Fifteen Days till the Odysseus, New Kyoto Empire
On the night of the raid on the elder clan mansion, the Dark Church was unable to complete a crucial part of their mission. They needed to wipe out the bloodline of the cursed clans who ousted their god. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the inheritors of the clan managed to escape.
Still, that was a negligible factor since they secured the most important member. The inheritor of the Tatsumaki Clan and the infidel to tarnish their god’s soul, Tatsumaki Shiro. She almost escaped, but due to their quick thinking, they repelled her rescuers and kept her in their clutches.
It had been 3 days since the raid. That night was quite chaotic and apparently, there was a bit of an issue with recovering the unconscious bodies of the Clan heads. After a while, they did get the bodies, but the emperor who was still in the room remained so, continuously. It was virtually impossible to enter the room. Cardinal 5 had tried several things to get the emperor out, but nothing was working. And going in was a no-go due to special circumstances.
In the end, they gave up since the emperor posed no obvious threat to their mission. There had been rumours on the emperor possessing a skill that made it completely impossible to inflict harm on him. Cardinal Five ordered for everyone to stop doing that. They’d send a three-course meal to the room every single day, but no one was allowed to force the emperor out.
Other than that, they’d spent the remaining days spreading fear amongst the people. All the warriors had been imprisoned and the women and children were left alone. Priests had been sent to spread the word of their Church. From the looks of things, their plan was going exactly as they’d expected.
Cardinal Five, who could be said to be the most ambitious cardinal sat on a seat prepared for him, in a massive hall. In the centre of the hall, a girl in a short red dress kneeled, bound by magic ropes that got tighter the harder someone fought to free themselves.
All around the hall, several members of the Dark Church were observing the screaming girl as she tried to free herself and only got even more hurt. After watching with a bored expression for more than 10 minutes, Cardinal Five stood up and walked towards her.
He crouched in front of her and lifted her chin up so her eyes met his. Those eyes burned ferociously and he felt like they’d eat him up. A disgusting light that sinners like the Elder Clans were not allowed to possess. All they had to feel was despair.
This girl was very bold and he could understand why she had the highest chance of becoming a [hero]. With such undying will, brainwashing wasn’t going to be easy till he completely broke her. They had a means for doing that, of course.
He dropped her chin and walked back to his throne, then snapped his finger.
The doors leading to the hall opened up and form it, the Tatsumaki Clan head was marched in torn robes and magic cancellation shackles. Her face was dirtied, her hair in a mess and her lips dry from obvious thirst and starvation. She was being pulled along by a grunt and was put in front of Shiro, before being kicked down to the floor.
The girl’s eyes widened in confusion and she stopped growling. Cardinal Five snapped his finger again and the grunt drew his blade. A fine steel blade that looked like it could cut through steel.
Cardinal Five looked at Shiro’s face for any changes in reaction, but Shiro regained her former vigour.
“Only an idiot would fall for this low-tier illusion spell.”
She barked, but the cardinal only smirked under his mask then snapped his finger. The grunt rose his blade to the sky.
Still, Shiro Tatsumaki showed no reaction. The cardinal shrugged.
“Do it.”
With a smile on his face, the grunt brought his sharp blade down. There was a splash of red.
The cardinal looked at her, but there was still no change in her reaction.
“Ho, you really aren’t falling for this, huh?”
Impressed, he applauded her unchanging expression. The illusion faded just like Shiro had assumed. However, contrary to what Shiro was expecting, there was a dead body on the ground.
They didn’t possess the trademark gunmetal silver hair of the Tatsumaki clan, but they had black hair. The person’s head rolled over and it was a maid of the household. The girl’s eyes widened in utter disbelief.
"You saw through the illusion, but that was only the cover for a second illusion.”
Cardinal Five stood up and walked over to her.
“I believe this one’s name was Hasebe. According to Cardinal 11, she’d been caring for you ever since you were merely 5. And you just signed her death warrant even when she looked at you with pleading eyes.”
He started laughing maniacally.
Cardinal 5 was the most ambitious cardinal. He was also a cardinal who took his beliefs extremely and would go to any length to ensure his mission was completed.
His laugh was cut short when he received a powerful painful sensation to his chin. He stumbled back and when he looked at Shiro, he realised she headbutted him.
“Bring it on! I refuse to break!”
She declared boldly while standing on her two feet. A couple of soldiers ran to pin her down and they did it successfully.
Cardinal Five rubbed his chin for a while before shrugging. Normally, he’d be enraged, but considering she was an important piece in their plans, he would take it quietly.
“Get some chains to pin her down here. Every two hours, behead one of these pagans, but make sure they all look like her mother each time. Eventually, we’ll send her actual mother. She may not care about the lives of her servants, but a mother is different.”
After saying that, the cardinal left.
