Act Five: Key To Steal, Extra

I'm impressed by how many stories you know, Lady Scheherazade.

And the expert way you tell them would easily give Lord Hideyoshi's famous storyteller a run for his money!

I could say I only learned how to tell stories well because it was essential for my survival...but the truth is simply that I've always loved them.

I see. I used to tell Lord Iemitsu...or rather, Lord Takechiyo, as he was known back then, a number of stories myself.

Momotarou, Issun Boushi, Urashima Tarou... Stories are an essential part of any child's moral upbringing.

...Wait. Th-those people aren't among your companions too, are they...!?

W-Westernized? Sakata Kintoki, one of the Four Heavenly Kings, is westernized? What in the world happened to him!?

We've been wondering that since he showed up...

？！

I would love to know more Japanese folk tales. I may have mentioned this earlier, but I was actually studying them when all this happened.

There are a great many stories from the Tokugawa era.

In addition to Abaren-Boy Yoshimune...

...some of the more famous ones include Mito of Chirimen and Echizen the Ruler.

Of course, I also know stories about you, Kasuga-no-Tsubone.

Y-you do? Really?

Oh gosh, I'm not sure what to say to that. Part of me would love to hear them, and another part would rather do anything but...

I'm not a fearsome general, or even an ordinary warrior. I'm just the shogun family's wet nurse.

Oh, I just had a thought. If there are even stories of me, there must be dozens upon dozens of stories about the legendary Lord Yagyu Munenori.

...I am told that the Edo Yagyu have been gone for hundreds of years.

Mitsuyoshi appears to have far more fame in the modern world than I. Nowadays, the name "Yagyu" is synonymous with the one-eyed Yagyu Jubei.

Truly a delightful turn of events, is it not?

I can't tell if you're genuinely happy about this, or just masking how upset you are...

Ugh, this is what I hate about dealing with you enlightened swordsman types. I can't tell what you're thinking!

I know that implicit communication was important even in the Ooku, so I get why it would be even more important in politics, but still.

I cannot say I have ever knowingly communicated solely through implicit means...

You'd think you guys could at least be more emotionally open with your family. Well, I would hope, at any rate...

...Huh?

Damn. Another dead end.

Perhaps that table clock missing its hands we saw earlier was actually some sort of key after all?

There was also a pillar with a hole back there that looked like you could fit something inside.

You know, at first I thought my eyes were just playing tricks on me because it seemed so out of place here...but didn't we see a piano with the keys missing, too?

？！

Gaaah, this is so frustrating! At this point, I'm ready to start stealing everything that isn't nailed down!

I understand how you feel.

However, I'm quite certain that Kama designed this floor to be easier to navigate the more one steals.

That being the case, our best bet may be places that afford easy opportunities to steal, or where stealing might have many obvious benefits.

Understood. Just say the word, Master, and I will tell as many stories as needed.

I will not stop until we have gained everything we seek.

...I first began telling tales in a closed-off world of night not unlike this very Ooku labyrinth.

From the beginning, my stories have always been meant to find a way out of seemingly hopeless predicaments...