"Shinjuro, adjust your breathing."
"Yes!"
"Watch its tail, turn your brain on. You need to use your head in battle too, don't be some muscle-headed brute."
"Y-yes!"
"I told you, don't always rush to use that Flame Breathing ultimate form.
The wind-up for this move is too long, and it consumes too much stamina. It's reserved as your final finishing move, not for you to use as a normal attack."
"Understood!"
"Don't freeze! Quickly follow with the fourth form!"
"Uwaa!"
"Tsk."
At the critical moment, Mitsuba—who had been standing nearby giving pointers—finally drew her blade.
Blazing flames flashed through the dark hall. With merely one slash, she beheaded without suspense that half-human half-snake demon that had Shinjuro struggling in a bitter fight.
Sheathing her blade, confirming the snake demon's body had disintegrated, Mitsuba then turned to look at Shinjuro, who had fallen sitting on the ground, and extended her hand to him.
"How is it, are you alright?"
"Sorry, I dragged you down..."
Taking Mitsuba's hand to stand up, Shinjuro's face was full of apology.
To this, Mitsuba merely smiled and patted his shoulder, encouraging:
"No matter, no matter. Facing a demon that's lived over three hundred years, being able to accomplish this much is already quite good."
"What? Three hundred years?!"
Facing Shinjuro's shock, Mitsuba merely lightly nodded.
"Mm, I just saw in this family's genealogy that this snake demon arrived at this family at least three hundred years ago..."
Yes, that snake demon Mitsuba one-shotted just now, its age was nearly comparable to Upper Rank Three Akaza.
And the reason Mitsuba could so easily one-shot it wasn't because this body of hers was already monstrously strong.
It was simply because, besides living a bit longer, this snake demon was completely worthless.
Speaking of which, it's quite cruel—even being a demon requires talent.
In this world, demons with exceptional talent like Doma who could rise to Upper Rank in mere decades were ultimately only an extreme minority.
The rest were mostly like this snake demon—even if they ate with abandon, they simply couldn't become very strong.
Clearly nearly as old as Akaza, yet its strength couldn't even reach Lower Rank demon level.
Completely relying on hiding in this small human family, depending on these humans' support to survive until today...
In a sense, this snake demon was also quite clever.
Unlike past demons that always stayed far from human society, hiding in mountains and forests.
This snake demon selected a suitable human family from the very beginning, reaching a conspiracy deal with them to jointly kill passing travelers and split the spoils.
Through this deal, the snake demon and this family constructed a virtuous cycle.
One side did everything possible to attract passing solitary travelers, offering them as food to the snake demon.
One side, after being sated, would bestow all the money and valuables carried by the travelers, satisfying family members' material needs and maintaining the luxurious enjoyment they desired.
Under this symbiotic relationship, the snake demon survived over three hundred years relying on this family's cover, far exceeding the typical survival years of ordinary demons.
And this family also relied on the snake demon to enjoy three hundred years of unearned wealth and honor.
Neither party was forced—all were voluntary, and both very much wanted to maintain this symbiotic relationship.
Don't mention it—in Mitsuba's view, this symbiotic relationship actually had some merit...
Both sides simultaneously stood in the positions of keeper and kept, mutually benefiting each other.
If in the future, demons truly could never overcome their own defects, then having all demons try to hide in human society in similar ways—this might also be a decent approach...
Truly a pity, such a good observation example. If not for the Demon Slayer Corps this time truly detecting this snake demon's existence, Mitsuba actually wanted to keep it and this family a while longer...
"Alright, the demon matter is resolved. Next we should handle the aftermath."
Speaking thus, Mitsuba stepped forward and pushed open the main hall doors.
Outside the doors, a group of women wearing luxurious clothes of various ages, each holding weapons like knives, forks, clubs, and staves, were nervously guarding outside.
The moment they saw Mitsuba and Shinjuro push open the doors, seeing the snake demon's massive body that had disintegrated into ash in the hall, these women immediately screamed and retreated, falling to their knees as if they had lost their parents.
The original fierceness on their faces was all replaced by expressions of extreme terror.
"Ah! My lord god!"
"My lord god! My lord god is dead!"
"They killed my lord god!"
Undoubtedly, the god they spoke of was naturally that snake demon.
This was a matrilineal family that only gave birth to female infants. Over three hundred years of protection had long made them worship that snake demon as a god.
It's worth mentioning that in the corridor behind these women, there also stood a little boy only three or four years old.
The boy had heterochromia from birth—his left pupil green, his right pupil golden. He had long hair and was quite delicately pretty.
If she remembered correctly, Mitsuba had seen this little boy's name in this family's genealogy earlier—
Iguro Obanai.
Heard he was the only male infant born to this matrilineal family in over three hundred years.
Unlike those women, regarding that snake demon's death, Iguro Obanai showed no sadness or grief. There was also no weapon in his hands.
Not only that, but his eyes looking at Mitsuba and Shinjuro were filled with an expression called gratitude.
This was normal. After all, as the only male infant born to this family in three hundred years, Iguro Obanai not only didn't enjoy any of this family's wealth and honor.
From birth, he had been designated as a sacrifice by that snake demon, waiting only for him to grow up before being devoured.
The arrival of Mitsuba and the other had truly saved his life.
"Shinjuro, how do you plan to deal with these people?"
Her gaze glancing at Iguro Obanai, giving him a faint smile before no longer paying attention, Mitsuba turned to look at Shinjuro beside her, asking curiously.
She was indeed very curious—how did demon slayers handle these humans involved with demons in the past?
To this, Shinjuro merely looked at these crying women before him, confirmed none of them were injured, then replied without concern:
"Since the demon has been eliminated, we naturally should leave as well.
The Master said, demon slayers are only responsible for slaying demons. We are absolutely not permitted to interfere in other matters."
"Eh? Is this really okay?"
Mitsuba was clearly somewhat surprised by this answer.
"Shinjuro, these people's hands are stained with human lives, you know?
Even ignoring the past three hundred years, just calculating the past ten or twenty years, that's still several dozen human lives, you know?
Just leaving them here like this without care—is this really okay?"
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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.