Rain needles the riverbank road as Arimari’s rope yanks the boat hard against the reeds. Mud slurps underfoot. The chest sits half-sunken in the lantern glow, and Genbei scrambles in the bank muck, reaching for it.
Genbei
Too late... if that chest opens, we all drown with it!
Reina
Then stop reaching for it and tell me who paid you.
Kaito
The chest is the thread. Cut it cleanly, Arimari, or they vanish into the dark.
Lord Matsudaira
Hold them here. Whatever comes from that boat, I will not let it reach my house again.
Tukeyo
The debt is named. The hand that carries it now must choose, steel or surrender.
The boat groans against the rope. Genbei slips, claws up again, and the lantern swings wildly over the black water. Tukeyo’s shadow towers at the edge of the bank, close enough to strike if Arimari lets the moment break.
“I force Genbei to talk”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +4)
Arimari twists the rope once more, then locks Genbei under a hard stare. The clerk’s struggle falters in the mud.
Arimari Tiarasan
Speak plainly. Who paid you?
Genbei’s mouth works twice before the fear breaks him. He points, shaking, toward the road behind the bank and the house beyond it.
Genbei
Lady Shizue... and the man who carried her words. They said the debt would be buried if I stayed quiet.
Reina
There. The name fits the hand.
Kaito
Shizue’s mark. The seal, the route, the silence. It all joins now.
Lord Matsudaira
Then it is proved before all of us. Keep the chest closed, and bind him.
Genbei collapses into the mud, not resisting as the rain hammers down. Across the lantern light, Tukeyo’s looming shape remains fixed on Arimari, waiting for the debt to be named or denied.
Quest Complete
Prove the truth about the Kurogane pact