Arrival

Chapter 17: Arrival

But he quickly scrambled up from the ground.

The downpour had not stopped, and water covered the ground.

Besides, he had spent ages fighting that demon. He was no master fighter, capable of looking cool amid a shower of blood without getting a single drop on himself, so he had inevitably gotten quite a bit of bloody water on him.

"I wonder if this stuff is contagious..."

But on second thought, it seemed that only the blood of the big boss, Kibutsuji Muzan, could turn ordinary people into demons.

The one he had just faced clearly was not him... otherwise, he would already be dead.

"This guy was probably just some run-of-the-mill demon, right?"

At that thought, he looked at the demon hanging by the temple entrance and recalled their fight. He felt no lingering fear, only that he had been far too reckless.

"I was so set on not giving him a chance to catch his breath that I never stopped attacking."

"But because I didn't know enough about demons, I still left him an opening."

After putting his thoughts in order and reviewing the fight, he reached a conclusion. "If I run into another demon, I absolutely can't give him even the slightest opening. And the Forging Hammer isn't a weapon, after all. Should I use my skills as a swordsmith to forge myself one?"

"But that'll be a little tricky. After all, the ore allotted to the Demon Slayer Corps swordsmen is strictly accounted for. You can't just skim off something that precious whenever you like."

"And there isn't even a little extra! Otherwise, I could use the Bloodforging Method to forge Kanae a forty-meter-long sword. Wouldn't she be cutting down those little punks with one swing apiece?"

As his thoughts wandered, he suddenly realized he seemed to have gone off on a tangent.

"Why am I assuming I'll run into demons in the first place? I'm a swordsmith, you know? Thinking like this is way too unlucky..."

His muttering suddenly fell silent. Now that he had come to this era, how could he possibly avoid encountering demons?

A swordsmith?

Had he already forgotten how Swordsmith Village had been attacked by demons?

A peaceful life as a swordsmith simply did not exist. No matter how tightly the Demon Slayer Corps guarded Swordsmith Village, something unexpected could still happen.

"So whether a swordsmith is out traveling or at home, he has to take good care of himself."

He collected himself again, then checked his physical condition.

In terms of stamina alone, he found that he had not used up much.

"That's mainly thanks to the physical stats I gained while forging swords. Plus, this demon wasn't particularly strong. That's how my brute strength and stamina, the Breath of the Sun forging method, and the Heavenly Crafting Hammer combined to produce this result. What's really taken the biggest hit is my mental energy."

In a battle that demanded absolute concentration, a single thought could turn victory into defeat. Mental exhaustion was inevitable.

"Do the people in the Demon Slayer Corps always have to go through fights like this?"

Tetsu no Sosuke looked at the Forging Hammer in his hand and let the downpour wash the blood off it.

Then he straightened out his clothes and hung them beside the brazier before sitting against the wall. Keeping his eyes fixed on the demon hanging by the temple entrance, he picked up his rice balls and wolfed them down.

"Even in this state, I can't underestimate his ability to recover. If he makes the slightest suspicious move, I'll go right over and hit him with the hammer again!"

With that resolve, Tetsu no Sosuke kept forcing himself to concentrate so that he would not fall asleep, his eyes fixed firmly on the demon by the temple entrance.