Chapter 35

"Then I'll listen to you first."

Upon hearing that the content was related to his hidden commission, Kazuma Hatake was barely calmed down.

There's no other reason; the main reason is that the reward for expanding the domain is just too tempting.

"...I don't know where you got this kind of personality from. When we first met, you were a level four sorcerer. You couldn't beat them before, could you?"

Gojo Satoru muttered something under his breath, but Hagoromo Kazuma pretended not to hear.

To be honest, with my previous level four strength, it wasn't impossible for me to kill him; it's just a matter of playing a Musou game like a Souls game.

But those old NPCs weren't like the Cursed Spirits; defeating them didn't yield any rewards, making it inefficient and a waste of time. So, at the beginning, he preferred to use a less strenuous method.

As for now...

All I can say is that he has always enjoyed playing Assassin's Creed.

“Previously we were looking for clues in the direction of high-level cursed spirits or cursed objects. It can’t be said that there are no similar cases at all, but they can’t be completely matched.”

Gojo Satoru grabbed a piece of white paper from the coffee table and quickly sketched a very symmetrical, intricate pattern. Each stroke was deliberately made to resemble ink falling onto the paper, creating a rather unique and bizarre style.

He held up the paper, gesturing for Kazuma Hatake to look over.

So, Kazuma Hattori examined it carefully for a long time, but he couldn't understand the specific meaning of the pattern at all. However, that didn't stop him from giving a compliment.

"That's a great drawing."

"…………"

Gojo Satoru was silent for a moment, his expression looking like he wanted to laugh, but he held it back.

"You really don't have the slightest bit of a sorcerer's mindset."

Perhaps that's why he's so out of place with everyone else in the world of sorcery—just like him.

Gojo Satoru sighed before continuing to explain to Hatori Kazuma.

"I previously mistakenly thought this was a sign that the curse was still in effect. As for the source of the curse, there are many theories, but I won't go into them here."

He touched the pattern he had casually sketched with a pen on the paper, then drew an ugly cursed spirit's head next to it and crossed it out.

“But based on your guess, I changed my approach. I first searched through relevant reports and records to filter out a list of people with the same condition as Tsumiki. Well, Iji also reported similar cursed individuals before, but since they were all unconscious and unable to communicate, and [Window] was short-handed, we didn’t bother to contact them one by one to confirm.”

"This time, I didn't use any manpower from the sorcery community. Instead, I spent a lot of money to entrust the task to ordinary social investigation agencies. I asked them to check the list one by one and conduct interviews and investigations with the families of the cursed individuals."

Gojo Satoru made a cute gesture with his thumb and forefinger, saying, "[Watch out for my money attack!]"

"They're working incredibly hard. They've not only questioned the families, but now they're asking classmates or colleagues they've had contact with, neighbors, and shops they've visited... In short, they seem to be starting to find some commonalities in the experiences of these cursed individuals before they fell into a coma, but further confirmation is still needed."

Upon finding a clue to a breakthrough, Gojo Satoru's tone became noticeably more excited, and he was especially pleased with this hard-won good news.

"I can now say with certainty that this is a [mark] from an unknown curse caster."

At this point, Gojo Satoru happily patted Hato Kazuma on the shoulder.

"Thanks to you, if you hadn't suggested [human intervention], I would have overlooked this possibility!"

This was the first time Gojo Satoru had ever encountered a curse master who dared to leave such "marks" on ordinary people and wasn't afraid of being tracked down.

Having spent years on various high-risk missions, his extensive experience in exorcising cursed spirits led him to overlook the possibility of a sorcerer being involved when dealing with Tsumiki, who lived a completely ordinary life and suddenly fell into a coma.

After all, there aren't many curse masters scattered around the world. In addition, since they are wanted criminals, they always act with a cunning that curse spirits don't have. They almost never leave any trace of the evil deeds they have committed with their spells, making them quite troublesome to track down. They are often treated as ordinary criminal cases by [Window] and not reported.

Moreover, while [Window] is very experienced in observing events caused by cursed spirits or cursed power, it is a completely different field of expertise for them to unravel the clues and find evidence to solve the case.

Therefore, Gojo Satoru believed in Hato Kazuma's intuition and speculation, and was willing to bypass the obviously more shady world of jutsu and go to great lengths to verify the possibility of the other party's idea.

For example, hiring private investigators from the general public who are better at deducing clues from the smallest details to find the real culprit.

—Unexpectedly, we actually caught a glimpse of the enemy's cunning!

Gojo Satoru, who had been taking care of Fushiguro Megumi for ten years, was naturally very happy to be able to untie the knot that Fushiguro Megumi had kept in his heart for so long.

“You just didn’t remember it for a moment,” Kazuma Hatori shook his head slightly.

"I was just guessing based on my gut feeling."

To be precise, he guessed it based on the patterns he had played in the games before.

These hidden commissions that require additional conditions to trigger, offer rare rewards, and whose descriptions are related to the "truth" are either related to the villains or orchestrated by them.

It's impossible for the monsters he repeatedly farmed as upgrade materials to do something like that; they don't have that kind of intelligence.

"Anyway, I'm going back to the Gojo family in Kyoto in a few days to see if there are any records of similar techniques in the family's records."

