"I won't!!"
In an ordinary small town, at a locally famous Butterfly Clinic, the elderly Butterfly physician was engaged in fierce argument with her daughter.
"What family precepts? What demons? What Blue Spider Lily? I don't believe any of this!
I think Mother, you've simply gone mad! Grandmother was mad! You're mad! You're all mad!"
The townspeople all knew that the Butterfly family valued women above men, with sons-in-law marrying into the family for generations.
The current Butterfly physician had only one daughter, named Butterfly Shizuka.
Several years ago, this young physician had also gotten married, and the couple now had a three-year-old daughter named Butterfly Kanae.
"Mother, stop telling me these things! I don't believe this nonsense! Mad! Our whole family is mad!
Kanae, come, Mother will take you away from here right now... Don't stop me! I'm taking Kanae away right now!
Anywhere is fine, in any case, I won't let my daughter continue staying in this kind of family!"
Inside the clinic, the sound of packing luggage rang out.
Before long, a young woman dragging a pile of luggage and holding her young daughter walked out, leaving this town where she had grown up without hesitation.
This was the last time the townspeople saw this mother and daughter...
"..."
"Cheers~"
"Congratulations to the Holy Maiden on successfully wrapping up her role!"
Inside the Infinity Castle, three demons—Mitsuba, Doma, and Ubume who had already changed back to her original appearance—were gathered together celebrating.
"Honestly, Holy Maiden, that unwilling expression you made at the end was truly excellent!
I rarely get to see such an outstanding actor who can perform emotions to such a realm! Are you really not planning to come to my film set and collaborate on a few movies?"
"Stop it, Knight Doma. You know I have no interest in making films. I've always preferred to perform directly in reality..."
"Well then... speaking of which, why did the Holy Maiden suddenly decide to change the script?"
In the Western-style goblet filled with blood, Doma looked at Mitsuba and asked curiously.
According to the script routine the two had previously arranged, Mitsuba should have led the Demon Slayer Corps to develop for a while longer.
Then at some suitable opportunity, "accidentally" discover traces of Upper Rank One's appearance, and after careful planning, lead almost all the elite forces of the Demon Slayer Corps to subjugate him together.
Ultimately, after a fierce battle, the Demon Slayer Corps would luckily kill the Upper Rank One played by Ubume.
But just when everyone thought they had achieved a great victory, the deeply trusted Miss Mitsuba would suddenly pick up that mandala flower fallen on the ground.
[Mitsuba, why have you been holding that flower all this time?]
[Oh, this? ...Of course, it's because I am the true Upper Rank One.]
The final reversal would thus unfold, and true slaughter would descend!
The supposedly dead fake Upper Rank One played by Ubume would, under the overwrite of Mitsuba's Blood Demon Art, revive at this moment!
Mitsuba, finally revealing her identity, would thus massacre all the shocked and despairing Demon Slayer swordsmen!
Then turn around and subsequently massacre the Ubuyashiki clan who had no time to react!
Only leaving behind the despairing Ubuyashiki Kagaya and the empty Demon Slayer Corps.
Thus, the first part of the story would end.
This was originally the script direction Mitsuba and Doma had decided upon, but because of Mitsuba's temporary change of scene, it was replaced with the current direction...
"Didn't I already explain the reason before?"
Tossing the mandala flower into the goblet before her, watching the blood in the cup gradually decrease, Mitsuba said with a smile:
"Knight Doma, I've decided to delay our script for a period of time.
By then, I will have another more suitable person to perform this script in my place..."
"I see, then could the Holy Maiden give me an advance hint about who this more suitable person might be?"
"Temporarily confidential."
Mitsuba said, opening her palm and glancing at the butterfly hair ornament in the center of her hand.
"Eh~ how could you~ the Holy Maiden is truly too mean~"
"If the two Lords have nothing else, I shall take my leave first."
At this moment, Ubume beside them also spoke with a smile.
For Mitsuba, Ubume possessed two very useful characteristics.
First, she loved performing, and second, she feared not death.
Unlike most other demons, this female demon harbored no fear of death in her heart.
In fact, if her death could make others pay more attention to her, she would even gladly die.
Therefore, in this script, Ubume should have ultimately held Mitsuba's mandala flower, disguised as Mitsuba, and been killed once by the Demon Slayer Corps led by Mitsuba.
Then been revived by the overwrite of Mitsuba's Blood Demon Art, performing a shocking reversal.
But because of Mitsuba's temporary change, it ultimately became the ending where she and Doma together killed Mitsuba's puppet body.
Perhaps some might wonder, why didn't Mitsuba have her main body appear at the end, instead finding someone else to play the role?
The reason for this, besides Ubume herself being relatively weak and able to create more weaknesses in the original script for the Demon Slayer Corps to kill her and let them rejoice.
More importantly, Mitsuba was cautious.
That's right, Mitsuba was cautious.
This was true.
In her centuries of demon life, Mitsuba gradually discovered one of her flaws—that is—
She never learned her lesson without suffering losses.
But at the same time, she also discovered another of her strengths—that is—
Once she suffered losses, she would definitely learn her lesson.
Therefore, ever since her near-death experience at Tamayo's hands hundreds of years ago, Mitsuba, like Lord Muzan, learned how to write the word "cautious."
Especially after she evolved the abilities to control puppet bodies and share her Blood Demon Art with other demons, she carried these two words to the extreme.
Although she might still seem to have a playful, carefree, reckless disposition, in reality, Mitsuba now only used her puppet bodies to be reckless.
Puppet bodies can be reckless to the extreme, but the main body must definitely stay hidden!
After all, losing a puppet body wouldn't cause any real harm, but the main body was different—if something really happened to the main body, that would truly be the end.
Like this performance, even facing only her puppet body, even facing a situation with ninety-nine percent certainty.
Mitsuba absolutely would not let her main body actually appear, instead specifically finding Ubume, sharing her Blood Demon Art with her, and having her appear in her place.
After all, even with that one in ten thousand possibility, Mitsuba had to seriously consider—what if some uncontrollable accident really happened then, causing her main body to actually die?
What if God didn't play fair and suddenly used some method to ambush her?
She wouldn't be foolish enough to take this risk herself!
As long as the main body didn't personally enter the stage, no matter what kind of accident happened in the end, Mitsuba would always have the ability to salvage the situation.
With how fast the times were developing now and how splendid the future world would be, she hadn't lived enough yet!
Mitsuba absolutely didn't want to have that near-death experience again, and she absolutely wouldn't give the Demon Slayer Corps any opportunity to truly kill her again.
With the overwhelming advantage of a dragon riding a face, as long as she didn't reveal her true health bar, the Demon Slayers would never be able to kill her!
As for fake health bars?
Those were whatever—if she was in a good mood, she could kill one herself for them to see...
The current Mitsuba, beneath her seemingly reckless-to-the-extreme exterior, was actually incomparably cautious.
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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.