Chapter 16: That Shapeshifter, Gossiping

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One month ago, Nabeshima Katsushige's adult son, Mitsushige, woke up screaming from a nightmare.

In this dream, he encountered a black cat with a long, snake-like tail that followed him as he went about his day. No matter where he went, the cat would follow along as well.

Frustrated, he confronted the cat and told it to leave him alone. Suddenly, the cat morphed into an older version of Ryūzōji Matashichirō, one of his servants who was distantly related to the previous daimyo, and said, 'I am Ryūzōji Takafusa, the rightful daimyo of Hizen Province. Your father took my domain from me. Now, I will take it back.'

The Ryūzōji clan had been daimyo over the Hizen Province since the ancient times. It wasn't until Ryūzōji Masaie, Takafusa's father, took over the domain from his late father that things started to go awry.

Because of Masaie's frail health, the domain's affairs were handed over to his senior retainer, Nabeshima Naoshige, to handle. Nabeshima Naoshige was Katsushige's father.

Thereafter, when the Ryūzōji clan aligned themselves with Toyotomi Hideyoshi during the late Sengoku Period, Hideyoshi chose to recognise the governance of Nabeshima Naoshige instead of acknowledging Ryūzōji Takafusa as the rightful daimyo of the province.

Later, when Tokugawa Ieyasu united all of Japan and became shogun, he did the same.

Distraught, Takafusa stabbed his wife and took his own life. His father, Masaie succumbed to his illness in despair and died too. The other retainers of the Ryūzōji clan chose to support Nabeshima Naoshige's rule and appointed his son, Katsushige, as successor of the domain instead of Takafusa's young son.

After the cat spoke those ominous words, it opened its jaws—growing in size as it did so—and consumed Mitsushige, who then woke the whole castle with his blood-curling screams.

Since then, he had refused to leave his bedroom.

[Read the full story at novelconbini.com!]