Volume 5: Kyoto Summer Campaign Chapter 313: Commoners and Eta
"…Kyoto Prefecture is roughly divided into two factions."
Kamiyama quietly introduced Asai, Shimada, and Hasegawa, who didn't know much about the party struggles in Kyoto Prefecture.
"One faction is led by Lord Toda Tadahiro, the deputy governor of Kyoto. I will call it the 'Toda faction'."
"The other faction is led by me, and I will temporarily call it the 'Shenshan Faction'."
"Lord Toda Munehiro is the governor of Kyoto. Whether in terms of position or power, he is far superior to me, a mere magistrate of Kyoto. Therefore, the power of the 'Toda faction' is far superior to that of my 'Kamiyama faction'."
"I don't get along with Lord Toda."
"Because I don't get along with Lord Toda, the Toda-led 'Toda Faction' has been suppressing my 'Kamiyama Faction'."
"But fortunately, the elder minister of Edo, Matsudaira Sadanobu, likes me very much and has always supported me."
"Thanks to the support of Lord Rochu, my 'Kamiyama Faction' has been able to survive until now, and I have been able to sit in the position of Kyoto Town Magistrate until now."
After hearing the two names "Old Man" and "Matsudaira Sadanobu" from Kamiyama's mouth, Hasegawa's pupils shrank slightly and the light in his eyes flickered slightly.
"As the chief, Abe Risori is below me in rank and should be under my jurisdiction as the magistrate of Kyoto."
"But... he is from the Toda faction..."
"Because he has Lord Toda's back, Abe has always disobeyed my orders and treated my commands as nothing."
"And I can't do anything to Abe who has Lord Toda as his backer ."
"Abe is from the Toda faction, so he is looking for every opportunity to cause trouble for me."
"The reason why he sent people to capture Mucun must be to disgust me."
At this point, Shenshan's face showed a bit of bitterness and he smiled bitterly.
"I can already guess what Abe is going to do next..."
"He will definitely impeach me in the future on the grounds that 'Kamiyama Koshinosuke violated the law by appointing people who are not even officials to investigate the case.' Then he will hand over Makimura as a witness to Edo..."
"While disgusting me, you should also disgust Mucun..."
"When Makimura was still in Kyoto, Makimura and Abe had a very bad relationship."
"Abe sent people to jail Makimura for another reason, which must be to disgust Makimura..."
“Asshole…”
Shenshan slowly clenched his fists, then punched the low table in front of him hard.
"The 'Toda faction'... has made no achievements in governing the country and maintaining peace, and has only devised various schemes to hold back other colleagues..."
"...We already know the specific reason why Makimura was arrested." Asai, who had been quietly listening to Kamiyama's explanation, said, "Then - next question: tell us which prison Makimura was imprisoned in."
Hearing Asai's question, Kamiyama's pupils suddenly shrank, and he raised his eyes and looked at Asai in surprise.
"What are you... planning to do...?"
"Is that even a question?" Asai rolled his eyes at Kamiyama. "We won't sit idly by and watch our companions in prison."
“…Calm down.” Shenshan said in a deep voice, “It’s impossible to rescue Mucun from prison with just the two of you.”
"You don't have to worry about this, Lord Shenshan."
Asai raised his left hand and placed it on the handle of the katana at his left waist.
"We...are very strong."
"Tell us quickly where Mucun is being held."
Asai seemed to have lost his patience, his face full of impatience.
"..." Shenshan was silent and thoughtful...
At this moment——Hasegawa, who had been silent from the beginning, suddenly spoke:
"…I have a plan."
Hasegawa's sudden words immediately attracted the attention of everyone present .
"If my plan succeeds, maybe I can rescue Mucun from prison without bloodshed..."
…
…
In a burned area in Kyoto.
"...Ayi, let's go."
"Have you rested enough?"
Ogata, who was sitting side by side with Atachi and resting with her, glanced at Atachi's legs.
Ating's legs stopped shaking.
"Yeah." A-Machi smiled at Ogata, "I've rested enough."
After saying that, Ating slowly stood up.
