It really did look like a clump of instant ramen.
Even though she had died young in her previous life, Rin Tsugikuni—as a reincarnator—still clearly remembered the appearance of the food called instant noodles.
Without the slightest doubt, the man walking confidently from the opposite direction—who also seemed intent on entering the same restaurant—had that exact strange hairstyle.
In the Sengoku Era, when almost all men tied their hair into topknots or suffered from hair loss due to age, how could someone have such a… fashionable hairstyle?
Although her mind was filled with wonder, Rin’s footsteps did not stop.
She stepped into the restaurant, passing through the noisy crowd before being guided by a senior waiter who immediately recognized her and led her up to the second floor—the exclusive area reserved for the city’s elite.
Rin took a seat near the window, offering a wide view of the ground floor.
Most of the samurai guards accompanying Rin remained on alert on the first floor, while the three strongest guards followed her upstairs to protect their young lady.
At the same time, the man with the instant-noodle hairstyle entered the restaurant, followed by an elegant woman trailing behind him.
After exchanging a few words with the waiter at the front door, the two strangers completely ignored the fully armed Tsugikuni clan guards.
Mereka melangkah santai menaiki anak tangga menuju lantai dua.
The man with the unique hairstyle didn’t even bother glancing at the samurai staring sharply at him.
His steps swung with arrogant dominance, while a faint, wild smile that was difficult to restrain was faintly etched on his lips.
Rin kept her gaze fixed on the pair.
Berdasarkan intuisi tajamnya yang terbiasa membaca situasi, dia curiga kedatangan kedua orang itu bukan sekadar untuk mengisi perut.
Her guess proved correct.
After occupying an empty table in the corner of the second floor, neither the man nor the woman beside him showed any intention of calling a waiter to order food.
They simply sat motionless in an eerie silence, as if waiting for someone’s arrival.
Taking advantage of this calm moment, Rin was finally able to observe the physical details of the mysterious pair from a closer distance.
The woman wore an elegant dark-purple patterned silk kimono.
Her face was extremely beautiful, but her deep purple eyes held an incredibly thick fog of sadness.
Her long hair, neatly tied up, indicated that she was a married woman.
Beside her, the man wore a pitch-black kimono with expensive gold thread embroidery.
Although his hairstyle was extremely eccentric, it had to be admitted that his face possessed a captivating handsomeness, complete with a thin smile that constantly lingered on his lips.
However, what truly made Rin’s heartbeat falter for a moment were the man’s eyes.
His pupils were sharp vertical slits of reddish-purple color, surrounded by terrifying blood vessels that covered the whites of his eyes, radiating a thick aura of darkness with just a single glance.
*These two people… are truly strange.*
*Are they siblings?
Doesn’t feel like it.*
*Or a married couple?
The atmosphere between them is too cold.*
“Little girl, your gaze hasn’t left us since we stepped into this place.”
Rin jolted slightly.
The red-eyed man suddenly turned his neck, locking their gazes completely.
His smile remained, but the curve of his lips was now filled with clear intimidation and aggression. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
From any perspective, this man was clearly not the type who could be compromised with.
Menyadari bahwa tatapan terbukanya telah melanggar tata krama, Rin memutuskan untuk menurunkan ketegangan terlebih dahulu.
“I apologize for my rudeness. I had no ill intentions. I simply felt that your presence was very distinctive, sir…”
“Oh? Distinctive?” The man turned his sitting position sideways, resting his arm on the back of the chair while looking at Rin with interest.
“In what way do you find me distinctive?”
Rin steadied her breathing and looked straight into those vertical red pupils.
“Judging from the material of your kimono, sir, you clearly come from a distinguished lineage.”
“However, your hairstyle, the way you dress, even your gestures… everything feels very unique and breaks the rigid rules of etiquette.”
The girl paused while observing her conversation partner’s reaction.
“And not only do you appear indifferent to those rules, you don’t care at all about how the world views you. Of course, I have no intention of criticizing you. I simply admire the absolute freedom you display.”
“Hmph… Hmph hmph, hahahaha!”
After hearing the logical analysis flowing from Rin’s lips, the man first chuckled lowly, before finally bursting into loud laughter that filled the second floor ceiling.
“Interesting! Truly interesting! This is the first time in hundreds of years I’ve heard a little girl speak so eloquently!”
At the same time, the elegant woman beside him—who had kept her head lowered the entire time—finally slowly raised it.
Her deep purple eyes swept quickly over Rin’s entire body, before finally locking onto her left wrist—the spot where the faint marks from Doctor Shinobu’s acupuncture needles remained.
Sebuah riak emosi samar melintas di wajah cantiknya, seolah menyadari sesuatu, tetapi wanita itu memilih untuk mengatupkan bibir rapat-rapat dan kembali menundukkan kepala dalam keheningan.
