Only after Kagaya calmed down and regained his bearing as the Master did he begin to explain.
"Miyamaru Rei is a very capable servant of Shibamoto. Everything he does can be traced back to Shibamoto's interests."
"But what is there to gain by getting close to the Demon Slayer Corps?" The Swordsmen in the Corps didn't seem particularly bright.
Kagaya chuckled, regaining some of the confidence and lofty ambition he had possessed as a child, when he had vowed to wipe out the demons once and for all in his generation.
"The Ubuyashiki Family's ability to seek fortune and avoid calamity is a gift every merchant dreams of.
A thousand years ago, they refused to believe my ancestors would confine themselves to killing demons. A thousand years later, they still refuse to believe that killing demons is my wish, too.
To them, possessing this gift without putting it to use in business is an utter waste..."
Kagaya Ubuyashiki shook his head helplessly. "It's as though they never see anyone else's suffering."
"Because they aren't the ones suffering, and they've never had demons slaughter an entire family around them."
Haruto sighed softly as well and gathered himself. The graves surrounded by wisteria, flowers filled with the promise of hope, lay just ahead.
Sōma's headstone had already been carved. Its epitaph was a line Haruto had supplied-Hanae's husband, Yūsei's father, the Swordsman who waited for thunder.
He didn't know what words could define this man of few words. Perhaps, as Sōma's grandson, it wasn't his place to define him at all. So he had simply used the names of his beloved Hanae and their son, hoping to make up for the regret of dying without ever seeing Hanae or his unborn child one last time.
Haruto placed the haori in the wooden