Gojo and the banquet

As the New Year approached, the Zenin Clan grew busy, bringing a rare touch of life to that dreary place.

I often sat off to one side and watched. To me, a traditional New Year that required so many elaborate preparations and rituals was genuinely novel.

The steward in charge of rituals had reassigned my attendant, citing a shortage of hands. With no one to take me to the instructional steward, I naturally skipped my lessons again and again.

As for the instructional steward... he had never even bothered to find out where I lived, so he never came looking for me. I guessed he would probably vent all that pent-up anger the next time we met, but...

Who cared?

I wanted to leave, and I had already found a suitable way. As long as I handled things properly, I could leave the Zenin Clan.

Speaking of leaving, I had to mention the Gojo Clan, one of the Three Great Families of Jujutsu Society.

I had heard that someone with the Six Eyes, a rarity seen only once every few centuries, had been born into the Gojo Clan.

The Six Eyes were something precious. Apparently, his birth alone had upset the balance of Jujutsu Society. The number of high-level cursed spirits had increased considerably, and the other jujutsu sorcerers sent to exorcise them had suffered far heavier losses than before.

That had left a lot of people deeply unhappy with the Gojo Clan.

And the moment that boy with the Six Eyes was born, the bounty on his head on the black market had reached a full hundred million.

...Wow.

The Gojo Clan had kept the boy with the Six Eyes well protected, but this year, they were inviting all the major families of Jujutsu Society to his birthday party.

According to the gossiping servants, the boy had most likely mastered Blue and gained the ability to protect himself. Only then had the Gojo Clan felt safe enough to show him off, openly announcing their rise to power to the world.

After hearing so much, I had a rough idea: this boy with the Six Eyes would probably turn out like Naoya Zenin, another hidebound young master raised by a great family.

I wasn't particularly interested in his personality, but there was one thing I was terribly curious about-

...Did that young master of the Gojo Clan really have six eyes?

My so-called father took this banquet invitation very seriously.

Not only was he taking Naoya Zenin, he was even bringing me along.

My plan was to go to the Gojo Clan with him, then find a chance to slip away.

After all, I was only there to make up the numbers and help him look good. Even if I disappeared, no one would care.

As long as I could get away safely, I was confident I could make a good life for myself out there.

...Yay!

A happy life was beckoning to me!

Perhaps it was because I was so excited, but even my attendant had started looking rather handsome to me over the past few days.

Life in the Zenin Clan was utterly awful. My mental condition had been growing worse and worse, and over the past few days, I had been seeing more and more hallucinations of shadows stirring.

...If I stayed any longer, I felt like I wouldn't even be surprised to see something jump out of a shadow.

At least I was leaving.

How wonderful.

-Not so wonderful.

I came down with a fever.

I didn't know whether it was because the weather was too cold or something else, but the illness struck hard, overwhelming my body all at once.

My escape plan went down the drain, too.

Because, as luck would have it, I developed that fever at the Gojo Clan's banquet.

The moment I stepped into the Gojo residence, I saw a white-haired child standing in the center, wearing a blue haori patterned with dragonflies. He looked over, his eyes an impossibly clear, exquisitely beautiful blue.

If I had to describe them, they were like the mints I used for a change of pace during that period in my previous life when I had struggled to stay alert at work, keeping myself alive on coffee.

So wonderful. So refreshing.

He looked over, and under his gaze, I had nowhere to hide.

In an instant-just a single instant!

My blood threatened to boil... Those eyes, those eyes!

Inexplicably, yet somehow as a matter of course, a light glance from those eyes had casually scattered a few sparks across my parched plains, setting off a towering inferno.

It was strange. These thoughts shouldn't have been mine, but it was as though my reason had been burned through. I never even realized anything was wrong.

Was something wrong with my mind again?

Otherwise, why was I seeing the shadows stir again? This time, I could even hear some kind of animal barking from within them...

It... had to be... a hallucination... right...?