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Once they had the names of the places the three merchants had seen the bakeneko, they left to investigate.
Well, to be exact, Yoka went to investigate. Alone.
Rin and the others settled into the best room of the largest inn in Saga.
Yuzuru stood guard by the door, leaning against the shaft of his ōtsuchi, the head of which lay between his feet.
Meanwhile, Reika and Kii unpacked the chests of belongings they had brought along, filling up the place with familiar things from Shin-Karatsu Castle.
Rin sat at the low table in the main hall of the outer room with the map of the city unfurled in front of her as she began to think.
There was no pattern to the places selected for slaughter. Some were residences, others were family businesses.
Most likely, the people there were as the rumour said, those who supported the Nabeshima clan when the Ryūzōji family was still in power.
Tracking the rumour to its source was impossible—it spread too quickly and was replaced by new ones as soon as they came out. Furthermore, the gap between the rumour's appearance and the execution of the hidden order was too fast.
The perpetrators weren't concerned about covering up their deeds. If anything, the rumours were the evidence they wanted everyone to know what they were going to do.
Rin thought about the death of her own family.
The culprit really couldn't be found, with such a powerful mercenary group doing the dirty work for him.
Rin was not interested in who this person was. It was probably a different person.
Finding out that information was a very simple matter, with all the clues he was leaving behind everywhere. Moreover, her agreement with the shogun meant she didn't need to follow protocol in order to get rid of this person.
What Rin wanted to do now, was to uncover the secret mercenary group working for the culprit and have Yoka torture them within an inch of their lives.
[Read the full story at novelconbini.com!]