Ah, you mean in the preparations. Unfortunately, given our orders not to directly question or interfere with their work, the only time I made any excursions down to the underground areas was to inspect for wards or seals which were rumored to have been placed down there to avoid further inspection or detection... [Matoba taps his chin in thought as he speaks, and tilts his head to the side.] I was assigned with assisting in the preparation of decor, and mostly kept to that. But when I investigated, I was able to find no evidence of magic use in the end, and left it at that.

Now that I consider that, I wonder if the "wards" being spoken of were the same abilities used by the Daitengu's assassins to vanish from sight....

[In any case, Xingqiu's observation leads Matoba to somewhat of the same conclusion: that the Sutoku Alliance also had domain over the trade routes that may have been used to bring in these weapons, right under their noses. Until they knew more about them...]

I suppose we will have to wait until the Department's lockdown concludes. Sutoku now lacks a leader to coordinate any effort to wrest control back, and we have not yet received word from any of our superiors.

[Matoba tsks gently, like a disappointed parent.] A weak showing. How unfortunate, for the Alliance leaders to be caught unprepared for a worst-case scenario.