Internal Plotting Within Night Curtain (3)

"I..."

Straw Raincoat Guest was speechless.

He had originally wanted to say that he knew nothing.

That he had done nothing, either.

But on second thought, that explanation was too pale and far too weak.

It could not convince anyone at all.

Even if he was telling the truth.

But who could prove that he was telling the truth?

Taking a step back, if one thought like a normal person, would someone really come looking for trouble with you for no reason at all?

He was a normal person too.

If it were up to him, he would think the same way.

So, before anyone else could say anything,

he dismissed that answer himself.

In short, either their interests had clashed, or this was retaliatory action over some grudge that had been formed without his knowledge.

The former was for profit.

There was nothing to explain.

Cutting off someone's source of wealth was like killing their parents.

That one sentence said it all.

The latter meant being willing to lose a thousand just to kill eight hundred of the enemy.

Never underestimate revenge.

There were deep waters involved.

Take Netherworld and the intelligence-and-assassination organization under Straw Raincoat Guest's command as examples. In the underground world, it was perfectly normal for you to kill me, me to kill him, and him to kill you. There was no benevolence or morality here; everyone lived with their lives hanging by a blade. Privately, Netherworld's assassins had often been killed by assassins from other organizations, and the same was true in reverse. But such incidents were always isolated. Three to five deaths were already the limit.

If more than ten people died,

or if the death toll reached the hundreds,

it would inevitably be regarded as a signal of war. Under such circumstances, even