News of Hoshino Maki's return to the village spread quickly. Naturally, not everyone was happy about it.
At that moment, four elders sat in Sajiu's mansion, inside a lavishly decorated Meeting Room.
Just a few months earlier, the room had been quite plain.
Of course, "plain" was relative to the other Great Clans. An ordinary family might not be able to afford even one of the chairs in here in their entire lifetime.
Now they were even more extravagant. Each chair back was inlaid with a huge gemstone, making them more luxurious than the chairs in the Elder Council Hall at the Kazekage Building.
Sajiu swept his gaze over the others and slowly began, "Everyone knows Hoshino Maki has returned, right?"
Yūta nodded. "The problem now is that Rasa didn't come back with him."
As he spoke, his brows furrowed.
To be honest, it took a lot of courage for him to sit here.
He had originally belonged to the Kazekage faction. When they first discussed candidates for Kazekage, he had betrayed his faction and defected to Chōjūrō. Later, during the "Battle for Kikyo Castle," he had bet on Rasa and returned to the Kazekage faction.
Aside from Chiyo and her two close allies, the other members of the Elder Council weren't particularly steadfast in their loyalties. It wasn't quite a case of following whoever fed them, but it wasn't far off.
Still, it was rare for someone to jump back and forth between two patrons as many times as he had in such a short period.
Yūta didn't think he had poor judgment. He just thought he was unlucky.
Chiyo didn't care about village affairs. What was wrong with him throwing in his lot with Chōjūrō?
Hoshino Maki and Rasa had competed for the Kazekage position, and the gap