“Little girl, my name is Kibutsuji Muzan.” The man wiped the corner of his slightly teary eye from laughing, his gaze sharpening.
“State your name.”
*Kibutsuji Muzan?*
Rin thought inwardly, feeling the name sounded both very foreign and carrying a strange dark vibration.
Namun, sebagai pemimpin keluarga, dia tetap membalas perkenalan itu dengan martabat yang terjaga.
“Rin Tsugikuni.”
“So, Lady Rin,” Muzan crossed his legs, his tone suddenly shifting to use an honorific as if playing a role in a play.
“Are you interested in hearing my assessment of you?”
“Please,” Rin replied calmly.
Muzan extended his fingers, tracing Rin’s appearance from the tips of her hair to the tips of her straw sandals, then smiled coldly.
“You are an extremely oppressed creature.”
“Oppressed?” Rin’s brows furrowed faintly.
“Yes, very pitiful,” Muzan said while nodding slowly.
“From the beginning of our conversation until this moment, your posture hasn’t shifted even an inch. You sit upright like a decorative statue forced to be perfect.”
The man tapped the wooden table with the tip of his sharp nail.
“Your kimono is flawless, your hairstyle is extremely neat, and the way you choose your words is very obedient to protocol. On the outside, you look like an aristocrat who embodies clan rules.”
Muzan leaned forward, pointing his index finger directly in front of Rin’s face and delivering his verdict word by word.
“But I can see inside your head. The graceful and dignified image you uphold is nothing but a cursed mask you are forced to wear because of pressure from the weak people around you. Your true soul… is rebelling against all of this.”
“How dare you insult our Young Lady?!” Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
A thunderous roar came from behind Rin.
One of the Tsugikuni clan guards lost control, drawing his katana with a sharp ring, then stood with veins bulging on his neck in fury.
The other two samurai also took alert positions, their gazes piercing sharply toward Muzan’s chest, ready to mince the stranger with a single command.
However, Rin did not move her lips to give the order to fight.
She watched how Muzan didn’t even blink facing the drawn swords before her.
The Demon King’s expression didn’t show even the slightest trace of fear.
Rin raised her right hand, giving a gentle signal for her guards to lower their weapons and return to their seats.
“Lord Kibutsuji, this is our first meeting,” Rin spoke again, her tone as cold as ice.
“What makes you so confident in your nonsense? What if I was truly born to like these manners?”
“Hahahah! Impossible! Absolutely impossible!” Muzan burst into loud laughter again, as if he had just heard the best joke in the world.
“Because you… emit the exact same rotten stench of shackles as the woman beside me.”
Muzan stopped laughing abruptly, then pointed his thumb at the elegant woman who remained frozen beside him.
“May I know who she is?” Rin asked, shifting her focus.
“You may call her Tamayo. She is… one of my trusted slaves.”
After uttering that name, Muzan continued in a cheerful tone saturated with pure cruelty.
“Lady Rin, you would never guess that this virtuous woman… thinks every second about how to rip out my heart, skin my flesh alive, and drag me into the deepest hell to vent her unreasonable grudge.”
*Slave?
Skinning alive?
Deep grudge?*
Rin was wrapped in thick confusion.
Her gaze shifted from Muzan’s face full of mockery to Tamayo, who remained silent with her head bowed, not refuting a single word.
“Lord Kibutsuji… are you telling a fairy tale?”
“A fairy tale? No, no, this is a truly beautiful reality.” Muzan pointed his index finger, looking at Tamayo from the corner of his eye with contempt.
“Lady Rin, don’t be fooled by her surface-level obedience. I know every rotten inch of her mind. This ungrateful woman! I helped her, granted her greatest wish, but she repays my kindness with an invisible knife.”
Muzan snorted in amusement.
“If I had to make a list of humans in this world who most desperately want to kill me, her name would be at the very top without rival.”
“Unfortunately, she is too weak. She doesn’t have the absolute power to touch even the tip of my nail.”
“And ironically… she is now forced to crawl beneath my feet, serving me every second for the rest of her eternity. Lady Rin, tell me, isn’t a life like that extremely pitiful and oppressed?”
Rin chose to keep her mouth tightly closed, refusing to respond to Muzan’s provocation.
Her eyes now shifted to stare intently at Tamayo, who sat kneeling across the table.
Facing the barrage of naked insults and mockery from her master, Tamayo remained motionless with her head deeply bowed, as if she had lost all human dignity.
However, Rin’s sharp vision managed to catch Tamayo’s fingers resting on her kimono-clad thighs gripping the fabric with tremendous force, until her knuckles turned white and trembled faintly from holding back a massive wave of rage.
Muzan wasn’t lying.
The two people before her… were mortal enemies bound by an extremely terrifying chain of fate.