“Reality isn’t that simple, Shinobu.”
Rin Tsugikuni slowly shook her small head, her gaze sweeping straight across the scattered herbs on the table.
“I was born as the daughter of a ruling clan, raised in luxury and honor supported by the entire clan’s people. Therefore, it is my absolute duty to give everything when this faction needs me.”
“Tch! I was also born as the legitimate daughter of the Shinobu clan! Don’t you see that I ran away from home?!”
Doctor Shinobu snorted cynically, completely unwilling to accept the dogmatic excuse Rin offered.
“Little Rin, listen to me carefully. Every soul born under this sky is a free creature. There is no law of nature or divine decree that states your existence was created solely to become a sacrifice for the comfort of others, and that rule applies absolutely to you.”
She leaned forward, staring directly into Rin’s eyes.
“Even if you truly desire to devote yourself to your clan’s sovereignty, there are thousands of other ways you could take, instead of this foolish method that’s destroying your own body.”
“But… if I choose to walk away from this throne room, then the stability of the Tsugikuni clan territory will—”
“Then so what?! That’s not your problem at all! Why does that rigid little brain of yours refuse to understand?!”
Doctor Shinobu’s hands gripped Rin’s shoulders again, gently shaking her with an extremely thick look of disappointment on her beautiful face.
“Rin, open your eyes and see reality! The main reason the political structure in your castle is collapsing and on the brink of ruin is because of the stubborn and selfish actions of your two older brothers!”
The young doctor’s fingers tightened on Rin’s robe.
“They failed to fulfill their blood responsibilities, casually walked away from the clan for personal ambition. You were forced to crawl onto a thorny throne that was never destined for you from the beginning!”
“Looking at the rigid customs of this era, the reason those old-fashioned clan elders were forced to let a woman hold the position of family head is purely a flaw in their system. It has absolutely nothing to do with your dignity!”
“The bitterest truth is that you are nothing but an innocent victim of your brothers’ reckless behavior! Can’t you understand something as clear as that?!”
The string of sharp words instantly silenced Rin’s lips.
The girl slowly lowered her face, letting her brows knit tightly in a suffocating silence.
Visual memories in her head suddenly leaped far into the past, replaying the bloody night when her mother, Akane, drew her last breath on the wooden bed.
The final words her mother had whispered before her body grew cold echoed powerfully in her ears once more.
“But… my late mother… she once said—”
“Mother? My mother also intended to marry me off to a stranger I had never even laid eyes on! Do you think I was willing to listen?!”
Before Rin could finish saying her mother’s name, Doctor Shinobu had already cut her off mercilessly with a dismissive tone.
“Rin, don’t let the doctrines of a group of rigid tutors and old elders control your way of thinking.”
She released her grip and crossed her arms.
“As humans, the time we breathe in this world is only a short span of several decades. We have the absolute right to do what we truly want to do, to live the rest of our days with pure satisfaction and happiness.”
“Instead of voluntarily offering ourselves as sacrifices to the selfishness of others, then hypnotizing our own souls to accept that torment as if it were some kind of nobility.”
Doctor Shinobu shook her head while letting out a short sigh, her eyes filled with deep pity.
“Creatures who live that way cannot even be called human. They are merely wooden puppets wrapped in flesh, empty shells without a single ripple of thought…”
While letting out the last short sigh heavy with resignation, Doctor Shinobu dropped back down to sit beside Rin.
She turned slowly, observing her friend’s face still frozen in total silence, then whispered in an extremely sincere tone.
“Rin… as your only friend, I truly hope you can choose to live as a complete human, rather than die as a clan puppet.”
*At least… in the remaining time you have left, which can already be counted in days.*
The young doctor swallowed back her final sentence into her chest.
She didn’t have the courage to voice that death sentence out loud, but only let it hang silently in her heart.
“Ah, enough! Why did the atmosphere in this room suddenly become so heavy? Let’s bury this boring topic~”
Seeing Rin remain silent with no intention of giving any response, Doctor Shinobu quickly changed the direction of the conversation.
The corners of her lips were forced into an instantly bright smile.
“By the way, I’m really curious about one thing. Is the story your brother told about the existence of the Demon Slayer Corps and night creatures… really true?”
She tapped her chin with her slender fingertips.
