Volume 2 The Executioner Chapter 95: The Man Who Stepped Up
"You will all wear these seven sets of mail armor tomorrow." Kuranaga gently stroked the mail armor closest to him, "They will definitely come in handy."
" We won't know . So - Ichiro, after the seven of you launch the assault, you will be the overall commander."
"When to start the attack, who will be the main attacker and who will be the auxiliary attacker - these things are all up to you to decide."
"Yes!" Ichiro responded loudly.
As for Cang Yong, he paused for a moment when he said this.
After a while, he spoke again quietly:
"It is now close to the end of September. According to the master's habit of never going out hunting in autumn and winter, his hunting trip tomorrow will be his last hunting trip this year."
"So this is our only chance this year..."
"So... tomorrow... will determine our future... and the future of the Hirose Domain."
“I hope you will all work together.”
"I also wish you all...good luck in martial arts."
…
…
Ogata never expected that he would suffer from insomnia tonight.
Maybe it's because I'm excited, or maybe it's because I'm nervous.
Or maybe... it's simply because Shiro's snoring is too loud.
Ogata had always found Shiro to be a very nervous person.
But Ogata didn't expect that Shiro's nerves could be so thick that he slept better than usual the night before the decisive battle and snored even louder than usual.
Feeling that he couldn't fall asleep, Ogata threw back the quilt and tiptoed out of the room.
The patriots all slept in the same room. In order not to disturb others' sleep, Ogata deliberately reduced the sound of footsteps and breathing to the minimum.
Ogata thought of taking a walk outside the room to relax.
In order to conceal the existence of Ogata and others, Kuranaga drew a "circle" with the living room of the patriots as the center, and did not allow any servants in the mansion to enter this "circle", nor did he allow Ogata and others to leave this "circle".
The only people who can enter and exit this "circle" freely are Kuranaga and Tobizaru.
Because of the limited range of activities, Ogata cannot walk around casually.
In the end, Ogata decided to go to the place he was most familiar with these days - the dojo.
There is a relatively large window in the dojo, facing the sky.
Ogata's purpose was to go to the dojo to see the night sky and breathe the fresh air outside the window.
After opening the paper sliding door of the dojo, Ogata was surprised to find that there was someone inside.
And...he is an acquaintance of Ogata.
"Family elder..." Looking at Kuranaga holding a wooden sword in his hand, Ogata raised his eyebrows, "Why are you here? Are you also unable to sleep and came here to look at the night sky to relax?"
As Ogata spoke, he pointed towards the large window of the dojo.
"I really can't sleep." Kuranaga smiled bitterly, "But - I didn't come here to see the night sky."
"I couldn't sleep anyway, so I thought I might as well practice swordplay."
"My Lord..." Ogata cast a helpless look at Kuranaga, "You will only get more and more excited the more you practice, and the more you practice, the more you will not be able to sleep."
After saying that, Ogata walked straight to the window, then sat cross-legged by the window, looking at the stars in the night sky outside.
"My Lord, actually... ever since you summoned me to your mansion and asked me if I wanted to be the ' executioner ', I have always thought that you are a strange guy."
Now there are only Ogata and Kuranaga, no other outsiders.
Therefore, Ogata decided to tell Kuranaga tonight the words and questions that had been deeply buried in his mind for these days and that he had always wanted to tell Kuranaga but had never had the chance to say.
"Strange? What do you mean?"
"My Lord, you are planning to assassinate Matsudaira Gennai."
"But you still call the person you want to kill 'Lord'."
"It's like speaking honorifics to the murderer of my father whom I'm about to kill. It's quite weird."
"My Lord, why do you insist on calling Matsudaira Gennai 'Lord'? If you put your heart into changing the way you address others, you can correct it, right?"
After hearing Ogata's question, Kuranaga pursed his lips.
Then, Kuranaga silently put the wooden sword in his hand back on the sword rack, then walked to Ogata's side and sat side by side with him.
"Yeah..." Kuranaga smiled bitterly, "I myself... I also feel that I am very contradictory..."
"I wish Matsudaira Gennai would die right now..."
"But my mouth always uses honorifics for him uncontrollably..."
"My determination to uphold justice, combined with the concept of 'loyalty' that I have been adhering to since I can remember, has created... this contradictory and strange appearance of mine now..."
"Family elder..." Ogata said softly, "You are also a very remarkable person... In this era, there are almost no people like you who are willing to kill the lord they serve for the sake of justice..."
“Heh…” Cangyong pulled the corner of his mouth and revealed an ugly smile, “I too… after a struggle you can’t imagine, I finally made up my mind to uphold justice…”
"I told myself this countless times in my heart after Matsudaira Gennai became the new lord of my domain and his brutal nature was exposed."
"'I am a samurai, I must be loyal to my lord, no matter what ridiculous things my lord does, I cannot be disloyal to him'."
“I say this sentence countless times in my mind every day…”
"Only in this way can I feel at ease ignoring the atrocities committed by Matsudaira Gennai."
"Until... around the middle of this year... I saw the lord hack a poor little girl to death..."
"That poor little girl did nothing wrong. She just accidentally bumped into Matsudaira Gennai's carriage. Matsudaira Gennai ordered his men to chop her into two pieces, and then threw her on the side of the road like garbage..."
“I happened to be there at the time…”
"I can't describe how I felt when I saw the tragic death of this little girl..."
"I only remember clearly that a voice sounded very loudly in my mind : I can't bear it anymore."
Kuranaga pulled out the katana from his waist.
Click.
Then open the scabbard and slowly pull the blade out of the scabbard.
The unsheathed blade reflected a cold light that just covered Cang Yong's pupils, illuminating the brilliance in Cang Yong's eyes.
"At that moment... I finally came to my senses..."
"I am a warrior, but I am also a man."
"When the sky falls and the earth breaks, there are always a few men who stand up."
"If you succumb to darkness and don't sacrifice yourself for justice, you've wasted your life as a man!"
"Ogata-kun, I'm going to tell you the truth."
"When I decided to assassinate my lord, I made my decision - I launched this assassination as a man. In the end, I will end it as a samurai."
"Whether the assassination succeeds or fails, I will commit seppuku to apologize."
"Assassinating the lord is for the sake of justice. Committing seppuku to apologize is for the morality of the samurai."
"Use the blood from my belly to cleanse my soul that has become unclean due to betraying my master."
After saying that, Cangyong slowly put the knife back into the scabbard, and the cold light that originally enveloped his eyes gradually faded away.
