Volume 2 The Executioner Chapter 77: Ogata's Meeting with Kuranaga
"Muye, the interesting news you mentioned, could it be that you found a beautiful woman somewhere again?" A senior brother sitting next to Muye said this in a half-joking tone.
"How is that possible?" Makino patted the brother's shoulder unhappily. "The interesting news I want to tell you is not something so boring."
"Makino-senpai!" Sawamura said urgently, "Then why don't you tell me what this interesting news is?"
"Hehe, the news I want to tell you is related to the shogunate ."
Makino lowered his voice, and with malicious intent he paused at this point to whet the appetite of Sawamura and the others.
And Makino's little trick was quite successful - Sawamura and others, who were gradually growing in anticipation, unconsciously stretched their necks slightly forward in the direction of Makino.
Seeing that he had successfully aroused the interest of Sawamura and the others, Makino stopped playing tricks, cleared his throat, and then -
"The shogunate seems to be gathering all the serious criminals from across the country recently."
"Call the serious criminals?" Sawamura muttered with a frown.
The others sitting around Makino also had frowns on their brows.
"I have a friend who works in the prison," Makino continued. "He told me that the shogunate recently issued an order to all the feudal domains, requiring them to transfer the most severely punished criminals in their respective prisons to Kii."
"Ki...?" Sawamura frowned even more deeply. "The more I listen, the more confused I am... Why did the shogunate summon all the serious criminals from all over the country for no reason? And why are they taking them to Kii?"
"How should I know?" Makino shrugged with a wry smile, "We can't guess what those bigwigs in the shogunate are thinking."
"Does our Hirose clan have any serious criminals now?" asked another junior fellow apprentice of Makino.
"According to my friend who works in the prison, no." Makino said, "So they are very free now. They don't need to be busy like the people in other domains, taking those extremely vicious criminals to Kii... Ah, Ogata-senpai is here!"
Makino's face was facing the gate of the dojo.
So he could clearly see who was coming in and out of the dojo.
Makino, who was chatting with Sawamura and others, caught a glimpse of a familiar figure at the gate of the dojo out of the corner of his eye.
He quickly raised his head and looked towards the gate of the dojo.
The person who appeared at the gate of the dojo was Ogata Yoshisei.
Makino only noticed Ogata's arrival.
But he didn't notice that the expression on Ogata's face was a little strange at this moment.
Makino quickly stood up and led Sawamura and others to meet Ogata.
"Ogata-senpai! Good evening!" Makino was the first to greet Ogata.
"Well. Good evening to you too." Ogata smiled.
After exchanging greetings with Makino and others, the smile on Ogata's face disappeared.
"I'm sorry, everyone. I suddenly had something urgent to attend to, so I will be late for the banquet tonight."
"Eh?" Makino cast a puzzled look at Ogata. "Emergency? What's the emergency?"
“…I’m sorry, I can’t tell you. Makino, please tell the others for me later.”
"Because I might arrive late, you can hold the banquet at the scheduled time without waiting for me to come back."
"Makino, I'm counting on you."
After saying this, Xu Fang left the dojo's gate quickly without stopping.
Only Makino and others were left looking at each other with puzzled expressions.
…
…
Waiting for Ogata outside the dojo were the two retainers of Kuranaga Zaemon who had just visited the Ogata family.
"Sorry to have kept you waiting." Ogata said to the two of them in a neutral tone, "Let's go."
"Yes. Ogata Issei-kun, please follow us."
…
…
The two young samurai led Ogata around the castle town, turning left and right.
Finally, they stopped in front of a magnificent mansion.
Looking at the wide gate in front of him, Ogata asked the two people in front of him:
"Do you need me to hand in my saber?"
"Need not."
“I see…”
Ogata drew the katana from his left waist, and held it with the scabbard in his right hand.
One of the two young warriors whispered a few words to the two servants guarding the gate, and the two servants pushed open the wide door of the house.
"Ogata Issei-kun, please."
"Yes." After nodding to the two young warriors, he slowly walked into the patriarch's residence under the guidance of the two men.
After Ogata and others entered Kuranaga's residence, the two servants guarding the door closed again.
The slowly closing door isolated the mansion from the outside world again.
…
…
"Ogata Issei-kun, please take a seat."
After the leading young samurai led Ogata into a clean and tidy room, he once again made a "please" gesture towards the tatami in the middle of the room.
Ogata nodded to the young samurai again, then knelt at the position the young samurai had just pointed to, and placed the katana in his right hand on the tatami on the right side of his body.
Then straighten your back and place your hands flat on your legs.
In front of Ogata, there are two paper sliding doors that can be opened to the left and right respectively.
These two paper sliding doors together formed a huge paper wall, blocking Ogata's view.
After Ogata knelt on the ground, the two young samurai who were responsible for bringing Ogata all the way here walked to the two ends of the two huge paper sliding doors, one on the left and one on the right.
A person was kneeling next to the paper sliding door on the left.
The other person was kneeling next to the paper sliding door on the right.
As if they had rehearsed it in advance, the two of them reached out their hands at the same time and pulled open the paper sliding doors on both sides.
The paper wall that blocked Ogata's view suddenly split into two.
Ogata's vision suddenly became clear.
Behind this paper wall composed of two paper sliding doors, there is an old man who is also sitting upright.
Ogata was very familiar with this old man.
After all, they had just met at the sacrificial competition more than a month ago.
This old man was none other than Kuranaga Saemon, the patriarch of the Hirose Domain.
Kuranaga looked at Ogata.
Then he spoke calmly to the two young samurai who had brought Ogata here and had just helped to open the paper sliding door that separated Ogata from Kuranaga :
"You two should step back first."
"Yes!"*2
The two young warriors responded in unison, stood up at the same time, and left the room.
Ogata and Kuranaga are the only ones left in this space.
"It's been more than a month since we last met, Ogata-kun." Kuranaga smiled at Ogata.
"Good evening, old man." Ogata tried his best to give Kuranaga a polite smile. "I wonder why the old man invited me to his house so late at night. What's the matter?"
Ogata was actually somewhat unhappy that Kuranaga invited him into the mansion at this time.
Because the time chosen by Kuranaga is really hard to describe.
According to the original plan, Ogata should have been drinking happily with his fellow disciples at Sakakibara Sword Hall.
As a result, due to Kuranaga's sudden "invitation", Ogata's original plan was completely disrupted.
