The two men didn't dare meet with Bella and immediately took their leave from Gavin Banks.
That very night, they departed Japan for Chechnya to establish false identities before heading to Georgia to seek refuge with the local Assassin Brotherhood.
Since the devastating purge by the Templar Order, the Assassin Brotherhood had suffered crippling losses. Both their manpower and available resources had plummeted to historic lows, forcing them to exercise extreme caution in all operations.
Bella remained completely oblivious to these behind-the-scenes machinations—and certainly had no idea anyone wanted her to step up as their leader.
In her eyes, Gavin Banks was just an overly cautious middle-aged man. He was so swamped with work that she couldn't even find time for casual conversation. The man seemed to have an endless mountain of tasks.
Bella found the Japanese work culture a bit hard to adjust to, but everyone around her worked with such fierce dedication that she couldn't bring herself to slack off. After visiting the company a few times and finding Gavin Banks perpetually too busy to even exchange pleasantries, she stopped bothering to go.
The preliminary preparations for Yōkoku Corporation were proceeding smoothly. Everything had been delegated to Gavin Banks. As long as Bella maintained control over Michizane's research, the company would remain firmly in her grasp.
Days passed, and to Bella, the president she'd hired had gradually shed his initial stiffness. Sometimes they could sit together and discuss various topics, though Gavin Banks had a peculiar habit of raising subjects that seemed absurdly abstract to her.
For instance: What was the real purpose behind America's "happy education" system, and did it indirectly restrict lower-class citizens' access to quality education?
Or: Britain's civil service examination system required proficiency in Ancient Greek—a language utterly useless in actual government work. Was this deliberately designed by the upper class to exclude the working class from positions of power through impossible exam requirements?
Bella was baffled. "We're just selling candy here. Do we really need to discuss such grandiose topics?"
"Are you with the Japanese Communist Party?" she asked Gavin Banks. "The ones advocating for the abolition of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty and establishing Japan as an independent, democratic, and peaceful free nation?"
She couldn't help but ask—his concern for the common people sounded exactly like their rhetoric. The Japanese government had just resigned en masse, all the political parties were campaigning for votes, and even Tokyo University wasn't immune to the chaos. She'd picked up bits and pieces of their platforms.
Through sheer willpower, Gavin Banks had finally learned to make eye contact with her, though his expressions still tended toward the dramatic. Now he laughed heartily. "Of course not. I have no ties to any Japanese political party. I'm of Dutch descent."
Seeing that he genuinely seemed interested in her answer, Bella thought for a moment. "Well, take the British civil service thing. Their children can hire private tutors and start learning Ancient Greek at eight or ten years old. But what about working-class kids? They don't even find out Greek is required until they graduate from university, and there are barely any places in all of Britain to even learn it. So naturally, all those positions go to upper-class children. If I were in their shoes, I'd absolutely think that was unfair. No question about it."
"What about education in America?"
Bella didn't know much about Britain, so she kept that answer brief. But America? She felt confident discussing that. "The problems in America are definitely serious. Though calling it purely 'happy education's' fault might be oversimplifying things. Right now in the States, whoever shouts the loudest gets support. But the elite class still has its own agenda—it's probably another way of restricting opportunities for the lower classes."
She thought her answer was perfectly reasonable and didn't remotely connect it to the Templar Order versus Assassin Brotherhood ideologies.
As if making casual conversation, Gavin Banks brought up a hot topic currently making waves in Japan. "That Senator Morita believes social welfare should be cut back and the funds redirected toward industrial development and weapons research. The public is quite upset, claiming he's trampling their civil liberties. As a Stanford honors student, Miss Swan, what's your take?"
"I think..." From the bottom of her heart, Bella didn't oppose order. A well-functioning order was the foundation of a stable society where people could live in peace and prosperity. And the principle of concentrating resources for major objectives was often more effective than scattered individual freedoms.
Many Americans had simply lost their minds—reasoning with them was pointless.
A touch of authoritarianism could actually be beneficial. "The people may enjoy the results, but shouldn't be involved in the planning process."
But there was a limit. Cross that line, and it became a disaster.
In her view, order and freedom should coexist—neither ideology needed to completely dominate the other.
However, she was just an ordinary citizen right now. What did national politics or the happiness of the Japanese people have to do with her?
Of course she'd advocate for freedom! She could pursue order later, once she was in a leadership position herself.
"Senator Morita's thinking still reeks of militaristic nationalism. People like him will eventually be condemned by history. The freedom-loving people of Japan won't support him."
Bella's answer was diplomatic, reflecting the mainstream ideology across many Asian countries at the time.
Gavin Banks gained some clarity from this. Through his observations, he'd roughly gauged Bella's philosophical leanings. Between order and freedom, she leaned more toward freedom. She didn't appear to be a Templar operative, nor one of the ancient Isu Sages.
He decided to continue monitoring her and make further contact when the time was right.
Life at Tokyo University was comfortable. Japan certainly had no shortage of gangs, but they were relatively well-managed and couldn't cause trouble on campus. Still, there were plenty of destabilizing factors here.
What kind? Ghosts!
Japan really was crawling with them!
Perhaps the high frequency of earthquakes had weakened the barriers between worlds in this region, causing paranormal incidents to occur far more often here than in other countries.
The claim of "eight million gods" was a bit exaggerated, but genuinely inexplicable phenomena happened here all the time.
You'd constantly hear about someone encountering a ghost, or someone being tormented by a vengeful spirit and committing suicide.
Some were genuinely driven to suicide by despair, while others were actual paranormal events.
Japanese people also loved tempting fate—rivaling Americans in that department. Students played around with Ouija boards, voodoo, and spirit summoning rituals in droves. Groups of five or six girls would lock themselves in dorms to perform spirit dances, while seven or eight guys would venture into haunted houses singing funeral dirges to prove their courage. The variety of dangerous stunts was simply dizzying.
Bella had been there for two months and maintained an "out of sight, out of mind" policy. Even so, she'd casually eliminated over a dozen ghosts—many times she couldn't even avoid them because there were just too many wandering spirits everywhere!