“Seisyou has been ordered to search, hasn’t he?”
Seisyou nodded.
“Then there is nothing more we can do now. Maybe we can find him somewhere, or maybe he will come back himself.”
“Syouryou, you bastard!”
“Otherwise, someone will extend his demand soon.”
What? Itan blinked.

“Maybe he was captured, maybe he was killed. If he was killed already, we can do nothing even if we argued about this till next day. But the point is that he cannot be killed that easily! He has shirei around him. If he was captured, the problem becomes who the culprit is and what his intentions are. He is definitely no person to be captured that easily. If the problem is solved by one corpse, then Rokuta hadn’t put up a really big fight. Well, it is most logical to think that guy called Kouya had captured Rokuta.”

“Taiho didn’t give any resistance because the guy is his acquaintance...?”
“Maybe, and maybe he becomes hostage with that missing baby. In any case, if Rokuta really gets caught, are there any early signs? If he is captured, what are the culprit’s motives? That kid is not so lovable to be merely abducted in the first place.”
“Hey...”
“Well now that the culprit attains his crucial chess piece, there is no way for him not to show off! Well, we can just leave it till then.”

“So you are really not taking any action until then?”
“There is no action we can take, isn’t there? --Syukou”
“Y-Yes.”
“Contact Ribi at Gen Province.”
“Gen Province, is it?”
Syouryuu laughed sarcastically.

“We can already smell a big rat in that place, and now there is such a big ruckus. So it would be nice to observe that place in a roundabout way. If we do not do anything now, Rokuta would get noisy about he being left in the cold by someone when Rokuta came back. Also, investigate whether there is a person with his original name or granted name as Kouya in all officials in Gen Province who has attained sagehood.”
“Understood.”
Syouryuu smiled lightly with one corner of his lips, and looked outside.

“...What a troublesome kid! Saying that he hated rebellions, but lighting the spark himself at the same time.”
“Are you suspecting Gen Province, your majesty?”
“It is for certain that Gen Province is building its army. In fact, weapons are disappearing from the weapons chamber, am I right?”
Seisyou nodded. Undercover investigations had shown that the contents of the weapon chamber were obviously decreasing.

“Our doubts are founded, so if we go investigate, they will sense that their plots were exposed, and they will make their move. Even if Gen Province is not the one capturing Rokuta, if we move, the enemy will move.”
“...I see.”
“...Now, I wonder where the meat is really lying. -- This is so difficult. There are too many suspects.”
The Sea of Clouds that Syuryou was watching was sinking into chaos and darkness.

~ End of Chapter Three ~

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