Some time later, in the council chamber of the Daimyo Palace in the capital of the Tea Country, an attendant was reading out the Lord Daimyo's latest commendation for Feng.
"Samurai captain and guardian of the capital, Sekito, has fulfilled his duties conscientiously, rendered repeated meritorious service, and demonstrated commendable loyalty.
I hereby betroth my third daughter, Aiko Hamuro, to Sekito. The two shall enter into an engagement and forge an enduring bond.
The wedding date..."
The order came abruptly, but it did not draw much attention.
It was perfectly normal for a daimyo to marry one of his daughters to a subordinate as a means of winning hearts.
In fact, in the eyes of others, if the Lord Daimyo's eldest and second daughters had not already been married off, such a fortunate engagement to Feng, a guardian minister currently in the spotlight, would not have fallen to the unfavored Princess Aiko.
After all, Princess Aiko, the Lord Daimyo's third daughter, had been born after the daimyo drunkenly slept with a maid. She had never been favored by him since childhood and held roughly the same status in the daimyo household as a maid. She had received virtually no education in etiquette or culture, leaving her ignorant of propriety, dull-witted, and uncouth.
What others did not know was that this had happened because Feng had found someone like Aiko Hamuro. It was not an ordinary case of the daimyo marrying off his daughter to win over a subordinate; it was a marriage decree issued by a daimyo already under Feng's control.
Precisely because Aiko Hamuro was unfavored, low in status, and poorly educated, her outlook on life naturally resembled that of the maids around her. Before others, she did not dare act willfully or throw tantrums. She merely accepted whatever came her way and obediently listened.
This made her the easiest person in the entire daimyo family to control.
And there were quite a few precedents in the Ninja World of princesses inheriting the position of daimyo. Therefore, should anything happen to the daimyo and his other heirs, Aiko Hamuro, as the daimyo's third daughter, could rightfully become the daimyo of the Tea Country.
Now, Aiko Hamuro had been betrothed to Feng, and Feng controlled the daimyo. He had even taken control of the capital.
Thus, whether the Tea Country's daimyo and his other heirs would meet with accidents, as well as the outcome awaiting them upon their return to the Tea Country, was already obvious.
Setting aside the marriage arrangement that no one cared about for the moment, the daimyo immediately issued another order, one like a depth charge that left every minister except Feng, who had planted it, utterly stunned.
"During his tenure as Crown Prince, he failed to cultivate virtue and was harsh and ungrateful. His position as Crown Prince is hereby revoked, and he is demoted to a commoner.
My fifth son is utterly pure and filial, as well as naturally intelligent. He shall be named Crown Prince."
The moment the order was read aloud, all the ministers began offering remonstrance.
The deposed Crown Prince was the daimyo's legitimate eldest son and had served as heir apparent for over a decade. Everyone knew exactly what kind of person he was.
He truly lacked virtue to some extent, often indulging in women and squandering money on pleasure, but nearly every daimyo throughout the Tea Country's history had been like that.
As for being harsh and ungrateful, that was complete nonsense. Whenever the Crown Prince spent extravagantly, which of his subordinates did not make a little fortune?
And the daimyo's fifth son, utterly pure and filial? Stealing the daimyo's maid home, playing her to death, then tossing her body back—was that filial?
Naturally intelligent? Heh. If always finding ways to steal the daimyo's money to spend on food, drink, women, and gambling counted as intelligence, then why had the daimyo previously snapped five rattan switches whipping him?
Of course, none of that was the most important matter. The most important thing was that the Crown Prince had been heir apparent for more than a decade, and throughout that time, the daimyo, the Crown Prince, and the ministers had all gotten along harmoniously and remained highly stable.
Thus, every minister had long assumed that the Crown Prince would certainly inherit the daimyo's position in the future.
For that reason, the ministers had all befriended the Crown Prince early on and joined his camp. They had catered to his every preference and spent enormous sums in the process.
Now that the daimyo had suddenly stripped the Crown Prince of his status as heir apparent, would not all their previous investments have gone down the drain?
How could the ministers accept such an enormous sunk cost? They had to remonstrate. They had to make the daimyo withdraw this order.
While the ministers argued fiercely, Uchiha Feng stood silently with a faint smile at the corner of his mouth, watching everything unfold.
When others tried to pull him into the remonstrance, he excused himself by saying that his lord had just bestowed a marriage upon him, and immediately opposing his lord would be a grave act of disrespect. Then he quietly retreated several more steps.
Everything before him had been planned by his own hand. Before things reached the point he wanted, how could he possibly involve himself?
Over the past nearly two months, he had thoroughly investigated the daimyo family's situation.
Naturally, he knew exactly what the daimyo's sons were like.
It could be said that the former Crown Prince was not a good man, but he truly was a qualified heir to the daimyo. The fifth son, on the other hand, was simply a humanoid creature, much less fit to be made Crown Prince.
But that was precisely why Feng had controlled the daimyo and ordered their statuses switched.
This way, one humanoid creature would become the new Crown Prince with the daimyo backing him;
Meanwhile, the other had been Crown Prince for half his life, had committed no wrongdoing, and had already become deeply entangled with every minister, only to be suddenly deposed.
Add Uchiha Feng to the mix: he secretly controlled the daimyo, openly stood with the ministers, and in reality constantly sabotaged both sides. Heh heh, it would be strange if the two factions did not beat each other's brains out.
After the council chamber had remained noisy for a long while, the daimyo suddenly stood and shouted angrily:
"What kind of conduct is this, making such a racket? Shut up, all of you.
My decision regarding the heir apparent has been made. My fifth son shall be Crown Prince, and it shall not be changed.
Anyone dissatisfied shall be deemed gravely disrespectful, stripped of office, and expelled from the capital.
Guardian Sekito, you will oversee its enforcement."
Having said that, the daimyo turned and left without looking back, leaving behind the silenced ministers.
Feng gave the ministers a helpless expression, then turned and left as well.
Not long after he departed, however, his three subordinates, Sada Hidemasa, Shibata Keiichi, and Furukawa Kengo, had already been waiting for him at his residence.
"Congratulations, my lord, on your union with Her Highness the Princess."
The three first congratulated Feng in unison, then Hidemasa continued.
"My lord, what do you think about the matter of the two Crown Princes?"
During his time as captain of the samurai corps at the Daimyo Palace, he had also established ties with the former Crown Prince early on. Yet now, because of the daimyo's sudden change, everything had gone down the drain.
"I have my own arrangements for this matter. The three of you are not to get involved. Just focus on carrying out the tasks I assigned."
Feng spoke calmly. He had long since made plans for this matter, but the things involved were not suitable to discuss with others.
At present, only he himself and Uchiha Mikio, whom he had summoned through Impure World Reincarnation, knew about it.
As for everyone else, matters succeed through secrecy and fail through disclosure. Every additional person who knew meant another risk of exposure. Feng would not do something so foolish.
"Yes! X3" Hidemasa and the other two answered in unison.
Since they had already pledged loyalty to Feng, they naturally followed his orders. As for those who did not obey, the samurai who had vanished from the Daimyo Palace in recent days, along with the samurai corpses in the mass grave outside the capital that had not yet fully decayed, were the answer.
"Mm, you may leave. Remember, aside from your regular Guard Corps duties, do not concern yourselves with anything else.
Your real duty is to diligently gather intelligence for me on the Tailed Beasts of Kirigakure and Takigakure, as well as the Mask Hall in the Land of Whirlpools."
Feng told them to leave, but before they went, he still gave them a serious reminder.
Before you continue