A lot had happened, so even the itchy-creature clone needed to relax properly. So after asking Gojo Tomochika to pass on to Sugawara Yuu, “Take today off,” Sakurai Hoshi went straight to head home.
Mm…
…Why did she always have a bad feeling about this?
As one of the strongest sorcerers in Heian-kyō, this little matter should be reliable… right?
When she thought about the white-haired young man at the time, saying things like, “Why didn’t you respond to Big Brother’s confession?” “So cold~” “My heart is hurt, it needs a kiss from Hoshi-chan to get better,” she could not help falling silent.
…She should go back, change clothes, and pay a personal visit.
She slowly turned a corner, and up ahead she was about to reach the main road.
Come to think of it, her current appearance, with disheveled clothes and covered in blood, was probably going to scare quite a few weak and feeble nobles.
That was a mistake. She should not have refused the car from the Ubuyashiki family just because she wanted to walk quietly…
Thinking that, Sakurai Hoshi looked up, and saw Abe no Seimei.
The onmyoji in a pure white kariginu stood by the ox carriage, silently watching in her direction, seeming to have been waiting here for a long time.
However, when her half-body bloodstained appearance entered his eyes, the expression on that handsome and elegant face quickly sank.
“Seimei…”
For some reason, under his suddenly grave gaze, Sakurai Hoshi actually became a little afraid to speak.
The big shot was angry… the weakling was terrified.
At the girl’s weak call, he let out a soft sigh and stepped forward to take her hand.
“I calculated that the princess should be in trouble, and that her movement would be somewhat inconvenient, so I came here to pick you up… I just did not expect it to be this inconvenient.”
Seimei led her onto the ox carriage. After lowering the curtain, he looked at Himeji’s bare right arm.
That hand seemed to have nothing wrong with it, yet it appeared soft, fragile, like a newborn infant. In the light seeping through the carriage curtain, that beautiful and fragile hand seemed as if it were glowing.
“Reverse cursed technique…” The slightly cool fingers reaching out from the sleeve of the kariginu gently touched her smooth skin, making the sensitive right hand tremble faintly from the stimulation. “The princess actually let that monster eat her hand…”
Seimei’s voice was very calm, yet it somehow gave off a sense of pressure. There was no smile at all in those cold eyes, as if some kind of dark cloud had凝结ed inside them.
Had he known this earlier… he should have stopped the princess and that doctor, and let this monster die of illness in a human body.
Sakurai Hoshi had not opened the itchy-creature again yet. Looking at the onmyoji’s somewhat gloomy expression, she hesitated for a while, but still did not press the activation button.
She gently held his hand with her hand that had no effect at all.
“It’s already over. Seimei… take me home, okay?”
The onmyoji remained silent and said nothing, but the driverless ox carriage began moving on its own.
To shift his attention, Sakurai Hoshi thought about it and asked, “I heard that you divined for the doctor, and even warned him not to treat Muzan… can you tell me about your divination?”
“…If the princess wants to hear it, of course there is nothing I cannot say.”
Amid the rumbling of the carriage wheels, Abe no Seimei used spiritual power to nourish Sakurai Hoshi’s arm, slowly explaining the cycle of fate to her.
“…Before swallowing the final blue spider lily, Ubuyashiki Muzan will kill the doctor out of suspicion, and from then on fall into a man-eating demon. The cursed Ubuyashiki clan and Muzan will become mortal enemies across a thousand years, and endless blood-redness will spread from there.”
In Abe no Seimei’s eyes, Ubuyashiki Muzan was a cruel, heartless, tyrannical person. Compared with warm-blooded humans, he was more like an insect that only knew survival, and his existence would not bring happiness to anyone.
Such a maggot had no meaning in living at all.
After seeing Muzan at the Ubuyashiki house and hearing his inner voice, the onmyoji had already made his choice. He had taken the initiative to find the doctor precisely to let that weak residue simply die of illness in a human body, never getting the chance to do evil.
“Princess… for such a cold, merciless person who has no pity at all and will only bring disaster to others, is it really worth it?”
A useless human who did not understand love or sympathy had eaten Himeji’s hand yet suffered no punishment, and could even continue living without restraint… while the princess from then on had to shoulder the risk and responsibility of his harming others’ lives, and forever keep watch over this disgusting maggot…
Killing intent rose in his heart.
…He should not indulge the princess. Even if she was the only one beyond karma, the only one who could break the blood-red cycle.
Abe no Seimei had already sensed it, Muzan’s fate could not be broken by anyone within the cycle.
The fate of the world had long been written in secret. Even the great onmyoji, who could glimpse heaven’s secrets, was only making tiny struggles within a fixed net. The doctor who, even after being told the ending, still resolutely went to his death; Gojo head of the family, who, even though incomparably powerful, could still only arrive a step too late; all were people tightly bound within the cycle of fate.
If the princess had not interfered, then the outcome of the incident would absolutely not have changed. Gojo Tomo would definitely arrive late, Sugawara Yuu would definitely be unable to find Muzan for other reasons, and Abe no Seimei would definitely be unable to end the blood-colored cycle.
Only by crossing over a thousand years could this long-standing feud end amid countless blood and tears.
And all fate changed in her choice.
The one chosen by heaven… truly like a divine child.
“…For me, of course it is worth it.” After all, she was only a clone, and she had turned on pain immunity too. In the end even the hand that had been eaten grew back again, effectively the big boss gave her a free win, hehe! “Muzan has already established a binding that he cannot harm others, so in the future no one else will be affected… isn’t that good?”
However, her words made Abe no Seimei reveal an even uglier expression, and the hand that she was holding even exerted strength somewhat out of control.