Ever since, for the next six days non-stop, people were executed all bearing the appearance of Suzuki Tatsumaki, only for their real identities to be revealed after they died. Still, Shiro never broke.
***
The white-haired woman recounted her story to Daryl and Celica. They were currently in a room the duo rented out for her, since she’d emphasized how crucial it was that she remained unknown.
Both were horrified to hear of her experience pretending to be Shiro Tatsumaki. She dropped her mask on the bed in order to eat her food. Upon inspecting, they noticed that she looked nothing like Shiro. In fact, her appearance reminded them more of the little girl they’d met about a month ago.
She did say they were relatives, but the girl didn’t even know she existed and for them to look so alike, it was absurd. Daryl theorised they were siblings separated at birth, but he didn’t voice out his thoughts.
The girl gave him a rather stern looking, making him shiver. It was almost as if she could read minds.
“So, what happened from there?”
The girl kept eating her food without saying anything. She raised her hand as a way of telling them to wait. They spent a good five minutes watching her eat, before she cleared her throat.
“There’s a lot that happened honestly. I surveyed the area while under capture and a day before the clan heads died, I saw something interesting…”
***
11 days till the Odysseus, New Kyoto Empire
In the cellars of the empire, there were currently four people of immense status being restrained on the ground. They all looked to be in top shape, except for one person who was cuddled up in a corner and breathing heavily.
Mori and Yoshitatsu looked at each, then at Akihiko who was singing with a terrible tune to drive away his boredom. Under normal circumstances, Mori would be singing with him, but they received a warning from the person huddled up into a ball, panting. Akihiko, being as strongheaded as ever, ignored this warning and even started singing louder.
Mori and Yoshitatsu glared at him before he stopped. He raised his eyebrow when he noticed their glares.
"What? You don’t like the song? Should I change it? Oh, useless scumbags who pretend to be someone they aren’t, dying in the corner of cellars have no right to be giving orders…”
He started singing a completely new song. An Akihiko original, he’d say.
The astral form of the girl, Shiro, was in the cellar with them, but hidden from their gazes. This was how she knew the clan head was still alive. That didn’t mean the lives that were being shed were for naught. She was memorizing the faces, names and number of everyone being slaughtered.
“Oi! Akihiko, now is not the time for this.”
Mori shouted, but the guard in front of the cellar banged for them to keep quiet. Akihiko showed his middle finger and dared the guard to wrestle him.
Even without his magic, Akihiko’s brute strength was more than enough to put him on the level of a B rank hero. The guard was not so stupid as to fall for his provocations. He turned around and remained silent.
“Tch. Such a bore.”
A few minutes later, two guards came walking in with a skinny old man in their arms. They pushed the man behind the prison bars.
“Watch it! What are you going to do if this body worth an infinite number of yous is damaged, huh?”
“Whatever, heretic. Just be grateful your inventions can be used to support our work.”
““Body worth an infinite number of yous”? This old man’s clearly drunk. Haha.”
The guard who had been standing there for close to seven hours with no form of entertainment other than Akihiko’s singing started a conversation.
“I wish he was drunk. Maybe that way he’d be sleeping.”
Grunt 1, said.
“All this old man does is ramble about how smart he is.”
Grunt 2 added on.
“Oh yeah, trust me. I know.”
The prison guard said depressingly.
“Ouch. It must be difficult watching them for half a day straight.”
“Nothing is difficult for our grand purpose.”
“Hahaha, that’s the spirit.”
They patted him on the shoulder.
“By the way, is there anything you guys are doing with him?”
At this part, the astral being walked closer to hear them better.
“We shouldn’t be talking about this.”
“Oh, come on, I’m dying over here. It’s not like I’m going to tell anyone.”
He had a valid point in their eyes. It wasn’t information the old man would hide from his fellow clan heads, so why couldn’t they tell their own fellow member?
“We found a whole lot of his blue prints. We’re having him build some of them.”
“What?”
“It’s crazy. There was this massive boat that could fly with fire.”
“Hot air, you idiot.”
They spent a good five minutes talking about what was happening with the Sotomura Clan head. Afterwards, they left having realised that they were being delayed.
They agreed to meet up when their shifts were over just to get to know each other better. A heart-warming friendship was blooming.
Once they left, the clan heads all looked at Sotomura. They, who had been friends with him for easily over three decades, had never heard about any of this.
They obviously wanted to ask questions, but Sotomura rushed over to Suzuki and rolled her over. There, he noticed how some portion of her face was turning grey. He took out a potion he’d snuck from his lab and fed it to her.
He then clicked his tongue when she stopped shaking. He dropped her and rolled her over so the others wouldn’t see the blackening substance on her face. Then, he faced them and sighed.
“You look like you have lots of questions. Ask away."
