to accept a grateful embrace from her.”
“Then, in the very next moment, she completely turned evil and started smiling like some old witch preparing to eat someone.”
“I finally managed to bring her Bond Value back into the positives, and she immediately sent it plunging below zero again.”
Kiyohiko rolled onto his side and unconsciously traced circles across the bedsheet with one finger.
“I didn’t say anything particularly offensive, did I?
All I did was ask for some decent food and a soft bed.”
“Aren’t those basic human rights for an injured patient?”
The more Kiyohiko thought about it, the more aggrieved he felt—and the more perfectly reasonable his own logic seemed.
“Yeah.
That’s right.
It definitely wasn’t my fault.”
He nodded solemnly.
“Based on my many years of anime-watching experience, there are only two possible explanations for this kind of hot-and-cold, unpredictable behavior.”
“First, she’s a tsundere—a textbook example of the kind who would never admit how she feels.”
“Second…”
“She simply has a terrible personality and enjoys tormenting people.”
Kiyohiko recalled the gentle smile Shinobu constantly wore and the chilling malice hidden beneath it.
He shuddered.
“It’s definitely the second one!”
“Either that, or she’s going through early menopause!”
Having reached this conclusion, Kiyohiko immediately felt much more relaxed. Find the original chapter at g.com.
Since there was clearly something wrong with her head, he had no reason to reflect upon his own behavior.
“Forget it.
Since that pig-blood soup was pretty good, the great Lord Kiyohiko will generously choose not to hold it against her.”
“As long as she doesn’t come barging in during the middle of the night to stab me with another syringe.”
Now that his stomach was full, drowsiness began to wash over him.
Although demons did not require as much sleep as humans, the previous battle and everything that had happened afterward had drained a considerable amount of his mental energy.
Inside this room, free from the revolting stench of wisteria, Kiyohiko quickly closed his eyes and began breathing steadily.
Yet as he drifted between wakefulness and sleep, the image of Shinobu’s momentarily stiffened smile still flashed through his thoughts.
“Still… She’d probably look quite beautiful if her smile weren’t so fake.”
“I kind of want to see it…”
…
Shinobu Kocho’s Room
Shinobu sat before her desk, though she was not studying pharmacology books as she normally would.
She rested her chin upon one hand while holding a small amount of fish food in the other, gently scattering it into the round fishbowl on her desk.
Inside the bowl, a red-and-white goldfish happily waved its tail and opened its mouth to swallow the falling pellets.
The goldfish was unusually plump, its swollen belly making it resemble a floating balloon.
“Eat plenty, Puffer.
You’re cutest when you’re nice and round.”
Shinobu spoke softly, her signature gentle smile resting upon her lips.
As she watched Puffer, the infuriating young man from earlier inexplicably entered her thoughts.
Shinobu’s fingers paused.
A little more fish food than intended fell into the bowl.
“What an infuriating person.”
The smile gradually disappeared from her face, replaced by a rare expression containing both exhaustion and confusion.
She withdrew her hand and stared at the remnants of fish-food powder clinging to her fingertips, her gaze becoming distant.
Today had been…
Very strange.
Ever since her elder sister’s death, Shinobu had worn her sister’s mask.
She imitated the way her sister spoke and copied her smile, doing everything she could to suppress the fury boiling inside her like molten lava.
Whether she was facing humans or demons, she could always maintain perfect composure.
Even while killing a demon, she could smile as she injected poison into its body.
Yet today, while facing the demon named Kiyohiko, her mask had slipped.
And not merely once.
“He actually dared to say I smelled like a pickling jar…”
A tiny vein twitched at Shinobu’s temple.
Even now, remembering it made her want to inject wisteria poison directly into his brain.
“And then there was all that nonsense about pig’s blood and duck’s blood…”
I had actually…”
She remembered the brief palpitation in her chest.
When that young man had furrowed his brow and earnestly said that living this way must be painful for her…
When he had said that, since she hated demons, he would help her kill them all…
Her heart had started beating faster.
“Idiot demon.”
Shinobu quietly cursed him, but her voice was considerably softer than before.
She turned toward the mirror in the corner of the room.
The young woman reflected within it seemed to carry slightly less of her usual deliberately maintained composure.
In its place was a trace of vivid, genuine irritation.
“Am I really so easily angered?”
“Or perhaps…”
She lightly touched her cheek.
Whenever she faced the demons who did nothing but cry and beg for mercy—or arrogantly boast about their strength—she felt nothing but icy killing intent.
But when she was with Kiyohiko, she felt helplessness, anger, amusement, and even the faintest…
Desire to tease him in return.
These emotional fluctuations were unfamiliar to her.
Yet she did not dislike them.
It was like someone had thrown a stone into a lake that had remained lifeless and still for many years.
“If my sister were still alive, she would certainly like him.”
Shinobu murmured softly.
“After all, he is the kind of demon she always dreamed of meeting…”
“A demon capable of living peacefully alongside humans.”
Although his personality was terrible, his words were infuriating, he had no taste whatsoever, he appeared completely unreliable, his emotional intelligence was abysmal, and he was excessively gluttonous…
At the very least, he had not lied.
Even while enduring extreme hunger, his eyes had remained clear.
“Never mind.
Since Master Ubuyashiki has already acknowledged him, I suppose I can reluctantly continue observing him for a while longer.”
Shinobu stood and walked toward the window before pushing it open.
A breeze carrying the scent of wisteria from the courtyard flowed into the room.
“If he dares lose control…”
Her fingers gently brushed against the hilt of her sword, and her eyes instantly became sharp.
A moment later, that severity transformed into an amused smile.
“I’ll tie him down and dissect him for research.”
“Yes.
That sounds like an excellent idea.”
Regardless, she would add a little something special to tomorrow’s physical examination.
After all, he had made her angry far too many times today.