Three years had passed swiftly since Saburo began his training under a cultivator introduced by a Demon Slayer who had come to aid his village.
He had learned Water Breathing, progressing to the point where he could just barely see a faint, ethereal effect from his techniques.
It was with a dismissive, "Hmm~, well, I guess that's good enough," that his mentor arbitrarily decided he was ready to challenge the Final Selection.
"Good enough? What the hell does that mean!?" His indignation was ignored.
"Yeah, yeah, it's fine. Just go to Fujikasane Mountain," his mentor said, practically shoving him out of the training grounds. Well, in the end, he cleared it easily enough, and now he was a Demon Slayer, hunting demons.
He was incredibly busy.
No, seriously. A demon would appear, he'd be sent running to deal with it, he'd defeat it just before sunrise, return to sleep, eat, train because he didn't want to die, and then another demon would appear, and he'd be sent running again.
'Hold on, when am I supposed to find time to fuck a woman!?' He couldn't not train if he wanted to live, and just when he'd start getting horny, another fucking demon would spawn.
'What am I supposed to do!?' Well, to be honest, another part of it was that there just weren't that many unbelievably cute girls around that he was dying to rail.
Perhaps because he was harboring such impure thoughts, he took a clean, devastating hit during a fight with a demon.
Saburo somehow managed to defeat it through sheer force of will, but the bleeding was horrific. It was like a goddamn fountain. Not a gentle psssh, but a violent splaaaat.
He used his breathing technique to constrict the wound and blood vessels, staunching the flow, but how long could he hold out?
"Someone, help! Fuck, I'm gonna bleed out! …Ah, I'm starting to feel cold…"
And then…
"You're going to be alright now. …My, you've used your breathing to stop the bleeding. How clever. Just hang on a little longer!"
'An angel? A celestial maiden? No, a goddess?' He was being encouraged by a stunningly beautiful woman with butterfly hair ornaments pinned on either side of her head.
The smartphone flickered through his mind for an instant, but his wound threatened to reopen, so he abandoned the thought.
'Damn it, she's so beautiful! I will survive and fuck her brains out!' It was that very desire that tethered his life to the brink of death.
Saburo later learned that the goddess was the Flower Pillar, Kocho Kanae.
However, since he was taken to the Butterfly Mansion, marked with the Wisteria family crest, he had no idea where she actually lived.
'Well, if I get stronger, maybe I'll see her again,' he thought, throwing himself into his demon-slaying duties with renewed vigor.
Then, one day, perhaps because he had grown stronger, he managed to finish a hunt before dawn and was on his way home.
The faint clang of swordplay reached his ears, and he dashed toward the sound to find a swordswoman battling a man wielding a fan.
The man, drenched in blood from the head down, was clearly unnatural—a demon.
Saburo knew demons had to be slain, but he was tired, he wanted to go home, he wanted to pretend he hadn't seen anything. These faint thoughts surfaced, but then he saw that the swordsman was Kanae, and she was losing.
Before he knew it, he had leapt into the fray.
"Kgh! No, you mustn't… run away!"
Even if she yelled that, Saburo didn't think the demon would just let him escape. Its eyes were devoid of warmth. Its mouth was smiling, but its gaze was utterly condescending.
"The girl is right. You're utterly useless here."
The demon was right. He couldn't even keep up with the speed of the iron fan. Multiple strikes came at him in the time it took him to launch a single attack.
Saburo couldn't even properly defend himself; wounds multiplied across his body in an instant. He was drenched in blood in seconds. He somehow managed to keep his grip on his sword with one hand, but it was all he could do to just barely avoid a fatal blow.
The demon was saying something, but he had no room to listen. With that condescending look, the demon raised its iron fan and brought it down. Saburo desperately raised his own sword to block, only for it to be cleanly severed…
A pained grunt, a distorted cry of agony, and Kanae's blade was suddenly raised, deflecting the blow and saving his life.
