"I'm certain!" Tanjiro nodded emphatically. "That scent was so pure. There's absolutely no mistaking it."
Rokuya said nothing. He stared fixedly at the cherry tree, his mind struck as if by lightning, a storm surging through it in an instant.
"Gratitude..."
To anyone else, it might have been nothing more than an abstract word for an emotion. But to Rokuya, that word represented the sole foundation that allowed him to establish himself in this world, grow stronger, and even reverse his fate!
His Heavenly Lord Gratitude Value System converted the "gratitude" it absorbed from others into power.
In this world, only heartfelt gratitude could be detected by the system.
And now, Tanjiro was telling him that this perfectly ordinary cherry tree contained an immense amount of "gratitude"?
Could it be... Rokuya's heart began to race. This tree... could this tree itself have been left behind by someone who came before?
Rokuya strode up to the cherry tree, reached out, and gently stroked its rough trunk.
No system notification sounded.
But that did not disappoint Rokuya. Instead, it made him even more certain of his guess. This "gratitude" was not directed at him, so the system could not absorb it directly. But it truly existed here.
"Mr. Rokuya, where did this tree come from?" Tanjiro could not help asking when he saw Rokuya's unusual expression.
Rokuya withdrew his hand, took a deep breath, and suppressed the turmoil within him before turning to Tanjiro. "I'm not sure either. As far as I know, this cherry tree was already here when Oyakata-sama chose the site for the Butterfly Mansion. It might be older than the Butterfly Mansion, though the mansion has only been running for a few years."
"Older than the Butterfly Mansion?" Tanjiro's mouth fell open in surprise. "Then who planted it?"