Faced with the black-haired youth who didn't take credit but instead pushed it to his side, Gojo Satoru couldn't help but chuckle. He reflected on his actions, but not completely, and started rubbing the other's head again.

Anyway, he's a senior, so this is the privilege that seniors enjoy over juniors—a privilege!

"Don't be fooled by how old and conservative the three great families are usually; they have some advantages in times like these. They have a huge collection of books on history, anecdotes, and stories—books that can be read by families with a thousand-year history."

Gojo Satoru smiled and patiently explained to Hagoromo Kazuma these seemingly basic facts about the world of jutsu.

"Almost all of our current research and theoretical knowledge on incantations can be traced back to these ancient texts passed down from our predecessors."

“I see,” Kazuma Hagoromo thought for a moment, “Then the Kamo family must also have books about magical powers?”

"They might even have more than the Gojo family," Gojo Satoru pondered.

"Don't be fooled by the fact that the Kamo family's ancestral [Crimson Blood Manipulation Technique] isn't particularly outstanding now, and that you've made it so that it doesn't even dare to breathe... But 150 years ago, there was a Kamo Kenrin who was known as the [most evil sorcerer in history]."

Kazuma Hatake: "Hmm?"

Is there a new backstory to introduce?

"Let me think about how to tell you."

Gojo Satoru stroked his chin, recalling the old books he had previously looked through at Gojo's house.

"The top-grade cursed artifact [Nine Phases of Cursed Embryo], which is now sealed in the High Special Forbidden Treasury, is one of his creations."

The Nine Phases of the Cursed Fetus Diagram can be said to be a tragic creation forcibly made by Kamo Noriyuki under the guise of research, using the most inhumane and evil methods.

When a woman is persecuted for having the ability to conceive a child of a cursed spirit, she is forced to flee to a temple with the remains of her child and encounters Kamo Kenrin. What awaits her is a truly painful nightmare of falling into hell.

Thus, after nine pregnancies and nine abortions, all experimental records were destroyed, leaving only the [Nine Phases of Cursed Pregnancy Diagram], an indestructible artifact that testifies to his heinous crimes, which remains to this day.

"In the history of the Kamo family, this guy is like a taboo [stain]. Everyone knows it, but almost no one will mention him specifically."

Gojo Satoru was clearly also extremely disgusted by Kamo Noriyuki's actions, and he recounted this history with a furrowed brow from beginning to end.

“I remember the person who was originally the heir to the Kamo family head when I was studying at Kyoto College last year. He was the same person as Kamo Kenrin but with different characters… Back then, those old men complained for a long time, saying things like, ‘Is mentioning this name a provocation to them?’”

Kazuma Hatake scrolled through the [Social] interface and finally remembered who this Kamo Noriyuki, who sounded the same as Kamo Noriyuki but had a different character in his name and was secretly increasing his favorability, was.

The squinty-eyed NPC who gave him the fishing rod at the Kamo Fishing Hall last time.

“In that case,” Kazuma Hato took the paper from Satoru Gojo’s hand, carefully folded it, and put it in his pocket.

“I’ll also go back to the Kamo family’s house in Kyoto to look through their collection of books.”

"Hey? Then I'll have to figure out a way to sneak you in..."

Knowing that the black-haired youth who couldn't be persuaded wouldn't be willing to stay obediently in the apartment and wait for him to return, Gojo Satoru simply started thinking about how to hide his whereabouts.

"Sneak?" Kazuma Hatake raised an eyebrow slightly. "Why should I sneak back to my own territory?"

Gojo Satoru paused for a moment, "Huh?"

"Those old men probably thought I was dead and were secretly gloating. I'll go back and kill a few to appease the heavens."

After saying this, Kazuma Hatori seriously asked Satoru Gojo, who might not be able to take action—he had seen the list of high-ranking officials, and there were quite a few members of the Gojo family on it.

"Want me to help you kill a few members of the Gojo clan?"

The relaxed tone and indifferent attitude were exactly the same as when he said to him, "I'm going to the supermarket to buy potato chips now, do you want me to bring you a few bags?"

Gojo Satoru: “…………”

He no longer worries about those old men always bothering him.

He began to worry that the current head of the Kamo family might be called "the most evil sorcerer in history"...

…………

Snap.

When the ink drop falls into the inkstone, pale pupils open and turn in the thick ink, emitting a silent shriek as if suffering torment. The released curse power spreads in circles in the air like ripples on a lake.

"oh?"

Noticing the unusual commotion, the young man put down his brush, dipped his index and middle fingers into the ink in the inkstone, and without changing his expression, pressed down on the still screaming eyeball, taking out a small scroll of paper from it.

A new secret letter has been delivered.

However, this time, his expression was no longer as composed as before.

"Unexpectedly, it hit the nail on the head. Is he about to discover my identity?"

This emotionless comment, though falling into the air, made the atmosphere even more oppressive, and even the light seemed to flicker and quickly dim.

The young man sitting at the table propped his head up with one hand, his thumb pressing on the seam of his forehead stitches; his other hand, stained with ink, was still unfolding the paper, reading through the small characters one by one.

"A guy that even natural disasters can't kill, a guy with bizarre spell effects, a guy who's tearing apart the upper echelons of the sorcery world... no, it should be summarized as,"

"【The bastard who's getting in the way of my plans】, that's more like it."