He thought he had explained clearly enough, but the others did look a little embarrassed.
"Oh, we were just making an offhand remark. Look at the fuss you've made. If there really were any connection, wouldn't we know?"
"Exactly. If we really hadn't known, we wouldn't have brought it up then. Besides, when those problems were being handled, everyone already knew and stopped dwelling on them, so all we can say is that it was rather strange."
They all talked over one another, sounding quite sincere when they went on to discuss the connections involved.
"We weren't blaming you, or saying that doing things this way was inappropriate."
"Exactly. We were just saying it casually. We only wanted to put everything else out in the open."
The martial artists had wised up now. They knew that if they opposed them at this point,
or upset them and made things awkward, they would only stand to lose more afterward.
"All right. Since you all say that, we really shouldn't speak up at this point either. The information we have is more complicated than this."
Hearing this, another person felt somewhat helpless too. In fact, if he had known, then when discussing these connections, there certainly would have been no definite link.
"Why do you think they're so strange? Boss really put on an act back then."
"Exactly. Now they're not showing anything. I think they're doing it on purpose."
"Does that even need saying? Of course they are. It's because they couldn't do anything about these situations before."
That was why they had deliberately sought out this opportunity, but they knew all too well what was actually going on.
"So that's how it is. I was right after all. I thought it was just a casual remark, but now it really