Chapter 132: The False Hero
In a village ringed by mountains, there was no busier spot these days than the "Hero’s Mansion," right in the center of the settlement.
They called it a mansion, but there was little of the mansion about it. In reality it was a side courtyard the mayor’s family had been forced to vacate. Even so, for a wretched village, punished by famine year after year and now by demons on top of that, this was the finest lodging anyone could dream of.
From the main room came the strumming of strings and the breath of flutes, threaded now and then with the coquettish giggles of women.
The demon slayer Kaigaku was sprawled out on a plush sofa.
With one arm he held a girl dressed in red and green, her gaze utterly vacant, while he squinted to savor the massage another was giving his legs, this one with the face of someone who’d long since stopped feeling anything.
Beside him, a third, with languid, seductive eyes, poured his wine.
"Kaigaku-sama, one more little cup~"
"Bahaha! Well said, well said, drink up!"
He threw his head back. The liquid ran down his throat and left a burning trail all the way to his stomach.
’How wonderful!’
Women all around, good wine, good food. Days like these were the only ones worth living. Because, come to think of it... tsk.
In the past he’d been an orphan. A kid who survived by stealing, with no father or mother to claim him. Until Himejima Gyōmei took pity on him and carried him off to a remote temple, to live with other brats who didn’t have anyone in the world either.
At first he was fairly content.
But that life of bland, humble food, in time, what was the point of it? If you were going to live, then live large! Eat well, dress well, and above all, BE RESPECTED!
Just like now.
The trouble was, that pack of little bastards didn’t understand a thing.
They schemed together to throw him out of the temple. And why? Over a few coins. Because he borrowed the money they’d set aside for expenses... For that, nothing more, they tossed him out into the night, and because of them he ran smack into a demon that nearly devoured him.
Good thing he was clever. He knelt, he begged, and to save his own skin he offered the demon every one of his temple companions.
That they’d later say he was forced to go back to the temple to put out the wisteria incense burner, the one thing keeping the demons at bay, and that because of it the thing gobbled up the rest of them...
WHAT A LOAD OF SHIT!
Forced!? Who says he was forced!? Since when could some stupid demon force him to do anything!? If he hadn’t wanted to do it, all he’d have had to do was sit tight inside the incense burner’s radius.
What was the creature going to do to him then? Nothing.
If he put out the incense burner, that was exactly why. So the demon would eat them all. It was the only way to collect what was owed to him and the only way to make sure nobody ever found out that he’d taken the money.
JUST REMEMBERING IT MAKES MY BLOOD BOIL!
So what had he done, anyway? Helped himself to a few of the offerings, the ones they used for food. As if skipping a few meals was going to kill them! And even if there’d been nothing left to put in their mouths, Gyōmei was the adult in charge. It was his job to fend for himself and find a way to feed them. A bunch of kids, who were they to stick their noses into other people’s business?
Throwing him out onto the street over such nonsense... Ha!
They had it coming, every last one of them, dying like that.
With no desire to keep stirring up memories that only managed to sour his good mood, Kaigaku glanced sidelong toward the window.
Outside, the mayor waited alongside a handful of local notables. He clutched some account books, a forced smile on his face and his back so hunched it nearly swept the floor.
Kaigaku smirked.
He knew full well what the old man was there for. He’d come to pressure him into finally heading out to hunt the demon.
How ridiculous.
If they didn’t wait on him hand and foot first, why should he indulge their little whim?
He wasn’t as much of an idiot as those other slayers. Go out and risk his neck just because they asked him to? I’m the one putting his life on the line. The pay came from the Corps, which had nothing to do with this village of starving wretches. The real ones who benefited were them, these ignorant fools. Shouldn’t they be properly grateful, the way God intended?
And they still had the gall to disrespect him.
’What was it I did, exactly?’ Slept with two girls from the village. Ate a few head of their livestock. Took a bit of their money. So what? Did they not know the appetite a demon slayer carried around? How brutal the work was? All day with the pressure bearing down on him...
’What a pain in the ass these people are!’
Tightwads, with that miserable pittance of money they doled out drop by drop. They’ve got it coming, having their people die on them.
"Kaigaku-sama, it’s almost nightfall, do you think today...?"
"My wounds haven’t healed. We’ll talk about it tomorrow!"
The icy voice that came from inside the room made the mayor’s weary hands tremble helplessly.
In the account book he was holding, everything was recorded with absolute clarity.
Over these seven days, the "Lord Kaigaku" holed up in that room had done nothing but eat and squander: he’d plowed through more than half the village’s food stores and emptied three whole years’ worth of savings. As if that weren’t enough, he’d slept with his daughter, the most beautiful of them all, and with the Imura family’s daughter too, their neighbors.
And even so, he didn’t dare say a single word. Neither did the Imuras. And the rest of the villagers, much less.
Why?
The successor of Thunder Breathing. A Kinoe-rank slayer. The elite of the Demon Slayer Corps.
