Chapter 515: Red Goldfinch

The room was cold, with no windows, only one-way glass. On either side of the table: on one side, Horikawa Nen (who had awakened from his coma and was tightly bound), head drooping, eyes hollow yet occasionally flashing a hint of stubbornness; on the other side, two interrogators: one a Cabinet Intelligence Investigation Office (CIRO) official with a stern expression and eyes sharp as a hawk's, the other a Foreign Affairs Police officer from the Metropolitan Police Department Public Security Bureau.

The atmosphere was so oppressive it made one hold their breath.

In the early stage of the interrogation, Horikawa Nen said not a word, stubbornly maintaining his silence; by the time Uesugi Muneyuki and Watanabe Eiji arrived, the recorder's notebook was still blank.

However, when the interrogators placed before him one by one the evidence secretly searched from his home and office — several radical thought books with meticulously disguised covers, a cheap prepaid mobile phone used to receive encrypted messages, and his access records to a specific encrypted forum on the dark web —

— his psychological defense line began to crack. Since Uesugi Muneyuki could not personally participate in the interrogation, the full process of the interrogation will not be detailed.

After rounds of high-intensity interrogation and psychological offensive, Horikawa Nen's motives and history were gradually pieced together:

In his youth, Horikawa Nen had also entered Tokyo University full of ambition, but due to his ineptitude at maneuvering, he was assigned to the Imperial Household Agency's most marginal, most seniority-obsessed Shoryo Bureau.

Day after day he organized ancient texts symbolizing the "unbroken line of emperors," yet his own life was like forgotten dust; watching those less capable than himself rise step by step through family background or sycophancy, his inner resentment and grievance accumulated year by year.

Several years ago, his wife Horikawa Shiori fell gravely ill; despite his desperate work, his meager salary and immense pressure left him unable to afford the best treatment.

He had humbly hoped to apply for imperial-family-related charitable aid, but was rejected due to cumbersome procedures and eligibility issues, and his wife could not wait for a suitable organ transplant; in the end, his wife passed away.

Horikawa had no children; he was overwhelmed with grief at his wife's passing, yet when he organized medical records and past Imperial Household Agency medical bulletins after her death, he unexpectedly discovered that the Agency had rapidly located and prepared a liver for Prince Chōyō at that time.

The whole process took only a single month, yet his wife had waited for years!

What killed Shiori was not illness, but this rotten, rigid system!

He laid this debt on this "cold, rigid, serving only a few" system, believing the imperial family and its attendant bureaucratic system to be a "symbol of bloodsucking."

Disappointment in the rotten system, despair at losing his wife, resentment at medical injustice, hopelessness at his own long-stalled career, and the desire to smash it all — these made Horikawa Nen's thinking undergo a change.

In extreme depression and loneliness, he began searching the dark corners of the internet for "answers." He came into contact with the extreme left-wing ideology known as the "Red Goldfinch."

This organization originated from the extreme ideology of turbulent times, advocating the destruction of the existing state apparatus and all its symbols through thorough destruction; these theories provided a seemingly "sublime" outlet and explanatory framework for his endless pain and anger.

The "Red Goldfinch" online recruiters keenly discovered Horikawa Nen's unique value — he was inside the Imperial Palace, possessing access rights and knowledge.

They contacted him through encrypted channels; at first expressing "understanding" and "sympathy," gradually instilling extreme ideology, attributing his personal misfortune entirely to the system, and bestowing upon him a "sacred mission": as an insider, to assist in completing a symbolic strike against the "core of the Emperor system," thereby awakening the populace, becoming the "goldfinch" that ignites the revolutionary fire.

Horikawa Nen began cooperating with the online personnel, and assisted them in bypassing defense systems, communicating with them through physical letters and physical exchanges.

This mysterious organization never showed their faces; they seemed to be constantly searching for something. The other party had once inquired about the specific location of the famous "Three Sacred Treasures"; Horikawa Nen provided the direction, but the true "Three Sacred Treasures" are known only to the highest-ranking officials of the Imperial Household Agency — what are normally displayed are replicas. Then the organization inquired about the storage location of the "Gyojū" (Emperor's Jade Seal) and "Kokujū" (State Seal) used in the "Kenji-tō Keishō no Gi" (Sword and Seal Succession Ceremony).

These two seals are normally stored in the "Jade Seal Chamber" inside the Imperial Palace, managed by the Imperial Household Agency Shoryo Bureau, with equally extremely strict guards, but still somewhat more manageable than the Three Sacred Treasures. Horikawa Nen agreed to help, but as an Assistant Section Chief he needed to slowly devise a way.

