"Rinko. Hey. Just let me take one bite. Akaza-dono has definitely eaten you before, right? So letting me have one bite should be fine too, right?"
The very first second Rinko surfaced from his dream, that clingy voice was already in his ears.
He opened his eyes, and there they were. Those beautiful eyes marked Upper Rank Six.
In the next instant, the face filled his vision, so close he could feel the cold breath that came with each word.
Beautiful eyes. A beautiful face. A beautiful voice.
It was just that the voice appeared far too often, and the face was far too close.
Rinko did not like adults. Even now that his personality had improved, that instinct remained.
Especially tall, full grown adults. Doma was obviously in that category. Tall, broad, overly enthusiastic, and visibly powerful.
Rinko clapped a hand over Doma's moving mouth, covered his eyes with the other, and steadily pushed his entire head away. He rolled over smoothly, widening the distance between them.
"Akaza-dono has never eaten me."
Rinko's tone was not friendly.
"Huh? How could that be? I heard Akaza-dono never eats women or children, but I thought it was a joke. Women are the most nutritious, after all. Rinko, do you like eating women?"
The topic changed in the blink of an eye.
Doma looked like the kind of demon who could never be unhappy, never get discouraged. Even after Rinko shoved him away and retreated, Doma still looked bright eyed and excited.
This was Rinko's seventh day here, and also the seventh day Doma had camped beside his bed, waiting for a chance to bite him.
To be honest, Rinko could not understand it at all.
Why did Doma refuse to eat humans, and instead fixate on him, a fellow demon? Rinko had never dealt with anything like this before.
"Rinko, Rinko? Don't ignore my question."
Doma stared straight at the boy, who had knit his brows, trying to suppress his emotions but still leaking a hint of irritation.
Rinko was undeniably a demon, yet he hardly felt like one.
Fresh from sleep, he was drowsy like a human child, eyes unfocused, voice sticky with sleep. He slowly tugged his disheveled clothes into place, then stood up at an unhurried pace. A body that had held the same position through the entire daylight period let out a pained groan, bones clicking crisply as he shifted.
He slept without any guard at all. Even with Doma sitting here, visibly itching to take a bite, Rinko had shown no sign of waking.
A truly unbelievable child.
"I don't like eating. I don't like eating women, and I don't like eating men. I don't like feeding."
After loosening up his body, Rinko turned back.
Doma was still staring. At that answer, he tilted his head, his expression trying its best to demonstrate genuine confusion.
"How can you not like eating? It must be Akaza-dono. He always picks people who taste terrible, so of course you hate feeding."
Doma declared his conclusion all on his own. Before Rinko could respond, he stood and hooked an arm around Rinko from behind, lifting him up and pulling him into his chest.
"Hey, Rinko. Want to see what I do on most nights?"
It did not sound like a request that allowed refusal.
The movement certainly did not leave any room for it either.
Rinko remembered Muzan mentioning that Doma ran something like a religious sect.
Rinko did not believe in gods or buddhas, and he could not understand that entire system of thinking.
His final conclusion was simple.
Doma kept a herd of animals, petted them daily, coaxed them to grow big, sprinkled feed, then periodically picked the prettiest one and ate it.
Muzan did not seem to approve, but he also could not find anything clearly wrong with it. So Rinko accepted it as truth.
When he agreed, Doma reacted with exaggerated surprise, expressing delight, then immediately turned and carried Rinko out of the room.
As expected, he left Rinko no chance to refuse.
Not that Rinko would have refused anyway.
Held like a doll, Rinko behaved like one too. Quiet, compliant, still.
Just as Rinko had never understood why he was handed to Akaza, he did not understand why he had been handed to Doma.
Thinking brought no answers.
Doma clung to him every moment, leaving no space to escape. Even trying to avoid him felt pointless.
All Rinko could do was find something else to focus on and try not to mind the oversized adult attached to his side.
The ceremony looked different from what Rinko had imagined.
The humans below were dressed neatly, polite and composed. On the platform above, Doma sat with perfect ease, dignified and convincing.
The humans knelt and bowed, offering their wishes to the demon seated above them.
Human desires were pure in their simplicity.
Men could not escape money, power, and women. Most problems could be solved with money, so they prayed for wealth, begged for blessings, wished for smooth careers, or for a sudden fortune gained through shady means.
Women were even simpler. Men. Children. Then money again.
Rinko had no real sense of money.
