Inside Spear Body Tower.
Murasaki Shikibu led Samael past the Black Samurai and Shogunate Heroic Spirits along the way, arriving at the top floor. She pushed open the door and gently instructed him.
"Please rest in the sitting room for a moment. I'll go inform the Shogun."
Samael nodded in agreement, smiling as he handed Murasaki Shikibu the gift he had brought. Only after watching the lady-in-waiting leave did he enter the sitting room to wait.
Yet after sitting stiffly on the bench for a full half hour, not only had the mysterious Shogun failed to appear, there was not even a cup of tea on the table.
At the same time, bursts of noisy footsteps rose from downstairs.
Samael furrowed his brow, concealed himself in the shadows, and quietly pushed open the door.
Looking down through the courtyard beyond the corridor, he saw two groups of Black Samurai closing in from below in a pincer formation.
And the people leading them were none other than—
Okita Souji and Suzuka Gozen, the two old enemies with whom he had openly clashed before.
Seeing those two old foes advancing toward the top floor with a huge force behind them, Samael's face immediately darkened.
What the hell! Weren't kindred spirits supposed to be hard to find? What happened to trust?
I just gave you a gift, and you sold me out already?
Sure enough, women couldn't be trusted.
The prettier they were, the worse they were!
Samael cursed Murasaki Shikibu's complete lack of contractual integrity nonstop in his heart, but his face remained calm. He quietly suppressed his aura, sticking to the shadows as he crept toward a vermilion door.
If nothing unexpected happened, that should be the Shogun's private bedroom.
When he had watched Murasaki Shikibu leave, he had clearly sensed