"You... YOU HAVE NO HONOR!" Enmu screamed in terror. "I SAID THE SMALL ONE!! THE SMALL ONE!!"
"Sorry…" Marcus smiled with genuine pity. "My hand slipped."
And before Enmu could keep screaming, blood was already gushing out through the two drainage holes on the sides of the syringe.
"N-No... don't do it..." Enmu's voice cracked. "I'm begging you… that's mine… that's everything to me…"
As the blood drained out of him, he felt his strength slipping away fast, and with it, his unique ability to induce dreams… was abandoning him.
And yet, no one in the warehouse was going to feel sorry for him, let alone help him.
They just watched, smiled, and chatted about their own business.
And although Tanjiro felt a faint pang of pity, he simply looked away.
Marcus kept his eyes fixed on Enmu's body, which was completely tangled up in his Arrows. Every now and then he'd increase the pressure a little, and amid the screech of twisting metal and the ragged howls, he crushed the train car to speed up the bleeding.
Five minutes later, Enmu's pleas turned into insults. From insults they moved to curses. From curses to threats.
Nobody cared.
By the ten-minute mark, the screams faded out again and turned back into begging.
But he wasn't asking for his life to be spared.
He didn't want to die, but he wasn't especially afraid of death either.
The reason he was begging was simply that he didn't want to keep experiencing that feeling of helplessness as he felt his strength draining away little by little.
He begged for someone to come kill him, but no one paid him any attention.
By the twenty-minute mark, the begging stopped completely.
The massive blood loss had left him without even the strength to scream, and even his consciousness, already on its last legs, was beginning to unravel.
By the thirty-minute mark, looking at the cabin of the Infinity Train, which had basically been reduced to scrap, Marcus finally grabbed Makomo and raised her.
And, after a violent echo of steel, Enmu died.
He didn't die from blood loss, but under Makomo's blade.
Along with the entire train car, he was cleanly split in two.
By then he had already lost consciousness, so you could say it was a painless death.
More or less.
Marcus sheathed the sword. He held the tube up to the moonlight, filled to the brim with that thick blood, almost black against the light, and gave it a satisfied shake.
"Done."
And he handed it to Tamayo.
She took it, checked the state of the Blood Essence, inspected the seal with a couple of quick movements, and nodded.
"When I get back I'll process it right away and seal it to preserve its vitality."
"Mm." Marcus nodded. "Well then, home it is."
"Muu, muu~!"
FINALLY!
Nezuko raised her little hands and celebrated the announcement with the solemnity of a tiny politician winning an election.
"Okay, okay, we're leaving now."
In a good mood, Marcus scooped her up in his arms, tossed her up in the air a little, and caught her a couple of times.
Nezuko couldn't stop laughing, kicking her short legs in the air.
Watching the scene, Tanjiro couldn't help but smile too.
"Marcus and Nezuko... they really do get along great."
"Of course they do!" Zenitsu walked over with an expression full of jealousy. "Nezuko is so cute! So sweet! And so affectionate! I want to hug her too!"
Tanjiro's expression changed, and he looked at Zenitsu with a blank face. "Do you want me to... ask Marcus about that?"
"..."
Off to the side, Inosuke grumbled in boredom: "I'm so hungry… my feet are about to fall off…"
During the carriage ride back, Marcus leaned against the wall, resting with his eyes closed.
Nezuko was curled up against his chest, her little body rising and falling gently to the rhythm of the carriage's swaying, fast asleep.
A tiny smudge of drool glistened at the corner of her mouth.
Tamayo, sitting beside him, would adjust Marcus's clothing every now and then or carefully wipe Nezuko's chin.
Her sweet, affectionate behavior brought tears of pure envy to Zenitsu's eyes.
However, sitting so close to Marcus, he didn't dare show a single trace of what he was feeling.
The only thing he could think to do was lean in against Inosuke, tilt his head against his shoulder, and pretend that he, too, had just casually drifted off to sleep.
Meanwhile, outside, the carriage driven by Tanjirō rolled steadily onward toward Asakusa.
...
After a good while, the silhouette of the mansion finally appeared, cut against the horizon.
Ivy and Pearl were waiting at the entrance.
Seeing the carriage arrive, the two of them took off running toward it.
"Master~~!"
Marcus poked his head out the window and smiled at them softly.
"I'm back! Did you miss me?"
They both nodded hard, their eyes shining intensely.
"Master, dinner's already ready~"
"Master, the hot water's all set~"
"Master, the beds are made~"
"Master..."
"Very good." Marcus nodded, delighted. "First a bath, then we eat."
"Understood, Master~!"
The two of them hurried to open the gates.
Yushiro didn't show up. It was crystal clear he had zero interest in seeing Marcus reappear.
And for his part, Marcus wasn't exactly losing sleep over it either. After all, once the carriage was parked, it'd be Yushiro's turn to head out and handle the upkeep of the horses and the carriage.
When it came time to get down, Ivy and Pearl brought over a stool and positioned themselves on either side: one helping Marcus, the other assisting Tamayo.
This scene made Zenitsu grind his teeth audibly.
'Now that's the life! That is the life!'
And that was just what you could see at a glance.
If he ever found out that Marcus also had access to a "personalized service" from Ivy and Pearl when he went up to bathe, Zenitsu would most likely commit harakiri on the spot.
After bathing and having dinner, Marcus kept his word. He took Nezuko in his arms and carried her off to his room to sleep.
However, since he'd already slept quite a bit during the train ride, he got up unusually early the next morning.
Even so, the trio had already been training in the courtyard for a good while.
After letting Ivy and Pearl get him ready, he headed to the laboratory.
Tamayo was very busy, so he didn't interrupt her. Instead, he took a stroll around the place.
Aside from checking the spot where they'd stored Enmu's blood, he discovered a small change.
There was a new iron cage. And inside it, a small demon they'd captured earlier, locked up and completely unconscious.
Just then, Tamayo came over to him.
"Have the experiments on live subjects already begun?"
Tamayo nodded. "Since you looked so tired yesterday, I didn't say anything~"
"Mm."
"After you left, Shinobu helped me with two experiments, and I did one more myself. This one here is the fourth."
"And the results…?"
Tamayo smiled faintly. "They keep getting better. This time... there should be a chance!"
Marcus's eyes lit up. "Then what are we waiting for? Come on, come on, let's start already!"
"Don't you want to rest a little longer?"
Impatient, Marcus pushed her toward the lab table. "Rest from what? If we're one step away from success, there's no time for resting."
"Okay, okay~ Don't get so worked up~ No matter how much of a hurry we're in, we have to wait for the reagents to take effect. It's not ready yet."
"How long until then?"
"By the afternoon."
"Done!"
…
That afternoon, with the sun blazing high in the sky, the solar exposure experiment proceeded as planned.
The small blue-skinned demon serving as the test subject had already woken up and was trembling uncontrollably, staring in sheer panic at the scorching sun pouring in on the other side of the window.
It knew perfectly well what was coming next.
Off to the side, Marcus stood holding a syringe in his hand. Inside, a pale blue liquid that reflected the sunlight.
"Let's begin."
__________
Throw your stones, drop them ALL! 💎
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And if PS aren't your thing but you still want more chapters...
P-a-t-r-e-o-n → Athome790