Volume 5: Kyoto Summer Campaign Chapter 316: The Unspoken Rules of the Warriors (Part 2)
"What's wrong with Eta? What's wrong with the samurai?"
Shunliu seemed not to have heard Abe's request to leave.
Shunliu hammered the two knives on his left waist.
"Submitting to the powerful and not upholding justice, can you still be called a samurai?! Are you still worthy of Bushido?"
When Abe heard Shunliu's words, he was stunned for a moment.
Then he burst into laughter.
I laughed so hard that tears came out of my eyes. I looked like I had heard a funny joke.
Shunliu and Makimura had no idea what Abe was laughing at, they just stared at him in a daze.
Abe didn't stand up until he was tired of laughing.
"Makimura Yahachi, Kunieda Junroku. It seems like your two understandings of 'samurai' are a little off."
Abe's mouth curled up in a mocking arc.
"Our duty as warriors...is to protect the powerful."
"Whether it's the most powerful noble in Japan, the Great Tree Lord, or ordinary noble families from all over the country, they are all our protection objects."
"Don't you two understand the core concept of Bushido?"
"The core idea of Bushido is 'protect the powerful at all costs'."
When Abe finished speaking, Junroku's expression became dull.
After a while, Shunliu's face regained its spirits, he clenched his teeth and his face turned red.
Just as Shunroku was about to yell something at Abe again, the paper sliding door of the room was pulled open.
"Makimura! Kunieda! What are you two doing?!"
"Lord Shenshan..." Mucun murmured.
The person who entered through the sliding door was none other than Kamiyama Koshinosuke, the man who had saved them both from the quagmire of Sanji Street and helped them become the samurai they had always dreamed of.
"Get out now!" Shenshan shouted.
"But!" Junroku shouted, "Sakai Jinshiro..."
Before Shunliu could finish his words, Shenshan spoke first:
"The case of Sakai Jinshiro using Eta to test the knife is over! No one is allowed to mention this case again!"
Shenshan's words made Mucun and Shunliu both stunned.
"... Lord Kamiyama." Shunroku clenched his fists, "Do you think like Lord Abe... that samurai should prioritize protecting the rich and powerful...!"
"...Junroku." Kamiyama said expressionlessly, "You have to understand... In our world of samurai, there are some things you have to turn a blind eye to, and some things you even have to pretend not to see."
“……” Shunliu did not respond to Shenshan’s words.
Just lower your head and walk away...
After looking at Shenshan and Shunliu, Mucun quickly caught up with Shunliu...
…
…
"Macun! Macun! Get up!"
"Makino-senpai! Please wake up!"
Two extremely familiar shouts pulled Mucun out of his dream.
The scene before my eyes shattered and turned into darkness.
Mucun woke up from the dream and suddenly opened his eyes.
After opening his eyes, the first thing that caught his eye was the wooden bars that locked him in the cage.
There were three people standing behind the wooden fence.
Two of them were Asai and Shimada, who were very familiar to Makimura.
The other person was relatively unfamiliar, but after looking at him carefully, Makimura also recognized him - it was Hasegawa Heizo, the leader of the Fire Thieves Kai.
The three men were standing outside the prison door, and Shimada was still holding his large sword in his hand.
Before Makimura could even remember to ask how they got here, Hasegawa spoke up first:
"Get up. We're here to get you out."
After saying that, Hasegawa took out a bunch of keys from his arms and opened the door of Makimura's cell.
"I knew you would come to save me." Mucun grinned, "Given the lord's character, how could she allow her subordinates to suffer an unjust fate?"
"But the way you saved me was much gentler than I thought."
"I thought you would definitely stand in front of me with a bloody look on your face."
"Our original plan was actually to break into the prison," Asai said, "but with the help of Hasegawa Heizo, we saved a lot of effort."
"Makimura-senpai, let's leave here first." Shimada, who was holding Makimura's knife, said at this time, "We will tell you how we rescued you while we are out."
