"Search! That man must be arrested today! ”

"Hurry, hurry! Some of them were left to search the house, and the others rushed up the hill with me! ”

"Don't move! Whoever dares to stand up will be hacked to death...... Well? Hey, hey, you even have a daughter! Ha! ”

"I'll kill you—"

Beneath the majestic walls of Hirata Castle is a chaotic scene of fire and blood.

Everywhere there were dead people, broken arrows, flames, everywhere there were screams, roars, laughter, and the fear of some became the bread of joy for others.

Some run for their lives, others take risks.

Some people roared and raised their knives to resist the enemy, some people cowered and hid in the house, and others, taking advantage of the crisis, disguised themselves as bandits to break into those treasure places that they usually took a step into to hunt for treasure, and then were hacked to death by people with the same purpose.

The crowd went from order to chaos, and it only took a moment for the city gates to open.

In the midst of the chaos of the crowd, a girl ran briskly down the path up the hill under the protection of an old lady, looking back from time to time.

The mansion at the foot of the hill had been burned down, and from the heights, there were fires everywhere.

The old man in a dark red coat had a sad face, holding a kitchen knife with a wooden handle in his hand, gritting his teeth.

The bamboo grove on the side of the path makes a pleasant rustling sound in the breeze.

Miko was dragged by the old lady, her eyes trembling slightly.

"Mrs. Wanko...... We, can we really get out? ”

"It's okay...... It's okay...... As long as you run to the mansion on the mountain, the guards there are tighter, and you will never be lost! ”

The old man, known as Mrs. Wanzi, gritted his teeth, thinking of a sea of fire under the mountain, but his heart was extremely desperate.

Can't hold it.

Can't keep it!

However, with the Hirata family's tight defense, even if some young people were recruited as soldiers by Lord Genichiro, they should not be so vulnerable...... It's just a bunch of vulnerable bandits, how could it be like this?

"Hey! Come here! There's footsteps here! ”

Suddenly there was a rough cry in the bamboo forest, and the old lady immediately hugged the young prince and hid behind a big rock.

The three or four torches gradually gathered, and they were very conspicuous in the dark night.

"Where's the people?"

"Hey, you can't lie to us, are you?"

"How so? I just heard footsteps and panting. ”

The white-clothed Miko suddenly reached out to cover his mouth, letting the heavy wheezing quietly disappear.

The firelight suddenly stopped in one part of the path, and the discussion faded away.

Miko probed her brain and wanted to take a look, but she was held down by the old lady hiding behind the stone, and signaled her not to act rashly with her eyes.

"Aha! The little mouse was hiding here......"

A big head full of rotten teeth suddenly emerged from the bamboo forest, in the opposite direction to the torch.

Give the dummy.

Miko's eyes widened suddenly, and Mrs. Wanko gritted her teeth with a kitchen knife and was about to rush forward.

However, before he could finish speaking, a chilling sword light suddenly bloomed.

The happy expression on the bandit's face froze on his face before he could change it, his hands clutching his throat, blood gushing from his trachea.

A man with a comb on the head of the moon generation pressed his knife with an indifferent face and stepped out of the bamboo forest.

"Inosuke!"

Mrs. Wanzi cried out happily and looked at the visitor in surprise.

This is his son! The guards of the inner courtyard of the Hirata family.

The three bandits before had already taken advantage of the night to surround them, and everyone drew their swords against each other, their faces solemn.

"Do even a few thieves dare to draw a knife in front of me?"

The man pressed the knife and did not move, his face was cold, but his eyes were carefully observing a few people in the moonlight.

The body is stout, the calluses in the hands are thick, the pace is steady, and the center of gravity is down.

Everyone is a good hand with a knife.

Such a young man, no matter where he goes, is a good hand at guarding the family and the courtyard, even if he commits some crimes, he will not be easily expelled, how can he be reduced to the point of being a bandit.

Now, there are four of them casually.

Coupled with the fact that the tall walls of the Hirata family easily fell.

Inosuke is almost certain that there is an inner ghost in the Hirata mansion.

It's still a ghost with a very high status.

"Humph! The nameless thief ahead, report your name! ”

Inosuke pressed the knife and shouted coldly.

The bandits on the opposite side were triumphant: "Uncle Ben is ......"

