Chapter 500: The Meeting, Part 3

Without the one person capable of interfering with the prophecy, the demons would lose their only apparent means of salvation. The Prophecy of Yesh would then proceed without the child standing in its way, leaving the demon race to face the consequences.

And if the prophecy unfolded as they expected, Yesh would be the one to deal with the demons once and for all.

“Once that happens, we will finally be able to look forward to a peaceful world,” Hisashi declared. “A world where our children no longer have to grow up fearing demons, where our families no longer have to bury the people we love because of this endless conflict. A world where humanity can live without these creatures threatening our existence.”

He paused briefly before delivering the conclusion he wanted everyone to hear.

“Once the demons are gone, we can finally build that future.”

The reaction was immediate.

Cheers erupted throughout the conference room, accompanied by the sound of people clapping their hands against the table. Several members looked genuinely excited by the prospect, while others exchanged enthusiastic remarks about what such a victory would mean for humanity.

For the people gathered there, the idea of eradicating the entire demon race was an appealing one. The Demon Hunter Association had spent generations fighting against demons, losing countless members along the way. Many of those present had relatives, friends, or colleagues who had died in that conflict, and the thought that their sacrifices might finally lead to a permanent victory was enough to stir their emotions.

To them, the complete eradication of demons wasn’t merely a military objective. It was the promise of a future in which they would never have to fight the same war again.

Of course, whether the prophecy would unfold exactly as they expected was another matter entirely. For the moment, however, few people seemed interested in questioning that possibility. They were too caught up in the prospect of victory to spend much time considering what might happen if their assumptions turned out to be wrong.

Hisashi allowed the cheering to continue for a short while before finally raising his hand. Gradually, the noise began to die down, and the members returned their attention to him.

Once the room had settled, Hisashi stepped aside and gestured toward another person.

The individual slowly rose from her seat.

Hiyori initially paid little attention to the movement, assuming that another senior member of the association intended to address the gathering. However, when she recognized the person standing up, her expression changed.

It was her grandmother.

For a moment, Hiyori simply stared at her, struggling to understand what she was seeing.

Her grandmother had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for quite some time. Her condition had gradually affected her memory and daily life, to the point that even ordinary conversations could become difficult for her. Hiyori had grown accustomed to seeing her grandmother struggle with things that had once come naturally, and she certainly hadn’t expected her to take an active role in a meeting of this importance.

Yet the elderly woman was standing on her own, moving forward without asking anyone to support her.

Her steps were slow, but they were steady. She showed none of the confusion or hesitation that Hiyori had come to associate with her condition. As she approached the front of the room, there was something strangely different about her presence, something that Hiyori couldn’t quite put into words.

It wasn’t simply that her grandmother appeared more composed than usual. The way she carried herself seemed to have changed entirely, as though the frailty Hiyori had grown familiar with had suddenly become irrelevant.

Hiyori watched her grandmother carefully, unable to shake the feeling that something was wrong.

How was this possible?

Had her condition somehow improved without anyone telling her? Even if that were the case, the change seemed far too sudden for Hiyori to accept without question.

Her grandmother eventually reached the front of the conference room and stopped beside Hisashi. For a brief moment, she surveyed the gathered members, her gaze passing over the people who had been cheering only moments earlier.

The room gradually fell silent.

Then, in a voice that carried clearly across the conference room, the elderly woman spoke.

“This is the day that the saint will be chosen,” she declared.

***

Their grandmother had been a master demon hunter during her time, and she was widely regarded as one of the most gifted and talented hunters to have ever lived. Her name had become legendary throughout the demon hunting world, and there were even stories claiming that she had come close to inheriting the power of the very first demon hunter. Whether those stories were entirely true or had been exaggerated over the years was difficult to say, but nobody could deny that she had been an extraordinary woman whose abilities were far beyond what most hunters could hope to achieve.

Her reputation wasn’t built on her bloodline alone, either. She had accomplished things that even the most experienced demon hunters considered practically impossible, earning her a place among the greatest figures in their history. Among the many stories told about her achievements, one stood out in particular. She was said to have fought three Great Demons at the same time, all by herself, and survived an encounter that would have been enough to wipe out an entire squad of ordinary hunters.

That alone should have been enough to explain just how terrifying she could be.

She wasn’t simply an exceptionally talented hunter who happened to have a famous name. She was a woman who had faced some of the most dangerous creatures in existence and lived to tell the tale, leaving behind a legacy that few people could even dream of matching. Even among the strongest demon hunters of her generation, she had been someone people respected, feared, and admired in equal measure.

In other words, she was a very dangerous woman.

And now, that same woman was standing before a room full of people, speaking as though she hadn’t been suffering from Alzheimer’s at all.

Her voice was clear, her expression was composed, and she seemed perfectly capable of understanding everything happening around her. She didn’t stumble over her words or appear confused about her surroundings, and she certainly didn’t look like someone who was struggling to maintain a conversation. In fact, she appeared surprisingly healthy compared to what everyone had expected, considering how much concern her condition had caused among the people who knew her.

That was precisely why the situation had left so many people confused.

Nobody had expected her to suddenly act as though nothing was wrong, much less address everyone gathered in the meeting room and announce that the next saint would be chosen today. The unexpected announcement had caught them completely off guard, and the fact that she seemed so lucid only made the entire situation more difficult to understand.

Before long, murmurs began spreading throughout the room.

At first, they were little more than quiet whispers exchanged between people sitting close to one another, but they gradually grew louder as more people began discussing what they had just witnessed. Some looked toward the former head of the Ichinose Family with expressions of disbelief, while others exchanged suspicious glances as they tried to make sense of the situation.

A few people even began wondering whether the whole thing had been a secret from the beginning.

Perhaps the former head hadn’t been as sick as everyone had been led to believe. Maybe she had been perfectly healthy all along and had simply concealed her condition for reasons that nobody else knew about.

It wasn’t an unreasonable suspicion, considering how suddenly she had regained the ability to speak so clearly in front of everyone.

Still, the possibility was enough to make people uneasy.

If she had been pretending to suffer from Alzheimer’s, then the people around her had been deceived for quite some time. It wasn’t exactly a minor matter, especially when the person involved was the former head of one of the most influential families in the demon hunting world. A woman with her reputation wasn’t someone people could easily dismiss, and the thought that she might have been hiding something from everyone only made them more curious.

As a result, the murmuring in the meeting room grew louder, with more people beginning to voice their suspicions without bothering to keep their conversations particularly quiet.

“Quiet!” Hisashi shouted, raising his voice to bring everyone back under control.

His command immediately drew the attention of the people gathered in the room, although several of them still wore expressions of confusion and disbelief. Some reluctantly stopped talking, while others glanced toward their neighbors one last time before turning their attention back to the front.

Hisashi waited until the room had settled down before looking toward his mother.

“Go ahead, Mother,” he said, giving her a small nod to indicate that she could continue.

With that, the former head of the Ichinose Family began addressing the assembled demon hunters once again.