“…I cannot accept it. The pain the princess suffered, the responsibility she will have to bear from now on, could that not be the price? Why should the good person repay the karma for the evil person? At the moment he transformed into a curse, directly ending his life, would that not be simpler?”
When the unfathomable great onmyoji got angry, the cursed energy around him even caused the air to faintly distort.
Yet the girl facing his questioning lowered her eyes, seeming to sink into thought.
“…Seimei, humans are ignorant and blind.”
She looked at the crowd continuously flashing by outside the carriage, where many servants were pouring filth into the ditches. This was, of course, an extremely vulgar action in the future, but in this era, where underground drainage had not yet been established, they could only do it this way.
“The gap between eras is huge. Every living person will be influenced by that era, carried forward by the world they can touch.”
“In this era, there are quite a few cruel people like Muzan. The dark side of an era is not caused by one individual. The weight of the entire era is borne together by everyone in that era.”
“…I cannot hate curses, and I do not think I have the right to decide another person’s life or death, this is the meaning of the law’s existence.”
“Ignorant and blind people will commit terrible mistakes. And I, having received the knowledge and virtue accumulated by others, and having been taught kindness, before he had time to make a mistake, decided to teach him a kind heart, that is the advance of civilization, that is the【Fool’s Teacher】啊.”
…
After returning home, bathing, and changing clothes, Player Miss finally could lie on the bed and look at the system messages.
After Muzan established the binding, the system prompt rang out like crazy several times, beep beep beep, but at the time she was confronting Gojo Tomo, so she simply had no time to look.
[Dear player, congratulations on achieving the hidden achievements 【The Bloody Night That Never Came】 【The End of the Demon King】 【The Happy Kamado Family】, rewards have been distributed, please check the achievement interface for detailed information]
[Achievement: The Bloody Night That Never Came
On the night Ubuyashiki Muzan became a demon, no one died.]
[You obtained 【The Doctor’s Gratitude】
The doctor trapped within the cycle of fate has come to understand the way of the benevolent.
Character 【Sakurai Hoshi】 blue spider lily acquisition rate up, recovery speed greatly up, immune to disease and toxin debuffs]
[Achievement: The End of the Demon King
Prevent Muzan from becoming the Demon King.
All tragedies caused by demons come to an end at the beginning of fate.]
[You obtained 【Yoriichi’s Blessing】.
“The god of the sun has at last come upon me.”
Character 【Sakurai Hoshi】 obtained skills 【Transparent World】, 【Sun Breathing】.
Skill ★★★★ 【Transparent World】
([Mutable])
Description: The world is transparent; everything is laid bare before your eyes. Flowers and plants smile in your eyes, birds and the breeze whisper in your ears, and the enemy’s hidden transformations mean nothing to you.
The world that should only be seen by burning one’s life is now presented before your eyes by someone.
Effect: greatly up chance to see enemy weak points]
Skill ★★★★★ 【Sun Breathing】
([Can be fused])
Description: A technique studied by demon slayers in order to raise their physical quality to the strength needed to fight demons. A breathing style that may no longer be inherited has been bestowed upon you by someone.
Effect: greatly up physical attribute growth rate, greatly up swordsmanship learning rate, increased attack power against evil creatures]
[Achievement: The Happy Kamado Family
Today, too, Tanjiro Kamado, who sells charcoal and returns home, received hugs from his family members.
Rewards: 【Box for Carrying Little Sister】 x 1, 【Mikoto’s Rice Balls】 x 10, 【Hikari no Kami Kagura Dance Memory CG】 x 1]
?
?!
What, what kind of heaven was this?!
For a moment, Player Miss nearly fainted from happiness.
The free boss could actually give her so many rewards?
The doctor’s gratitude could actually speed up healing and immunize against toxins and diseases. That doctor really had some skills!
And that someone’s blessing, a good person she had not even met face to face, gave her one four-star and one five-star skill?!
Thank you, Yoriichi!
Player Miss put her hands together and silently prayed for Yoriichi.
As for 【The Happy Kamado Family】, the reward for this achievement was also very cute.
【Box for Carrying Little Sister】: A box that blocks sunlight, is light, and is sturdy, used to carry people who have turned into demons. It seems that someone once spent a long time here.
【Mikoto’s Rice Balls】: Delicious rice balls carefully made by Mikoto. Made with the best ingredients in the house, they contain sincere gratitude. After eating them, restore 50 stamina points.
【Hikari no Kami Kagura Dance Memory CG】: The kagura dance offered by the Kamado family in gratitude to some benefactor they had never met. Praying for military fortune to be prosperous.
…She could probably guess what the Kamado family had suffered.
Sakurai Hoshi stroked that box, and a gentle smile appeared on her face.
“Thank you… Tanjiro, I will treasure and use it carefully.”
…
With a bang, Muzan was flung against the wall, and bright red blood sprayed from his mouth.
Sugawara Yuu, who had beaten the humanoid curse to the point where it had no ability to fight back with only a sword sheath, still had his usual gloomy expression on his face. He paced at an unhurried tempo, narrowing the distance to Muzan, and slightly tilted his head to look down at him.
Sugawara Yuu stared unblinking at Muzan’s miserable appearance, bent down, and covered his mouth with one hand.
“Eat your own hand.”
Muzan, who had become a curse, suddenly went rigid, as if enduring some irresistible force. His whole body was trembling, and then suddenly…
He bit down on his own hand.
Yet the handsome and gentle sorcerer seemed to have seen a satisfying scene, and let out a light laugh. After he moved his hand away, the strange tattoo on his mouth was exposed in the light.
“…Since you like eating, then eat all your own hands. How many times can a cursed hand regenerate… ?”
“Let me see it, Ubuyashiki-kun.”