812 The Tendo Familys Dragon Vein (1/2)

Ten years was quite a lengthy amount of time.

But for some patient schemers, ten years might not seem that long.

Now then, how likely did it seem that the Tendo Family had begun a scheme related to the Realm of Cherry Blossoms ten years ago?

It seemed unlikely. It would be almost impossible to predict the general situation ten years down the road. However, it would be more probably that the Tendo Family had left a trap that could be activated later down the road at an appropriate time.

People commonly had misunderstandings about what schemes were. Many would believe that schemes would be well-concealed and intricate from the very start. Or, at least, that the scheme would be relatively well planned, and that it would secretly proceed until it finally succeeded.

This wasn't always the case. In some cases, even the schemer wouldn't know what results their scheme would bring about. The schemer would simply put down a chess piece at an appropriate time at an appropriate place. Then, depending on the situation, the schemer might later activate this chess piece, place another chess piece, or change this chess piece's location. The schemer would then slowly progress until they would personally benefit.

If the Tendo Family really had a scheme, it was likely to be the latter type.

Of course, the Tendo Family might also be completely innocent. The black-clad man was simply saying that the Tendo Family betrayal incident from ten years ago was the most probable time when something went wrong with the Yasakani no Magatama artifact. This was all just hypothetical so far.

But no matter what, Yui and the black-clad man now had a direction to investigate in.

”Call him here,” the black-clad man said to Yui.

Yui knew whom the black-clad man was referring to. There was only one person in Soul Society who had the best understanding of the Tendo Family while being relatively trustworthy.

Yui took out her cell phone and called a certain number.

Not long after, that person she'd contacted arrived.

He walked into this room without even knocking. He was wearing a gray combat outfit with an angry minotaur mask on his head. This made him seem rather strange and comical.

If Seiji had been here, he would have recognized this person as the minotaur mask boy who had been together with the national idol Miyuki Sakuraku! Mika had also been with Seiji at that time.

”What do the two of you want to ask me?” the minotaur mask boy asked in a low voice.

”It's about the incident from ten years ago, when a member of the Tendo Family tried to steal the Yasakani no Magatama…” Yui explained.

After she finished explaining, the minotaur mask boy fell silent for a moment.

”Back when he allegedly tried to steal the Yasakani no Magatama, his attempt was discovered before he even obtained the jewel artifact. Shinzen was executed almost immediately afterwards. As for the outsiders that he supposedly allied with, those people self-destructed when they were hunted down by the Tendo Family's assassination squad. No traces were left behind. There's no evidence as to who they could be. That's all I know.”

”Do you think that there's anything suspicious about this incident?” Yui asked.

”It was too poorly done,” the minotaur mask boy stated directly. ”The culprits, no matter if it was Shinzen Tendo or those people that self-destructed or whoever else was behind it, they all did everything far too sloppily.”

”Or in other words, the Tendo Family did everything unbelievably perfectly,” the black-clad man said. ”Even though this was clearly a serious betrayal where a member of the family schemed together with outsiders, the Tendo Family suffered zero losses. In the end, it all seemed as if that Shinzen Tendo was just a complete idiot who had a foolish scheme.”

”That's right. This is the same as what I've heard. Shinzen Tendo's scheme was truly foolish,” the minotaur mask boy agreed.

”Was he truly such a foolish individual?”

”There's no specific information about him, because he was relatively unknown and didn't really have any friends. There's too little information to go on.” The minotaur boy then paused as his tone turned rather grim. ”However, an entire village was destroyed three months after that incident.”

The black-clad man's expression didn't change. However, Yui furrowed her eyebrows.

”The destruction of that village is considered to be absolute top secret in the Tendo Family. I did my very best to investigate it, but all I found out in the end was that it was somehow connected to the Tendo Family's Dragon Vein,” the minotaur mask boy stated lightly. However, deeper emotions seemed to run underneath his light tone.

The Dragon Vein.

That was the name that the Tendo Family gave to the Spirit Vein they passed down through the generations. A so-called Spirit Vein was believed to be an important factor for a family to keep producing spiritual ability users. Some Spirit Veins were physical, some were intangible, and some were a mix of both.

Simply speaking, the Tendo Family Dragon Vein was one of the major foundational reasons why the Tendo Family was able to become one of the seven major families.