Rokuya looked down at the map in his hands.
Mount Sagiri.
Kanae held Shinobu Kocho's hand.
She walked over to Rokuya.
"Lord Rokuya..."
Kanae's voice was thick with tears.
She lightly touched her chin with a finger, determination showing in her eyes.
"We want revenge."
Shinobu Kocho nodded firmly.
The flames of hatred burned in her eyes.
"We want to live."
[Ding-intense gratitude detected. Gratitude points gained: 400!] [Current balance: 1,700 points!]
Rokuya folded the map.
He tucked it into his clothes.
He looked at the two girls' mud-covered faces.
"Then we'll go to Mount Sagiri."
Rokuya turned and walked into the house.
"Pack your things."
"We leave at dawn."
The eastern sky turned pale.
The first rays of dawn pierced the clouds.
The three of them carried three packs.
They stood outside the ruined courtyard gate.
Kanae and Shinobu Kocho stayed close behind him.
The three set out on a journey into the unknown.
The road to Mount Sagiri was even rougher than they had imagined.
Withered yellow grass grew wild on both sides of the road, and the occasional cries of unidentified birds broke through the stifling afternoon.
"Lord Rokuya, should we rest for a bit?"
Kanae stopped and reached up to wipe the fine beads of sweat from her forehead. She carried a coarse cloth bundle on her back, and her breathing was already slightly labored, but a gentle smile still lingered on her lips.
Beside her, eleven-year-old Shinobu Kocho was bent over, her hands braced on her knees as she gasped for breath. Her purple eyes showed undisguised exhaustion, yet she stubbornly bit her lower lip, refusing to be the first to say she was tired.
Rokuya stopped and turned around.
The fourteen-year-old boy wore coarse linen clothes. Though his frame looked somewhat thin, his steps were remarkably steady. His sixteen points of constitution meant that even after walking mountain roads for most of the day, he still had not broken a sweat.
"I'm not tired." Rokuya looked at the panting Shinobu Kocho, his tone calm.
"Who... who asked if you were tired!" Shinobu Kocho abruptly straightened, an embarrassed, angry flush rising on her pale little face. "I just... just think there are too many bugs on the ground. They're making this walk annoying!"
"Oh," Rokuya replied. "Then we'll rest here for ten minutes."
He walked over to a gray rock by the roadside and sat down, unfastened the water flask at his waist, and took a long drink.
Kanae led her younger sister into the shade of a tree and took several rice balls wrapped in oiled paper from her pack.
"Lord Rokuya, have something to eat first." Kanae handed Rokuya the three largest rice balls. A barely perceptible sadness lingered in her eyes, but she did her utmost to hide it behind a gentle smile. The tragedy that had destroyed her family still weighed heavily on the fourteen-year-old girl's heart.
Rokuya took the rice balls and swallowed them down in a few bites.
Activating the Arcana Blade consumed an enormous amount of stamina, and his stomach was like a bottomless pit that could never be filled.
"Would you like more?" Kanae asked softly.
"No, save them for the road." Rokuya brushed the grains of rice off his hands, his gaze sweeping toward the distant mountains.
According to the map that Demon Slayer Corps swordsman had given him, Mount Sagiri lay to the northwest. But reaching it before nightfall was clearly impossible. In this world filled with man-eating demons, traveling at night with two defenseless girls was no different from courting death.
"There's a town up ahead." Rokuya stood and brushed the dust from his trouser legs. "We'll spend the night there, then head into the mountains first thing tomorrow."
Shinobu Kocho curled her lip and muttered, "You have no sense of direction and even took the wrong fork earlier, but you certainly act like you know what you're doing..."
"I can hear you," Rokuya said without looking back.
"So what if you can! Bleh-" Shinobu Kocho made a face at Rokuya's back before her sister helplessly pulled her along after him.
As dusk fell, the three finally reached the town marked on the map.
The town was fairly large, with dim yellow lanterns hanging along both sides of the streets, but its atmosphere felt eerily oppressive.
The pedestrians hurried along, most with their heads lowered and anxious expressions on their faces. When passing dark alleys, many would even unconsciously quicken their steps, as though some man-eating monster lurked in the shadows.
Rokuya keenly sensed that something was wrong.
He led the two sisters into an inn that looked reasonably clean.
Only a handful of customers sat in the restaurant on the inn's ground floor, whispering in lowered voices.
"Did you hear? The Ishida family's daughter over on West Street, the one who just turned sixteen, disappeared last night too..."
"Shh! Keep your voice down! She's already the fourth girl to go missing this month!"
"What a tragedy... The police searched for three whole days and didn't find so much as a strand of hair. Everyone's saying, could it be 'that'..."
"You mean... a man-eating demon?"
"Don't say that! We'll be done for if it hears you!"
Rokuya walked up to the counter and tapped his knuckles against the wooden surface.
"One large room, and bring up dinner for three. No, make my portion triple."
The innkeeper was a little old man in his fifties, working through his accounts on an abacus. At the sound of Rokuya's voice, he looked up, his gaze moving over Rokuya and the Kocho Sisters behind him.
When he saw Kanae's and Shinobu Kocho's delicate features, the innkeeper's expression shifted.
"Young man," the innkeeper lowered his voice and leaned forward, speaking secretively, "I can see you're from out of town, so let me give you a friendly warning. Lock your doors and windows tight tonight. Whatever you hear, don't come out."
"Especially these two younger sisters of yours..." The innkeeper swallowed. "Things haven't been peaceful in town lately. Young, pretty girls in particular have been mysteriously disappearing."
Kanae tightened her grip slightly on the hem of Rokuya's clothes, her face a little pale.
Shinobu Kocho instinctively shrank back, but immediately puffed out her chest again and stared hard at the innkeeper.
Expressionless, Rokuya took out a few copper coins and slapped them onto the counter.
"Thanks for the warning. Bring the food up quickly."
Specifically abducting young girls?
Not even the police could find any traces?
This was definitely a demon's doing.
And most likely a demon with special abilities that had awakened a Blood Demon Art.
Rokuya weighed things up in his mind.
He looked at the blue spectral screen that only he could see.
[Current balance: 1,700 points!]
If I could kill this demon, not only could I keep the Kocho Sisters safe and rescue those abducted girls along the way, but everyone in town would probably contribute a hefty amount of gratitude points, wouldn't they?
I was just wondering where to farm gratitude points, Rokuya sneered inwardly.
Before you continue