100 CHAPTERS!!!šš
______
On narrow paths it rolled along without rushing, and on wide ones, it tore through at full speed.
When Marcus felt the overwhelming power of the four horses and the incredible smoothness of the steel chassis with its suspension, he got excited.
ā¦
When he came tearing back like a bullet to Tamayo's house with the carriage drawn by the four steeds, everyone was left speechless.
They looked at the narrow mountain path and then at the monster of a carriageā¦
All the demons were stunned.
"H-How did you get that thing through there?" Yushiro asked, completely thrown off.
Marcus, for his part, looked at him as if he were an idiot. "Haven't I made you fly before?"
"ā¦"
Marcus tossed him the whip with a flick of his wrist. "Here. Get used to them. From now on, Tamayo's trips depend on you."
He didn't mention his own tripsāotherwise, the guy would definitely throw a fit.
Three demonesses were already bouncing around the carriage.
Nezuko even went straight over to play with the horses. Ivy and Pearl, of course, had to plant themselves beside her to keep watch and make sure she didn't hurt herself.
Tamayo, on the other hand, was looking at the carriage with a furrowed brow.
"ā¦Isn't it too flashy? And besides, you can't just go using your ability every time you want to bring it all the way here."
Marcus walked over with a smile and slung his arm around her shoulders.
"Relax. Once we find a place to settle down in the city, we'll have stables and a coach house. We won't have to deal with these hassles every time."
"In the city?" Tamayo's eyes opened wide. "Asakusa?"
"Yeah. Everything is more convenient there. Equipment, medicine, suppliesā¦ restocking anything will be much easier."
"Butā"
"I know what you want to say, but you're worrying for nothing. That sissy Muzan, after what happened in Asakusa, with the temperament he has, won't set foot there for another hundred years."
"And on top of that, since he's paranoid, if we act all scared, that's exactly when he'll get bold and come after us."
"But the moment he sees us moving around in some abnormally flashy way, his first reaction is going to be: 'They're setting a trap for me, they want to lure me in and finish me off.'"
"ā¦"
'ā¦He does seem to have a point.'
"Don't worry, I've thought it all through. It's not like we'll be parading around out there, and with Yushiro's ability we have more than enough to fly under the radar."
"Thenā¦"
Seeing that Tamayo was still hesitating, Marcus pulled her against his chest, holding her by the waist, and looked her dead in the eyes, with no beating around the bush.
"Just trust me, woman!"
Tamayo's beautiful face was tinged with a soft blush. In the end, she nodded somewhat shyly and didn't let out a single word more.
Marcus grinned from ear to ear.
"Well then, it's decided. Start packing your things, because we're leaving tomorrow."
"That soon?" Tamayo lifted her face, surprised. "But you just got hereā¦ don't you need to rest a little?"
Marcus gestured toward the carriage, with a mischievous smile. "Don't worry, there's plenty of room inside the carriage. In there, we can rest however we want, and have all the fun we wantā¦"
The color rose to Tamayo's cheeks again. She gave him a soft little pat on the chest and slipped out of his embrace.
"You really are shameless~"
And, just like that, she went off obediently to pack her things.
The next three daysā¦ you'd have to say the group didn't stop for a single moment.
Or rather: it was Yushiro who didn't stop, hauling the carriage from one place to another without any rest.
Because Marcus limited himself to lounging around inside the carriage, with Tamayo nestled against his left side and Nezuko on his right, Ivy attentive to any whim of his, and Pearl massaging his feet.
Since they could only travel at night, during the day they devoted themselves to visiting companies to close deals. Most of them were foreign, which suited them perfectly for getting their hands on the most cutting-edge equipment of the moment.
They also found the laboratory: a property in a middle-tier neighborhood of Asakusa, neither downtown nor on the outskirts.
A three-story mansion, nothing of the traditional Japanese style.
Yushiro got stuck living on the ground floor. The second floor would be the laboratory. And the third, the new residence for Marcus and his girls.
The place was surprisingly large.
In sheer floor space alone, it was almost five times the size of Tamayo's old cabin.
But with Ivy in the mix, who was the natural-born homemaker type, household chores became a joke. All she had to do was move her threads and, in the blink of an eye, brooms, mops, basins, and rags were flying around in every direction, leaving the entire house spotless, without a single speck of dust.
Even Tamayo, who was a textbook neat freak, couldn't find a single fault with it.
And in her free time, Ivy, who was already familiar with the kitchen tools, would get to work preparing the food.
As for Pearlā¦ she was very shrewd.
Over time, the medicine merchants and equipment companies that came by the house started being received by her personally, and she would haggle with them without batting an eyelash. With money in her hands, she had the air of a housekeeper that was a delight to watch.
Except that, with all of that, Yushiro had been left completely out of the game.
The only spot left for him in the house was that of doorman, watchmanā¦ and coachman.
If he could no longer attend to people, at least he was left with attending to the horses. A small consolationā¦
Once all the things they needed had been bought, Marcus took the group to the old house where Tanjiro and Nezuko used to live.
Ivy stayed behind to take care of the mansion. After all, all the experiment data was there, and new equipment was coming in and going out every day, so leaving the place empty was unthinkable.
Pearl, on the other hand, was quite a bit sharper than Ivy. Having her close gave Marcus more peace of mind, so for the moment he took her along with him.
Then came the waiting part.
They rented a little house in the village at the foot of the mountain, right below Tanjiro's house.
One person and four demons settled in there on a temporary basis.
Aside from Marcus going up the mountain every day to take a look, to see if the flowers had bloomed yet, at night Yushiro and Pearl also followed his orders and "went out hunting."
The wait stretched on for an entire week.
When Marcus finally saw those big blue flowers in full bloom, right next to the lonely grave, he let out a deep sigh of relief.
With those Blue Spider Lily in his hands, the plan took a giant step forward.
Following the method Tamayo had explained to him, he carefully harvested the bulk of the flowers.
He took a quick look at the small bunch that was left, shook his head, and didn't touch a single one more. Unless something went seriously sideways, the flowers staying behind there were no longer going to be needed.
But he'd leave themā¦ just in case.
On the way back, Yushiro was still up front driving the carriage, while Marcus, already inside, was playfully having his fun with his Demonesses.
The flowers were inside the refrigerated container they had brought along throughout the entire trip.
The only thing that set the return journey apart from the trip out was five enormous white cocoons hanging off the back of the carriage.
That was what Pearl and Yushiro had hunted on their nighttime excursions.
Trophies!
With the information the Corps was passing along to them, two demons had gone out to captureā¦ five!
Inside, Tamayo rested one hand on top of the container while, with the other, she laced her fingers together with Marcus's.
"Honestly, you don't need this many test subjects."
"The more, the better," Marcus answered knowingly. "I know you've got a soft heart. After so much time living together with Ivy and Pearl, I'm afraid you ditched the idea of putting them through risky experiments ages ago."
"But it has to be done."
"Some experiments require a high concentration of Muzan's blood, and those, naturally, will have to fall on the two of them. The rest, the more dangerous ones, we'll leave to the demons we've got hauled in the back. If they kick the bucket, I won't bat an eye, and on top of that they help me knock out the extermination missions."
Seeing Pearl, by his side, nodding in agreement, Tamayo sighed.
"What worries me is that, from seeing demons that don't die and 'go offline,' Muzan ends up getting suspicious."
To her surprise, Marcus shook his head.
"Heh. Muzan must be very busy right now!"
__________
Throw your stones, drop them ALL! š
And don't forget to comment, I wanna know if you liked the chapter š
______
And if PS aren't your thing but you still want more chapters...
P-a-t-r-e-o-n ā Athome790