Of all questions that she was now left with, was that she was chasing a lead. That was how vague she was able to find. Sasaki must have been avoiding such a question from the start, at least by how he decided to lead her. Enough to get her away from him, but not enough to be of much use.
She sighed. It forced her to turn to Misaki rather than asking him, and if he had no intention to tell her than how will she be able to get an answer out of him. Calling her own common sense into question here, as she needed to think more. It was a different place than she thought.
"That boy must have told you the bare minimum." Suzumi looked at her. As though she knew what sort of answers Sasaki will have told her, not the kind that was completely helpful. Mostly leaving it to her to go deeper, unwilling to reveal too much.
"Yes." Without even the name of the person.
"The person's name you're seeking is Kouya." She looked over to Sachiko, who realised that Suzumi had told her the truth. "Active only once in the past decade."
She brought up the cup of tea to her lips, calmly saying the truth. While not even looking at her. For Suzumi, Sachiko was still unable to know her any deeper. A woman who was by the side of her father, and yet had so many mysteries.
"I'm just a woman who has been around the block for quite a while." Strange as it was, seeing that she was a woman. Although commoners rarely held the same beliefs in keeping her at home, but most married when they were young. Often taking up jobs to ensure their own survival among anything else.
"Then do you know any more about his whereabouts."
She placed the cup, perhaps to answer her questions a little further. Although the hesitation she showed was beyond a little normal, but she knew all too little about the woman in how she was. The first time she met her, even if her father often divulged his own secrets.
"Misaki knows a lot more, because she has always been enquiring about this." The woman turned her head to face her. With a blank look on her face, as she walked her own way out. Heading to the palanquin. "Besides, your father has plenty of his own secrets. Some which I know, and most which I do not."
She looked at Sachiko for that moment. As though she didn't want to tell her, preferring a stranger to step up on that. Thinking that it was a far better idea when compared to having her say it. Or was her knowledge indeed limited?
Kaede was still curious when it came to her, even when she had revealed more.
"You know, even Kaede is someone with her own secrets." Something that even Sachiko could feel was in her mind. Even in most moments, she still knew this was something that she should not and could not avoid. Maybe in the future she should ask, or when it was becoming dangerous for her to not know.
Kaede had never been someone who wanted to share, and she avoided that. In those days, she avoided it. Now, she was helping her when she needed it most. Until of course, it was something that affected her.
"I know that you will not or try to ask her about that." To few it was suicide, even to the point of stupidity to have tried at the very least. When they were at the beginning, it had been something that she didn't expect.
A simple village girl, who came here for income. A little more for her family. Not someone who has had a complicated past, filled with secrets and endless amounts of words that she refused to talk about.
For now, she didn't think that it was such a necessity for her to do so. Just a small piece in a time where she needed to think about it, but all her other focus for other matters. This mattered the least in the long run at the very least.
"Aneue, why are you always leaving?"
Masaki came out, curious as to his elder sister's leavings. Although far from common, but enough to have been noticed by him. That she was going far too often for anyone to not have noticed. Making it almost impossible for her to not answer or think that she could just have this pass.
Not without Masaki trying to dig deeper because it will be what does at the end of the day, if given enough time and conviction. Well, she could list that she was visiting Misaki. And he will have bought into that because it made enough sense for her to have to visit someone. As he was likely to believe anything as long as it stayed within the realm of possibility without it ever being too far removed from it at all.
Sachiko turned around, before coming to her own brother. Giving him the answer that he seeked from the start.
"I'm about to meet a friend." She smiled to her Masaki who kept his eyes on her for a moment. With much hesitation but seemed to have accepted that she couldn't spend all the time with her. As much as he himself had to follow the instructions of another at any given point.
She stepped out to find her way at the end, with the palanquin waiting for her. Ready for her to leave at any point in time if she wanted to. And Kaede had prepared this a little more, waiting for her to arrive as it was.
"Took me some time." But she could do it, always do it regardless of the time. As she went inside the palanquin with Kaede. Looking out the window, as much as she wondered. Just how much more she doesn't know about her.
Previously, she could always afford to do so. But now, she could not at the very least.
Kaede smiled at her when she arrived. Allowing her to step into the palanquin. She turned back with nothing but a smile on her face, as Kaede followed her through here.
When she first came out it was far more ominous than anyone seemed, now it had been slightly different. Only a little hint to them, yet they took it so well. Far better than anyone expected her to have tried, at the very least.
