Dance of the blades

Chapter 48 Wisteria Manor

The sun rises as dawn approaches, leaving its small gentle rays upon the nooks and crannies of the wisteria manor. Birds flew about and awoken, chirping a soft tune in greeting, creating a tranquil atmosphere. 

"Lan Jingyi!!" a deafening shriek burst through the halls of the manor, breaking whatever was left of the illusion of peace.

"Are you kidding me! Not again" Ouyang Zizhen frustratedly groaned into his sheets, his voice raspy from dehydration in his sleep. He restlessly turned to his side, grasping the blanket in his fist against his ears in hopes of muffling the noise. On his right, he could see Lan Sizhui in a similar position as him, his face clearly showing his disdain of being awoken like this.

The manor they were resting in was situated a top of a hill surrounded by wisteria trees. With a thick fragrance drifted through the air around it, refreshing to both the mind and body.

While the countless blossoming wisteria trees encompassing it make an alluring scenery, it was originally not planted for ornamental use in mind. 

Many years ago, the Zi family were merely humble merchants that specialized in the production of tea. While they did produce a variety of different tea leaves, wisteria was their primary source.

They say that one day while the master of the house was away on a business trip, demons had invaded the home and slaughtered all of the servants. Their bodies were brutally beaten and half eaten corpses lined the entire halls.

The merchant's wife and children left behind were also almost subjugated to a similar fate, had it not been for the benevolent demon slayers passing through the home while on nightly patrol, both children and wife would not have been able to speak of this matter to the master of the house.

Hearing of this, the master of the wisteria manor declared their family owed a debt of blood. And so as years passed and the business grew, expanding to other regions of the land, the wisteria manors became a safe heaven to wandering demon slayers.

On the entrance and with the guest rooms of each manor sword stands were placed to honor the demon slayers that came and went.

Lan Sizhui remembered how his master used to sneer as she told him this tale, stating that the hot-blooded and rowdy demon slayers of that era used to exaggerate their achievements to the extreme. Like all tales that came from the mouths of the victors, the truth of the story has been change and reiterated by thousands of storytellers, who was to say that there was a difference between a 'slaughter' and a 'few servants going missing'?

As Lan Sizhui thought of this, his mind wandered back to the conversation he and his friends had on the road. 

They had just departed from the small village that was housing them and had set their sights on the big roads. Lan Jingyi was pondering on the intent of the order and complained loudly to no one in particular on why they were forced to move to a new area so soon after completing their mission a few days prior.

"It can't be helped" Ouyang Zizhen stated while sighing as he unfolded the map in his hand, repeatedly switching his gaze from it to the road.

"Demon slayers teaming up last second together to complete missions rarely lead to success.  With how word spread about our success on our mission, the higher ups at the demon slayer corps are probably fussing over us to send in a report as soon as possible." he continued on as he pinched his brow. 

When they had reached the wisteria manor, Lan Sizhui had thought that they were just going to submit the report to the demon slayer corps and leave as soon as possible. Unfortunately they had not expected to be ordered to stay for three more days on the bases of training. 

At first it had not seen like a problem as the training they had to receive was simple and not too straining. 

However their troubles soon arrived when night fell and the time of slumber came. Due to the last batch of guest staining and ripping the bed sheets of the guest room, they were forced to sleep on the floor.

This decision had troubled both Jin Ling and Lan Jingyi as the former was not used to this type of sleeping position and would frequently cause him to wake in odd hours of the night, making him more irritable in the mornings. While the latter faced a similar yet different issue, with him subconsciously rolling around the floor and hitting the objects around him.

This led to them waking each other from the long hours of the night, causing noise and waking up the rest of their friends with them. Now if it were once or twice it could be forgiven but thrice was simply testing their patience!

Having enough of the ruckus both boys reluctantly stood up from their make shift beds to start the day.

Lan Sizhui did not know when he had integrated himself into their group. He found himself falling into a routine with them from chatting with Ouyang Zizhen during training to separating fights with Jin Ling and Lan Jingyi in the evenings.

It all seemed natural to him.

Lan Jingyi and Jin Ling didn't even bat an eye when Lan Sizhui went between them, blocking them grasping at each others' throats.

Lan Sizhui voice eminated kindness as naturally reprimands them for their behavior.

Ouyang Zizhen used to this display stood at the side lines until a hunched figure approached from behind.

"Hmm what a lively atmosphere. Has something interesting happen today?"