Volume 4: The Undead Chapter 224: The Monarch Within the Wall (Part 2)
"We are just here to ask you a few questions. After that, we will leave immediately. We will never stay here, and we will never harm the lives of anyone here. Okay?"
Because they still had questions to ask Chikanosuke, both Ogata and Atachi were polite to Chikanosuke.
Atachi only used his hands to control Chikanosuke, and did not put a knife to his neck like he did when he controlled the maid just now.
When Ogata negotiated with Chikanosuke, he also used an extremely gentle tone and spoke in a respectful manner that he had not used for a long time.
After Ogata finished speaking, Chikanosuke nodded slightly, expressing with his gesture his willingness to cooperate with Ogata and others.
Seeing Chikanosuke nodded, Obe winked at Atachi, who was standing behind Chikanosuke and controlling him, signaling Atachi to let Chikanosuke go.
After Atachi's hands left his mouth, and his lips and tongue regained their freedom, Chikanosuke cooperated very well and did not scream loudly. He also calmly straightened his clothes.
"Since you have this sword, it means you are indeed friends of Tenmanji. So I believe you."
Chikanosuke said softly.
"You two should be prisoners thrown onto this island by the shogunate, right? Which batch of prisoners are you among?"
"The 4th batch." Ogata replied.
"The fourth batch?" Chikanosuke twitched his lips and sneered, "The shogunate has already thrown so many people onto this island... Tell me, what do you want to ask?"
"We want to know more information about the cannibal."
"Why do you want to know this?" Chikanosuke cast a puzzled look at Ogata.
As soon as he finished speaking, Chikanosuke seemed to remember something and uttered "ah" softly.
"I remember now." Chikanosuke muttered, "One of the conditions for pardoning you prisoners given by the shogunate is to obtain useful information about the cannibal ghosts, so you plan to get information from me, am I right?"
Ogata shook his head. "No. My companions and I are not interested in the so-called pardon, and I don't believe that the shogunate will really give us freedom so easily, so we just want to escape from this island by our own strength."
"The reason why we want intelligence on the cannibal ghosts is because my companions are tasked with collecting intelligence on the cannibal ghosts."
"No matter what your purpose is." Chikanosuke sighed, "Anyway - you will be disappointed. I don't know much about cannibals."
"How they came, how to kill them, and what other characteristics they have, I have no idea at all."
"The only thing I know about cannibals is that they can't be killed, their blood is poisonous, they don't get tired, people on this island will turn into cannibals when they die, and living people will suddenly turn into cannibals without any warning - other than that, I don't know anything else about cannibals."
As Chikanosuke finished speaking, Atachi, who was kneeling behind Chikanosuke, had a look of deep disappointment on her face.
She, Mamiya, and Makimura - the reason why the three of them deliberately let themselves be captured by government officials and sent to this island was to collect as much information as possible about the "cannibal ghost".
Although she had already prepared herself mentally, she still couldn't hide her disappointment after hearing what Chikanosuke had just said.
"Then let's change the question." Ogata said quickly, "Do you have any extra ships here? When the shogunate destroyed all the ships on the island, did you save a few in time?"
"Since you know that the shogunate destroyed all the tools for leaving the island... Did the people from Tenmanji tell you..." Chikanosuke's face showed a strong bitterness, "No. The shogunate's soldiers spared no effort when they were ordered to destroy the ships and shipbuilding tools on this island."
"There are no ships in this land anymore."
"If we had a boat, we would have left ."
This time it was Ogata who couldn't hide his disappointment.
"No boat..." Ogata sighed, "There's nothing we can do... Let's try to build a raft."
"Do you know how to build a raft?" Ating asked back.
"I don't know. If all else fails, just grab a piece of wood and swim out of this island."
Although Ogata said this, he was thinking:
——Let’s take Ating with us and search around Fenghe Village. They might have hidden a boat, but they just kept it from us and refused to tell us.
Coincidentally, when Ogata was thinking this in his heart, Atachi was also thinking in his heart at almost the same time:
——Let’s take Ayi with us and search Fenghe Village thoroughly . They might have hidden the boat, but they just hid it from us and refused to tell us.
It’s a pity that the two of them didn’t know that they had almost the same idea at the same time, and they didn’t know that they had such a tacit understanding with each other.
"Excuse me - let me interrupt for a moment." Chikanosuke suddenly said, "Since you two are friends of Tenmanji, can I ask you some questions?"
"You ask." Ogata nodded.
"How is Tenmanji Temple now?" Chikanosuke said in a somewhat anxious tone, "Since the wooden wall was built a year ago, the connection with Tenmanji Temple has been cut off. How are Kyokai and Sokai now?"
Jinghai - the Buddhist name of Zonghai’s mentor.
When Chikanosuke asked him this question, the expression on Ogata's face became a little strange.
"A lot of things happened in Tenmanji..."
Fenghe Village erected a wooden wall a year ago to isolate itself .
Therefore, Chikanosuke didn't even know that Kyokai had died half a year ago due to a relapse of his old illness.
Ogata repeated to Chikanosuke everything he knew about Tenmanji Temple in the simplest terms possible.
From Jinghai's death due to illness to the still-living Zonghai who recently accepted Xianhai, a former prisoner, as his disciple.
And Chikanosuke's expression kept changing as Ogata spoke.
“Is that so…” A look of sorrow appeared on Kinnosuke’s face, “Kyokai… is no longer alive… has he also become a cannibal…”
"...Chikanosuke." Looking at Chikanosuke with a sad face, Ogata hesitated for a while and said softly, "About Sokai... there are some things I have to tell you. I think these things should not be hidden from you."
"Hmm? What's up?"
"Something about cannibals..."
Ogata informed Chikanosuke of a series of breaking news that were like bolts from the blue to him: Kyokai did not turn into a cannibal, there might be something fishy going on between the master and disciple pair of Kazuyo and Kazunao, and there might be something wrong with the water in the Linong River.
The look of horror on Chikanosuke's face was spreading at an alarming rate.
