“Revenge and revolution…” Something flashed in Seiji’s eyes.
“That’s all that I know.” Saitou started walking off.
“Wait a moment! Saitou-san, you intentionally drew everyone’s attention. Was that because you wanted to attract the Revenge Alliance to you so that you could join them?” Seiji followed up with another question.
Saitou paused in his footsteps.
“I myself don’t know, either… Perhaps I want to join them, or perhaps I merely want to learn more about them,” Saitou responded in a seemingly casual tone.
“…What about Rota-san? The two of you were just discussing this topic, weren’t you?”
“If you want to know, ask him yourself… Although I don’t think that Rota-san will answer your questions. He’s far more of a serious type than I am.”
“Thank you for telling me all of this.” Seiji realized that he wouldn’t be able to ask for any more than this. He decided to stop when appropriate.
“No need for thanks.” Saitou continued walking but then stopped again after two steps and tilted his head slightly. “Can I ask you a question, Haruta-san?”
“Please go ahead.”
“You mentioned that you’re currently exiled from your family… In that case, do you have a grudge against the Haruta Family?”
“I don’t,” Seiji answered honestly.
Saitou remained silent and left just like that.
Seiji rubbed his chin in contemplation after having learned some important information.
Ikuko Takeuchi’s sudden question earlier about him knowing about something was most likely related to this matter—the “Revenge Alliance”.
She must have been under the impression that he had some type of goal related to the Revenge Alliance in mind when he told everyone that he was “Shuntou Haruta”. That was why she asked him such a question. Yet, he had been ignorant at the time.
And then, right after that, he received a soul attack… was it a spell from that female ninja?
Seiji felt that it was unlikely. Ikuko didn’t seem to have that kind of power.
Yuuma Saitou was hinting in the conversation just now that he wasn’t yet a member of the Revenge Alliance, but that he might join them in the future.
Daikawa Rota also knew about the Revenge Alliance, and was the “serious” type.
A mysterious individual… who mentioned words like “revolution”, “new generation”, and “overthrowing the old ruling order…” This seemed highly likely to be the work of the Messengers faction.
Perhaps the soul spell attack was also from this mysterious member of the Messengers. This person was probably right here on the ship, observing the current situation!
After coming to such a conclusion, Seiji looked all around him once again.
“Please come out for a discussion with me, Messenger of Revenge,” Seiji spoke in a loud and clear voice.
There was no response except the sound of the wind.
Shika remained calm and on guard.
“A garbage Haruta like myself who’s currently in exile is also a target of your revenge against the major families, is that right? Was that soul attack on me just a notification?”
There was still no response.
“If that’s the case, I should thank you for helping to put me on guard.”
After confirming that there was still no response, Seiji took Shika back to the dining hall.
The card game didn’t resume, as Saitou and the others all indicated that they no longer had any interest.
Seiji hinted to Rota about the Revenge Alliance, wanting to have a discussion with him. But as expected, Rota politely declined.
He then tried to talk to Ikuko Takeuchi and was met with the same result.
But even if he knew who was actually a member of this Revenge Alliance, at most he would be able to ask some more information, unable to stop this alliance.
That was because this entire alliance was similar to a normal alliance which was within the rules of the tournament contract.
The tournament contract that all participants had to sign only expressly forbade attacking participants that were under the effects of the Lifesaving Talisman which would block one fatal attack. However, killing people wasn’t actually against the rules at all. Nor were there any rules against the participants allying with each other. That was why the Revenge Alliance was theoretically an alliance that was within the “rules” of the tournament.
The only “unreasonable” part was this mysterious individual who started all of this… Seiji decided to mentally refer to this person as the “Messenger of Revenge”.
This Messenger of Revenge either directly entered the tournament or was supplying the Revenge Alliance members with special items or equipment so that the Revenge Alliance members would become much stronger.
Seiji felt that it was more likely that the Messenger of Revenge wasn’t personally participating in the tournament. It was more probable that he or she was manipulating things from behind the scenes.