Before he could finish his words, he saw Inosuke take a leap forward, straight across a distance of three or four meters, and the knife raised high slashed vertically in the shape of a New Year's greeting, and the light of the knife almost connected into a straight line in the air.

New Year's swordsmanship!

Thorn -

The body tore a large hole from the shoulder to the abdomen, and blood gushed out.

The thief who was stabbed was stupid in place, didn't you ask me to sign up! Why did you do it first?!

Inosuke didn't hesitate at all, and looked behind him with cold eyes, and there was blood on the knife.

The other two bandits were not afraid at all, and took advantage of the moment when their companions were cut off, and immediately surrounded them, cooperating with each other very tacitly, and even faintly even had a bit of military formation.

Dangdang.

Inosuke slashed with his sword, and the blades collided and flickered in the night sky, illuminating the equally hideous faces of several people in the night.

The blade was oblique, and the trend was horizontal, and Inosuke did not retreat at all because of the number of opponents, but rushed forward, slammed into one of them with his body, and with a swing of his footsteps, he staggered his position to avoid a straight slash, his left hand grasped the end of the handle, and his right hand slightly raised his right hand to stab upward with the oblique lunge of the enemy's long knife, and the blade stabbed through the gap between the bandits' arms with the help of visual overlap, piercing the opponent's throat in an instant.

From the side, it looked as if Inosuke had crashed into his arms and embraced him.

The body shape is wrong, and blood is splashed behind him.

"Drink—"

The last bandit saw Inosuke's momentary pause, and immediately thought that he had seized the opportunity, and with a twist of his knife, he stabbed diagonally from the bottom to the top, and saw that it was about to pierce his chest.

But seeing that Yi Zhijie didn't look back, his left foot fell and stepped on the tip of the opponent's knife, and at the moment when the bandit was pressed and stunned, the horizontal knife fell.

Poof—

The man's head hit the ground, and blood exploded from his neck like a fountain, splashing his head and face.

It wasn't until all three of them died that Inosuke wiped the blood off his face and put the knife in his sheath.

"Hirata's servant, inner courtyard guard, Hirata Inosuke."

"Participate."

It was the etiquette of samurai to report each other's names before a battle of life and death.

However, he Hirata Inosuke has a heavy responsibility, and I'm afraid it will be very difficult to act politely.

Eat my righteous poisonous darts!

"Inosuke ......"

Miko, dressed in a white yukata, suddenly peeked out from behind the stones, looked at the corpse in front of her in disgust, and then looked up and asked the guard known as Inosuke:

"The Hirata family, how did it get breached? What about my father and mother? Where's the reed? ”

At only nine years old, Miko's face was full of hope.

The first time she encountered such a storm was that the first thing she thought of was her parents, and what she wanted to hear the most was naturally the news that her parents were safe.

Inosuke could only lower his head and shake his head.

He didn't know.

He himself was chased and killed by bandits in batches and fled here.

Although he is only a guard of the inner house, in the Hirata Mansion, even a guard needs to go through a lot of tests, and it can be seen from the fact that he can quickly kill four battle-hardened bandits alone, and the guards of the Hirata family are by no means weak.

Even if some of them were recruited by Lord Genichiro, there were many people who stayed in the family.

But why...... Is the Hirata family so broken?

And it's so overwhelming.

"Young master...... I don't know. ”

When Miko heard the answer, although it was expected, she was still inevitably disappointed.

The little head bowed deeply.

"That'...... What about wolves? Where's my ninja? ”

Miko seemed to suddenly remember something, and asked Inosuke a question.

Hearing this, Inosuke couldn't help but clench his fists, and his face tensed so that he didn't show anger.

As a ninja, not showing up at the master's side at such a dangerous moment is simply an insult to the word ninja!

However, as a servant, there are some things that should not be said by him.

Inosuke could only stiffly change the subject:

"Young master, let's hurry up and go to the mansion on the mountain to avoid the bandits...... The mountain is well guarded, and it will definitely be able to stop those bandits! ”

Hearing this, Miko could only nod silently and did not continue to ask.

There are some things that are better off not being heard than being heard.

It's just that the Hirata family, which is protected by more than 100 guards, more than a dozen reeds, and strong people such as butterflies and owls, how could it be breached?

Jiurou couldn't figure it out, and her precocious mind didn't dare her think deeply.

Whispered in his mouth:

"Butterfly...... Wolf...... Where are you? ”