A Centenarian

Chapter 48: A Centenarian

Gyutaro resentfully let Muzan force him into one new garment after another.

Koinatsu watched from the side, snickering.

After washing up, Gyutaro still had dark blotches all over his face and an unnaturally thin waist, but he looked much cleaner.

Muzan tossed him a dry towel. "Dry your hair."

Gyutaro took the towel, curled his lip, then walked over and carefully dried Koinatsu's hair first, even though she had not dried it herself.

Koinatsu sat on a stool in her newly bought clothes, obediently letting him dry her hair.

By the time the two had finished tidying themselves up, night had fully fallen.

"Come on. I'll take you to meet your brother."

Muzan held one child in each hand. Since it was nighttime, the three passed through the town and entered the forest. The scene before them shifted slightly, and without noticing, the two children crossed through space.

They arrived near another small town far from the Entertainment District. After leaving the forest, Gyutaro remained wary of his surroundings—and of Muzan.

If this guy did anything suspicious, he would kill him!

"Where are you taking us?"

Gyutaro still had not put down the two sickles in his hands. Though he had changed into clean clothes, the worn, dirty-looking sickles remained clenched in his grip.

He looked at Muzan and asked in an unfriendly tone.

What annoyed him was that although the guy before him looked weak, he did not care in the slightest about Gyutaro's fierce appearance. He looked utterly fearless.

How irritating!

"We're almost there," Muzan answered casually.

Before long, Muzan led the two little ones to the fence outside someone's home.

It was a simple house, neither particularly large nor particularly small, enough for three or four people to live in. A crude wooden fence surrounded the plain cabin, as though its owner had no concern about wild beasts, thieves, or anything else breaking in.

Judging from the clean doorway and the footprints in the dirt, someone lived there. But since it was already late at night, the house was completely dark.

As though he had returned to his own home, Muzan led the two inside through a gap in the fence.

He stood at the door and knocked twice.

Rustling sounds came from inside, followed by footsteps.

Creak—

The old door let out a long groan. Standing in the doorway was a tall man with long black hair, its tips tinged red.

Though the red Scarlet Traces on his forehead looked somewhat frightening, he carried a gentle air. He wore white clothes beneath a Red Haori.

"Muzan?"

Yoriichi had been awakened. Expressionless, he looked at Muzan, whom he had not seen in decades.

Muzan chuckled and rubbed the heads of the children standing to his left and right.

"I brought your little brother and sister to see you."

Koinatsu and Gyutaro looked at Muzan, then at Yoriichi, in disbelief.

What the hell?!

Yoriichi lowered his gaze to the two children and was more or less able to piece together what had happened. He then gave Muzan a suspicious look.

"You'd have this much free time?"

"Let me inside first. You're going to make me stand outside in the middle of the night while we talk?"

As he spoke, Muzan did not even wait for Yoriichi to move aside. He squeezed past him into the house, sat on the tatami, and looked around.

"Your place is pretty cozy."

Yoriichi helplessly shut the door and looked at the two silent children. "You two sit down too."

Then he turned to Muzan. "Go on. What did you come here for?"

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"Do you have any food? Get something for the two of them."

Yoriichi: "..."

Taking a mile after being given an inch!

He turned and went to the kitchen to find some sweets, then set them on the table before the two children and looked at Muzan.

Koinatsu edged closer to Gyutaro, staring longingly at the sweets on the table. Gyutaro hesitated.

Muzan looked at them, then patted Gyutaro's head as he sat beside him. "It's fine. Eat."

Gyutaro hesitated for a moment before picking up a sweet and placing it in his sister's hand.

Only then did Muzan turn his gaze back to Yoriichi.

"I just thought that a centenarian like you must be lonely living by yourself, so I brought these two children over to keep you company."

Gyutaro and Koinatsu: "???!"

A hundred years old?!

Yoriichi: "..."

Then what did that make a "senior citizen" seven or eight hundred years old?!

As Yoriichi stared at him silently with dead-fish eyes, Muzan curled his lip.

"Fine. These two are from the Entertainment District. They don't have parents, so I adopted them. I just can't be bothered to raise them."

Yoriichi: "..."

Yoriichi remembered the five years Muzan had raised him. Nothing bad had happened, but he had cooked the meals, cleaned the rooms, and handled everything himself.

He did not know whether it was suitable to let Muzan—a guy who could practically lie motionless in a rocking chair all year—raise these two children.

In the end, just as Muzan had expected, he sighed. "Fine. Leave these two children with me."

"Ha, I knew you'd soften up!"

Muzan blurted out exactly what he was thinking without the slightest restraint.

Yoriichi: "..."

Yoriichi had nothing to say. Watching the two children eat without any hesitation, having inherited Muzan's habits, he could not help rubbing their heads.

"You two eat first. I need to talk with him. Don't run around."

With that, he opened the door and headed outside.

Muzan followed him out and shut the door behind them.

"Tell me about these two children."

Since he knew they had lost their parents, Yoriichi was afraid of upsetting them and thoughtfully chose to avoid discussing it in front of them.

Inside, Gyutaro uncertainly put down the food in his hand. Watching the two leave, he carefully pushed the door open a crack.

Only after seeing that neither of them had looked his way did Gyutaro open the door wider, slip outside, hide behind the well in the courtyard, and eavesdrop on their conversation.

Yoriichi and Muzan had naturally noticed Gyutaro the instant he opened the door. But seeing how uneasy he was, they did not stop him.

At least this would put his mind at ease.

"They're both children from the Entertainment District. Their mother probably worked in that trade, but she died of syphilis. As for their father, I have no idea.

"When I found them, that girl, Koinatsu, was an Oiran at Aoya. As for that boy, Gyutaro, he was ugly, so his childhood was probably quite difficult.

"He originally made a living collecting debts, and he has a rather heavy air of hostility."

Yoriichi nodded thoughtfully. He now understood why Muzan had sent these two children to him.

Their difficult childhood experiences had likely twisted their personalities somewhat. Muzan surely could not be bothered to deal with that, so the task had fallen onto his shoulders as an idle man.

But just as Muzan had said, he seemed to have hoped that some children would keep him company.

Decades ago, he had ended his travels. After helping an old man, he had stayed there following the old man's death.

Over the decades, he had also come to feel lonely.

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