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When she first heard it, Mitsuba thought she was experiencing auditory hallucinations.
It was only after speaking with the caravan leader that Mitsuba confirmed—this caravan was actually searching for the Blue Spider Lily?!
Incredible...
Logically speaking, shouldn't the existence of the Blue Spider Lily be known only to demons now?
Although nearly a hundred years ago, Lord Muzan had revealed the existence of the Blue Spider Lily to humans more than once, attempting to rely on human power to find this flower for him.
But after his encounter with Brother Yoriichi, where he was nearly killed, Lord Muzan—who had completely gone into hiding—had entirely ceased this behavior.
Now, times had changed. Theoretically speaking, there should no longer be anyone in human society who knew of the Blue Spider Lily's existence, let alone inquiring about information to find it everywhere.
Could it be that Lord Muzan had recently gotten the idea of seeking human help again?
Feeling puzzled about this, Mitsuba immediately used consciousness dialogue to confirm this situation with Muzan.
And the answer she received was: absolutely not.
Although Brother Yoriichi had passed away more than forty years ago, perhaps because that brush with death had been too deeply etched into his memory.
In recent decades, Lord Muzan had been living quite low-key.
Not only did he absolutely avoid killing when unnecessary, but even his appearance had transformed from the former "male noble Muzan" to the current "female geisha Muzan."
Regarding the search for the Blue Spider Lily, he was even more hands-on—whenever he had time, he would go searching through mountain valleys alone, absolutely not relying on any humans!
Incidentally, Lord Muzan's new geisha appearance was truly quite good.
Beautiful features, graceful figure, every gesture exuding charm.
How to put it...
Although she felt somewhat struck by this, Mitsuba had to admit that Lord Muzan in his geisha form seemed even more feminine than she, who was born female?
Speaking of which, was Lord Muzan's original gender really male?
Hmm, digressing.
In any case, after confirming that Muzan had not revealed any information about the Blue Spider Lily to humans in recent decades.
This caravan that suddenly arrived in town and openly inquired about related information everywhere appeared extremely suspicious.
Through her Blood Demon Art, Mitsuba traced the first layer of causality from them.
That was earlier, when this caravan was still staying in the neighboring town—their leader had a causal intersection with a wealthy merchant.
It was this mysterious wealthy merchant who offered a high price, commissioning this caravan to gather information about the Blue Spider Lily everywhere.
Following this clue, Mitsuba went to the neighboring town that very night, attempting to find this merchant's whereabouts.
But contrary to her expectations, this mysterious merchant seemed not to be a local of that town?
Mitsuba spent an entire night examining the causality of all the wealthy and powerful figures in the neighboring town.
Yet she completely couldn't find any causal thread intersecting with this merchant.
This could only indicate one possibility—this mysterious merchant was absolutely an outsider, and hadn't produced any communication with the wealthy people of this town.
Otherwise, as fellow members of the wealthy class, he absolutely wouldn't have had no contact with the other rich people in town.
Now the problem had become somewhat troublesome.
After all, Mitsuba wasn't truly omniscient about past and future; her Blood Demon Art wasn't truly all-powerful.
To use her Blood Demon Art to find a person, she must first find others who had intersecting causal threads with this person.
Then through the causality upon these people, trace and locate layer by layer.
And this intersection of causal threads required actual contact behavior to occur between two people.
For example, engaging in close and in-depth conversation together, doing something together, or making some important agreement between each other...
Something as ordinary as merely seeing each other on the street, or simply exchanging casual greetings—causal threads wouldn't record such trivial matters.
In other words, for Mitsuba to find this merchant, she must first find among the vast sea of people someone who had intersected with this merchant.
This workload was obviously somewhat large.
Mitsuba felt she might as well directly go to the place recorded on the causal thread where this mysterious merchant first met the caravan leader, and try her luck there...
"Oh my~ isn't this Lord Yori-tsu~ Why have you come tonight as well~ Welcome, welcome~"
Night fell. In the neighboring town, Mitsuba—who had transformed into Yori-tsu's appearance—held a folding fan, dressed in splendid clothing, and walked quite dashingly into the pleasure house before her under the enthusiastic welcome of the madam at the door.
Yes, a pleasure house in the entertainment district.
This was the place where that merchant first met the caravan leader.
One could only say, it indeed fit certain stereotypes about wealthy people...
Of course, setting other matters aside, pleasure houses—being densely populated places full of noisy revelry—were indeed quite suitable for secretly meeting and exchanging some unspeakable matters...
"How many ladies would Lord Yori-tsu like tonight?"
Led by the madam into the pleasure house, Mitsuba skillfully embraced the geisha who had proactively approached her.
At the same time, she tossed the money pouch she had casually lifted from some noble when entering directly into the geisha's arms.
"Keep the change. Same as yesterday, three or four will do."
Bearing her elder brother's appearance, she raised her hand and gently flicked the nose of the beautiful geisha in her arms, saying with a smile to the madam beside her:
"Of course, old rules—they must be different ladies from before."
"Yes, yes, yes~ I'll arrange it for Lord Yori-tsu right away~
Akarin! What are you still standing there for? Hurry and lead Lord Yori-tsu to the room upstairs!"
"Y-yes... I understand. Lord Yori-tsu, please follow me..."
Why did Mitsuba come to a pleasure house to find geishas, and different ones every night?
The answer was simple—because guests who came to pleasure houses would look for geishas.
Mitsuba had never heard of any man coming to a pleasure house not to find geishas, but specifically to find men.
Even those guests who came here with other purposes, before beginning to discuss serious matters, would somehow find several geishas to accompany them first, to avoid attracting attention.
And what Mitsuba wanted to find was a certain geisha within this pleasure house who had served that mysterious merchant and the caravan leader on that night.
As long as she could find this person, she might be able to further excavate information about this mysterious merchant through the causal threads upon this geisha.
At the very least, she could also ask from the geisha's mouth about this merchant's appearance, build, and other such information...