Horitake allowed himself a brief moment of self-pity, wallowing in the quiet of the library before briskly shaking off the sentimental melancholy.
He stood up, stretched his limbs with a long, satisfying yawn, and looked out over the scene before him with a look of cool indifference.
Excluding the two librarians—a man and a woman—there were sixteen ordinary civilians. These eighteen people were now scattered haphazardly across the second-floor floor of the library, slumped over in various states of disarray. Some had been bound with rope; others had been knocked out before the demon could even get to them.
To put it simply, the scene was a mess—yet it was a strangely peaceful one.
Because Horitake's lightning had rendered them unconscious from the very beginning, they hadn't made a sound. In fact, none of them had been truly lucid since the ordeal started.
The demoness, Kyojutsu, was dead. Once these eighteen people woke up, their minds would clear, and the lingering effects of her hypnosis would vanish along with her.
Now, what should I do with them? Horitake wondered.
Should he untie them one by one? Wake them up? Escort them out?
No, that's far too much trouble.
If he woke them now, Horitake would be forced to explain exactly what had happened. There were things he could easily justify, and then there were things—the supernatural, the breathing styles, the demons—that were better left in the dark.
To avoid the headache, Horitake decided to simply leave them be.
Morning would come soon enough, and they would likely stir on their own. Once they woke up, it didn't matter how confused they were, how strange they found the situation, or whether they chose to call the police or simply flee. It was no longer his concern.
There was, however, one more thing to attend to. Horitake needed to head to the fifth floor to confirm Kyojutsu's status.
Even though he felt certain she was dead, intuition could be a fickle thing. In this line of work, seeing was believing.
He left the second floor and ascended the stairs. Whenever he encountered a locked door, he didn't bother with keys; he simply kicked them open with blunt, violent force. He moved upward without obstruction until he reached the executive office on the fifth floor.
The office door was, predictably, locked.
Horitake didn't grant it any special treatment. With a heavy thud, his boot sent the door flying inward.
As the door gave way, the contents of the office were revealed. Kyojutsu's physical body had already disintegrated into ash, leaving nothing behind for the naked eye to see.
However, when Horitake activated his Spirit Vision, he could still perceive the lingering, fading aura of the demoness's final moments.
Confirming she was truly gone, Horitake finally allowed himself to relax.
But as he maintained his Spirit Vision, something unexpected happened. Being in the exact location of her death triggered the demon's "revolving lantern"—the final flashback of a dying soul. The memories began to play out before his eyes, unbidden.
(Note: The "revolving lantern" concept was originally intended to be a staple setting, but some readers previously felt it was unnecessary filler. I'm reintroducing it here specifically to bridge certain plot points.)
Through Kyojutsu's dying memories, Horitake witnessed the genesis of this demon.
To his genuine surprise, this demon had a connection to Muzan Kibutsuji that was far from ordinary.
It turned out that roughly a year ago, Muzan—dressed in a sharp Western suit—had arrived at this very library. Through his usual manipulative means, he had installed himself as the Library Director.
Why would the progenitor of demons want to run a library?
The answer was the same as always: the Blue Spider Lily.
This library boasted a massive collection of rare texts. Muzan hoped that somewhere within these thousands of volumes lay information regarding the elusive flower. Becoming the director was simply the most efficient way to gain unrestricted access to the archives.
Of course, Muzan kept a low profile. He didn't disturb the local nobility or the influential figures who funded the institution. To the high-society patrons, it was merely a routine change in management—one employee replaced by another. They paid it no mind.
After taking the position, Muzan lived as a recluse, emerging only at night. He ignored the library's day-to-day operations entirely, spending his hours buried deep within the stacks, scouring every page for a lead on the Blue Spider Lily.
During this time, the woman then known as Kyojutsu was still human. She became Muzan's assistant, not only helping him categorize and find obscure books but also managing the library's affairs in his stead.
As Horitake watched the memories, he saw a specific turning point. While Kyojutsu was still a human librarian, the "Director" had once flown into a senseless, terrifying rage.
His roar had vibrated through the entire building, shattering the windows of the library.
That was the first time Kyojutsu realized her master was anything but human.
By cross-referencing the timeline within the memory, Horitake realized something: the moment Muzan had lost his temper coincided exactly with the time Horitake had slain the Upper Moon, Gyokko.
So that's why.
It made sense now. The death of an Upper Moon would certainly cause Muzan to lose his composure and lash out in fury.
It was also this outburst that began to peel away Muzan's disguise. Eventually, the human Kyojutsu discovered his true identity.
By then, Muzan had finished scouring the library. He had read every relevant book and found nothing—not a single shred of information on the Blue Spider Lily.
Given Muzan's personality, anything that outlived its usefulness was to be discarded.
Frustrated and fueled by spite, Muzan had intended to burn the library to the ground and slaughter every librarian inside.
In that moment of crisis, Kyojutsu—still human—made a desperate plea that Muzan actually found impossible to refuse.
She argued that a library's collection is never static; it is constantly being updated and renewed.
"Just because the book Lord Muzan requires is not here now," she had pleaded, "does not mean it won't arrive tomorrow. Please, Lord, stay your wrath. Do not destroy this place. Spare us, and let the library live."
She suggested that a future acquisition might contain the secrets of the Blue Spider Lily.
To save her life and prove her absolute loyalty, Kyojutsu proposed that she manage the library on his behalf. Whenever a new shipment of books arrived, she would personally vet them. If she found even a hint of the Blue Spider Lily, she would report to him immediately.
This proposal moved Muzan.
He chose not to kill them, nor did he burn the building. Instead, he took Kyojutsu up on her offer. To ensure her eternal obedience and control, he granted her his blood and cells, transforming her into a demon. He left her there to rule the library in his absence.
From that day on, Muzan departed, leaving Kyojutsu in charge.
Initially, Kyojutsu was just an ordinary demon. Occasionally, when hunger became unbearable, she would venture out at night to consume a human. Because her feedings were infrequent and her numbers low, she didn't alert the authorities in Kyoto or the Demon Slayer Corps.
However, as she consumed more people and her strength grew, she awakened her Blood Demon Art.
The unique and powerful nature of her ability gave her a newfound confidence. She began using her hypnosis to ensnare library patrons, luring them back at night like sheep to the slaughter, walking right into her maw.
Later, because the ranks of the Lower Moons had suffered significant losses, Muzan needed replacements. Seeing that Kyojutsu's Blood Demon Art was effective and her power was steadily increasing, he gave her another infusion of blood, officially promoting her to the position of Lower Rank Four.
This was the "revolving lantern" of her life. This was Kyojutsu's past.
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