"I know!"
Seeing the grief on Kisara's face, Rentaro felt terrible as well. His voice carried a slight tremor, filled with helplessness as he tried to persuade her.
"I know how much you've suffered for this day. I know how much you've endured and how long you've waited."
He had known about Kisara's pain since they were children, and he had always sympathized with what she'd gone through. Yet he had always believed that killing was wrong. No matter how heinous someone's crimes were or how much of an enemy they might be, they should be punished by the law rather than killed through private vengeance.
"But that's exactly why you can't do this. Your parents wouldn't want to see you become like this either."
He tried to invoke Kisara's parents in the hope of convincing her to abandon her revenge. He believed that her parents would never want their daughter to become a bloodstained murderer in pursuit of vengeance.
"And besides, they're still your grandfather and your brother, no matter what. We should leave them to the law..."
Rentaro continued desperately, trying to make Kisara reconsider. Before he could finish, however, Betty impatiently cut him off.
"Then by your logic, does that mean he's a criminal too?"
Betty pointed at Gojo beside her, her voice dripping with mockery and her eyes filled with contempt. Rentaro's rigid argument had clearly gotten on her nerves.
"Gojo killed those police officers earlier, the captain of Seitenshi's guard, and all those soldiers. So what about him?"
Her voice wasn't loud, but it carried clearly across the entire scene. She stared straight at Rentaro, waiting for his answer, the sarcasm in her tone becoming increasingly obvious.
She wanted to see how this man who clung so stubbornly to his so-called "justice" would answer that question.
Rentaro fell silent under Betty's challenge. He opened his mouth as though he wanted to say something, but found himself unable to come up with an answer.
After a long silence, he finally raised his head. His expression was firm, and his voice carried the stubborn conviction he had always held.
"Those people did commit crimes, but I still don't believe what Gojo did was right."
As far as Rentaro was concerned, no matter how serious someone's crimes were, they should be punished through the proper legal system rather than killed privately. That was the principle he had always upheld, and even someone as overwhelmingly powerful as Gojo couldn't change his mind.
"Without the law to restrain people, society would descend into chaos. If everyone were allowed to carry out their own form of punishment, the entire world would fall into disorder."
Rentaro continued explaining his reasoning at length, trying to convince everyone present. Betty, however, was practically laughing from sheer exasperation.
She had lived for hundreds of years and encountered all kinds of strange people. She'd met the rigid, the foolish, the selfish, and the kind, but she'd never encountered anyone quite like Rentaro Satomi.
Even Reinhard van Astrea, a man widely regarded as the very embodiment of virtue, wouldn't spout such foolish and rigid nonsense.
Reinhard was kind and upright, and he firmly upheld justice, but he also understood that sometimes protecting justice required the use of force. When faced with an enemy, he wouldn't hesitate to fight. When action was necessary, he acted.
Rentaro was completely different.
The people who had murdered his childhood friend's parents were standing right in front of him. Instead of helping Kisara, he'd actually stepped in to stop her, declaring with righteous conviction that revenge was wrong and that the law should deal with them.
It was utter nonsense. He was rigid to the point of absurdity.
Betty took a deep breath and suppressed her anger before turning toward Seitenshi. There was a hint of inquiry in her voice, but her confidence was unmistakable.
"Seitenshi, you tell him."
"You're the supreme ruler of the Tokyo Area. Tell me, did the people Gojo killed commit crimes?"
Betty was confident that Seitenshi would give a fair answer. After all, those people had all been Kikunojou Tendo's subordinates. They had harmed Seitenshi and helped control her for years, and their crimes were numerous enough to fill a book.
"No."
Seitenshi answered almost immediately.
Her voice was soft, but her answer was firm and absolute. There wasn't even a trace of hesitation on her face.
Seitenshi was gentle and kind, but after everything she'd experienced, she had come to understand something deeply. For a ruler, kindness could be the most useless quality of all, especially when dealing with ambitious and ruthless enemies.
That was particularly true of people like Kikunojou Tendo, who had stripped her of her authority and controlled every aspect of her life. Showing them mercy would only encourage them to push her further, leaving her to suffer even more.
Unless people like them were removed, she would remain the powerless Seitenshi whose authority existed only in name. She would never truly be able to make her own decisions, forever trapped as a puppet dangling from someone else's strings.
So when Betty asked her, Seitenshi answered without hesitation or guilt. She knew that the people Gojo had killed had gotten what they deserved.
"Seitenshi herself says they didn't commit crimes, so what are you still arguing about?"
Betty looked at Rentaro with open contempt.
"That law you keep talking about is worthless against people who deserve to die. Do you really think the law could have punished them?"
"If the law were actually useful, Kisara's parents wouldn't have died for nothing. Seitenshi wouldn't have been stripped of her authority for all these years, and these people wouldn't have been allowed to remain free for so long!"
Betty's words struck Rentaro like a series of blades, leaving him speechless.
He stared at Seitenshi in disbelief. He hadn't expected someone as gentle and kind as her to say something like that, much less to approve of what Gojo had done.
Rentaro remained silent. The conviction on his face gradually began to waver, and for the first time, he started wondering whether the principles he'd always held onto were truly right.
After a long while, he lowered his head. Then he looked back at Kisara, his eyes filled with conflict and helplessness.
"Kisara."
"I..."
Rentaro still wanted to say something, hoping to make one final attempt to persuade her. Before he could finish, however, a brilliant flash of blood suddenly appeared before his eyes.
The crimson spray was vivid and blinding, lighting up the entire scene and forcing everyone nearby to narrow their eyes.
Kisara's figure blurred.
Her speed was astonishing. The long sword in her hand tore through the air with a sharp whistle as she swung it without hesitation toward Kikunojou Tendo's neck.
