"It seems you already know."
Though she could not see Number 14's expression beneath her hood, the young Chiba's Slug Sage Art clone, who had turned away after speaking, spoke as if he knew everything.
Just as I thought!
Hearing this and seeing the expressionless face of the young Chiba's Slug Sage Art clone, Number 14 felt a jolt in her chest.
A wave of regret suddenly welled up from the depths of her heart, slowly consuming her.
She knew she could not escape. From the moment she entered this secret chamber, her fate had already been decided.
At this point, she was meat on the chopping block. With her strength, there was no way she could break free from the young Chiba's Slug Sage Art clone's restraints.
In other words, the young Chiba's Slug Sage Art clone could do whatever he wanted to her.
And what this young Chiba's Slug Sage Art clone wanted to do now—the so-called promise—was perfectly clear to her.
If such a promise had been made with someone like him, then it really could have led to the current situation.
In other words, the accidental release of these children, and the appearance of the two souls before their well-preserved corpses.
That meant the person Taki Chiba had contacted back then was her original body.
Her original body was also trapped in Uchiha Nobuhiko's prison. Back then, Taki Chiba had entered this prison by some means. Though he had not encountered the two souls, he must have encountered her original body—or rather, the original soul—and made some sort of promise with her.
Her original body had likely been responsible for finding a way to open the entrance and exit from within, then bringing the two souls before him.
Compared to her original body, she was ultimately