Hyuga Kagami didn't deny it. Speaking in a cold, emotionless voice, he said, "That's right. The business I want to discuss with you is the Dragon Vein."
"No. Absolutely not!"
The Queen of Loran refused almost instinctively.
Hyuga Kagami didn't waste time asking a foolish question like "Why?" Instead, he coldly replied, "You don't have the right to refuse."
She could hear the threat in his voice, but instead of backing down, she straightened her back. "You don't understand the true power of the Dragon Vein. It's not something you can control. Let go of your ambitions."
Kagami shook his head. "No, you're the one who doesn't understand the situation. I told you: refusal is not an option."
The Queen turned her face away, choosing silence as her form of resistance.
"Listen to the sounds outside," Kagami said, his voice turning even colder. "Your people live harsh lives in the desert, following you with faith. Can you really bear to watch them die one by one?"
His black cloak and the terrifying demon-faced mask gave his words a chilling weight.
The Queen paled. Her lips parted several times, but no words came out.
At that moment, a Loran refugee called from outside the tent, "Your Highness, the soup is ready. Shall I bring it in?"
Inside, Hyuga Kagami silently pulled out a kunai.
Seeing the cold steel in his hand, the Queen's heart leapt into her throat. She quickly responded to the person outside, "No need. I'm not hungry."
"If you get hungry later, just call me," the refugee replied before walking away.
As the footsteps faded, the Queen exhaled deeply.
Kagami asked, "So, have you made up your mind?"
She reluctantly said, "I can't break the seal. Forcing me won't help."
"You don't need to worry about the seal. All I need is your help to control the Dragon Vein once it's free." He paused. "Once this is done, I'll pay you a large sum. Enough to improve the lives of you and your people. Compared to the useless Dragon Vein, money is what you truly need."
The Queen gently placed the baby in her arms onto the bed and said, "I'll go with you. But promise me one thing: don't hurt my people."
She didn't believe his promise of money. She was sure that once Kagami took the Dragon Vein, the first thing he would do was silence her forever.
But she had no choice. To protect her daughter and her people, she had to sacrifice herself. Besides, she was already gravely ill. Her time was running out.
Kagami gave her no guarantees. He simply took her away from the caravan, vanishing into the night with a few swift leaps.
The Manto Oasis wasn't far from the Loran Ruins. After several hours of travel, Kagami and the Queen arrived at the ruins.
The Queen, seeing her birthplace again, shed silent tears. It was where she had grown up—and the place she had abandoned.
Kagami stood quietly by, not interrupting her moment of sorrow.
In Kagami's eyes, the downfall of the Loran Kingdom had been inevitable. As the saying goes, "a treasure invites trouble." Without the power to control the Dragon Vein, they were bound to attract greedy eyes.
After a while, they arrived at the site where the Fourth Hokage had sealed the Dragon Vein.
The Queen pointed to the seal on the ground. "This was sealed personally by the Fourth Hokage of Konoha. If you can't undo it, there's nothing I can do to help."
Without saying a word, Kagami stepped into the center of the seal and gave a low shout, "Release!"
As he spoke, a large part of the sealing array faded away. The entire Dragon Vein seal shrank dramatically.
The Queen gasped. "I... I can feel the Dragon Vein!"
"Of course. I just removed the contract portion of the seal. Your connection to it should be restored," Kagami replied coldly. "How does it feel now?"
The Queen concentrated. "It feels agitated... very restless."
"Restless?" Kagami gave her a sharp look.
She tried to warn him. "You should stop. The Dragon Vein's power is beyond anyone's control. If you continue breaking the seal, something terrible may happen!"
Kagami smiled faintly. "We've come too far to stop now."
The Queen shook her head in frustration. "You have no idea how terrifying its power really is!"
Unfazed, Kagami resumed making hand signs. In a cold voice, he chanted, "Release!"
This time, he broke the core of the seal: the Four Symbols Seal. The moment it unraveled, the entire seal neared total collapse.
WHOOSH... WHOOSH...
A fierce wind picked up out of nowhere, whistling through the ruins.
Watching the seal begin to fall apart, Kagami's lips curled upward slightly.
This was why he had been confident all along. He didn't need to fully break the Fourth Hokage's seal—just create a small breach. That alone was enough for the Dragon Vein to fight its way out.
At that moment, he unsealed a scroll containing a synthetic tailed beast husk and placed his hand on it.
POOF!
As the mist cleared, a large, deflated balloon-like mass of purple clay appeared, covered in intricate sealing formulas.
The Queen stared at it. "What... what is that?"
Activating his Tenseigan, Kagami replied calmly, "Don't worry about what it is. When the Dragon Vein breaks free, your job is to help me control it. Don't let it go berserk."
Seeing the seal collapse more and more with each second, the Queen knew there was no stopping this now. She nodded reluctantly.
Kagami focused all his energy, activating the full power of his Tenseigan, eyes locked onto the Dragon Vein as it struggled to break free.
The Dragon Vein had always been one of the great mysteries of the shinobi world. After all, in nature, there should be no way for such an immense amount of chakra—rivaling that of a tailed beast—to form naturally.
In Kagami's view, only a few entities could create such power: the ancient chakra progenitor Kaguya Otsutsuki, her sons Hamura and Hagoromo, some unknown demonic force from another realm, or perhaps a forgotten evil god lingering in the shadows of the ninja world.
In any case, one thing was certain:
The Dragon Vein was not a natural creation of this world. And Hyuga Kagami was determined to find out exactly what it truly was.