"Xingqiu, are you all right? You don't look very energetic." Seeing Xingqiu's exhausted face, Paimon asked with concern.
"I'm fine. I just got so absorbed in a novel on the ship that, by the time I came to my senses, it was already daylight. I didn't sleep all night, that's all. I'll be fine after I get some rest." As he spoke, Xingqiu took out his invitation.
"Oh, right, this is my invitation. Huh? What's this? Why is there a piece of paper here?" Shen Fei immediately noticed something unusual about his invitation. A sheet of paper was stuck to its back.
"A piece of paper? Could it be...? Quick, let us see it." At the mention of paper, Paimon immediately became excited. Xingqiu promptly handed it to her, while Shen Fei and Lumine leaned in to examine it as well. Sure enough, it resembled the papers they had found before, except this one contained a poem by Aoi no Okina.
In simple terms, the poem said that the verse Suikou had dedicated to the Shogun had been stolen by Aoi no Okina. However, he had not done so willingly—he had been threatened into it.
"It really is part of the same series as the stories we found before. Even the handwriting is exactly the same." After reading the paper, Paimon spoke excitedly.
"The stories you found before?" Xingqiu looked at Paimon in confusion.
"It was at the wareh—"
"Ahem."
Just as Paimon began speaking, Lumine coughed loudly to cut her off. Paimon immediately realized that they were supposed to keep what had happened at the warehouse from Xingqiu, so she quickly changed her words.
"The poetry-hiding contest. A friend of ours is drawing portraits of the Five Kasen for the Irodori Festival on Ritou, but the stories of the