The government's commendation was brought by Kitsunosuke to Honmaru, but the chief waiter couldn't find where the inquisitor was that day.

However, Kitsunosuke couldn't ignore the commendation he brought, so he had to sit in the office of the female inquisitor and chat with Kitsunosuke without a match - by the way, he did his duty as a qualified attendant, and found out a little bit of information from Kitsunosuke, such as how the government of the time felt about their inquisitor's performance in the battle of Utsunomiya, such as whether there was a very urgent plan to immediately entrust their inquisitor to another location, and so on.

Since he stayed behind to divert Kitsunosuke's attention, he had to ask someone else to complete the task of finding the female inquisitor. When Hasebe walked out of the Inquisitor's office under the pretext of making tea, he happened to see Ichiki walking past the courtroom. So he rushed over, relieved—and overjoyed—and seized a moment and whispered a few words quickly.

One issue of a shock: ?!

Since he was asked by Hasebe, this matter is not something that can be left alone, so Ichijo had to search all over the inside and outside of Honmaru, and even went to see the fields and stables; in the end, I only saw California Kiyomitsu and Yamato Mamoru Adama working hard brushing the little lark and Takakushi, Kasenkaneji drying clean clothes in the open space, Candelabra Kiritsu Tadashi using his superb cooking skills to busy in the kitchen, brothers Taro and Jiro repairing the door frame, and Izumi Morikaneji pulling weeds in the field with a smoky miasma.

When he learned of the fact that "Lord Divine Inquisitor is gone", Izumi Moratori's reaction was also very strange.

He swooped to his feet, threw the handful of weeds he was holding in his hand to the side, and looked as if he was about to follow Yizhen to find someone, but the next moment he seemed to remember something, and the color of his face was blue and black for a while, and finally he squatted back again, and said in a rough voice: "What are you afraid of, maybe you almost killed Mr. Hijikata, so I feel sad and feel guilty for hiding!"

One issue of a strike: "......"

Ah, I didn't seem to notice this person before...... No, this knife - and this childish side?

Maybe it's because unconsciously, he's also being affected by someone's presence—or the situation in front of him?

Yiyi sighed, feeling that now was not the time to reason with him, and it was most important to find the female inquisitor first.

So he thought about it for a while, and felt that since the entire range of Honmaru had been searched and there was no human figure, then he had to consider a possibility-

The Inquisitor slipped out of Honmaru.

This is a little trickier. Although it is not stipulated that the inquisitor must be firmly nailed to the scope of the Honmaru all day long and not take a step, the vast majority of the inquisitors will not leave the scope of the Honmaru so rashly. Since most of the Honmaru locations are desolate, there are no good places for the Inquisitors to wander around, and many Inquisitors would rather report to the government of the time to go to the present world than rashly come out and wander around.

But if you report to the government of the time because of this...... Will the Inquisitor be punished?!

This possibility made the first issue of a decisive rejection of the option in an instant. However, Kitsunosuke is still sitting in the Inquisitor's office with the certificate of commendation, and Hasebe-kun can't delay it for too long, so he must find out the Inquisitor before then!

Yizhen was worrying about whether to gather the other swords in private, go out and look for them separately in the vicinity, but as soon as he looked up, he saw Shi Shiran sitting under the porch drinking tea in the third month.

Of course, there was also a long-time tea friend sitting next to him - Chamaru, no, Yingmaru. However, the one who felt that he could immediately make him feel a certain sense of vigilance in his conditioned reflex was, of course, one of the five swords in the world.

"Ahh One of the five swords in the world held the teacup in his hand and spoke.

"Yiyi-kun, what are you busy with? ”

Yizhen thought about it and decided to tell the truth.

"Kitsunosuke-kun brought a certificate of commendation from the Tokino-government to the master, and Hasebe-kun was receiving him in the master's office. ...... However, the master is gone. ”

Suddenly hearing such news, the smiles on the faces of Mikazuki Sokin and Yingmaru disappeared.

Ichijo continued: "I've searched the entire Honmaru, and there's no trace of the owner anywhere. Now there is only one possibility......"

Yingmaru: "Ah, did you leave Honmaru without permission?" ”

The smile on the face of the Three Days Moon Sect was completely gone, and now his face sank, and he looked like he had a terrifying momentum.

He put down the teacup in his hand and stood up.

"It's not a trivial matter. ...... However, she is not such an irresponsible person, and she will not run away from this place casually. After his voice calmed down, it sounded solemn and condescending, which made people unconsciously want to listen.

"I-kun, let's help find it together. ...... Yingmaru, can you quietly contact the other swords to help find the master?Ah, by the way, it's daytime, so the short swords will stay behind in Honmaru. ”

The Three Days Moon Sect assigned the task in an unusually calm tone, and unconsciously took the lead. In the face of such an important state of affairs, of course, Ichijo would not compete with him, and Yingmaru put down the teacup very simply and stood up.

It is said that it is a wide net to search for people, but in fact, there are only a few possible locations - in the wilderness outside Honmaru, and the dilapidated shrine behind Honmaru with a natural teleportation array that the time-traced army has fancied.