After shaking off the dust on his hakama and taking his sword back from Shimada's hand, Makimura followed Hasegawa and others and walked out of the prison in a swagger.
When walking out of the prison, Makimura happened to learn from Shimada the whole story of how they rescued him.
"...I see." After nodding slightly, Makimura bowed solemnly to Hasegawa and thanked him, "Master Hasegawa, thank you for your help."
"You're welcome." Hasegawa said calmly, "It's just a small matter."
"Makimura." At this moment, Asai suddenly said, "Come with me. Shimada, come here too. Lord Hasegawa, I'm sorry, I have something important to discuss with my companions. Could you please step aside for a while?"
Hasegawa did not respond, but just nodded slightly.
Asai led Hasegawa and Shimada towards a dark alley not far away.
As for Hasegawa, he stood there obediently, leaving space for Asai and the others to talk in private.
As soon as the three people stepped into the dark alley, they felt a dark shadow descending from the top of the alley, and then landed steadily in front of the three people.
"My lord..." Mucun let out a small cry of surprise.
The figure that appeared in front of the three people was none other than Kinoshita Rin .
In order to avoid being recognized by Hasegawa as the enemy of Buddha, Kinoshita Lin never showed up, but always hid in the dark, secretly following Asai and Shimada.
After appearing in front of the three people from Makimura, Kinoshita Lin didn't say a word.
Instead, he walked around Mu Village first, and after confirming that Mu Village was not injured, he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Yahachi, it seems that you are not injured. Is there anything wrong with your body?"
"Yeah." Mucun nodded vigorously. "Except for the pain in those places where I was stabbed just now, there is no discomfort anywhere on my body."
"That's good." After nodding gently, Kinoshita Lin changed her tone and expression to a serious one, "Makino, our cooperation with Kamiyama and the others has come to an end."
The expression on Makimura's face was very calm, as if he had expected Kinoshita Lin to say that.
"You are now the target of the Kyoto Prefecture's big boss."
Lin continued.
"I don't know what grudge you had with the Kyoto Prefecture's big boss, but I don't think that guy will let you go so easily."
"Now that we have become the target of the big boss, it is too dangerous to continue cooperating with Kamiyama."
"I don't want my men to take this avoidable risk."
"Terminate the cooperation with Kamiyama, and then you will temporarily leave Kyoto to avoid the limelight. Asai, Shimada and I will continue to stay in Kyoto."
Lin's tone was calm, but there was an unquestionable tone in her voice.
"...My Lord." Mucun grinned, "If we terminate the cooperation with Shenshan, how can we get Xuanzheng, who is imprisoned in prison, out?"
"You don't have to worry about this." Lin said without hesitation, "As long as you use your brain, there are always more solutions than problems."
"Yahachi, do you have any objection to what I just said?"
After that, Lin said no more.
He just looked straight at Mucun in front of him, waiting for his response.
Not only Lin, but Asai and Shimada also focused their attention on Makimura, waiting for his response.
Makimura pursed his lips.
After raising his hand to scratch his hair, Makimura said softly with a slightly apologetic tone:
"…I'm sorry, my lord. Can you please allow me to disobey you for once?"
"…Tell me the reason."
"Want to give a reason?"
"If your reasons can convince me, I might allow you to disobey."
"…Lord. Like Kamiyama, I feel that this '45 murders' case is not as simple as it seems."
Makimura said softly.
"I was a Kyoto Yoriki for five years and have seen many similar cases."
"We all call this kind of case a 'case within a case.'"
"Deliberately create a ostentatious case to attract the attention of the government, and then do what you really want to do after diverting the government's attention."
"From all the current signs, this '45 murders' is very much like a 'case within a case'..."
"Currently, all the security forces in Kyoto are in the hands of that idiot Toda Tadahiro."
"Lord Shenshan currently has no soldiers under his command. The only person he can rely on is... me."
"If I don't find out what this group of people are planning to do, I really can't leave Kyoto like this."
Mucun's tone was flat, as if he was speaking a casual, everyday thing.
