"I'll leave the follow-up interrogation to you. I didn't go for the kill. Expecting a puppet controlled by greed to have any significant ideals or brilliance of human nature was really me overthinking it."
Kamisato Takakado, standing outside the room, could naturally hear the dissatisfaction in the Shura Anyakonsen-shou's tone.
"Leave it to me. But how should we explain things to Sara? Knowing that her foster father is such a shameless old thief..."
Kamisato Takakado looked at the shameless old thief already nailed to the wall and thought for a moment. He felt that they could just dismantle the wall instead of taking the person down.
"No need to worry about that. This shameless old thief wasn't close to Sara anyway. His usual interactions with little Sara were no different from cold violence.
And cold violence can't earn a child's love for their parents—it can only wear down the emotions between them.
So little Sara will care, but she won't care that much. As her master, if I go have a good talk with her, it should be fine."
The Shura Anyakonsen-shou looked at his own Dragonspine Spear, pondering whether something this dirty was still worth keeping.
It had stabbed cockroaches and now scum...
Hmm... better have Kamisato Takakado return it to me later. Right now, I don't want to look at that shameless old thief's face.
So the Shura Anyakonsen-shou also left, leaving the two old rivals from the Kamisato Clan and the Kujou Clan in the room.
The subsequent troublesome matters would be handled by Kamisato Takakado—the father of Ayato from the original storyline, who was exhausted to death there.
The Shura Anyakonsen-shou also had his own children to comfort.
"Kujou Takayuki, for going against the Shogun-sama's eternity, as well as crimes of embezzlement, bribery, dereliction of duty, intentional murder, and so on—multiple crimes punished together.
Incidentally, this also dragged out a huge network of connections. From the current situation, although there are still people left in the Kujou Clan, in terms of influence, it should be considered as good as gone."
On his side, the old uncle honestly explained the situation of the Kujou Clan to little Sara. After all, no matter what, that place was the home where little Sara had once lived.
Facing the cold news of her foster father's arrest, little Sara continued handling government affairs as if completely unconcerned.
"My foster father should have been dealt with like this long ago. What's more, he harbored delusions of rebellion—his crimes are even worse because of that."
Seeing little Sara appear so unmoved, the old uncle once again felt that the shameless old thief's cold violence had ruined the child.
Cold violence never only wears down the emotions between parents and children—it also constantly amplifies a child's longing for something like "home."
If only that shameless old thief had shown even a little paternal emotional support, then even if little Sara's heart was filled with the Shogun-sama, she wouldn't have failed to say even a single word in defense of her foster father.
I'm afraid that for little Sara, the concept of "home" has completely taken on the shape of the Raiden Shogun—who once saved her life.
However, seeing the slightly dim look in little Sara's eyes, the old uncle still knew that this child ultimately harbored some attachment to the "home" she had once lived in. It was just that her inner reason told her not to care about the Kujou Clan.
Bottling it up like this isn't good. Some emotions need an outlet or release.
So the old uncle reached out and ruffled the head of this little kid pretending to be fine.
"Master, I'm okay."
Little Sara still seemed a bit unaccustomed to that indulgent look from her master, but she honestly accepted the head-patting indulgence from him.
All one can say is that children who have long been subjected to emotional cold violence will subconsciously shrink back a little when facing normal affection—because they've grown used to emotions being kept at a distance.
Seeing little Sara's reaction, the old uncle felt helpless, but there was still a way to handle it at times like this.
Just let little Sara get used to it.
The old uncle then stretched out his palm and fully demonstrated the ways of a creepy uncle, pinching little Sara's serious little face this way and that...
"Master doesn't care whether you say you're okay or not. Right now, only Master thinks something's wrong with you!"
Little Sara was clearly stunned for a moment by her master's gaze, but in the end she only showed a very faint smile.
Unfortunately, the smile was so subtle that the face-pinching master didn't notice it at all and continued stubbornly pinching little Sara's cheeks.