"Heh, you can still move? But it hurts, doesn't it? Why not live forever with me?" the demon said.
'It did hurt.' It was probably just as the demon said.
Kanae, who had somehow blocked that last attack, seemed unable to stand and had collapsed to her knees.
The most Saburo could do was stand unsteadily in front of her, his own body swaying. It wasn't a conscious decision; his body moved on its own. He took a picture of the demon with his smartphone.
'No one should be able to see it. No one should know.'
"What was that just now?" the demon asked, opening the distance between them.
'It didn't work!?' Just as panic set in, the demon spoke again.
"Dawn, is it? Fufu, you get to keep your lives a little longer." The demon retreated as the sun began to rise.
His relief was short-lived. Kanae vomited blood. A thick, clotted mass spilled from her lips. She couldn't even manage a proper breath, her exhalations faint and ragged.
All Saburo could do was offer words of encouragement and apply pressure to her wounds. When other Demon Slayers arrived and confirmed the demon was gone, the wave of relief made him finally lose consciousness.
Fortunately, Saburo's wounds weren't life-threatening, and Kanae had also survived.
However, her lungs were damaged, making proper breathing impossible, and it seemed she would have to retire.
There was apparently some trouble concerning her younger sister becoming a Demon Slayer, but she had pushed it through. She mentioned giving the mansion to her sister and leaving soon.
Saburo heard it directly from Kanae himself. Yes. While she couldn't return to duty as a Demon Slayer, her daily life was apparently unaffected.
Kanae, who had woken before him, was the one nursing him back to health~. Waking up to see Goddess Kanae there, he thought he might have died and gone to heaven.
He accidentally blurted out, "I love you, please let me have you," but she just brushed it off with a "Ara, ara~?" which saved him.
He hadn't thought he was in the real world. She treated it like sleep-talking, so he was safe.
Safe…
Even after that, Kanae continued to feed him, watch his training, and provide attentive care.
The night before he was to be discharged and return to duty, she came to see him in his room.
Saburo used the smartphone on her, and Kanae, who had been sitting by his bedside, now had vacant eyes and a slightly parted mouth.
There was no one else in the room.
So…
"Kanae-san, is there someone special in your life right now?"
"...Someone... special?"
"Yeah, someone special. Someone you're dating, or in love with, or promised to."
"I'm not dating anyone... or promised to anyone... but... the person I like... is right in front of me."
"Wha—!? Why!?"
"...Because... you threw yourself in harm's way to protect me..."
"That's right. You threw yourself in front of me to protect me, didn't you? Then give yourself to me. Body and heart—offer it all to me."
Kanae's breath trembled as she whispered, "…Yes, I understand."
"Because I'm the one you love from the bottom of your heart, you'll grant me anything I ask for, won't you? Every time you do, it'll make you feel happy inside. Anything—no matter what it is."
Her cheeks burned, her words fragile. "…Because I love you, Saburo-kun, I'll do anything you say."
"That's right, anything. Oh, and you should know—I'll surround myself with other women too. But since you love me, you'll accept it, won't you?"
Kanae's expression stiffened, her lips quivering. "…N-no. I don't want you to have other women."
"!?"
Saburo smirked. "It's not that bad, right? I mean, I'm that great of a man, so it can't be helped—"
"I don't want… to be abandoned," she blurted out, voice trembling.
Saburo chuckled darkly. "Then do your best so I won't throw you away."
"…I'll do my best, so you won't abandon me."
"Good girl. Work hard for me. Oh, and Kanae-san—you're in love with me, so naturally, you feel me as a man. Do you understand what that means?"
Kanae blinked, puzzled. "…? Saburo-kun, you're already a man."
He leaned closer, whispering against her ear. "No. Feeling me as a man means your body craves me. It means you want my child. When you think about me, your pussy heats up, your juices overflow… You go into heat just for me."
He ended the app on his phone with a smirk, then reached out and took Kanae's hand. The moment her senses returned, her cheeks turned crimson at the realization…