Chapter 165: Learn to Tell the Difference
Even though Zenitsu clamped a hand over Inosuke’s big mouth, it was already too late.
Nobody present was stupid, much less deaf. And least of all Muzan, whose hearing was far superior to anyone’s... especially where that particular subject was concerned.
"He isn’t afraid... of the sun?"
Muzan’s voice lost every trace of condescending indifference, and he stared hard at Marcus.
"What did he mean by that? You’re a demon... and you don’t fear the sun?"
Everyone’s attention snapped onto him at once.
Tengen’s brow furrowed hard, Tanjiro’s sword trembled, and even Hakuji turned his head to look at him.
Only then did Inosuke realize he’d put his foot in it.
He wriggled out of Zenitsu’s hands and opened his mouth to say something, but couldn’t come up with anything. Under the boar mask, his face was red as a traffic light.
Marcus glanced at him sideways and shook his head.
"Relax. There’s no need to keep hiding it anymore."
He even shot Tengen a meaningful look, with a hint of apology and an unmistakable "you know what I mean."
"Besides, I need everyone to be clear on the difference between those wretched demons and me. Wouldn’t want anyone getting us mixed up."
Muzan took a step forward, the whips unfurling slowly behind his back like a peacock.
"What are you talking about?" he growled. "How could you possibly—?"
"How could I possibly have turned into something as inferior as you?"
Marcus cut him off, smiling.
"How was I going to become a creature that has to devour humans to stay alive, that can only hide in the shadows, that spends its entire existence not knowing what food tastes like and can’t even have one miserable bowl of hot soup?"
"Inferior... creature?!"
Muzan’s face twisted with rage. If he hadn’t wanted to get more details out of him, he’d have torn him to pieces already.
"Don’t forget!" He forced the fury down and spoke coldly. "You’re a demon now too!"
"No, I’m not a demon. I’m something above you. Or rather, something far more perfect."
’Above me?’
’I am eternal life!’
’How dare he say he’s more perfect than I am? Unless...’
Muzan’s eyes flew wide open. "Could it be...?! The Blue Spider Lily?!"
"That’s right." Marcus looked at him with a smile that made you want to punch him in the face. "It’s exactly what you’re thinking."
He raised one finger and waved it in the moonlight.
"I have the Blue Spider Lily. I’ve already overcome the weaknesses of demons. Everything you failed to obtain in a thousand years, I have it. All. Of. It."
"I-Impossible." Muzan’s breathing quickened. "I haven’t found it in a thousand years, and you—?!"
"Because I’m better looking." Marcus said it with a completely straight face. "Because I’m luckier than you. And because I trust doctors instead of picking fights with them!"
With his shame laid bare, Muzan’s face contorted in a way that was hard to read.
"Impossible! You’re nothing but a lucky brat! You—!"
"All right, all right, don’t rack your brain over it." Marcus waved a hand dismissively. "I’ve said everything I’m going to say. Believe whatever you like."
"And stop thinking we’re the same."
He paused, and the corners of his lips curled up slowly.
"I gave this new race a name."
"Vampires."
"From here on out, learn to tell the difference. Wouldn’t want a creature as low-grade as you going around trying to climb up to my level."
"..."
Muzan stopped talking.
He stood there motionless, every muscle trembling with rage. A rage so great it wouldn’t let him get out a single word.
And then he turned red. But not from anger.
In the end... he burst out laughing.
"FUFUFUFUFU!!"
The laughter rattled the windowpanes.
Marcus raised an eyebrow. "If you want to cry, cry. What’s with that ugly laugh?"
Muzan’s laughter cut off dead, and he fixed his bestial pupils on Marcus—no anger in them, only absolute exhilaration.
"I’m laughing at how stupid you are." He took a step forward. "I’m laughing at that arrogant attitude of yours. Just like Daki—not a drop of brains in your head."
The whips writhed.
"I’ll take everything you said as true."
"But it’s night, and there are still more than five hours until dawn. Do you really think you can stop me with these brats?"
He grinned wide.
"In the end it all comes down to strength. Call yourself a vampire or a demon—all I have to do is devour you, and everything will sort itself out."
"Devour me?"
Marcus laughed too.
"What a coincidence. I was thinking the exact same thing. I’m also very curious to find out what the Demon King tastes like."
Muzan was stunned. No one had ever asked what he tasted like.
But his face darkened right away.
That’s right... This man made his name doing precisely that—stealing abilities.
"You really think you can? The second I get serious, you won’t even be able to get close."
"Heh." Marcus shook his head. "I already told you, the me of right now can’t beat you."
With that, he looked around...
Within fifty meters there was nothing left but ruins. But past the hundred-meter mark, women’s faces still peered out from the windows, and there were people watching from the streets.
This place was Yoshiwara, the gathering place of the lowest-ranking women in the country.
They had witnessed everything; they were afraid, and they hid, but not one of them dared to run.
And it wasn’t that they didn’t want to run—it was that they couldn’t. Because even if they fled, they had nowhere to go.
Being the very bottom of society, whoever caught them could do whatever he pleased with them: sell them, humiliate them, and answer to no one.
With a faint smile, Marcus looked out at those terrified girls.
’I wasn’t planning on using this trick yet. It gives away too much... but the way things look, I don’t have another option.’
He turned his head toward the ones around him.
"Everyone except Daki, fall back."
"Sir!!" Hakuji was the first to protest.
"Fall back."
Marcus’s grave look made him swallow the rest of his sentence. He gritted his teeth and stepped back a few paces.
Marcus looked at Tengen and Tanjiro.
"Trust me."
Tanjiro nodded and retreated without hesitation.
Tengen wavered. He looked Marcus in the eyes and found not the slightest trace of doubt in them.
"This had better be a truly flamboyant move!"
And he pulled back as well.
As for Gyutaro... once Daki nodded, he scratched his face and withdrew.
There was no one left standing beside Marcus.
Pulling Daki against his chest, he turned to look at Muzan again.
"You know, as someone who uses a Breathing Style—someone who makes his living off it... do you know which part of me got the biggest boost after I became a Vampire?"
He didn’t give him a chance to answer.
"My nose."
Muzan frowned.
But Marcus wasn’t finished. "And do you know how many women there are in all of Yoshiwara?"
Muzan’s brow furrowed deeper still.
"About three thousand four hundred."
Muzan finally lost his patience. "What are you getting at?"
This time there was no answer.
Marcus exhaled first, emptying his lungs completely.
Then he inhaled.
That inhale was long... deep... dense... as if he meant to swallow all the air in Yoshiwara in a single draught.
His ribcage swelled and his ribs let out a faint crackling sound.
Even Daki, in his arms, felt the air being dragged toward him.
Then Marcus’s body began to change.
His heartbeat became audible to everyone.
"Thump! Thump! Thump!"
Like an amplified drum.
His muscles expanded, every fiber tensing and storing up power.
His body temperature rose; his height grew. He let go of Daki and drew his swords.
And in that instant... the purplish-pink blades began to redden, inch by inch.
It wasn’t a red painted on from the outside. It welled up from within, rising from the deepest part of his guts.
Like iron fresh out of the forge. Like coal burning red-hot. Like—
"...Bright Red Nichirin?!"
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