Edo, Shiranui——

Enma's sudden death brought an impact to Shiranui that has not subsided to this day.

The Balrog died from poisoning. It was most likely that he ate food or water adulterated with poison while eating and drinking.

For a time, everyone in Shiranui was in danger.

Whether only the Balrog's food and drinking water were poisoned - no one is sure about this.

Everyone is afraid that what they eat or drink today may be adulterated with poison.

Fortunately - until now, there has been no news of a second person being poisoned and died tonight.

However, an atmosphere of fear and uneasiness still enveloped the entire Shiranui.

In a rather grand mansion, an old man and a young man were sitting opposite each other.

The older man's name is "Mutaro", he is considered a very senior senior in Shiranui, he is 58 years old this year.

When Enma was still alive, he was the second oldest person in Shiranui.

When the 65-year-old Enma suddenly died tonight, he has now become the oldest person in Shiranui.

When he was still a young boy, he was already one of the backbones of Shiranui.

Now that I am older and more senior, I have gained a good status and voice in Shiranui.

His status in Shiranui is probably second only to the "Four Heavenly Kings".

The younger man sitting in front of Wu Tailang is named "Buntaro" and he is Wu Tailang's disciple.

Although he is only a genin now, in terms of talent, he is considered the best among the younger generation in Shiranui.

Enma's body has just been moved to their mourning hall in Shiranui. This mourning hall is specially used to honor those who have made outstanding contributions to Shiranui.

Wu Tairou and Buntaro's master and apprentice just went to this mourning hall to take a look at the deceased Enma, and they just returned home - which is the magnificent mansion where they are currently located.

Both of them were feeling very heavy at the moment, and neither of them spoke during the entire journey from the mourning hall to home.

After lighting the lamp in the living room and the two of them sat down on the tatami, Buntaro asked softly to Taketaro in front of him in a whisper-like tone:

"Master...who is the person who killed Enma-sama...?"

The leader who had been leading them suddenly died - this change happened so quickly that many people have not been able to adapt to this fact in time until now.

"...I don't know." Wutaro sighed, "There are too many people who have the motive to kill Enma-sama."

As a veteran of Shiranui, Taketaro is only 7 years younger than Enma, and is almost of the same generation as Enma.

Although he and Enma are considered contemporaries and have worked together for Shiranui for decades, the two of them cannot be considered friends, and their relationship can only be described as average.

For Taketaro, if other people with whom he had a mediocre relationship died, his emotions would not change much.

But it's different for the Balrog.

Enma, like him, had witnessed decades of history in Shiranui. Even though their relationship was average, Wu Tairou still had a special feeling for Enma.

After suddenly receiving the news of Enma's death tonight, an unspeakable sadness still surged into Wutaro's heart...

Therefore, Wu Tairou's current mood is far more complicated than that of his disciple Buntaro.

"I haven't even seen Enma-sama face to face, and Enma-sama died..." A bitter smile appeared on Buntaro's face.

Buntaro, who had been quietly listening to Taketaro's story about the past, now showed a wry smile and interrupted:

"Master, you seem to have a lot of opinions about Lord Balrog."

"Haha..." Wutaro chuckled in a low voice, "He is still more or less dissatisfied with Itaro."

"After all, under his rule, Shiranui's strength has become worse and worse. It is a fact that he failed to revitalize Shiranui."

"But I still respect him very much."

"His abilities may be somewhat lacking."

"But his determination to revitalize Shiranui is real."

"I have witnessed with my own eyes several times that Ichitaro, who is much older, stayed awake for several nights in order to deal with various urgent matters."

"But his determination is quite terrifying."

The corners of Wutaro's mouth pulled down, showing an expression as if he was recalling some terrible memory.

"I have always felt that 'revitalizing Shiranui' has become a deep obsession of Ichitaro."

"Sometimes... the obsession is too deep, but it is very painful."

"So from another perspective, it would be better if he is dead now..."

"He no longer has to worry about how to revitalize Shiranui."

"Right now he……"

Wutaro took a deep breath and slowly exhaled the air in his lungs:

"I'm relieved..."

…

…

Edo, Shiranui, Shuntaro's residence——

Shuntaro had already planned to go to bed first.

Too many things happened tonight.

First, I spent a long time in Edo trying to catch that traitorous ninja.

Then he suddenly heard Enma's execution, and hurried back to Shiranui, and then struggled for a long time.

Not only does the body feel tired, but the mind also feels very tired.

And besides sleeping first and recuperating his energy and strength, he can't do anything else now.

At present, it has not been found out exactly when and why Balrog was poisoned. There are no clues for tracing. It is impossible to find the person who poisoned Balrog.

Shuntaro himself knew nothing about poisons. He couldn't even deduce what kind of poison caused death based on the appearance of the poisoned person.

Even if you want to help with the investigation, you can't.

There is nothing he can do now, and sleepiness and fatigue are slowly creeping in, so Shuntaro plans to have a good rest tonight.

He had already planned to sleep.

But just when he was about to take off the two sabers on his back, he suddenly heard a "thud" sound coming from outside the room that made Shuntaro have to pay attention.

After hearing this sound, Shuntaro's pupils shrank suddenly.

The reason why this sound made Shuntaro have to pay attention was because this sound was so familiar to Shutaro who had experienced many battles.

This is the sound the arrow makes after it pierces the wood hard.

Almost as a conditioned reflex, almost instinctive in his body, Shuntaro pulled out a sword on his back, and then quickly hid in a blind spot where the archers outside the room could never shoot.

Moving within the shooting blind spot.

After arriving at the door, Shuntaro did not rush out rashly. Instead, he opened the door to a gap and observed the situation outside.

Shuntaro's home is like a lonely cactus in the desert.

Because he likes to live in a quiet place, Shuntaro's home is located in a relatively remote place in Shiranui, with few neighbors around.

At this time, there is nothing but wind, moonlight, and darkness outside Shuntaro's home. Not to mention the archers, there is not even a human figure.

——Have you left already...

There is no trace of human presence outside.

According to Shuntaro's guess, the archer fired an arrow at his house and then left quickly.

Shuntaro opened a gap in the door that allowed him to enter and exit alone, and walked outside the room.

As soon as he stepped out of the room, Shuntaro saw an arrow stuck half an inch into the wood on the wooden pillar next to his door.

A small cloth bag as big as an adult's fist is tied to the arrow shaft.

Since it can be shot directly with arrows, it means that the contents of this small cloth bag are definitely not heavy.

After pulling out the arrow and untying the small cloth bag tied to it, Shuntaro saw that there were only two things inside.

A squarely folded letter and a piece of kimono sleeve.

When he saw these sleeves, Shuntaro's first reaction was that they looked familiar.

After unfolding it and taking a closer look, Shuntaro finally understood why he felt so familiar.

While figuring out why he felt familiar, Shuntaro felt as if his heart had skipped a beat out of fear.

Shuntaro quickly put away his sleeves, then spread out the neatly folded letter and read the words on it.

…

…
To be continued...