Seeing that Nezuko had actually resisted the temptation of his blood, Shinazugawa clicked his tongue. Although somewhat reluctant, he still accepted Nezuko.

Before he joined the Demon Slayer Corps, he didn't even have a Nichirin Blade. He relied on his extremely rare blood to get ordinary demons drunk, then tied them up and killed them with sunlight at dawn.

This trick had always worked, and he was very confident in the effects of his blood on demons. Nezuko had actually held back, so he would trust her this once.

Shinazugawa actually has a bit of a tsundere element. In the finale of the original work after he killed Muzan, Shinazugawa apologized to Nezuko, who had turned back into a human. Nezuko said that she had long forgotten and told Shinazugawa not to worry about it. During the years he was still alive after activating his Demon Slayer Mark, Shinazugawa and Nezuko became friends.

The lord smiled with narrowed eyes. As the only man present who was capable of smoothing things over and changing the subject, he clapped his hands lightly.

"By the way, Giyu and Shinobu mentioned in their letter that this young lady defeated the Lower Moon Five on her own. According to the rules of our Demon Slayer Corps, she is clearly qualified to become a [Pillar]."

The contents of the Lord's words were something that the Pillars did not know before, and the way everyone looked at Chika instantly changed.

Flame Pillar: What an amazing girl!

Sound column: How magnificent!

Love Pillar: So cool!!!

Serpent Pillar: Although he's only the Lower Moon 5, he's still passable.

Wind Pillar: You defeated the Lower Moon? No wonder...

Chika could clearly feel the special gazes directed at her from those around her, and to be honest, it wasn't pleasant.

Chika was never one to like others paying too much attention to her, both before and after her transmigration. This was one of the reasons why the original owner preferred to stay at home and handle household chores.

The lord smiled and continued, "It seems that no one has any objections. In that case, let's confer the title of Pillar. I never thought that our era would already have nine Pillars, and now we can welcome the tenth Pillar, and even look forward to the eleventh Pillar in the future. The era we are in now is the worst era, but it is also the golden era!"

The lord became more and more excited as he spoke, and his body couldn't take it anymore, so he almost coughed up dried blood.

Why is this the worst of times? Because the average strength of the Demon Slayer Corps members is declining, with a straight downward trend. Not a single Upper Moon demon has been killed in hundreds of years. There are even whispers within the Demon Slayer Corps headquarters that the Demon Slayer Corps won't last long.

Why is it called the Golden Age? Because despite the decline in average skill levels, this generation surprisingly produced nine Pillars, most of whom rose to power by slaying Lower Rank Demons. At the Pillar level, the Demon Slayer Corps had reached its peak, second only to the Sengoku period.

This generation must kill Muzan, the Lord thought, because if even such powerful Pillars can't defeat Muzan, then the Demon Slayer Corps, with its increasingly lower average strength and smaller numbers, will inevitably decline until it is easily wiped out by demons.

"Chika, is that your name? You use Water Breathing, but you already have a water column. You can choose a title for yourself," the lord said to Chika.

Chika was stunned for a moment. A title? Oh no, she hadn't thought about that at all.

Water jets, that can't be used.

Pillar of fire? Yang pillar? Sun pillar? Qianzhu? Xia Zhu?

For a moment, a whole bunch of hasty titles flashed through Chika's mind, but without exception, Chika shook her head and rejected them all.

Seeing this, the lord smiled gently and said, "No need to answer now. Let's keep it to ourselves for now and decide later."

With the Lord's ending, this "trouble" at the Demon Slayer Corps headquarters quickly came to a close.

Chinatsu and the others were assigned to live in a small mansion within the headquarters, just like the other Pillars. However, while the other Pillars had others serving them or "stepchildren" similar to disciples, Chinatsu only had Tanjiro, Nezuko, Zenitsu, and Inosuke.

"Speaking of which, why did you guys come along too?" Chinatsu glanced at Zenitsu and Inosuke with a subtle look and said.

Zenitsu, who had been staring at Nezuko, was immediately startled back to his senses by those words. The reason he followed along was quite simple: it was purely subconscious.

I followed them subconsciously, and no one said anything. I just vaguely followed them here.

But we definitely can't answer like that now.

"I'm learning from Tanjiro now, and I want to become stronger too!" Zenitsu clenched his fist and suddenly spoke loudly with high spirits.

That spirited shout almost made Qianxia believe it; she was just a hair's breadth away.

Zenitsu realized that his declaration seemed a little lacking, so he quickly winked at Tanjiro and Inosuke beside him, asking for their support.

Tanjiro: Sister, Zenitsu is indeed studying "Complete Collection of Classical Texts - Regular Texts". I'm teaching them.

Inosuke: What are you doing, keeping winking like that? Got trachoma?

Seeing the expressions on the faces of the people in front of her, Qianxia chuckled softly, finding it amusing.

Whether you explain or not, it doesn't really matter; Chika might just drive them away like a demon.

"Then you should study hard. With Tanjiro here, I'm sure you'll be able to learn it." Chinatsu said, exhaling a soft breath.

I'm a little tired, I'll take a nap first.

After waking up, I'll go find the other pillars. The Mugen Train storyline is coming up soon, so I need to figure out how to save the Flame Pillar.

After greeting everyone, Chika turned and went to her room in the mansion. She lay down and immediately fell asleep.

After Chinatsu returned to her room, Zenitsu covered his chest with one hand and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank you, Tanjiro."

"What are you talking about? I'm just stating the facts."

"………………"

Tanjiro smiled and squinted at Zenitsu and Inosuke. Zenitsu knew that Tanjiro was serious. Even though Tanjiro was squinting now, if he opened his eyes wider, they would be full of a flame called "drive".

Nezuko was sitting next to him, fiddling with her training wooden sword. Zenitsu's heart skipped a beat, because he knew that if he chose to run away now, his impression of Nezuko would plummet.

Let's give it our all!

Zenitsu clenched his fists, took a deep breath, and prepared to make another bold declaration to show Nezuko just how strong his motivation was. But at that moment, Inosuke kicked Zenitsu to the ground from behind, excitedly brandishing his twin swords and shouting, "Come on! Come on! I, the great one, will definitely master that... that thing!!!"