The man paused.
And this time, it was one of Chihiro's retainers, granted access to this debriefing, who spoke out to fill the void left in the wake of what the officer said.
"What was so important for our clan to be doing, for our rivals to go that far to indirectly stop us?"
"That's right," the officer nodded his head as he smiled lightly. "That's why, rather than relying on some dumb luck, we went ahead and, at the cost of raising the odds of them getting interested in your clan, managed to throw enough wrenches into their investigation to buy you enough time for a quick trip into the spiritual world."
I took a deeper breath than usual, sensing that we were now approaching the crux of the matter—the topic that was the actual reason behind this meeting.
