Before they knew it, Natsume had finished explaining.
However, the oppressive atmosphere did not disappear. Instead, it grew heavier and more intense.
Natsume and Suzuka both looked at Kyoko.
Luo Zhen was watching Kyoko as well, quietly observing her.
At some point, Kyoko had wrapped her arms around herself. Her face was pale, as if she were freezing all over.
"Dad... How could he...?"
Kyoko could only force out those trembling words.
Her own father—the head of the Kurahashi Family, acclaimed as the greatest Onmyoji of the modern era and the de facto supreme leader of the curse arts world—had actually plotted the incidents of the Jōshi Great Exorcism and the Jōshi Second Exorcism together with the Soma Family. He had even planned to disregard the lives of the civilians and complete the miracle of summoning a deity?
Something like that...
"I know you definitely don't want to believe it." Natsume seemed to want to comfort Kyoko, so she deliberately softened her tone, but she still chose to reveal the truth, saying each word clearly. "But think carefully. Ever since you returned from Autumn Viewing, hasn't the Onmyo Agency carried out a lot of strange operations?"
That... was indeed true.
Thinking about it carefully, the Onmyo Agency's actions really had been strange.
For example, their arrest of Luo Zhen had been far too reckless.
Even if Luo Zhen was an extremely dangerous Curse Arts Criminal, when they went after him at the Onmyo Academy, the Onmyo Agency had completely disregarded the students' safety and sealed off the entire academy with a barrier, merely ordering the students to evacuate to the underground Curse Training Ground instead of arranging for them to leave the dormitories beforehand. That alone was abnormal.
And when Luo Zhen and Kyoko had been in the hotel, the