"Ayi, what should we do next?"
"Let's try to get to Sanzi Street first." Ogata stood up with Atachi. "Just now, the one-eyed dragon said that their boss, named 'Ryunosuke', has set up a base on Sanzi Street for unknown purposes."
When questioning the one-eyed dragon just now, Ogata and A-Machi got three valuable pieces of information from him:
1: Their boss is named "Ryunosuke".
2: Ryunosuke is cooperating with a mysterious force. The leader of this mysterious force is called "Tsurugen", who is responsible for providing weapons to Ryunosuke.
3: Ryunosuke has set up a base on Sanzi Street, but it is unknown what the purpose of this base is.
"Then - here comes the question." Ating smiled bitterly, "How do we get to the Third Prince Street?"
After Atachi finished speaking, Ogata followed Atachi and laughed bitterly.
Just now, when he was sitting and resting with Atachi, Ogata took out the Kyoto map given to him by Dieyine to look for the location of Sanji Street.
However, the two of them looked at the map over and over again dozens of times, but they could not find the words "Three Princes Street" on the map...
"Anyway..." Ogata said, "Let's leave this area first. Go to a place where there are people and ask for directions."
"Yeah." Ating nodded, "Let's go."
Before setting off, Ogata pulled up his personal system interface and checked his current experience bars.
[Current personal level: Lv25 (1410/3400)]
Sakakibara Ittoryu Level: 10th dan (455/5000)
Wuwo's dual swordsmanship level: 8th stage (2630/6500)
Shiranui Style Ninjutsu Level: 2nd Stage (165/500)]
Just now, when Inaba's wife and daughter were rescued, Ogata's experience bars increased slightly again.
——Are the fastest ones to level up "Shiranui-ryu Ninjutsu" and "Personal Level"...
After saying this in his heart, Ogata silently closed his personal system interface.
…
…
Ogata and A-Machi walked side by side through the burnt area filled with ruins.
In fact, the two of them didn't really know which way to go to leave the burned area, so they just looked at the "east" direction and kept walking east with the idea of "trying their luck".
At this moment , a strange sound suddenly came from the side of the two of them and entered their place of residence.
"Hmm?" Ogata narrowed his eyes slightly, "What's that sound?"
Ogata and Atachi both stopped and listened attentively.
After listening carefully, Ogata and Atachi realized that it was the sound of humans quarreling.
"Although I don't know what they are arguing about, at least we met some living people." A-Ting said, "A-Yi, let's go. Let's go find them and ask for directions."
"Um."
Ogata and Atachi ran quickly towards the sound of the quarrel.
When they bypassed a house that had been burned down by the fire, Ogata and the others finally saw the source of the quarrel - a small open space.
As soon as they approached the small open space, an unpleasant sour smell kept drilling into the nostrils of Ogata and Atachi, making them frown involuntarily.
Many people were gathering in this open space at this time, occupying nearly half of the space.
Four young men and one boy were standing in the center of the open space, arguing about something.
The quarrel that Ogata and Atachi just heard came from the mouths of these five people.
It was not difficult to tell from their appearance that these four young men and the boy belonged to two different camps.
The four young men are in one camp, and the boy is in another camp.
The young man kept swearing at the four young men.
No matter whether it was the five people who were swearing at each other, or the others who were sitting around watching the quarrel, they all looked disheveled, and the sour smell in the air was emanating from these people.
From the appearance of these people, it is not difficult to tell that they should be residents of the burned area.
Ogata and the other man did not rush over immediately, but hid aside and listened to what they were arguing about.
"You damned bastard!" one of the four young men roared at the boy, "Your dirty foot just touched my ankle! My entire foot has been contaminated by you!"
While talking, these young men kept raising their hands to cover their mouths and noses, as if they were holding their breath to avoid inhaling too much air.
"Since your feet have been contaminated by me, why don't you just go find a pond to wash your hands?" the young man retorted unyieldingly.
"What's your attitude!" another young man yelled, "You little bastard! Didn't your elders teach you that filthy bastards like you have no right to touch civilians? Get down on your knees and apologize to my friend!"