Soon the Stone Room incident occurred.

Horikawa thought things were bad, but he quickly discovered he had not been exposed, until the next day when he came to work and keenly noticed many more Imperial Police and plainclothes who looked like police.

Long-term psychological distortion, instilled "martyrdom" sentiment, and fear of exposure mixed together, causing him, when discovered, to choose the most extreme, most desperate "gyokusai" method, attempting to fulfill his assigned "mission" and completely vent a lifetime of resentment.

When the interrogation results and the name "Red Goldfinch" were heard by the Chief Cabinet Secretary, the Director of the Commissioner's Secretariat, and Superintendent General Watanabe Eiji on the other side of the glass, these titans accustomed to great storms felt a long-lost, bone-piercing chill.

"Red Goldfinch?" Onoda Kimiaki murmured, his face turning extremely ugly: "Those vengeful spirits — they still haven't dispersed?"

This name reminded him of that dark turbulent period in Japanese history, the scar when postwar Japan's safety myth was thoroughly shattered.

Onoda Kimiaki abruptly stood up, pacing anxiously in the room: "Not merely an insider crime! This is a premeditated, politically motivated attempted terrorist attack! All our attention until now has been on internal management loopholes, completely ignoring the possible organizational threat behind it! What a grave misjudgment!"

Watanabe Eiji also felt a wave of lingering fear, cold sweat soaking his back: "If — if Kai Toru had been a second slower, letting him detonate near the Imperial Palace — if the 'Red Goldfinch' took the opportunity to claim responsibility — what catastrophic impact would that cause domestically and internationally?! This is not merely a scandal; it would be the beginning of a new wave of terrorism!"

They realized they had nearly not just been handling an internal scandal, but facing the prologue to a terrorist storm that might sweep the nation.

Horikawa Nen was not merely a deranged insider, but a terrorist possessed by an ancient ghost who had nearly succeeded!

"Wait, I have a question. What is the Red Goldfinch?" Uesugi Muneyuki raised his hand; he did not fully understand: "It sounds like an extreme left-wing terrorist organization; is it related to the famous Sekigun?"

The moment the word Sekigun was spoken, everyone in the interrogation room stared at Uesugi Muneyuki.

You just now said "Sekigun," right?

And Uesugi Muneyuki stared back without the slightest hesitation.

Compared to the many high-ranking officials and public security police on site, Uesugi Muneyuki possessed more information.

As expected, the Inner World's existence targets the Imperial Family, but mainly not the Living God Family — rather the Three Sacred Treasures or other National Heavy Implements that can represent the state!

It should be said, from the perspective of that infiltrating Inner World existence, the bomb was only a last resort; the other party's thinking was likely: if they really cannot obtain it, then destroy it!

But Horikawa Nen only wanted to blow it up!

The two sides' thinking was not the same; this is also one of the drawbacks of layer upon layer of separation making it impossible to explain face to face.

Everyone has their own thoughts; even uterine brothers like Li Jiancheng, Li Yuanji, and Li Shimin would have some issues; even Liu, Guan, and Zhang, whose political ambitions and life philosophies were almost completely identical, had disagreements and their own thoughts on some matters — let alone this kind of extremely crude cooperative relationship.

Similarly, the fragmentary words of secretly transmitted physical letters make it hard to explain things clearly. When Liu Bei said "My second brother is unmatched under heaven," that was boasting, pride, unwillingness to believe.

When Li Jiancheng said "My second brother is unmatched under heaven," it was an unmitigated hellish joke.

Likewise, when Liu Bei said "Continue the music, continue the dance," it was a symbol of willing self-degradation.

But when Li Shimin said "Continue the music, continue the dance," that was because Jieli Khan was dancing for the Tiān Kèhán right before him.

Unfortunately, Horikawa Nen himself was too eager to blow things up; he simply did not care what the other side wanted to find. In truth, he did not even understand the so-called Red Goldfinch; he had never met that "Inner World person," nor had he ever had offline or online real-name communication with anyone inside the "Red Goldfinch" organization — the other party always used codenames.

Onoda Kimiaki fell silent for a long while; Watanabe Eiji seemed to want to speak but stopped; only the Director of the Commissioner's Secretariat Onoda Kimiaki was silent for a moment, then said: "Regarding this matter and the Red Goldfinch, Uesugi-kun, I must ask you one thing first: do you know 'Zenkyōtō'?"