In this village tucked away among the mountains, they didn’t really understand all those titles Kaigaku boasted about. They knew only one thing: that his name was Kaigaku.
They knew he could split an entire house in two with one swing of his sword. And that, if the mood struck him, he could turn the whole village into a slaughterhouse in under ten minutes...
....
Seven days earlier, he’d shown up at the place announcing that he’d rid them of the man-eating demon.
In front of everyone, he waged an "epic battle of three hundred clashes" against the monster, though in the end the creature managed to escape. And when, panting, he turned to the villagers gathered around him and told them "the demon is very powerful, I need to rest here a few days so I can finally behead it," the people, far from being annoyed, fell over themselves with gratitude.
That very night they prepared the best room for him. They served him the finest dishes. The mayor’s daughter kept him company and the most beautiful girl in the village was put in charge of pouring his wine.
They treated him like a hero...
What they never imagined was that, that same night, once the banquet was over, he’d slip into the two young women’s rooms to rape them...
He’d had too much to drink, he said.
He’d help them kill the demon, he said.
He’d take responsibility for the two girls, he said.
Hands tied by his monstrous power and cornered by the threat of the demon, they had no choice but to swallow all of it.
But seven days had gone by already!
And except for the fifth, when the demon reappeared and he once again put on his big performance of "barely managing to drive it off," he hadn’t lifted a single finger in all that time.
The people’s fear grew day after day. And, day after day, so did the offerings with which they tried to keep him happy. Up until today, when the mayor’s granary was nearly empty, the villagers’ livestock had been slaughtered down to the last head, and the village had nothing of value left to offer.
If things kept on like this, that winter the people would starve to death... assuming the demon didn’t eat them first. That was why the mayor had had to gather up all his courage and, risking death by the sword, had planted himself once more before that door to beg.
The result?
The poor man sank into the most utter despair.
...
Fortunately, at that very instant, a crow flew in through the window.
A moment later, Kaigaku, that man they now feared more than the demon itself, finally emerged from the room, dragging along his supposedly badly wounded body.
A short while later, he returned.
"The demon is dead." That was all he said.
The people found it hard to believe. But no one dared to question his words: they wished with all their souls for him to leave as soon as possible, even if the demon was still alive.
That night, at the banquet of thanks he himself had demanded, the mayor offered him a toast with tears in his eyes, old Imura knelt with reddened eyes, and the entire village watched, holding its breath, praying for his departure.
Only the two young women he’d slept with kept their heads down, biting their lips, their eyes lost on nothing in particular. Kaigaku didn’t even deign to look at them. He’d already grown bored with them.
"Kaigaku-sama~," purred the most fawning of the girls, "are you leaving this very day?"
"Mm." Kaigaku pinched her cheek. "What’s the matter? You don’t want me to go?"
She lowered her head, discreetly gestured toward the other two young women, and whispered: "My lord... couldn’t you take them with you?"
Kaigaku frowned, with an expression of clear annoyance.
"I’m begging you! Take them! They can do anything!"
As if she’d sensed the refusal coming, she suddenly clung to his sleeve, her eyes full of pleading. "Washing clothes, cooking, making your bed, arranging your blankets... they know how to do everything!"
She hung off his arm in the most ingratiating way she could manage. "My lord, it doesn’t matter if I stay behind! But those two were virgins! Now that you’ve taken them, if they stay in the village they’ll have to live with their heads bowed for the rest of their lives..."
"..."
Kaigaku stayed silent for a few seconds. Then he smiled.
"Alright."
The woman’s eyes lit up.
"Next time I pass through here, I’ll take them with me without fail."
She froze.
By the time she came to her senses, Kaigaku had already gotten to his feet, was yawning, and was strolling unhurriedly toward the exit.
As he crossed the courtyard, he glanced sidelong at the mayor and the notables still waiting there, pulled a few crumpled bills from inside his clothes, and let them drop to the floor.
"The money for these days’ food. Consider it a reward."
Seventy bills. Ten a day.
The mayor gathered them up with trembling hands, forcing a smile. "Thank you so much... thank you so much, Kaigaku-sama..."
Kaigaku merely waved a hand without turning around, and went on his way forward.
He made his way listlessly along the mountain path, picking his teeth with a toothpick.
Squinting, he started running the numbers.
He was calculating the odds of landing another mission in such a remote area, where he could hunt a demon and, on top of that, live like an absolute king.
Report him? How ridiculous.
Those ignorant fools would spend their entire lives stuck in that forgotten corner of the mountains. Where the hell were they going to go to file a complaint? Eating their food, having his fun with their women, and pocketing their money was what was owed to him by right.
After all... it was the only way he managed to fill that craving for happiness that kept slipping away from him without end, like sand through his fingers.
The nighttime walk passed pleasantly enough, between memories of the girls and the counting of his money.
However, at a certain point on the path he had to take, already close to Headquarters, his steps came to a dead stop.
On the trail stretching out in front of him stood two figures.
Two beautiful young women blocked his way.
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Throw your stones, drop them ALL! 💎
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