But whether it was Lin or Asai and Shimada beside them, they all heard the rock-hard firmness in Makimura's tone.
Lin folded her arms across her chest and looked quietly at Mucun in front of her.
After a while——
"...I understand." Lin sighed softly.
"Yahachi."
"I am here."
Lin walked slowly to Mu Cun's side, raised her hand and patted Mu Cun's waist hard.
“Go do what you want to do.”
Mucun was slightly stunned.
"Um!"
Then he nodded vigorously, turned around and rushed out of the alley.
Looking at Makimura's back as he walked away quickly, Lin spoke to Shimada beside her:
" Shimada."
"exist!"
"You follow Makimura."
“Eh?” Shimada hesitated. “My lord… I… am clumsy. If I go to assist Makimura again, I might not be able to help you like I did just now…”
"Stop talking nonsense. Just go if you're told to."
“Yes, yes!”
After Shimada hurriedly chased after Makimura, Asai turned his head and whispered to Lin:
"My Lord, I didn't expect you to agree so readily to let Mucun continue to investigate the case. I thought you would have a big quarrel with Mucun."
"Didn't you see the look in Makura's eyes just now?"
A faint smile .
"People with that kind of look can't be persuaded."
"Since you can't persuade me, I might as well just let go."
"Haha." Asai chuckled, "So - Lord, what should we do next? Go back to the inn and drink tea while waiting for Makimura and the others to return victoriously?"
"No." Lin shook her head. "Just now, when I followed you to the prison where Mucun was imprisoned, I heard some news from some passers-by that made me pay attention."
"News?" Asai frowned slowly, "What news?"
"The shogunate hired a bunch of ninjas to guard Nijo Castle tonight."
"Ninja?" Asai's brows frowned even deeper.
"Right now, the only ninja capable of guarding Nijo Castle is probably..."
"The ninja from Shiranui." Asai continued.
"After all, this is just a rumor from a stranger, so it's unclear whether it's true or not." Lin said softly, "But it's really necessary to investigate this kind of news."
"The relationship between the shogunate and Shiranui is so good that they could hire them to serve as guards for such an important place as Nijo Castle... This is not good news for us at Huluya."
"Come on, Asai. Let's go find out what's going on."
"yes!"
…
…
After Makimura and Shimada quickly ran back to Hasegawa, Makimura first bowed respectfully to Hasegawa, thanked Hasegawa again, and expressed his apologies for keeping Hasegawa waiting for a long time.
Hasegawa nodded slightly to show that he had received Makimura's gratitude and apology, and then asked Makimura:
"Now that you have escaped from prison, what are your plans next? Are you going to leave Kyoto, this dangerous place, or..."
"I won't leave Kyoto." Makimura said without hesitation, "My cooperation with Lord Kamiyama has not yet ended."
Hasegawa seemed to have expected Makimura to say that. His reaction was calm and he just smiled slightly.
"So..." Hasegawa continued, "What are you going to do next?"
Makimura did not immediately answer Hasegawa's question.
Instead, he turned his head and looked at Shimada beside him.
"Shimada, did you succeed in spreading the 'Wakasa Incense' on that bald guy?"
"Yes." Shimada nodded solemnly.
"That's good."
After asking Shimada this question, Makimura turned his attention back to Hasegawa.
"Next - let's go find a friend of mine and borrow a dog."
"The dog that my friend raised has a very good nose. It has also been specially trained by my friend and is very good at tracking people or objects by smell. When I was doing the work of the police, I often asked him to borrow his dog to use."
After saying that, Mucun took out a small handkerchief from his arms.
When the handkerchief was unfolded, a handful of powder with a strange fragrance lay quietly inside.
This was the pinch of Wakasa incense that Makimura quickly poured from the cloth bag into his palm before throwing it to Shimada.
Looking at the pinch of Wakasa incense in his palm, Makimura murmured softly:
"Not only is Wakasa incense rare, but few people use it. Almost no one in Kyoto uses this incense powder. Compared with other incense powders, the biggest advantage of Wakasa incense is that it lasts a very long time."
