The Forty-eighth Chapter: The Mediation Result

  The king is now in a very bad mood, having just stripped off the clothes of a little beauty and was about to rush in when he was suddenly stopped by someone. It must be that no man would be happy about this. He kicked over the eunuch who had disturbed him, then pointed at his nose and said viciously, "If you can't give me a suitable explanation, I will castrate you!"

  "Your Majesty!" the eunuch said hastily, "Someone from the Ishihara family has come to report that General Ryū is leading a large army to besiege the Ishihara residence. If you don't hurry to rescue them, the Ishihara family will be annihilated!"

  "What? Really?" The king was shocked.

  "Really! Your Majesty! How dare I lie!"

  "Damn it! It must have something to do with that little brat Long Wu!" The king cursed: "Heavens! If he's going to torment me like this a few more times, I'll be finished! What are you still standing there for? Go prepare the carriage, and notify all the families to go to the Shi Yuan family!"

  The king arrived in a hurry and found two groups of people almost fighting.

  "Damn it! Who told you to move? Get back to your barracks!"

  The two groups of people did not dare to say more and dispersed.

  The king rushed to the scene in a hurry, but before that, let's talk about the parents' attack. It was really swift and fierce! The well-trained warriors found more than a dozen barrels of usable oil from the kitchen of the Stone family, as well as some lamp oil, candles, and other things, all poured into the gate of the treasure pavilion. This gate was originally flat, but after years, the ground inside had sunk, making the entrance high, and the oil flowed in along the gate, igniting a fire that engulfed the entire gate. The mother also ordered people to throw dry firewood and some garden grasses into it, creating a scene of smoke and fire. The people inside fought back, constantly using wind magic to blow out the smoke, trying to extinguish the flames with water magic, but unfortunately, their level was not high enough, and they were suppressed by the mother's magic.

  "Cough cough! Dragon roar to the sky! You listen!" Ishihara Kuma shouted from inside: "This is really a misunderstanding! Do you want to wipe out the Ishihara family?"

  "Come out and surrender! I guarantee your safety!" The mother said: "I'll give you a chance to explain yourself! Otherwise, you're on your own!"

  "What shall we do?" asked Ishihara Kumaji to the people around him.

  "It's come to this, going out will definitely be death, let's hold on a bit longer. When the reinforcements arrive, we'll be saved." Ishihara Koinu said: "Can't we ask them to put out the fire first and delay for time?"

  "Alright! I agree to surrender, you put out the fire first!" said Ishihara Kuma.

  "Throw out all the weapons, not a single piece can be left behind!" Mother said

  "Damn it! How can this woman be so precise!" Ishihara Kuma complained

  "Just bear with it slowly, let's talk when the master comes down!" said Ishihara Koinu.

  The people of Ishihara's household, who had been suffering in the intense heat and smoke, finally welcomed the arrival of the king.

  "What's going on here?" the king roared in anger. "If you have something to say, say it properly, do you need to kill his whole family?" At the same time, the king's attendants quickly put out the fire and rescued Ishihara Kuma and others.

  "They assassinated my son. I am avenging him according to the blood oath of the Five Families, and the royal family is also involved in the alliance. Am I wrong?" said the father.

  "What?" The king asked in surprise: "Is there such a thing? Do you have evidence?"

  "Take a look!" His mother handed him two sheets of paper, which she had picked out from those files.

  The king saw by the firelight that one was an order to assassinate Ryūgo, and the other was a report of failure in the action. He asked: "Has Ishihara Kōji confessed?"

  "With this ironclad evidence in hand, is there still a need to ask him?"

  "Let's ask him then! If he did it, I'll help you deal with him, but we should also give him a chance to explain himself, shouldn't we?"

  "Feel free!"

  At this time, the fire had been extinguished, and Ishihara Kuma ran out with a black face. Behind the soldiers, there was still a large group of women and children, totaling around 400 people! They were all smoked enough, if the king was late for a while, I'm afraid someone would have been smoked to death.

  Ishihara Kuma came out and immediately knelt down in front of the king, wailing loudly, saying: "Your Majesty! I am wronged! You must do justice for me!"

  "Is this a false accusation?" The king said: "You see for yourself what this is." He handed the paper to Ishihara Kōji.

  After browsing through it, he suddenly exclaimed: "The handwriting of this order is not right, I didn't write it! You can see that it's a forgery by them, Your Majesty!"

  The king looked closely and said to his mother: "Yes, the handwriting is wrong. This must not be written by him. Can you explain, Princess?"

  "This was found on Ishihara Koinu's desk, and also, isn't the family crest seal on top wrong too? Isn't that report wrong too?"

  "Your Excellency!" Ishihara Koinu said: "I'm in charge of the Black Dragon Society's affairs, I think I should explain!"

  "Alright! You speak!"

  "Because I was away on business a few days ago, it was my deputy who received the order. It should have been someone forging the master's name to issue an assassination order, and my deputy only recognized the master's seal but not his handwriting, so he went to execute it. Only after failing did we get that report!" Ishihara Koinu said: "So this matter is really someone using us. We are also very wronged!"

  "Is that so! Have you found out who it was?" The king said: "There are not many people who can get close to the master's seal, go and investigate thoroughly, and give the Dragon family an explanation!"

  "Yes!" replied Ishihara Kumaji

  "Princess, you see, from the report we know that your prince is not dead. If the Ishihara family hands over the real culprit and apologizes to you, it will be settled, right? After all, the five families have a deep relationship, they didn't do it on purpose. What do you think?" The king asked

  "Since Your Majesty has said so, we will not make excessive demands, just two conditions!"

  "You said!"

  "First, they must find my son, as we still have no news of him until now. Second, they want to find the murderer and kill them to prove their innocence, don't even think about finding a scapegoat, I want all the families present here to bear witness."

  "Alright! That's not an unreasonable request. What do you think, Ishihara?"

  "Alright! We promised!"

  "But!" his mother said, "Before they find my son, they must all be confined to this mansion and be taken care of by the Long family! If anything happens to my son, I'll have them buried with him!"

  "Ah! How can this be?!" Ishihara Kuma exclaimed unwillingly.

  "What's wrong?" "No matter what excuse you make, my son was ambushed by your family. Who else should I look for? Can the master's seal be casually stamped? Are you deceiving a child? It's possible that you were seriously ill in bed and asked someone to write an order on your behalf and stamp it! If my son is fine, I'll give the emperor face and not pursue it. But if he dies, no one will have any face left, and you must be buried with him!"

  "Very well!" said the king. "My guards are watching them, and I will ask the great wizard Carra to go there in person, perhaps he can find out something that you cannot!"

  "Alright!" Mom said casually: "I'm not afraid of them running away at all, I don't believe anyone can escape my mother's pursuit! Let's go!"

  "Kumaji Ishihara! You're really clueless!" The king said: "Pray! If the spirit queen intervenes, I won't be able to protect you either!"

  "Your Majesty, I am really innocent!" Ishihara Kumaji cried out

  "It's too late to say anything now, you go find that person first, I'll try my best to help you find that little rascal!" After finishing speaking, the king instructed a few more people and then returned to the palace to wait for news.