306 The Rumors

Kimura Kazuki could not make heads or tails out of this as well.

If you wanted to look for a bug, you could have just come over alone. But on second thought, he felt that perhaps Ryoto Amagasaki was afraid to venture into the mountain alone, or maybe he feared that something bad might happen if he were to go alone. After all, Kanayama was not any ordinary mountain but a mountain with hardly any visitors throughout the year. Furthermore, with the beasts lurking around, the mountain was even more frightening when night fell. Any sane person would not dare to hike up the mountain alone.

Moreover, if the police found Ryoto Amagasaki during their investigation at night, Ryoto Amagasaki would have a hard time to prove his innocence, no matter how hard he tried.

Ryoto Amagasaki felt a lot more secure with Hayato coming along. Even if he were to be arrested, at least he had company. But it did not take Kimura Kazuki too long to realize that his thoughts had strayed.

Ryoto Amagasaki heard what Hayato said and gave out a reluctant smile, "I'm not sure whether we can find Daisuke or not, but I know Daisuke's secret. If he really did that, then this would explain why he disappeared."

Hayato shot Ryoto Amagasaki a doubtful glance, "So, you are saying that you did not kill Daisuke?"

Ryoto Amagasaki waved his hands feebly, "I told you that it wasn't me. I was with you guys that day Daisuke went missing. How was I supposed to harm him? Furthermore, homicide is illegal. I am not going to risk my future by doing so."

Upon hearing Ryoto Amagasaki's explanation, Hayato pondered for a while before nodding slowly afterward. He knew Ryoto Amagasaki and believed that what Ryoto Amagasaki said did make sense. 

In school, Ryoto Amagasaki had been fully utilizing his charming face to flirt with pretty girls almost every day. Since this fellow was so indulged in playing the field, it would be rather impossible for him to risk his future by committing a murder.

When he saw that Hayato had become quiet, Ryoto Amagasaki hid no more secrets since his purpose of bringing Hayato along was to look for Daisuke Kojima.

"While I was in school, I had been following Daisuke Kojima for a few days." Ryoto Amagasaki was deep in thought, obviously trying to recall what had happened during that moment. "It was about two months ago when I was on a date with my girlfriend in the library. I saw Daisuke Kojima who was behaving furtively. It seemed like he had found something from the interleaf of a book."

"That night, I slept in the dormitory. You should be aware of that."

At that time, everyone was in the dormitory but none of them seemed to care when Ryoto Amagasaki was rummaging through Daisuke's stuff. It was a common practice in their dormitory for them to occasionally lend their stuff to one another. And most of the time they would just take their stuff back whenever they need it. At that moment, they thought Daisuke had borrowed something from Ryoto. So, that was why they just let Ryoto be when they saw him rummaging through Daisuke's stuff. After all, it was unlikely for Ryoto to steal anything with everyone watching him.

"Yup, that's right." Ryoto Amagasaki smiled weakly, "I did not want to do so, but I got curious when I saw Daisuke sneaking around the library. And guess what? I found his secret!"　

Upon seeing Hayato's curious expression with his ears perked up, Ryoto Amagasaki did not conceal anything and straightaway revealed the truth, "Daisuke has a treasure map."

"A treasure map?" Hayato was slightly dumbfounded to hear that.

"Yes!" Ryoto Amagasaki laughed, "Do you know the reason behind the prosperity of Kobayashi Village?"

By connecting the dots, Hayato knew that it must be the treasure map.

Hayato remained silent, but Ryoto Amagasaki could tell from his eyes that he already knew the answer. He then began to speak slowly, "Twenty years ago, Kobayashi Village was thriving on the rumor of the hidden treasure on Kanayama and attracted visitors to come and search for the treasure. And this treasure was not just any groundless claim. During the Nara period, when Emperor Kanmu decided to move the capital from Nara to Kyoto, someone planned to establish a foothold in Kyoto. At that time, a serious conflict broke out between the imperial government, the nobles and the monks. Hence, the moving of the capital was imperative. But at the same time, the nobles and the monks had a countermove toward the Emperor's plan to move the capital. Kanayama's original name was Aoyama and the Aoyama Temple was supposed to be built on it. Unfortunately, the Emperor had prepared beforehand as he had secretly sent someone to bring these nobles and monks down. During that time, their wealth had never been found and were left in Kanayama." 

Hayato was secretly shocked. He asked doubtfully, "Did you get these news from Daisuke as well?"

"No… I read it on the Internet." Ryoto Amagasaki grinned, "The information from the Internet is complete. All these news were spread out from Kobayashi Village twenty years ago. Every year, you can see people coming to Kobayashi Village and heading to Kanayama for treasure hunting."

"These news should be fake, right?" Hayato was not that knowledgeable when it came to history and thus he dared not conclude the validity of the news.

"I'm skeptical too." With his hands spread out, Ryoto Amagasaki continued his words with a sneer. "But Daisuke believes it. This fellow is poor and instead of studying hard, he prefers to earn money by crooked means. For example by trying to dig up other people's secrets and threaten them. How shameless and vile of him to do so!" Ryoto Amagasaki was gnashing his teeth in rage when he finished speaking. 

Hayato was speechless. It was obvious that he could hardly believe that the introverted and quiet Daisuke Kojima turned out to be a person like this. However, from Ryoto Amagasaki's exasperated expression, it seemed that he was not lying.

Maybe this is what "don't judge a book by its cover" means.

"Well, what should we do now?" Hayato pointed to the nylon rope on Ryoto Amagasaki's hand and grinned awkwardly. "With you bringing this rope, I nearly thought that you wanted to strangle me to death whenever I let my guard down."

This was also why Hayato kept his distance from Ryoto Amagasaki and followed Ryoto Amagasaki closely behind without walking past him.

Ryoto Amagasaki felt nothing but helplessness for he knew that Hayato did not fully trust him yet. Having that in mind, he immediately threw Hayato the nylon rope in his hands and jokingly said, "Now you have the rope. I think I'm supposed to be the one in danger."

This was a rather awkward joke since Ryoto Amagasaki was currently not in the mood for jokes. Before Hayato managed to say anything, he blurted out, "I've looked at the treasure map found by Daisuke thoroughly. This is the arbor being marked on the treasure map. It's right here! This is the only arbor in Kanayama."

Ryoto Amagasaki looked at the arbor in front of him and said steadfastly, "This arbor is built on top of this steep slope. And lying underneath is a cliff extending down to a depth of about 100 meters. Half of the Kobayashi village can be seen from here as well. So, the treasure should be somewhere around here."

As he was talking, he waved his hands and gestured to Hayato to come over. Hayato started to trust Ryoto Amagasaki a bit more when he had the rope in his hand. However, he was still afraid of staying too close to Ryoto Amagasaki for there was a cliff right underneath this arbor. A push was enough to send him down the cliff and smash into pieces.

"Give me the rope."

Hearing that, Hayato immediately tossed the rope over. Ryoto Amagasaki got the rope and tied it on one of the outer pillars of the arbor in a tight and secured manner.

Ryoto Amagasaki then put down the backpack that he had been carrying all this while and retrieved a set of climbing gear from it. After Ryoto Amagasaki geared himself up, he looked at Hayato with his face rigid with nervousness. "You stay up here to guard the area. I will go down and see if there really is a cave."