Of course, it is best to send more people to patrol the wilderness, in case the interrogator happens to be attacked by the time-tracing march when he is alone, and falling in the long grass in the wilderness is also a bad option that is unlikely to happen but cannot be completely ruled out - of course, this matter will not be spoken, but when it comes out, everyone naturally separates and goes in different directions.

The Houshan Shrine is even more focused on the scope of investigation - considering that the powerful natural teleportation array that is very favored even by the time-retrospective march, the first phase of Yizhen cautiously sent a team of up to six people to the shrine to find the inquisitor, which is simply a luxurious configuration, and definitely even takes into account the possibility of meeting the time-retrospective march and then fighting.

Yizhen still wanted to follow, but was stopped by a recent sentence from the Three Days Moon Sect.

"Hahaha, Honmaru is fully manned, so please go to the wilderness to take charge of the search. ”

One of the five swords in the world walked slowly in the direction of the back mountain, and when he passed by Yizhen's side, he also reached out and patted Yizhen's shoulder kindly, and said.

"There's no need to force yourself to go through the test of painful memories again and again, right?"

One Strike: !!

He turned his head suddenly, but the Three Days Moon Sect was close but had already walked away leisurely.

Standing in place, looking at the back of one of the five swords in the world, chewing on his meaningful words, the eldest man of the Awataguchi family showed a wry smile.

“...... Who is this sentence trying to say? ”

He muttered, pressed the handle of the main body knife at his waist, straightened his back and turned to walk towards the wilderness outside the main pill.

The Three Days Moon Sect came to the foot of the back mountain, but he didn't immediately climb the mountain along the ancient stone path.

He walked slowly around and finally seemed to have chosen a direction. After stepping up the stone steps for a while, he turned to the side, and after walking a little sluggishly through the dense woods, the trees in front of him gradually became much thinner, and the sound of murmuring water could be faintly heard.

He didn't stop, but the corners of his lips slowly curled, and it looked like a well-chested smile floating on his face.

When he walked a little further, his eyes suddenly lit up.

He had actually walked through the grove to a stream.

There were not many trees on this side of the hillside, and the stream that meandered down from the top of the hill was only a trickle, but by the side of the stream there was a clearing, and the sun happened to be shining on that clearing.

In the clearing, there was a man lying on his back facing the sky, dressed in a red and white shrine maiden costume, with his left arm bent on his waist and abdomen, his right arm bent at the side of his head, one leg stretched out and the other bent, lying on the lawn with a big grin. The sun poured down from the blue sky at noon, softly gilding her figure with a golden glow.

The Three Days Moon Sect's footsteps through the woods were a little urgent, but now he didn't seem to be in a hurry, he slowed his pace, slowly walked to the man's side, sat down, and then turned sideways, looking down at her condescendingly.

The man's eyes narrowed slightly, and he looked like he was asleep. Sanri Yuezong stared at her for a moment, but suddenly said out loud:

"Yukiba-kun?...... There's no need to force yourself to go through the test of painful memories again and again, right?"

The man's long lowered eyelashes moved slightly, but he didn't open them immediately, but said calmly in the same tone:

"If what you really want to ask is whether I am thinking about Mr. Hijikata, then I can answer you frankly right now: no. ”

Her voice was slightly hoarse, but there was an unexpected strange smile in her voice.

The Three Days Moon Sect seemed to sigh slightly.

“...... I didn't mean to ask you that. His magnetic and charismatic voice rose slightly, sounding unexpectedly soft.

The Female Inquisitor was silent for a second.

“...... Oh~?!" she raised a slight tail note. Her expression, however, seemed far less interesting than her tone suggested—her eyes were still closed, as if she were almost asleep in the warm sun.

Before continuing, the Three Days Moon Sect quietly glanced at the female inquisitor's lazy and leisurely looking posture.

It looks really flawless. I didn't think that the person in front of me, who was lying leisurely on the hillside basking in the sun, and let Honmaru find her upside down, was the guy who stood on the ruins of Utsunomiya Castle a few days ago, and cried loudly without image because he had to shoot and wound his former lover at the last moment, looking so weak, so hesitant, and so helpless.

That kind of behavior undoubtedly pushed her former lover further away from herself. He also believes that she is not a cheeky person who can hurt others with impunity, turn her head and ask for affection and rewards from those people as if nothing happened.

However, Qingyuan Yukiba, after this battle, can really completely cut off the bond with that person, and from then on treat that person as a stranger on the mission map?

He didn't have enough confidence in that. For the man's influence on her was so profound that she would have to hurt him for the sake of a higher justice and purpose, and she would have wept so loudly and called out the man's name, and if he hadn't restrained her, he suspected that the next moment she would have lost her mind and jumped down and rushed at the man—something he would never allow to happen.

The sun rises and the moon sets, the seasons change, and he has seen the changes in the world for more than a thousand years, and knows that some things—even fragile lives, or stubborn feelings—will eventually be consumed by time and more opportunities encountered along the way.

Oh, what a funny thing and what an irony thing to do.

The swords that have been forged by human beings, and who have become famous through the use and possession of these human heroes, are more permanent and immortal than the craftsmen who cast them and the masters who used them.

Hijikata will never be able to move past 1869, and Kiyohara Yukiha - one day she will understand that she is already standing under the sky of 2205.

One day she will understand that those false encounters achieved in the name of mission cannot last more than a moment.