"You're back here again." The man who was called Hayate, he came out of the shadows. "Unfortunately, she has other matters that needs her attention."
The first time that she could really observe him close. Rather striking, with broad shoulders and short hair. Which she learned had been the norm for many servants, who saw the need for them since it was easier. As well as the lower classes who needed to be out in the sun, and long hair requires a lot of maintenance.
But now she was not here. That could prove tricky at the very least. Remembering what her last words were at this case that she needed to choose, although she was unwilling to do so at any point. Regarded as one of the most dangerous of them all, given how it could play out in so many ways.
She looked at him, as he didn't seem fazed talking to her in such a manner. But he knew that she was in a situation that could disgrace her entirely family. With ease and putting them no longer as the rulers of the province.
As much as she wondered, what was his intentions for doing this in the first place.
"If I have to say, you don't have plenty of choices and neither do you have time to do all you wish." He made a solid point, as much as it wasn't fully that either. But she wondered what was his agenda from all of this. Or was it how Misaki instructed him to deal with it.
"But if you're looking for someone, that she has been chasing I can tell you more." Although it seemed like it was leading to nothing, several years has passed since then. Since the death of her father with the man disappearing altogether with the fact.
"About Kouya."
"Many call his name to terrify others, although it is debatable whether he exists." The man came before her. Although she knew for certainty that Misaki had better things to do than chase a myth. If he was a myth, then she will have at the least given up.
Or seeked who had done so. Suzumi will neither have given her that information either. Pointless even.
"Then, when has this myth brought you to?"
"It all started in the city which is most alive at the night." That was more than enough to give her a clue where. The port city just west of here, and known as Fukusei, because of the wealth it brought to them. Not under her father's jurdisticion. And by all means, independent from them.
A final thing which she knew, was that it was the last location where he was seen.
Which was why Sasaki told her that, even when he knew that it may not be true. Because of the location which at the end of the day had been a location where her father was also last seen. And the reason why it should be so.
Suzumi gave her every reason to believe that it is so, mostly because she didn't do anything to rebuke it. Or arouse Kaede's suspicion.
"I'm sure that should ring a bell."
"How do you know?"
"He was last seen there." And the trip had been public. Although for a moment, he leaned back. But what was his point, asking her to go to the city itself. "If you want to head there, I do agree on that being the choice."
Although there was no way she could even think about it for the time being. Not when Masaki was under so much suspicion, and that she was taking a stranger's word. Well, all of them were the same way. She had almost no connections to count on in the first place. Her mother made sure of that to occur in the first place.
But Hayate was going beyond that of anyone for that matter, any servant. But she doesn't exactly know who she should trust with her gambles. Suzumi was loyal, but unwilling to divulge much. So was many of them.
"Everyone here will do anything to ensure their secrets stay unknown." He turned back to her. One of the things that made sense, at the very least when she came inside. But it was up to her to place her trust, how she could do it.
No one will think of helping her, at least without cost. Or wholeheartedly, opening their heights to her, If anyone thought it could be done, they were the true fools of the world. She knew that inherent truth.
And that she needed to simply decide what was right for now. And what she should do to start in the first place.
"So, he told you to head to Fukusei?" Kaede nudged her. Although she didn't say anything wrong, neither did she choose to have anything which usually was her.
"Yes."
She looked away for a moment.
"You should. Kouya, he wasn't just a rumor." She turned her head. Perhaps, she was going to do something about it. "I saw him once before."
"How did he look like?" Sachiko asked. At least to get a better idea of who she was hunting. Not further, if it took her this long to admit it.
"Just a boy." That was one of the most shocking things she heard. A ruthless strategist, who once pulled off a feat that anyone will have spent the next few years using him as a way to scare children. "He is around my age now."
Nothing could have made her blood turn colder, that this was the true person behind the name. But that had been years ago, not more than six. He was just slightly older than a child, close to Masaki pulling things off like this. Worrying but at the same time, it make her wonder just what made him quit.
And whether Kaede was telling the truth about only meeting him once. Or had it been more than that. More than her own expectations in reality. About what this truly was like. Unable to even think of all the possibilities and what she needed to do.
She will have never told Masaki, no matter the situation. But she will have to find another way to enter inside. As well as think whether Kaede and what her past could mean to her, and how it could affect her. Certainly, one thing was certain she came from that city. If Kaede had seen him, and most of the time he was only active there, clear that Fukusei was the location she needed to see.