"Makino, the interesting news you said, it shouldn't be where you found a beautiful woman again, right?" A senior brother sitting next to Makino said in a half-joking tone.

"How is that possible?" Makino patted the senior brother on the shoulder angrily, "The interesting news I want to say is not such a boring thing. ”

"Makino-senpai!" Sawamura said urgently, "Then you should tell me what this interesting news of yours is." ”

"Hmph, the news I'm going to talk about has something to do with the shogunate."

Makino lowered his voice, and he paused at this time to hang the appetite of Zecun and the others.

And Makino's little trick was also quite successful - Sawamura and the others, who were growing with a sense of anticipation, unconsciously stretched their necks slightly forward in the direction where Makino was.

Seeing that he had successfully aroused the interest of Sawamura and the others, Makino stopped being bad, cleared his throat, and then-

"The shogunate has recently ...... It seems that the national felon offenders are being rallied. ”

"Summoning felons?" Sawamura frowned and muttered.

The people who were also frowning were the rest of the people sitting around Makino.

"I have a friend who works on an errand in prison." Makino continued, "He told me that the shogunate had recently issued an order to the feudal clans to take the felons in their respective prisons to Kii. ”

"Kii......?" Sawamura's brow furrowed even deeper, "The more I listen, the more confused I become...... Why did the shogunate summon felons from all over the country for no reason? And why did you take Kii? ”

"How do I know?" Makino shrugged his shoulders with a wry smile, "We can't guess what those big names in the shogunate are thinking. ”

"Then do we have any felons in the Hirose Domain now?" Another of Makino's junior disciples asked.

"According to my friend who was on an errand in prison—no." Makino said, "So they're idle now, and they don't need to be busy taking those vicious felons to Kii like the people of the other domains...... Ah, Ogata-senpai is here! ”

Makino's face was facing the gate of the dojo.

So he could clearly see who the people were coming in and out of the dojo.

Makino, who was chatting with Sawamura and the others, caught a glimpse of a familiar figure at the gate of the dojo with the rest of his eyes.

Hurriedly raised his head and looked at the gate of the dojo.

The person who appeared at the gate of the dojo was none other than Ogata Yoshi.

Makino only noticed that Ogata was coming.

But he didn't notice that the expression and expression on Ogata's face at this time were a little strange.

Makino hurriedly stood up and led Sawamura and the others towards Ogata.

"Ogata-senpai! Good evening! Makino was the first to say hello to Ogata.

"Hmm. Good evening, you guys, too. Ogata smiled.

After greeting Makino and the others, the smile disappeared from Ogata's face.

"I'm sorry, everyone, I suddenly have some urgent matters to deal with, so I'll be late for tonight's feast."

"Huh?" Makino cast a puzzled look at Ogata, "Urgent? What's the urgency? ”

“…… Sorry, I can't say. Makino, you can help me tell the others later. ”

"Because I may come later, you can hold the feast at the appointed time without waiting for me to return."

"Makino, please."

With that, Xu Yi didn't stop at all, and quickly left through the gate of the dojo.

Only Makino and the others, who were full of doubts, were left looking at each other.

……

……

Outside the dojo, waiting for Ogata were the two retainers of Kuranaga Saemon who had just found the Ogata family.

"I've kept you waiting." Ogata said to the two of them in a tone that was neither salty nor light, "Let's go." ”

"Hmm. Ogata Yoshi-kun, please come with us. ”

……

……

These two young samurai led Ogata to turn left and right in Joshita-cho.

Eventually, they stopped in front of a magnificent mansion.

Looking at the wide door of the mansion in front of him, Ogata asked the two in front of him:

"Do you need me to turn in my saber?"

"No, you don't."

"That's ......"

Ogata pulled out the knife from his left waist and sheathed it with his right hand.

One of the two young samurai whispered a few words to the two men guarding the gate, and the two men pushed the generous door open.

"Ogata Esui-kun, please."

"Hmm." After nodding to the two young samurai, he slowly walked into the old mansion under the leadership of the two people.

After Ogata and the others entered Kuranaga's mansion, the two guards closed the door again.

The slowly closing door of the mansion re-isolates the mansion from the outside world.

……

……

"Ogata Yoshi-kun, please be seated."

After the young samurai in the lead led Ogata into a clean, tidy room, he made another "please" gesture towards the tatami mat in the center of the room.

Ogata nodded to the young samurai again, then knelt down in the position the young samurai had just pointed at, and placed the sword he had been holding in his right hand on the tatami mat on the right side of his body.

Then straighten your back and place your hands flat on your legs.

In front of Ogata is a paper sliding door that can be opened to the left and right on two sides.

Together, these two paper sliding doors form a large paper wall that isolates Ogata's view.

After Ogata knelt on the ground, the two young samurai who had been in charge of bringing Ogata all the way to the place walked left and right towards the ends of the two huge paper sliding doors.

A man kneels on the edge of the sliding paper door on the left.

The other knelt on the edge of the paper sliding door on the right.

As if rehearsed in advance, the two of them reached out at the same time and pulled open the paper sliding doors on the left and right sides.

The paper wall that blocked Ogata's view was split in half.

Ogata's gaze suddenly brightened.

Behind this paper wall of two paper sliding doors is an old man who is also sitting upright.

For this old man, Oke is all too familiar.

After all, I just met at the god worship competition more than a month ago.

This old man is none other than the elder of their Hirose Domain, Kuranaga Saemon.

Kuranaga looked at Ogata.

Then he said in a calm tone to the two young samurai who were in charge of bringing Ogata here, and then helping to open the paper sliding door that separated Ogata from Kuranaga just now:

"You two should step back first."

"Yes!" *2

The two young warriors responded in unison, stood up in unison, and left the room.

In this space, only Ogata and Kuranaga are left.

"It's been more than a month. Ogata-kun. Kuranaga smiled at Ogata.

"Good evening, my lord." Ogata squeezed out a polite smile as much as he could, "I don't know if the boss invited me into the house late at night. So what's going on? ”

Ogata was actually a little unhappy that Kuranaga invited him into the house at this time.

Because the time Kuranaga chose is too much to say.

According to the original plan, Ogata should have been drinking happily with his brothers at the Sakakibara Sword Pavilion by now.

As a result, due to Kuranaga's sudden "invitation", Ogata's original plan was completely disrupted.