“During the many years my feet have wandered across various provinces as a medical practitioner, I’ve never once caught wind of such rumors.”
“Big Brother Yoriichi would never spout empty lies about serious matters like that,” Rin answered calmly, taking her friend’s topic-changing bait.
“If his lips say that the existence of night creatures is real, then those monsters are definitely roaming out there. It’s just that most ordinary humans rarely have the misfortune of witnessing them directly…”
“So… the mystery about the red mark that can instinctively multiply physical strength, and the breathing technique method that can manipulate body organs… all of that really exists?”
“It should be,” Rin nodded slowly.
“Oh~”
Doctor Shinobu nodded in awe with sparkling eyes full of interest.
As if a flash of a new idea had struck her nerves, she suddenly threw an extremely sweet smile toward Rin.
“Wow, wow… if I may ask, has our esteemed Lady Head of the Family secretly mastered one of those mystical breathing methods to show to her good friend?”
“Unfortunately, I haven’t mastered a single technique,” Rin answered while shaking her head with a thin smile.
Rin looked closely at her friend’s expression, which seemed filled with excessive curiosity.
“What is it, Shinobu? Are you interested in learning that technique?” This story is hosted at g.com.
“This isn’t just about the desire to learn, Rin. My way of thinking sees this purely as a magnificent medical research object…”
The young doctor stood up and paced back and forth inside the room while explaining her argument with high enthusiasm.
“Use your logic, Rin! Without involving supplies of herbs or chemical drug stimulation, a human can extremely boost their basic physical qualities just by relying on special air circulation methods and certain body movement rhythms!”
She clenched her fist in the air.
“A technique like that, which has only dared to be written in ancient mythological scrolls, would definitely make any physician on earth tremble and crave to dissect its biological secrets, wouldn’t it?”
“Your explanation does make sense,” Rin murmured shortly.
“Right?! Even if we as ordinary humans can’t perfectly replicate its power effects, as long as we can extract its essence to create a modified version that’s friendlier for ordinary people… that method could be used to boost the immune system and health of humanity!”
Doctor Shinobu’s eyes shone brighter.
“That would become an extraordinary medical revolution for millions of common people across the entire country!”
“If that’s what you desire… then the next time Big Brother Yoriichi visits, I’ll ask him to write down the basic copy of that technique for you,” Rin suggested in a casual tone.
Honestly, deep in her ice-cold heart, Rin felt no interest or empathy whatsoever in saving the lives of common people out there.
She was willing to open this secret negotiation path purely because the creature before her—her only friend—seemed extremely enthusiastic about it.
“Eh?! Is something like that really allowed?!” Doctor Shinobu jolted slightly, automatically stopping her footsteps.
“Isn’t that breathing method an exclusive secret tightly locked within the Demon Slayer Corps?”
“Not at all. The entire foundation of the breathing techniques was created and developed independently by the contents of Big Brother Yoriichi’s head. He simply happened to share it with Corps members for hunting demons.”
Rin adjusted her kimono position again.
“If his own ego determines the choice to pass that knowledge to outsiders, there is no creature in this world who has the right to forbid it.”
When the name Yoriichi slipped from her lips, Rin couldn’t stop her soul from sinking into a silent labyrinth of questions.
She often questioned fate—whether her second brother was truly a supernatural being or a reincarnated god deliberately sent down from heaven.
A creature born into the world with a mysterious red mark on his face, a pair of eyes capable of piercing through flesh to peel back the anatomy of living beings, and absolute swordsmanship that surpassed the limits of normal human reason.
*If that theory is true… then what bloody mission and consequences do the gods in the sky actually demand from my brother’s hands?*
Unrivaled swordsmanship, breathing technique circulation, marks of power, even the domain of the Transparent World…
The gods in heaven had bestowed the entire package of perfection onto Yoriichi from the first moment he breathed the air of the earth, forcing him to stand at the absolute peak of humanity without needing to crawl up from below.
However, Rin knew one absolute law of the world very well: every gift from fate was never once given for free.
The rulers of heaven had crammed all those divine instruments into Yoriichi’s body—an achievement that ordinary humans could never touch even if they squeezed blood and sweat for a thousand years of life.
*What bloody consequences and mission do they actually want to demand from my brother’s hands?*
*Were all these masterpieces of perfection created solely to bring down one creature called the Demon King?*