Chapter 521:
Shift
Summer had begun to breathe down the neck of spring as events progressed according to the planning of Aya. The alliance with the Okamoto completed without further incident. They began the work to help hand over farm land with their drought. Relations between the two clans improved with them unaware of the future betrayal already planned.
The alliance went far in pushing Aya ahead in the court, changing the power dynamic completely. She now sat nearly at the right hand of Lord Matsushina to the concern of many in the court. However, they could do little against her. No one managed to make a successful move to take Aya down.
Even being closely attached to the scheming woman, they didn’t know how she did it. She met with many people of different social status, most of which they weren’t privy to the information discussed. So they could only guess at the number of backroom deals that she made to keep all of the power hungry men off her back.
It was morning on a day that shouldn’t have been special by any sort of indication when they woke up for work. Yuki and Saki made the usual greeting to their Lord and joined Aya’s side once the morning meal ended.
They reached the entrance of the Matsushina estate when she stopped and turned back to them. Her expression hadn’t changed, but it was an odd move by her. That alone gave things a strangely serious tone before she even spoke to them. “Today is when you find out the meaning of your loyalty.”
Chapter 521 – Price for Loyalty
The statement left the two of them more than a little stunned and confused. An ominous statement with little context only left them worried about what the future held for them. It made it difficult to focus on their job, but they were at least within the estate grounds. So it meant there would be less of an issue.
Yuki stumbled about the day trying to make sense of what her message meant. His guess, like that of what Saki, also concluded was that Aya made a move. But it was so open ended that they could only create a list of what those options might be. ‘Kumasaka would be my first guess, but it could also be Matsushina. She could be feeling secure enough to take the whole clan, but I don’t even know what she would want with the clan. She has big plans clearly, but they’ve never been made apparent to any of us. There’s just scheme after scheme from her.’
He couldn’t be in all the places to protect everyone that might be a risk. Warning someone would be fruitless as well since he had no evidence to anything other than a vague message from Aya. If anything it would put Aya at risk and that wasn’t an option either.
In the end, Yuki didn’t like the feeling that this brought. The only hope he had was that they survived the day and could continue to be of aid to Yumi in the future of this world. ‘I don’t want to leave this world so early in the movement.’
By midday with nothing having happened yet, Yuki and Saki could feel themselves becoming more stressed the minute. In the solitude of the personal office of Aya, they tried to get an answer from her.
“What did you mean by your statement this morning?” asked Saki, breaking from her post. She could see a bit of relief on Yuki’s face when she made the first movement. There had been a personal argument over it between their eyes.
Aya’s hand stopped moving and she glanced over her shoulder. “I was quite clear.”
“You were anything but! All you’re doing is spouting unconnected statements as if we’re all in the conversation. Like you don’t need to fill in the gaps.”
“You have more than enough information to solve things on your own. If you can’t put it together then this is as far as you go.”
Yuki broke from his post to join Saki. “We know that you’re making a move against our Lord,” he bluffed.
She grinned in an unusual way back at him. “No you don’t.”
“What? Yes, we do.”
“If you actually firmly believed that we wouldn’t be having this conversation. No, you’re fishing, clever. I’ll give you credit for the effort. But you need to do better than that.”
He ground his teeth together as his attempt ended. ‘What’s her game here? Yumi’s supposed to be the one that’s supposed to be learning, what motive does she have in us?’ At a wall, he crossed his arms trying to find another path. She wanted something from them.
“You do have something you’re planning though.” Picking up from where Yuki started, Saki wasn’t about to let go just yet. If the woman wanted something from them, she was going to figure it out.
“That’s not going to be enough. Everyone here is planning something.”
“Yes, but you’re different from the other ones. Everyone’s playing the game, but they just want some power. They don’t have any interest beyond that, but there’s something off about you. You want something different from the power that the old men around here are seeking.”
“And you’ve figured that out?”
“No, if I had you’d be less unnerving to deal with. But I’m guessing you might not know either right now.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Just a guess or a gut feeling.”
Taking a pause, the woman leaned back a little on the cushion that she sat upon before her desk. It seemed that Saki said something that actually made her think. Not having an immediate answer from her was rare unless she was acting. Saki couldn’t be certain, but it didn’t feel like that was the case now. She felt she was making a genuine pause. “You’re a curious one,” Aya finally said. “But that’s not getting you any closer to an answer.”
“I’m merely explaining why I feel that you’re making a move. But you’re right, we have no evidence. We’re just bodyguards. We don’t have the allowance for espionage. But we can make some deductive steps based on what we know.”
