The ghouls, who had lost their command after Saburo's death, left the hot spring village seemingly summoned or expelled before the first rays of dawn fell.

The bruised people didn't even have the strength to count the dead and wounded, so they gulped in the air that filled the air with the smell of ashes and corpses and blood. Like all those who have been through a bloody battle, they breathe the air desperately as if they had just been born into this world.

People who were physically and mentally exhausted couldn't stop trembling, and some of them turned pale and finally noticed how disgusting their surroundings were, but their stomachs were empty because of hours of intense exertion, and they only vomited out some sour water after retching for a long time.

When they finally returned, the villagers tried in vain to draw water from the well to extinguish the fire, only to find that the rope of the barrel had been broken during the battle. It took time to find another barrel, tie it to a rope, and the first bucket of water was still soaked in half a ghoul's forearm.

The bucket spilled, and the man carrying the water sat on the ground soaked with water, and then cried loudly.

Like a ripple that spreads, most of the surviving villagers of the hot spring villages, young and old, are affected by it.

Some cried loudly, others sobbed quietly.

After a short time, they continued to try to extinguish the fire. Most of the people who were not seriously injured, such as Rigal and his party, joined in this act, but after allowing the fire to burn for so long, even the iron tools were basically burned out.

The home is gone.

The furniture was destroyed, and the only money and belongings were destroyed – but the peasants didn't have much money.

So the loss of pure actual coins does not seem to be very large.

The real problem is the means of livelihood.

The seeds are gone, and the rice fields are gone. All the food in the house was burned, and all the fish in the fields died.

The farm tools were gone, and even the fishing boats were stolen by the fugitive bandits. Nothing, survived, but nothing.

All that remains is the scorched-black frame of the house, the water splashed on it rises in the first rays of the morning, and the scenery of the mountains in the distance is breathtaking. But the peasants could not stand up, they slumped on the ground, in a daze.

"If" the young man was not allowed to escape in the first place, would all this have changed?

"Wouldn't it be better if" the people standing guard had brace themselves and be more focused on defending their area?

There are a lot of "what ifs" that surround the hearts of some people, and there are also people who turn to hate the leader of this battle because of their inability to change the lost reality - that is, Ryunosuke - but many more.

It's just going to get empty.

And the peasant is very able to withstand the oppression.

As long as there is food to eat, they can live happily if they are pressed to the bottom.

The 4,000-year-old kingdom is far more class-hardened than Rigal's 300-year-old kingdoms, where farmers are hardly motivated or adventurous, and they are satisfied with the occasional meal of fish and meat.

So and the people of the peasants are numb.

Whether it is the creed of the scholar clan who are loyal to their masters and pursue personal martial arts, or the so-called national and national affairs in the mouth of the Chinese people, they will only respond to two verbal statements at most.

As long as you have something to eat, national affairs make the big people worry about it.

Turning a blind eye, being indifferent. thinks that these things have nothing to do with them, they are far away from themselves, and they only need to guard this acre and three points of land well, and everything will continue like this forever.

And then a fire, a war.

Nothing is gone.

What will pass, will pass. It's a little thing, it's a little thing.

The walls were erected, and the ronin took control of the village, and the samurai and the shopkeeper Masayuki repeatedly summoned the villagers to emphasize the seriousness of the situation. Henry even slaughtered a ghoul and dragged him back from the avenue.

The group tried every means to convey the seriousness of the situation to the villagers of these hot spring villages, but almost without exception, they still thought:

"Tomorrow everything will pass? It's going to go back to the way it used to be. ”

Didn't they think they would die? I didn't think the house would burn down.

Even the young adults who were sent out were just "temporarily avoiding the limelight", and when they turned around, they returned to the village and continued to live their old lives.

But there's no going back.

Due to the flight of all the young men who could fight, and the loss of the wall, more than half of the villagers of the entire hot spring village were killed.

Most of the village burned to the ground, and even Masayuki's inn was shattered by the ghouls, whom the bloodthirsty beasts continued to attack for hours after Saburo's death. It's just that they have lost their unity of command and will follow their appetite to bite their own kind, and they no longer have the same threat as before.

Can the house be rebuilt? Fields can be re-cultivated and livestock can be restocked.

But the dead will never come back.

A corpse covered with a straw mat in the open space in front of the inn? Many of them are still children.

They weren't sent away for the same reason as those young adults were sent away? It's all love and care.

"Young? It's not safe to travel far. ”

It's not safe to travel far away? Even according to Henry's original plan, the old and the young, women and children were placed in hotels for centralized protection, which was not safe in their eyes - 'it is better for children to stay with their parents'.

The same goes for rations and many other supplies.

Could the prestige and power of the samurai require the peasants to hand them over for centralized control? But the peasants also have a way to delay time or hide? It's like they send away young and middle-aged laborers.

Does the "hot spring village" sound like a whole? But all these villagers who were forced to participate in the battle were thinking only about themselves and perhaps some of their familiar neighbors, friends and relatives.

