Night had fallen deep.
The long corridor of the Kujou Estate was lit only by a scattered few lanterns, their flickering flames casting broad shadows across the wooden floor.
*Tap, tap, tap.*
The footsteps sounded somewhat hurried.
Kujou Sara’s expression was cold and stern, her brow tightly furrowed as she walked straight toward the main residence at the end of the corridor.
Dim, yellow candlelight still glowed behind the paper windows, indicating that the true power behind the Tenryou Commission had not yet retired for the night.
And Sara had a question that she needed Kujou Takayuki to answer in person.
*Tap.*
Arriving at the doorway, Sara stopped, took a deep breath, and spoke in her usual crisp, decisive voice.
“Lord Patriarch.”
“Enter.”
An aged but harsh voice sounded from inside.
Receiving permission, Sara reached out with a black-gloved hand, steadily pulled open the wooden door, and dropped to one knee, performing an impeccable military salute.
“Sara, why here so late? Is there urgent business?”
Only a single lamp was lit inside the room.
Kujou Takayuki’s withered silhouette sat submerged at the boundary of light and dark.
“Yes, Lord Patriarch. There is something I do not understand.”
She raised her head, her golden eyes unreservedly staring straight at the old man who had raised her for so many years.
“Lu Heng’s strategy is a national policy personally reviewed and approved by Her Excellency the Ogosho. Yet the department heads under the Kanjou Commission and our own Tenryou Commission are pinning down the plan with endless red tape and bureaucratic approvals.”
Sara looked directly at the old man in the shadows, her voice lowering slightly.
“I wish to know… does this have your permission?”
“Heh…”
In the shadows, the old man did not grow angry.
Instead, he let out a raspy chuckle, as if hearing the naive words of a child.
He picked up his teacup, choosing not to answer the question directly.
“Sara… did you hear something from that Lu Heng boy?” Kujou Takayuki narrowed his eyes.
Over the past few days, Sara and Lu Heng hitting dead ends across various departments had been entirely under his surveillance.
As a seasoned veteran of officialdom, he naturally understood the intent behind his adopted daughter’s interrogation.
He sneered inwardly.
*Just a child after all.*
Sara did not deny it.
Her slender fingers resting on her knee tightened slightly, her voice growing somewhat urgent.
“Lu Heng said… to the bureaucrats in the rear, Her Excellency’s orders do not matter. They merely view Almighty Ogosho as a wooden tablet in a shrine. Whoever controls the process controls power…”
“Is the supreme loyalty of our Kujou Clan pledged not to Her Excellency’s will, but to a dead process established solely to hoard power?!”
Hearing this treacherous questioning, Kujou Takayuki remained calm upon the head seat.
He merely set down his teacup slowly, letting out a deeply aged sigh that seemed laden with disappointment.
“Sara…”
The old man slowly stood up, his hunched body casting a huge dark shadow in the flickering candlelight.
Like a bird of prey spreading its wings, it completely shrouded the kneeling Tengu general beneath him.
“Has that boy named Lu Heng made you question the clan that gave birth to and raised you—and even question the Shogunate itself—with merely a few clever words and specious arguments?!”
“Lord Patriarch, I am merely confused! Her Excellency’s will clearly—”
“Her Excellency’s will is Eternity!”
Kujou Takayuki’s voice abruptly rose, its deep resonance echoing throughout the hall.
“What is Eternity? It is unchanging law! It is rules where everyone fulfills their duty! The approval process of the Tri-Commission is an ironclad law laid down by Her Excellency when she first established our government!”
Takayuki pressed forward step by step until he stood right before Sara, his gaze burning into her.
“You think those officials below are making things hard for you? Wrong! They are risking their lives to defend the ‘rules’ laid down by Her Excellency! If today, Lu Heng can ignore all national laws and financial records based on a single oral decree from Her Excellency and draw massive sums from the national treasury at will…”
Kujou Takayuki’s withered finger thrust sharply toward the doorway as he scolded sternly, “Then tomorrow, can just anyone who comes up with a whim and pleases Her Excellency with sweet talk ignore all national laws and financial records to indulge in petty acts of righteousness?!”
“If the law collapses and rules become meaningless, how can Inazuma speak of ‘Eternity’?! How is Her Excellency’s great cause to be fulfilled?!”
