Card Holders, Another Special Reincarnator

After Kocho Kanae saw everyone return, the worry hanging over her heart finally eased.

"So? Does the Minister of the Left believe that the Public Order Officer's death had nothing to do with the Ubuyashiki Family?"

It was not that Kocho Kanae was cold-hearted. Rather, she felt that Demon Slayer Swordsmen like them had already burdened the Master far too much.

The Master's family assets were constantly being seized, making it increasingly difficult to support the Demon Slayer Corps, yet he had never considered giving up.

Nor did she believe that killing demons was the Master's responsibility alone. They swordsmen had not come to kill demons simply because the Master paid them to.

Nearly every one of them had had their original happiness stolen by Muzan and his demons.

They killed demons to take revenge, and... to ensure that more people would not suffer the same misfortune they had.

This simple sense of empathy was what drove the Butterfly sisters, and she believed it was also what drove most Demon Slayer Swordsmen.

The Professor narrowed her eyes, thinking about how to speak, but Bai Cangshu said directly, "The Minister of the Left?"

"Heh, he's dead."

Kocho Kanae shuddered and stared at Bai Cangshu in disbelief. Bai Cangshu merely spread his hands, looking somewhat amusedly at this woman whose strength was far from weak.

"Miss Kocho, those people have already joined forces with the Man-eating Demons. Some high-ranking government officials may even have become Man-eating Demons themselves, yet you're still thinking about how to explain things. Isn't that ridiculous?"

Kocho Kanae frowned. If she had been asked to kill demons, she naturally would not have hesitated in the slightest, but killing the Minister of the Left...

"I need to return and report this to the Master. Too many things are involved here. The person backing the Minister of the Left is very likely that one!"

Bai Cangshu did not understand the ingrained "obedience" of the Japanese. He still wore an expression as though it were only natural.

"Mm, Hirohito. I'm planning to kill him too."

Hiss~

Upon hearing Bai Cangshu's words, Elizabeth and the Professor both sucked in a breath. They only felt that "Mercenary Tao" was a thoroughgoing madman, as if there were only one answer whenever he opened his mouth: kill, kill, and kill.

Hirohito was the future heir to Japan's throne, not just some nobody. A person like that surely had many guards around him. Moreover, he was currently cooperating with Kibutsuji Muzan, so it was entirely possible that an Upper Rank demon—or even Muzan himself—was at his side.

How could he be so easily killed?

Kocho Kanae's pupils constricted sharply, and her face turned pale. Even she was startled by the terrifying train of thought of this formidable man. He actually wanted to murder the Emperor's descendant...

At that moment, a sliver of sunlight appeared on the horizon. Only now had that perilous night finally come to an end.

Main Mission 1: Survive until dawn. Completed.

Reward: 1000 Dimensional Points

At the sight of the sunlight, Kocho Kanae's mood improved somewhat. She did not respond to Bai Cangshu, merely saying that she needed to return and seek the Master's instructions before preparing to leave with the others.

The Professor frowned. Mercenary Tao's words had clearly provoked Kocho Kanae. The kind Flower Hashira had not even invited those who had fought beside her to rest at the Butterfly Mansion. That was not a good outcome for the Main Mission.

So she stepped forward and said with a smile, "Let's put Mr. Tao's words aside for the moment. Miss Kocho, we also wish to contribute to the cause of exterminating demons..."

She knew that since the two who had left had joined Kibutsuji Muzan's faction first and had even come to assassinate them, the option of her group joining the Man-eating Demon faction had already been eliminated.

Those two possessed the intelligence advantage of joining first, and they had surely sold the information that the Blue Spider Lily was the most valuable information to Kibutsuji Muzan among the Reincarnators for a good price.

If they tried to join now, it would be exceedingly difficult, and they might even be set up.

Thus, neither Elizabeth and Vincent nor Liu Qi, the man in the conical hat, objected to the Professor's words.

Kocho Kanae smiled when she heard this.

"At a time like this, having more people join us in fighting the Man-eating Demons is naturally a wonderful thing. But I can only give you an answer after reporting to the Master."

She glanced once more at Bai Cangshu. His technique of killing demons barehanded filled her with envy, but unfortunately, this man's ideas were simply far too frightening.

After Kocho Kanae left, the group rested nearby. This place was not far from Heian-kyo City, making it convenient for them to observe the aftermath of last night's assassination of the Minister of the Left.

Since Man-eating Demons could not move about during the day, they were quite confident in facing ordinary Plot Characters with primitive weapons.

Bai Cangshu found a place to sit by himself, closed his eyes, and continued regulating his breathing. Hamon Breathing Style was slowly restoring his injuries bit by bit.

Minor injuries, such as the wound on his left hand cut open by a sharp blade, were now almost healed.

The others tended to their own injuries. Since every Reincarnator had their own secrets, they kept a considerable distance from one another.

The Professor's injuries should have been among the more severe ones. The sword strike that had hit her had nearly split open her chest, as Bai Cangshu had seen.

Yet for some reason, she seemed to be in rather good condition now.

The woman in black-rimmed glasses walked over to Bai Cangshu.

When she saw Bai Cangshu open his eyes, she immediately spread her hands to show that she bore no hostility.

"Mr. Mercenary Tao, you should know that our chances of joining Kibutsuji Muzan's faction are no longer high. Why did you still provoke Kocho Kanae?"

"There was no need to tell her about our Side Mission, was there? As long as we successfully join the Demon Slayer Corps faction and build up our reputation, with your strength, it's entirely possible for you to receive an A rating when this ends."

Bai Cangshu closed his eyes again, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with the Professor's words.

The Professor pursed her lips. She knew that this "Mercenary Tao" actually thought rather little of her, and she had indeed been at fault for carelessly revealing the origins of his Hamon Breathing Style earlier.

She closed her eyes, and a strange ripple spread outward. Bai Cangshu opened his eyes. He truly sensed something, but the feeling was bizarre, something he had never experienced before, as though something invisible had brushed across the surface of his body.

The Professor took off her black-rimmed glasses, and only then did Bai Cangshu notice that the woman's eyes gave off a faint glow.

"Mr. Mercenary Tao, I think you're a Special Reincarnator, aren't you?"

Suppressing the fear in her heart, she laid bare what she had seen.

"I saw it. After you killed that Reincarnator, you obtained a Scarlet Drop. Theoretically, that should never happen in a cooperative mission world. The only explanation is that you aren't an ordinary Reincarnator."

"You're one of the Card Holders!"

This truly made Bai Cangshu see the self-proclaimed "Professor," who claimed to know a great deal about mission worlds and the Reincarnation Space, in a new light. She seemed to possess quite a few secrets.

And now that she had voluntarily revealed those secrets, she must have needed his help with something.

Bai Cangshu's gaze shifted, and he smiled.

"Professor, you guessed right. Then let me make a guess as well."

"I think your Main Mission is completely different from ours."

"That's why, at the start of the mission, you took the initiative to probe whether the rest of us had the mission of surviving until dawn."

"The abnormal difficulty of this mission isn't because I'm too strong or because of the Special Reincarnator. The reason this world's difficulty has skyrocketed is because—a special Reincarnator activated a Special Trial in this world!"

The Professor's pupils contracted, and she instinctively took half a step back, but immediately realized that her reaction had given away the answer.

She could only feign calm and continue the conversation.

"That's right. I'm a novice Reincarnator discovered by Azure Sky, as well as a Card Holder. This mission world is the Special Trial I activated."