Muzan: My daughter can't be that weak!

Muzan originally intended to immediately observe the blue spider lily form manifested by the Blood Demon Art.

But the little devil in my arms was crying incoherently and was clearly not in a state to cooperate with the performance.

Forget it.

Let's get Nakime out of her daze first.

He watched as Nakime approached and steadily took the still-soothing child from his arms.

Nakime first gently placed Yukina on the clean floor of the corridor so that she could sit down, and then she knelt down herself, her eyes level with Yukina's.

Then, she took out her handkerchief and gently wiped away the undried tear stains on Yukina's face.

Muzan stood to the side with his arms crossed, glancing indifferently at the scene.

It must be said that Nakime is indeed very capable.

Her blood demon magic is useful, and she herself is also very useful, whether it's killing people or dealing with trivial matters like soothing children that he would never do.

He watched as Yukina's sobs gradually subsided under Nakime's comforting words, and her tense shoulders slowly relaxed.

When it was Nakime's turn to speak, she sat obediently, occasionally asking one or two questions in a low voice.

Although the question is naive, at least it's an attempt to understand.

It's...not bad.

"Miss Yukina, do you understand now?"

Yukina nodded, her little hands clutching the cuffs of her clothes.

She had always known that she, her father, Nakime, and her teacher were all demons.

People say that ghosts are monsters that eat people.

That's why people are afraid of them, that's why the Demon Slayer Corps hunts them down, that's why humans hide in houses at night, and that's why they live in the night and the Infinity Castle.

She knows the道理 (principles/reasoning).

However, knowing something and experiencing it firsthand are two different things.

This was the first time she had ever eaten a person.

Although Nakime said that it was to obtain food, it was a demon's instinct, as natural as a person needing to eat and drink.

But I still have a dull, indescribable feeling in my heart.

Although the human era is a long time ago, the feeling of belonging to the same kind of humans still exists.

Now, however, she has to accept the fact that she ate her own kind.

It feels... very strange.

Muzan, who had been silently listening, suddenly raised his eyelids.

Through their close blood ties, the inner turmoil in Yukina's heart was naturally transmitted to her.

trouble.

He rarely offered an explanation, but his words were still harsh:

"A pointless sentimentality. When humans slaughter cattle and sheep, or fish and hunt birds, they don't cry and ask the cattle and sheep if they are in pain."

"The law of the jungle is simply the most basic rule of the world. Ghosts feed on humans, just as humans feed on other animals; it's all about survival. Besides..."

"Ghosts and humans are two completely different kinds of beings. You can simply assume that those people were swept away by a strong wind, or that they fell into a pit and died."

"As for you eating them, that's just a necessary process for survival, no different from breathing air. Put away your useless thoughts."

At this point, he really couldn't understand the Demon Slayer Corps' thinking.

Shouldn't they be grateful to be alive after their families were murdered?

Can't you just find a odd job and make a living?

Why do we have to come here to kill ghosts?

"Huh?"

Yukina was taken aback by his string of words.

The limited human morality in his mind clashed with the newly acquired principles.

She tilted her head, lost in thought.

Was the person who was eaten blown away by the strong wind?

This seems... seems a bit off. People are eaten by themselves, how can you say it's the wind? The wind would be unhappy if it heard that.

But then what Dad said seemed to make some sense...

It seems that humans do eat animals...

Muzan, seeing her blank expression as she tried so hard to think, finally ran out of patience.

He no longer cared whether the fool's trivial inner conflict had been resolved.

"you,"

He straightened up, pointed at Yukina, and commanded, "Use your Blood Demon Art again."

After waiting so long, watching for so long, and explaining for so long...

All he wanted to do now was to look at that flower up close, right now.

The other minor details are not worth mentioning at all!

Yukina was deep in thought when she was startled by Muzan's sudden voice.

She had no choice but to hastily put an end to her thoughts.

Ok……

If she's determined to eat people, then she should try to eat bad people in the future.

There are plenty of bad people in the world, enough to feed myself.

Then she remembered Muzan's words and said, "Father, I think I need to prepare something first..."

Why does Dad suddenly want to see his Blood Demon Art?

Haven't we already met?

She hesitated for a moment, but still obediently did as she was told.

Nakime-neechan just said that her Blood Demon Art is very powerful, and now Daddy is really looking forward to it.

But I wasn't sure myself, and I used it without even realizing it.

We need to conjure it up specifically now, just in case it fails...

She turned around, her back to Muzan and Nakime, closed her eyes tightly, and tried hard to recall the feeling of being in the alley.

Something within his body was ignited by hunger and anger, then flowed out through his fingertips with a strange power...

Concentrate and imagine that small, blue flower with pointed petals.

At the same time, Muzan, who was staring intently at her, immediately noticed that her hair had started to turn a gradient blue again.

He walked up to Yukina and looked at the icy blue light on her fingertips, which was initially only the size of a grain of rice and flickered faintly.

Then it stabilized and began to extend outwards.

The outline of a delicate, translucent petal quietly emerged, followed by a second, a third, and so on.

His breathing quickened involuntarily.

It's it...

It really is it...

Although it was merely formed from blood demon magic, its unique form, the blue etched deep within his soul, and the longing it carried for hundreds of years...

Close at hand.

Muzan instinctively moved closer, his nose almost touching the eerie blue light, wanting to see it more clearly, to get closer...

"Hmm, this should be okay..."

Just then, Yukina, who had been keeping her eyes closed, felt that it was about time and carefully opened her eyes.

However, what came into her view was not the floor or the wall in the distance as she had expected, but an enlarged face.

"Wow! Dad, you're scaring ghosts like that!"

Yukina was so startled by the sudden close-up that her heart skipped a beat, and she shrank back like a frightened rabbit.

Muzan's expression changed drastically as he watched the flower disappear from her fingertip in fright, his face showing displeasure.

He grabbed Xue Nai by the back of her collar and lifted her up like a disobedient kitten, making her feet off the ground so that she was at his eye level.

"coward."

The sudden feeling of being suspended in mid-air made Yukina instinctively kick her legs. Hearing her father's reprimand, she immediately waved her little hands in the air in protest.

"Yukina isn't a coward! It was Daddy who suddenly brought his face so close, it was really scary!"

Muzan scoffed at her rebuttal and gently shook her while lifting her up.

"If you can use your Blood Demon Art again right now, without any preparation, to make that flower appear, then I'll admit you're not a coward."

Xue Nai's eyes darted around. "Really?"

"Of course it's true, what's the point of lying to an idiot like you?"