“Please.”
“I don’t think Juro's wrong. The first case would be the assassination attempt during the Otamoto talks at camp. We never found out who the assassin was, but you felt certain that was our Lord.”
“You agreed, if I recall.”
“I didn’t. I questioned you.”
“You focused on your duty to mask your own implicit acknowledgement that you agreed. You were quite shrewd.”
“The other options besides our Lord, are the other Lords and Lord Matsushina himself. But all of the other Lords are already quite loyal to you. So there’s little need I see for them. Which just remains Lord Matsushina. If we’re being honest, I think you plan to have him killed at some point.”
“Michiko! Watch your words.”
“We’re in private company.” She got a nod from Aya that encouraged her to continue. “However, you don’t have enough of a backing right now to make such a move. You might have the loyalty of the other Lords, but they’d likely turn on you if you made such a move right now. But our Lord, you’ve been clashing and he’s reached the end of his usefulness to you hasn’t he?”
Aya smiled wide at Saki. For the first time since they had met the woman, she actually seemed to show genuine emotion and lower her guard. It surprised them to see that it wasn’t the look of someone vulnerable. Contrary to what they expected, it felt more like being cordial or perhaps friendly. They weren’t completely sure what to make of the sudden change.
Standing up from the desk, she approached the two siblings. “I’m glad to see I was correct about you two. You’ll be perfect.”
“Perfect?” Saki leaned back a little with the different Aya in front of her. ‘What does she want from us now?’
“Tonight after dinner. We’ll talk more.” With that she turned from them and returned to her desk with little more to go on about what occurred. They only managed to understand enough that they had been accepted, but no clue what that meant for them.
Their conversation had completely concluded with her back telling them to resume their usual duties as guards. The two sighed mostly between themselves and returned to their posts. It did serve at least one thing for them. The focus that they lacked through the day returned to them.
Relieved for a bit, they were able to visit the gardens for their usual game of shogi. In time, Yumi joined them for the first time in a couple of weeks. “Something new?” she muttered to herself while leaning up against the post.
Saki clicked the piece down and kept a pensive look on the game. “We’ve been invited. She wants to meet to discuss her plans.”
“So you’ve finally made a connection with her. Do you know what’s going to happen?”
“She didn’t tell us.” Another piece moved over the board. “But it’s going to be big. More than likely it’ll be the end for someone.”
“So it’s finally come then?”
“You don’t sound very surprised.”
“You wouldn’t if you saw the council meeting.” Yumi couldn’t stand more and found a spot by some well manicured plants to pretend to admire. Her mind went back to the regular meetings with the Lords. Tensions had always been a little high at times within, but they seemed to be getting worse from what she could see. “Someone was going to be making a move. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if she wasn’t the only one doing something. She just moved first.”
“It’s a ruthless world.”
“Indeed. Make sure not to be late and do whatever it is that she wants you to do.” She watched as a spider battled with a fly caught in the web. It was already too late for the fly, escape was impossible. A grim expression thinned her face some.
Yuki delayed in moving a piece hearing her words. A tap of a finger from the other side of the board snapped him back. He slid over a piece. “Right. We’ll follow as you wish.”
She nodded to herself and turned away as the spider began wrapping up its meal. ‘This is the world. I must commit to these expectations.’ Yumi walked away from them with heavy thoughts swirling about.
Saki and Yuki stared for a moment at each other and finished their game a few minutes later. Everything concluded for the day and they returned with Aya back to the Kumasaka estates. Though Aya never confirmed anything about what it was they would be doing or even that Saki was correct. The one thought that hung in their mind when they returned to their home was that Kumasaka was going to be dead tonight.
A man that they had known for so long of their life in the world would be cast aside by the woman that owed much to him the same as them. He wasn’t a good man, but such betrayal still seemed a little tragic even for him. They had committed themselves to the course that Yumi set for them and that meant staying with Aya. Aya’s path continued to prove to be darker than they imagined.
When the moment came they weren’t sure if they were prepared for it. But they stood before Aya awaiting to hear what it was that she had planned for them. They didn’t know how she planned to do it, especially since she needed to make sure it didn’t come back to her.
One secret created another and Aya made a web of them.
“Good to see you’re here,” she said, welcoming them into her private room. “You probably already think you know what I want you to do, but you can get that thought out of your mind right now. I have one mission for you tonight and that is for Michiko. I want you to kill Akira Matsushina, the Lord’s younger brother.”
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