Chapter 165 – The Akuma Clan
Third person POV
Later that night, at 7:09 p.m., the shogun and his family came home from the tournament, only to be greeted by a letter from Sevan laying on the shogun's desk. Takashi then grabbed it and unfolded it, before reading its contents. Then, he was shocked with alert on the date of the assassination.
"Um, what's wrong, dad?" Mirai asked him.
Without answering his daughter's question, Takashi turned to one of his accompanying subordinates and said to him, "Assemble the General Council in the meeting room. Call Sol and his students as well. We'll have an updated meeting."
His subordinate did so, and went to assemble the General Council, who went to their homes after the tournament, and to call Sol and his students to go to the meeting room, too.
Tanaka assumed that it was about Harold getting assassinated, and he became worried about him.
Emi and Masanori, who had found out about the assassination of their friend and student from their fathers, are there to meet up with Robert.
Later, after being called to the meeting, Sol and his students, including Blaise, went to the meeting room for the meeting. Emi and Masanori are there, too, so they would have a part in the operation.
Shortly thereafter, in the meeting room that night, once everyone was there, the General Council questioned Robert and his friends' involvement in this operation despite being students.
"So they would devise a counterattack against Arnold and his assassins," Sol reasoned out why.
Sol then continued, "Anyhow, your Highness, I got a letter from one of my former students that his older brother, Sevan, was involved in this conspiracy."
"Right," Takashi replied back as he shuffles his papers around, "I got a letter saying that the Akuma clan was also involved, too."
This alerts the General Council almost immediately.
"What? That clan?"
"Why would they do that?"
Then, one of the members, an Akuma member named Akari, commented, "Why them? I thought we settled with them."
"Well," answered the shogun back, "it seems that Arnold had an alliance with your clan leader, Akari."
"What? Zaiaku-sensei is?" Akari responded.
He then thought, "How could he?"
Sol then reads his mind and heard his thought.
But this also causes Robert and his group, except for Emi and Masanori, to wonder about the Akuma clan.
Robert then raised his hand. "Um, who was the Akuma clan?"
They then heard his question and looked at him.
Takashi answered willingly, "It is a clan of ninja assassins."
"Woah, ninja assassins?" Harold commented.
"Yes," Takashi replied back, "they are our nation's deadliest ninja assassins. They are notorious for their assassinations. We mostly used them for espionage on our enemies."
As his group listens, Robert jots down the details in his leather notepad with a charcoal pencil.
"So they have ninjas in this world..." he thought.
The General Council then looked back at the shogun.
After that, Takashi showed the letter from Sevan to Sol, who then reads it and nods in agreement, saying, "We'll figure it out tonight." According to the letter, the assassination will take place at the plaza arena at 11:35 a.m. With that, Takashi puts the letter down, before agreeing with Sol's suggestion.
In that plan, Sol assigns Blaise to be the backup and medic since the Akuma clan uses poison arrows, meaning it's likely that they will use it as a weapon to kill Harold. Robert will be the barrier for Harold using his lightning magic, while William and Peter will use their fire magic to block the other Akuma ninjas, who will enter the back rooms. Emma will then charge at them with her battle axes. Zarah will join in, too, to fend off the ninjas.
Sol then proposed to bring Marionette to the capital as a backup for Blaise and Robert.
After the rest agreed with him, Sol used telepathy to communicate with Marionette back at his house in Peacewood, before making a portal for her to go through.
Shortly thereafter, at Sol's palatial home in Peacewood, Marionette was cleaning the living room when she got the message from Sol via telepathy. She then got what Sol said to her, and a portal appeared before her. Then, now realizing that her younger brother is in danger and without packing up, she went through without a second thought, and now, she's in the palace estate in Taka.
But, while all of this are happening, Lain's servant was outside of the building spying on them and overhearing their plans. The purpose of this is so Lain would help out to foil the assassination attempt on Harold, even at the expense of committing treason against his home country.