[You did not have to wait outside for long. With the sound of steady footsteps, the person the Zenin Clan had assigned to receive you came into view. It was Ranta Zenin.]
[This member of the elite unit "Hei" held an extremely high position within the clan. Although he did not tremble or lose his composure as dramatically as the two guards outside when he saw you, visible restraint and stiffness still showed on his young face.]
[He walked up to you, stopped with impeccable formality, bent deeply at the waist, and offered an exceptionally proper bow of his own accord.]
["Lord Li Shunchen, the clan head has been waiting for some time. Please follow me."]
[His movements and tone were completely different from the hostility he had displayed the night you forced your way into the Zenin Clan.]
[Having a core member of Hei guide an outsider like you, someone not born into the Three Great Families, was itself an extremely strong signal. It was enough to show the fundamental change in the Zenin Clan's attitude toward you after that battle. In this clan that valued only strength and bloodline, you had forcibly won yourself the honorific "Lord" that night.]
[You followed behind Ranta. Unlike your infiltration amid darkness and firelight that night, this was the first time in all the time since that you had openly set foot in this vast, ancient, decaying estate again in broad daylight.]
[Along the way, you could still see many craftsmen working on scaffolding. They were repairing the corridors and eaves destroyed that night by the enormous body and savage lightning of your Shikigami, "Qu Fusion." The fresh scent of new wood mingled with the old estate's lingering smell of decay, creating a strange olfactory contrast.]
[The scene before you gradually overlapped