After all, representatives from all the major factions were going to be spectating this tournament. Directly interfering with the tournament from the inside would carry a much greater element of risk. Even someone from the Messengers faction probably wouldn’t be so recklessly idiotic.
As for the special items or equipment, Seiji decided to mentally refer to this as the “Sword of Revenge”.
Saitou mentioned that the higher-ups definitely knew already about the Revenge Alliance being formed to take revenge on them… Seiji agreed with this statement as he refused to believe that the major factions would have such a poorly informed information network. There would definitely be eyes on this Revenge Alliance.
Seiji felt that it was also possible that perhaps there were hidden powerful individuals in charge of investigating the Revenge Alliance on board this ship. Perhaps that was why the Messenger of Revenge hadn’t attacked Seiji with a more powerful soul spell—the Messenger of Revenge couldn’t expose him or herself!
Once this ship reached Momozu Island, the Messenger of Revenge would use some method to give the Revenge Alliance members a Sword of Revenge. This might be the only opportunity to catch the Messenger of Revenge.
If this person was captured, this entire incident would end there; the Revenge Alliance would fail and be disbanded.
But if this person wasn’t captured, things would then depend on the Sword of Revenge.
If the Revenge Alliance members obtained the Sword of Revenge and used it successfully against the tournament’s higher-ups, the Revenge Alliance would have succeeded. Otherwise, the Revenge Alliance would still fail.
This was a secret battle behind the scenes.
Seiji felt that someone who dared to establish such an alliance and even shout about revolution would definitely be at least a relatively powerful individual who wouldn’t be captured so easily.
If the higher-ups wanted to prevent the Revenge Alliance from succeeding, the critical factor would be to identify just what the Sword of Revenge being used against them was.
A great amount of power… a killing item or weapon… the Messengers faction…
Seiji recalled the Kazufuru cursed item incident with that green crystal.
Would it be something like that?
No… such an item should be easy to discover, so perhaps it would be something that appeared completely ordinary on the surface.
For instance, a talisman.
A seemingly ordinary talisman that wouldn’t show any signs of strange power yet actually contained a great amount of power… was it possible for such a thing to exist?
Erm…. Seiji figured that it was a waste of his time to think too much about such an unknown matter. He changed his train of thought back to the Messenger of Revenge.
The Messenger of Revenge was tournament-wise an outsider who was using top-level concealment magic to hide on this ship… but that was only an inference of Seiji’s.
Perhaps the Messenger of Revenge wasn’t an outsider at all. Perhaps he or she was actually one of the participants sitting right out in the open in the dining hall!
In that case, who could the Messenger of Revenge be?
Seiji glanced over all the people in the dining hall.
The Messenger of Revenge was sitting among them… thinking like this made this all seem like a detective story.
“The murderer is among us!”
Seiji really wanted to shout out such a classical line.
But right now, he had no clue who the Messenger of Revenge was. He felt that it was truly regrettable that he didn’t have a chance to use such a line.
Seiji sipped on some tea.
He was no detective or anything else like that at all. He was merely a tournament participant. He decided to let the tournament higher-ups, the major families, worry about how to stop the Messenger of Revenge and the Revenge Alliance as they didn’t have that much to do with him. All he needed to do was take care of Shika and himself.
By the way then, just who sent him that mysterious message of “Stop” then…?
He heard that message twice already. There was no way that he had been hallucinating. And, it didn’t seem likely that the Messenger of Revenge would send him such a message.
‘That Haruta is so annoying.’
‘It seems that he has a special power that can invisibly affect me… is it a special power inherited from his bloodline as a powerful Yin Yang Master family?’
‘Honestly, I never expected someone with his bloodline to board a ship like this.’
‘His female partner is no ordinary individual at all. I can feel a faint sense of danger from her, as if something bad will happen if I even get close to her.’
‘I have to pay attention to them.’
‘I have to control myself well.’
‘What happens next absolutely has to succeed.’
‘I’m willing to sacrifice anything for that purpose!’
‘I’m sorry… You told me to forget about you, but I was unable to do so.’
‘There’s no need to stop me, because I’m doing all of this of my own free will… We’ll be together forever in the future.’