The strike was so fast that no one had time to react. Even Kikunojou himself could hardly comprehend what was happening. He hadn't expected Kisara to be so decisive, so utterly without hesitation.
Even the expression on his face still held traces of confusion and shock. He clearly hadn't imagined that everything would happen so suddenly, nor that he would meet his end at the hands of his own granddaughter.
"Shk!"
The blade sliced cleanly through his neck.
Hot blood erupted in an instant, pouring toward the ground like a crimson waterfall.
Kikunojou's head separated from his body and flew high into the air, tracing an arc before crashing heavily onto the ground.
The dull impact shattered the silence.
His head rolled twice across the pavement, leaving a bright red trail of blood behind before finally coming to a stop. His cloudy eyes remained open, filled with disbelief and resentment, as though he still couldn't accept his fate even in death.
Kikunojou Tendo.
The man who had once controlled virtually all of Tokyo's political power, the man who had treated Seitenshi like a puppet and manipulated the Tendo Family as though it were his personal possession, had ultimately died beneath his granddaughter's blade.
For the crime he had personally orchestrated years ago, arranging the deaths of his own son and daughter-in-law, he had paid the most terrible price of all. His own life had become payment for the blood he had spilled.
Kazumitsu Tendo witnessed the scene and was utterly terrified. His entire body began trembling violently, his face turning deathly pale and his lips going purple with fear. He curled up on the ground, too frightened to move.
He wasn't afraid for Kikunojou, nor was he grieving over his death.
He was afraid that he would be next.
The fear of death wrapped around him like an enormous net, tightening until he could barely breathe.
"No! You can't kill me!"
Kazumitsu finally broke down and let out a desperate scream. He scrambled backward on his hands and feet, his eyes filled with fear and pleading.
"I'm your brother! We're siblings!"
He tried to appeal to their bond as brother and sister, hoping to move Kisara enough that she would spare him and give him a chance to live.
"Before Father died, he entrusted me with taking care of you. I'll treat you well from now on. I'll make it up to you, I swear. Please, please don't kill me..."
He sobbed as he repeatedly slammed his forehead against the ground. Blood began pouring from the wound, but he seemed completely oblivious to the pain.
At that moment, all he cared about was staying alive. He was willing to surrender every last shred of dignity and beg like a dog if that was what it took to survive.
"Don't you dare mention Father!"
Kisara abruptly swung her sword, wiping the blood from its blade. The hot blood splattered onto the ground, leaving a long crimson mark that seemed to embody the hatred burning within her.
Her gaze was ice-cold, devoid of warmth as she looked at Kazumitsu. To her, he was no longer a brother. He was a stranger, an unforgivable enemy, and she had no sympathy left for him.
"I'll send you to your death right now. Go apologize to Father and Mother in the afterlife!"
Kisara's voice was hoarse and cold, filled with unmistakable killing intent. She tightened her grip on the sword and began walking toward Kazumitsu again, every step firm and unwavering.
Seeing that Kisara had made up her mind to kill him and would not be swayed, while Seitenshi clearly had no intention of interfering and Gojo and Betty showed no sign of stepping in either, Kazumitsu realized that begging for his life was hopeless.
Despair finally awakened his instinct to survive.
Grinding his teeth, he pushed himself up with his hands and feet. Dust and blood covered his body, leaving him looking utterly wretched, but his eyes had become vicious as he glared at everyone around him.
"So you want to kill me?"
His voice carried a hint of madness and the desperation of someone with nothing left to lose. Since begging hadn't worked, he had no choice but to gamble everything on one last attempt.
"Fine! Then come and do it!"
Kazumitsu suddenly drew the short sword at his waist. Its blade gleamed coldly as he assumed a stance from the Tendo Style, his eyes fixed viciously on Kisara.
"You're supposed to be a genius of the Tendo Style, aren't you? Then let's settle this with the Tendo Style. Let's see which one of us actually deserves to be called a genius!"
Kazumitsu was making his final struggle, already calculating his chances.
This was Kisara's revenge, and Gojo and the others had already said they wouldn't interfere. They weren't the sort to casually break their word, which meant this duel would be a matter between him and Kisara alone.
If Kisara accepted, he only needed to find an opportunity to defeat her or take her hostage during the fight. Then he might still have a chance to survive.
He knew his strength was inferior to Kisara's, and he knew the odds were overwhelmingly against him, but he had no other choice. This was his only chance to stay alive.
"Fine!"
Kisara accepted without the slightest hesitation.
There was no fear in her voice. If anything, there was a hint of contempt and ridicule.
How could she not know what Kazumitsu was thinking? She understood perfectly well that this was his final desperate struggle, an attempt to prolong his life through a duel and search for an opening to escape.
But she still agreed.
Rather than killing this bastard without ceremony, she wanted to execute the man who had murdered her parents using the very technique her family had taught her.
She wanted Kazumitsu to understand what a true genius of the Tendo Style looked like. She wanted to defeat him completely in the field where he believed himself strongest, leaving him utterly convinced of his own defeat before he died.
And she wanted him to pay the most painful price imaginable for what he had done all those years ago.
A duel unfolded before the eyes of everyone present.
However...
The outcome of this battle had already been decided from the very beginning.
At least, that was how it looked to Gojo.
Leaning against the wall with both hands in his pockets, Gojo wore the same faint smile as before. There wasn't a trace of concern in his eyes beneath the blindfold, as though he'd already foreseen the result.
For all these years, Kisara had devoted herself to one thing above all else: revenge.
Every day, she had painstakingly trained in the swordsmanship of the Tendo Style. Day after day, year after year, she had never once stopped.