"It can't be helped in Haru-aniki's case. After all, the Mitsuya family is set to take over the protection and surveillance of the Kanto region alongside the Juumonji family, replacing the Saegusa family. Your domain will expand even further, Aniki, and as the next head, you'll inevitably be drafted to help the old man." "...By the way, was Yugen really the decisive factor behind the Saegusa family's relocation to Okinawa?" "That was part of it, but the bigger factor was their attempt to contact Zhou Gongjin to stir up anti-magic sentiment. Though Zhou Gongjin was executed in the end."
When the Master Clan Conference was restructured, the official reason given for the Saegusa family's "reassignment" to the Okinawa region was to have one of the most capable Ten Master Clans hold the front line. In truth, if it were publicly revealed that they had breached their agreement with the Kagurazaka family regarding Zhou Gongjin, calls to demote the Saegusa family to the Eighteen Assistant Clans would have been unavoidable.
However, given the reality that the Saegusa family was the only one among the Ten Master Clans capable of exerting strong political leverage on the government, Kudo Retsu and the Kudo family took full responsibility for Zhou Gongjin's crimes, bringing the matter to a close.
◇ ◇ ◇
The discussion at the Mitsuya house continued late into the night. In the end, everyone except Yugen and Kana spent the night in the guest rooms. Yugen slept in his own room in the apartment building, but when he awoke, he found he was not alone—sleeping beside him was Yosuga Satomi, one of his recognized mistresses.
Letting out a soft sigh, Yugen left her to sleep, changed into his riding suit, and headed down to the apartment's underground garage. Parked below was the Dreadnought. Inserting the key unit, Valkyrie, Yugen pressed the ignition switch, bringing the engine to life.
Straddling the motorcycle, he put on his helmet and operated the console to release the security gate locks. Confirming that all gates on the monitor were open, Yugen revved the throttle and sped out toward the opening. Passing through a long gated stretch, he emerged into a private underground tunnel that connected directly to FLT property rather than public roads.
Because the land FLT occupied was leased from the Kagurazaka family (routed through multiple real estate holding companies and proxies so that it couldn't be traced back to the Kousaka Group), such an arrangement was possible. Furthermore, since Yugen held official employee credentials at FLT under the alias "Hiroto Kamijo," no one questioned his arrival by motorcycle.
Yugen's destination was, of course, the Shiba residence. Though he had called ahead, Miyuki greeted him with a delighted expression the moment he entered the house from the garage.
"Good morning, and welcome back, Yugen-san." "Yeah, good morning and I'm back, Miyuki. Is Tatsuya doing his usual training?" "Yes. Shall I prepare breakfast right away?" "Sounds good. Let me change first."
Yugen occasionally heard about Tatsuya's training from Yakumo, who noted that Tatsuya was now holding a 50% win rate in sparring matches against him. Winning against Yakumo meant Tatsuya had long met the conditions to quit the extra training, and Yakumo had even suggested it to him. However, Tatsuya had firmly declined.
His reasoning: "It's meaningless unless I can make Master say 'I surrender' for real." It was obvious who he was aiming to surpass.
Returning to the living room wearing his school uniform minus the jacket, Yugen sat down to breakfast, which had just been laid out.
"Sorry about leaving so suddenly yesterday." "Not at all, Yugen-san. You have family matters to attend to. What was the reason Mototsugu-san called you over?" "We needed to discuss the invitation that arrived last night with everyone in the Mitsuya family except Shina. To put it simply, it turned into a pep talk for Haru-aniki."
Since the youth conference would soon be common knowledge among the Twenty-Eight Families, Yugen spoke frankly without hiding anything. While he didn't mention that only Tatsuya would attend from the Shiba (Yotsuba) household, he judged that since Harutsugu already knew Tatsuya personally, there was no need to meddle excessively.
"By now, Kokonoe-sensei might be giving Tatsuya an earful about the meeting as well." "Knowing Sensei's personality, that wouldn't surprise me at all."
After finishing breakfast, Yugen returned to his room, saying he needed to get ready. Booting up his terminal to inspect incoming intelligence reports, he let out a sigh. Displayed on the screen was a report indicating that the USNA military—specifically STARS—was attempting another infiltration operation into Japan. The reason behind it was easy enough to divine.
"...I understand that calling themselves 'the world's strongest' means they can't afford to turn a blind eye to Material Burst and Starlight Breaker, but this is foolish beyond belief."
Frankly speaking, Material Burst went without saying, but the recently completed Strategic-Class magic, Starlight Breaker, now allowed for targets anywhere on the globe to be destroyed using virtually any origin point. It could be triggered not just in midair, but underground or underwater; used maliciously, it could even trigger forced volcanic eruptions by targeting magma chambers beneath active or submarine volcanoes.
The only reason it was never deployed in such a manner was that Japan itself would suffer collateral damage, making it contrary to national interests.
If foreign powers wanted to ensure such magic was never turned against them, they should have demonstrated the resolve to initiate diplomatic overtures. Instead, their pride as magicians stood in the way—a choice that could only be described as utter folly.
Things were troublesome enough domestically; Yugen felt a sudden urge to punch the fools bringing even more headaches from abroad. He had no intention of claiming his own thinking was entirely conventional, but he certainly didn't want his sanity questioned by people who seemed to have lost theirs altogether.
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