“…… I'm sorry, Ogata-kun. ”

Mamiya Asakata showed a faint wry smile.

"I can't tell you who I really am right now."

"But I can tell you plainly—I have no ill will towards you."

"I'm interested in you for your feat of killing 100 enemies."

"I'm not afraid of the Negishi family, but I'm happy to find someone to help me."

"I sincerely want to cooperate with you and find out the base camp of the Negishi family together."

Speaking of this, Mamiya paused.

After a pause, he added:

"And—Ogata-kun, if I really harbor ill will towards you, I'll have countless opportunities to kill you with a single sword from the moment I met you."

"I didn't draw a sword against you, walked side by side with you, and laughed with you—this should be the strongest proof that I have no ill will towards you, right?"

After quietly listening to Manomiya's words, Ogata was silent.

After a long while, Ogata silently removed the hand that was pressed on the blade......

……

……

That night—

It's a sunny day tonight.

The slender crescent moon gently and affectionately peeks into the village of Shanmoto.

The moonlight shone in like a white blade through the thin cracks of the clouds, illuminating Shizuko's face

Tonight's Kamoto Village is quite lively.

After receiving the news that "there are ronins killing people", the forces and hearts of the Tatsuno clan hurried to the village of Shanmoto.

The idlers and other people in the surrounding area around the casino have been evicted.

Only uniformed people and people with strength and unity enter and exit this casino that exudes a strong smell of blood.

Soichi Fujino - One of the oldest and most powerful people in the Tatsuno Domain.

Although he is the oldest and most qualified, he has not handled several major cases in his life.

Those troublesome cases were basically pushed by Fujino to his subordinates.

Only those cases where there is a lot of oil and water to be fished, Fujino will take matters into his own hands.

Fujino, who has a big belly, holds his big belly, leads several of his subordinates to step into the casino with a knife.

As soon as he entered the casino, the smell of blood made Fujino frown.

"Quick! Lantern! Fast! ”

Fujino waved his fat fingers rudely.

Under Fujino's order, the person behind him hurriedly raised the lantern in his hand, stepped into the casino, and lit it up.

Thanks to the light emitted by these lanterns, Fujino was able to see the inside of the casino clearly.

It's okay not to see clearly, but once I saw the scene inside the casino, a strong feeling of nausea immediately surged from Fujino's stomach.

There were a total of 6 bodies inside the casino.

Each corpse's eyes widened.

Looking at the staring eyes of these corpses, Fujino felt a strong discomfort, and almost vomited the dinner he had just eaten.

Covering his mouth with his right hand, taking several deep breaths in a row, and resisting the urge to vomit, Fujino dared to refocus his gaze on each corpse.

"Hiss......"

Fujino gasped.

"So many people were killed...... It seems that there are a lot of murderers......"

As soon as Fujino's murmur fell, an unfamiliar male voice suddenly sounded behind him:

"No, these people were all killed by the same person."

As soon as the male voice, which was extremely unfamiliar to Fujino, fell, Fujino stared at his eyes full of doubts and looked behind him.

Behind him, stood a middle-aged man in a uniform with a black color palette that he had never seen before.

Behind the middle-aged man, there were more than a dozen people who were also wearing this black uniform, and the word "fire thief" was written on the lantern in their hands.

Fujino didn't recognize who these black-clad men were.

But he recognized who the man standing next to these "men in black" was.

The man standing next to the gang of "men in black"? It was one of the three elders of their Tatsuno Domain, Sano Soken.

See the old man here? Fujino hurriedly saluted him.

The leader of this group of "men in black", that is, the middle-aged man who said just now, "These people were all killed by the same person", turned his head and said to Sano Muneken:

"The eldest of the family? Can you trouble the officials of your clan to leave here for the time being? ”

"Hasegawa-sama? Of course, that's fine. Sano said cheerfully.

The lord of the Tatsuno Domain has only one mission given to Sano these days - to represent them in the Tatsuno Domain, and do his best to cooperate with the officials of the Hofu thieves led by Hasegawa Heizou.

So Sano wasn't just going to be when Hasegawa and the others arrived at the Tatsuno Domain? Go out of town to meet them.

When Hasegawa and the others settled in the Tatsuno Domain and launched their search? Sano still has to follow up all the way? Give them all the help that the Tatsuno clan can give.

Sano waved his hand and motioned for Fujino to quickly lead his men out of here.

And Fujino is also very knowledgeable about current affairs, so he didn't ask much or do much? He quickly led his men out of the casino.

After Fujino and the others quit the casino? The leader of the gang of "men in black", that is, Hasegawa Heizo, waved his hand, and several officials behind him immediately carried their lanterns with the word "fire thief" written on them and stepped into the gambling hall.

The officials who were in charge of carrying lanterns for lighting were quite elaborate.

The few directions they were standing in were just enough for the light from the lantern in their hands to illuminate every corner of the casino.

"Sano-sama? I'd like to ask you to wait outside for a while. ”

"Of course, I understand the rules. I will never interfere with Hasegawa-sama's examination of the murder scene. ”

Told Sano? After letting Sano not have to come in with him, Hasegawa held the knife? Slowly step into the casino.

And Hasegawa's right and left hand, Imai Cheng, also followed.

Hasegawa stood in the center of the casino and looked around every corner of the casino.

He put his left hand on the hilt of the knife? The right hand is pressed on the wrist of the left hand.

Seeing Hasegawa make this move? Imai on the side habitually held his breath? Take your breath lightly.

Because Imai understands - this is Hasegawa's habitual action.

Hasegawa makes this action as soon as he gets into a state of thought.

So in order not to disturb Hasegawa's thinking, Imai will subconsciously light his breathing and do his best to reduce the disturbance of Hasegawa after seeing Hasegawa make this action.

Hasegawa glanced at the barnacles that had been cut in half on the ground, and the six dice scattered on the ground.

Then he looked at the young man who was killed with a knife and knew that it was Hu Zhen.

Looking at Hu Zhen's slashed right hand tail finger, Hasegawa's eyes narrowed slightly.

Finally, he glanced at the four people who were holding knives in their hands and must have been the guards of this gambling hall.

Hasegawa's gaze froze on one of the guards for an unusually long time......

Because the wounds on this guard's body are all too familiar to Hasegawa......