"Brother?"
Kamisato Ayaka was a very perceptive person, so she immediately caught the strange change in her brother's expression.
"Let Granny Furuta take a look at your progress in Ikebana as well," Ayato said, waving a hand to indicate he was fine before picking up a stack of unfinished political documents to continue his work.
His words made Ayaka pause. Granny Furuta was the housekeeper of the Kamisato estate, having served three generations of Commissioners; she was arguably the most senior person in the entire Yashiro Commission. However, she had no known interest or expertise in flower arrangement, so why...?
"I understand."
Perhaps it was their sibling intuition, but Ayaka understood her brother's meaning instantly. She picked up her floral arrangement, left the study, and returned a few moments later. During that interval, Ayato had thoroughly inspected the study to ensure no other flowers of that kind remained.
"Brother, what is going on?"
"Look at this." Ayato didn't explain immediately; instead, he pulled out the photo.
"This is..." Ayaka opened her folding fan slightly to cover her mouth—a common habit of noble ladies to hide their surprise.
Lately, she had been secretly tending to these wildflowers. Despite her high-flown excuses to her brother, the truth was simpler: on her way back from errands, she had seen ordinary girls in the suburbs tending to flowers and wanted to try doing something "unsuited for the Lady Ayaka"—to live, if only for a moment, like a normal girl.
"Actually... Lady Guuji gave this to me," Ayato said. Seeing his sister's reaction, he knew the flowers she was growing were indeed those forbidden blossoms. He proceeded to explain the entire situation to her.
But as he spoke, he noticed his sister's expression becoming increasingly disturbed. That look of extreme awkwardness... could it be...?
"Um... Brother, you said... they are the Instructor's ears and eyes?"
"I'm not certain yet if he can see through them, but I am certain he can hear through them—and use them to teleport instantly to any location in Inazuma."
Having experienced it firsthand, Ayato was sure of his conclusion. No sooner had he finished the sentence than Ayaka's entire face turned bright red, and it looked as if white steam were literally rising from the top of her head.
"You didn't do anything... er... compromising in front of those flowers, did you?" Ayato asked, becoming increasingly uneasy as he watched his sister's reaction.
As soon as the words left his mouth, Ayaka snapped her folding fan shut and hid her face behind it completely. If the person in front of her weren't her brother, she might have lost all composure and sprinted out of the room.
As the eldest daughter of the Kamisato clan and the "Shirasagi Himegimi" of the Yashiro Commission, Ayaka had been raised since childhood to be the pinnacle of etiquette and poise. Her life was governed by strict rules. What she envied most were ordinary girls who could laugh loudly and play without restraint.
At night, in the privacy of her room, was the only time she could shed her dignified public persona and let her true, free-spirited self emerge. Since she started growing those wildflowers, her favorite activity had been pouring her heart out to them.
In just a few short days, she had basically confessed every one of her secrets to those flowers. Now, she could only pray that the Instructor couldn't see through them. Otherwise...
I'll never be able to get married!!
Ayato: "..."
"Actually, regarding this teleportation ability, Sayu mentioned it as well," Ayato said, quickly changing the subject to ease his sister's mortification. He began to recount the intelligence Sayu had brought back.
The child had been with the Instructor for a long time, yet had provided very little useful information. However, there were some gems. For example:
"No matter how I run or how far I go, he can just go 'Swoosh! Thud! Eek!' and drop from the sky to pin my head to the ground!"
"Lord Commissioner, that guy is a total creep! He clearly has the ability to catch me instantly, yet he lets me run a long way, only to drop from the sky right when I'm about to touch the boat and drag me back. Even if he didn't torture me physically, he tortured my soul! I need leave! I need a nap!"
That was what Sayu had told Ayato during their heart-to-heart talk. At first, he thought the child was just making excuses to avoid being scolded.
Now he realized that even though Sayu was a master of escape and concealment, she was outmatched by the Instructor's Authority.
Specifically, the second part of her complaint. Perhaps the Instructor did have a wicked sense of humor, but the reason he didn't strike immediately was likely because there were no flowers near Sayu. He only acted once she reached an area where they grew.
Sayu had mentioned one other thing. Once, she asked the Instructor why he always caught her, and he only gave her one sentence: "Because you always run toward that boat."
A simple sentence, yet it exposed the Instructor's greatest weakness. He seemed to be mocking Sayu for being predictable, but didn't that also mean there were flowers growing near the Shuumatsuban's ships? It had to be.
"Brother... do I need to dispose of that potted flower now?" Ayaka's hand, still holding her fan, was trembling slightly. She wanted nothing more than to throw the plant away. It was no longer a hobby; it was a nightmare.
"Wait. Doing so might alert him." From the Instructor's reaction today, he clearly didn't realize that the Lady Guuji and Ayato had already decoded his secrets. Destroying the flowers now would only put him on guard.
But looking at his sister's pained expression, Ayato knew he couldn't leave her in this state of distress. After a moment of thought, he beckoned his sister closer and whispered a plan into her ear.
"Is that... really okay?" Ayaka gripped her fan tightly, her face full of uncertainty.
"Don't worry. This is the perfect solution," Ayato said, rubbing his temples. He couldn't think of any other way to fix this.
Ten minutes later, an officer of the Yashiro Commission mounted the Commissioner's swiftest horse and galloped away from the Kamisato Estate. The various factions secretly monitoring the estate immediately scrambled to investigate the purpose of this urgent mission.
Ultimately, they discovered that the "urgent delivery" sent from the estate was nothing more than a simple floral arrangement. The recipient was Thoma, who had been "busy with business" in Ritou.
Supposedly, it was a gift from the Young Lady of the Kamisato clan to thank Thoma for his care. The investigators could only sigh at the luxury of the great noble houses and thought nothing more of it.
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