Gato was a merchant, the president of a shipping company, but he was no ordinary merchant. Unsatisfied with his current wealth, he had set his sights on the Wave Country drifting out at sea.
For an island nation, surrounded by the sea and far from the mainland, sea routes were its only means of contact with the outside world.
So, using his wealth and violence, he took control of all maritime transport in and out of the Wave Country. For an island nation like the Wave Country, controlling its maritime lifeline meant controlling its wealth, its politics, its people—everything.
Naturally, Gato's actions sparked resistance from the Wave Country's residents. A year ago, a fisherman calling himself a hero of the Wave Country had actually tried to use public pressure to negotiate with him and force him to open the shipping lanes. How laughable.
In the end, Gato chopped off the man's arms and had him whipped to death before the entire island, whipping the backbone of the Wave Country to pieces. From then on, no one in the Wave Country dared defy him. Even the daimyo was no more than a pet he kept in a cage.
But not long afterward, a strange outsider arrived in the Wave Country.
That woman did nothing else. The moment she arrived, she gathered a group of people and built an estate along the coast. That alone gave Gato quite a scare.
A wealthy outsider had come to this poor, miserable country and built an estate large enough to house hundreds. Her intentions could not have been more obvious.
How could Gato allow someone else to covet his territory?
Over the past two months, he had sent a large number of rogue ninja and wandering samurai to assassinate her, but every time, they vanished