Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 151: Night of Wind and Tide (1)

Dragon Raja 3

A black high wall stood tall at the edge of a cliff, with falling cherry blossoms drifting from the wall, floating toward the dark sea.

Tonight, the waters of Sagami Bay were calm.

Atami is the name of a coastal town, situated at the tip of the Izu Peninsula, known for its famous hot springs. Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Edo Shogunate, enjoyed visiting Atami for baths after major battles, making it famous.

The black high wall belonged to a luxurious mansion in Atami called the “Kuroishi Residence,” built during the mid-Edo Shogunate. When a shogun visited Atami by boat, the clouds happened to part, and the sun emerged, casting glimmers across the sea. A towering black cliff jutted straight into Sagami Bay, like a majestic stone sword descending from the sky to split the ocean. The shogun, captivated by its lonely and sharp beauty, decided to build a residence on it. Since its completion, the residence had been the highest point in Atami, almost entirely surrounded by the sea. The high walls melded seamlessly with the sheer cliff. The shogun would sit on the mountain and gaze at the sea, while couriers rode on horseback along the mountain paths to spread his orders far and wide.

After the Meiji Restoration, the Kuroishi Residence was sold to a wealthy merchant and turned into a private villa. Though no longer a restricted shogunate property, its location and layout still made it the “throne” of all the hot spring villas in Atami. Each morning, the first ray of sunlight in Atami would shine on the outer wall of the Kuroishi Residence, and every stone would reflect the light. This timeworn building stood like a black samurai clad in iron-scale armor, standing proudly against the sparkling sea, guarding the small town.

An elderly man walked along the wall, holding a dimly lit white lantern. His name was Hiroshi Kimura, the butler of the Kuroishi Residence. He had served here for over thirty years and witnessed its rise and fall.

The previous owner was a famous director who held lavish parties here every weekend, with fine wine, fireworks, evening gowns, and helicopters transporting guests from the airport directly to the cliff. But within a few years, the director ran into financial trouble, and the parties became unsustainable. It wasn’t the guests who ate and drank the estate into poverty but rather the astonishing maintenance costs of the Kuroishi Residence. As a government-protected cultural property, the repair materials had to come from Kobe’s mountains, the wood from far-off Hokkaido, and the carvings by artisans skilled in traditional Japanese craftsmanship to maintain authenticity. Thus, every ten years of maintenance cost as much as the value of the house itself.

The director had to put the Kuroishi Residence up for sale, but interested buyers backed out upon learning of the staggering maintenance fees. Eventually, even the real estate agency withdrew. The property manager said, in this day and age, who would buy a mansion fit for an emperor just for hot springs? Desperate, the director decided to try his luck by listing the Kuroishi Residence on eBay, when online auctions were still novel. People sold all sorts of strange things on eBay, even fighter jets and tanks. The director hoped some rich fool from overseas might buy it, and if not, it was still worth trying—it was just a shot in the dark.

Fifteen minutes after listing, someone wired a deposit of 760 million yen into the director’s account. The buyer, named “ENXI,” purchased the Kuroishi Residence. Shocked and delighted, the director looked up ENXI’s transaction history to see which billionaire might be using that name on eBay. The result was surprising—besides the Kuroishi Residence, ENXI had never bought anything significant on eBay, only anime and game merchandise, like a Rei Ayanami body pillow and an action figure of Chun-Li with movable joints.

In other words, ENXI was an otaku—a peculiar otaku at that.

Fifteen days later, a cashier’s check from a Swiss bank arrived in the director’s hands. ENXI paid the full amount, along with a short note specifying the date of his arrival at the Kuroishi Residence.

On that day, Hiroshi Kimura got up early, put on a black kimono, and led the maids to the entrance to greet the new owner. Everyone eagerly anticipated the new owner’s first appearance, guessing who he might be—a chairman of a multinational corporation? An Arab oil tycoon? The Sultan of Brunei or a Saudi sheikh?

A stretched Lexus drove along the winding mountain road and finally stopped in front of the residence. The uniformed, white-gloved driver stepped out and respectfully opened the rear door… from which two Siamese cats jumped out, weaving playfully through the maids.

“The buyer is still in school and doesn’t have time to move in yet, so he sent the cats to look after the house,” the driver said, shaking hands with Hiroshi Kimura. “Feeding the cats is now your responsibility. Their food is in my trunk.”

Kimura watched the chubby cats’ backs as they disappeared, suddenly feeling an overwhelming sense of futility. Until that moment, he had always considered himself one of the top butlers, having received the “Golden Key Certification” from the Concierge Association at 32, serving celebrities, magnates, and political elites from around the world, and having many friends in high society. But from that day on, he became a mere cat caretaker… To the new owner, his proud resume was meaningless; his value was now just feeding the cats.

The Siamese cats weren’t even purebred—purebred Siamese cats were slender and elegant, while these two were round and chubby, likely a mix of Siamese and Garfield. Together, they wouldn’t fetch more than ten thousand yen.

The driver brought detailed profiles of the cats, listing their habits. They were siblings—the beautiful yet cunning one was the elder sister, and the silly and timid one was the younger brother. This became evident quickly; at the door, the sister sat quietly and elegantly licking her paws, while the foolish brother kept trying to grab the doorknob, clearly having already resolved to “serve the queen sister.” After the door opened, the brother timidly stepped aside, inviting the queen to enter their newly conquered territory first—from a cat’s perspective, the Kuroishi Residence might as well have been a kingdom—before following happily, wagging his tail. After exploring for a while, they settled in by the fireplace. The brother busied himself building a nest, dragging cardboard boxes and cushions from the storage room. The dignified sister, uninterested in such lowly labor, lay atop the fireplace, warming herself and occasionally glancing down at her busy brother.

“We could buy them a better cat house,” Kimura suggested.

“No need. Their profiles say they prefer building their own nests. Apparently, they were strays when found, so they still have decent survival instincts,” the driver said, not leaving immediately. He accepted Kimura’s invitation to stay for a cup of green tea.

“I see. So they already have a cat house—a billion-dollar cat house named the Kuroishi Residence,” Kimura smiled wryly. “The owner must be quite the whimsical person. Have you ever met him?”

“Not lucky enough for that. I was just tasked with bringing the cats from the airport to the Kuroishi Residence. These are the strangest VIPs I’ve ever delivered,” the driver replied. “Even though they were strays, they flew here on a private jet. It seems they’re cherished by their owner. For him to entrust them to you means he must have a lot of trust in you.”

“I’ve been entrusted with something so precious!” Kimura sighed. “Yet I never even had the chance to meet the owner or get a sense of his personality. For someone in my line of work to know nothing about their employer… it’s really a bit troubling.”

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