Volume 1: Re:Zero -Starting Life as a Samurai Chapter 14: The Hall Competition and the God Sacrifice Competition (Part 2)
As soon as the boss finished speaking, there were sounds of people sucking in their breaths of shock one after another in the room.
Lian Ogata also frowned.
The lord came to check the inventory of various materials in the provincial treasury - in simple terms, he came to check the work performance of these warehouse officers.
Check whether they have sorted out the various materials in the treasury and calculated the inventory status of various materials.
The leader comes to check on the work progress - this should be one of the most annoying things throughout history.
What's more, Ogata and his companions' leader is a lord known for his cruelty.
When they thought about the cruel master coming to check their work performance, many people in the room couldn't help but swallow their saliva...
Ogata and his superiors had already anticipated this reaction from the crowd.
After sighing softly, he said:
"Don't be nervous, the lord will probably just take a look and leave."
"Everyone, please be careful about your words and actions, and don't say anything that would offend the lord."
"Oh, and - remember to wear the hem on the day, and remember to wash it clean."
The ceremonial robe of the warriors.
Ogata's samurai dress was tucked away in the deepest part of his closet, and he would only wear it on special days or occasions.
…
…
Hirose Domain, Sakakibara Sword Hall——
boom!
Ogata knocked Makino's wooden sword away.
Then he placed the tip of the wooden sword against Makino's chest.
"Makino." Ogata smiled slightly, "I win again."
"Alas..." A helpless smile appeared on Makino's face, "I don't think I have ever defeated you, Ogata-senpai, recently."
[Ding! Use Sakakibara Ittoryu·Climb the stairs and defeat the enemy]
[Gain 20 points of personal experience and 20 points of swordsmanship "Sakakibara Ittoryu" experience]
[Current personal level: Lv8 (670/700)]
[Sakakibara Ittoryu Level: 4th Stage (620/700)]
After the reminder sounded in his mind, Ogata said to himself:
——Just a little bit left…
——With only 30 experience points, my personal level can be upgraded...
——The experience value of Sakakibara Ittoryu is only 80 points away...
Although he was only a little bit away from upgrading, Ogata was really too weak to compete with others.
So Obana put away his wooden sword and sat down with Makino at the edge of the dojo to rest.
"Ogata-senpai."
Makino, who was sweating all over, sat down at the edge of the dojo without any image. He said to Ogata, who was sitting next to him and taking a rest, with an admiring tone:
"You've been in really good shape lately. If you keep up this form, you will most likely win first place in the gymnasium competition in a month!"
——An in-house competition?
After muttering this unfamiliar term silently in his mind, Ogata searched his mind for memories related to this word.
Before long, memories related to this word began to pop up in Ogata's mind one after another.
After recalling all the memories related to this term, Ogata smiled at Makino:
"I don't dare to think about winning the first place in the museum competition or something like that."
"I just plan to hone my sword skills. I don't expect to win the first place in the gym competition or anything like that."
The sword competition held in the Sakakibara Sword Hall every six months.
The dates are basically set on June 15th and December 15th every year.
There are currently 28 disciples in Sakakibara Sword Hall. All 28 of them must participate in the hall's competition and are not allowed to ask for leave unless there are special circumstances.
The rankings among the disciples are determined through a series of competitions.
There will be no substantial rewards for ranking high in the museum competition.
But the top five people from the bottom will all receive a "special reward" - a scolding from their master Sakakibara Hanbei.
The reason why Ogata and his disciples' master, Sakakibara Hanbei, held an in-school competition every six months was to motivate his disciples and prevent them from slacking off in their swordsmanship practice.
In the last gymnasium competition, the person who won first place was Mikami.
And Ogata... no, it should be said that "Hara Ogata" won the 4th place.
And now - in another month, a new round of in-house competitions will begin.
In order to avoid being scolded by his master, the man with poor swordsmanship began to practice swordsmanship diligently.
Those who are interested in the ranking in the gym competition are also practicing swordsmanship diligently in the hope of obtaining a higher ranking in the gym competition one month later.
And Ogata had no interest in this competition in the museum...
For Ogata, with the help of the system, it was not difficult to win the first place in the museum competition.
After all, he still has 2 skill points that are not being used.
As long as he adds these two skill points to his personal attributes, or uses them to upgrade his sword skills, Ogata can easily become the strongest among all the disciples of Sakakibara Sword Hall.
But even if he won the first place in the museum competition, there was no substantial reward, so Ogata was not very interested in the museum competition.
Another main reason why Ogata was not interested in this internal competition was because he knew that the winner of the internal competition in June every year would have to participate in the god worship competition held in the Hachiman Jingu Shrine in July every year.
Competition in sacrificing to gods - the full name is "Martial Arts Competition in Sacrificing to Gods".
Every July, an auspicious day is chosen to hold a friendly match between the Sakakibara Sword Hall and the Ishikawa Sword Hall in the nearby Hachiman Jingu Shrine.
Ishikawa Sword Hall - a sword hall that teaches Katori Shinto-ryu not far from Sakakibara Sword Hall.
It is in competition with Sakakibara Sword Hall.
The main content of the sacrificial competition is that each of the two sword halls sends a disciple to fight to see which disciple is stronger.
The purpose of establishing this competition was to deepen the friendship between the two sword halls and help improve sword skills.
But in fact - friendship was put aside, the focus was entirely on exchanging sword skills and gaining face for their respective sword halls.
Sakakibara Sword Hall was built later than Ishikawa Sword Hall.
Therefore, since the establishment of Sakakibara Sword School, the masters and disciples of Ishikawa Sword School have always been hostile to the people of Sakakibara Sword School.
They regard Sakakibara Sword School as a thorn in their side that is stealing their business.
In fact, Sakakibara Sword School did steal the business from Ishikawa Sword School.
Since Sakakibara Hanbei established the Sakakibara Sword School, fewer people have gone to the Ishikawa Sword School to learn martial arts.
It was Sakakibara Hanbei who first proposed holding a festival competition to ease the tension between the two sword schools.
However, since the first sacrificial competition was held, the relationship between the two sword halls has not only not eased, but has become even worse.
Since each family sent out a disciple to fight, whichever family's disciple was defeated would lose face in that family's sword hall.
Moreover, since the religious competition held by the two sword halls is so famous, it attracts many important figures in the domain to watch every year.
Being watched by so many big shots in the domain - be it people from Sakakibara Sword Hall or Ishikawa Sword Hall, no matter which sword hall they were from, they were more unwilling to lose in this festival competition and lose face in front of so many big shots in the domain.
