After handing the Gyutaro siblings to Kokushibo, Mitsuba's time once again began to flow rapidly.
Once lifespan becomes too long, once too many things have been experienced, the brain's perception of time gradually becomes dull—this is perhaps a common ailment of most intelligent beings.
For Mitsuba, among the Twelve Kizuki and Demon Slayers of the entire 18th century, the only things worth remembering were the Gyutaro siblings becoming Kokushibo's disciples, and this sibling pair successfully being promoted as the new Upper Rank Six at the end of the 18th century...
Speaking of the new Upper Rank Six, it's worth mentioning that the original Upper Rank Six, Doma, had already—over a dozen years before the Gyutaro siblings—defeated the original Upper Rank Two through a Blood Battle for Position, leaping to become the new Upper Rank Two.
That was a splendid duel.
At that time, not only Mitsuba, but even Lord Muzan rarely attended the scene to watch.
Over the past hundred-plus years, the position of the original Upper Rank Two had never wavered.
Even Mitsuba had once thought that this companion she was most familiar with among the Twelve Kizuki besides her elder brother would surely continue to exist from then on. She never expected that he would still reach his end that day...
Truly regrettable.
But it must be admitted that being able to jump from Upper Rank Six to the position of Upper Rank Two, Doma indeed possessed extraordinary talent...
Though Akaza seemed a bit distressed.
Especially after seeing Doma truly defeat the original Upper Rank Two and climb above him, Akaza at that time looked like he was constipated, his entire face scrunched up.
Mitsuba could more or less guess some of the reasons.
After all, like her, Doma was among the few in the Twelve Kizuki who were relatively "warm-hearted" and liked to accompany Akaza in "playing around."
But because Akaza's personality was somewhat shy and also a bit tsundere, he never seemed to like interacting with others.
He always showed extreme rejection toward Mitsuba and Doma's enthusiasm.
In the past, Akaza could at least vent his anger by beating up Doma.
But now, he was gradually unable to beat Doma anymore.
The two demons who normally loved to tease him the most were now both stronger than him—this sense of frustration and powerlessness, no wonder Akaza would show such an expression...
Sigh, what a pitiful child.
Perhaps, this was also a kind of trial...
After that, Mitsuba also heard from Nakime that after being promoted to Upper Rank Two, Doma began using his "superior" power to harass Akaza mentally every day without tiring.
This forced Akaza to finally go to Lord Muzan and file a complaint, forbidding Doma from initiating any mental communication with him again. She didn't know if this matter was true or false...
In any case, these were about the only interesting things that happened to the Twelve Kizuki in the entire 18th century.
The rest were just trivial matters of filling positions for those Lower Rank demons who kept suddenly dying...
As for the Demon Slayer Corps side, there was even less to say.
The slaughter between Demon Slayers and demons continued as always, no different from the past several hundred years.
Although besides the time when Doma was promoted to Upper Rank Six, the demon side also accidentally discovered several other Demon Slayer Corps bases afterwards and launched surprise attacks on them.
But the final results were nothing more than killing some ordinary swordsmen who could regrow at any time, and one or two Hashira.
They caused no substantial blow to the true core of the Demon Slayer Corps—the Ubuyashiki clan.
Having divine protection was like this—either receiving advance warning to flee, or suddenly having a telepathic premonition to turn danger into safety. Truly enviable...
But truthfully, Mitsuba was also growing tired of this boring slaughter game.
For the Demon Slayer Corps, they would change to a new batch of people roughly every ten years.
But standing on the Twelve Kizuki side, as a demon who had survived from the Sengoku era to now with a lifespan approaching three hundred years, Mitsuba had already faced what could be said to be dozens of generations of Demon Slayers!
Three hundred years, dozens of generations—each generation practicing Breathing Styles with no difference, using techniques with no difference, wielding Nichirin Blades with no difference, shouting words with no difference...
Then like copied people, launching attacks at her again and again, only to be killed by her without suspense each time.
This grass-cutting game completely devoid of novelty, Mitsuba had grown utterly weary of.
She gradually also understood why Lord Muzan previously washed his hands of the Twelve Kizuki, dumping all power and responsibility onto her...
Despicable Lord Muzan, actually exploiting his subordinate like this!
Too hateful!
[?]
Time gradually arrived at the 19th century.
In the middle of this century, a very special, even epoch-making important event occurred on this small island nation—
The Black Ships Incident.
In the 1850s, the emerging nation of America across the ocean dispatched a fleet composed of four black warships, forcibly breaking into the port of Edo Bay.
These new-era warships driven by steam power and equipped with sophisticated weaponry brought tremendous shock to the island nation, which was still in the era of sailing warships.
The following year, the shogunate, under American pressure, broke its past two-hundred-plus year policy of national seclusion...
As a former daimyo, Mitsuba keenly realized the subsequent impact this event would trigger.
The intervention and oppression of powerful external forces would inevitably trigger social turmoil within the island nation.
And to maintain its rule, the shogunate would inevitably carry out powerful suppression of the people—the greatest source of this turmoil—and in the confrontation between both sides, further intensify this turmoil.
Change had arrived. The Tokugawa shogunate's rule, which had lasted over two hundred years, was approaching its end.
This island nation, which had barely maintained peace for over two hundred years, would inevitably once again be engulfed in the flames of war.
Of course, although keenly aware of this future, Mitsuba didn't care about these matters.
She cared about only one point—
The social environment of this island nation was finally going to undergo new changes!
Over the past nearly three hundred years, this small island nation had hardly experienced any substantial changes.
The same social environment, the same people, and that culture completely devoid of innovation and unchanging for three hundred years—she had long grown tired of seeing them!
If this small place didn't change a bit more, Mitsuba would have to consider applying to Lord Muzan to travel abroad!
And now, after the Black Ships Incident, those foreign powers would inevitably intervene in this island nation on a large scale. What would follow would inevitably be new cultural customs, new immigrant populations, and thus a new social atmosphere born from fusion!
This was truly wonderful!
The era of change was about to... no, had already arrived!
And she, "The Changer" Tsugikuni Mitsuba, would surely lead the Twelve Kizuki onto this ship of the new era, sailing toward that brand new age!
Yes, the past era where demons could only hide in dark caves beneath the night had passed. Mitsuba would lead the Twelve Kizuki to open a new demon life!
Of course, if it were Lord Muzan, he would definitely not agree to Mitsuba doing this.
After all, after meeting Elder Brother Yoriichi, Lord Muzan had completely embraced the doctrine of keeping a low profile.
Not only Lord Muzan himself, but even toward the demons under his command, he had always demanded they act low-key—avoid attracting attention if possible.
But this didn't matter, because the Twelve Kizuki were now under Mitsuba's management.
Besides the Blue Spider Lily, Lord Muzan no longer interfered with anything related to demons.
So, what everyone should do now was up to Mitsuba to decide!
...
(In the following chapters, some things may appear earlier than their original era—don't mind it meow~)
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This story has ended in chapter 315, you can read on patreon.com/dzeref887 for faster access or wait until August to read on WebNovel until the story ends.