Demon Slayer: Starting with the Kingdom

Of course, even if you could find it, it wouldn't really matter.

After all, her two elder brothers could no longer return to the country...

Needless to say, Yoriichi's older brother, thanks to their father, did not receive any good treatment in the country when he was young, and later wandered alone for twelve years.

Of the three siblings, he had the lowest sense of belonging to the country.

And Yan Sheng's elder brother...

Mitsuha always knew in her heart that Yoriichi was the only one in Kokusatsu's heart.

Since the day twelve years ago, when Yoriichi used that "divine power" to defeat his swordsmanship master, everything in Michiru's heart has been destroyed.

From that moment on, Yoriichi was all that remained in his heart.

Become Yoriichi, surpass Yoriichi...

For twelve years, a curse called Yoriichi continued to erode his heart.

That's why he abandoned the country without hesitation and followed Yoriichi to the Demon Slayer Corps.

Because that's where Yoriichi is.

All his obsessions were there.

"That's how it is, Mother."

On a mountain on the outskirts of the city, in the cemetery of the Tsugukuni family, Mitsuha knelt down before the tombstone inscribed with "Tsugukuni Akeno," burning paper money in a brazier as she softly said:

"I regret that I was unable to follow Mother's original instructions and leave my two elder brothers in the country."

Twelve years have passed, and now even my elder brother Yan Sheng has abandoned this place and left. In this vast country, I am now all alone.

And I, through the recommendation of those retainers, temporarily assumed the position of head of the family, the successor to the throne. The arrangement of fate is truly unbelievable...

If my father knew this from beyond the grave, I wonder what kind of expression he would have?

Of course, you don't need to worry too much about your two elder brothers.

I think it would be great if the two brothers could work together for the same goal in the Demon Slayer Corps.

Perhaps this way, I won't have failed to live up to your expectations of me, will I?

A gentle breeze blew by, but no one responded to Mitsuha's soliloquy.

She stopped speaking as if she had completed some kind of routine report, quietly burned all the paper money in her hand, then stood up and walked down the mountain towards the town of Jiguo with the guards who had been waiting for a long time.

After returning to town, Mitsuha did not immediately go back to Tenshu Castle. Instead, she dismissed her guards and wanted to walk around the town streets alone.

There was no deeper meaning behind this action; she simply...didn't want to go back.

I don't really want to go back to that home that's called the successor country.

I don't know when it started, but this place, along with the country, can no longer bring her any warmth or happiness.

Whenever I think of it, all I feel is depression and desolation.

In the past, at least she had her brother Yan Sheng, who shared the same plight.

But now, even Yan Sheng's elder brother has abandoned this place and run away.

Despite being the older brother, he dumped all the troublesome things on his younger sister. How willful of him...

"One, two, three, four... Haha! I won! I'm the Shogun again!"

"Damn it! It's you again!"

"Stop dawdling! Hand over all your wheat right now!"

Suddenly, the sound of children laughing and playing reached her ears. Hearing this, Mitsuha, who was wandering aimlessly down the street, subconsciously stopped and turned around.

In a small alleyway not far away, several children from nearby houses were squatting together, seemingly playing something and laughing incessantly.

Feeling a bit curious, Mitsuha subconsciously went over to take a look.

It turned out to be a promotion chart...

This is a simple game where each player takes a chess piece and plays on a wooden board covered with grids of official titles from the imperial court. The player uses a small compass that can rotate a pointer to decide whether to move forward, stop in place, or move backward.

The rule of the game is that the first person to reach the Shogun's square wins.

I remember when we were little, this was one of the games that Mitsuha often played with her two older brothers.

However, back then, the one who always won in the end was Yoriichi's brother. He could always keep the compass needle in the area that represented moving forward, leaving her and Michikasa's brother's pieces far behind.

Young Mitsuha always attributed this to luck, but later she realized that it was because her brother Yoriichi was born with divine power.

Yoriichi, who could observe the subtle changes in the muscles in his own arms, could easily increase or decrease the force in his hands, making the compass needle stop precisely where he wanted it to stop.

No luck, it was all cheating...

"Hey! Who are you? What are you doing standing here?"

The slightly wary voice of the little boy in front of her brought Mitsuha back to her senses.

It seemed that her sudden walk over and then standing still in a daze was so strange that the children stopped playing and stood up to look at her warily.

"Feel sorry……"

Coming to her senses and realizing she had disturbed someone, Mitsuha immediately apologized and turned to leave.

But just then, a little boy in front of her suddenly called out to her.

"Hey! Do you want to play with us too?"

Her footsteps stopped at the sound, and Mitsuha turned around to look at the group of children behind her who were blinking at her, and then looked at the wooden plank on the ground.

She opened her mouth slightly, hesitated briefly, and then shook her head.

"Why are you looking so gloomy? Just say you want to play..."

