“Rin.”
Six months had passed since the encounter at the city restaurant.
On one quiet night, Rin Tsugikuni was sitting alone in the corner of her room, slowly drinking her medicine, when her eyes caught a red silhouette leaping in through the open wooden window.
Fate seemed to enjoy toying with them.
“Big Brother Yoriichi, have you forgotten how to use the main entrance?”
Rin placed the still-steaming ceramic medicine bowl on the table and looked at the young man whose face was almost identical to her memories.
There was a faint note of resignation in her sigh.
Honestly, compared to sneaking in through a woman’s bedroom window, what surprised Rin far more was the fact that Yoriichi had truly shown himself again in this residence.
Rin had thought that after Yoriichi came to see her months ago to inform her that Michikatsu had faked his death to join the Demon Slayer Corps, her brother would never set foot here again.
Just like he had done during his twelve silent years of wandering.
“I’m sorry, Rin. It would cause too much trouble if the clan members saw me here.”
Yoriichi dropped to his knees and sat formally on the tatami mat.
His tone was filled with pure guilt.
The young man had clearly moved under the cover of night, slipping through the castle’s defenses using his skills to avoid detection by the guards.
After all, as the second son who held the right to inherit the clan’s throne, if the elders learned that Yoriichi—who had disappeared more than a decade ago—was still alive and had returned, they would definitely use every means to place the family head’s throne on his shoulders.
Dia tidak pernah sekalipun menginginkan kekuasaan atau kedaulatan klan.
At this moment, the only thing driving his breath was surviving within the Demon Slayer Corps, sharpening his blade until the day he could sever the Demon King’s neck and sweep all night creatures from the face of the earth.
“So, Big Brother Yoriichi,” Rin adjusted her kimono and opened the conversation first.
“Is there an important message you want to deliver that made you sneak in tonight?”
“No, nothing urgent…”
Hearing the direct question, Yoriichi instinctively averted his clear eyes.
He paused for a few beats before continuing softly.
“I happened to be passing through this area after completing a demon extermination mission. So… I thought I’d stop by and see how you’re doing, Rin.”
Yoriichi suddenly clamped his lips shut.
Realizing his soul had almost been dragged back into the topic of demon extermination, he cleared his throat and firmly cut off his own sentence.
“By the way, how have Big Brother Michikatsu’s wife and children been lately?”
“Of course they are fine. They are probably already fast asleep behind the partition in the next room. Do you want to see your nephew, Big Brother?”
“Better not,” Yoriichi whispered while slowly shaking his head.
“If my presence and existence are detected by them, the situation in this castle will become extremely complicated.”
After that refusal, the barrier of silence fell again, trapping the two Tsugikuni siblings in the quiet of the night.
The discomfort clawed at his soul with even greater intensity.
Driven by the supernatural instinct that refused to stay silent, Yoriichi asked the same question again.
“Then… how about you, Rin?”
“Me?” Rin lifted her gaze from the medicine bowl.
“Yes. I mean… how have you really been all this time, Rin?” Yoriichi struggled to string the words together in his head, looking at his sibling with emotional demand.
Even Yoriichi’s own ego couldn’t understand why his lips kept pressing to know Rin’s condition.
He only had an absolute premonition that he had to hear the answer from his sibling’s mouth, as if fulfilling that would make the curse of anxiety clawing at his chest disappear instantly.
Faced with the intense pressure from her brother, Rin was momentarily frozen on the tatami for several beats.
She lowered her gaze, letting her face sink into dark calculations, before finally looking up and putting on her usual perfect smile mask.
“Of course, I’m fine too, Big Brother.”
The moment he absorbed the flat answer from Rin’s lips, Yoriichi felt the terrifying wave of anxiety that had been haunting him suddenly recede and vanish without a trace.
“Is that so? If you say that… then I can feel relieved…”
As if a massive boulder had just been lifted from his throat, Yoriichi let out a long breath full of relief, his body relaxing.
Lost in that illusory calm sensation, even the genius Yoriichi completely failed to catch the extremely dark and cold crack of emotion that had flickered in his little sister’s eyes a few seconds before that smile mask was put back on.