11 Darkness, Splendor, and Turmoil

Muzan was in a fairly good mood.

To him, the daylight outside the window looked much the same as it had when he left. It was highly probable that the Shikigami user had summoned him the moment the cooldown period ended, unable to wait a second longer. Upon hearing the Shikigami user's soft and gentle request, he became even more convinced of this hypothesis.

Muzan did not consider himself a stingy person. Since the human was now so reluctant to part with him, he was one step closer to his goal. That being the case, there was no harm in indulging the other. It was just a transformation, after all.

However, after a minute, he began to feel displeased and tightened his coils.

Ieiri Yuki felt the force of that pressure, his breathing grew unstable, and a sound involuntarily escaped his throat.

The snake's body was cold and eerie. It slithered, coiled, and squeezed against his skin.

"The stench of lingering traces..."

His previously pleasant mood vanished entirely upon smelling that extra trace of odor on the Shikigami user—the mark left by another cursed spirit.

How eyesore.

As mentioned before, although Muzan was once human, his behavioral logic leaned more toward that of an insect: single-threaded and exceptionally brutal. Ieiri Yuki was his designated territory, a realm that belonged solely to him. Yet, during his brief absence, someone had stepped into this sanctuary, and the lingering traces were screaming of their presence.

This made Muzan exceptionally unhappy. He viewed it as a provocation.

Due to the constriction of the snake's body, which caused slight difficulty in breathing, a faint flush rose to Ieiri Yuki's cheeks.

"...Lingering traces? I exorcised a few cursed spirits earlier; they must have been left behind then."

Muzan remained silent.

His scarlet snake tongue flickered out once more. *Are they dead?* Muzan thought casually, yet he remained disgusted by those senseless, foul-smelling traces. He did not consider this possessiveness; he was merely confirming his own territory. He felt an urgent need to coat the boy's entire body in his own scent.

That was the simplest method.

And so, he tightened his grip even further.

[Wait?! Did he not find Tamayo?]
[Got it, he's just purely jealous.]
[I'm shocked! Has he reached the point where he can't even tolerate the traces left behind from exorcising cursed spirits? He's totally acting, right?!]
[Coiling so tightly.]
[The tip of the tail is wrapped around his thigh, then another loop around his waist, one around his neck, and the snake's head is nuzzling Yuki's cheek and earlobe.]
[Lucky guy, he's eating well.]
[You trashy boss, I can tell you know exactly what you're doing! This kid is securing benefits for himself!]
[Such an eerie, beautiful scene; it's suffocating just looking at it.]
[Snake forms are truly beautiful.]