The Person Who Shouldn't Appear

At the Nanaya Territory Lord's Residence, the peace of old had been replaced by an air of grim tension. Large numbers of soldiers had poured in, taking over the duties once performed by the residence's attendants. Though they might not have done those tasks as well as the attendants, at the very least, the head of the Nanaya Clan was more willing to trust these private troops directly under the clan's command.

The world of the Hokage operated under a feudal system of lordly enfeoffment, which meant that the influence of the nobility extended into virtually every aspect of society.

The naming of cities was one such aspect. Other than the capital, which was uniformly called the Imperial Capital, all other major cities were named by the nobles who resided there. One could practically tell which noble family a city belonged to just from its name. Cities without nobles could not bear the character "City," which was why the major ninja villages, though cities in all but name, were called villages instead.

The term Lord's Residence did not actually refer to a manor. Rather, it referred to the inner city where the nobility lived. Unlike the outer city, which housed ordinary citizens, the inner city was a city within a city for nobles. Though it was essentially a massive castle built inside the city, nobles regarded it as equivalent to a residence and thus called it a residence. The Daimyo's Residence, for example, was the inner city of the Imperial Capital. Ordinary Lord's Residences likewise referred to the castles of the respective lords within their own cities.

This was actually not too bad, since what nobles loved most was using their family name directly in the naming of an entire city. The city where the Nanaya Clan resided, for example,