"How I wish I could just be an ordinary person, so that I could read light novels and military treatises in my spare time..."
"Then I wouldn't have so many worries."
"And I could make a few more good friends."
When Raiden Makoto stepped into the Sangonomiya Shrine, a crisp and pleasant voice reached her ears.
It was the voice of Sangonomiya Kokomi.
Sangonomiya Kokomi was sitting in the center, lazily stretching her back and showing off her graceful figure.
"It's not impossible to be an ordinary child. Kokomi, why don't you become my daughter?"
Raiden Makoto's words reached Sangonomiya Kokomi's ears. She immediately turned around and looked at Raiden Makoto, Gorou, and the others with a look of joy.
"Makoto, Gorou?! It's you!" She hadn't left the Sangonomiya Shrine for several days and had no idea what the outside world was like now.
"But just now, Makoto... you said you wanted me to be your daughter? Stop joking... you're not much older than me..." Sangonomiya Kokomi rolled her eyes; Makoto looked to be about the same age as her.
"It's you... Kujou Sara!" Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Kujou Sara standing beside Raiden Makoto. She had heard others describe Kujou Sara's appearance before and recognized her at once.
Inside Kujou Sara's mind, she was thinking that the Grand Narukami actually wanted to adopt Sangonomiya Kokomi as her daughter. That was the leader of the resistance, the leader of Watatsumi Island!
"I'm serious." For some reason, looking at the exhausted Lady before her, a surge of maternal instinct rose within her. Ever since she established the Inazuma Shogunate, the people of Inazuma had essentially been like her children.
But she truly felt sorry for Sangonomiya Kokomi.
A Lady who should have been enjoying life with her parents was now the public leader of Watatsumi Island, occupied from morning to night with nothing but government affairs and diplomacy.
Her words just now had come completely from the heart.
"Serious?" Sangonomiya Kokomi took Raiden Makoto's words as a joke. Raiden Makoto looked even more youthful than she did; how could she be her adopted daughter?
"Lady Sangonomiya... Makoto... she is actually the Divine Lord Ryūjin... the former Electro Archon of Inazuma and the elder sister of the current Electro Archon..." Gorou had worked with Sangonomiya Kokomi for a long time. If Raiden Makoto were to adopt her, and she could be spared from her grueling labors, he thought it wouldn't be a bad thing.
"No way?" Sangonomiya Kokomi looked at Gorou in disbelief, then turned back to Raiden Makoto. "Isn't there only one Electro Archon in Inazuma?"
"Otherwise, why do you think the Shogunate General Kujou Sara would be with us?"
"Sangonomiya Kokomi, the one you see before you is indeed the Divine Lord Ryūjin!"
Sangonomiya Kokomi was merely in disbelief; it wasn't that she was unwilling to believe or didn't believe. She knew Gorou wouldn't lie to her. On Watatsumi Island today, the only person she could trust was Gorou.
"What? Orobashi can be considered a half-ancestor of your Sangonomiya lineage, and in the past, even Orobashi had to call me 'big sister.' So, I can't be your mother?" Raiden Makoto joked. She was indeed just teasing to lighten the mood, as having an extra daughter seemed like it might be a bit awkward.
"I'm willing... if it's true, of course I'm willing." Sangonomiya Kokomi was indeed somewhat youthful. She wasn't quite the peerless strategist the rumors claimed, but she was clever.
After Raiden Makoto told her the truth about the Vision Hunt Decree, she didn't hate the Raiden Shogun that much anymore.
All along, what she had been resisting was the Vision Hunt Decree, not the Raiden Shogun herself or her rule.
Since Orobashi's passing, Watatsumi Island had belonged entirely to the Shogunate. However, since the time of her ancestors, no one from the Shogunate had ever come, so the Sangonomiya Shrine began governing Watatsumi Island from then on.
But now, she saw the true colors of the various factions on Watatsumi Island. They only cared about their own interests and didn't care about the ordinary people on the island.
She had read many light novels and had skimmed through the history of Inazuma. She knew that a great disaster had occurred in Inazuma five hundred years ago, and after that disaster, the Raiden Shogun of Inazuma seemed to have become a different person.
Now, she finally knew the reason why.
"Were you just joking?" Sangonomiya Kokomi put on a hurt expression, a little girl's smile playing at the corners of her mouth.
"..."
"..."
Kaedehara Kazuha, Gorou, and Kujou Sara didn't know what to say. Should they be envious that Sangonomiya Kokomi was about to recognize Raiden Makoto as her mother? Gaining an Electro Archon for a mother?
Raiden Makoto, on the other hand, was caught off guard. It seemed she had lifted Shitou and smashed her own feet.
Still, raising a Little Goldfish seemed like it might be quite nice.
Seeing Sangonomiya Kokomi's somewhat innocent expression, she could only say with a smile, "Of course I'm not joking. If you don't mind, then neither do I."
"Mhm."
If Raiden Makoto were to rule Inazuma in the future, she believed Makoto would do a good job, and she could entrust Watatsumi Island to her.
She had caught glimpses of Inazuma's former glory in light novels.
"Alright, I was joking too. How could I really take you as my mother? Although..."
She did long for family. Her parents had passed away when she was young, and ever since she succeeded to the position of Divine Priestess of Watatsumi Island, her leisure time had been greatly reduced.
But as for handing Watatsumi Island over to Raiden Makoto, she was serious; she had been deep in thought about it just now.
She lacked the power to purge the various factions on Watatsumi Island, but the Inazuma Shogunate was different, and Raiden Makoto was different. They could solve those problems once and for all.
Raiden Makoto noticed a flash of sadness in Sangonomiya Kokomi's eyes. She felt that giving this Lady a home might actually be quite nice. Furthermore, from now on, Watatsumi Island would be completely under the rule of the Inazuma Shogunate. What would become of Sangonomiya Kokomi then?
She no longer had any family left at the Sangonomiya Shrine.
"I am serious, I'm not joking," Raiden Makoto said with great earnestness, her eyes filled with sincerity.
"I..."
Looking at Raiden Makoto, Sangonomiya Kokomi fell silent. If Raiden Makoto didn't mind, what did she have to be concerned about?
Besides, it wasn't that she minded.
Raiden Makoto was the former Electro Archon, a true elder; how could she possibly mind?
It was just that with Gorou, Kujou Sara, and Kaedehara Kazuha standing right there, she really couldn't bring herself to say the word "Mother."
It was truly too embarrassing.
But looking at Raiden Makoto's gentle smile, so like the mother in her memories, and those sincere eyes...
"Ugh... Mother..." At this moment, Sangonomiya Kokomi wanted to find a hole to crawl into.
A rosy blush instantly crept across her face.
"Yes."
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