One could only imagine how painful that was for them.
They might have been instigated, but they still had to take responsibility for their own actions.
But what was really sad was that not only had their plans been foiled, they were also collared, then made to swallow the bitter truth.
Already, their self-esteem must have been in smithereens.
But other than the Mask and the old man, no one else could laugh.
“…As much as I’d love to say, ‘serves them right,’ this is a bit…”
“I didn’t think they’d get beaten that badly.”
They were just too pitiful.
Of course, Ryou and Tomoe were still angry at them, and they had no intention of forgiving them despite knowing the truth.
Had Masquerade note been around, the casualties wouldn’t have merely been in the hundreds or thousands.
They dared to devise a plan like that and execute, so this was just them getting their just deserts.
Still, seeing them toyed with so badly by the Mask gave rise to a sense of sympathy.
But of course, it at most made them think they were pitiful.
“Huh? Wait a moment. What do you mean they wanted to get rid of the exorcist clans? Weren’t they trying to start a problem that only they could fix so that they could get the credit and elevate their status?” Tomoe said.
But then Tomoe remembered the words of the Mask and tilted her head.
The Ootsu family were trying to regain the position they’d lost to Garesto’s technology by corrupting the land and killing countless people, then solving the problem that they themselves started.
Indeed, at a glance, it seemed rather harmless to the existence of the clan as a whole, but…
『They were disadvantaged by the interactions with the otherworld, so they unjustly hated not only Garesto but also Japan, who was actively promoting the exchange, and they wanted vengeance on both… Tomoe, do you really think things would have gone as they expected if their plan worked?』
Tomoe thought about it and was immediately taken aback.
Just as he said, there was indeed no way for them to achieve their objective.
“Huh? Ah, I see… Even if they managed to execute, they would have only ended up in the worst case possible. Rather than the government treasuring them, it’s more likely for them to be put under strict surveillance, or be made to submit through physical or monetary means.”
The Ootsu family had failed to take into consideration how others would perceive them.
Though really, it would be more apt to say that someone had directed them to overlook that point.
Regardless, while the Ootsu family might have messed up in failing to notice that, their bigger mistake was in targeting Kutoria.
It might have been different had they chosen a place with legends of an evil god or a monster that once existed or was in slumber, but Kutoria was just recently built with the use of otherworld technology, so there was no way for a spiritual calamity of that level to naturally occur so soon.
There was indeed an area stagnant with evil ki that Tomoe had to purify, but at most, it could only affect the human psyche.
And even then, it could at most cause discomfort or induce a tendency for negative emotions.
Something so weak would need a few centuries at least before it could become a curse.
So the moment a spiritual calamity were to occur in Kutoria, the first thing that someone would think of is, ‘someone intended for this.’
And if a group were to conveniently appear to save the day, even if that group was someone that they’ve once had a cooperative relationship with, so long as the people in charge weren’t completely incompetent, one of them was bound to suspect them to be acting in a play that they themselves wrote.
Of course, the people in charge would still ‘use’ them since the problem had to be solved, but obviously, they wouldn’t be doing so with gratitude.
“No, it would still be fine if it just ended like that. If there was another spy among the administration, then they could have made it so that the Ootsu family would be treated as a dangerous group with dangerous ideas, and the Ootsu family might have ended up being quietly erased…”
Tomoe understandably paled upon arriving at that conclusion.
After all, it wouldn’t have been strange for that to have spilled over and for all of the exorcist clans to be assassinated as well.
Though the relationship between the government and the exorcist clans have petered out, most of the exorcist clans haven’t moved, so the government knew exactly where they lived, and if they really wanted to, they could move away the ordinary people, then clean them up without any witnesses.
It was doubtful that that barrier that kept people away would have been able to stop the
『Yes, but what’s scary is that they don’t need to do much other than instigate, and unless the exorcist clans get lucky, a bad result is almost guaranteed. That’s why I told that brat that he didn’t know anything about the world.』
Though the Mask didn’t know about the spies then, he could tell that what they were doing was likely to bring destruction upon themselves.
They saw only the gains but never considered the other most likely possibility.
Or perhaps, they were so naive that they didn’t even think that someone would suspect them.
The people that instigated them may have been clever, but the Ootsu family looked down too much on the darkness within the hearts of men, all because they knew the darkness of the demons.
“A-Aren’t you overthinking it? There are monsters that can only be dealt with using spiritual power, so while the exorcist clans might be put under surveillance, that should be it at most…” Ryou said.
Observe, coerce, eliminate. That was a series of terrifying words that Ryou hoped was just the Mask’s needless worry, but the Mask quietly shook his head.
The world was not that soft.
『How many people in the government do you think understand that? I’m sure there are plenty among them who believe that Garesto’s technology would somehow manage.』
“That’s…”
Ryou was speechless.
He was someone who had received the blood and power of the clan, yet he too had next to no knowledge regarding the field.
The world also seemed to think of Garesto’s technology as omnipotent.
In fact, from Earth’s perspective, their technology was just that advanced, and they could do so many things with them.
Considering the age of the current generation of politicians and government officials, they should all have taken office after the secret exchange with the otherworld was initiated.
A generation that has given themselves to the power and convenience of otherworld technology, forgetting why Garesto even interacted with them in the first place – they couldn’t solve their own problems alone.
『From their perspective, the exorcist clans must be nothing more than a problematic cult. And since no one knows about them, they could eliminate them, and no one would complain.』
It was all too easy to acquire a casus belli, too easy to destroy an organization that society did not care for.
‘Oh, how terrifying,’ the mask lamented, but no one could deny his words.
They believed that the government of this country couldn’t possibly be that radical, but they were just children that had no relation whatsoever to politics.
No one could possibly know how close the truth they knew was to the actual state of affairs.
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