Comparing Answers

The seat at the very back of the hall was neither for guests nor for the press.

I later asked someone from the Agency about it, and apparently it was a general-admission seat assigned by lottery.

In other words, he had stood in line. The man who had built Clan Genbu from scratch had seen the notice in the Official Gazette, applied, and queued for the lottery.

When the applause died down and I looked over there again, the seat was empty. I couldn't find him anywhere in the crowd—not even the envelope with its worn corners.

An eye with twenty years of observation had lost sight of a single person. ...No, that's not it.

I hadn't lost sight of him. The man who never showed his back had been unable to show his face.

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There wasn't room for all seven pairs of shoes in the entryway. Only Maru-kun's boots were left outside on the stairs.

"Old man, let's finish what we promised."

Maru-kun shook that metal flask. The one we'd poured a single centimeter of liquor into and left on a rock on the eve of the Abyss...