Cold Steel - Inazuma Gaiden

III: Frozen Hearths, Frozen Hearts

PREFACE:

This chapter contains SPOILERS for: Raiden Shogun's Character Quest - ACT I and one of Sayu's Hangout Event endings.

I already said in the first chapter that the overall story contains spoilers for Inazuma's questlines, but just an additional heads up.

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To be quite honest, she felt bad for ignoring Thoma's suggestions. He'd told her not to stay up for too late, but the woman was so consumed with her thoughts within her private chamber that she didn't realize all kind of sounds within the estate had ceased completely by the time she was done with whatever she's contemplating.

It was even more surprising to her that she rebelled against the housekeeper to begin with. Usually Kamisato Ayaka would immediately understand the meaning behind his words and know the reasoning for him to even say it - even now - she perfectly understood that the outlander cared for her well-being and implicitly told her that she's slowly killing herself by overthinking things.

And he's obviously right. She wasn't sure the last time she strayed so far from her usual schedules.

Being the one person to oversee the clan's affairs in place of her brother, she would follow her own, strict timetable to ensure the clan would operate in optimal conditions despite the increasingly longer absence of her brother. It was to the point that her body would either automatically wake up or shut down during certain hours of the day.

Thanks to the recent events though, they've given her much reason to think about. With the Tenryou Commission still being absent, Inazuma was without a proper military force to guard it from threats let it be on the inside or outside. After their collusions with Fatui were made public, the Shogunate was quick to deliver their punishment to the Kujou Clan, stripping them of their right to bear the honor of leading the Tenryou Commission. There were some rumors that the Takatsukasa Clan would inherit the former post of the Kujou, but not long after, the Shogunate was quick to deny them the responsibility.

The Shuumatsuban, Yashiro's personal and highly-secretive intelligence-gathering division was quick to investigate the rumors, and as it turns out, it seemed the Takatsukasa Clan was indeed trying to take the position as Tenryou's leader, however - their motives and the methods they used were not exactly honorable. It was merely a nepotism ploy for them to return to power, and before long - it's probably just a matter of time before they too, try to wrestle away control from the Raiden Shogun and make the entire nation bow to them instead.

And so, to this day, the Tenryou's seat sat empty - despite people and noble houses from all corners of Inazuma practically racing and fighting over one another to claim it. For all the seemingly equal amount of importance that's shared between the Tri-Commission, the Tenryou Commission's responsibilities would easily dwarf even the biggest of tasks of the Yashiro and Kanjou combined. However, they would also be backed up by an immense amount of power - as whoever controls Tenryou - will also control the nation's entire military might, and naturally will receive the most financial backing from the Shogunate. That kind of power was previously only accessible by the Raiden Shogun themselves during ages long past when Inazuma was wrought in constant war and conflict.

However, even months after the Kujou Clan was eventually punished by the Shogun and forced to step down from their position, investigating the motives behind almost every single candidate would reveal some kind of ploy and desire to control the nation and its government - a motive not dissimilar to the Takatsukasa Clan's plot for mere personal gain. Even as a decision was ultimately made to have the current military ranks be scaled back in size and reorganized directly by the government, the search for new candidates still continued.