"By the way, Miss Aji, why are you wearing that strange mask?"
Arataki Itto suddenly noticed the mask on Miss Aji's face and asked curiously.
"Hold on, boss, that's very rude. Excuse me, Miss Aji. My boss is blunt and simple-minded, but he doesn't mean any harm..."
Arataki Itto immediately interrupted her boss. There are some things girls don't ask about.
The boss had asked her about her mask before, but she had vaguely brushed it off. As someone who had been through it, Arataki Itto deeply understood the offense of having one's privacy intruded upon.
It was one thing for herself, but others might be very sensitive about such things. As the second-in-command of the Arataki Gang, she had to do something...
So, Arataki Itto quickly apologized for her boss's rash behavior.
"It's alright, it's not a secret I can't tell. It's mainly to hide my ugliness. Something happened to me during my growth, and I was afraid of scaring ordinary people. That's all. You won't distrust me because of this..."
"Of course not, Miss Aji has been helping the wounded soldiers, that's an undeniable fact. I believe Miss Aji is not a bad person..."
Facing Miss Aji's frankness, Arataki Itto quickly waved her hands, affirming Miss Aji's contributions to Enkanomiya.
"Mhm, if you believe me, I can offer you guidance to resolve the darkness in Enkanomiya. You can think about it again. I'll go inside to look after the injured and get acquainted with the newcomers. Well then, I'll take my leave..."
Seeing that they hadn't made up their minds, Aji thoughtfully left them alone to discuss, then went into the inner room.
"Mr. Feng Yi, what do we do next?"
Arataki Itto looked at Mr. Feng Yi. He was the decision-maker for this operation, and everything depended on Mr. Feng Yi's decision.
"Let's split up first and gather more clues from the surrounding soldiers and wounded. I have a feeling this Miss Aji is not simple. Let's meet back here in ten minutes..."
Having learned from the example of Yueshang, Feng Yi didn't want to blindly trust anyone who suddenly appeared in Enkanomiya. Before making a final decision, he wanted to gather more useful clues to aid his judgment.
"No problem, we'll meet back in ten minutes."
"Gathering information, that's my specialty!"
Feng Yi and Arataki Itto split up. He found a soldier named Imaizumi guarding the camp entrance.
"Um, I'd like to ask..."
"Captain Feng Yi, you want to ask about Miss Aji, right? You've come to the right person. My name is Imaizumi, and I'm a reconnaissance soldier of the Raiden Shogun's Third Squad. I was one of the first wounded to be rescued by Miss Aji. Back then, I thought it was strange, why would a shrine maiden who knew Enkanomiya's lost ritual wear a mask?"
"So I started to pester her to find out about it..."
"There weren't many people then. She showed me her face under the mask. Actually, most of it was normal. She wore the mask just to hide one thing – her pupils were vertical, long and thin like a snake's!"
"Normally, one might find it a bit scary, but everyone on Watatsumi Island knows a legend, no, it should be a historical story..."
"The first kin of the Sangonomiya, were the Sangonomiya Vassals. Legend has it they were half-serpent, half-human, and helped our ancestors repel the Bathysmal Vishaps. Although they later disappeared from history, look, Miss Aji also has snake-like eyes. I naturally felt a sense of trust. They must have sensed the danger in Enkanomiya and rushed back!"
"Captain Feng Yi, although I don't have much knowledge, I think Miss Aji can be trusted!"
"Thank you, Imaizumi. I'd also like to believe Miss Aji is a good person, but for the safety of Enkanomiya and Watatsumi Island, I must be more cautious."
Feng Yi patted Imaizumi's shoulder, assuring him not to worry and to continue his duty.
From Imaizumi, Feng Yi learned a very useful piece of information. Perhaps, just as Imaizumi guessed, Miss Aji was from the disappeared Sangonomiya Vassal clan.
With little time left until the meeting, Feng Yi sat in the center of the camp, thinking and waiting for the other two to arrive.
Before long, Arataki Itto and Arataki Itto arrived.
"How did it go? Did you gather any useful information?"
Feng Yi asked directly.
"Boss Feng Yi, I asked a Sangonomiya soldier named Natsumoto, and from him, I learned that Miss Aji seems to be wearing an unusual pendant, which looks like something that was broken apart and strung together as a pendant..."
Arataki Itto recalled the description of the soldier he had just spoken to, trying his best to convey the original words.
"A pendant? Does it look like this?!"
Arataki Itto's words reminded Feng Yi. Before entering Enkanomiya, Kokomi had given him a small pendant, saying it would bring him good luck and help him make decisions.
Feng Yi quickly took it out and held it in the air, asking Arataki Itto and Arataki Itto to take a look.
"Ah, yes, yes, yes! Natsumoto described it as something like this. By the way, Boss Feng Yi, why do you have this too? Could it be a love token?"
Arataki Itto exclaimed first, then seemed to think of something, and suddenly lowered his voice, winking at Boss Feng Yi.
"Boss, how can you be so stupid? We're all meeting Miss Aji for the first time, how could we have a chance to exchange tokens? If you'd read more books, you'd rather go herding cattle..."
Arataki Itto put his hand on his forehead, helpless. With such simple timeline logic, why couldn't her boss understand?
"This is indeed not a love token. As Arataki Itto said, we are all meeting Miss Aji for the first time. I only learned today that Miss Aji also possesses such a fragmented pendant. This pendant was actually given to me by Kokomi before I left. She said it would bring good luck. Now it seems it's not that simple..."
Feng Yi frowned, feeling that things were getting more complicated.
"Arataki Itto, did you gather any useful intelligence on your end?"
Feng Yi temporarily put away the pendant and looked at Arataki Itto.
"There's basically zero useful intelligence. Most of it is just the gratitude and praise from the wounded towards Miss Aji..."
Arataki Itto shook her head. This information was neither here nor there.
"Is that so? Then I'll share with you the intelligence I gathered first. After you listen, we'll analyze it together. That soldier named Imaizumi said..."
"Mr. Feng Yi, I don't quite understand the information provided by Imaizumi..."