They push out of the audience chamber and into the servant's quarters, where the air turns close with rice steam, lamp oil, and wet straw. Narrow walls squeeze the lantern light into thin bands. Arimari leads, naginata angled low.
Lord Matsudaira
No loud steps. If one of my staff is hiding here, I want him cornered, not warned.
The Steward
The cook-room lies ahead. Genbei was seen near the back corridor, and Saburo's route from the outer yard passes this way.
Reina
Something is wrong with the draft. Someone has moved the screen at the far end recently.
A shoji panel shivers at the end of the passage. Beyond it, a service yard opens to rain-dark stones and stacked fuel. A figure slips past the gap, too quick to be a servant on routine duty.
Kaito
There. The same shoulder wrap as the clerk's man. He is trying to reach the rear gate.
✓ Quest Accepted
Intercept the fleeing clerk
“I sprint toward the service yard to cut off the clerk's path.”
SUCCESS (Great Agility, rolled +0)
Arimari bursts through the side opening first, sandals skidding on the damp threshold. The corridor behind him empties into the service yard in one sharp beat of rain and lantern glow.
The fleeing clerk lunges for the rear path, but Arimari cuts across him with the naginata shaft, forcing him to twist hard and lose his balance.
Kaito
He cannot make the gate in time. He has seen us.
The clerk stumbles into the mud beside stacked fuel, and a folded scrap spills from his sleeve, landing open on the wet stones.
Reina
Wait. That mark... it matches the hidden seal from the packet.
The Steward
Do not let him swallow it, Arimari. That paper may name the hand behind Shizue.
The clerk freezes, trapped between Arimari's blade and the yard wall, while the loose scrap flutters at his feet.
Quest Complete
Intercept the fleeing clerk