"Are you saying I shouldn't have housed Kaguya in the palace?"
Inside the Daimyo's Residence, Namikawa Yū looked calmly at the old man before him.
An old man in fine robes stood before him.
He was already very old, his hair and beard white, yet he remained stubborn even before Namikawa Yū, the Daimyo.
His name was Sawada Kawa no. He was a senior retainer left to Namikawa Yū by the previous Lord of the Country of Zu, and counted among his household retainers.
Over the years, he had assisted Namikawa Yū in governing the Land of Ancestors and had worked reasonably hard.
Now, however, he had come before Namikawa Yū to remonstrate with him.
"Your Highness, have you forgotten the efforts you once made to revitalize the Land of Ancestors?"
Sawada Kawa no spoke loudly. "Your Highness worked so hard to revitalize the Land of Ancestors. How can you forget that now? How can you neglect affairs of state for a woman?"
"Besides, if Your Highness acts this way, aren't you afraid the Lord of the Country of Pi will object?"
He brought up the Daimyo of the Land of Them.
When Namikawa Yū had first reincarnated here, he had promised to marry the daughter of the Lord of the Country of Pi to maintain a stable external environment.
In name, that Princess of the Land of Them, whom he had never met, was his rightful fiancée.
In the past, Namikawa Yū had always conducted himself perfectly. Yet now, after meeting Kaguya, he had begun showing signs of neglecting state affairs in only a short time.
This deeply worried the senior retainers led by Sawada Kawa no, prompting this attempt at remonstration.
Quite evidently, however, his remonstration had done little good.
"And what of it?"
Meeting Sawada Kawa no's gaze, Namikawa Yū merely smiled before saying, "I have taken Lord Sawada's counsel to heart and will consider it carefully later."
"For now, please return home."
Before the assembled senior retainers, he was as gentle as ever, leaving little to criticize in his manner.
He had done everything necessary to keep up appearances.
As for whether he would listen when the time came, that was his own business.
Of course he wasn't going to listen.
After all, he had finally landed a rich woman and started living off her. What mattered most now was getting more while the going was good. How could he possibly push her away himself?
As for the Land of Them, Namikawa Yū had never worried about it at all.
He had already spent several years developing his land and had long since built up sufficient strength.
The only reason he had not fallen out with the Land of Them was that he wanted a few more peaceful years.
But if they really dared say anything more, there would be nothing left to discuss.
He would simply take action.
Still, they were unlikely to make a move.
After all, to this day, Namikawa Yū had never paid a penny less in his annual tribute.
Even for the sake of those annual payments alone, they could not make a move lightly.
With Namikawa Yū holding firm, the uproar gradually subsided.
Several months later, the people around him who still brought it up gradually disappeared.
The people of the Land of Ancestors also gradually grew accustomed to Lady Kaguya's elevated standing.
And so, several more years passed.
Over those years, time continued to pass.
During this period, things around them began changing constantly.
Under Namikawa Yū's direction, the Land of Ancestors gradually began expanding outward, annexing several more small countries over the course of a few years.
Within the Land of Ancestors, the population kept growing, presenting a picture of prosperity.
Most noteworthy of all, however, was the God Tree.
After several years, the God Tree had grown even larger. Now it truly looked like a divine tree, visible even from very far away.
During this period, Kaguya brought Namikawa Yū there once.
Before Namikawa Yū's eyes, she plucked a special fruit from its canopy.
The Divine Tree Fruit carried an air of mystery. The moment it appeared, it exerted a powerful attraction on Namikawa Yū, drawing his gaze involuntarily.
"What is this?"
Looking at the fruit in Kaguya's hand, he asked.
"This is the Fruit of the Divine Tree."
Kaguya spoke, all sorts of emotions in her eyes as she looked at the fruit in her hand.
Intense longing, fear, and many other emotions intertwined in her gaze, making it quite complicated.
Like Namikawa Yū, she also longed intensely for this Divine Tree Fruit.
In fact, because she belonged to the Otsutsuki Clan, her desire for the fruit was even stronger, almost instinctive.
Namikawa Yū could more or less understand some of the complicated emotions in her heart.
The God Tree was a tool the Otsutsuki Clan used to absorb natural energy and produce Chakra Fruit. Its purpose was to absorb the energy of other planets and bear Chakra Fruit.
This fruit offered enormous benefits to the Otsutsuki Clan. Simply consuming it not only granted immense power, but also directly awakened the Rinnegan, the standard manifestation of an awakened Otsutsuki bloodline.
Speaking of the Rinnegan, Namikawa Yū had originally thought it was standard among the Otsutsuki Clan.
But judging by what he had experienced so far, Kaguya did not seem to have awakened the Rinnegan yet.
Thus, a reasonable deduction was that even members of the Otsutsuki Clan needed to consume Chakra Fruit to have a chance of awakening the Rinnegan, unless their bloodline was pure enough for them to awaken it naturally.
Just as most members of the Uchiha Clan could not awaken the Sharingan Kekkei Genkai and were merely ordinary people, the Otsutsuki Clan had a similar situation.
But as long as they could consume Chakra Fruit, their bloodline could evolve, directly granting them the power of the Rinnegan and allowing them to transcend their current state.
That was why the God Tree before them had been planted in this world.
As for Kaguya, she was the tree farmer responsible for watching over the God Tree.
As the guardian dispatched by the Otsutsuki Clan, her purpose was to guard the God Tree and ensure nothing happened to the Chakra Fruit it bore, awaiting the eventual arrival of members of the Otsutsuki Main Family.
But judging by Kaguya's behavior now, she also had her own private designs on this Divine Tree Fruit.
For the Otsutsuki Clan, the temptation of a Chakra Fruit was simply too great.
Kaguya stood there, looking at the Chakra Fruit before her and struggling for a long time, before finally giving up.
She sealed it away without using it.
"You're not going to use it?"
Watching what she did, Namikawa Yū suddenly asked.
Kaguya shook her head.
She looked at Namikawa Yū, still wearing her usual indifferent expression, but the words she spoke were entirely different. "If it were just me, I could use it and be done with it. Even if I were dragged back to the main family, it wouldn't be that big a deal."
"But I don't want you to die because of me, Yū."
As her words fell, Namikawa Yū instinctively looked up, momentarily stunned.