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Land of Fire, post station.
In the silent room, only Chiyoko's uncontrollable sobs could be heard, filled with endless regret.
How could she have been so foolish, to only seek momentary pleasure and drag herself and her son into an abyss of eternal punishment?
Shin turned to leave.
He had given her a chance, but she couldn't grasp it.
This tool was already useless.
"Shin! Don't go!"
This action finally jolted Chiyoko from her regret.
She jumped on him like a drowning person, clutching Shin's sleeve tightly.
Her face was streaked with tears, completely empty of the dignity of a princess of the Land of Fire.
"I was wrong! Aunt knows she was wrong!" She begged bitterly. "Help me one more time! Just one last time!"
"Save Makoto! Please save Makoto! He's still so young, he doesn't know anything!"
Shin stopped.
He looked down at his aunt, who was clutching his arm and begging bitterly, and remained silent for a long time.
An almost unheard sigh was heard.
"You have guards I arranged around you," Shin said. "The Land of Lightning daimyo isn't so foolish as to truly harm you and your son."
"Confining you both to show his firm stance against the Land of Fire—that's the most he can do."
Hearing that their lives were not in danger, Chiyoko's sobs paused, and her expression eased slightly, but the ambition and unwillingness in her eyes had not faded.
"But... I don't want to just be like this!" She wouldn't give up, her voice filled with a final struggle. "I don't want Makoto to live his whole life like a prisoner, under constant watching."
"Shin, teach me again!" She seemed to have forgotten her earlier fear, her voice struggling. "What should I do? How can I get him to sit on that position!"
Chiyoko didn't lament her own tragic prison time in the cold palace. Instead, her mind was solely focused on paving the way for her son.
Shin's eyebrow twitched slightly.
It had come to this, and she was still wanting the position of daimyo?
This ambition was much more stubborn than her intelligence.
But ambition without matching ability would only invite disaster.
"Do you really want your son to be the daimyo?" Shin asked, as if confirming her resolve.
Chiyoko nodded heavily, gritting her teeth. "Yes! Even if it means my death!"
"Good," Shin agreed with unusual straightforwardness, his voice suddenly turning cold. "I'll point you to another path."
"Listen carefully."
Shin paused, speaking slowly, as if to make sure she heard every word. "I will have Asaba Toru become your son's regent."
"The moment you return to the Land of Lightning, he will have your son personally issue an order to permanently confine you, his mother!"
"What?" Chiyoko was struck as if by lightning, looking at Shin in disbelief.
Have her son... personally confine his own mother?
"And it must be done with great noise, so that everyone knows he has put righteousness before family."
"To completely draw a line between him and you, a spy from the Land of Fire!"
Shin ignored her shock and continued with his plan.
"Then, have your son immediately go to see the Land of Lightning daimyo."
"Not to confront, not to cry for justice."
"But to kneel and beg for his mother!"
Shin's gaze was like a knife, constantly cutting apart human weaknesses. "He must cry and tell the Land of Lightning daimyo..."
"Mother's crime is unforgivable. I have already imprisoned her in the deep palace, never to step out!"
"But she is still my mother. I beg Father, for the sake of our shared bloodline, to spare her life!"
"..."
Chiyoko was completely stunned.
Her mouth was open, her throat dry, unable to squeeze out a single word, her whole body cold.
This plan... how poisonous!
"The Land of Lightning daimyo, he is first and foremost a ruler, and only then a father," Shin's eyes flickered.
"When he sees his own son, for the sake of the Land of Lightning, for him, personally cast his birth mother into the cold palace..."
"And then kneel before him, crying and begging for a way out for you, a sinner..."
"What will he think?"
"He will only think that although this son has half the bloodline of the Land of Fire, his heart is with him, with the Land of Lightning."
"When he sees his own son, for loyalty and righteousness, for the Land of Lightning, not hesitate to personally cast his mother into the abyss."
"What threat could a child who can put righteousness before family, yet still retain a shred of filial piety, pose to him?"
"This is the only path to rise up."
After Shin finished speaking, he looked at his aunt's broken appearance and a smile played on his lips.
He leaned down and spoke in a voice so soft that only the two of them could hear. "Aunt, don't you think... this plan sounds familiar?"
After he finished, Shin didn't look at her again, gently pushed her hand away, and walked straight out.
This time, Chiyoko did not stop him.
Familiar?
This word instantly unveiled her long-sealed memories.
A scene tainted with blood and coldness appeared in her memory.
That year, Shin was only five years old.
His mother, the most favored woman of the previous Land of Fire daimyo, was, like herself, an ambitious yet completely foolish woman.
She had made almost the exact same mistake as Chiyoko, thereby dragging the entire family into the danger of destruction.
She still remembered.
How his mother, in the council hall at that time, cried and begged for mercy in panic, and how all the family members knelt trembling, their faces gray.
And Shin, who was only five years old, his height not even reaching her waist.
He didn't cry, nor did he make a fuss.
He just looked at everyone with those terrifyingly calm eyes.
Then, like a miniature adult, he straightened his robes and walked step by step to the then Land of Fire daimyo.
Before his father, under the shocked gazes of everyone, he spoke words almost identical to today's in his tender childish voice.
He personally confined his mother to the cold palace, which led to her dying of sorrow.
Then he personally exiled his mother's family members, but secretly took all their resources for his own use.
At the end of her memory were the words she spoke when she took the five-year-old Shin to visit his mother.
"Mother, an unsheathed blade is the most deadly."
"When the blade is drawn, one should be prepared to be cut by it."
Boom!
Chiyoko's whole body trembled violently, a chill rushing to her head.
So that's it... So that's it!
She finally understood!
This wasn't the first time he had dealt with such a matter!
This wasn't a strategy he had come up with on the spot!
This was just... a template he had already used, a mature one, for cleaning up the mess created by foolish women!
She and his mother, in his eyes, were no different at all!
They were just foolish women who made the same mistakes!
Thud.
Chiyoko completely collapsed to the ground, her eyes vacant, without even the last bit of strength to struggle.
She was saved... but that was all.
Bang.
The door closed behind him, cutting off everything inside and out.
Shin walked down the long corridor, his expression unchanged.
That foolish woman.
Even now, she was still dreaming.
A nine-year-old child, sitting in the position of the Land of Lightning daimyo.
It would only lead to a situation where the branches are strong and the trunk is weak, with the tail too big to wag the dog.
Truly... completely ridiculous!
The position of Land of Lightning daimyo?
Even if he could sit on it, how long could he stay there?