"Ranta?! Don't tell me Young Master Naoya threatened you too?!"
For a split second, Oda felt an almost uncontrollable urge to go down in flames with Naoya Zen'in right then and there.
The Zen'in clan might be cold-blooded enough not to value family ties, but Ranta was still his actual nephew. If a sunny, kind-hearted kid like him ended up trusting Naoya Zen'in out of sheer innocence, then even if it cost Oda his life, he had to snap the boy out of it.
"Hehe, Uncle Oda, don't get so worked up."
Seeing Oda's panicked expression, Ranta merely pressed his lips together in a faint smile.
"I'm only considering a possibility you haven't."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Oda stared blankly for a moment, as if his brain had been twisted into a knot, utterly unable to keep up.
"You said Mr. Naoya plans to sponsor Miss Maki and Miss Mai, didn't you?"
Ranta spoke with calm precision.
"Unlike outsiders like us, Mr. Naoya grew up with Miss Maki and Miss Mai as their cousin. Their relationship is terrible, yes—mostly because Mr. Naoya is far too chauvinistic—but is it possible that, as an older brother figure, he simply doesn't know how to show kindness?"
"Huh?"
"And maybe the reason he chose to support them anonymously isn't to humiliate them at all... but to make up for something."
The black-haired boy smiled slightly.
"And besides, sponsoring students is a good thing, isn't it? Uncle Oda, surely you must have wished for something like that once too. If a powerful person had sponsored you while you were studying, your family's burden would've been lighter."
That left Oda dazed for a moment.
Yeah.
If, back when he was a student, some great noble like Young Master Naoya had been willing to support him, then maybe he never would have ended up in the Kukuru Unit.
After all, there were still sorcerers in the jujutsu world who had no innate technique.
Barrier techniques, shikigami, cursed tools...
Those were all things that could be learned later in life. If he'd had the money back then and been able to choose a different path, maybe he wouldn't be the middle-aged nobody he was now.
Over the years, though, he had grown too familiar with the capital game hiding behind the sponsorship system, and forgotten that some students really were saved by it—that some would not have to drop out purely because they were poor.
Even so, Oda still felt speechless.
His nephew really was too kind.
How could he possibly be this generous toward Naoya Zen'in?
Ranta had never seen with his own eyes how Young Master Naoya used to step on the heads of the Zen'in sisters. He had no idea what a thoroughly rotten scumbag that man really was!
This talk about conscience, about repaying old sins...
It was all an act!
All just part of the image Young Master Naoya used to fool people!!!
"Wake up, Ranta!"
Making sure no one else was nearby, Oda lowered his voice and tried one last time to reason with his innocent nephew.
"Young Master Naoya is absolutely not a good person. Even doing something like this is just hypocrisy to him. What he really wants is for Maki to taste complete humiliation someday!!!"
"Uncle Oda, what are you even talking about?"
Ranta tilted his head, looking more bewildered than ever.
"Doing a good deed is still better than doing a bad one, isn't it? Even if it's only pretend."
"Th-that..."
Oda was instantly struck speechless.
Ranta's words left the middle-aged man, who had just been lecturing so earnestly, unable to hide his embarrassment.
"Maybe Mr. Naoya really is only pretending to be a good person, and maybe Uncle Oda already sees through what he really is—"
For the first time, the usually gentle Ranta spoke in a stern tone, sitting there on his cushion and lecturing Oda instead.
"But if Mr. Naoya hadn't taken you in back then, would you still be living as well as you are today?"
"Mr. Naoya may have done a lot of bad things. He may have let down many people. But he's never let you down, Uncle Oda."
"You won't lift a hand to help Maki and Mai yourself, and yet you're in such a hurry to belittle the one good thing Mr. Naoya is doing. I think that's the real issue here."
Ranta had never spoken this harshly before.
At least, never this harshly to Oda, as his nephew.
"Sorry, Ranta. I..."
Oda scratched his head in shame.
Wasn't he doing exactly what people meant by eating from someone's bowl, then cursing them behind their back?
Young Master Naoya might be a villain through and through, but if not for his charity, Oda had no idea where he'd be now.
He might inwardly despise being associated with Naoya Zen'in, but wasn't talking behind his back just as disgusting in its own way?
If he kept doing things with that mindset, then sooner or later Young Master Naoya really would kill him for it.
Sigh.
He'd lived all these years, and yet he still didn't understand things as clearly as a young man did.
Oda couldn't help looking at his nephew a few more times.
Ranta had always been clever. Back then, Oda had thought of him as a quick-witted boy, but ever since becoming a sorcerer, the things he said had begun to feel more and more stark and direct.
Suddenly, Oda remembered something he had heard long ago—
A sorcerer does not argue over right and wrong. A sorcerer only seeks the truth.
Wasn't the way Ranta had spoken just now—acknowledging the facts without unnecessary excuses, then reasoning his way to the correct answer—exactly the way of thinking sorcerers longed for?
Good and evil were not what mattered.
What mattered was what was correct.
No wonder people always said sorcerers were mad.
That absolute, inhuman rationality was something Oda could never achieve no matter how hard he tried.
The middle-aged man stole a glance at his nephew, who had gone back to eating seriously, and let out a quiet sigh in his heart.
Ranta was a good kid.
But the Zen'in clan was not a good place.
Sooner or later, Ranta too would do the "correct" thing for the sake of the family. And in the merciless jujutsu world, the correct thing often meant nothing more than the strong devouring the weak.
Oda's fears were not unfounded.
Because he had once seen with his own eyes how powerful that man had been.
That being known as Toji Zen'in.
The one who possessed the same condition as Maki Zen'in.
The tyrant cursed by Heavenly Restriction.
And if Maki were truly destined to become like that tyrant one day—
then in the end, who in the Zen'in clan would be able to escape disaster?
Ranta... if only you were right.
If Young Master Naoya really had discovered his conscience and turned into a good man...
Then maybe, just maybe, the world that awaited them would be one where no one had to be hurt at all.
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