This righteous-sounding speech hit Sara’s heart like a heavy hammer.
Her entire body trembled violently, her lips turning pale.
Indeed…
wasn’t this the very concept she had always upheld?
*To set aside personal joys, sorrows, right and wrong to make way for absolute rules and greater justice—isn’t that what I’ve always done?*
Years ago, she had resolved to become the deity’s sharpest blade, even if her own shadow held no place at the journey’s end…
Seeing his shaken, golden-eyed adopted daughter falling into confusion, Kujou Takayuki knew the moment was right.
He softened his tone, a look of compassionate fatherly pity appearing on his withered face.
Leaning forward slightly, he placed his heavy, withered hand on Sara’s shoulder like an unbreakable shackle.
“Sara, that Lu Heng’s intentions are treacherous. He not only wants to use clever tricks to bewitch Her Excellency, but now he wants to use you as a blade to tear apart Shogunate law.”
“He claims we treat Her Excellency as a shrine tablet? Absurd!”
The old man’s voice turned harsh.
“We are using the century-old reputation of the Kujou Clan to guard Inazuma’s operational rules for Her Excellency!”
“Will you trust a shallow boy full of scheming calculations, or the clan that raised you and guarded Inazuma’s laws for generations?”
“Kujou Sara, where is your loyalty?!”
This interrogation, along with the heavy weight on her shoulder, exploded in her mind like thunder.
Dead silence fell upon the hall, broken only by the single lamp swaying violently in the night wind, stretching their shadows across the wall like monstrous beasts.
Old concepts crashed over her like mountain waves—maintain the system, fulfill duties, or propriety and law will shatter.
The duty of the Tenryou Commission was to execute, not to question! This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
For centuries, hadn’t Inazuma’s Eternity been built upon this set of rules?
But…
Lu Heng’s mocking yet bright, clear eyes in front of the Kanjou Commission gate stubbornly occupied her mind at this moment.
*”Because to these officials, Almighty Ogosho’s ‘Eternity’ is just a wooden tablet worshipped in a shrine.
Whoever controls the process controls power.”*
One was an aging adoptive father supporting the rules with Inazuma’s traditions.
The other was a youth who had obtained the Shogun’s approval and was attempting to forge a new path.
Two conflicting philosophies surged in the Tengu’s heart, swaying like a balance scale, unable to tilt completely to either side.
After a long pause.
Kujou Sara bowed her head deeply.
“…Sara was rash. Please temper your anger, Lord Patriarch. Sara will never waver in her loyalty to Her Excellency.”
Seeing his obedient adopted daughter, a covert cold smirk touched the corner of Takayuki’s lips.
Yet in the lowered golden eyes of the kneeling Tengu general, far from being relieved, a layer of clarity colder than glaciers froze within.
*Creak—*
Pulling open the wooden door, Kujou Sara stepped out into the cool night wind, leaving the Kujou Estate step by step.
The night was dark as ink, with Inazuma City sleeping in the darkness in the distance.
She bit her pale lower lip, looking down at her black-gloved hands.
From years of practicing bowmanship, thin calluses lined the base of her fair fingers.
She remembered practicing archery in the mountain forests during her youth.
Back then, her hands were always unsteady; as long as there was a trace of impatience in her heart, the arrow would graze past the target.
Back then, the elders who taught her had said: “If hesitation clouds your heart, do not release the arrow. Hastily releasing the string will only cause you to miss your prey!”
And today, at that lively street corner in Hanamizaka, that young man carrying sweets who smiled somewhat foolishly had said to her under the moonlight:
*”If you feel lost, there’s no need to rush a decision.
Give yourself a little more time.”*
*I haven’t seen the true answer clearly yet…*
Sara took a deep breath of the cold night air, exhaling all the stale air from her lungs.
Her confused mind finally found an anchor in the freezing air.
She had not tilted toward the Kujou Clan, nor toward Lu Heng.
She had merely made a judgment belonging to “Kujou Sara” herself.
*Lu Heng, do not let me see the day you betray Her Excellency.*
Under the night sky, the Tengu general strided forward on her long legs, her gaze sharp as a blade.
Tomorrow, she would return to Tenshukaku and keep her eyes fixed closely on this man!
She did not shoot this arrow.
But she had drawn the bowstring tight, waiting until her heart and arrow aligned completely, aiming at the truth.