Completely ignoring Mitsuha's refusal, or perhaps sensing her true feelings, one of the boys in the group immediately stepped forward, forcefully shoved a chess piece into her hand, and grinned:

"Judging by how well you're dressed, you must be a rich person. If you lose, you'll have to treat us to dinner!"

"That's right! I'm going to eat the rice cakes made by old man Koizumi. I've heard that his rice cakes are the best in the city!"

"How unambitious! We should have gone to that Sato restaurant in the west of the city! I heard that even the city's officials like his food... Hehe, I want to try what the officials are like!"

"As long as there's meat to eat, that's enough..."

Holding the rough chess piece in her hand, Mitsuha stared blankly at the group of children in front of her who were openly discussing something on their own, her eyes suddenly becoming somewhat unfocused.

She suddenly remembered that when she was young, she and her two older brothers often discussed their future in that small room.

It's strange, even though it was just an experience from my childhood, it feels like it happened a very, very long time ago...

Feeling a pang of emotion, Mitsuha looked at the group of children in front of her, gripped the chess piece in her hand, and nodded with a smile.

"If you win, I'll treat you to something to eat, whatever you want."

"Bring it on, you rich big sister!"

Chapter 10 The Butterfly Doctor

"Waaah! No! Mitsuha-nee has gone to the Shogunate again!"

“Hehehe…hahahaha!”

Time flies, and in the afternoon, Mitsuha, who had once again won against a group of children, threw her head back and laughed.

Squatting on the ground, already clutching a handful of wheat, she immediately reached out to the group of worried-looking children around her, relentlessly urging them on:

"Hurry up! Bring me all the ears of wheat you have!"

"Damn it! Why did Mitsuha-nee win again?!"

"We lost, it's all your fault. If you hadn't spun around and backed away so many times, we definitely would have won this time..."

"It's clearly a problem with the compass! How can you blame me!"

"Honestly, such a grown man doesn't even know how to give way to us little kids..."

"Exactly! Mitsuha-nee definitely cheated!"

"Cut the nonsense."

Faced with the children's unanimous condemnation, Mitsuha simply smiled faintly.

She raised her head, gently patted imaginary dust off her shoulder, and said in a tone as if she were a peerless master, shaking her head and speaking:

"If you're bad, practice more! If you can't handle losing, don't play!"

Wow! She's so smug!

"Again! I'm determined to beat her this time!"

"Hmph! Bring it on! Today I'm going to make you little brats admit defeat!"

Just as Mitsuha rolled up her sleeves, preparing to teach these arrogant brats another lesson, a voice suddenly rang out behind her.

"Miss Mitsuha, you should go back now."

Upon hearing that familiar voice, the smile that had just appeared on Mitsuha's face instantly froze.

"Hey! Who...who are you?"

At the alleyway behind them, several guards from the country stood respectfully.

Judging from the fine beads of sweat on their foreheads, they had probably searched the entire city before finally finding Mitsuha squatting here playing games with the group of children in this alley.

With a soft reply, Mitsuha lowered her eyes and put down the handful of wheat she had won.

She slowly stood up, patted the dust off her clothes, and her face returned to its previous expressionless state.

"Sister Sanye, are you leaving?"

"Would you like to come and play with us again next time?"

Seemingly finally realizing that the men with knives at the alley entrance were there to pick up Mitsuha, the children all looked up at her and quickly asked her questions.

"Well, if there's a chance."

Mitsuha smiled and nodded, then took the money pouch from her waist and handed it to them.

"Here you go, thank you for playing with me. Keep some of the money inside for yourselves to buy things to eat, and take the rest back to your parents, understand?"

"understood……"

With a polite smile on her face, Mitsuha said nothing more and turned to leave.

"Sister Mitsuha!"

But just then, one of the children behind her suddenly called out to her again.

She turned around and saw a somewhat shy little boy.

He walked up to the crowd, looked up at Mitsuha, and then shyly raised his hand, pointing to his cheek with two index fingers.

"You should be happy!"

Her eyes instantly welled up with tears. Mitsuha stared at him blankly for a moment, then slowly nodded.

"Miss Mitsuha, you should be mindful of your status."

"Ok, I know."

On the way back to Tenshu Castle, the guards kept nagging and advising Mitsuha.

“Now that you are the head of the family and the successor to the throne, you should know that it is very dangerous to wander around outside like this.”

"Ok, I know."

"If we were to accidentally encounter some bad people, it would cause a lot of trouble for the country..."

"Ok, I know."

After much persuasion, the guards finally changed the subject.

"By the way, we saw a doctor doing free medical consultations in the south of the city. We heard he's a famous doctor who traveled from Shikoku. Miss Mitsuha, would you like to go and see him?"

Upon hearing this, Mitsuha stopped in her tracks.

Her health has not been very good for the past two years.

No, that's not quite right either...