Living deep in the mountains with Kokushibo, he had rarely even seen it. Later, following Akaza, it was even less relevant. They did not even have what could be called a proper "home."
Demons did not need food or drink. They did not need a fixed place to live. Even clothes could be restored with Blood Demon Art. Akaza had mastered that little trick to perfection, though Rinko still had not.
They truly treated money as something outside the body, something unnecessary.
"Hey. Is money that important?"
The childish voice rang out abruptly, then echoed through the silent hall.
"W what?"
No one would object to Doma bringing a child. But no one expected that obedient "doll" to suddenly speak.
Not even Doma himself, who was holding the doll.
Doma recovered quickly.
"Rinko is asking you a question. Remember to answer him."
He narrowed his eyes with interest.
Rinko was looking down at the crowd and did not notice him, so Doma turned his gaze to the man kneeling on the floor, smiling gently as he reminded him.
"Yes. Yes, Rinko-sama. In your eyes, money may not be worth caring about, but for me, for someone like me, it is precious beyond measure. I truly need that money."
The man pressed his forehead to the floor, muffling his voice.
"Then your life and money. Which is more important?"
Rinko tilted his head. The question arrived without warning. His tone was flat, impossible to read as accusation or curiosity.
"O of course life. But without money, my life will be taken from me very soon."
The man hesitated, stumbling over his words, but once the first sentence escaped him, his voice steadied.
"Life is more important, yet you chose to trade the life you can clearly see reaching its end for money that isn't as important. Then you came here with a life that is no longer enough to trade, begging a god to grant you money so you can buy back the life you personally handed over. Is that correct?"
Rinko's voice remained calm, so calm it was hard to tell whether this was discipline, mockery, or simply a statement of fact.
"Hey, is that right, sir? Not answering is rather impolite. Rinko cares a great deal about manners."
Doma rested his fan against his head and tapped it lightly, as if troubled by the situation. The man hurriedly nodded, stammering.
"Yes. Yes…"
"You didn't come while you still had something to trade, with sincere faith. You only came when you had nowhere else to go. Are you truly believing in a god with sincerity?"
Rinko's voice was not loud, but in the empty, silent hall, it echoed like a bell.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry…"
The man bowed again and again, but Rinko did not know who the apology was meant for.
A god that did not exist? His past self? Or the figures on the platform?
"It's alright. A god will be willing to embrace a lost believer. Stay. Your problem will be resolved. Don't worry. You will be reborn."
Rinko felt there was a reason Doma had been elevated to this position.
A gentle smile. A sweet voice. A beautiful face. And a kind of "divine" tolerance that Rinko did not believe in, but everyone else clearly did.
When Doma spoke from that seat, the humans below looked at him with glowing eyes.
"Rinko is colder than I imagined. I thought you'd be a cute child with lots of compassion. But this is nice too."
Rinko was confused by the word "cold," suddenly pinned onto him for no reason. Doma did not explain.
He demanded others answer questions in the name of manners, yet ignored Rinko's questions with ease.
That was always how Doma was.
"Rinko, want to eat that person with me?"
Rinko knew exactly who Doma meant, the man who had been kneeling in the hall. He touched his stomach, lifted his head, thought for a moment, then shook it.
"No."
"Put me down. I want to look around somewhere else."
"Eh? You won't even eat with me? Rinko, do you dislike me? You looked so close with Akaza-dono and Kokushibo-dono, but you don't want to be close to me. Or is it that you only like stronger people? If my rank were higher, would you like me more?"
Doma was a demon who was difficult to deal with.
As that head kept talking, and his mouth had already drifted to the side of Rinko's neck, Rinko confirmed that thought again.
Fangs hovered close to flesh. A cool breath spilled across his throat.
After experiencing demons with his own eyes, he had now personally experienced something else.
Being latched onto.
"If you were acting out stories, Doma-dono would definitely be very popular."
The mouth froze in place.
Its owner froze with it, completely unable to understand what was happening inside his prey's head.
Rinko lifted his chin and nodded solemnly, his expression serious.
"Because Doma-dono is like the demons in books. They cling to people, whisper day and night, lure them into doing what you want, and in the end, they eat them."
Doma drew back his fangs and straightened, thinking hard for a moment.
"But I am a demon."
He tilted his head, voice rising at the end, honestly puzzled.
"Exactly. That's why you're even more suitable."
"The book also says demons don't appear in the daytime."
Rinko answered with complete seriousness.
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