"That guy kicked my foot by accident just now!" Even though it was a "1 vs. 4" battle, the boy had no intention of giving in. "It wasn't me who bumped into you guys, why should I apologize to your friend!"
"And..." the boy continued shouting, "Don't you know that this is where we live? You came to our residence without any reason. You accidentally touched my body, it's your responsibility! What does it have to do with me!"
"Do you think we're happy to come to this filthy place of yours?!" another of the four young men shouted, "Our homes were blown down by the strong wind this morning! If we hadn't found a suitable place to stay, we wouldn't have come to a hellhole like yours!"
"You guys, what's your attitude since just now!" At this moment, a childish shout suddenly exploded from the crowd of onlookers.
Whether it was Ogata and the other person, or the people in the open space, they all looked in the direction of the shout.
The owner of this delicate drink is a little girl who, judging from her height and appearance, is only about 10 years old.
Although the little girl's face was also dirty, Ogata could vaguely make out that the little girl's facial features were somewhat similar to those of the boy who was arguing with the four young men.
This little girl and that boy should be brother and sister.
Just now, Ogata discovered the existence of this little girl.
Because this little girl is so conspicuous.
Among the people watching on the side, most of them had numb and indifferent looks on their faces as they watched the quarrel between the boy and the four young men.
Only the little girl was filled with anger. She tried to get up several times, but was pinned to the ground by the people next to her and her mouth was covered.
Until just now - the people standing next to the little girl were careless for a moment, causing the little girl to let out a cry that instantly attracted the attention of everyone around her.
After uttering this cry, the little girl broke free from the people around her and ran quickly towards the side of the young man.
"Achu! Come back!"
Several middle-aged men who had just been sitting next to the little girl shouted this to her.
But the little girl seemed not to have heard the shouts of the middle-aged men. She quickly ran to the side of the young man and shouted at the four young men in front of her with a strong voice:
"What have you four been so arrogant for since just now!"
"You keep saying 'common people' and 'Eta'!"
"Then let me ask you: As civilians, what is the difference between you four and us?"
"It's the same as before. My house was burned down by the fire and has not been rebuilt yet. I can only live in this place full of ruins!"
The little girl's speech was not long, but it successfully made the four young men blush and get angry.
"How dare you, a mere wicked person, insult us!"
"Humph! That's why I hate those kids in Eta the most! They don't know the rules! They don't know their own status!"
The four young men shouted angrily and rushed to the side quickly.
The four of them did not run away.
Instead, he ran to the side and picked up a stick from the ruins nearby.
There are ruins everywhere here, and the most abundant thing is wooden sticks.
The four young men each pulled out a stick as thick as a bowl and rushed towards the boy and the little girl aggressively.
Looking at the four young men coming towards them with sticks, both the boy and the little girl turned pale.
Although their faces were pale, neither of them showed too much fear on their faces.
The boy turned around, protected the little girl behind him, faced the four aggressive young men, and clenched his little fists.
Even when the four young men had already rushed to the boy and the little girl, the people watching on the sidelines still had numb expressions on their faces, and no one made any move to rush over to help the boy and the little girl...
Just as the young man at the front raised his stick high in the air, ready to swing it at the boy in front of him—
"Hmm?" The young man let out a low cry of disbelief.
When the young man raised the wooden stick above his head and was about to swing it down, he felt that the stick in his hand was clamped by an iron clamp and he could not swing it at all.
—Someone grabbed my stick from behind!
As soon as this thought emerged in the young man's mind, and before he had time to look back to see who grabbed his stick, he felt that his legs were hit by a thick and long whip. His legs were unstable, his center of gravity was destroyed, and he fell directly to the ground.
…
…
After throwing aside the wooden stick he had just snatched from the young man, Ogata pounced on the other three young men.
A few young men with half-dressed clothes and unsteady steps could naturally not be Ogata's opponents.
Ogata used Shiranui-ryu jutsu and easily knocked all four young men to the ground.
The system sound of gaining experience points for personal level and Shiranui-style ninjutsu rang four times in Ogata's mind.
