The war room hushes as Arimari lays ledger and manifests before Lord Matsudaira. Rain taps the shutters, and the hidden margin marks line up with the river chain like a road drawn in ink.
Arimari Tiarasan
The same hand marks the ferry clerk, the tea house, and the western chain.
Lord Matsudaira
Then Lady Shizue is feeding Tukeyo by route, not rumor. How many crossings remain open?
Matsudaira spreads the map flat, his finger landing on the western ports. The second handoff mark sits where a clerk can be bribed, not where a soldier can be seen.
Reina
Cut the ferries, and the chain starves. Tukeyo loses what keeps him fed.
Lord Matsudaira
Good. We move at once. Goro takes the river clerk, Arimari takes the ledger trail. If Shizue runs, she runs into my men.
The lord seals his decision with one hard nod. Outside, distant hoofbeats answer the order, as if the estate itself has begun to wake for war.