The Kamo Clan had joined the Gojo Clan in pushing for the Three Great Families' banquet to suppress the Zenin Clan, yet there was a reason they had said something like that.
From the Kamo Clan's perspective, if the Gojo Clan failed to keep the Zenin Clan down, their current strength would ultimately leave them in third place.
But if the Zenin Clan could kill Satoru Gojo, the divine child with the Six Eyes-or, more aggressively, wipe out the Gojo Clan outright-the Kamo Clan could naturally step over the devastated Gojo Clan and rise to second place.
Moreover, as a "cooperating" party, the Kamo Clan would preserve far more of its strength than the victorious Zenin Clan, allowing them to secure greater benefits afterward.
It was not that the Kamo Clan could not accept having anyone above them. What they could not accept was having both other clans above them.
Naobito Zenin frowned slightly at those words. He knew exactly what the Head of the Kamo Clan was plotting, and answered him earnestly.
"I didn't know how this would turn out from the beginning. That child simply proved more exceptional than I imagined."
Hearing Naobito Zenin's answer, the Head of the Kamo Clan merely rolled his eyes and sneered.
"You would pay such a high price for him without knowing how strong he was? Are you saying he became that powerful on his own in the time since you brought him back?"
Naturally, the Head of the Kamo Clan did not believe that explanation. He still thought Naobito Zenin had simply failed to make the necessary preparations.
Naobito Zenin wanted to tell the Head of the Kamo Clan that he truly did not understand how the boy had grown so much stronger on his own. In the end, however, he chose silence and drained the red wine from his glass.
To Tan Man, the Three Great Families' banquet had felt like a lucid dream.
He could clearly feel himself thinking freely, yet something seemed to constrain and influence the thoughts in his mind. In the end, every action his body carried out was radical and extreme.
Tan Man felt that the image of his mother conjured by those whispers had been fueling, guiding, and magnifying the dark, extreme thoughts within him.
Even now, Tan Man had not figured out what that "mother" truly was. Was she his guilt over the sins he had committed?
Or was she the embodiment of his darker side?
Was she his twisted obsession with gaining his blood relatives' approval?
Or was she something else entirely? Perhaps she was simply his own unvarnished self. Tan Man did not know the right answer. He thought perhaps he was ill...
Originally, Tan Man had had a completely different plan. He had only intended to defeat Satoru Gojo, which would have been enough to prove his importance.
But at the time, he had been like a man possessed. He did not know why, but he had seemed to dismiss every possible consequence of killing Satoru Gojo, intent on killing him without a second thought.
Now that he could calmly think it through, killing Satoru Gojo so early would have changed many things.
Even the pressure that might originally have fallen on Satoru Gojo could have been transferred to him instead.
Even in his rational state, Tan Man did indeed want to be stronger than Satoru Gojo, to prove himself.
But he still needed Satoru Gojo alive to draw attention away from him. Only if Satoru Gojo truly kept resisting and obstructing him would Tan Man consider killing him.
Nor was Tan Man exaggerating. Although his previous killing move probably would not work again, Toji was on his side, after all. With a little planning, killing a young divine child with the Six Eyes would hardly be difficult.
As Tan Man gradually regained his reason, the image of his mother grew increasingly insubstantial. Yet her charred face still bore an expression of disappointment that he could recognize.
Tan Man felt that some things could not be rushed. At the Three Great Families' banquet, for instance, he had only thought about how to kill Satoru Gojo, without considering how to handle the other members of the Three Great Families watching the fight.
After all, however strong the two combatants were, it was ultimately a sparring match, not a fight to the death. The Gojo Clan would never stand by and let their divine child die.
Tan Man had neither made arrangements with the Zenin Clan beforehand nor accounted for the many powerful sorcerers in the Gojo Clan.
If he truly wanted to kill Satoru Gojo, their interference would inevitably have to be dealt with.
Besides, the plan Tan Man had devised at the time pushed him so close to his limits that it seemed designed to exhaust every last bit of his strength.
Even if he had killed Satoru Gojo, Tan Man would only have been left at everyone else's mercy.
Tan Man was seriously reflecting on the shortcomings of his attempt to kill Satoru Gojo.
The point was not whether killing Satoru Gojo was wrong. Rather, Tan Man had failed to consider how to ensure that doing so would not expose him to major hidden threats, or that he could handle every chain reaction Satoru Gojo's death would trigger.
After reviewing everything from beginning to end, Tan Man truly felt that the outcome ultimately came down to his own lack of strength.
Having learned his lesson, he decided not to rush things anymore. Trying to accomplish everything with the body of a six-year-old child was indeed asking too much. At the very least, he needed to wait until adulthood.
Tan Man slowly woke from his sleep. When he opened his eyes, he saw a reasonably familiar sight: the ceiling of his own courtyard residence.
Only now, the residence that should have been empty seemed to be filled with busy figures.
An unfamiliar woman's voice rang out beside him in delighted surprise.
"Young Master Tan Man is awake! Hurry and inform the clan head!"
Along with that voice, a man immediately came to Tan Man's side and asked him a question.
"Young Master Tan Man, do you remember what happened?"
Tan Man rubbed his eyes and recognized the man as the doctor who had drawn his blood before.
"Yes. I severely injured the Gojo Clan's divine child with the Six Eyes, didn't I? But I don't remember anything after that."
"That's right. You've been unconscious ever since. It's now the following day, and you've been asleep for about twenty hours."
"It's been that long? What happened afterward?"
The man answered apologetically.
"I'll leave the clan head to explain what happened afterward. Young Master Tan Man, are you still feeling any discomfort?"
Tan Man reached up to touch his neck, then murmured.
"I don't think so. That suffocating feeling from before is gone now, too."
"That suffocating feeling was caused by the Head of the Gojo Clan's Cursed Technique. He can control gases, including those inside other people's bodies. He used that Cursed Technique to suffocate you."
As someone who existed outside the original story, Tan Man truly had no information about this. He had not previously anticipated being attacked by the Head of the Gojo Clan, either.
Tan Man frowned and murmured to himself.
"Controlling gases? That really is a bit troublesome."
In the brief time they had been talking, Naobito Zenin had already appeared in the doorway.
With a single look, he made everyone in the room bow and withdraw, leaving only himself and Tan Man.
But Naobito Zenin's first words were not an expression of concern for Tan Man. Instead, he asked a grave question.
"Tell me why you did it. You really intended to kill Satoru Gojo back then, didn't you?"
Before you continue