The Kamisato Estate stood at the foot of Mt. Yougou outside Inazuma City, near the Grand Narukami Shrine atop the mountain. As the ancestral home of one of Inazuma's three great clans, it was a grand seaside villa passed down through generations of the Kamisato Clan, dignified, elegant, and imposing, displaying all the distinction of an old Inazuman family.
Kuki Shinobu herself came from a family of shrine maidens with considerable means, but compared with the Kamisato Clan, their wealth paled into insignificance.
But the Kamisato Clan's circumstances were now very different. When the Raiden Shogun closed the nation's borders, the Tri-Commission nominally answered directly to the Shogun herself. But that puppet Shogun knew nothing of governance, so in practice, the three commissions each managed their own affairs and only needed to report the final results to her.
Combined with the enormous advantage of hereditary succession in perpetuity, Inazuma's entire government was like a stagnant pool. Under these circumstances, a political landscape centered around the respective clan estates gradually took shape.
That no longer worked now. After Yucheng took power, the Tri-Commission had to answer to the Regent's Office, and all matters within Inazuma, great or small, required its approval. Under these circumstances, the Regent's Office in Inazuma City naturally became the new political center, and the staff of the three commissions moved into the city to be closer to the seat of power.
Large estates outside Inazuma City, such as the Kamisato Estate, thus found themselves in a very awkward position.
When Kuki Shinobu arrived at the Kamisato Estate, however, she saw a different sight. The vast, imposing estate actually looked somewhat aged, as though its routine upkeep had been neglected.
The two burly samurai who had originally guarded the entrance had now been replaced by a single Kamisato