Rewind time back to when Mamiya just released red fireworks into the sky—

Tatsuno Domain, in a dense forest—

“…… The lord, I saw the signal released by the palace. ”

Asai looked at the location of the red fireworks just now with a telescope, and continued softly to the "Buddha enemy" beside him.

"It's a red firework ......"

"Red......" said softly to the "Buddha enemy" standing beside Asai, "then—the palace has successfully pacified the Negishi family and been successfully captured by the officials. The task was completed very successfully, and it deserves to be a palace. ”

Asai put down the telescope in his hand and smiled at the "Buddha enemy" beside him.

"The Negishi family has been wiped out by us, so there should be a lot fewer people who don't take our 'gourd house' seriously in the future."

"Well, not necessarily. There are so many fools in this world. ”

With that, the "Buddha enemy" turned and left.

"My lord." Asai hurriedly followed, "Where are we going next?" ”

"Needless to say? Of course, it's back to Owari. Now that the Negishi family has been wiped out and Mamiya has been successfully arrested, there is no reason for us to stay here any longer. ”

Asai looked at the "Buddha enemy" with a hesitant gaze.

In the end, as if he had made up his mind, he mustered up the courage to ask the "enemy of the Buddha".

"My lord, the mission to Kii...... Is it really enough to hand it over to the two of them in Mamiya and Makimura? Wouldn't it be too small to let the two of them go? ”

"That's enough."

The "Buddha enemy" replied without thinking.

"Letting too many people deliberately arrest and then send them to Kii is easy to startle."

"And among the people who went to Kii this time was the palace."

"There won't be much of a problem if you have a palace."

"Kii's trip, I'll leave it to the two of Ryu and Hachiman to take care of it."

"The dragon and Hachiman...... Asai smiled bitterly, "I'm not too worried about 'Hachiman', I'm just worried about that 'dragon'......"

"Don't worry."

The "Buddha Enemy" raised his hand and patted Asai on the shoulder.

"There is a palace here, and he doesn't dare to be too presumptuous in Makimura. You also know that Makimura listens to me and Mamiya the most. ”

"I don't know what happened to that Ogata Ichitosai now." Asai shrugged, "The two of us wasted so much effort to save him, and if he ended up being caught by the Fire Fu Thieves, it would be so sorry for us." ”

"If he is still caught, then he can only be blamed for his bad luck. But it doesn't matter if you get caught. ”

"If Ogata Ichitosai is caught, then he should soon be able to meet our 'Hachiman' again in Kiina, and maybe get to know our 'dragon' by the way."

"I can finally go back to Owari...... "Asai stretched hard, "I can finally go back and rest...... There were a lot of accidents on this mission...... Not only did I run into Ogata Ichitosai, but I also ran into a fire payment thief to change ......"

"'Onihei' is still as difficult as ever."

"Buddha enemy" said as he raised his right hand and patted the two knives on his right waist.

"It's terrifying for someone who can continue to improve his swordsmanship at such an old age."

"Compared to before, 'Oniping''s swordsmanship has become stronger."

"I only have a knife now, and I can only entangle him, and I can't defeat him."

"Now if I want to defeat him, I can only pull out my double knives and show my real skills."

……

……

Tick......

Tick......

Tick......

In a daze, Ogata heard the sound of "tick-tock" droplets of water falling to the ground.

Just when he secretly said in his heart that the sound of the water droplets was very noisy, he felt that his consciousness was gradually waking up.

Memories began to pop back in the air.

After recalling the little memories before "sleeping", Ogata opened his eyes sharply and sat up.

"Where is this ......?"

Ogata muttered as he looked around himself.

Dim and damp – that's the first impression of the surroundings on Ogata.

After just a few glances around, he recognized where he was—in a prison.

Outside of his cage, Ogata saw a jailer napping with a knife in his arms.

The jailer sits right outside Ogata's cage and appears to be specifically spying on Ogata.

When Ogata woke up, the jailer slowly opened his eyes as if he had heard movement.

He glanced at Ogata and said:

"You're awake......"

Without waiting for any response, the jailer turned his head and shouted at the end of the hallway:

"Hey! Go tell Hasegawa-sama that the prisoner in the cage is awake! ”

- Am I arrested......

Although he was a prisoner of the ranks, the strange thing is that Ogata did not feel sad or painful.

The inner peace scared Ogata himself.

The cell where Ogata lives has an iron barred window.

Ogata looked out through the crack in the bar.

It's night.

Specks of starlight and moonlight shone through the cracks in the barred window into Ogata's cage.

Just as Ogata pondered what the punishment he would endure next, the sound of the door being opened at the end of the corridor outside the cage.

Then, there was a sound of footsteps coming towards the location of Ogata's cage.

The jailer who was in charge of monitoring Ogata stood up in a panic and shouted at the source of the footsteps:

"Hasegawa-sama!"

"Hmm." As soon as the jailer's words fell, a middle-aged male voice that was quite familiar to Ogata rang out, "You've worked hard. You should get out of here for a while. I have something to say to this prisoner. ”

"Yes!"

After the jailer saluted and walked out quickly, a middle-aged man walked slowly to Ogata's cell with a bowl of porridge.

Ogata glanced at the middle-aged man, then grinned:

"Did 'Kihei' come and bring me dinner in person? What an honor I am. ”

This middle-aged man standing in front of Ogata's cage with a bowl of vegetable porridge is none other than Hasegawa Heizo.

Hasegawa Heizou silently put the vegetable porridge in his hand on the ground inside the cage, and then asked Ogata:

"Ogata Ikatosai, how did you sleep?"

"Thanks to your 'obsessive' blessing." Ogata said in a tone of subtle sarcasm, "I slept so soundly that I didn't even dream. ”

"It's good that you slept soundly."

Hasegawa leaned back, leaning against the masonry wall behind him.

The candle hanging on the wall next to him reflected Hasegawa's face in the light of the candle that radiated from it.

Hasegawa looked at Ogata in the cage with a complicated gaze.

Then he whispered:

“…… Ogata has fallen into this situation where he has been reduced to a prisoner, have you ever regretted it? ”

"Do you regret your assassination of the Lord?"