In the silent room, only Chiba Tsuru's uncontrollable sobs echoed, filled with endless regret.
How could she have been so foolish? Seeking a moment's pleasure, only to drag both herself and her son into an abyss of eternal ruin.
Arashi turned to leave.
He had given her a chance, but she failed to seize it.
This tool was already useless.
"Arashi! Don't go!"
This sudden movement snapped Tsuru out of her despair.
She lunged forward like someone drowning, clutching tightly onto Arashi's sleeve.
Her face was streaked with tears, completely stripped of the dignity a Princess of the Land of Fire should have had.
"I was wrong! Aunt knows she was wrong!" she pleaded bitterly. "Help me one more time! Just one last time!"
"Save Makoto! Please save him! He's still so young. He doesn't know anything!"
Arashi stopped.
He looked down at his aunt, who was clinging to him and begging, remaining silent for a long time.
A barely audible sigh escaped his lips.
"I've stationed guards around you," Arashi said. "The Daimyo of the Land of Lightning isn't foolish enough to truly harm you and your son."
"Confining the two of you is merely a display of his stance against the Land of Fire. That's the extent of what he can do."
Hearing that their lives weren't in danger, Tsuru's sobs slowed, and her expression relaxed slightly. But the ambition and resentment in her eyes had not disappeared.
"But... I don't want things to end like this!" She refused to give in, her voice trembling with desperation. "I don't want Makoto to live his life like a prisoner, constantly watched."
"Arashi, teach me again!" She seemed to have forgotten her fear, her voice hoarse and desperate. "What should I do? How do I make him ascend to that seat!"
Tsuru didn't care about her own miserable fate or being locked away in a cold palace. All her thoughts were on paving a path for her son.
Arashi's brow twitched slightly.
Even now, she was still obsessing over the position of Daimyo?
Her ambition was far more resilient than her intellect.
But ambition without strength only brought disaster.
"You truly want your son to become Daimyo?" Arashi asked, as if confirming her determination.
Tsuru nodded heavily, gritting her teeth. "Yes! Even if it costs me my life!"
"Good," Arashi responded without hesitation. His voice suddenly turned cold. "Then I'll show you another path."
"Listen closely."
Arashi paused, speaking slowly, as though ensuring she caught every word. "I will have Asaba Toru act as your son's regent."
"The moment you return to the Land of Lightning, your son will personally issue an order."
"To permanently confine you, his mother."
"What?" Tsuru was struck as if by lightning, staring at Arashi in disbelief.
Her son… confine his own mother?
"And it must be done publicly, so that everyone knows he has placed the Land above family."
"To completely sever ties with you, a spy from the Land of Fire."
Ignoring her shock, Arashi continued to lay out the plan.
"Then, have your son immediately request an audience with the Daimyo."
"Not to argue. Not to demand justice."
"But to kneel and beg for your life."
Arashi's gaze was sharp, cutting through human nature like a blade. "He must cry and say to the Daimyo..."
"Mother's crime is unforgivable. Your son has already confined her deep in the palace, never to be seen again."
"But she is still my mother. I beg you, Father, for the sake of our shared bloodline, spare her life."
"..."
Tsuru was completely stunned.
Her mouth hung open. Her throat was dry. No words came out. Her whole body had gone cold.
This plan… was too cruel.
"The Daimyo of the Land of Lightning is a ruler first, then a father," Arashi said, his eyes glinting.
"When he sees his own son, for the sake of the Land of Lightning, for him, cast his own mother into the cold palace..."
"And then kneel and beg for the life of a traitor…"
"What do you think he'll believe?"
"He'll think, even though this child carries the blood of the Land of Fire, his heart lies with the Land of Lightning."
"When he sees his son choose loyalty over family, yet still show a trace of filial piety..."
"What threat could such a child possibly pose?"
"This is the only path to ascend."
After speaking, Arashi looked at his aunt's devastated expression, the corners of his lips slightly curled.
After that, he no longer looked at her.
He gently pried her hands away and walked straight out.
This time, Tsuru didn't stop him.
Thud.
Tsuru collapsed completely, her gaze vacant, with no strength left to resist.
She had been saved... but that was all.
(To be continued.)