The deployment and vigilance plan they set up was excellent, but they overestimated the quality of the people who carried out the plan.

One ring after another, the lack of pounds and two? Together, they led to the inevitable collapse.

What is the sage? What is a guide? If others don't want to follow.

After all, it is also powerless.

The sun has officially risen.

Looking at the devastation on the ground? Ryunosuke gave the order for the team to disband.

His revenge is over.

The few remaining ronin, many of them were wounded, and they became as lost as the villagers, and they didn't know where to go.

After the revenge they were looking forward to was over, Ryunosuke returned to become a Chinese, and they also had the status of samurai again, but they did not appear. Faithfully restraining them and still respecting this man, but what should they do next?

Ryunosuke chose to stay in the hot spring village.

It's not over yet.

Pingshan County will inevitably receive news to send personnel, and he understands it with rich experience in the Chinese career.

These people are not here to rescue or clean up the aftermath.

They need someone to take responsibility for this tragedy, and they need an answer that can be handed over to the above. And if he, the leader of the ronin and the former Hua, leaves. Then Masayuki store manager will become this object.

It is precisely for this reason that Henry and his party took care of the state, received the last gift from Ryunosuke, and left this land of right and wrong in the early morning.

Joshua, who was already a wanderer, followed Henry and them. Because there is no such organization as the mercenary union in Crescent Island, as a foreigner, he will be with Ryunosuke in addition to being like-minded, and he also has the needs of a simple life.

The red-haired swordsman has only swordsmanship to make a living, so he has nowhere to go without following a group that needs to fight.

tomato

The Qingtian family, who had seen his skills, were very happy to accept him as a guest. Joshua had almost no desires, and he was willing to go with him as long as he needed to take care of the food, but Yajiro offered him a salary for the cost of teaching.

All people don't have to walk anymore.

Ryunosuke gave them the rest of the carriages, and the horses of Rigal descent were kept in the inn's stables along with the unicorn Mitya because they were not saddled. Didn't participate in the final sprint of the ronin cavalry, so instead it was the only horse left. There are now three horse-drawn carriages, including the waterwheel, and the speed of the group has increased dramatically, and when you look back shortly after departure, you can no longer see the smoke of the hot spring village.

Many of them still want to stay and witness the follow-up, but as a participant, they will not leave and wait for the arrival of the regular army troops in Pingshan County, I am afraid that their position will be very awkward.

Especially after Henry finally decided to inform the high-ranking samurai of the Aota family about the letter of nomination after discussing it with Miss Doctor.

When the head of the Qingtian family first met, he knew what they were secret, and he thought that moving forward with them would be beneficial to his family's continuation in the future. Along the way, he kept a low profile and avoided the limelight, as well as many encounters with some attackers, which made Narumi and the others more or less guess something.

But no one thought it would be so big.

And the root cause why the sage chose to hide it to this day is enough to silence all the samurai in just one sentence:

"In other words, before going through these things, I am afraid that you would not think it was a big deal based on your unreserved trust in Xinjing. ”

Like a numb peasant, before the encounter between the mountain village and the shrine maiden army of the oni clan, before the battle and mutual understanding along the way, before the power that Saburo had in his hands to shake the samurai society for 4,000 years.

They are convinced that this is going on forever.

But things that have always been like this are not necessarily right, and high-sounding words are released, but reality may not always be as desired.

Is it true that following the rules and traditions of samurai society for thousands of years must be correct? It does give people a creed to rely on, but sometimes it can also become a shackle.

With blind faith, the mind and vision are bound.

"The unified royal family lives on forever. ”

The shrine maiden army that can be used as the sword of Shinkyo is already scarred.

"The land of the four thousand moons is peaceful and healthy. ”

The waves have appeared, and the power to challenge the foundations of society has even been grasped by the local gangster leader of a domain.

He speaks of "faith" and scolds those who lack "faith" as "lack of faith."

But what they are doing is actually choosing to turn a blind eye.

Time to go.

The group that learned the bombshell news naturally came to this conclusion - they could not meet with the main force of Pingshan County, because there were many people on this occasion, and once the investigation left too detailed records, there would always be any information leaked from unknown places.

"Can't, just leave it to the people of Pingshan County?"

The person who said this was Ah Yong, and after a bloody battle, he finally sharpened some of his edges and corners. At least when he said this, he made this suggestion based on his understanding of the weight of this nomination, thinking that the burden was too heavy for a small Qingtian family.

But as always, Henry shook his head.

"An important piece of information that can affect both the domain and Shinkyo. ”

"If it's important for both sides, it means that whoever gets it can choose to take a side at will. ”

"That's where it hurts, and we can't be sure what the person who gets it will think. ”

"The higher the status, the more sensitive people are to this kind of thing, and the more they can notice the value of this information. ”

"I can only send it to Xinjing by hand. ”