The instant the two of them opened the wooden door,
with the door no longer blocking them, several hurried yet suggestive sounds immediately drifted out of the Head of the Family's Room...
Hearing those sounds, both froze on the spot as though struck by lightning.
Even Kamo Anzai, whom they had been carrying, dropped to the floor...
Inside the room, the figures of three people lying down came straight into view...
Only now did Akutagawa Shang finally understand
why Kamo Anzai had desperately blocked the doorway no matter what, refusing to let even Noritoshi Kamo, the clan's young heir, inside.
After all, who could have imagined that the supposedly powerful and prestigious head of the Kamo Clan
was currently inside the sacred and solemn Head of the Family's Room...
conducting a scientific exploration into how to make the Kamo Clan's main family more populous...
Noritoshi Kamo turned his head, his eyes filled with inner struggle and a despairing helplessness...
"Did we come at the wrong time...?"
Akutagawa Shang nodded at him instead.
"So what...?"
"We're already here. Don't tell me you want to back out and wait until your old man's finished before coming in...?"
After receiving Akutagawa Shang's instructions, Noritoshi Kamo nodded, able only to sigh helplessly.
"Sigh..."
Noritoshi Kamo reached back and shut the open door again, completely sealing off the room from the outside.
Perhaps because he was too absorbed in what he was doing,
the elderly head of the Kamo Clan...
had not noticed at all that two uninvited guests, Noritoshi Kamo and Akutagawa Shang, had suddenly arrived behind him.
In fact,
even now...
as Akutagawa Shang and Noritoshi Kamo entered the room...
this dedicated old clan head was unwilling even to glance back...
Only when Noritoshi Kamo slammed the door shut
and the dull thud