First Offspring

"Wait... wait... just a second..." Haruta Shigemo said indistinctly as he tremblingly forced a hand up.

His brain was filled with all kinds of voices, and he could barely speak clearly anymore, but he still tried to struggle.

At least ask for some information, right?

For example... for example...

Unfortunately, Morien had no interest whatsoever in so-called information, and he knew far more than Haruta did.

Smiling, he raised his knife.

Behind Morien, the knife with a human hand that had fallen to the ground at the very beginning struggled upright, trying to ambush him again.

Clang!

A foot in a leather shoe stepped on the side of the blade, pinning the knife back down.

Hearing the sound, Morien turned around.

"Oh, thank you." Morien nodded with a smile.

"I-It was nothing." Ijichi said, sweating as he kept his foot on the knife.

He was somewhat nervous, but he had at least seen quite a few jujutsu sorcerers.

Negative emotions were the source of cursed energy, so there were quite a few lunatics and people with unusual fetishes among Grade 1 sorcerers.

Ijichi was somewhat afraid of such people, but they were still within the range of what he could accept.

"Ah!"

A heart-rending scream reached Ijichi's ears, followed by wet tearing sounds.

Ijichi kept his foot on the writhing knife and instinctively turned his head aside. He pushed up his glasses, sweat constantly streaming down the face of the middle-aged corporate drone, yet he did not say a word.

Some powerful sorcerers abandoned the kindness they possessed as human beings. They attacked the weak and took pleasure in tormenting them. Such sorcerers were not recognized by the jujutsu world and were called "curse users."

In the jujutsu world, curse users had virtually no rights. They stood on the same level as cursed spirits. Any curse user who was captured would receive no protection from the jujutsu world.

So whatever Morien did was his freedom.

Ijichi would not, nor did he dare to, say anything more.

The sounds of splattering flesh and screams grew louder. Ijichi silently turned his head away, putting his back toward them.

Although he had seen plenty of this, it was still a little hard to accept...

Sounds continued to come from behind him, mixed with Morien's muttering.

It was not a voice-transmission cursed technique sent directly into his mind, but ordinary sound.

So he could actually talk?

Ijichi thought instinctively.

But it seemed to be the language of a major country across the sea...

Morien's muttering continued.

Ijichi was, after all, a highly educated man. He had dealt with quite a few foreigners, and Japanese and Chinese shared many similarities, so he could barely understand some of Morien's muttering.

Because of his profession, Ijichi instinctively gathered information.

It sounded like he was saying that man had seven lives, which could be used for some kind of experiment.

There also seemed to be words like... hatching... parasitism... host body... nest...

The sweat on Ijichi's face increased.

Those did not sound like good words.

Lowering his head, he suddenly noticed drops of water on the ground.

Was it raining?

Ijichi wondered in confusion.

No, it was not rain.

It was sweat.

I see, I was drenched in sweat...

Who knew how long passed before the screams behind him gradually stopped, and the knife beneath his foot also fell still.

Suddenly, Morien let out a cry of delighted surprise from behind him.

Then came the sound of a knife being casually tossed onto the ground.

Ijichi turned around and saw that Morien had stood back up. He was staring at his fingers, his face full of delight.

A golden butterfly rested on his fingertips.

Its color was completely different from the butterflies circling around him, making it particularly conspicuous.

Noticing Ijichi's gaze, Morien waved him over.

His voice sounded in Ijichi's mind once again.

"Do me a favor. Throw that knife at me. Throw it at my head."

"Huh? Okay." Ijichi pointed at himself in confusion, then lowered his gaze toward the knife on the ground.

He did not understand, but he respected the request.

He bent down, picked up the knife with the hand growing from it, held it, and aimed at Morien.

"Then I'm throwing it," he warned.

He twisted his waist and swung his arm.

Ijichi flung the long knife from his hand.

But at the instant the knife left his hand, he saw Haruta Shigemo behind Morien.

His legs went weak, his balance shifted, and strength left his hand. The knife he threw flew crookedly, spinning as it fell in front of Morien.

"I'm sorry!" Ijichi immediately bowed in apology.

"No need." Morien raised a hand to stop his apology, his gaze still fixed on the golden butterfly resting on the fingertips of his other hand.

The butterfly suddenly stopped beating its wings, and extremely fine lines appeared across its body.

The next second, the butterfly's wings fell away from its body and shattered apart.

The entire butterfly dropped from Morien's fingers.

"Ha." Morien smiled at Haruta Shigemo. "You really are lucky, aren't you?"

By now, the voices in Haruta Shigemo's mind had long stopped, but he was unable to resist.

He was covered in blood, his eyes filled with tears. All four of his limbs had been severed, and the mouth with its tongue cut out could not make complicated sounds. Dense bulges rose beneath his skin, as though insects were crawling inside him.

Most importantly, his belly was swollen high, and something beneath it was constantly struggling.

Morien lifted his gaze and noticed that the last inverted triangular tattoo beneath Haruta Shigemo's eye slowly vanished.

"Ah, the last life has been used up?" Morien said regretfully.

It seemed that the miracles Haruta Shigemo had stored were all gone.

Morien revealed a satisfied smile.

"How wonderful. Thanks to you having a full seven lives, I was able to complete the experiment."

"I made so many mistakes along the way. It was wonderful that you managed to survive."

Morien smiled with pure innocence, without the slightest trace of gloom.

Though he wore a mask, Haruta Shigemo could not see it at all.

But Morien believed that Haruta could surely feel the sincerity in his voice.

Perhaps because he had become a "seeker of secrets," or perhaps because he had used the Eyes of Mystery Prying to look upon the Hidden Sage once, Morien felt that his curiosity had grown far greater than before.

Just like now.

Morien clapped his hands in satisfaction.

"Alright, your wish has been fulfilled."

"Now, you can die in peace."

Haruta Shigemo's belly grew larger and larger.

Then...

Bang!

His belly exploded, and a golden butterfly the size of a person crawled out from inside it.

It had beautiful colors and magnificent patterns. Gently beating its wings, it floated before Morien.

Looking at the butterfly, the savage smile behind Morien's mask softened somewhat.

He slowly shifted the mask from the front of his face to the side, revealing the face beneath it, marked with fluorescent patterns.

He clapped softly, his eyes holding a measure of affection and a measure of praise.

This was his blessing for its first "emergence from the cocoon."

The butterfly beat its wings rapidly as well, feeling joy.

Morien smiled gently.

"Happy birthday..."

"My adorable child."

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